Sunday 1 August 1280, Midday (Red Anger and Silver[ish] Linings)

Oloc is fascinated by the sudden appearance of the liquid. He doesn't dare mention magic, certain that there is divine power at play here.

"I am not versed in such matters, but do you think this liquid might have special qualities, restorative perhaps?"

As a cleric of the light, Gaven knows enough about Brother Camillus' association with healing to suspect that Oloc's proposed theory of restorative qualities is very possible.

Oloc takes some of the liquid in the cup of his hand. The liquid feels warm and clean. The mage applies it to the mysterious red substance to see if it can act as a solvent.

When the liquid touches the red pigment, Oloc hears a faint hiss escape the grim substance. It is not the hiss of alchemical reactions, but the all-too-emotional hiss of utter and bitter hatred. The clear liquid applied to the pigment rises from it in a wisp of vapor, and the pigment remains unaffected.

Gaven tries to lift the plate out of the alter and/or slide it to the side. The plate still refuses to budge.

Meanwhile, Duran continues to help search the area for a trigger for the trap door. The fighter notices that one of the sconces behind the altar shows evidence of a split between the stone of the sconce and that of the wall, very similar to the one in the shoulder of Brother Camillus' statue.

Duran gives the sconce a twist, and the small plate in the altar slides open with a delicate "snick" sound.

The now open panel reveals a compartment within the altar. The compartment is lined with unrusted steel. The steel shows evidence of severe burn marks. Inside the compartment is a steel handle, also bearing burn marks. In very small letters, engraved on the lining of the compartment are the words:

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OOC: Actions?

Time: 12:40

Sunday 1 August 1280, Midday (Putting Things in Motion)

"Ahhh, so there is a secret entrance," Oloc says with a smile. "My guess is we move the statue's arm to release the mechanism opening the door. What say you? Shall we give it a go?"

Gaven replies to Oloc, "Shall we try to trigger both the altar and statue at the same time?" The cleric makes sure everyone steps away from the possible trap door in the floor.

Duran nods in agreement and steps back as the others try and activate the trap door.

On the count of three, Oloc pulls on the statue's arm, and Gaven presses the square on the altar.

The square piece on the altar does not move at all. It yields to neither pushing, pulling or twisting. Gaven notes, however, that the square section does seem to cover a hollow space, unlike the rest of the altar's surface, which seems quite solid.

Oloc has better luck. The statue's arm descends slightly with a faint scraping of stone on stone. As the arm is lowered, the font is suddenly filled with a clear liquid.

How the liquid entered the font is impossible to tell. There seems to be no spigot or opening from which it poured. It merely appeared in the basin when the statue's arm was moved.

A pleasant fragrance emanates from the transparent fluid. The scent is difficult to identify. If the sunlight of a fair spring day had a scent, the perfume of the liquid could best be described that way.

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OOC: Actions?

Time: 12:35

Sunday 1 August 1280, Midday (That Stubborn Stain, and Other Marks)

Gaven is amazed to see the altar, statue and font are unabused by time, but is dismayed at the graffiti. He kneels and prays at the altar looking for divine inspiration on how to purify the temple.

Gaven writes out the temple's engraving and draw the graffiti on a piece of parchment to show Abbot Cuthbert and Cosmo.

The cleric also tries to identify the ink. It is difficult to say what it is. It is not blood, though it has a bloodlike color, and a foul smell is noticeable when Gaven moves closer to inspect it. Perhaps blood was one ingredient that went into the pigment.

As he cannot identify it himself, he attempts to chip some off the wall to bring to Cosmo for identification (or perhaps the sage). However, the pigment refuses to break apart, crack or flake away, no matter how much force Gaven applies, or what type of tool he attempts to use. The pigment may not be entirely mundane in nature.

Cleaning the pigment off the wall seems entirely out of the question.

Meanwhile, Oloc wanders around the church, inspecting the old masonry and remaining features. "I also wonder if there is a 'back door' somewhere around here."

Disturbed by the red graffiti on the wall, Duran joins up with Oloc to search for some secret or trap door. Duran notices an outline on the surface of the dais that could denote a stone trap door in the floor, just behind the altar. If it is a camouflaged door, there is no obvious way to open it. The stone appears very large and heavy, and there is no handle.

Oloc turns his attention to the statue. "What do you think, Gaven? It is amazing the statue seems to have survived all these years. And the altar and font also appear to be amazingly 'undisturbed'...."  Oloc perceives, upon closer examination, that there is a thin line along the shoulder joint of the raised right arm of the statue, as if the arm were a separate piece. The line appears perfectly straight, and is clearly not a crack caused by weathering or abuse. The mage also notes that there is no other such line anywhere else on the statue.

Gaven, meanwhile, searches over the altar, statue and font for holy works. He spots nothing more on the statue than the line Oloc points out.

The beautifully crafted font reveals one additional detail. Now visible close up is a finely, delicately carved inscription that reads: "The Light Renews."

On the altar, Gaven also spies the thinnest outline of a square carved into the surface. It is clearly not a defacement of any sort, as the cut is extremely clean and regular. However it has no particular religious signification that he is aware of. It is nothing more than a simple square, with no words or symbols of any sort.

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OOC: Actions?

Time: 12:30

Sunday 1 August 1280, Midday (Inside the Old Church)

Gaven is drawn towards church in an almost trance-like state. He starts walking towards it and then catches himself. "I think it may be worth checking the church. There may be a secret passage that enters the Keep. Perhaps we will be lucky and be able to catch the bandits by surprise."

Duran nods in agreement with Gaven. "Even if we don't find a passage perhaps this would be a good place for Buckeye, Sophie, Ollie and Bill to wait and hide in safety until we have dealt with the bandits. We just need to make sure and cover our tracks into the church."

Duran then feeds Karnak a bite to eat and sends him up to circle the ruins to keep an eye out for them until their course of action is determined.

Karnak gives no indication of threats in the area. With no signs of trouble, you make your way carefully through the brush and weeds up to the church. You leave very little track behind you – only enough that someone specifically looking for it would notice.

Entering the church through the large hole in the wall you can see that most of the roof has crumbled away. Litter of stone and wood fragments is scattered across most of the floor. Sunlight pours through the roof, which has almost entirely collapsed from the midsection eastward. A few scattered shadows cross the floor from the odd remaining rafter.

At the far end of the church, to the east, you see a massive set of old double doors. The wood is rotting, and the iron bands are rusting, but they still hold together. Along the walls are small stone sconces built directly into the walls, obviously intended for torches at one time.

The north and south wings bear the remnants of painted frescoes. The colors are so chipped and faded that you cannot make out any distinct images.

To the west you can see the altar you perceived previously through the hole in the wall. It stands upon a raised stone dais. In this one section of the church, the roof is still almost entirely intact. No rubble at all can be seen on the dais or the altar. The altar's surface is perfectly smooth and unscratched.

High on the wall behind the altar, you see engraved in large characters the following words:

Beneath this, scrawled on the wall in some thick, red pigment is a symbol and words that look distinctly out of place in a church of the light:

This portion of the wall appears slick with water – while none of the other stone in the church seems damp at all. It is as if the church is weeping, or perhaps trying to wash itself clean of the blasphemous graffiti.

To the left of the altar (south) there is a stone font, now empty and dry. The surface of the font is smooth and clean, like that of the altar.

To the right of the altar (north), there is a life-sized statue that Gaven recognizes as a likeness of Brother Camillus, a legendary healer from the early days of church history. Brother Camillus wears a simple robe, and stands with his right hand raised high in benediction, and his left hand resting on his breast.

A single ray of sunlight, entering through one of the very few small holes in the otherwise intact ceiling in this western section of the church, casts a golden aura around the figure of Brother Camillus.

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OOC: Actions?

Time: 12:10

Surprisingly I managed to get some things done I didn't expect to, and was able to write this post today after all. (Yay!)