[quote=Azazor's logbook]
After four years of travel from Silan, we finally arrived in Coriolis! Or at least where the mining city once stood. Four years to get there! We are novices, clearly. Novices, weakened by generations of living under the protection of the Powers, when Marauders or Rangers have known how to do without and travel the Silan-The Citadel route in two or three cycles.
From the top of the ridge, looking down, there is nothing. No buildings, not even recognizable ruins. Everything seems to have been swept away by the kitins. They can be seen in the distance emerging from various holes in the ground. These may be the old amber mines, since entirely colonized by the kitins. They form a teeming cloud, at first sight totally anarchic. However, this mass then splits in two. One part converges somewhere to the southeast, towards what I think is the old Matis forest, and the other one goes towards The Citadel. It really looks like Coriolis is some sort of starting point for the kitins.
We know that we are at the level of Coriolis, because, apart from this agglutination of kitins denser than elsewhere in the desert, we can still see some ruins on the side of the cliff, high up. One of them reminds me of what is left of a watchtower, another of a half-collapsed facade. But the best preserved ruin is the one we are in. It is a kind of temple more or less troglodyte almost at the very top of the ridge. Only its facade emerges from the cliff, the rest of the temple being carved in the bark. We had to go down a little with the ropes to reach it. The position of this ruin, very difficult to access by kitins from the bottom or the top of the ridge, explains its relatively good state of preservation.
Given the amber columns that decorate the entrance façade, it is most likely a temple. On the tympanum, also visibly carved in pure amber and finely decorated, one can still read "talum glad èt" (knowledge is a weapon), as well as an engraving resembling the tattoo of the Fire of Coriolis. It is difficult to say what function this temple had. A library? I imagined them rather in Fyre than in Coriolis. A place for crafting and restoring of amber cubes, perhaps, as Eeri suggests? Which wouldn't be silly, given the proximity of the amber mines.
Concerning the access ways, a staircase cut in the cliff used to allow to reach the temple by the bottom, but this one is now totally unusable, since only a few pieces remain here and there, all the rest having collapsed. There must also have been other buildings lower down the cliff, accessible by the same staircase weawing on the wall. Bending down, one can still see some remains of these buildings from time to time.
Inside the temple, there is a main hall with a half collapsed roof. The whole back of the hall is inaccessible because of the collapsed ceiling which forms a heap of rubble obstructing access to possible rooms at the back. Only two well-preserved doors, on the sides, are still accessible. One on the left, leading to a room entirely collapsed on itself, and another on the right, in which I am. On the floor, some furniture falling into dust, empty shelves carved from the bark, and the remains of a campfire, suggesting that this room was used in the not so distant past. By whom? Marauders passing through, like the famous Clan of Red Drakes Hunters that Titus' father once belonged to? Or by Rangers on an observation mission? It must be said that from the only window of the room, we have an unobstructed view on the desert and its teeming tide of kitins.
With Eeri, we decided to excavate the back of the main hall, to try to access hypothetical rooms further back. If there is still some knowledge preserved in these places, it can only be behind the rubble. It will take us several hours to create a passage towards what can be found behind all this jumble.
......
We have started excavating the back of the hall but we are pausing for a moment of reflection. One thing puzzles us. While patiently removing the wooden rubble, we could notice that some of it was probably not the result of a collapse but had been put there on purpose. It is in fact a precise place that alerts us. It is as if there was a tunnel already dug in the original heap of rubble which would have then been filled in with what one had to hand. It seems that we are not the first ones to dig a passage, but that the last ones to have done it had to fill it up again quickly afterwards. This refilling should not date from very long ago. Our hypothesis is that behind is a gallery through which kitins can potentially come out and that this has been filled in by homins to ensure a relative security for the place. However, even if it is not very prudent, we must see what is on the other side.
I think for the first time in my life I like to dig. I feel like the Coriolis miners who went deeper and deeper to find the Great Dragon and were the first to stumble upon the kitins. I may know what the story is, but I can't help but feel the excitement of my Fyros race, the excitement of going further and deeper in search of the Truth. If there are kitins behind it, then so be it. I am ready to die, here, on our land, surrounded by our ancestors. For, after all, does courage remain forever in the memories of our ancestors fallen in battle, or does it still flow in the hearts of patriots?For after all, does courage remain forever in the memories of our ancestors who died in battle, or does it still swell in the hearts of patriots?