Zorlon - Levdia

[Switch]

Ford blinks and looks back at Lurel.

 

"Don't look at me. I have no idea what she's talking about either... I'm having problems just understanding this dimension! I mean... why did they behead all those guards on the way here if they're friendly with the queen? And why do it with that bizarre piece of string!? No doubt this all has something to do with that 'keeper' thingy you guys were arguing about..."

[Kethruch]

"The only way to truly say how it was defiled is to show you." She motions with a wing, urging the others toward the way to the tombs. "Please, if you will follow Tallian, we can alleviate your misgivings, and our mutual purposes can be met."

[Malchik]

Tallian murmurs. "Strigid will not let you approach the tombs without his agreement, Princess. Not even your father has that authority. I hope he will listen to you. I hope he will let you reach him."

 

The dying cadence of her voice shows that she doubts this.

 

A gondola arrives at the window and Siffli ushers her guests into it. Tallian and her to companions do not join the party.

 

Access to the 'sacred' necropolis of Xetcherin is by hot air balloon. The balloon is huge and a dull red with the word NEVERMORE on the side. Apart from the faint hiss from the mechanism the balloon moves in total silence.

 

Xetcherin is cloud covered. As you break through the cloud the surface appears like cracked ice, though stained yellowish. Two bedraggled wolves watch your progress and mark it with a mournful howl.

 

The balloon touches down a little way from a dwelling shaped like a screaming face. There is nothing but flat yellowish-white ground between you and the door.

 

As you step out you find that it is not ice but a kind of rock.

 

There is no sound but perhaps the remembered echo of the wolf's howl. The place is very exposed.

[ThetaOrionis01]

"I don't like this place at all," Lurel murmurs. "It's too open - especially when we might be attacked from the air by those others.... like the ones on the beach. I suppose we'd better get it over with and head for that door."

 

 

He sets off cautiously towards the door, but can't rid himself of the feeling that he is nothing more than an insignificant piece on someone else's gaming board.

 

"I wish I knew what the rules are," he thinks to himself, and shrugs, reminding himself that so far everything he and his friends have done has had a purpose - even when they had not been able to see it at the time.

 

The silence is disconcerting, and Lurel does his best not to break it - he takes care where he puts his feet, trying to avoid any unnecessary noises.

[Malchik]

Before you have progressed more than a few steps a tall man emerges. He is dressed in pale brown. He has enormous spectacles. They would be comical but for the expression of intense anger in the man's face.

 

Lurel and his companions find themselves unable to move, though they can speak. The man addresses himself exclusively to the princess.

 

"Siffli, you have overstepped the bounds of propriety. Leave immediately or I will activate the Guardians."

 

Princess or not, she clearly has no standing here.

 

The tall man glares at the others. "What are these - things - doing here? Give me a good reason for not vaporising them where they stand?"

[Kethruch]

"Down, Strigid" the princess laughs. "I know the rules, but the fact taht I am here with these..." She fans her wing indicating the others. "perhaps will give you pause and hear me out. We need to see the tomb, and figure out what happened. Please, feel free to put whatever escort you deem necessary on us, but if you don't it could me the end of all of us. As I said, the fact that I am here should give you a clue as to the dire need we are in."

[Malchik]

The tall man scowls.

 

"Princess, I am sure you mean what you say, but you are ignorant of the way Xetcherin works. You would need part of the key. No doubt you can get that from your father but it is only one of many problems. You would be confronted with madmen, and would need a fighter, you will find mazes of such complexity that you would need one with an eidetic memory, you would need a way from beneath the ground to enter the tomb and there is Mara's spirit dog. Only one who had been imprisoned unjustly would be able to pass that dog.

 

Where can you expect to find such a group? Certainly not here!"

 

He shakes his head then nods towards Lisette. "Well, perhaps you have your warrior. Come back - if you are serious - with those who can help!"

 

He turns to leave.

[ThetaOrionis01]

"Then you have found your group," Lurel says firmly. "Do you judge people by their looks alone? You know nothing about us, or our skills, yet you dismiss us without hearing us. I tell you, nothing that has happened to my friends and me has been coincidence since we embarked upon our journey - and so we have been brought here. The very people you need to enter this tomb. Dare you call it a coincidence?"

 

He uses his empathy skill, to see what it will tell him about the tall man.

[Kethruch]

"So, unless what you say is not entirely true, such a group has already existed, correct? I mean, the alternative is the unthinkable; that you or one of your guardians is responsible." She looks hard at him with her green eyes. "I am sure that working together, we can determine what happened and clear your guardians of any undue criticism and pain that they might suffer however unjustly when others determine that it is impossible for anyone else to get there."

[Malchik]

"Children? How can one of you have been wrongfully imprisoned? Which has the eidetic memory?"

 

Strigid turns to the princess. "Perhaps you do not know. The defilement of the tomb is known only because certain items were found outside. The door is sealed, the walls unbreached. Whatever agency caused it, it was not human. Neither I nor the Guardians have such skills. I would like an explanation as much as any. But a party of children?"

 

Although Lurel cannot read the man, he hears an odd undertone in the voice. The tall man would like them to be the right party