Chapter 141: 8.6 – Descent into Tarin-Tiran

The mural in front of Robin depicted a golden vision of Tarin-Tiran—at least the thought it was Tarin-Tiran—as a centre of trade and wealth. It made sense, considering it graced some kind of shopping arcade, though any actual evidence of such had long since been looted by invading forces, wandering monsters, and opportunistic adventurers.

It was surprisingly intact, compared to the other examples the party had seen so far in the city, protected by location and, presumably, the kinds of monsters that had laired here over the aeons. Drev and Vance were running their fingers carefully along the tiles, attempting to sense out the runic structures behind it. All around them the storefronts lit up in flickers so fast it was impossible to see precisely what the old illusions had been of, but it seemed to be signs, possibly even a form of advertisements?

‘There has to be something…’ Drev was saying when suddenly a fully immersive illusion bloomed all around them. ‘Ah! Got it!’

Once again the party could see a vision of the city under siege. The image still had missing sections, but the flow of it was much clearer, and those absent pieces were overall minor.

‘There’s the priest again, Nilsiir,’ Savra said, pointing.

The image of Nilsiir stood in the entrance to the arcade, one hand reaching out for support from a nearby pillar. The priest seemed to have been running or otherwise exerting themselves.

‘I think this is later in the narrative,’ Robin said, moving around to examine the priest’s trembling figure. ‘They look exhausted. And the hobs outside—‘ he glanced at the small bit of the illusion he could see extending past the entrance of the arcade, ‘—look to be in worse condition than we’ve seen in other illusions.’

‘Leivniz,’ the illusory High Priest spoke, ‘you will not take this city. Not whole. Not as you want it, subjected to your edicts and demands. There is too much of—‘

The illusion flickered.

‘Sorry!’ Drev called. ‘It’s sucking up a lot more energy than the others. Let me—‘

The image flickered back into being. This time the party could see who Leivniz was, however. There was a figure standing opposite Nilsiir.

She wore the robes of a mage, though in an archaic style that rang distant bells for Robin’s [Bardic Lore]. Her colours were black and white and the seams were precise, straight lines. Even after what had clearly been a pitched and protracted conflict the whites remained white and the blacks fully black. No dust dared smudge either colour off its exacting adherence to shade.

‘You cannot win, Nilsiir,’ the mage was saying. ‘This chaotic, lawless place will finally fall in line. Finally see the light of order and reason so that we may pursue a greater accrual of knowledge—‘

‘You don’t want knowledge,’ Nilsiir interrupted, ‘you want control. Control! In this place. What fucking nonsense.’

‘Melusk agrees with me—‘

‘Melusk!? Melusk!? You can’t be—ah.’ Something flickered in Nilsiir’s eyes. ‘That’s what that meant.’ The High Priest straightened to their full height. ‘I’m sorry my dear, but I cannot allow you to proceed with your plan. Though it cost me, and this city, dearly, I’m afraid I’m going to have to fuck shit up, as it were. Good luck catching me before I do!’

With that last mocking work, Nilsiir vanished, even as a maelstrom of force erupted in the spot the priest had been standing.

‘Find him!’ Leivniz snapped to the nearby forces as she drew a crystal ball out of a pocket it had no right fitting in to. ‘He cannot be allowed to—‘

The vision cut off, then restarted.

‘I think that’s all we can get, here,’ Drev called. ‘I’ll check some other parts of the runic structure to be sure though.’

‘This makes no sense,’ Vance observed, coming to stand in the spot where Nilsiir had been just a moment ago. ‘The illusion runes we’re working with predate the conflict we’re seeing. How can it be recorded for us to find?’

‘Specialist illusionists can re-shape existing illusions, permanent or not, pretty much at will if they had a hand in constructing the illusion,’ Robin said, thinking about some of the things he had discovered via exploring his character options and raiding Noviel’s library for information on the art of illusion. ‘Tarin-Tiran seems to have fostered a very advanced school of illusion of some kind. They might have had masters capable of altering even illusions they didn’t create. Like those.’ He pointed to the mural.

‘Well if that is the how, what is the why?’ Savra asked, walking gingerly over to where the apparition of Leivniz appeared. ‘Why immortalise these pieces of the city’s fall?’

‘Posterity?’ Drev offered. ‘So someone would know what happened?’

‘I’m not sure if we’ll know why unless we can figure out who, and then understand that being,’ Robin said thoughtfully. ‘If it was Nilsiir, well, they were clearly going to do something but we don’t know what.’

‘Yet,’ Vance said, ‘we don’t know what yet. Each of the illusions we’ve uncovered following Red’s journal have led to a different piece of the story. If we keep following them, we’ll likely get even more.’

‘Does it even matter though?’ Jhess complained. ‘It’s not like the map is leading us to uncovered troves of treasure. It’ mostly been minor skirmishes with annoying monsters.’

‘It’s not led to much treasure yet,’ Robin admitted, ‘but again, it’s yet.’ His mind worked furiously in the background. They needed—he needed—to follow this story through to the end. If Jhess got antsy it might endanger that goal. ‘Think about the swag Red had on him. He had to get some of that from here. It just fits too well with the place. And there is no way Nilsiir would let an invading army walk away with the treasury of the city. They had to have had a place to hide it. It’s the centre of a culture of illusionists! There’s almost certainly a well hidden vault somewhere with untold riches in it.’

It wasn’t even a lie. Robin firmly believed that. And it seemed he had allies in his goal, to boot.

‘I agree,’ Drev said quickly.

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‘Yes,’ Savra chimed in. ‘There is definitely great treasure held here to be found by those clever enough and daring enough. Though,’ she frowned, staring at the enchanted coin she had been flipping, ‘there is great danger as well.’

Shinies!? Rerebos spoke excitedly in Robin’s mind.

Yes, shinies. If we are clever and patient, Robin answered.

The familiar was not the only one so swayed by the idea. Jhess was always eager for more treasure, though Robin did not know the reason and he suspected there was something more to it than mere avariciousness.

‘What kind of treasure are we talking?’ the rogue looked to their diviner, clearly intrigued but not quite willing to cede the point just yet.

‘Well we can see that they’ve used gold in a lot of their decor,’ Robin pointed to the mosaic, ‘and clearly some of it has survived. I’ve also read that Tarin-Tiran was famed for its artists and artwork. There have to be a few examples that have survived.’

‘Adventurers often lack the eye to discern what is valuable due to its aesthetics, as opposed to simply because it is crafted of valuable metals or minerals,’ Vance agreed.

Another ally. Nice to have. Robin would take any support he could get.

‘And if we’re investigating artistic works, like the mosaics, it’s likely other works of art might turn up,’ Drev said thoughtfully, though it was clear the force mage was less keen than any of the rest of the party, as evidenced by his following words, ‘though I’m inclined to seek out more esoteric repositories of knowledge, myself.’

‘I suppose you can sell books for a decent enough price,’ Jhess grunted.

They were straying away from the point, which was persuading Jhess to support the continued investigation of the murals. Though Robin was certain the party was keen enough to continue based off a simple majority vote, it would be easier if Jhess was enthusiastic in participating.

‘Tarin-Tiran was also known for having a supply of metals and minerals for craftsmen to use in creating wonders both magical and mundane. Probably comes from digging your city down so far into the earth.’ Robin added. ‘There are probably some of those around.’

‘That’s all well and good,’ the rogue said, eyes sparkling with a mixture of greed and mischief, ‘but who’s to say what is left and what’s been carted off long ago?’

‘That I cannot see,’ Savra replied, flipping the coin a few more times. ‘Though I can say there is great treasure to be found if we continue along our current path of investigating these murals. Though the danger grows along with the potential reward.’

‘That’s true of any good dungeon crawl.’ Jhess shrugged. ‘All right. I suppose we keep doing what we’re doing.’

‘Don’t mention the dungeon,’ Drev shuddered melodramatically. ‘Ruprecht is all well and good, but the living dungeon here in the city is incredibly old and I don’t want to think how powerful and dangerous.’

‘But how rewarding might all that power and danger be?’ Robin tased. ‘If Ruprecht is anything to go on, the more risk, the more reward!’

‘Red certainly made investigating the murals work for him,’ Savra said, ‘though I do wish we knew more about where he got his information.’

‘Maybe he was a diviner as well? He did have that coin on him, after all,’ Robin pointed out.

‘Perhaps,’ Savra looked at the relic in her hand, ‘though I suspect we will never know.’

‘That’s a terrible attitude for a diviner to take on!’ Robin chided her.

‘I’m gong to search these shops before we leave,’ Jhess said. ‘There might be a safety box hidden away that was missed.’

‘I foresee no danger in staying to search,’ Savra said after consulting her coin.

‘I’ll trace the runes through the mosaic again, if we’re pausing for a bit,’ Drev said.

‘I’ll help Jhess search,’ Vance offered. ‘I’m a bit low on magical energies at the moment. I need time to replenish.’

Rerebos gave a little feline chirrup and flitted off to follow Jhess. Robin hid a smile. The rogue would be lucky if Rerebos didn’t try to swipe any and all shiny things she uncovered, worthwhile or no.

Robin stayed where he was, however. The mystery of the city was tugging at his mind and he wanted some time to think through what they had seen. What was happening? And who had changed the murals to record the invasion?

Was it even the truth they were seeing?

Maybe he should check his character sheet and see if there was anywhere he could apply some experience to help him—and thus the party—unravel this mystery a bit further. He should have enough experience to raise Insight and Arcane Lore, at least…maybe a few other skills…

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