ORIGIN

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Himmel

The creatures dispersed in to the surrounding terrain, some towards a series of caves, another in to the bushes. Himmel could make out the sound of voices carrying in one area or another but he didn't recognize anyone in particular.

A young gembound, ginger-colored and somewhat birdlike, called out: "Someone broke it on purpose!" And as Himmel turned to glance their way, they ducked towards the ground. He presumed they were grazing but there wasn't much greenery here - so then he looked to the wall with the odd drawings, but didn't see anything about it worth investigating. It was his assumption that painted walls weren't that strange; a little bit ugly, not exactly common either, but he wasn't experienced enough with the caves to see the novelty of it.

The taller, older deer he had approached had not moved yet. He remembered the bedazzled antlers and glanced around in search of them, finding them immediately - and watched as some sort of energy hummed from their crown of green. Magic? It wasn't like any spell Himmel had seen. Where was his fire? Where was the flash of red, or the smell of burning? He grew bored of his observations and turned away from Aran, leaving the older deer to their machinations.

As the fawn moseyed along he passed the ginger bird-thing, noticing the dark winged almost-a-deer standing nearby them, and listened in to the conversation as he walked. Something about Orion, and then Pegasus, and Himmel looked over his shoulder as he passed, noting that James was talking to someone about the mural on the wall. "I've never seen anything quite like them."

Okay, so maybe they were more rare than Himmel realized. He paused a few meters off, sniffing the air, looking around - and a bellow startled him. "Hey everyone!! There's a statue!" What was a statue? "Someone with eyes come and see!" Well, he had eyes. What direction did that voice come from..?

The boy deviated from his observations and headed towards the voice among the rocks. Something giant and blue flashed by his periphery and made him stop short, and his ears fidgeted along either side of his head as he listened to the clattering of objects; the lizard-thing had gathered up some shiny rocks and had brought them to a friend. Himmel frowned, but ducked towards the hiding place of this statue thing.

Any other voices fell away as he looked upon the structure. It didn't resemble anything Himmel knew, but that had become a commonplace response for him. He did not like feeling ignorant, he realized. As he approached where the statue stood he wondered to himself, 'What is it? Is a statue just a big rock?' But there were other big rocks; maybe there was something special about the shape of this one...?

He bowed his head to where the statue met the slab of stone beneath it, sniffing the ground and looking around for any clues that might help him. It wasn't his intention to help these strangers with their puzzle on the wall but he did seek answers, or at least some clarity. There was a scattered pile of debris that looked as if it had been pilfered already - so he assumed the shiny stones had come from there, and looked beyond it, trying to slink behind the statue if it was possible and see if anything else remained.

Leviathan's search would bring him to the foot of the statue: a towering thing, not unlike the tomb. It was worn stone, but depicted the enormous four-armed, spined creature, and in its hands was a carved image of the broadsword. Two palms were wrapped around the grip; the sword's tip rested on the statue's base, between its clawed feet. Lying at the foot of the statue, neatly leaned up against its one-piece pedestal, was the larger of the still-missing mural pieces. It seemed to show this very figure, holding the sword similarly, though as if giving it away--or taking it.

___________

Aran could sense that each retrieved piece gave off a bit of its own magic--he could even use this to seek them out, and to therefore be near Leviathan or James, helping to search, when either of the other two pieces were found. Too, there was a strange, stronger sense of magicka in the rubble that James was finding not far off, particularly in the crystals...

___________

James would find the ruined rubble half strewn down the cliff--and in it, the tiny piece of mural glinting skyward. This piece was indistinct, with splashes of black and purple, and a bit of white; it lay amongst the crystal and stone pointed out prior by Haven. It was odd--as though someone had crushed and destroyed a great deal of material before throwing it down the hill.

___________

Kaimana would find that there was nothing left to find; Leviathan had discovered one piece and she was steering clear to stay split up, and Haven's call to the other, she had disregarded.

___________

Back at the mural, Tahi-shei, Comet, and Oka slot in their respective mural pieces. These seem to snap into place, some strange magic pulling them in--and even completing parts of the image lost to crumbling stone. The mural now told a far more complete story, its images magically reforming--yet the newest pieces would need to be slotted in correctly for it to fully reveal its tale.

___________

Comet's further searches reveal nothing, but then, the ancient little workshop area does appear to be quite abandoned.

@Tahi-shei @Aran @Comet @Oka @Himmel @James @Kaimana @Leviathan @Haven @Electrum

His beak snapped at her question, which she would know to be playful but that strangers might have seen as a threat. "'Cause breaking things is fun," he theorized, and went back to looking. He picked up his piece in one paw and looked up at the statue itself, considering it for a moment. If he'd been more confident in his wings, he would have tried to fly.

Leviathan trotted over to put his new piece directly to the right of the circle piece, below the other hole, and pushed it into place before the last panel caught his eye. He squinted at it, and then at the rest of the completed pieces. "Mama?" he called, returning to the last panel. "Mama, look -- cycles." He touched the piece that Tahi-shei had placed inside and looked back up at her. It was probably something she'd be interested in, right? A cycle of life and of death? He didn't bother to explain his thoughts on the matter -- surely, everyone had figured it out by now, right? (With no consideration as to whether or not Levi was wrong.)

@kaimana specifically

Tahi-shei shrugged, and then smiled at James. "Pegasus, huh? That sounds nice. Maybe I'll come visit you sometime. But yeah -- steer clear of the palace, and certainly watch your step if you go inside. She mentioned something about a sacrifice, but even I wasn't curious enough to see whether or not she'd kill me." His tone was light despite the heaviness of the subject, and he laughed a little at his own expense. Then, he turned to the mural after casting a glance at the shadow.

"Well," he began, squinting at the mural, "the first panel looks as though the reddish figure is standing over a dragon? See, this pointy part here? A head, and the horns, and then the swooping part makes the body. Perhaps the thing underneath is, uh... a second dragon, watching over the proceedings? It sort of looks like it might be breathing fire at the biped, or maybe protecting the other dragon from it." He squinted. "And then if we sort of, uh, skip over here... the red one is trying to kill a different... shadowy thing? And according to this last panel, I believe the black one reincarnates?" Tahi-shei narrowed his eyes. "Unless the first panel doesn't have dragons, and I'm just... bad at this."

@james mostly

James nosed at the mural piece and squinted at it, "Look, Tahi..."

He lifted up the piece with magic, looking at it float in the air before making his way back to the mural. He stood beside the deer and pushed the piece into place, where the black figure's head seemed to be missing. The smallest piece of the puzzle.

He stepped back and cocked his head, "It looks like something was made, perhaps stolen, and then... used against the maker? A battle of sorts?"

He pressed against Tahi's side and looked down, "Well.. I'm glad you weren't sacrificed. I kind of like you, a lot."

James coughed, flushed, and looked away, fluttering his feathers again in embarrassment.

@Tahi-shei

Himmel

He heard something, and peered out from behind the statue in time to see the ginger child from before; they spoke to their companion, calling them mama as he brought whatever he'd found to the mural. Himmel snorted softly; he did not have anyone to help him, and he did not find anything. He was frustrated.

The creature's gathering of friends consisted of a deer like himself, and a dark thing that was nearly a deer but a little thicker - plus it held wings, making it closer to the ginger gembound than anything. Himmel observed them for a few seconds and it appeared clear they were focused on the puzzle rather than himself, and that was fine. He didn't need them.

"It looks like something was made, perhaps stolen, and then.. Used against the maker?" The winged dark-deer said. "A battle of sorts?"

Himmel's ears twitched when they coughed, but by then he'd lost interest. Without a segment of his own to contribute he had no reason to linger. But he was captivated in watching the group - especially as the pieces fit in to place without needing to be handled. A helpful ability, he thought.

Levi's answer -- could it count as an aphorism? -- tickled her, made her chuckle (many things did). "A sound hypothesis." It really could've been anything, she'd give the child that.

Still, Kaimana found nothing. Maybe she should have checked what that gembound had called someone to look for. A shame, but only a mild one. Kaimana went back to her child, who had found yet another intriguing piece, as well as made yet another most excellent observation. She felt pride welling in her chest at the word, a word she held dear: '...cycles.' "That's right, Levi. You're right! That's a--" Kaimana looked closer at the dark shrouded figure upon the piece Levi had pointed out. That was familiar... OH-- OH!!! "Wait I know that creature! The one creating the weapon in the mural, yes! At least.." It didn't seem to have horns. "I think I do. The one I saw had horns though..." Strange. Exceedingly strange.

James's "friend" seemed to have a, uh, hefty amount to say about the mural. Kaimana giggled at the "friend"'s verbosity, and their fumbling. With no ill will, of course! "I take it you're a friend of James's?" She said, looking directly at the deer with a playful grin and a twinkle in her eye, as if to make the quotations around the word "friend" verbally visible. Wait that doesn't make any sense-- well, moving on. "Your interpretation is certainly interesting. I think James's is more accurate, however. Levi is certainly right about this being a cycle, I believe. From what I can tell, this masked one is making a weapon for this red figure. The red figure then attacks them with the weapon, and they go back to stone... as we can do." Kaimana looked at Levi. Uh oh... was that really the case? "I believe, if this creature in black and white is really who I think it is, crafting weapons is sort of their... business. They are a kind creature. Or-- were. Perhaps they still are. Perhaps..." Kaimana suddenly turned away from the mural and began to look for the "thing" that someone had found before, a not-mural piece. Something that eyes had to see-- or, however it had been advertised.

Once the statue was found, Kaimana would focus on her eyes. "May I have a look at this?" It wouldn't work -- quite the opposite, actually. "Ack-- one moment..." Kaimana would take that moment to blink and breathe the festering headache out. Ow.

(I CAN EDIT TO SAY SHE USES DETECT MAGIC ON THE MURAL INSTEAD ACK)
@Tahi-shei (also Levi) she's callin' him oUT!! A little bit

Finding nothing, Comet lapped up some water from the pool and returned to her family. It seemed that they were with a group of other animals discussing what the mostly completed mural depicted. A lot of the theories seemed to revolve around the guy making something, and then being killed by the guy who he made the thing for.

Talking was not her thing, she needed to do not talk. So she ran off again to search. A lot of other people were already searching for pieces of the mural, so Comet decided to see if there were any strong sources of magic here which may prove to be interesting.

The second cast of the spell actually gave Aran something to go off of. Magic... in certain spots in the area. Whatever the gembounds were finding had magic in them. But there was something else that made him curious - another source of magic in a pile of vague shapes that Aran sensed with the spell. Well... Heading that way seemed like a good course of action.

So he did.

Finding his way around while not being able to see much but some... Shapes here and there was disheartening. He was frustrated that there was no way for him to figure out exactly what he was looking at based on sight alone. His other senses weren't that good either, except for maybe his hearing. Granted Aran never payed attention to much other than sight and hearing anyway.

He wanted to find what was in that pile of.... something. Whatever that shape meant.

As the mural's last missing pieces is slotted into place, its inherent enchantment activates. Wrought by a very skilled hand, it restores the mural in its entirety: missing chunks seem to refill, the pigment flowing to cover missing areas. It tells a story, though perhaps an unclear one.

This tale begins with a figure working with hammer and anvil, watched over by the brown hulking being. Next, the figure holds the object he's made, what looks like pink wisps--perhaps magic of some form--rising from it. In the third panel, he offers this up to the figure, and in the fourth, the figure turns this very gift to strike its maker down. The fifth panel shows a cycle: the maker returning to his chrysalis, waking only to be struck down, again and again and again.

The final section of the mural, now that the rest is complete, ignites in magical light. Another image appears: this one shimmering, light without dye, depicting a final scene: the sword's maker, perhaps enchanter, descending down stairs past the drip of lava into a final workshop. A new anvil appears before him and he begins to work on this. It repeats, then: resetting, the figure reappearing at the top of the stairs before descending again. It appears to tell of a place beneath this one--perhaps beneath this section of Leo altogether; it seems to be inviting those who have completed the Mural to visit a blacksmith down below.

Those sensing for magic successfully will sense that the majority is centered across the mural; however, the crystals in the pile of rubble on the opposite side of the little peak, beyond the small workshop, seem to contain magic of indeterminate, or perhaps no, element. Perhaps there's a way to unleash it, but they seem unrelated to the mural--as if discarded here by another hand.

Nothing else here holds any magic.

[Quest] Lost Knowledge is now complete. Gembound may now exit this thread, and if they wish, search for the mysterious blacksmith wherever he may be in a new thread or threads. Those investigating the crystals may do so. Either of these attempts may be GM-tagged for responses.

@Tahi-shei @Aran @Comet @Oka @Himmel @James @Kaimana @Leviathan @Haven @Electrum

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Himmel

Game Master Dark

Leviathan

Tahi-shei

James

Himmel

Kaimana

Comet

Aran

Game Master Dark