Algathal's Island - AKA a good place to put Shadow's finger

Aglathal sat on a log and greeted them,

 
“How are you doing? It is such a good morning isn’t it?”

 
She offered a pipe of tabacco and Shadow pocketed it, not knowing what to do with it.

 
Liliana approached, “I commend you for the trick you played on me and are still playing on my friend, it is very impressive.”

 
“Thank you it is my middle name. Well it’s Irma. Take a seat we’ll have breakfast.”

 
“I would be happier if you would take the trick off my friend so he can be himself rather than this lovelorn puppy.”

 
Shadow seemed confused at being called a puppy. Aglathal said she had a story to tell them and moved to another log, Shadow seemed disappointed at her moving away from him.

 
She told the story of an empire that existed around the empire they were travelling to. The Tolmmech people, fierce and loyal to their gods and rulers. They were builders and the campsite they were in was amongst the ruins of one of their own buildings. The empire had been enormous and this was merely the outskirts. She spoke of good people, bad, necromancers, megalomaniacs, war, destruction and and an ensuing peace when their cities were abandoned. She said she had a job for them, she wanted to know definitively where they went, to hire and fund a research mission.#

 
“I want to know why the cities were abandoned.”

 
Liliana had been raising an eyebrow at Aglathal but said, “I will not deny it does sound a little interesting.”

 
She spoke of water courses and Shadow said if here was running water maybe they disappeared because they were vampires.

 
She continued to speak of the large pyramids, ziggurat, settlements of 20,000 people, cities of 250,000 people. “Where did they all go? Why did they go? The jungle came in and reclaimed them all. They’re still there, the jungle has just overtaken them.

 
Liliana explained they were already under contract, so she would have to accept that before they worked for her, and that Shadow wasn’t signing anything until he was in his right mind. Aglathal smiled, the effect on Shadow had already been fading for the last minute and he looked about in confusion.
“Memory banks – do – not – sync – up.”

 
“Do you accept the job?” She asked, holding out her hand to Shadow, he looked at it in confusion, “You shake my hand. It is an implied contract.”
Shadow shook her hand and she told them that they were already on their way to one of the Tolmech ziggurat’s that was the genesis of their civilisations.
Liliana turned the conversation to negotiating money, aware that Shadow had no really concept of money. Haggling for 100gp per week plus 500gp upon completion. Aglathal offered a sweet little bonus for the more info included and the faster it was returned to her.

 
“So, more information = more money.” Shadow said.

 
“A shorter amount of time, also equals more money.”

 
Shadow took off, ran and grabbed info on the sand, delivered the information and asked for payment. Aglathal laughed.

 
Liliana suggested they should fuck off and get going. Shadow agreed that they should fornicate away. Aglathal got into a canoe and rowed up river. Up the river, under a palm tree, looked sign post of sort, cairn like, but made of arranged bones, Liliana was unsure if what she was seeing was right and not willing to be made a fool of she moved closer before she said anything. The closer she got, the more she convincerd that it was a signpost made of arranged bones, with vines growing up and through it. Another one beyond and another one further down, all pointing up the left hand side. She pointed it out to Shadow,

 
“Interested structural use of expired organisms,” Shadow said.

 
They decided to use the boats, Liliana getting into the bed and Shadow volunteering to walk in the river and pull the boat along, he said she should pull the rope when she wanted him to stop. Liliana agreed.

 
Shadow jumped in the water and set off, moving the boat up river at a decent pace. Along the route they noticed claw marks on the trees and catlike shit along the banks, suggestions of something large and feline.They reached a point and head the sound of a huge waterfall, list rising up in front of them. Liliana tugged on the rope and he pulled the boat to the side of the river, they agreed to go on foot. Liliana, girded her loins, making her dress an untidy mess but more practical.

 
They climbed up and around the beautiful waterfall, rainbows rising in the mist. At the top they saw ahead a pyramid rising in the middle of a large dell, an enormous flock of birds rising from around it, twittering deafeningly, like a thousand people playing a piccolo at the same time. A lake lay nearby. It was approximately half a day’s travel away and the sun was near setting. A little hut lay nearby.
“We could ask them if we could stay the night and if they say no we could kill them and stay the night anyway.”

 
“Sounds good to me.” Liliana said.

 
She approached, hailed the owner, who invited them in. Liliana opened the door with mage hand. The old woman’s hut was full of cookie jars, her hair was thin and hands aged spots, she wore spectacles and smiled at them.

 
“Would you like a cookie?” She asked.

 
Liliana glanced around and noticed a large baker’s over with a batch of croissants inside. She handed over warm cookies. Shadow took one and tucked it in his armour, like a badge.

 
“I’ve been around so long and I haven’t had company forever.”

 
She offered food and Liliana tried to lie her way out of eating it by saying she was lactose and gluten intolerant but to no avail. Shadow got confused about Liliana missing toes.

 
The woman bought out her best tea pot.

 
“It is ok, I do not think we will need to kill this one.” Shadow said.

 
“Oh, good, I’m so happy you don’t feel the need to end my life?”

 
“Yes, we will disengage all kill protocols.”

 
“We have not introduced ourselves, my name is Liliana.”

 
“My designation is Shadow Ironbound.”

 
“And your name?”

 
“My name is Linetter. Of course”

 
Mai oui, of course,”

 
“You know this place is on no maps.” She said, “there’s an old witch who owns the island, she pays the merchant and sailors guild in gold, she’s very rich.”

 
“Yes, I think we might have met her.”

 
“Is she nice?”

 
“She um…”

 
“She is very, very, very, very, nice.” Shadow interjected.

 
“Oh good! I can’t wait to tell my mother.”

 
“You mother?”

 
“Oh, never mind.”

 
They discussed what to do, deciding to burn the hut to the ground if she tried to kill them in the night. Shadow took first watch, while Liliana set herself down to trance. 4 hours later, he heavily shook Liliana awake. She nearly firebolted him till she realised who he was.

 
“I see you are not a morning person.”

 
On Liliana’s watch she saw a charcoal black squirrel in the rafters eating an acorn.

 
“Hello little squirrel, are you a familiar? Stop eating if you are, keep eating if you a dumb shit of a squirrel.”

 
The squirrel kept eating.

 
Liliana got up and started walking around the hut being nosy. It was fascinating in that there was not a lot of cohesion to the thematic décor. No feng shui, herbs hung from the rafters, the roof was made of thatch, strange brass or copper mobiles hung from the ceiling with sea horses, mermaids etc. She sat back down and began reading her books on magic.

 
The sun rose on an overcast and misty day, the wind coming from the north, barely any breeze, just enough to move the tops of the trees. They couldn’t find the old lady as they were leaving.

 
“I hope she has not died in the night,” Liliana said, with very little care.

 
“She did say it has been a while. Maybe she put it up over the river and it fell down and she got swept away. In the absence of any other information, we must assume this to be the case.”

 
Strangely the house seemed much older in the day, strewn with cobwebs, like no one had been to it for ages. But Liliana didn’t care about this woman, so she didn’t bother to investigate further. She and Shadow set off. The morning continued wet and miserable. As they continued, visibility was poor but they reached the bottom of the ziggurat. And saw radiance emitting from it, a platform at the very top, four ten foot columns with a flat platform on, underneath that platform was an ancient alter that looked like it hadn’t been used for millennia. They climbed up and noticed several points that had once been entrances but were now blocked off with stone and topsoil. Continuing to ascend they saw that the radiance seemed like, throwing a pebble into a still pond, like drops of sunlight were hitting a still pond despite it being a cloudy day. Liliana put her hand between the light and the sky and cast a shadow, the light was definitely coming from the sun, yet the cloud was in the way. They deduced it was the key to getting inside this pyramid.

 
Liliana conjured dancing lights and played with casting their light onto the platform to try and see if she could unlock it or reveal glyphs. During her investigations she began to realise that the stories of the hierarchy of kings were written around the walls and alter. Some of the stories told of good kings, some told of evil. A depression in the alter was stained red. There were depictions of all the Tolmech gods. Liliana pulled out paper and began to take rubbings of everything and everything while Shadow did shadow puppetry. The light was trippy, like a silent rave, but the energy wasn’t bad.
From the readings, they suspected there were hundreds, if not thousands of bodies buried in state.

 
Shadow noticed a mirror behind the alter, he pointed it out. A beautifully polished silver bowl with ne’ery a spot of dirt on it.

 
“There is an upside down tobot creature in it!” Shadow said.

 
Liliana explained what a reflection was and Shadow said it was the first time he had seen his face. Liliana suggested they use the bowl to catch the light.
“You cannot catch light.”

 
“Well technically…” Liliana launched into a description of reflection and refraction as the bowl filled up with the light of the rippling sun. She reflected it around and it rolled around like a liquid. Shadow put a finger in it and it felt warm, comfortable.

 
“Sensors indicate this is a pleasant place to put my finger.” Shadow said.

 
Liliana tried to pour the light into the depression in the alter. It didn’t fill up the depression fully and she realised that actually the depression was shaped as the bowl. So, she placed the bowl in. As it filled up the alter sank into the floor and a spiral staircase rose up out of the floor.

 
They headed down the staircase, the top of the pyramid closing up behind them. They found themselves in a square room with water pipes, a pool of water, surrounded the platform that the spiral staircase led down to, a well-made stone bridge leading off a platform. The walls were made of the bones and skulls of hundreds of sapient creatures. Elves, humans, gnomes etc etc

 
Shadow examined the bridge,

 
“There are no malicious devices of any iteration. The bridge is sturdy.”

 
Liliana nodded and swept over the bridge. She found herself in an earthen worked trench that made a tall hall way. It was well construction but lacking in decoration. Liliana peered around the corner and mistakenly thought she saw something moving, she dived back behind Shadow, he peered round and saw nothing. Liliana cast dancing lights so that they could see and they followed the corridor into a square chapel like room. Old fashioned, full of interesting looking shit. Including braziers on the altar and statues in the middle that at first glance looked like imps but were in perfect almost perfect representations of ancient gnomes. Bigger ears, big eyebrows goofy smiles, specs on one, in contrast to the solemnity of the rest of the room, like the gnomes were being burned. The figures were lifesize. A font that would have held sacred water was broken. Four stone columns carved with the story of an ancient Tolmech God, the god of war. A door lay to the south. The room was silent.

 
Liliana felt like she was missing an important piece of the puzzle and voiced this aloud. Shadow sat on one of the chairs in the room and found it uncomfortable.

 
“This is deliberately uncomfortable to keep people awake during boring services.”

 
Liliana placed her hands on the statues and they felt like they were mind of stone, they were carved to perfection, even down to their gnome hairs. Liliana was worried that these were real gnomes turned to stone and voiced this to Shadow, saying she wasn’t sure if lighting the braziers was good as it might harm, them.
Shadow lit a brazier and Liliana heard,

 
“Why have you summoned me?”

 
“Uh… bonjour! Who are you?”

 
“Who are you?”

 
“Liliana Idril”

 
“Of the Shadow Fey?”

 
“I am from the City of the Lights. Who have we summoned exactly?”

 
“My name is Professor Nathan Nathans the first of the Nathaniel Nathans.”

 
“Quick question, are you a gnome?”

 
She learned that it was a bronze statue imprisoning his soul and that he could not return to his body, it had been hundreds of years. They learned lighting the brazier hurt the gnomes but still lit the other brazier so they could speak to him.

 
Shadow heard screaming, while Liliana heard the voice of another gnome. Liliana asked what they knew about the end of the Tolmech civilisation. They said they hadn’t seen anyone in 2400 years. Liliana passed onto Shadow what they were saying. He said he had been made, then experienced a period of silence for 100 hundreds till a potion awakened him but those two moments felt to him like they were back to back.

 
Shadow then turned to try the door at the south end of the room. It opened up and he peeked through. A corridor stretched away but this time smaller with 8 foot corridor…