Shadows of the Past

While Noche asked you to not risk yourself, you can't bring yourself to abandon the search at the first sign of problems. You've learned how to commune with the spirits and while mercurial, the Stone Men are not the worst kind you could run into. However, you don't know if they are the only inhabitants of this place. So you take one of the little jars from your pack and spread the alchemical oil within over yourself to make it harder for any other lurking spirits out there to find you. Keeping a wary eye on the working Stone Men on the bridge, you decide to check the large compound first. It seems far more likely that this is where Ixtli went and the steady coming of going of the spirits between the houses has you worried that they might surprise you.


Going down and through the stream, you cross over to the other side. The slope is slippery and more then once you nearly slide down again and tumble into the water, making it hard to keep track of the movement of the Stone Men, but at least the tall grass hides you quite well. It is still a relief when you reach the top again and you can duck between the houses again. Up close, the compound seems like a good bet to find what Ixtli was after and maybe the man himself. The murals clearly show what you now recognize as smiths working with metal and other have groups of people hunched over codices, reading or writing about their trade you guess. The statues, of which many are missing you now realize, likewise show artisans with their tools. With the great feather headdresses, you could have mistaken them for more warrior effigies, now the hammers they bear are clearly meant to be tools and not made for war. What is slightly worrying though is that the building has no windows on the outside and so you have not much choice but to go to the main entrance, keeping your eyes peeled to look for Stone Men all the while.

You cautiously peek inside the stone archway into the building and see a inner courtyard lined with pillars that bear the roof, with scraggy grass growing in the open space in the middle. Many doorways lead away from this courtyard and most of them are closed off not by simple wood, but massive stone doors. While that complicates things, the truly worrying part is the silent guardian walking along the gallery in ceaseless circles, a slight trench in the stone marking its path. Taller then the other Stone Men and a good head higher then most men, this one looks markedly different from those outside. He too has a headdress of long, flowing feathers where the others lacked such markings and as he turns at a corner, you see that the thing he carries on his back is richly decorated sword made from the same stone as himself. The thing is nearly as long as you are tall and with how neatly it rests in a nook in his back, it is clear that this Stone Man has not picked it up to dispose of it.

For the longest while, you watch his path silently and sometimes throw back a glance behind you to look for others approaching, but none come. His path is unerring and regular and some of the pillars wide enough to hide behind. You claimed to be able to stay hidden easily and you intend to prove it. Warrior or not, he is but a single one to cover the entire courtyard and if you are quick, you can stay behind him and duck into one of the doorways. So you slowly creep forwards as he passes the entrance again. You struggle to keep up with him, since the spirit is fast and leaves you with not much time to look around. Most of the doorways are closed and you doubt you can pry open the massive doors with the spirit on your heels. As you creep to another corner, the spirit well ahead of you and oblivious of your presence, you suddenly notice something. The stone before your feet is red. Fresh blood spilled not to long ago which leads to a hole in one of the doors. Barely large enough for a man to squeeze himself through.

The moment of inattention costs you dearly. The sound of stone grinding on stone banishes the silence and the so far nearly silent steps of the guardian turn thunderous. With not a moment to spare, your unsling your pack and throw it into the hole before you, diving after it immediately. Feet first you slide into the darkness and see the Stone Man running for you, his blade held at his side and ready to strike. You barely manage to pull your head into the hole before the sword comes down and whizzes past you. Quickly you scramble back from the hole and deeper into the hole. Around you is only darkness with a tiny pillar of light shining through the hole at first, before the bulk of the guardian blocks even that. It takes a long while until you heart no longer threatens to jump out of your chest and it is only then that you notice the smell. It reeks of decay and rotten flesh in here.

Blindly your rummage through your pack. The torch itself and your fire drill are easily found, but it takes a while to find the tinder among all the other pouches and you are still not quite sure if you didn't take some herb instead as you start your work. It feels like forever as you try to make that little fire, surrounded only by the darkness and the stench of death that chokes the air within here. As the torch finally lights, you finally see what your nose wanted to tell you. Before you lays a slightly bloated corpse, the skin already blue and black and the signs of insects burrowing into the decaying flesh. The right side of his chest is pretty much caved in, clearly the handy work of the guardian that still lingers at the door. At first you fear that this is Ixtli and your whole trip here a fools errand, but then you see the black ponytail on the deceased's head. The smiths apprentice was described as trimming his hair rather neatly. Still. This could have been your fate too. He probably tried to sneak in the same as you did and was just a tiny bit slower.

Now that you can see again, you quickly take out a pinch of a sharp smelling oil you carry and rub it under your nose before the smell makes you even more sick then it already did. It's hard to concentrate on something else, knowing about the ghastly scene that you turn away from, but unless you want to join the poor man, you must. To your left you see two ovens like those of Noche, one closed and one open with a opening in the ceiling to let out the smoke, but sadly no light comes through that shaft. A stone shelf takes up the other corner, but only dust and dead spiders occupy it. The stone desk next to it though makes you almost glad you came here. It would be easy to miss the folded pile of sheets, bound in leather, under all the dust that covers it, but you carefully dust it off with your free hand and unfold it. The illustrations you see within are nothing you have ever seen before. No stark colors or paintings, but just black lines and symbols bunched in arcane patterns. Below are row upon row of symbols you know to be writing, but sadly can't read. Something must have damaged it though, for much of the text looks faded.


As you pick up the codex, you find six round, black disks of metal beneath it, each of a size slightly larger then your thumbnail. The sight of what mus be iron does not quite excite you as much as you would have hoped, given the circumstances of the find. None the less, you pack them into a pouch on your belt and ponder what to do as you spot at last another exit. Covered by a rotten wood hatch, you spot a shaft in one corner. Too deep for the shine of your torch to tell you where it leads and the walls are perfectly smooth. It would be a climb, or worst case a slide, into the unknown.

How do you try to escape this room?
[] Wait for the guardian to leave and sneak out.
[] Go down the shaft in the floor.
[] Try to climb up the shaft above the oven. There must be some way for the smoke to get out. (Can't take the codex along due to its size.)
[] Something entirely different: Write-In

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AN: No XP this time, since the skill uses failed. Diving into this room was pretty much the only option when the Stone Man spotted you, since he was between you and the exit and Yaxkin knows quite well that her dagger wouldn't inconvenience him.