Log: The Mired King
Tue Jul 21 18:15:30 2009
Setting by Beatrice at Tue Jul 21 08:35:27 2009: The heroes are at the Tomb of Finndo, a three-tier step pyramid with a set of steps up on the east side. There are relief carvings on it, in zig-zag patterns, with tiny figures labouring among the angles. A doorway leads into the body of the pyramid, accessible from the steps.
People should feel free to run their own stretch of tomb-raiding, probably set in a corridor, but possibly in a room with carvings and/or puzzles. Bear in mind that this pyramid is not a nice place, and may or may not be toying with us by letting us in. Failures should lead to serious consequences, so bear that in mind if taking part.
If you pause at a room, it may be blank-walled or it may have carvings and one or more doors.
NB: Benedict has left Beatrice in charge and vanished suddenly, leaving instructions that the tomb-raiding should continue. If you would know why ICly, you'll have been informed.
Currently (7/21) we are likely to run a scene this afternoon and another this evening. Taleyn and Beatrice have volunteered to do this, but anyone may run their own scene. Guidelines for how the temple behaves can be found in +token B8J.
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It is Later. There are a group of people ready to assay the temple one more time in an attempt to check more of the 'next rooms' found in the last pictogram mural. The group again reaches the room which now has three doors. The one with the tree has been tested -- which leaves the choice between the one with the birds, or the crowned man wading through a swamp.
Beatrice is in Charge, but seems to feel this means the decision of which door to try is a matter for general discussion. "Thoughts?" She wonders of the group.
Celeste eyes each of them, "Niether looks good." She hrrms, "Maybe the swamp and we pause while I shift just...incase?"
Beatrice says, "I am certain that does represent him... being stuck in the mire, as the tale told. This," she nods at the birds, "Seems to be a reference to the severed souls."
Krieger's massive shoulders shrug once in carelessness, "This is Cibola." which is his way of saying no matter how they go, or what they do, it won't be safe or happy. This of course makes the big man grin.
Liam starts to decide on a door by doing Eenie Meanie Miney Moe. His finger goes back and forth from birds to swamp and birds to swamp and birds to swamp and ends on swamp. He shrugs. "You take your omens where you get them."
Beatrice studies the door dodgily. "Well, we are just guessing, might as well."
Celeste looks at Krieger, "There's something seriously wrong with you, Big guy." She looks to Beatrice, "Biped or dragon?"
Beatrice points out with good humor to Celeste, "It is your hide and your choice-- but I suspect if you can fit through as the dragon that may be the most versatile option."
Liam takes a closer look at the door to see if he can get any hints from the front of the door itself.
Beatrice nods to the one with the man stuck in the mire.
There's the snapping and cracking of bow and sinew and a sudden blast of furnace like heat. Celeste's body grows larger and muge longer and within a short time, she's dressed only in scales and ready to proceed.
Krieger just grins at Celeste even more. This is, very honestly, the definition of fun for him. Now, if only it was about 70 degrees cooler it's be PERFECT.
Aryn does not so much hang back as keep her options open.
Liam was going to open the door but he spends his time watching Celeste transform, instead. Without much to say, other than: ".... HEY. You licked Lysias!"
The door opens with surprising ease, leading them into a corridor...
This corridor is long and... long. It's also reasonably wide. There is nothing remotely wrong with it. No magic. No dead things. No odd smells. The walls are no more alive than the rest of the tomb's walls and neither vibrate nor drip fungus. It is quiet. It lovely! At the end, there is a door, and it isn't even locked!
Celeste settles on her haunches. Not going through first. Nope. Her dragon eyes turn to Krieger expectantly.
Liam lifts his eyebrows in a Very Suspicious Manner. He has a bad feeling about this.
Beatrice walks, alertly, next after Krieger, possibly abreast with Celeste, which the corridor is just big enough for.
Krieger eyes the dragon and sighs, "Lizard." he says to her as he heads for the doorway boldly. Perhaps not smart, but brave. He stalks through watching only where he places his feet. He's been in Cibola for awhile now, he's used to the traps and poisons and mirade other ways to die here.
They head down the corridor.
Celeste pads along, trying not to let her talons click, "You do not want to be baiting me in the mood I'm in, trust me. We'll settle that comment later." she rumbles to Krieger.
Beatrice murmurs, about halfway down, "This feels very off."
It is then that they reach the end of the hallway. And the door at the far end.
Beatrice gazes at the door with misgivings.
Aryn slinks along at the tail end of the group. Her teeth are bared, but her tail is tucked.
Krieger just grins again. Cel's well aware he's itching for a fight, it's just his nature after all. He eyes the door, "Okay, so... thoughts?" he asks. He shakes his arm's loose, "I can open it if you like." also known as he can try to rip it from it's brackets cause that's how he opens a door.
Beatrice suggests, "It has to be trapped. I cannot imagine why else this would have been so easy."
Liam trails along behind and quietly, for no good reason at all, recites some odd poems under his breath by a distant Shadow artist he particularly likes. Then when everyone else stops, he stops, too. He pulls a tarot deck out of his jacket pocket and starts a one-handed shuffle.
Beatrice glances back the way they came. There's a Weir with her teeth bared, but no walls caving in.
Celeste says, "Where is that damned karm when we need him?" She eyes the door, "Figure we send the Kitezh through first and whatever springs, springs? We can lash him to my back after he's triggered all the booby traps."
Aryn rumbles, "Would it help at all for me to sniff around the crack of the door?"
Beatrice suggests, "It can't hurt. But I see little way of doing this without opening the door. It is that or turn back."
Beatrice readies her arrow.
Liam stops shuffling his tarot deck and pulls the top card. The Hanged Man. He shuffles again and pulls the top card. The Hanged Man. He shuffles again and pulls the top card. The Tower. He says, "That's not good."
Aryn rumbles, "I can sense magic. I can smell silver. I have one of the keenest noses in Weirmonken. At least....let me give a sniff. Then we will open the door."
Celeste's tail lashes and she turns her head to look at Liam as if tempted to take one of his hands for a little mid adventure snack.
Liam holds up the Tower for Celeste's inspection and says, "Doom."
Krieger steps aside to let Aryn sniff, meanwhile he cracks his knuckles and eyes the door like a man who's getting used to knocking down temple walls, holding apart crushing walls, and lifting massive stones so they don't squish anyone. Idly he wonders if he'd be any good at /building/ something when this is done. "Doom. Excellent. The gods smile on us." suicidal freak.
Celeste 's tail lashes and knocks the card from Liam's hand with an irritated growl, "I'm going to chew on your spleen when we get out of here, Kitezh."
Aryn creeps between the others, right to the door. She sniffs slowly and deliberately at the crack at the bottom of the door, and then up along the side. Her ears swivel like semaphores, but do not indicate anything at all. Finally, she steps back, rumbling, "It will probably turn us into pulp. Krieger, your turn."
Beatrice keeps her bow ready. But she nods for Krieger to go ahead and open the door.
Liam would pick up the card except it seems his entire deck has turned into the Tower.
Krieger steps up to the door and rolls his neck, his bones making that odd unbone like grinding noise they seem so fond of before he reaches out. He doesn't go to open the door fully. He stops when it's only cracked and then grips it at the edge. The muscles of his back twist and knot like serpents writhing beneath his skin and then a stone CRACK can be heard as he literally pulls the stone door from it's place. Holds it there for a moment, braced, expecting some soft of trap to fire away or be set off, this way, the door protects them (hopefully) from what awaits them on the other side. He grunts. Not exactly a /light/ door though...
Beatrice inhales through her teeth, then nods slowly, once.
...Nothing happens. There is a room beyond the doorway.
Liam steps through after Krieger and looks at his deck of cards like they've let him down. They are back to being normal tarot cards again.
"Well," Beatrice remarks in an undertone, "Whatever is ahead, it knows we are coming. Krieger, if you'd do the honors....?" She nods towards the room.
Celeste moves to follow, crest coming up and forked tongue sampling the air tenetively.
Beyond the door is a room with very slimy, almost phosphorescent walls. It is circular and very, very tall, with strange shadows higher up. It is impossible to quite see the ceiling, at least from the doorway.
Krieger sighs and sets the door aside, "Pity. That would have been mythic." he grins as he rolls his shoulders, letting the door rest against the wall on the inside of the temple. He eyes Celeste, "Do me the favor of hiring a bard to sing of this at the mead hall upon our return. There is Glory in such work." That's right, capital G.
Liam's eyes go up and up and up and up into the haze. There is no ceiling above. Only floor below. "I like the thought of stomach."
* Heightened Senses: There is SOMETHING about the walls high up. HIGH up. something glittering, maybe, and casting those strange shadows.
Liam comes all the way into the room, now. He peers up at the missing ceiling and then reaches out to touch the phosphorescent goo on the walls with two outstretched fingers.
Aryn rears up on her hind legs, questing high with her nose. She rumbles, "Something...odd. Does anyone have light? A torch? I cannot see what I see up there." Which doesn't make sense, but little about this place *does*.
As they all clear the door, the floor begins to crack. This begins as a single fissure, then becomes two, and in an eyeblink, becomes a dozen and the several dozen. There is not so much a rumbling as a flaking away as the stones that made up the floor become powdery and fall... fall into nothing. It begins around the walls and works its way inwards.
Aryn rumbles, "Up high. High. Glittering. The...shadows." She drops down to all fours just as the floor begins to disintegrate underfoot.
Liam skips as fast as he can, light on his feet, away from the falling stones and he is herded, appropriately, toward the center of the room.
Beatrice followed Krieger well into the room and is too far to leap for the still-open doorway -- which seems to be rapidly sealing itself up.
Beatrice cheeks the doorway -- but there's no safe purchase to jump back to, at least not that she can make.
Beneath the former floor there is a vast, dark emptiness. Fortunately, after the initial flaking-away a portion of the room remains in the center, flaking away a bit more gradually than the rest.
Celeste 's feet widen and brace, "OF course I would fall where it's too narrow to fly." She notes as she begins to run along, "Move it or loose it!" Anyone slower than her threatens to be scooped up or trampled as she makes to that door, "Oooh, damn this fat arse." she growls.
Aryn skitters to the center of the room, heading for 'high ground' or what passes for it here. She howls, then, a note of sudden despair!
Liam is skipping across stones at a fast rate. He moves like he is, well, powered by the Blood of Oberon, and makes for the door on the other side of the room.
And if all this were not bad enough, there are minute holes opening at around this level in the slimy stone wall, and a greenish gas is pouring in...
Celeste's wings begin to beat and there's the sound of wingtips brushing the walls but she continues to flap mightily as she runs for the center of the room with the others.
Beatrice says in an undertone, calculating rapidly, "SOMEthing is holding this floor up... And there's something beyond these walls..." though that is a lot of darkness down there. She's fingering the rope at her belt.
Liam is running as fast as he can, with the occasional required leap and jump and spin, to get to the door on the other side of the room and to get out of here before he dies from whatever that green smoke is.
The gas is rapidly filling the chamber, but it will still be a few minutes -- maybe as much as five! -- before it saturates this area.
And there's a dragon, hovering!
* Heightened Senses: Something is moving Up There
Aryn barks out, "There is something...moving up there! Above the dragon! Maybe we should....Beatrice, can we slide down the rope, or does this foul green air sink?"
Celeste says, "Hurry, this won't hurt me any..." she catches it in her talons, "Up or out, we're not staying with this gas, Y'all won't tolerate it, I fear."
The dragon has now caught a rope in her talons!
Beatrice says, "I believe that gas usually rises...." in answer to someone's question.
Krieger stands at the very center of the room and frowns, "Poisons are cowards weapons." he says as if it were the millionth time. "Rises.... so then down it is?" he asks, looking at the great black abyss. He then eyes Celeste, "Good luck." he offers with a grin.
Beatrice notes, "Celeste wont fit. Take some rope!" this seems to be generally directed at the rest of them.
Aryn shimmers and shifts, then. It takes a moment, and she doesn't try to do anything else in that moment. Then she husks, "Hands are better for climbing down ropes. Shall I go first? If I die, well, I'll be back in a day or two."
The floor continues to crumble, albeit more slowly.
Celeste mutters between her teeth, "Depends." she maintains where she is, this hovering looking like it Isn't Easy, "I'll hold the robe, go down, Kri-you go first or last, I can't stay aloft with ALL of you on that rope, especially not with hardly any room."
Liam takes the rope and uses the rope to go the direction of the rest of the group.
It is starting to become visible to the naked eye; there is SOMETHING up there in the shadows, moving around with increasing activity.
Krieger nods to Cel and moves quickly to the edge of the abyss, rope in hand, "Brace yourself!" he calls up to her before swinging out into mid air in that manner that only sailors and madmen dare to use. Kri captains a ship (currently) and has been sailing for a great long while. Ropes are not new to him. He's skimming down it in record time, trying to keep as much of his weight from Cel's poor wings as possible. The man weighs over four hundred pounds after all.
Beatrice quickly lets go of the rope as Krieger decides to grab it; after all, Celeste can hardly be expected to drag them all at once.
Krieger has disconnected.
Celeste braces, her frame jerking a little when Kri's weight is added to the line, wings flapping doubletime.
Up, up, up, the stoens become more jagged. "Anchor yourself," Beatrice shouts up, and Krieger does that, letting go of Celeste and holding one end of the rope. This way Celeste retains the middle and the rest can dangle from the other end.
Celeste mutters through clenched teeth, "Don't mean to alarm anyone but somethings alive up here. Winged things. Hurry up. If I fall, I fall, just hope I don't fall on you but y'all got to get a move on."
Liam clings to the rope -- he's been clinging for a while -- and hopes to be airlifted out of here.
Beatrice asks, "Can ARyn get on your back? I doubt she can hold the rope."
Celeste says, "Yes, Aryn if you can jump-mind the wings, and the sharp tail."
Beatrice helps Aryn up onto Celeste's back. She and Liam hold the rope -- it is a strain, but up they go!
Celeste grunts and whimpers and strains, her wings hitting the walls causing her to wobble but with effort she manages to air lift the others where ever Beatrice directs her, keeping an eye on those winged critters.
The golden things flying in the shadows start to dive as the heroes escape the area rapidly filling with green gas -- no going back down that way any time soon, at least not safely. These are vicious, clawed, heavily stylized animated monkey statues. Unlike the shambling statues of a different corridor, these are disturbingly agile, aggressive and vicious. They swoop down to meet the group as they rise. It seems there will be a fight in mid-air!
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 9, using his Grace plus STY-SW. Liam succeeds.
RPG: Celeste challenges a difficulty of 12, using her Wits plus DRG-BS SKL-TD. Celeste succeeds.
RPG: Beatrice challenges a difficulty of 10, using her Wits plus SKL-AR. Beatrice succeeds.
Aryn just clings to Celeste for dear life!
Liam pulls out his rapier. He manages to get his legs and one arm wrapped in the rope enough so that he's stable and the best he can do is some judicious poking at the winged things as they buzz him and make himself into a nuisance. But he does not fall off the rope and he does score the occasional, useful, and somewhat impressive hit.
Celeste's maw snaps and and her tail makes a sharp whizzing-wistling sound as it whips through the air, able to hit foes high, low, and keep her back clear of the pesky beasts though she's limited by how much she can help those dangling from her back though she takes out a goodly number of them as they try to make it past her. She slowly continues to climb upwards, moving a little faster as if fearful she's running out of steam.
Beatrice, like Liam, tries to make sure one arm and one leg are wrapped up firmly in the rope. Her sword arm has room to swing free, slicing at flying gold monkeys as they swoop in and try to claw and catch at them. A judicious cut at the wings and she sends one going down down down.... *thud* it hits the 'island'. The next goes whistling past the 'island' and no *thud* is heard for some time.
Meanwhile, the little alcoves from which the monkeys sprang start to becoming clearer as vision adjusts to the phosphoresence. A few of them seem deeper than others.
Liam clings like a monkey himself to the rope in a less than heroic fashion and goes poke poke poke poke poke poke poke at the flying golden things with great abandon.
Celeste continues up-no stops on this pit stop. She clutches at one of the deeper alcoves, sticking her long neck down one of the deeper ones to examine it.
Up, up. The flying monkeys are not beaten so much as beaten off, and may be an issue on the way up. Finally they find an alcove large and deep enough that Aryn can crawl off Celeste's back and onto it, and find that it is a tunnel! They manage to anchor the dangling end of the rope there, and Liam and then Beatrice can crawl into the tunnel. There's no room for a dragon, though; Celeste will have to find a way to become human while holding the rope, perhaps.
Celeste just holds onto the ledge and there's much crunching of bone and popping of sinew before a soft grunt as a human Celeste pulls herself up into the tunnel, "Oi. Y'all need to go on a diet. Please tell me this doesn't dead end."
Beatrice checks. "I don't think there's any way we're getting Krieger up here, but he seems secure enough where he is for now..." They crawl inwards and onwards. The tunnel does not dead-end! At least not for five whole minutes. It is, however, growing progressively darker. Beatrice lights a lamp, but it is still hard to see, and the occasional flying gold monkey tries to fly in at their rear and has to be beaten off.
Celeste kicks and growls, "Wish I could have at least kept the tail." She complains as she follows along, bringing up the rear and letting a cruel and swift bootheel meet the golden monkeys that trouble them from behind. Her pantleg is torn by the end but she doesn't seem to be bleeding.
The tunnel ends in a door as tall as the tunnel, which is to say, not tall at all. The door itself is hard to figure out -- there is no obvious handle. But in front of it rests a heavily stylized, Cibolan-style statue of what might be a crowned king.
Celeste examines the statue and looks to Aryn, "Weir? You smelling any magic now?"
The statue is golden! And jewel-crusted! It *must* be valubable.
Beatrice ventures from the rear, trying to get the light to where it is doing some good, "What's that platform it's sitting on?"
Aryn sniffs thoroughly - yes, even though she is human now - but just shakes her head. "Nothing beyond what I have smelled all along."
Celeste looks at Beatrice then down at the platform. Tenetively, she tries to move the statue to see if it can be removed from the platform.
As Celeste starts to move the statue, all sorts of grating noises start to all sides of them, wedged in the tunnel.
Aryn rumbles, "Those monkies we were fighting. Are they....heavy?"
Liam is sort of following along. He has been uncommonly quiet.
Celeste shakes her head, "Not very heavy..." She looks around and mutters, "Somethings moving but I can't tell what. Anyone see an exit, lever, object...?" she looks around hastily for any booby trap triggered or any entrance or exit revealed, she puts the statue back on the platform cautiously meanwhile.
Liam begins patting around frantically for levers, objects, or anything to push or pull.
Aryn rumbles, "Because I think that statue is a trigger. We might take it if we wish, but we would have to replace it with something just as heavy, and quickly."
Beatrice is in the rear, and is still being harried by monkeys. So the next one harrying her gets captured, sliced, and passed forward.
A moment or two after the statue is allowed to sit still again, the grinding stops. No visible levers.
Aryn husks, "Hand me that? I can smell it coming forward, hand it to me. Let me creep in close. I can swap the two."
Celeste steps off the platform and lets Aryn have at it.
Aryn lugs the dead monkey up to the platform. She shows her teeth at the dragon in the dimness, but it's a grimace of nerves, obvious to anybody with ehough light to see. She says, "The trick..." and she pushes the monkey's dead butt up next to the statue's base, "...is to do it so quickly....that nobody notices you've dipped their pockets." And there is a swap made, with a great grunt of effort, because frankly the monkey is heavy and the statue is heavy.
Celeste stands by tensely, ready to bolt, scramble or climb depending on how all this goes.
RPG: Aryn challenges a difficulty of 9, using her Grace plus STY-QE. Aryn succeeds.
The dead-formerly-inanimate gold monkey statue seems to be a fine substitute for the small king statuette. This is great, if what they wanted was to be holding a small king statuette. On the other hand, it would have been impossible to climb over withotu toppling, whereas the dead-formerly-statue-flying-monkey is collapsed and easy to get over to the door.
Aryn tucks the statue against her body and says, "So now...through the door, I guess? There isn't any going back, after all."
Celeste ahhs and scrambles over towards the door, "Brilliant thinking, Aryn."
Beatrice nods her head, "Yes, let's see if it'll open. Please." The tunnel is cramped. And though they are decreasing in frequency, the flying monkeys are more than a little annoying.
Celeste tries the door.
Aryn mutters, "If that fails, let's give it a whack with the statue."
The door opens! It just needs a hard push. THey can all scramble into the room....
Celeste laughs at Aryn's lockpick style and steps in so the others can follow.
The room is much like that first room that had carvings in it, or the second. This one is covered in pictograms. A second lantern is lit.
Celeste groans, "Lady Beatrice, I hope you brought your notebook..."
Beatrice exhales. "Ah, yes.... and I am sure Liam has his, as well." She pulls hers out. "These are getting easier to read each time."
Beatrice starts to show the others the cartouches and repeating patterns that represent certain sounds and word-patterns. "It seems this is about the stars..."
Beatrice hmms, "And over her, the word god, and here again. And here sky. And here god..."
Celeste keeps a lookout and shifts weight restlessly.
Liam has been quietly following along despite traps and monkeys and statues. Apparently he can be quiet and out of the way when he tries. He says, "I do have my drawing pad."
Somewhere to the rear, Krieger is being relieved by Raphaela, with a rope ladder; there are a few squelched flying monkeys.
Beatrice starts to read, "The constellations that can be seen in Cibola are known by many names in many places, differing by language and tribe and cult. They also have what are known by some scholars as their true names, the names written on the walls inside the capitol where the star charts read by the astrologists of the rulers are painted. There is a story that says...."
Liam walks over to the walls and runs his fingers over carvings that indicate constellations and the heavens and the sky. He is completely entranced.
Beatrice goes on, to the next wall, pointing, "Once Cibola had very few gods, big or powerful gods, and the Sky was one of them. Hm. But a disaster... cataclysm... passed upon other worlds, -- oh, that is interesting -- and the small gods, weak gods, came running to Cibola demanding to be saved. Or perhaps 'begging' to be saved."
Raphaela has disconnected.
Celeste looks out of her eyement and winces as she notices her backs a little tattered and bleeding sluggishly, "More priests and cults?"
Liam says quietly, under his breath, "... the Sky..."
Beatrice points, "The Sky was merciful, because all things belonged beneath it. And so said that they might enter -- enter Cibola, I think, not the Sky. But the Sky was also just, and said that none of them coudl stay for longer than from one rainy season to the next, unless they sacrificed something of themselves. This is a typical theme for Cibola, and a lesson to be learned there."
Celeste nods and listens.
Beatrice considers the next bit, then goes on, "So each god that came to stay gave a portion of itself to the Sky, and having run for so long in such terror, they gave up the things that made them weak and defenseless and easily deceived. These things were embraced in the Sky as stars, and this is where the constellations like the Faithful Child, the Good Mother, the Forgiveness of Debts, the Trust of Friends, the Gentle Sleep, all come from." A pause, "How extraordinary. I must learn more about Cibolan astronomy."
Beatrice gets to the end and the conclusion, "Some say that it was by taking into itself all these weaknesses that the Sky came to be defeated -- by Oberon, I assume? -- but that is a different story entirely, and believed only by.... I think this comes out best as 'heretics'. That is always a tricky word in any language as it embodies so much of the local idea of virtue, and its opposite."
Celeste says, "So someone can parse this into something...er...helpful?"
Liam says distractedly, "And they were pushed to be forced to serve as the echoes of future past for all time..."
Beatrice asks Liam, "What's that?"
Liam turns with a start out of his fugue. "Aunt Beatrice! Uh... you know... it's... the Sky! It's very important. For. Holding up stars."
Celeste looks between the two, quizzical.
Beatrice considers that heavily. "Ah."
Liam looks like he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. But his eyes keep - going - back - to - the - Sky. Eventually he gives up and goes back to running his fingers over the carvings of the Sky.
Celeste looks to Beatrice, "Get what you needed?"
Beatrice nods to Celeste, focused and grave. "I shall be a while copying it all directly, but... yes. Yes. This is very important."
Celeste nods and takes guard incase there are more damned dirty apes.
Liam is literally fondling the carvings of the constellations going up to the Sky.
Beatrice is starting to transcribe. "I think, Celeste, and Aryn, we would not have made it here this far without either of you, today, and I thank you." She says, 'I' but may be thanking on behalf of herself and Liam.
Celeste mutters, "Hold onto that thought once we're done here." in less than her usual generosity as she takes post.
Beatrice assures, "I shall." A pause, "And I have not forgotten."
Privately, to Celeste, Beatrice clearly means that you want to speak about Something.
Celeste nods once to Beatrice over her shoulder, gazing into the dark tunnel.
Liam is pressing his cheek to the carvings of the Sky. But he opens his eyes when he realizes people are /leaving/. And maybe he should go to. But not until one last fond pat.
Beatrice is eyeballing Liam.
Liam is being eyeballed by Aunt Beatrice, to whom he gives a guilty look.
Beatrice says, "Liam... did you want to *draw* the pictures, perhaps?"
Liam says, "OH!" He looks more embarrassed. "Yes. Of course." He pulls out a pad of paper and chalk and gets to the business of drawing the carvings instead of fondling them.
"Mm-hmm," Beatrice sounds, deep in her throat.
Liam makes copies of the carvings in chalk and paper. He does! Although maybe the Sky bits get a slower, more loving treatment...