[h2][color=lightgreen][u]Jake Cross                                             [/u][/color][/h2]

Jake heard the words on his fellows and thought the same. There were far too many Wild Men to do anything that would give them any sort of real view of the source of the pillar. Instead they were consigned to wait as Jake relayed that decision, [color=lightgreen]"We hold here. We wait and see what they do and for the pillar to die out."[/color] It wasn't the most glorious of work, but it was something and it gave them a rare opportunity to observe Wild Men in their natural state.

One event that they witness shortly after Jake gave his order was a blood sacrifice that appeared to be willing. Someone who appeared to be in charge and most likely a shaman given the garb he wore, ordained in monster parts, monster skins, and various weighty looking totems crafted with tribal styles and fashions stood at a raised dais complete with a large stone slab. Anyone with binoculars or a long-range scope could see the blood on it and the new sacrifice who was walking up under escort of two abnormally large and burly Wild Men. The sacrifice being a young looking woman, stark naked as the day she was born and rather unaffected by the corruption of the Wild World. Of her own volition she stepped up onto the stone slab and laid down on her back. The shaman turned away from and to the glowing column, the radiating energy making his flowing monster hides whip in the blasting wind before he raised his arms in some grand gesture. The crowd drew high at this and started going wild until the shaman turned back around and they all became quiet, all bowing their heads and swaying like they were before.

The woman wasn't bound as the shaman drew a knife and began cutting into her. It was clear she was screaming, but she stayed on the slab, enduring the pain for their barbaric rituals. As her blood flowed though something incredibly odd was seen by those who observed. Instead of flowing into puddles at the feet of the dais, it seemed to gravitate towards the pillar of light, like a magnet was attracting it uphill and through the dirt that should absorb it.

Before long the sacrifice was dead and as her limb, carved body was carted away another was brought up. This one being male and again seemingly the least effected by the corruption of the world. Again his blood flowed into the pillar, jumping into the stream of light at the last few meters. When he was gone another was brought up, another male. This continued for another hour or so with easily 20 Wild Men and women being sacrificed before it finally happened. The stream of light started to die out suddenly and without warning, rapidly fading as the source continued to glow brightly, but stopped sending streams of light into the air.

The Wild Men seemed disappointed and many started to leave already, but the shaman appeared to give the call to in fact leave as he left the dais mid sacrifice, letting the woman live to see another day though quiet maimed. As the Wild Men left making the journey up the side of the crater to their city the glow from the source died out letting the team see just what it was. The great structure had to be at least a 30 meters tall and it was what appeared to be a natural statue made of glassy, black stone and glass. The obsidian statue carved unnaturally to take the shape of a spire with large, thick wings. At the top of the statue was a sculpted head that looked like the slick head of a dragon, complete with great horns. Though it didn't have finer details carved. One note though was that of all the monsters that came to our world from The Other dragons were NOT one of them.

[color=lightgreen]"What is the world... I don't even know what to say about that. It's just a hunk of obsidian, but... There is no way that is natural or made by Wild Men. It's like it crashed down to make this crater but... where did it come from?"[/color] Jake questioned as he continued to scope in on the leaving Wild Men. [color=lightgreen]"They are all leaving, get ready to move. I want a closer inspection of that statue."[/color] A little more time passed and the Wild Men vacated the crater. Next step was Jake signalling to move down towards the statue. Over the radio he called up to be on the look out, as there may be stragglers through the night.

Though as they went down the crater to the statue no resistance was found and there was a palpable ominous feeling, like the statue radiated dark energy and knew the team was there... Jake was in awe. This was what the Wild World made and was about, insanity made physical and with no answer as to why it exists. Yet through the awe there was something all people could feel. That pull towards it, like their very blood was being drawn closer to the statue and as the party due closer they'd be able to see their reflections in the shining glass, but there was something wrong with them. While their respective reflections did follow them they were not mirrors of them. They seemed to act of their own accord and all of them reached out for their real counterparts, like they were trying to make physical contact but the reflective sheen of the statue acted as an invisible barrier separating the two.