"There are symbols being repeated at intervals here, but they don't seem to reflect phoenetic or grammatic intent. They're not even punctuation, as near as I can tell." he slid a dead wayward arachnid leg aside as if it were a commonplace article and murmured a repetition of the four-word translation he'd been so certain of. "Detect, Select, Perfect Effect...Detect, Select, Perfect Effect...Something is missing..."
He motioned Oberan and the Soldiers over, "Give me your thoughts...Any new perspective, however uneducated, may help." he received some not-entirely-grateful looks from the less-educated men he'd mentioned, but they shrugged and accommodated him, figuring him to be excused by reason of his lack of social graces, something shared, in their experience, by most bookworms.
As they went over the currently noted observations, one of the soldiers commented that it did not make sense for the same symbol to be placed between the third and fourth...."word". He himself even hesitated use that description. Joderall rolled his wrists to encourage him to elaborate.
"Well if the first two are to be taken individually, but the last two are combined, then there should not be this symbol here, between the third and fourth one, the symbol you are saying separates them into individual clauses."
The Linguist/historian beamed, "Precisely! But I can't be certain because the lead symbol on the final glyph is the one most damaged by the burn out of the thing. I need to get this back to my library. I have volumes of theories on the origins of several languages. And I'm sure I can solve this. But I don't know if I need this entire base unit too. It is way too large to bring back."
Discussion ensued, with the only real agreement being that Joderall had been completely correct in his assessment that the base unit was not going anywhere. All differences were set aside immediately as the floor began to shake, with the sudden sound of stone cracking and gravel clattering to the floor around them. Joderall swore with an intensity that even made the soldiers blush.
Looking back down the tunnel that had formed when Oberan's orb had surged into the chamber revealed a steady fall of ruined stonework, crushed shelving and rising gases. The other soldier's response challenged the historian's colorful language, citing that they could not go back "that way in" now. Joderall got a strangely inspired look on his face and scrutinized the rune cube anew.
The first soldier suddenly expressed curiosity as to how the spiders had gotten in, "I mean, they surely weren't just camped in here for Imps-know how long." before he was finished, Oberan and the other trooper were already hastening to the niche that still housed the fallen body of the third soldier.
His torch was as dead as he was, but the three men now squeezing in provided sufficient torch illumination to reveal a ladder up to an opening in the "ceiling" of the chamber. They called back to Joderall, but he did not respond.
"GO! GO!" the ranking trooper shouted to his subordinate. Oberan was still technically a civilian, so he had no real authority over him. But it did not stop him from telling the mortalborn to "Go get the old man".
Oberan did not have to be told twice. But apparently Joderall did, his face was aflame with near-revelation, his wiry strength bolstered with the desire to resist "...just a moment more..."
It was impossible to say if there was simply a timely earthquake occurring, a further reaction, possibly a self-destruct spell, triggered in the artifact, or if the initial creation of the tunnel had eliminated some load-bearing element in this section of the hills, but there was no doubt the chamber was on the verge of collapsing.
Oberan's previous experiences treasure hunting gave him all the impetus he needed to simply lift the historian off his kicking feet and carry him, struggling and protesting, to the ladder. "NO! NO! IT WILL BE LOST! THIS IS THE ONLY CHANCE I'LL HAVE!" He sagged in defeated acknowledgement at the reply that if he died, even more would be lost.
The two soldiers were already near the opening in the ceiling and called down that there was a squared, metal tube, with rungs, going up from there. There was little enough time for Oberan and Joderall to make it there before the ceiling caved in altogether. They had no way of knowing if this alleged metal tube would come crashing in with it.
So as they made there way up to it, Joderall explained briefly. "Too many details, but when he said 'that way in', it reminded me of 'Atvian' one of the eastern languages. It's one Sintra would know, when she tried to usurp power from Raskalarn ages ago. Anyway, it uses some different symbols than most and isn't always read in the same direction. Those runes don't read 'Detect, Select, Perfect EEEfect'...it's 'Detect, Select, Perfect, AAAffect, like the verb form, not the noun!"
Once again, Oberan had a look of wishing he understood what the old fellow was getting at. "Don't you see? It IS four different clauses, with the last one being a command to "Affect". It could well be a runic command to perpetually re-empower an Ether Storm, once it detects one, and then it isolates and purifies the type of ether present that it needs to do so."
They were spared the storybook drama of the chamber collapsing the ladder with the weight of both men hanging by a single hand. but it was still a near things as they felt the metal tube rattle and drop some few feet as the chamber did collapse beneath them. Joderall would not know if Oberan had had the same look of dread on his face as they waited to see if some crushing death would claim them. The historian could only hope it would be a swift crushing if so.
But they found their way to the top, having to dig somewhat through a gravelly ruin for the last few feet, after the metal tube ended. It apparently had slid down its shaft a bit during the event, which now seemed to be over. They may have expected some grand panorama from atop the highest peaks in the Dordain Mountains, but the fact was the shaft was clearly meant to be hidden in a nondescript cleft in a cliff face that was positioned soas to receive what looked like a arc-round absence of sunlight.
This was accomplished primarily by having higher hills all around it. And while the survivors' climbing skills would be most likely be tested, Their chiefest setback was in how far removed they were from any trail, not the impassibility of the landscape.
