The Artifact of Absonial

[Graybeard]

Avner Indianel looked perplexed at the questions raining down on him. "No, no, there are no safety issues with this thing, as far as we can tell," he said, his voice suggesting puzzlement at the mere possibility. "It's not even magical that we know of." (Sister Rose, listening, decided to test this at her earliest opportunity; events would prove that Indianel's assessment was entirely correct.) He turned to Drusia. "It should be no more dangerous to gate with it than with a tin can. I'm curious why you ask -- but probably best I don't know."

"It is indeed," Rose said, hoping to change the subject; she wasn't totally sure what was on Drusia's mind, but an interesting possibility was beginning to form in her own thoughts. I wonder if we could use the elven travel platforms, like the one we saw on the way to Salticiel, to shorten the trip back to Lorenzel. We'd have to be ultra-certain of their reliability, particularly since the Millenarians seem to have compromised that one ... and we absolutely can't tolerate them having compromised the ones we'd use to move this thing. Well, we can come back to that later. So on with changing the subject... "Can we see the artifact?" she asked, not sure what answer she was hoping for.

Avner shrugged. "Sure, why not?" He casually reached down and, to Rose's complete shock, simply flipped the lid off the wooden box.

What lay within was utterly unremarkable looking. It was another cylinder very much like the one they'd seen at Centoriel, before the ingenious decoys that she and Argus had applied to it in Gervasiel. The dimensions might have been slightly different, but the overall shape was the same. Rose noted that its top surface had the same embossed Luminosita-like visage on it that the other artifact had. Presumably that had something to do with the interest the Veracian Church was taking in the thing, although she hadn't worked out exactly why and how. The purple and yellow decoration was missing, and instead, the cylindrical surface was covered by a red-and-white candy-striped pattern.

"So this is what the Church has been ratcheted up tighter than Luminosita's jock about -- excuse me, Sister," Avner backtracked hastily, blushing. "I'm sorry, that was a terribly insensitive thing for me to say. But honestly, I don't know what all the fuss is about."

I'm not sure either, Rose thought as she smiled acceptance of the apology, but orders or no orders, I do have my suspicions...

[Drusia]

"It should be no more dangerous to gate with it than with a tin can. I'm curious why you ask -- but probably best I don't know."

I raise an eyebrow - considering where he lives, I'd rather assumed he planned to take the thing through a gate to get home. But, still, good to know that it won't react adversely to an emergency teleportation on my part.

"It is indeed," Rose said, "Can we see the artifact?"
Avner shrugged. "Sure, why not?" He casually reached down and, to Rose's complete shock, simply flipped the lid off the wooden box.

Huh. I was expecting more, somehow. It looks...

"Oh," I say aloud, "It's like a striped dildo. Only less comfortable looking." I tilt my head slightly. They were talking about dwarven sex toys earlier, although I'm not entirely sure dwarves had sexual organs - I never was that good at history.

I shrug. "So. Who wants to carry it? I'd prefer we didn't spend any longer here than absoutely needful."

-- Drusia

[Caoimhe Faelan]

Suriah had replied to Lillith, "I'm always willing to learn, and this is my first chance to learn anything other than what they tried to force into my head."

She looked at the striped object with amusement. "I can carry it, if you like."

[Sareth]

"Wonderful!" Lillith smiled at Suriah, though she simmered down when Suriah said she'd be glad to carry the thing they had come for. She contemplated the device. "Somehow I don't think you got it quite right, Drusia. It does look too uncomfortable." She turned to Avner. "What do you know about it? Where was it found and has it done anything?"

[Graybeard]

"What do you know about it? Where was it found and has it done anything?"

Why does Avner look so uncomfortable all of a sudden? Sister Rose wondered. Lillith's questions were reasonable; she'd been wondering about them herself. Maybe adding her own voice to Lillith's would get some answers. "If you don't mind, I'd like to know more about the setting too," she said. "Let me remind you that from here on, taking care of this thing is my duty -- both my duty to Luminosita and the church, and my military duty." That last part seemed like it might count for something, particularly with the two guards, who had a militia look to them. "Please do show us what you know. It'll help us follow our orders."

The reference to "orders" did the trick. The researcher didn't like it, but he also didn't see a way out. "Come, then, and be careful not to touch anything," he said. "There were some booby traps where we're going. We're pretty sure we got them all, but still..."

He pushed a rock protruding from the wall of the room, and a concealed door opened with a groan that suggested that something very massive was being moved.

[Sareth]

"Booby traps?" Lillith froze on the spot. She couldn't help but remember another ruin, and the booby traps there. "Do we really need to go down there? Can't you just tell us?"

[Drannin]

"I'll keep a look out for anything mechanical," Argus reassured Lillith. He was already extending his senses outward. Bottom line, this place was remarkable. Distantly Argus considered that maybe he should have studied archaeology a bit more. What he could have learned defied the imagination. Ah, well... "In any case, a picture is worth a thousand words, as they say, and it's better if the picture comes from your own experience."

[Graybeard]

Brad, of course, chose this occasion to proclaim his willingness to shield the love of his life from booby traps with his very body if necessary, but Sister Rose quickly shushed him. "Lillith's right," she said. "There's no need for everyone to go to the original site." Although I'm certainly going to. "Why don't you just tell us the circumstances, and only a few of us will continue from here? Crowd control is probably a good thing."

Avner looked relieved at that. "Good idea ... So to answer your questions, it was found in a storage compartment behind that heavy door. We on the expedition have no idea what it was for, and if the Church knows, they're not telling us." (Rose would remember that statement later, particularly the implication that the Church might know why the Artifact of Absonial was significant, but now wasn't the time to get pushy.) "As for what it does, the only answer right now is 'nothing.' It has simply sat there inertly ever since we found it. Honestly, I have no idea why the Church is so interested in the damn thing. But they are, so let me show you where it came from."

Moments later, Avner, Rose, Argus and Drusia [OOC: plus whoever else wants to come along -- this isn't an "exclusive" party, just composed of the ones who have the most immediate interest in the thing -- Maduin, Lillith and Suriah, feel free to write yourselves in or out -- /OOC] were standing in front of a blank gray wall with a single drawer protruding from it. Avner grabbed the handle, and with a grunt (and a gasp from Rose) -- apparently it was heavy -- opened the drawer so that the others could see the inside. "It was found in here," he said. "Looked like it hadn't been touched in a thousand years."

The interior of the drawer contained fixtures that looked just the right size for holding the object out in the other room. [OOC: Looks very much like the bottom right hand panel here, although the Artifact itself isn't and doesn't look at all like an Inanire 312 -- just that a picture is worth a thousand words, and the picture is very similar to what they're seeing. /OOC:] "Not much to look at," Avner said. "Based on the things we disabled, I'd say this was a safe or vault or strongbox or something like that. It was slightly ajar when we found it, as if the last people to use it -- people or dwarves -- hadn't closed it quite properly. But that was a long time ago, and all the booby traps were still there and working, until we started to disarm them -- or, in one unfortunate case, set them off." He grimaced and slid the drawer back to its nearly-shut state ... but not before Rose noticed something interesting.

There were twelve receptacles for Artifact-of-Absonial-sized things in the drawer. The dust of a thousand ages had settled into the bottoms of most of them -- most, but not all. Specifically, there were two receptacles that looked like they'd had something in them until comparatively recently.

Not one, but two.

And there was only one Artifact of Absonial.

Rose thought about that as they went back to the room where the Artifact lay.

[Porcelain Fish]

"I assume you saw what you needed to?" Maduin asked as Rose and the others returned from their foray behind the hidden door, breaking off his admiration of the physical characteristics of one of the Veracian guardsmen. He'd always had a thing for redheads, especially the tall, buff sort, and the guardsman's gaze had been just as frankly evaluating. It was a shame he didn't have time to stop and play.

[Graybeard]

"Yes, it was informative," Sister Rose answered neutrally, noting the exchange of glances between Maduin and the guard. Good; that might distract the Tsuirakuan from asking ... sensitive ... questions about the storage vault. She turned her attention to Avner Indianel. "If you don't mind, I'd like to have a quick, confidential discussion with my colleagues about security for this thing on the way home. Argus, Drusia, could we confer for a minute in private?"

However, she hadn't yet found a place for her conference when the red-headed guard spoke. "Uh, Professor?" he said. "I'm not sure I'm needed here any more, with this thing moving out. Do you think I could accompany the group now, for -- added security?" And he cast another shy smile in Maduin's direction.