The ruins had almost certainly loomed imposingly once. In the past, it had been a marvel of architecture, with days if not weeks of work put into just the doors. Looking at the state of the ruins now, the slime-bug
[1]
An extremely normal thing. Shockingly so, given he’s the only one. (click the citation again to close!)archaeologist Reece felt he should be feeling something. There was something sad about seeing all this hard work wasting away and having gone unappreciated for so long. …Is it fair to call it sad when I don’t feel like crying? The thought entered Reece’s mind, but he shook it out of his head. It was an overly harsh thought. Surely even normal people recognize sad situations without feeling sad, right…?
Trying to not think too much on the ease with which he had labelled himself as abnormal, Reece looked over the Temple of Friendship with all eight of his eyes, searching for the easiest way in. As an archaeologist, there was no way he could pass up the opportunity to be the first to explore something with a name as oddly specific as the “Temple of Friendship.”
Such a location prompted so many questions: was friendship held in so high regard by the Order of Mages
[2]
Or at least, the country run by the Mages. It did feel odd call a country something equivalent to just “The Kingdom,” but no one knew what they called themselves, so...that it had deserved its own temple? Did some event prompt its construction? And was it specifically friendship between two people, or does it extend to other meanings of friendship, such as friendship between countries? Was this “Mage of Friendship” a political figure, or maybe some kind of mascot? Further, the “Roc’s Feather” being the reward during that opening event seemed arbitrary, but perhaps there was an association with that mythical bird and friendship that had been lost to time…
There were just so many questions that he could find the answer to here. This was a venture basically every archeologist would jump at the chance to tackle! …Of course, he had to admit the reason most of them would be jumping is the referenced “magical boon.” Searching for magic items was considered the bread and butter of the job for most archeologists. He couldn’t blame them either, given just how much the payout for the retrieval of just one magic item is. Personally, he has never been that interested in joining that hunt himself, not seeing much appeal in it beyond the pay. And since he’s not hurting for cash, he’s mostly decided to leave the magical item hunting to the others. The chance to learn about ancient cultures and history is what really drives him, and surely others too! …Even if they’re a minority! …And even if he’s never met or heard of anyone else who shares his interest!
Finding a suitable, albeit tight, point of ingress, Reece entered the temple and looked around. The inside of the temple was just as awe-inspiring, but it didn’t look as undisturbed as he’d hoped. There were, of course, the normal number of things destroyed by the greatest enemy of any archeologist, time, but more concerningly, several pieces of pottery had seemingly been intentionally destroyed. Recently. And a discarded sledgehammer on the floor with a blatantly modern design fully convinced him that he wasn’t alone.
Reece cursed his luck. Given the sheer quantity of unexplored ruins in the area around Spokes alone, one would expect that chance encounters would be suitably rare, but reality failed to meet expectations there. Perhaps it was a consequence of sticking nearer ruins over further ones, something a statistician could write a thesis on, but it was certainly annoying for the archeologist. No, annoying’s too harsh, its, uh… Reece wracked his brain, but any more suitable word escaped him. For Reece, the main sticking point with other archeologists was that a lot of them performed their searches for magic items with destructive thoroughness. He could see naught else but what was lost whenever someone destroyed the pottery, furniture, or even the walls in the search for the magical item jackpot.
As he headed deeper into the ruins in search for the other visitor, Reece put his fingers to his gelatinous temple and already began the nursing of a headache. Even just asking others to be a bit more careful had often proved a fruitless endeavor before, but he certainly had to try...
Reece continued into the ruin, and soon found himself in a hallway, from which branched a frankly unreasonable number of doors. Confoundingly, each door led to a small room with a few pieces of furniture and even more doors. It was typical, the plentiful use of many demarcated spaces with highly specific, niche uses was basically the architectural style for ancient ruins. The cultural implications of this fact were certainly intriguing, yet as far as practicality goes, Reece much preferred large, multipurpose rooms like in modern architecture
[3]
Those interested in learning more about more modern architecture should visit the library. There, bookshelves, the reception desk, and the study areas are all found in one large room, which is a perfect example..
Reece peeked into a few of the nearby rooms and while he was tempted to just get lost in the maze of rooms and examine whatever he found when he found it, he knew it’d be more fruitful to look for whoever else was here first. He saw even more traces of whoever it was in the rooms he peeked into and took solace that this other presence at least had some restraint. In fact, smashed pottery seemed to be the extent of the destruction, with furniture being left well enough alone. Even that low bar was rarely met, in his experience. Not that he understood why, were people expecting to find things hidden in the cushions of chairs…?
As Reece mused over this, a loud knocking noise alerted him to the location of the other presence. He took a deep breath, reminding himself to not let his emotions dictate his actions overly much. He’d remain calm and logical with whoever it was, and politely ask them to perform their search a bit more gently.