Aurland did his best to keep himself going as they followed the lingering magical signature he had, hopeful that they would reach them in time and get some insight into what happened with the Elucidate. For better or worse his efforts were made easier by the frequent stops that Irene had to make. On one such stop, after having traveled in relative silence for the last several minutes, he started rambling.

"I don't know much about necromancy," he said before pausing and glancing over at her. "Pardon me if I'm wrong but you are a necromancer, aren't you?"

He gestured at the space around her.

"The flows of magic about you have a chthonic nature you see, at least to my senses. It's got the same weightiness as geomantic power but with a liminal, ephemeral quality that makes it feel almost paradoxical. Perhaps that's fitting you know? Paradoxical sensoria for a magic concerned with paradoxical states of being. Alive but dead. Life from death."

"Hmmmmmm so I do carry some semblance of life." Irene would whisper, mostly to herself. She would lean against the hill, pondering.

Eventually Irene would turn her unnerving eyes back to Aurland. "And yes, I'm a necromancer. Acute observation." Irene would say with her usual placid look. "I think I'm good now, shall we continue?"

Declaration:
Decay
Empty slot
This message was last edited by the player at 23:42, Tue 20 Feb.

Aurland nodded.

"Of course. Let us continue."

He then fell to silence. For perhaps five minutes.

"So what exactly to use necromancy to do? I'm sure you are an accomplished practitioner in your own right but I cannot say I'm deeply familiar with what those accomplishments may be."

"For myself it was largely municipal work. Designing and constructing wastewater filtration systems for alchemical compounds. Nothing glamorous but useful."

OOC: Remember to declare the spells you're bringing! It's less important for this adventure, but we want to start getting into the habit of doing it at the start of each adventure.

Making stilted conversation during their length hike, it was clear that this was not a friendship that would blossom in the course of one length hike. Still, Aurland made what conversation he could with the emaciated woman with whom he found himself travel partners. Thus Aurland's sense of the arcane tether took them down the ravine.

In the windy rocky corridor they now had a fixed path. It snaked along the canyon, sometimes the path was wide enough a cart could ride through, at other times it was so narrow they scraped both sides to squeeze through, well Aurland did at least. Then up ahead the canyon opened up. There they stood overlooking a drop of roughly ten feet. Along the wall to their right the path gently sloped down to take them down to this next level. From their new vantage point they had a clear view of the strange scene below.

In the rocky clearly below a carved monolith stood in the center of the clearing. Crudely carved, it seemed to have once been a single block of stone from which was carved a rough figure with six arms. All of them were raised up towards the heavens, some of them seemingly reaching for the skies, others were clutching things in their hands. The head of the figure was only a few rough scrapes to depict eyes and a mouth. What this might represent was either of their guesses. It was certainly nothing like they had seen in the civilized lands of Aleteros.

Ringing the many-armed statue in the middle were a dozen small statues. Humanoid in shape, they were depicting varied poses. Some prostrating themselves before the central statue, others were throwing their faces towards the heavens, their visages seemingly frozen in open mouthed torment. Still others were curled into huddled balls. These were clearly depictions of suffering.

It seemed the expedition was not alone, judging by these clear works of an intelligent hand. This plane was not as untouched as they had been led to believe. A better question yet, what grisly scene had they just wandered into? And how had the navigators ended up becoming entangled in... whatever this was?

Irene would think as they traversed the odd canyon path. Unlike most topics, Irene was actually, legitimately happy to discuss her work. "A decent portion of my work, and most Necromancer's work, is preventative measures against evil necromancer lord uprisings. Doing that work is how you get your foot in the proverbial door of being held in high grace's of Necromancer's. Outside of that though I perform necromancer spell reconnaissance and formulate spells to help me and others with said reconnaissance." Irene would ramble a bit herself, the corners of her mouth quirking up. Unbeknownst to Aurland, this was likely the most he was ever going to hear Irene speak or smile.

When they reached the horrid statue, the corners of Irene's mouth would flick down. Practically a wild mood swing by her standards. While her face suggested she was simply mildly disappointed in the statue, internally she yelped with horror. Clamantis chrysanthemums, what is that thing. "...so shall we go down?"

Aurland asked a few more questions when he found that Irene was interested in talking about necromancy. While he had the chance he sated some lingering curiosities about the art. Hoping that she might sort truth from fiction. In this way he learned a bit more about his traveling companion and magic as a whole; truly a fruitful conversation.

Arriving at the strange collection of statues he found that his mood took a distinct turn for the worse. When Irene asked if they should descend into its midst he narrowly said no.

"It seems as though the trail leads down and among those statues. So unfortunately yes."

He quietly took the lead as the pair descended, staying close enough to assist Irene should need it and be willing to accept. Otherwise, he tried to keep his eyes on his surroundings. It was a disquieting place.

OOC: You can always let me know what you plan to do when you go somewhere, that can expedite the action a bit!

The two mages grew quiet as they came across unsettling statuary. In uneasy agreement, they descended below.

On the same level as the statues it became clear just how large the central figure was. Standing more than a dozen feet high, it loomed over the mages and its six arms were each the size of a person. Now that they were closer, the two of them could feel a charge in the air. A sense of something greater. It wasn't magic per say, or if it was it was unlike any they had felt at home. This power felt... wild. Hungry.

Gingerly pacing the ring, they got better looks at the smaller statuaries. These were depicted in far greater detail than the central statue. A woman here carved to depict abject terror as her eyes looked up at the many armed figure. A slightly rotund man who held up an arm to shield his eyes. There was an old man curled up into a ball. All lovingly depicted in minute detail. The clothes of these individuals varied wildly from statue to statue, some wore tattered rags, others seemed to have finery, but all in different styles that seemed to come from entirely different cultures.



It was late into the day, at least it seemed to be based upon their aching muscles and the fact that sky had dulled from a vibrant gray to a deep nearly black gray. Shadows were stretching long off the statues. It was too late now to make the journey back to the Elucidate for the night unless they chose to walk all night. But even if they did, it meant marching back all over again the next day. However, the alternative meant camping outside in this strange world and in proximity to these eerie statuaries.

Decision

Camp In the Clearing - Perhaps prolonged exposure to the statues can result in gleaning more information about the enigmatic stonework.
Camp A Distance Away - Putting some distance between themselves and the statues would likely give them better peace of mind
Walk All Night Back - But returning to the Elucidate was no doubt the safest option, though it meant exhaustion for the next day.

Aurland was both relieved and made to worry more by the realization that the statues were carved and not petrified people.

"These carvings. The level of detail. And the distance from everything else."

From his tone it was clear that he was both contemplative and concerned.

"I think this might be a holy ground to some native culture. These could be...offerings of a kind to some goddess of..."

He looked up at the larger central statue.

"I'm not sure. But probably of a domain you invoke only in great desperation or beg their inattention."

He turned to Irene then.

"I think it best if we camp for the night but not among these statues, interesting as they are."

Aurland votes for Camp A Distance Away

Irene felt the tug, her curiosity immediately piqued. Despite her soreness, she had committed herself to never being too tired, too busy or too dead to record knowledge. Irene scribbled down what she was feeling from the statues, making sure to be as detailed as possible. She wasn't a fool, there was no way she was going near the carnivorous power of the six-armed statue, but what would happen if she drew on the power from the statues? Would it summon the six armed one? Summon what remained of that statue's spirit? Was there power in them since these were essentially the tombstones of some sort of people? Or was there power because souls were trapped inside?

Irene was so wrapped up in her cognitive processing that she hardly heard what Aurland. "Not among...  but next to?" Irene would inquire, her face wearing her usual monotone expression.

Irene votes they sleep close to them
This message was last edited by the player at 06:32, Sat 24 Feb.

Aurland grimaced but relented. He had more than a slight bit of curiosity and when presented with the possibility of gaining insight into other magics his curiosity beat out his prudence. At least when pushed.

"Alright. Next too. But we sleep in shifts. We can't get caught unaware."

--

Aurland took on the burden of erecting camp, or at least as much of a camp as he could manage with a casting of his Wall spell at an angle with a large rock and struggling with getting a fire going.

"I'll take the first shift."

Aurland wasn't much of a watchmen but it was clear that he was more physically adept than Irene. He had a suspicion that if something were to happen it would be late at night. Irene could use the time til then to rest.

OOC: Here's a bonus post this weekend to help get you two a bit more up to speed with the other adventure.

Despite misgivings, there was an attraction to these ominous statues and the promise of gleaning more information from them was too much to pass up so the pair set up their camp in the clearing. It would not be much of a camp, they had a few meager supplies from the Elucidate and a thin tarp to keep the worst of the night air off them, but there hadn't been any signs of vegetation so far, so nothing to burn which left them to huddle within their robes against the cold.

Not trusting this place, Aurland offered to stay up and take first watch. Sitting himself down, he kept awake and alert. Those statues could still be made out in the gloom of the starless night. It created the impression that a crowd was gathered around, looming over and... waiting.

Irene, for her part, fell asleep quickly, exhausted by the trek that day.


On the ground Irene's steady breathing quickened and her body tensed. It seemed she was not sleeping well this evening.

Aurland's Decision

Wake Irene - If someone was sleeping poorly, it may be a small blessing to be roused from a nightmare
Let her Sleep - But with her sunken eyes, dead white skin and rather colorless pallete, perhaps this was normal for Irene and she would not appreciate the disturbance.

Aurland did not know Irene well. The woman kept much of herself close to the chest and only seemed to soften marginally when talking about necromancy. However there was very little about her that was tense or quick. She always behaved in an easy measured manner, even when struggling against her own physical weakness. So he decided to risk her ire.

"Irene. Irene wake up."

He tried words at first. Once softly and then louder, essentially a whispered shout. Only then would he move to try snapping and clapping near her ear and only if that also failed would he dare touch the sleeping mage.

Aurland chooses to Wake Irene
This message was last edited by the player at 19:25, Sat 24 Feb.

[Sorry I'm not entirely sure if Irene would wake or not, I'll/you'll have to wait on Talon for that one]

Beads of sweat had formed on Irene's brow as Aurland leaned over her and spoke to the sleeping necromancer. She did not stir as he spoke louder, she had started to tremble as she started snapping. By the time he grabbed her and gave her a violent shake she was convulsing. At the physical contact her eyes snapped open, they were rolled back into her head, but slowly came back down. Across her body ghostly wounds shimmered for a moment, then faded away, but while these dream wounds did not seem to leave a physical trace, the necromancer somehow managed to look even more pale than before.

Around the clearing came silvery shimmers. Aurland caught glimpses of spectral forms. Incomplete and fleeting, but what he saw still raised goosebumps. Impressions of too many arms, unnaturally wide maws. These entities were all around them. One seemed to leap at the conjurer. It passed through him leaving on the impression of a deep chill, however, Aurland's mystic senses could feel the impression of these entities growing stronger. They were clawing and chewing their way through the veil. Irene in her slumber had been vulnerable to them, but it did not seem that these apparitions were going to remain harmless to waking souls.

Irene would splutter as she was tugged back into the physical plane. She felt as if her body was being slowly shredded by knives.

Convulsing out of the way, Irene would bolt upright. She'd pause looking around for a momment, then sigh. "Thanks Aurland." She'd say, collapsing back and regretting sitting up so fast. She'd turn her head to try and relax [but not fall asleep of course] when she noticed the shimmers. "...thats not good." though exhaustion won out more in that sentence there was evident fear in it. "I know magic is wonky but is there anyway you could conjure something to destroy the statues? That might make things better, or a whole lot worse."
 

Aurland nodded once.

"Think nothing of it."

He then turned his attention towards the statues.

"I don't have any particularly destructive magic; my specialty is defensive magic."

He raised his hands, fingers falling into a warding gesture.

"My vote would be to flee rather than fight. Destroying the statues might only anger the spirits. Unless you know something I don't."

"The spirits pulled themselves from the statues so my guess is destroying the statues would either destroy their tie to existence or their tie to the spirit plane, allowing them to kill us now. As much as I prefer the idea of avoiding direct confrontation, these things are going to become physical soon and if we run that means we'll just have to deal with them later." Irene would say pragmatically. Her fear seemed to ease as she spoke the facts to Aurland.

Irene would stare out at the specters blankly for a moment before saying. "Plus I'm pretty sure they're faster than us. Therefore if we plan to out run them, then it likely needs to start happening now."

Aurland was less than convinced until Irene gave her last point. It only took a single glance at the specters casual disregard for gravity, obstacles, and each other to tell that she was more than a little correct.

"Alright. So we attack them with the basic Arts and hope they are weaker than we are."

Aurland will attack the statues with generic attack magic on Irene's signal.

Weighing their options, Irene convinced Aurland that the best defense at this time was a strong offense. At her word, Aurland raised a hand and blasted one of the nearest statues. Immediately one of the flickers nearby solidified and congealed, transforming from an ephemeral silver shimmer into a quite solid and real presence. Cloaked in the darkness of the night, many of its features were blessedly obscured, but enough could be made out of it to make their blood run cold. This thing was unnatural. From the bend of its too many arms to the rows of teeth in its gaping maw. That maw opened wide and not even a roar issues out, instead what came forth was some sort of choking gasp.

Newly embodied the thing lurched drunkenly from one side to another as it seemed to be getting a sense for its new physical body and mass. Its gooey too many eyes were fixed on the pair of mages as it staggered on its shaking legs. The wet sounds of flesh on stone and its gasping coughs were the only sounds in the night.

While the other half dozen spirits were still working their way at chewing through the veil, Aurland and Irene now had a very present danger to face.

Combat

Embodied Spirit - 4/4 HP

Aurland distinctly did not glance at Irene when the spirit became embodied when the statue was destroyed. Instead, he began retreating while keeping his body oriented towards the mass of spirits attempting to claw their way across the veil of reality.

"Alright. New plan. We fight to run away. Avoid destroying the statues."

Barring any dissenting opinions Aurland did just that. Launching short-lived spheres of conjured force-glass to slam into the spirit as he moved away from the site.

With the statues seeming to somehow keep the spirits incorporeal, or perhaps contain them? Or perhaps something less readily obvious. All that Aurland knew was that destroying the statues meant bringing more of the spirits directly to them. Pulling back, he lobbed bolts of magic at the creature as he carefully withdrew. (-2 HP to the Embodied Spirit) The bolts struck true and there was a wet sound of impact that made the creature stagger. Thick rivulets of blood dripped from the new wound and dripped to the ground, but it had several legs to fall back on and it was still coming. It was starting to move more nimbly now, seeming to come to terms with its new solid mass, but the delay had created some distance and Aurland and the Living Corpse were still out of immediate range of claws and teeth... for the moment.

Around them the shimmers had grown more consistent as the other spirits presences' became more overt, another sign of the thinning veil as the creatures clawed their way through. The danger of the situation was escalating with each passing moment.

Combat

Embodied Spirit - 2/4 HP

As one of the spiritual visages snapped into existence Irene felt too immediate emotions: Dread and triumph. On one hand, she'd been right, on the other hand, now one of the spiritual visages were corporeal. Irene would get some distance as she scribbled down what had happened in her notebook. Whirling and gathering her own magic to take a shot Irene would hear Aurland's plan. "Good idea, lets see if it can be executed." She'd put simply.

Magic gathered, Irene would launch a short stream of generic attack magic at the physical spiritual visage hoping it wasn't strong enough to destroy another statue. "Looks as if there almost corporeal, we should start focusing on the running part of your plan."

Firing off another blast of magic at the creature there was a wet tearing sound and the thing staggered a few more steps, then collapsed into a heap. It seemed they certainly could be killed.

The shimmering air had grown more insistent, then with a sound of ripping a bladed limb stabbed through the air, further over a misshapen head pulled through as another two of the beasts tore through the veil and into the world in physical form. The pair of mages were facing the possibility of a harrowing run back to the tower while being harried by other worldly monstrosities in the night, a chilling prospect, but then the two emerged creatures set upon their fallen counterpart. With wet sounds of tearing and gnashing, they set themselves to devouring the fallen beast.

With that distraction, Aurland and Irene were able to slip back up the narrow canyon path and away from the enigmatic clearing. They had not discovered what had happened to the navigators, but they had certainly uncovered secrets of this new land. And in the process found new questions.

Lore Uncovered

-Humans have visited this plane before
-Alien spirits inhabit this plane
-The spirits seem to use statues as some sort of receptacle
-These spirits are capable of crossing from an astral plane to the physical plane of their own volition

The trip back was decidedly more somber than the trip out. With hardly a wink of rest to share between the two of them, their exhaustion was compounded. But they had plenty to consider during the long walk back.

Spoils of the Brush with Spirits

OOC: Choose one reward from below. These rewards are not exclusive and you can both select the same one if you so choose.

Don't Break the Circle: Protective magic is some of the oldest of any arcane school. It made sense that one couldn't tinker with impossibilities without some semblance of protection. This brush with the otherworldly reinforced the need for fundamentals. It was time to recall the most basic tenents of your craft for your own safety.
New Spell: Ritual of Protection - You spend time to create a circle of protection. Using materials and creating an intricate pattern you're safe inside. (This Ritual of Protection lasts twice as long as you spend preparing it. If you spend 1 minute, it lasts for 2 minutes, 1 hour and it lasts for 2 hours)

Hale and Hearty: There was nothing so bracing as a walk to rejuvenate oneself. While the long hike had left your feet blistered and aching, it had cleared away a fog. Your lungs feel more open, your body a little lighter. Not to mention you found a few curious knickknacks along the way!
Stat Increase: Add +1 to Physicality and gain 1 Material.

Stowaway: Leaving the spirit clearing, you found you're not entirely alone. A slithering and creeping... thing has followed you. Long and sinuous like a snake, yet lumpy and undefined, this spirit is like some sort of distended slug. Its face is made up of several large eyes and a huge toothy maw. Still it is not overtly hostile towards you, though its several degrees  removed from friendly, and seems decidedly more hostile towards other things.
Entity Obtained: Spirit Familiar - An unsettling slug-snake of a spirit, it will fight other entities that are hostile towards you, though it'll require training to make it anything more than a blunt attack beast.

Shard of the Veil: Whenever something violently penetrates the veil between worlds it does damage. Monsters chewing and clawing through are no exception. This has left some shards of ephemeral substance available. A unique substance, it has value in separation and protection.
Enchantment: Veil Shard - You can bring up your shard of the Veil to block a single spiritual attack or a effect once per adventure. You also gain 2 Material.

Aurland was glad that they had survived their encounter but disturbed by what they had uncovered in their travels. Not only was this not an uninhabited plane it appeared as though more than wild spirits inhabited this place. Humans had come to this place at some point in time, long enough that they were able to establish some manner of religious worship or at least significant ritual activity. Still he supposed knowledge was better than ignorance and he had grown more hale and hearty due to the rigors. He was never this fit before, even at his peak during his short stint at on the front lines, but his magic was not yet sufficient to defend himself reliably.

Once seemingly in the clear, Irene would whip out her notebook and peacock feather quill again. Furiously scribbling and taking notes. Irene then re-read her record of of events and wrote anything she had missed in the excitement. That down, she totaled a list of unanswered inquiries. Last but not least she again reviewed the events what could have she done better, if anything at all.

There was actually something she could improve. While traversing a neglected part of Aleteros for corpses [back when her body functioned better], she was rather paranoid of being caught unawares be the less fortunate desperate. So she composed a shield, so long as she didn't break the circle, nothing she came across had been able to break though. Now though, she was significantly weaker and on another plane. She'd never had anything of real power to test it on so it would be fantastic!