The light beam from the staff pools on the pew seat in front of you. It pulses as you speak, but does not reply.

Malak watches as Emral sits down on the pew. Instantaneously the light extinguishes and the staff disappears.

achiriaco wrote:

What the heck is going on?

Emral's face is illuminated in the light from the lantern, as he turns back to Malak.  He looks haunted, spaced out or not himself, his eyes seeming to have seen ghosts.

"The fire!  Malak!  I was there!  It was... the moment the boards covered the doorway. The building was being lynched by villagers, covered in plague boils. They wanted their children from the priestess, but she was defending them. The children were afraid, Malak, sheer terror. But not from the priestess, but from their plague-covered parents!  They boarded their own children inside here, burned the building with their children inside. The priestess came up from the pool, then turned into light and then... then the flames had engulfed the building. But..."
He is deep in thought, getting up and pacing around the room.
"Four of them where I was sitting. We fought four skeletons in here, but they had knives. Why did they have knives? Some hid behind the harp, some fled into the room with the fireplace. But we've searched this area. Did she teleport them away? Then whose skeletons did we fight? And where did the villagers go? This..."
He looks up into Malak's eyes, his haunted madness now including his normal crazed momentum - the fire of the mind stoked again.
"This is a mystery that has more questions than answers!  But we can use these pews for firewood tonight! Come, we'll need to get a fire burning for what I'm about to do. Tell me about those voices, and what you saw in the light from that haunted star, while we break up this pew and keep ourselves from dying of the cold of this dark winter!"

Emral tries to see if he can pull the pew nearest the doorway of the fireplace, to the fireplace.  If not, he kicks it apart to get pieces of wood and bring them over.

Emral sets up a pile of the wood AND prepares a fire in the fireplace.  He also goes around and collects the daggers from the skeletons they'd fought.  (curious to see where kids got them from)

"Malak, here's my plan. The woman in my vision came up from that pool. Maybe after my vision I'll be able to enter that pool, and reach whatever safe hold she and the other children reached during the fire. Or maybe I'll just be wet and cold. In that case, we have a roaring fire to warm us - or just me - up. Maybe we should rest up first, recover our strength before I go in.  However, maybe we need to strike while the iron is hot."

Just to be clear, Emral gets in and then talks with Malak  or Emral talks with Malak then gets in the pool?

Gotcha, let's see what the low down cutpurse has to say...

"Then that's it for now. I'm going to go in. If there's a teleportation, come after me. If it's a staircase... we'll have a new place to explore. Maybe a tunnel or something to another area? And if not, well, let's heat up my feet with a nice warm fire." 

He walks to the edge of the pool.

"Whoever sent me the vision, I'm going to try to go to the place where that woman came up from, as I believe that's what you're trying to show us. Please let us through? Help us get what we need, learn what we need to know and whatever tools you can pass on to us, so we can end this curse."

And with that he steps down into the pool, one foot and then another.

achiriaco wrote:

I hold his shoulder to react fast if needed.

Even if it’s not needed, Emral appreciates the morale support.

"Hoooooooo! Wait, why does it feel oily? I tried lighting it on fire, but that didn't ignite the oil? Uggggghhhh.  Okay, visions, work with me here. I need... hoooooo that's cold!"

Emral stands there and frowns.  "I really. Really hope this works."

Walks to where the woman was coming out of the pool.

Moving forward and hopefully it does something.