The buildings have rounded corners, and are taller than human buildings, and their walls are set with many thin sheets of bluish crystalline material, giving them a colorful, crystalline appearance.
You approach the Vahnatai town, which is clearly still under construction. Piles of stone blocks and tools are everywhere, and the walkways connecting the buildings are still only half laid.
The smell of incense blasts you in the face when you step into this small, low room. To the north are two small fire pits, burning a mix of lichen and strange mosses. By the pits are three pools of colorful, placid liquid.
A narrow, rickety bridge leads to a small, peaceful island.
This building is someone's home, but much more. The long table surrounded by chairs by the west wall seems like some sort of meeting place - it's covered with papers and used mugs. This must be this town's crude city hall.
There are all sorts of building materials here - stone blocks, tools, green tiles, cement, barrels of tar, wood. It would appear the Vahnatai plan to rebuild this city in earnest.
This cave is the floor of a pit, extending up beyond the range of your lights. The floor is littered with slime and refuse thrown from above.
You enter this ancient chamber and look around. Fragments of old tools and bits of wood are scattered around, and in one corner you see the prow of a boat. This may have been a building in a long gone town, or a stop on a portage route. No way to tell.
Looking at the cavern ahead, it's clear you arrived at an eventful time. This hydra lair has been attacked by a whole bunch of those big, annoying bugs. The hydras fight desperately to protect their home.
This passage has a heavy, musky lizard smell. The deep claw marks in the floor make you think it's a heavy, musky, big lizard smell.
You try to enter the portal, but a strange force pushes you back.
The corridor suddenly becomes very hot.
You hear a loud clanking noise. A bridge crossing the chasm has risen to the south.
The passage ahead is blocked by a large pool of lava. However, strangely, the corridor is somewhat chilly.
You hear a distant clanking noise.
Somebody left a supply cache here a while ago. Then, someone tore it apart and ate most of the food. Then, the rest rotted. Mold grows on the shredded bags and packs. It's a mess. You can only hope a similar fate didn't meet the people who left the cache.
This box contains bits of blue material, empty containers, and bizarre tools, the uses of which you cannot imagine. Nothing valuable, though.
This room has a huge table, possibly for meetings or feasts. It is surrounded by the mouldering remains of Vahnatai chairs.
You are at the rear entrance to a raised room, looking out over the forest of crystals. Just inside this entryway, narrow stairways climb north and south.
A large section of ceiling here has collapsed, effectively barricading these two doors.
You see before you an enormous room, filled with row upon row of the blue, coffin-like things. Each contains several frozen bodies. From deep within the forest of crystals, you hear the rhythmic chittering of insect mandibles.
There are two things of note in this room. First, carved in the floor in the center of the chamber is a ring of carefully shaped glyphs. Second, you find many fragments of thick blue sheets of a material like crystal or glass, some as big as your hand.
This high-ceilinged chamber has four large cubicles in it, taking up most of the floor space. This chamber is very eerie - you keep thinking you hear whispering, but can't figure out where it's coming from.
You see a sight beautiful, amazing, and disturbing at the same time. There are several large, upright crystals, taller than you, each a rich, deep blue. Under the surface, you can dimly see humanoid figures. The shapes are lukewarm to the touch.
The cabinet only contains large piles of dust. Once, the flakes may have been ceremonial garments, but it's impossible to tell now.
You reach what must have once been the secret core of this villa - an small mage's laboratory with a carefully engraved pentagram. However, the pentagram is cracked and the walls are crumbling. This place is no longer safe for serious magic.
When you open the box, the powder inside flies out. You begin to gag.
The building is in ruins, but this garden looks carefully and skillfully maintained. Immaculate rows of cream colored mushrooms surround a small fountain and a statue of a Vahnatai.
Under the trash you find the body of a Vahnatai, who has been here for a least a few months. Your not-too-close investigation reveals no obvious cause of death.
You are at the entryway to what looks like a dining hall. This high-ceilinged chamber is dominated by a long, highly polished table surrounded by chairs. This is odd, because the dust and the worn walls indicate this building has been long abandoned.
Someone has recently made a small bonfire here. In the ashes, you find tiny, blackened bits of some sort of parchment. Whatever records or messages were here, they're gone now.
One of you notices a place where the rock seems unsteady. You make your way carefully by.
There is a narrow crack in the wall here, leading into a part of the fort thoroughly devastated by the passage of time. Narrow, hazardous passages wend their way among the ruins.
You accidentally trigger a rockfall.
Suddenly, the corridor just to the west caves in. You manage to get away before the rockfall crushes you.
You open the door, and see a small group of Vahnatai clustered around the wreckage of a small table. You start to greet them, but they immediately reach for weapons. For some reason, this bunch wants to kill you.
The bars of this portcullis have fallen loose, enabling you to work your way in. Odd. The footprints in the mold on the floor are fresh.
Inside the box is a paper package, carefully wrapped. You have just enough time to realize that a paper package shouldn't be in these ancient ruins, before it explodes.
You reach for one of the books, but sparks start to dance around them as your hand gets close. One of them leaps off and severely burns your finger. You back off before you get killed.
You flip through the tome. It is clearly on demonology and other grim topics. It's hard to make things out, however, because the book has become defaced. The pages are covered (and smeared) with all manner of deranged ravings.
The Vahnatai apparently use lovely boxes made of quartz crystal for storage. The boxes here are filled with food - dried mushrooms, treated lizard meat, and a wide variety of powders, lichen, and unidentifiable plant bits.
In this cabinet you find Vahnatai clothing. The gossamer thin, faintly luminescent cloaks are neatly folded on the shelves.
There is a small crystal box by the bed. It contains thin sheets of mica covered with intricate carvings, bits of dried mushroom, and incense. You show respect and leave the stuff alone.
This must be the Vahnatai's bed, although to you it looks more like a cot, and a flimsy one at that. It's a thin sheet of silk-like material, stretched over a delicate cavewood frame. Definitely the bed of a very light being.
A section of the ancient wall falls on you.
This is another small ruined building, with more of the strange tiled floor. On one section of it is a gold rune, glowing very, very gently. You've seen runes many times before, but the design of this one is totally alien to you.
You emerge from the long tunnel into the ruins of a small town. Strange ... the construction of the walls is very unusual, very tall and delicate. What's more, there is a remnant of floor tile to the east, in a design you've never seen before.
The books describe all manner of bizarre rituals, all involving the creation, maintenance and use of undead. Very cheery. One book catches your eye - it's filled with nothing but drawings of a large black altar, and people putting bodies on it.
You find a pot filled with bubbling gray stew. You help yourselves. It some of the blandest, most unappealing stuff you've ever tasted. You notice the pot refills itself after you eat.
This bookshelf is filled with works of fiction, all of them clearly read and reread. This tower must be a very dull place to live.
The bookshelf is crammed with magical treatises, most of them written by Solberg. The bulk of them are beyond you, but one of them is very useful indeed. You now know the spell Major Blessing.
You circle around the base of the tower, sticking to the narrow ledge. The tower is made of black, perfectly smooth basalt, topped with a featureless dome. You see no entrances or exits.
The air is somewhat fresher in the passage to the north. There is non-stagnant, somewhat moist air coming from there.
You stand at the crevice, peering into the dim passages beyond. There's just enough glowing fungus to see that the passage turns sharply to the north. There is a strong, mildewy smell.
The time you spend is not wasted. In one of the older tomes, you find a long, draining ritual for blessing an area, purging it of evil spirits and foul magics. You now know the Ritual of Sanctification.
These are the mayor's living quarters. By Exile standards, they're quite luxurious.
This temple is the pride of Formello. The polished stone of the walls, floor and altar reflects the dim light, making the chamber almost bright. A large gold ankh gleams at you from the distance, inviting you in for a few moments of rest and peace.
This room is noticeably chilly and grim. It is unkempt and dusty, and there are stains in the southeast corner that could only be dried blood.
When you open the door, a cloud of flakes from decaying lichen-paper flies out. The fragments sting your eyes and coat the inside of your nose. You have found the library's auxilliary book storage.
This bookshelf contains a collection of religious tomes. They span many faiths, from mundane to bizarre, active to ancient. Intrigued, you read for a while.
The desks contains papers scribbled with wild, apocalyptic ravings. It's hard to tell, but the writer apparently believed in: "Undead Paradise, With the Great Altar As The GATE!" There are also rosters of undead beings. They've made quite a lot of them.
There was once a stairway down here. It is plugged with rubble now. You can only go down a few steps.
This is a very grisly sight. Rows of bodies, human, Nephilim, and slith, carefully arranged, waiting who knows what. They've been sprinkled with quicklime, so at least the smell isn't unbearable. You still want to leave.
This is a cloakroom. There are all sorts of red robes, skulls, blocks of incense, and other religious paraphernalia. Nothing valuable, though.
There are several statues of humanoids in this area. Interesting. They're all of travellers or adventurers, in very surprised poses.
Someone has stored a cache of iron rations and valuables here. They're covered in webs - they must have been here a while.
