Grenville_Body_02_01 | Maddie's council proved true, even if she is no longer with us. We came to the Temple Ruins late in the day, although Rolfe was silent for the journey. I have left him to his thoughts, and left the attack at the Dig Site behind us as best I can. There are an unusual number of the dead surrounding the ruins here – some lie on the ground, as if they collapsed where they stood, some still remain standing, blades in hand, as if they were slain in a single, frozen moment. The armor and weapons have markings like that on the Ancient structures on the isle. Are these the ancient colonists - or merely their servants – or soldiers? Every skeleton is intact – no sign of broken bones, merely the flesh eaten down to the white… no insects, no spiders, nothing crawls upon them, and what caused them to remain standing, I do not know. Perhaps it was part of the power that keeps some of us deathless upon the isle? -Grenville |
Grenville_Body_02_02 | Maddie's words again proved true – the skeletons on the outskirts of the structure have small spheres, with markings much like the Great Spheres, embedded in their chests. They were not posed as warnings – they seemed to have lived once, and I could see the trails they had worn in the stone and the temple perimeter, as if they had walked a circle about it countless times… yet simply one day, stopped. I took one of the spheres for study. Tomorrow, Rolfe – if he will come, fear is continually evident on his face – and I will press on into the temple proper. -Grenville |
Grenville_Body_02_03 | The statues within the temple were strange, indeed, yet were clearly of the culture that came before… yet the likeness was peculiar, each statue bearing a twin pair of arms, and cleft down the middle much like the spheres great and small. A division of the self, a representation of duality, perhaps? In one of the statue's hands was a weapon, the other a familiar orb, outstretched – perhaps it was a religious symbol. Or something to channel other forces perhaps? I found another skeleton, intact, but with a spear and armor, unlike the ones on the perimeter outside. A leader or ruler, perhaps? It had not been buried, it seemed more a guard of the stone coffer within the temple. -G |
Grenville_Body_02_04 | We could not move the great stone from the coffer, so I continued my examination of the statues. Rolfe urged me to make haste, but night came swiftly upon us… as we sought to leave, we saw shapes in the darkness, white light among the trees, humans but drifting across the ground. Rolfe said we must not leave… the temple might be dangerous, but what wandered in the dark outside was far more dangerous. And so we waited the night, neither of us sleeping – just when we thought the night had become safe and still, another ghostlit figure would float from beyond the trees, as if reminding us they were never far and they would never leave as long as night was upon the temple. May we make it through the night, we will leave this place, head to the great obelisks to the West, perhaps. The skeletons around the perimeter and inside the temple – I should have heeded the warning. At least they have not arisen as the wraiths have, they remain still at their posts, else these would be my last words. -G |