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[AbuDhabi]

It was eerily quiet for a long while, even the wind seemed to die down momentarily to accentuate the old man's sudden death. First one to move, of the six travellers, was Cerell - but only a fraction of a second quicker than Adjourn - as they half-leaped from their seats in order to examine the old man's body. Cerell got to him faster, primarily because he was closer to begin with, fiddling with cards as the man told his story. "Dead," the half-elf verdicted, shaking his head, and looked over the others' faces. "Looks to be permanently so, given his age."

They were a rather motley band, but not one to be trifled with. Four humans, one elf and one half-elf.

The most mundane in appearance was Danash, survival-minded and fairly sociable, capable of blending in pretty much any crowd of humans like himself. This facade, however, hid a powerful wizard capable of a wide variety of magics, and anyone spending a little time around him was bound to notice that he used his spells for, within reason, pretty much everything he could. So far, he has exhibited a certain lack of any sort of philosophical or political inclinations, perhaps a part of his camouflage.

While looking somewhat alike Danash, if his gender were to be reversed, Adjourn would have serious trouble mingling with other people, particularly those styling themselves as civilized and progressive-thinking... One might say she would prefer to talk to animals in the wilderness than fellow humanoids, like some rural madwoman. Her clothes, however, hinted that she a lot of theoretical knowledge, and little practical - she carried a plethora of items she no doubt deemed as useful, but quite unlikely to be ever needed. Nonetheless, experienced in the wild or not, what was left of nature in the dying world seemed to agree with her more than one would expect. In casual conversation, once, she had slipped that she was part of some sort of neo-druidical organization based somewhere north of Kalgar.

Dlin Asot, as he called himself, was somewhat eccentric as mages go. He obviously had some minor talent in wizardry, which was readily apparent to anyone with appropriate training, but for some unfathomable reason, chose to focus his interest upon his own bones, and new uses thereof. Using a specialistic form of magic, he shaped and reshaped his skeleton as he saw fit, often changing appearance from day to day, shifting his bones under his flesh - and sometimes making them grow outside of it. As the party knew, he could use these portrusions as weapons with deadly effect - perhaps that was what made him choose his odd specialization, being able to defend himself in any situation.

Always fidgety, scared of his own shadow when such were available, ever-looking out for danger - that was Jira, an elf of uncertain gender, and one of the two members of the crew to have seen the sun firsthand. Though young for one of his race, s/he was certainly quite travelled, judging from the sheer amount of tongues s/he understood and spoke. The folds of the elf's cloak hid a variety of items that only someone with severe paranoia would pack - none of the party, of course, knew what s/he was so afraid of, death in general - or something altogether more sinister?

The crew's second full-time wizard was one named Ulmeth - and unlike his collague Danash, he fit most every stereotype one could have about spellcasters; spell components hanging around his travelling clothes, spellbook studied every day, knowledge on a variety of unrelated topics, a certain more-intelligent-than-thou bearing. The only things he lacked were old age and a staff - the former might come eventually, and his hair was already pale, possibly his organism's reaction to no exposure to the sun's rays, but the latter was not going to happen in any foreseeable future. He just figured that if his arsenal of potent protective magic, which he focused on, was ever disabled, he could just lay down and die, being absolutely terrible with pretty much any weapon.

The last, but not least, member of the band was a half-elf, named Cerell, with a semi-permanent smirk on his face. Another of his constant characteristics were his gambling accessories - dice, cards, marbles, elven byer-kee, and other obscure toys. Despite being a holy man of some kind, as shown by his capability to draw upon the divine for his spellcasting, he has been a bit less religious than one might think - in fact, he was a slouch and hedonist, with firmly nihilistic beliefs if one inquired about his life philosophy. What deity he has cheated into granting him spells remains unknown.

Nothing more than blind luck has brought these individuals together, as they all chose to leave Tonittan, the second-largest surviving city of the former Agri Republic, on the same 'day' just after the bells rang out that morning has arrived, and going in the same direction. It was fairly standard procedure to gather into groups when going anywhere in the wilderness, so they set out in the company of each other, cautious at first, but soon more casual as it became clearer than neither wanted to eviscerate the others and feast on their steaming flesh or some such rubbish. Their immediate goal was to be Dradar, a moderately-large town built among the immense fortifications built on the border between Kalgar and Agri, perhaps a safer place than Tonittan with its dwindling food stores and increasing number of hostile creatures roaming about the environs. Beyond that, their businesses were their own, for only a fool reveals his true plans to random strangers.

Five or six days before reaching their destination - the Dark made gauging distances and durations difficult - they encountered this man, among the ruins of some small farming hamlet. And now he had died, leaving some cryptic clues, and his yellow amulet.

"Bad luck. Bad luck," said Cerell, closing the deceased's eyes. "Have a blast in the afterlife, fella."
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[ScotStorm]

We must move on...he would have wanted us to find the cause of this
....this haze of ill-fortune. Who will be the bearer of the yellow amulet. If no objections...I volunteer to bear the yellow amulet. He mentioned that it had something to do with the dissapearance of the sun. If it is to be known...Iam Adjourn, Druidess of northern Kalgar and I had heard rumors of this man. I came to investigate the rumors of his magical amulet. The Elders of the Sun sent me here.

Looking over the lot that had surrounded the dead man. Adjourn spoke softly and with subtleness. She had not known the objectives of the rest of the gathering beings...but she had to investigate that amulet and the reason for the magical darkness. That was her mission.

[AbuDhabi]

"The who now?" Cerell's brows moved into position to express suspicion and doubt. "Aren't you a bit hasty to loot the dead, missy?" he smirked in the druidess' direction.
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[ScotStorm]

His last words were you must take...use...find. Im sorry but his story coborates with my Elders Story. We must make haste. We can give him a proper burial...I shant leave him to the vultures.[b]

[AbuDhabi]

"Y'mean the ghouls," snorted Cerell, rolling his eyes. "Last I saw a vulture was back in the days we still has the good ol' flaming sphere on the sky. But back to the topic at hand - I'm not sayin' that the old geezer didn't want us t'have that trinket, or that it isn't something important. I'm just sayin' you're hasty, Adjie," he smiled toothlessly at Adjourn. "First, I'd like to hear who these 'Elders' are and what do you exactly need that there amulet for. I bet the guys would like that, too, no?" The half-elf turned to regard the others with a neutral expression.
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[A random person]

DlinOOC:My bad... Twas a bit late..

Uraahh! Dlin Stretches his arms cracking a few bones in the process. Does it matter what we plan to now, eh? Right now I say we all concentrate on our survival instead of some wild goose chase we have little to no information about. Dlin begins spurting his bones in random places from boredom. Hehe... Maby you should have tried manipulating your core, eh? Dlin jabs Ulmeth with his elbo, making sure to spurt a bone just in time to give him a light poke. ...I wonder... Exactly... What the sun might have looked like.... Must've been a... beautiful sight.. Dlin continues daydreaming off into the black sky.
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<BEEP>

[EvilDarkLord]

Danash nods slightly in the half-elf's direction.

"At any rate, I suggest one of the non-spellcasters carry that trinket. They have a much harder time in general vanishing to the other side of the continent if a... dispute should arise. Given the limited number of these, perhaps it should go in Jira's keeping for now?"

"Now then. About these Elders of yours, Adjourn?"

[Erik Mesoy]

"Very well, I'll carry it," Jira says, before turning to the dead man and intoning formally "May your soul be borne away swiftly and your god receive you well." in a somewhat archaic dialect of the language the dead one had been speaking.
Jira looks at the others. "Do any of you know rites for the dead?"

(Jira will defer to anyone who does, or else hold a short speech.)
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[AbuDhabi]

Cerell nods at Danash. "I suppose, as long as Jira won't use her totally mundane ways of vanishing without a trace?" he glanced in the elf's direction. "No, not much more than 'rest in peace,' no."
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[Corinthian]

((Thanks for the flattering description I guess that's all I can expect when I don't give more details, though.))

Ulmeth, who had been listening intently to the old man's account in the hopes of learning something new, stands up straight as the account of the amulet sinks in, his thoughts racing. Maybe this is a lead! Something truly useful after all this time of blind searches! Ulmeth walks briskly over to Danash, and adresses the entire band, saying: "Before it goes in anyone's keeping, I think we should examine it thoroughly." Then to his travelling companion: "May I?"

[Erik Mesoy]

"Of course... and please warn us if you're going to try activating it." Jira cautiously hands the amulet to Ulmeth, then steps over to Cerell. "About that. I was a mercenary of sorts, a facilitator if you will, for the past dozen years. If I had vanished from anything I was doing, word would have gotten around, and I couldn't have reappeared. It might as well be a binding oath or something - I can't voluntarily leave until I've fulfilled my obligations as best I can." Jira fidgets with the strap of leather that acts as a sling, uncertain how much to talk about the past.
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[EvilDarkLord]

"Go ahead, if nobody objects. Could have a look myself after your analysis, see if any new knowledge springs up."

Danash makes a few gestures, utters some arcane phrases and takes a more thorough look at everyone and the amulet.

[AbuDhabi]

"Yeah, that's good enough for me," Cerell nodded at Jira. He amused himself with playing solitaire while the two wizards examined the amulet, pried from the old man's death grip.

To their suprise, no matter how much they stared at it with their arcane senses - it came up as nothing more than a cheap glass trinket, completely nonmagical. In fact, the more they looked, the less magic they seemed to see, even the minute background thaumic radiation seemed to be absent. Whatever the thing was, it was far from mundane. Minutes after they started, Cerell finally got impatient, "Anything?"

DM: For the new folks, we're using a honor system for rolls - you roll, we believe. And post the results of your checks, as that's less work for me.
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[EvilDarkLord]

Danash peruses the amulet for a moment longer, looking for signs of it being touched by planar energy as well as using his wide arcane lore to get an idea of what it's for. If any inscriptions are found, those are deciphered.

((Arcana: Roll 19 + skill mod 23 = 42
Planes: Roll 19 + skill mod 20 = 39
Decipher Script: Roll 1 + skill 20 = 21
))

[AbuDhabi]

Danash knew a fair bit about amulets used in many magical orders and cabals - and while it was uncommon, it wasn't unthinkable that some of them might have been enhanced with clever illusions. One such spell was often used by migratory merchants, making mundane itemry appear to be magical - but it could also be used for the opposite, obscuring any magical auras a magic item might have. If this was the case with the amulet, a simple dispel would likely reveal its true nature - but at the risk of accidentally breaking any other magical properties of the thing. It would be far more safe to use a proper counterspell.

Upon closer examination, Danash unearthed something else - an inscription around the gem, little more than faint outlines of letters on the silver, but certainly there. He knew all the characters, but all together, they didn't seem to make any sense - an unpronounceable jumble of vowels and consonants.
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[EvilDarkLord]

"Interesting. The magic aura is likely hidden by a spell. I think I have got the counterspell for that, but it'll have to wait 'til tomorrow for preparation. Don't try direct dispelling, it might break the other functions of the amulet. There's also an inscription here, but I am unsure of what it says. All the characters I recognize, but the meaning is unclear."

That said, Danash hands the amulet back to Jira or Ulmeth as appropriate.

"Now then. Does anyone have ideas of where to go?"

[Erik Mesoy]

"If we're to carry it around, I don't have a magical shield, but this should make it look inconspicuous." Jira reaches into the Handy Haversack for a length of rope, threads it through the amulet, and knots it off before passing it on to Ulmeth. "Wrap it around when you're done, and it should look like a normal bundle of rope." Jira turns to Danash. "As for directions, I have a few contacts in Dradar, which someone else mentioned, but I have contacts most places. So I figure I'll stick with the largest group of the rest of you, since you're all reasonably competent."
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[A random person]

Dlin

Aye! I know wee a bit about the rites for the dead. Dlin begins thinking back into his studies. Hmm... What was it again..

Knowledge(Religion):12+5=17
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<BEEP>

[AbuDhabi]

"Ideas?" shrugged Cerell. "Not as such. Any place is just as good as any other - provided it's relatively danger-free. Looks like I'll be sticking with your for the meanwhile," he grinned, stepping away from the corpse to give Dlin some room.

While the bonecraftsman was a little fuzzy on the exact details, he was present at several funerals while he stayed for monts on end in a besieged monastery somewhere in the southern wastes. The party most likely did not have the specially-prepared oils and balms, incense or an actual tomb nearby, neccessary to hold a proper ritual, Dlin figured the recitation of the chant followed by a make-shift burial would have to suffice. The chant itself was long and rather dull, extolling the virtues of the deceased, at the same time asserting some form of life after death and reassuring the listeners that their beliefs were correct - but easy enough to memorize for a bright lad like Dlin.
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[ScotStorm]

As to your question...the Elders of the Sun is one of the last druidic colonies as we know.Finding a cure for the ailing world is our mission as we have been taught to salvage the land and save what we can save from the terriable darkness that has fallen upon the land. Our hope is to restore natures balance.

[EvilDarkLord]

"Well then. Looks like we're going to Drasdar, since it's a direction, it has people and at least one of our group has contacts there."

Danash eyes the druid with some scepticism.

"I see. And beyond desperately needing this trinket, just how are you going to accomplish that?"

[AbuDhabi]

"Yes, I'd like to hear that, as well," Adjourn found herself being stared at, courtesy of Cerell.
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[ScotStorm]

We may ask around...search the library...ask folks about the old man. We have a number of theories to go on. Being that Dradar is the closest populace near where the old man fell. Id asssume that he may have had business there. All we can do is look.

[AbuDhabi]

"So, in other words... you know nothing?" Cerell raised an eyebrow.
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[Erik Mesoy]

While the others argued, Jira rummaged about for stones and piled them on the grave, murmuring general benedictions in most languages, thinking better safe than sorry.
"Rest well, ancient one. We have taken up your quest."
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