Shae goes in and soaks in the health pool to see what happens. "Pull me out if things go bad," she tells the others.

"Wait Shae.  As I recall we were told to only fill the chalice with earthgold, which I take is the health pool."

"I agree with you.  I would like nothing else but a long drink or bath in all these waters, but since this is a test, I think it would be unwise to do."

"What do you think Kahan?"

Shae hesitates. "WEll, if it is a test, maybe there's a clue up there and Leo can climb it to see." She points to the top of the 30 foot ledge above.

Leo joins the group and scales the 30 foot ledge. On top, he finds a skeleton and an ancient, rusty chest that appears to be closed and locked.



The skeleton's clothes have long since tattered and nothing much is left, but next to it is a sealed scroll case.

Kahan studies the waters closely, wondering if this is indeed the Earthgold they are looking for. "Tenvillah told us to only take one cup full, but remember, Tenvillah was dead when we met him. We spoke with Dalharen, not Tenvillah. What he told us might not have even been the truth," he explains as he looks to the rest of them.

OOC: Just so we all have a refresher of what exactly Tenvillah (or whoever it was) said:

After he climbs up, Leo will look over the chest and see if it's trapped and how good the lock is.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:56, Wed 22 July 2020.

The chest is locked. It will take a successful pick locks check. It does not appear to be physically trapped.

Leo attempts to pick the lock.

Leo begins working on the lock and finds it is taking longer than expected. He starts getting frustrated but then the lock turns and the chest is unlocked--physically. Unfortunately, the chest still does not open. Something else, perhaps magical, is keeping the chest locked.

"Looks like there might be some kind of magic keeping this closed." Leo throws a rope down to anyone who might want to take a look.

"I'll come up." Tahldar says as he takes the rope in hand.

OOC:  Tahldar can use a knock spell on the chest.  As long as he can make the climb.  If need be I would suggest Borimer make the climb first and pull Tahldar up.

Kahan can assist Tahldar with a boost if needed. He may be weakened, but surely a scrawny elf wizard can't weigh that much. ;)

Tahldar casts a knock spell, and the wizard lock keeping the chest locked dissipates. Opening the chest reveals a cloak, some bracers, some boots, a dagger, a waterskin, and a spellbook.

Tahldar notes the items in the chest, but doesn't try them on and puts them in his backpack along with the scroll tube.  There's work to be done and little time to tarry.

OOC: I will climb down, then open the scroll tube to see if it has any clues to what to do with the pools.

The scroll tube contains a seemingly blank scroll.

It also contains several sheets of velum paper upon which the man was scribbling. The writings are in Allevian and discuss generally the following:

The man (named Ophid) was traveling with his companions (Senmi, Marin, Feshchul, and Omnipuria) searching for the cure for the Black Death disease and other treasures. Ophid had the disease and it was progressing. They bathed in the three pools, which seemed to heal and make them better in every way except one--it would not heal the Black Death.

He volunteered to stay and keep trying the pools. Also, that way when the Black Death took over his mind, he would not kill them. His companions left, locking the way in, and he kept trying to get healed in the pools, to no avail.

Near the end, it states: "If you are reading this, I am dead and the Black Death got to me. My companions have not returned and I am cursed to die a miserable death."

Soon after that, his scribblings seem to be the writings of a madman and make no sense. After that, they do not even seem to form proper words.

"It seems as if it is safe to enter the pools, although as we suspected it will not heal our sickness," Kahan noted aloud. "I wonder if these people were the skeletons in the gods room," he wondered as he headed towards the pools.

Tahldar shugs about the heritage of the skeletons in "Gods" room.  All he knows for sure is he is glad he didn't join them.  There aren't many that have faced a god and lived to tell about it.

"Let's fill the chalice before we bathe.  Seems prudent to me."

"Then move on."

OOC:  I want to fill the chalice and then bathe in each pool.

Kahan will monitor the situation before getting in himself, after making sure Tahldar is okay.

Shae goes with her initial plan and soaks in the health pool to see what happens.

You fill the chalice. (Not sure which one you choose, but actually the water here only works when fully immersed in it, so it won't do any good.)

OOC: I'm going to wrap this up since there's no trick or anything here. No need to prolong this unnecessarily.

You test out and soak in the pools. Here is what happens when you fully immerse yourself in the pool for 30 seconds or more:

HEALTH POOL: You feel all your aches and pains, your wounds and bruises, heal. The wounds close, and you are fully healed. You see the silverish blue tint and surmise that it probably had the healing Earthsilver in it.

WEARINESS: In the golden weariness pool, you sink in and find that your little troubles and your tiredness fade away in moments. (Acts like you just rested for 10 hours, and gives you back your energy, takes away all exhaustion and modifiers from your blood loss, and restores your lost blood, vigor, and hydration, and even takes away hunger.)

MIND AND BODY: This one seems somehow the most magical of all. With some gold and silvery specks in the water, you find yourself not only healed of all disease and poison, but regaining all mental capacity, clearing your mind, taking off all magics from you, and even helping spellcasters regain all their spells for the day. (Get all daily memorized/prayed for spells, all diseases except Black Curse healed, all poisons healed, and anything affecting mind or body functioning goes away.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:28, Mon 27 July 2020.

"We should bring Geebo and Dalharen up here as well, it should heal Geebo of their resurrection weakness," Kahan surmised as he dried off.

Tahldar immerses himself in each pool and the experience fills him with a sense of peace and tranquility the like he's never felt before.  All the pain, weariness and lethargy drains from him.  He literally feels one hundred years younger.

Dripping wet he does his best to dry himself but he finds he doesn't care all that much.  He just feels good, wet or not.

"Geebo.  Yes he should come.  But I think Dalharen should not.  With his aura of anti magic I think he will not likely benefit from the waters, and honestly I'm not sure if I trust him.  We've experienced too many betrayals, I don't want another."

"So instead we carry him around like a sack of potatoes? What do we do if we need to leave in a hurry? Leave him behind?" Kahan asked as he pulled his armor off and headed into the pools as well.

Needing some healing Leo takes a dip as well.

You all take a dip and start to drip dry, feeling better. (All negative modifiers gone, all spells returned, all healing complete to max hp.)