Thank you, for the great blog post with background on the setting as well, novacadian.
Here goes Damola's entry into her diary:
It so happened again that we met a certain crazy dwarf named Radavan – mind you, I love crazy, just maybe… I somehow can relate to it. Of course Radavan heard about an even more dangerous place than we have been to before and of course it was about hunting for glyphs again.
So he heard that in the time where there was not yet a pterosaur training area in Amdeneir there has been one near the Eagle Head Bronze Door Fortress. You can imagine how I rejoiced at just hearing about the opportunity of visiting a Pterosaur training area, even if abandoned meanwhile. Consequently some of the other members of our special group started reminding me of my love of those beautiful beings. Also, could it be, could it really be that we may find one of those legendary glyphs that were said to allow non-winged people to glide or even fly?
So we gathered at Harnquist, the smithy, and equipped ourselves with climbing gear and light enough armor.
And off we went. First to the old mines near the fortress. As we climbed up the path way towards them in the darkness I enjoyed a wonderful view together with Gonger – our magic lights illuminating the night a bit:
[OOC: As usual, remove image name from path to access all the images, also the full size ones.]
We walked up the higher tunnel and let ourselves down half way, just to find a tunnel sealed by some large stone plates. With combined strength we managed to clear the entrance to the tunnel and it was very small. I went forth and managed to pull and drag my slim body through it. Luckily the tunnel widened considerably after that so we were able to walk side by side, two people each.
After some time we arrived at the exit of the tunnel at a large plateau high, high up. It was a marvelous view. [See screenshots from novacadian for that. For some reason I did not make one.]
Gonger found the first glyph. He hammered with his rock pick at the rock around it while only having one footstep of a place to stand on. I secured him with a rope while Venorel, the Talad priestress, had me covered.
It was from Azure way and as Sliss, our Azure Way master, confirmed, it was a Dome glyph:
We were able to find quite a few others and once Radavan again even offered me to step onto his shoulders again so I could more easily reach one.
But we came back to the idea to check for other kind of glyphs. As I assumed before Radavan was really considering to check out for those legendary glyphs and… I had the idea to try to look for them near some of the bird nests Diuren found earlier.
So on our way to that place we found an epic path way right through the air, the railings of that way were long gone, but the path way appeared to be in order. So we tried out our luck and carefully proceeded to walk that path way:
[OOC: With such nice constructions it can happen that the game engine can be tricked and… something like this could happen:
It felt quite creepy being up there and I wondered how long I could have Damola walk forward without falling down]
After quite a long path way we arrived at a platform with further bird nests and guess what? We found them! Yes, those legendary glyphs called Bird glyphs! I learned from Haviland that there may be another kind of glyph, the Fly glyph, but we did not saw those there.
It was Gonger again who spotted the first glyph. It looked so stunningly beautiful and… haha, those who know me better, I love both beautiful beings, like Pterosaurs, and beautiful things, like this glyph:
But then we spotted a glyph somewhere
below the platform we were on:
I have no freaking idea what has driven me, but somehow I volunteered to climb down there. In hindsight I wondered why I did so, risking true death – as for sure if I would fall down, my body would have been smashed –, especially after we gathered so many glyphs already.
Before doing so, Radavan suggested that we use mutiple ropes, so that several members of the group could pull me out of trouble, if the need would arise. Kindly Venorel and my new friend and guild mate Anoebe held me. I bound their ropes carefully around my waist and managed to climb down:
[OOC: In hindsight I am a little bit concerned about you all standing on the platform, as from below, it did not look all that solid
]
Luckily I just needed to hammer a few times before the glyph broke loose. Before it fell down I catched it and then… I looked down:
I immediately noticed that this was not such a clever idea. My body began shaking and all the strength seemed to leave my arms. I still managed to call up to Anoebe, Venorel and the others to pull me up again as I felt unable to do it myself.
[OOC: I know this is just a frigging 24 inch
flat computer display. No VR, no nothing. And I knew nothing would happen to my own body in case Damola would fall down. But I felt scared like nothing. If that is not a demonstration of the power of the mind to make things up and immerse into roleplay, I do not know what is. I was very careful not to move Damola, as to not give gravity a hint that Damola was supposed to fall down – as Uadjet, our GM guiding us through this experience, may put it].
Bet how happy I have been as I was back on the platform again:
My body was still shaking however, having realized what I have done with it. So I sat down with the back against the rock as Venorel casted Relaxing Sleep on me. I fell into a short dreamless sleep as my body recovered.
However Gonger told us he explored the path way back and for some reason a piece of it was missing. So Radavan suggested that we try something different. I wondered whether he would just call Pterosaurs to take us with us, however, he feared the platform would not sustain the arrival of several of them – understandably as some part of the path back was missing already.
So he suggested something that has been more crazy than anything I have ever done: To focus on the bird glyph and… pretend we could glide down like the winged Klyros! Even us Nolthrirs, the Enkidukai or the Dermorians or the Dwarfes or Ylians!
So I focused on it and as I got the sense of lightness and floating I glided down with the others. However this time I did not look down, otherwise my mind might have come to the conclusion that this would not be possible, and I'd rather wanted to avoid that.
Eventually we arrived at a nice fire place and I looked back upwards:
The people there were quite stunned at our arrival, but welcomed us friendly then:
I asked Venorel to squeeze my arm and she did. Also I still have those glyphs with me. So it appears this all has really happened. Before we left to sleep and recover, I concluded that we wrote history.
[OOC: Yes, you know this place if you explored Bronze Doors outer area a bit, but let's pretend… ah, whatever, pretend what you like
I will finish this post now]
