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Emerging from the ruins, Georgi caught sight of Loner and Kramor and rushed over to them. "Have you seen Thantor?" she inquired, breathlessly, barely pausing long enough for Loner to motion in the direction she had last seen him headed.

Georgi blazed through the forest, until she came to a clearing and very nearly tripped over Thantor, who was sitting there crosslegged, meditating. He opened his eyes, which immediately took on a troubled look at Georgi's agitated state. He began to get to his feet, but Georgi gestured to him to sit down, taking a seat opposite and catching her breath.

"What's going on?" he asked anxiously.

(OOC Please note my earlier post has been updated I hope nobody minds me reserving my space, these things take me so long to write )

“Hey! What are you guys doing?” Vivien shouted, “Why’d you put this big hole in the wall?” Gwalchmai and Dragon Wench looked up from sifting through some dusty papers to see Vivien entering the passage. They could also hear Darkpoet down in the kitchen banging around. “Hey, Darkpoet is fixing some dinner. You two hungry?” Vivien saw the silver globe, “What’s this?”

“Don’t touch it!” Dragon Wench and Gwalchmai shouted simultaneously, but it was too late. Vivien’s fingers touched the globe and she suddenly froze, he eyes glazed over.

“What are you doing here? If Rai’ya sees you….” Vivien said, but the voice coming out of her mouth was that of a man, his accent inflected with ancient nobility. Gwalchmai and Dragon Wench exchanged nervous glances.

“I didn’t see you at the mausoleum,” Vivien said again in a different, deeper, hissing voice, “I thought we had an arrangement.” Vivien continued to stare straight ahead, not focusing on anyone.

“I am not sure that our ‘arrangement’ is worth pursuing, cleric.”

“So, you have betrayed me. I suspected as much.” Dragon Wench grabbed Vivien’s hand, but all her might could not break the connection with the silver sphere.

“No, it is you who have betrayed me. You said some healthy competition would solidify Amaunator’s following. It would reverse the decline seen among the faithful. But instead, more and more people have turned to Moander. Amaunator will be forgotten.”

“Your guards have begun raiding my enclaves in the town. Did you order this, Ya’que?”

“Indeed. I have caught wind of some rather interesting rumors, cleric. “

“You have begun speaking out, though your silence was well paid for.”

“Your duplicity must be revealed to the people!”

“Ya’que, you are lacking in innocence. Perhaps we should visit Rai’ya and speak of duplicity.”

“No! You must leave! I’ll call the guards!”

“I think not.” Then Gwalchmai heard the words he recognized as a Mental Domination spell, and Vivien said one last thing in the deep, hissing voice, “Come now, let us find your good wife.”

With that, Vivien’s hand dropped to her side, and she blinked a few times, “Whew,” she said in her own voice, “I think I had better lie down!” Vivien turned to leave, but stumbled against the table. The globe rolled off, and fell to the floor, smashing into hundreds of tiny shards. Gwalchmai bent down to examine the remains, “Appears to be simple, mirrored glass. Hey! What’s this inside? A Ring?”

Vivien, Gwalchmai and Dragon Wench nervously eyed the ring. Without really thinking, Dragon Wench cast an identify spell upon it, but strangely, the small band resisted her attempt to discover more. Vivien also tried an identify spell, but to no avail either. Puzzled, the three gazed at the ring. It seemed to be forged from some kind of metal, but none that they'd ever seen before. It was a vibrant shade of purple and tiny silver-hued runes were engraved upon its surface. Running a hand through her hair, Dragon Wench walked over to the window, and in frustration started yanking away the boards. The view that greeted her did not come as a complete surprise. The ruins were directly in sight. Except, they were not the ruins, exactly... In their place stood a circular structure. From it's roof a large cylindrical instrument of some kind pointed skywards. A motley assortment of figures scurried frantically around the area dressed in unfamiliar armour and robes.

While Dragon Wench had been engaged in her assault upon the boards Gwalchmai had begun studying the piles of tapestries with an appreciative gleam in his eye. Vivien was drawing intricate patterns in the dust thickly covering the floor.

Dragon Wench turned towards them. "Um, you may want to come and see this," she said uneasily.

[ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: dragon wench ]

Loner sat down on a tree stump, with her head in her hands. So much had gone on. She couldn't keep track of it all. It was as if there were patches of shade in her mind; nothing quite connected. Maybe I need a vacation, she thought wearily.

She knelt on the ground in a meditative posture and closed her eyes, hoping to gain some clarity...

Vivien left her writing to walk carefully towards Dragonwench. Dropping the crystal ball like that, too darn clumsy for her own good!

"What is it?" She said as quietly as she could.

"Suppers ready!" She heard a familiar voice behind her and turned to see Darkpoet coming up the stair, apron on and spatula in hand.

She whispered for him to hush and motioned him forward, and then tried to peak around Dragonwench's arm.

"What in the world is this?" She asked Gwalchmai and Dragonwench with some worry.

Dragon Wench trying to remain calm, responded to Vivien's question.
"I don't know........I'm wondering if maybe the window is some kind of portal into Rai'ya's time. I'm very pleased, though, that we can still see and hear Dark Poet, and smell the food he's just prepared. I was worried for a moment that we'd actually entered a time warp. I think we should tell the others about this, and maybe see if Jenna feels well enough to identify this ring.
She then turned to Gwalchmai (who was having trouble tearing himself away from the tapestries ), "do you have any sense what the ruins may have looked like when Rai'ya was alive?"

Originally posted by dragon wench:
<STRONG>I was worried for a moment that we'd actually entered a time warp. </STRONG>

OOC Surely you mean it is some kind of disruption in the space-time continuum, captain?

"I just had a visit from your goddess," Georgi informed him.

"Mielikki?" Thantor gasped, a look of shock on his face. "Where is she??"

"She was in the ruins. She disappeared..."

"Well, what did she say?" Thantor asked, flustered.

"She showed me this." Georgi presented the locket to him. "It must link somehow to the story of the ruins... She mentioned you, as well... although it was what she didn't say that caught my attention," she muttered.

"She showed you something?" Thantor guessed. "What?"

Georgi's troubled eyes met his. "The real Thantor..." she fell silent.

Seeing the look on Georgi's face, Thantor turned away. His stomach caved in and the old fear and anger returned. Why would you do this, Mielikki? he demanded silently of his goddess. Have I not always done everything you have asked of me? Those things were so long ago, I am a different person now... He got up. "We should return to the keep and inform the others," he said curtly, and walked off through the trees. Georgi frowned, then shrugged and hurried along after him.

Gwalchmai tore himself away from a particularly interesting black velvet tapestry, one showing four apparently sentient canines sitting at a table playing some sort of card game (perhaps a divination ritual?). He peered out the window where Dragon Wench and Vivien stood. “Is that real?” he gasped. Beyond the keep, over the tops of the nearby trees, they could see Kramor’s ruins, where originally had stood a great library and mausoleum. But the ruins were no longer so ruinous, and there appeared to be an additional structure – a great dome with a large cylindrical instrument. “Kramor mentioned that his ruins had changed once we got back from Ogre Falls; is some sort of transformation taking place?”

Dragon Wench said, “I think we’re are just looking through some sort of portal, and that we are seeing the view of 500 years ago.”

Gwalchmai walked up to the window, and thrust his arm through. Then he scrambled up on the table and hung his head out looking around, “I don’t think so. The storm clouds that have been building up all day are still there, and your horse is tethered outside, still a little sweaty from your ride.”

“Perhaps the ruins are rebuilding themselves. I mean, Rai’ya herself has re-appeared, for some odd reason, why couldn’t other things?” Vivien said thoughtfully.

“If figures, doesn’t it? I mean, just when we’re in need of a really good, long-winded explanation, Thantor is nowhere to be seen. He’s probably off in the woods somewhere contemplating his navel,” Gwalchmai groused.

“We should go outside and see if these changes to the ruins are real, illusion, or figments of our imaginations,” Vivien said firmly, “And, most importantly, we need to see if the transformation is affecting anything other than the ruins,” with that, she walked out.

“I hope Kramor and Jenna are safe,” Dragon Wench muttered as she and Gwalchmai followed Vivien.

Vivien, Dark Poet, Gwalchmai and Dragon Wench left for the less than ruinous ruins. After about ten minutes they encountered Thantor hurrying towards them.

"Something strange is happening," he said.

"That," retorted Gwalchmai, "has not escaped our notice."

Dark Poet hastily proceeded to tell Thantor of their odd discoveries, while Vivien and Dragon Wench, despite their concern, smirked at one another.

Georgi arrived shortly after Thantor, and wondered why Dragonwench and Vivien were smirking at each other

Relieved to see Georgi, Dragon Wench said,

"Is everyone okay, how is Jennabard doing?

She also noticed Georgi's curious expression as she gazed from her to Vivien. Dragon Wench just winked, and mouthed, "later".

"We were on our way back to the keep," Georgi told DW... "Are you going back to the ruins again?"

"I think that Thantor wants us all to head to the keep, so maybe we should go there, besides Dark Poet has some dinner there for us" replied Dragon Wench, who suddenly realised that she had not eaten since early that morning.

"Okay, how about we head back, and then we can catch up with what's going on. If Loner and Kramor come back soon, maybe we can have a meeting or something."

"sounds good," answered Dragon Wench.
"Do you have any sense of where Loner and Kramor might be......it would be helpful if they came back with us, but I'm not too keen on the thought of trying to find them."

"I think that would be a good plan. I'm feeling a bit scattered, like each of us has little pockets of information, but I'm sensing a bigger picture here."

"Uhhh... Maybe we should just wait for them to get back... Unless you're volunteering to disturb whatever they might be doing..."

At that, they headed back to the keep's kitchen and began to share what they'd discovered.

Thantor did not really have much of an appetite, but he did go into the kitchen and prepare a tray for later. It was difficult being around the others, and he wondered if Georgi would tell them about what Meilikki had shown her. He told Nippy and Dragon Wench that he would be up in his room and to please come and get him when the meeting was going to start.

Heading up to his room, Thantor felt a need to get release some of the inner turmoil he was feeling inside. He looked around the room.

[ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: thantor3 ]