"Let's follow the heat to the left." Tahldar says to the group.

OOC to Shae: You could do those things if desired, but it will take time (approximately 1 hour game time).

Shae is fine doing it either way, if everyone wants to leave them with Fingas.

She inquires with Dalharen about details for his brother. What kind of weaknesses? What should we be on the look out for? What are the scope of his powers? She also asks him about this Djinn he mentioned. Where is it and what does he know about it?

Dalharen says, "I believe the more power we have, the more evil we become. Haklara is more powerful than I. He has mastered perhaps fifty psionic powers compared to my thirty. They range from mild to powerful. He has fully mastered powers such as project force and telekinesis, including animation of objects and even shadows. He can use them for ballistic attacks and even to control another person's body. You saw what he did to the ceiling above my head. And that was without preparation. I have seen him create inertial barriers and even molecular manipulation that has torn someone asunder. He can completely heal himself, set up a death field, and give himself the strength of a storm giant--turn his flesh to armor and expand or contract his bodily dimensions. Need I say more?"

He laughs with a shake of his head. "And Izlaka...he does not even need to kill to mimic. He can look at someone and mimic their visage, hear someone and mimic their voice, and by touching them, absorbs their memories. He is said to have mastered all one hundred and fifty psionic skills, making him the greatest psionicist who ever lived. Pray you never meet him as an enemy.

"As to the Djinn, we all seek more power. There are four varieties of Djinn. The Djinn, Marid, Dao and Efreet. Marid are from the Elemental Plane of Water, Dao from the Plane of Earth, Djinn are from Elemental Plane of Air, and Efreet from the Plane of Fire. The Djinn grants three wishes but is limited to wishes related to its plane, and the Plane of Air includes time and space. So it can take things, move things, maybe more. But its chaotic power is hard to control, and it will turn on its user if it can, turning a wish into a curse. You had the Djinn in your possession in that stoppered bottle and didn't even know it." He laughs before rubbing his head again.

Kahan pulls a scroll out of his backpack and casts a spell on the other path. "Let's go, and get this over with. We need to find the Earthgold before we find Haklara," he agrees.

OOC: Casting Glyph of Warding in the center of the path.

"I know little of such power." Tahldar says in response to psionics.

"I would prefer if we just get the earthgold and avoid anymore encounters if at all possible." he adds breathlessly as he follows Kahan.

OOC: I'm not sure where you landed on Geebo and Dalharen, so let's do this...

Borimer is able to use his great strength to lift Geebo and Dalharen to the top of the ledge. You leave Fingas to look after them.

Kahan casts a glyph of warding blocking the way back down the ledge.

OOC: I wasn't sure if that was the intent/location of the glyph. Also, we will assume Dalharen is put 10 feet away or more to avoid inadvertently setting it off.

With this set, you head to the northwest up the large natural stairs that lead 40 feet up.  At the top, you see an expansive scene:


Going clockwise on the map:

You see where the intense heat is coming from. There is a huge lava river (about 50-60 feet wide) running from the northeast to the southwest.

Crudely docked are two ancient stone carved rafts. The stone rafts are long and can hold up to 7 people sitting down. They are very narrow, only 3 feet wide. You see two more docking stations (totaling four) but they are empty.

There are occasional islands of stone (marked 24C) in the lava river.

A large bridge (24B) crosses over the lava river, leaving plenty of space underneath for a stone boat to travel (though they are on the south side anyway, "downriver").

Over the bridge to the west, you see two ancient stone doors with two 10 foot tall obelisks in front of them. (24E)

Slightly northeast of that is another ledge looking 30 feet down onto the huge cavern. (24D)

There is also a large tunnel that cuts back to the east.

On the flat stone wall directly to the east of you is an ancient hieroglyphic carving in the stone. It has obviously been there for a long time. It shows the following crude diagram:

This message was last edited by the GM at 00:11, Mon 13 July 2020.

"No one seems at home." Tahldar says as moves slightly north to peer around the corner to see where the eastern corridor leads.

"I wonder where the earthgold is.  I hope it's not the lava itself!"

OOC: Talhdar will hug the wall just east of 24A and peer around the corner looking east.

Shae looks around at the expansive chamber. "Well, we know where the heat was coming from. Leo, why don't you scale that 30 foot ledge to see what's up there." Then Shae will check out the obelisks and ancient doors.

"I have a feeling," she says, "that we are going to have to get on these stone boats and take a little ride."

Peeking around the corner down the east corridor, you see the following:

Leo slowly moves across the bridge and if nothing happens he will try to climb up to the ledge.

Kahan will follow behind Leo and look over the obelisks (24E).

"We should cross one at a time." Tahldar says as he begins to cross too.

OOC:  We should only have one person on the bridge at any one time.  I propose the order we cross: Leo, Kahan, Talhdar, Borimer, Shae, Shapfren.

You do not have any problems crossing the bridge. It seems strong and stable and able to support your weight with ease.

Shae, Tahldar and Kahan go over to look at the obelisks.



Each obelisk has four levels of hieroglyphics, and below the hieroglyphics, written in the Common Tongue of all things (but likely at a much later date than the obelisks' creation) is a story. At the end of each line of story is an orifice about the width of a closed fist as though to drop something in.

OBELISK 1:
When they arrived on horseback, they saw in stone a gate.
And something thereon written in blood. Stone could not fade the word "Beware."
Then from behind Rossman came a sudden Korob assault;
We cried to Rossman: "Parry! Dote not on the writings."

OBELISK 2:
Rossman garneted his sword as he parried,
And saw too late his lap is covered in blood,
And the arrow though into Rossman it entered,
But shameful, exited not the arrow until Rossman's death upon it.

Leo is able to climb to the top of the ledge. He peeks forward and sees that it goes about 15 feet in before natural stairs begin going down into darkness.

This message was last edited by the GM at 02:44, Thu 16 July 2020.

Shae also takes a close look at the doors. "I'm asuming we do something here, like put something in the holes, and if we do it right, then the doors will swing open. Any ideas?"

"My take on the writing is that door is trapped. Opening it will release the trap, which I suspect is lava somehow." Tahldar muses.

"Let's not open this door just yet.  Let's try some of the open passages nearby and see if they bear any fruit."

OOC:  I'm game to investigate any open passage and leave the door for last.

Even if Tahldar wanted to wait to open the door, Kahan couldn't stand to walk away before he figured out how, exactly. With Shae still nearby, he moved towards the obelisk and put his hands around two pairs of words;

OBELISK 1:
When they arrived on horseback, they saw in stone (a gate).
And something thereon written in blood. Stone could not fade the word "Beware."
Then from behind Rossman came a sudden Korob assault;
We cried to Rossman: "Parry! Dote not on the writings."

OBELISK 2:
Rossman garneted his sword as he parried,
And saw too late his (lap is) covered in blood,
And the arrow though into Rossman it entered,
But shameful, exited not the arrow until Rossman's death upon it.

"I think they require the stones from earlier, specifically the Agate and the Lapis Lazuli," he remarks out loud.

"There are stairs going down from here", Leo relates to the rest of the group.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:18, Sat 18 July 2020.

"Good catch!" Tahldar says.  "If we can find some way to use the stones I'm up for it." he says, though he may regret his words later.

Shae still has the gems that she took before everyone went into the mushroom chamber. The 8 match Tahldar's guesses. She supposes she could put them into the 8 holes in the obelisks in the appropriate corresponding holes, but she will wait for confirmation before doing that, since it could mean losing a valuable asset.

After thinking about it and making their guesses, Tahldar says "Give it a shot Shae with the stones, but be prepared to flee if the trap trips."

FYI, Correction for Leo. The stairs go down from the ledge, not up.

You put the gems in as suggested, each of the eight in its respective slot (as in Tahldar's post in #622 in comment thread). As each gem falls into place, you hear it fall within the stone obelisk, click into place somewhere inside, and an outline glow of the hieroglyphic scene under each begins to glow with a magic.  When all eight are in place, the hieroglyphics on the large stone doors also glow. (Technically, there are four rows--one gem for each side of the row--and as a row of gems is in place, the unlocking click of the corresponding row on the stone doors also emanates and glows.) With each gem in place, all rows glow on both the obelisks and the stone doors.

The double stone doors, 10 feet tall and covered in heiroglypics, now appear to be unlocked before you, the rows of hieroglyphics glowing faintly.

Shae will see if she can open the stone doors now.

The doors open with a hard push. They have obviously not been opened in many years. Your gems are gone, but you cannot imagine how many people actually had the right gems and figured this out.

You follow a short path west through the rock and find yourself in a larger cavern. In this cavern are three pools of liquid carved into the rock. A stream of water comes from the north to empty into the pools. Each pool also has words in Allevian carved near their lips.

The western pool has a slight green tint to it. Above the pool are carved the words "Mind and Body."

The northeastern pool has a golden tint to it and has the word "Weariness" carved into it.

The southeastern pool has a silvery ting to it and has the word "Health" carved into it.

The stream tapers out from a small crack in the wall so it does not lead to an exit.

There is also a 30 foot ledge looking down on the room from above.

The exit appears to be the same way you came.