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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 7, 2016 14:29:17 GMT -5
Morgan busied herself with her own toast and bacon.
"In a moment! I'm as eager as you are, but the Seven only know when we'll get our next meal! I don't want to get a stomach ache from eating too fast."
She wore one of her new outfits, close-fitting breeches, a tunic and high leather boots. She wore her new dagger at her hip and writing materials in a satchel slung across her shoulder.
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 7, 2016 14:42:01 GMT -5
After they finish their meas, they head out. The day is sunny, but even now Morgan hears the ever-present sound of rocks sliding and the unquiet earth moaning. "Best head to the cave he told us about." she said. She looks excited. Ahead Morgan sees the entrance at the tunnel leading to the ruined city; about thirty feet wide, ringed by heavily armed men, the occasional wheel barrow laden with rocks coming out.
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 7, 2016 14:59:16 GMT -5
Morgan gazed about with wonder. It was strange that something as mundane as a wheelbarrow could be connected to something so old and mysterious. She headed for the tunnel. "We should see if the rocks are different to the ones we have at home."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 7, 2016 15:21:26 GMT -5
They get to the entrance. An armored man looks tot hem. "Westerosi? You stay to first cavern. Safe there," he said with a heavy accent. "No go past iron door."
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 7, 2016 15:25:37 GMT -5
"We'll stay," Morgan promised. After all, they had no idea yet what they were facing, and it was best to start small.
"Thank you. Is there anything else we need to know, or prepare for?"
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 7, 2016 15:28:25 GMT -5
"First cavern!" he repeated. Sara hustled her in. "Not a native speaker of our tongue," she said. inside the cavern are a hundred torches illuminating a chamber a third of a mile long and a hundred feet wide at its widest. A few people are digging carefully, but Morgan is sure she is far more professional. Miners chip away at solid rock to try finding something. Dragonglass is flaked onto the floor like shiny sand; a remnant of the lava that had spewed during the Doom. Looking about, Sara breathes in. "This was a garden," she said. "You can see the imprints of the old fountains on this rock...we need to start now!" She pulls out a tiny chisel to start clearing the fountain.
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 7, 2016 15:35:02 GMT -5
"Oh wow." Morgan knelt and ran her fingers through the dragonglass, wondering, then stuffed some of it one of the boxes she had brought with her for the purpose of taking samples. It would be interesting if something could be don with the dust. That done, she joined Sara at the fountain, and getting to work.
"I wonder how Vhagus enticed these people here," she wondered. She spoke to the nearest person "Where do you come from?" She spoke in the Common Tongue of Westeros, then repeated herself in High Valyrian, just in case.
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 7, 2016 15:45:21 GMT -5
"Mantarys," the answer comes. "Join Vhagus after he become Great Khal. Followed his army everywhere. Now guarding here. Fight demons. Protect women," he points to them.
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 7, 2016 15:51:44 GMT -5
"That's good," she said, though she longed to point out that she and Sara were doing their best to protect themselves. "Are you looking for anything special?" She worked as she spoke, knowing that it would not be quick or easy work.
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 7, 2016 16:04:54 GMT -5
"A real Valyrian garden," Sara said. "Maybe we can find an inscription or an estate name; we have no accurate maps of what Valyria looked like prior to the Doom. We could map the old city as it was!"
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 7, 2016 16:13:23 GMT -5
"Oh yes! I wonder why Vhagus cares about it now, when hardly anybody has cared for centuries," Morgan answered. "We don't even know anything about the families the Targaryens were affiliated with before the Doom, except the handful of noble houses who fled west with them. Velaryon, Celtigar...although...Sara, Orys Baratheon didn't get his name from his father, because his father was a Targaryen. Yet nobody ever asks about a Valyria house named Baratheon. And there must be hundreds more noble families who died in the Doom. And thousands of others too."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 7, 2016 16:42:56 GMT -5
"Exactly," she said. "Thousands of houses, potentially. Needing to be mapped. Needing to be studied. Their greatest warriors, legends, magicians, all their knowledge scattered. Volantis is the closest to what they had and it was but an acorn to the oak tree of the Freehold." She continues her painstaking work. "And the slaves would have brought touches of a thousand civilizations here."
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 7, 2016 16:52:50 GMT -5
"True." Morgan fell silent as she scraped away for a while. She knew it would take a long time but she still kept hoping that she would be the one to make a brilliant discovery. As she worked, she tried to consider things like the type of soil, the possible age of the stonework. But her heart was desperate to find an old coin, a hairpin, anything that would give a clue as to the people who had once lived in this building. Her hands and clothes grew dirty.
"Can you imagine all the old men of the Citadel here?" She whispered to Sara. "Imagine them grubbing around on their knees. I can't quite see them doing it."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 7, 2016 17:08:05 GMT -5
"Some, maybe," she said. "But most can't even bend this far over," she giggled. Morgan sees the soil is mostly obsidian and basalt for now, volcanic rock, but the fountain is marble, pearly white and perfectly carved, beauty still evident as she unearths the great fire wyrm head at the top. "Perfect!" Sara said. It has been nine hours since they started, time has passe din an instant.
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 7, 2016 17:16:35 GMT -5
"It's beautiful." Morgan's voice was quiet with awe. "Do I have time to sketch it before dark?" She wondered aloud. "I don't think I'm ready to risk going back in the dark, but I so want to sketch it."
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