The Bride and Groom - Chapter 12

[Muskrat]

Karunama nods, lingering a brief moment behind the others to offer up a brief prayer for the dead, asking Baqar to help them find their way out of the curse that has fallen on them and to a better rebirth, if not now, than in the future. He then follows after the others. He says nothing, but a certain part of him identifies with the histachii, for he once was an evil-doer himself.

[Vardaen]

Ghanji glances back at Karuanama as he delays, and he comments in a sour voice to Shamad, "He doesn't understand, those soulless bastards won't find redemption even in death." He leads the group north to swing around the ruins and gives it a wide berth knowing that Janak and Shamad are less than stealthy even if Karunama and Rak are silent. You reach the northern point of the swing around the ruins and find some broken stone pillars, and a flat stone slab covered in vines and moss almost totally taken by the jungle. Last time the Harbingers were here they never came this far north and hadn't found this piece. Ghanji slows and looks it over, "I wonder what this was used for?" He takes a moment to pull away some of the vines, it looks as if it might be rather large in size, perhaps thirty feet across, the broken pillars set around it, twelve of them evenly spaced.

[Muskrat]

Karunama winces inwardly at Ghanji's words. He must believe that anyone can find redemption, otherwise what hope is there for him, given the blood on his hands?

As they look at the platform, Karunama speculates, "Perhaps it had some ritual significance." He kneels by it, looking for inscriptions or bas-relief sculptures that might give some clue to its purpose.

Display

Knowledge--Religion check.

[Trogdor]

Janak also carefully examines the overgrown structure. He's done work himself on many temples over the years, and visited many more. The layout looks oddly familiar. The yogi pauses, tapping his cheek as he tries to remember where he's seen it before.

OOC

Various skills that might be useful:
- Craft (sculpting)
- Craft (stone working)
- Knowledge (engineering)
- Knowledge (history)
- Knowledge (local)
- Knowledge (religion)
- Profession (architect)

[Vardaen]

Ghanji pulls away a vine to expose some more of the ruin. He is just looking at it without saying much, helping to let the others see things.

Janak carefully examines the structure even as Karunama is inspecting some of the text barely still readable on it. There is some writing on it, ancient scripts carved centuries ago. It is amazing any of it is still read able. After inspecting the broken pillars and the text and the rest of the structure you come to the conclusion, collectively, that this must be a giant timepiece -- a sundial. The piece in the middle of the circle on the platform is broken and missing, but the 12 pillars suggest 12 hours of the day or even 12 months of the year. The Brahmins of this ancient temple must have kept the time of day here. It is a rather impressive piece of work, or it was, in its day.

[Muskrat]

"A giant sundial," says Karunama. "A pity it has fallen into such ruin. But many more things may fall into ruin if we are not successful. I do not think we have time to linger here." He looks at Ghanji, waiting for the deadly archer to take point again.

[Trogdor]

Janak looks at the structure and nods approvingly. "I should very much like to restore it once we've cleared all the yuan-ti out of here," he muses. It's a very long-range plan. But a man can dream. He stands for a moment, his hand pressed against some of the faded inscriptions on one pillar. Then he shakes his head and turns away. "But that's for another day. Today we need to get to the temple."

[TetNak]

Shamad dismisses the sundial, they have other work to be done. He waits impatiently for Ghanji to lead them to their destination.

[mackaber]

Rakshamarandi looks around with little interest. He has come to slay demons not to play around with old sundials.

[Trogdor]

Janak does pause and raise his hand for a moment. "It occurs to me," he says, "that this is one of the few places in this trackless jungle that is both unique and relatively free of yuan-ti." He looks around again. "If I need to pull us out quickly, it could make an excellent target location. If you will allow me a short time to carefully examine the area and commit some salient details to memory, I should be able to bring us back here instantly at need."

OOC

Janak would like to carefully study this location for a future teleport target.