[A small ruined village in Southern Ireland, January 3rd 1262, 3:00 AM] [You have arrived at the last known location of Moloch. After scouting out the towering stone building, Victoria was attacked by a Baali of unknown identification. You have since dispatched said Baali, and, in the process, discovered that some Baali have made literal deals with the devil to grant themselves abilities, such as, in this case, immunity to fire. The tower itself has a winding staircase that ascends and a relatively sparse bottom floor with a stage that suggest the building was used for some sort of religious purpose, but is absolutely devoid of religious symbols of any kind to denote what kind of faith was practiced here.] [Begin.] 06* Rolf flicks blood from his hands idly, growling, "Glad my hands don't rust. Everyone good to go up?" 06* Moriel nods. 01 It's strange we wouldn't continue *down*. 06* Rolf thinks for a half-seocnd, then nods slowly. "Wouldn't be surprised if there was some sorta... hidden passage." 06* Eliana takes a moment, then, and looks for said hidden passage. 06* Moriel looks around, too, turning slowly to take in the whole room. <@Dreol> [After a little bit of looking Eliana and Moriel both think to try moving the wooden pulpit/podium looking object on the stage, which reveals a set of stairs leading down.] 06* Eliana smirks upon seeing that, and she waves Rolf over. 06* Rolf looks after Eliana and walks that way slowly. "Yeah." He starts to tromp down, since he's a great face tank. 06* Moriel follows, keeping a careful distance between himself and Rolf so he doesn't stab the bigger wampyr on the way down. He's not putting his sword away just yet. 06* Eliana heads on down! Maybe there are prizes at the bottom. 06* Anstace follows as well, being careful with her spear so that nobody else gets stabbed unnecessarily. <@Dreol> [As you all descend the stairs, the temperature seems to rise more and more, the stairs spiral down until soon the heat is almost unbearable, and then you see the reason why, the stairs exit out into a large cavernous room. You are standing on a raised stone platform, in the center of the room, about 150 feet in front of you, is a solid stone coffin on a similarly raised platform and everywhere else in the room is a sea of fire.] 06* Moriel eyes the platform, considering. Then he looks up at Rolf and Victoria. "Could you land safely, if you flew there?" 06* Eliana hisses and backs up, possibly into someone else. "Not... what I was expecting," she says. 06* Anstace looks at the room. "this is less than convenient" <@Dreol> [Victoria's eyes widen. "You want me... to fly across that?"] 06* Moriel pauses before answering carefully, "I would, if I could. I cannot. And it does seem wise to investigate." 06* Rolf grimaces and growls a, "That's... how the hell did he keep it burnin'?" 06* Moriel turns to look back out at the sea of fire, though he doesn't move an inch closer to it. "Perhaps in the same fashion he acquired an immunity to fire." 06* Rolf looks back over his shoulder. "Think you can make a raft outta him?" 06* Eliana considers. "He did not continue to burn after his more recent death, it's true." 01 But I don't see how that would get one across. Live flames can catch on an errant piece of clothing. 06* Rolf screws his face up in thought, then says, "So don't wear clothing?" 06* Anstace shakes her head. "i might be able to help, but i am not certain for how long" 06* Rolf scratches his head. "I mean... uh... it's fire. It's... hard to stay focused near fire." it would be helpful if we have a plan, first 06* Eliana continues, flatly, "Or an errant piece of flesh. Or hair." Pause. "I can make myself incorporeal, but... as you said, concentration is difficult." 06* Rolf frowns, then sighs. "I mean... is the fire even there? Fire... burns things." Eventually won't it burn out? 06* Eliana snorts. She reaches into her satchel and pulls out a small bundle of parchment paper - seems she learned from the episode with Belit-Sheri previously. If it were going to do so quickly or easily, it would not be an effective defense. 06* Eliana quickly removes one, crumples it into a ball, and pitches the paper into the fire to see how it burns. Yeah, but they had a guy stay here and, uh... not wake him up. 06* Anstace moves slightly to the side, gently edging away from Eliana so as to not poke her with the spear. "still... we are going to need to know what we plan on doing once we get to the coffin" 06* Moriel shrugs. "Open it." <@Dreol> [The paper ignites and burns to ashes.] 06* Anstace blinks. "oh. okay." 06* Eliana frowns before she says, with some reluctance, "I can walk through the flames." 06* Moriel gives Eliana a sharp look. "Only you?" 06* Eliana pulls a rather large mirror shard from her bag before focusing on Moriel. "I cannot make you incorporeal. Are you implying an alternate method I had not considered?" 06* Anstace steps closer to the edge of the platform and holds up her hand, palm towards the fire. she closes her eyes for a moment. 06* Moriel shakes his head. "I did not know how you intended to pass them. I thought, if it were a ritual that could be used on others..." 06* Moriel then turns to look at Anstace, surprised. <@Dreol> [A path of fire, about 5 feet wide freezes in place from the platform you are standing on until the platform with the coffin and then the path continues to encircle the coffin. The fire remains frozen, as if it were a very realistic sculpture, but the fire around it continues to flicker and burn.] 06* Eliana blinks at that. "Impressive." She looks at Anstace. "For how long?" 06* Anstace opens her eyes. "we have an hour. so long as nothing touches the flames in stasis." 06* Eliana nods. "Then I shall not." She removes her gloves and slashes her finger with the end of the mirror shard before drawing a rune on the nonreflective side, concentrating as she does so. After a time, she fades, gradually becoming translucent. 06* Moriel goes wide-eyed as the flames freeze in place. "That is impressive." 06* Eliana judges the narrow path Anstace created. She edges closer and closer to the flames, the fingers in her free hand clenching and releasing repeatedly. 06* Anstace looks at Moriel and nods. if you can see things which are incredibly small, you could possibly tell that the smallest hint of a smile has crossed her face, but for the majority of people, she remains emotionless. <@Dreol> [Victoria takes a deep breath and transforms into a large bat, flying up as high as she can in the cavern.] 06* Rolf steps forward after Victoria takes flight, then just stands there with a growl in his throat, watching the translucent one and flying other, his hands balling up. 06* Moriel steps back out of the way and just watches, tense. 06* Anstace steps back from the edge and just watches the sea of flames in case time should resume unexpectedly. 06* Eliana springs into motion, in a mad dash through the flames Anstace put into stasis. She clambers up the platform at the end, all the while keeping the mirror shard's reflection towards her just so. <@Dreol> [Victoria flies forward as soon as Eliana starts running and lands at about the same time as Eliana gets up there. She morphs back to her normal form.] 06* Eliana is pale- well, paler, and her dark eyes are wide. She nods rapidly to Victoria before she starts inspecting the coffin for traps or evidence of rituals. 06* Rolf exhales slowly and unclenches his bloody fists. He yells, "You two see anything useful?" <@Dreol> [There are no rituals cast on the coffin itself, nor do there appear to be any traps. The stone coffin is plain, though, upon closer inspection it is definitely made of polished volcanic rock.] <@Dreol> [Victoria shrugs. "Stone coffin! Not much else yet."] 06* Eliana takes a moment to collect herself further before she says to Victoria, "I see no evidence of rituals. Can you open it without assistance?" <@Dreol> [She shrugs. "Of course." She approaches the coffin, stretches her arms out and then places her hands on the lid and pushes it off in one motion, then looks inside and shakes her head. "I uh... don't think this is what we are looking for."] 06* Eliana looks in herself. <@Dreol> [When Eliana looks inside the coffin, she can see that inside of it is the body of a priest. He is dressed in robes, or was, but they are covered in blood because the priest is cut straight down his torso in a way that one could actually reach in and open the flesh up. If this were several years in the future, it would look like an autopsy. A gold chain hangs from his neck and the end of it <@Dreol> has been shoved down his throat. The inside of the coffin has no fabric or padding. Just smooth stone.] 06* Eliana blinks. "A priest?" 06* Eliana looks at Victoria. "Remove him from the coffin." <@Dreol> [Victoria reaches in and begins to lift the priest out, as soon as one of his hands leaves the coffin, the flesh on it instantly decays and peals away leaving a skeletal hand. She drops the corpse back in the coffin. "Maybe... not the best idea."] 06* Eliana furrows her brow. "How..." 01 Must be a ritual of some sort. Fine - the gold chain? <@Dreol> [Victoria pulls the gold chain off of the priest neck, as she pulls on it it emerges from his mouth, at the other end is a Christian cross, hung upside down and covered in blood.] 01 We'll examine that once we're back with the others. 06* Eliana checks the coffin's contents for anything else of interest. 01 Can you... open his torso farther? While he's still in the coffin. <@Dreol> [Victoria shrugs. "Sure? I'm beginning to feel like your apprentice here, though..." Victoria reaches in and pulls the two flaps of flesh back. Inside of the torso there are no organs, however, the flesh on the inside has all been inscribed with Aramaic script, including both flaps of skin that were closed over the chest before.] 01 I'd simply rather not recast this ritual if I can help it. Ah. 06* Eliana leans forward, reading the script. <@Dreol> [Most of the script doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but the basics of it is a ritual to protect the corpse from unworthy thieves through an ocean of fire and only the worthy will be allowed access to the knowledge of Moloch. The clearer parts are the two flaps. The one on the left says "I have begun the call of the great beast. Worthy followers of the path, come find me for he shall deliver <@Dreol> hell unto the mortals and we shall live as kings in his kingdom on earth." The other half says: "Here lies the heretical Hunter, Father Octavius who wounded me with that vile knife. I have repaid him in kind, and thus remove the shackles of that curse."] 06* Eliana reads. "'The call of the great beast'? That's not worrisome." She steps back. "Do you have anything else you care to investigate?" she asks Victoria. <@Dreol> [Victoria shakes her head. "Nah. You want me to take this corpse out and dust the skin?"] 01 I have it committed to memory, so yes. That seems prudent. <@Dreol> [She reaches in and lifts the body out of the coffin, as soon as it emerges from the coffin walls the flesh decays away from it and the skeleton that remains appears as if it were there for centuries. Victoria tosses it into the fire, or... would, but as soon as the corpse is completely removed, the fire dissipates and the skeleton shatters against the hard stone floor of the cavern.] 06* Eliana smirks. "Well. That works." She turns the shard, becoming corporeal again before helping put the lid back on the coffin. 06* Rolf, once the fire is out, strides across towards them and says, "What happened? He... ain't in there?" 01 No. There was a priest. Father Octavius, split down the center, with his organs removed and writing burned into his flesh. 06* Moriel follows Rolf, working out a fraction of his edginess in the quick strides it takes to keep up. 06* Moriel twitches when he hears that. 06* Moriel looks around at the no-longer-burning room and asks softly, "Writing that caused those flames?" 06* Eliana pulls her gloves back on as she talks. "It was in aramaic. I can write the script later for further study, but the easiest to decipher parts were as follows: 'I have begun the call of the great beast. Worthy followers of the path, come find me for he shall deliver hell unto the mortals and we shall live as kings in his kingdom on earth.'" 06* Anstace slowly climbs down and joins the rest of the party on the previously flame-covered floor. 01 And 'Here lies the heretical Hunter, Father Octavius, who wounded me with that vile knife. I have repayed him in kind, and thus remove the shackles of that curse.' <@Dreol> [Additionally, the floor of the cavern contains a message scrawled in blood in Aramaic which reads: "You may find me in the mountains in the land of our greatest enemy. There, I will prepare a palace for the great beast to begin his conquest."] 01 Additionally, a cross was jammed down his throat. If you could examine it, Moriel...? the mountains of our greatest enemy... would that be in this time or a previous one? 06* Rolf squints as he examines it. "Does he mean, uh, the Church? Or some demon enemy, or vampires?" 06* Moriel takes the cross, holding the chain by just one finger and avoiding the blood. He looks ill. 06* Eliana doesn't seem to give a crap about Moriel's feelings on this matter. She watches him with interest. 06* Anstace contemplates the message on the floor while everyone else seems focused on Moriel. 06* Moriel spends a long moment just standing there with his eyes closed, holding the cross on its chain. Then his eyes snap open again as he twitches and nearly drops it. He closes his fist reflexively and manages to snatch the chain before it falls, however, tangling it in his fingers. 06* Anstace cocks her head to the side after a few moments. "i would guess that the greatest enemy would be based on their weakness... so likely someplace of faith," she offers to Rolf and nobody in particular. <@Dreol> [Session End!]