Το Ευλογημένο Παιδί

JP with mdman, Lasersexpanther, Lorem, LucianNepreen and Cindy

Cronk clapped his hands and laughed, now that the girl was in good spirits. “Cronk glad girl happy!”

The sound of feet running could be heard coming back down the hall. "Lorna, Lorna" Another young girl. A blonde with big blue eyes ran practically into the room, but instantly stopped and looked around the room.

"Juila, tout va bien. Regarde, ma cheville est réparée." (Juila, it's alright. Look my ankle's fixed.) Lorna walked on her ankle to show the other girl.

"Oh," Juila began, "Je me suis perdu et je n'ai pas pu trouver mon chemin pour sortir." (I got lost and couldn’t find my way out.)

Elizabeth figured it was best to get the girls out if there. "We should deliver them to Marcil, he can get them home."

"Maison? Non attends. Vous devriez voir ce que nous avons trouvé, c'est incroyable." (Home? No, wait. You should see what we found, its amazing.) Juila had picked up a little of the English, apparently. She then turned to Vor, and in broken English said. "You, especially, should see. Like you - I think.”

Everyone followed the girls further into the tunnels, until they came to a steel door. It was unlocked and not very hard to open.

In side the room was a wooden table, placed length ways at the far end of the room. The walls were practically covered with Arundan art. Shelves held several Arundan statues or ones that looked to be Arundan. However, the thing that the girls were most excited to show was a life size statue, which looked to of an Arundan child however it had both male and female characters. If one looked close enough and knew what to look for, it actually looked half Arundan and human. On the bottom it read, Το Ευλογημένο Παιδί. (The Blessed Child.)

Looking upon the statue brought Vor out of his funk, many other emotions and thoughts returning to overthrow his own self doubts. It was not of Arundan make, so was clearly part of the cults fantasy of power. He couldn't fault the children for seeing the resemblance between him and this thing, but personally he reviled having the comparison made. He glanced at the floor, halfheartedly looking for traps before turning his full attentions towards the artwork surrounding them. Immediately he was documenting various works that were not cheap in the slightest, in fact several were by famous for their rarity. One artist he took particular note of, Zen'Geri, was still talked about in artistic circles even after disappearing several decades ago. He had been an inspiration to Vor himself and he lamented being so close to them and not able to have them.

"I am surprised that they would leave such works, even the statues. They seemed particularly interested in them." He said more to himself than the others.

Indeed, for though they weren't as historic as the few they had salvaged already, they were still beloved by his people. Koúnia tis Anagénnisis(Cradle of Rebirth) was one he took particular note of, a work of metallic filigree that mimicked a swirl of sea foam, detritus, and sea life both living and skeletal. It was a morbidly beautiful representation of life, death, and how they are necessary for life to continue. Another inspiration to him.

He had lost himself fully to his notes, making sure that each work here was documented with his own eyes before no doubt having to relinquish them to the Order.

Cronk didn’t know what to make of the life sized statue. Was it male? Or female? Was it a Fish Man or woman? Or was it human?

Cronk looked at the statue’s organs in confusion. He turned to Vor with a wrinkled brow. Pointing, he asked, “This you look like?”

The boisterous sound of Cronk pierced Vor's focus, drawing him back to the infernal statue. He looked to the orc with a firm smile, not liking having to talk about it.

"No, Cronk. That is a Kauhistus. An abomination."

He went closer to the form, unnerved at the amount of detail the artist put into it.

"Smaller gills, the signs of reduced webbing on the hands and feet, among other details. It is a hybrid of human and Araundan, one that the Children are quite interested in having. I assume it is why they wanted me to take on a mistress."

He read the inscription for everyone to hear, no longer able to hold a smile at calling it "blessed".

Well, that was disturbing, Elizabeth thought about the statue as she glanced around the room. "We can't possibly carry all of the things that need to be out of here."

The Eldren then turned to the young girls, "Comment es-tu entré dans cette pièce?" (How did you get into this room?")

Julia responded, "Nous ouvrions simplement ceux qui n'étaient pas verrouillés, et ce n'était pas verrouillé." (We were just opening ones that weren't locked, and it wasn't locked.)

Elizabeth understood that the Children of The Sea fled and left things behind but to not lock up a collection like this seemed odd. She suddenly didn't want to stay in this room longer than necessary. "We'll have to note what from this room needs to be saved and the Baron will have to send down another team to retrieve it. I have a feeling the first team found this room but didn't know what to take. That might be why the Baron asked us to do this, in part anyway." She then turned to Vor, "I am sorry we can not just bring it all back with us." Motioning to indicate she meant the items if the shelves and the walls, not the large statue.

Noting Elizabeth's understanding, Vor turned back to what he considered true artwork. He had a nagging assumption that the Baron would have the statue moved as well, instead of leaving here where it belonged.

"As long as it is no longer in the hands of those people. I would rather see them left untouched in a private collection than used for insane experiments and rituals.”

Elizabeth nodded with understanding. She pulled out a small journal and noted anything that Vor pointed out, including detailed descriptions. That would take a while but when it was done, so before continuing to catalog the items Elizabeth looked around, gesturing subtly towards the children. "I think Cronk can escort them to Marcil while the rest of us check the rooms in this section, and wait on his return." They had already cleared the way back, up to this point, of traps.

Lorem was a bit confused. This dangerous adventure was potentially centered around art? She was an advocate of beauty, but didn’t seem to grasp how any of the works of art were worth so much trouble or could be so troublesome in and of themselves. She kept her opinions to herself and simply observed. Those observations might come in handy later, since she did have an eidetic memory.