After getting Kragnor raised and restored, you spend a few days ordering items and the like. The Society folks have extended their presence down to the third level; they're skipping Godhome and the Drowned Level for the moment, but if you have to retreat in a hurry you'll be able to reach allies in short order. Having gifted metal to the Godbox it will let you pass without any issue.
The stairs down from the Drowned Level are nowhere near as long as the way from Splinterden to Godhome. They end in a small chamber, lit by what you readily identify as continual flame torches. All of you can hear distant ticking, as of several large clocks operating simultaneously.
On the north wall is a panel with two bronze levers, set at chest height on a human. The left lever has a red knob, and the right lever has a black knob. Both levers can apparently have three positions , and are set in the middle position.
To the east, an archway leads to an alcove. The walls of the alcove are mismatched--most of the room, like the one you came down into, is finished in masonry blocks, but the north wall is a curved slab of bronze like a small section of a vertical cylinder. There's a narrow seam between the bronze wall and the masonry, and if you touch the bronze wall you can feel a faint vibration.
Senja detects no magical auras save the lingering background from the Spire.
Kali, you see nothing indicative of traps on the levers--they're apparently some sort of control device, but that's fairly obvious.
Both levers move smoothly but with some resistance, as though you're engaging a piece of heavy machinery. As the black lever clicks into the top position, nothing apparently happens. When the red lever is moved up to the top position, though, you hear a brief whir of movement from the alcove.
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"Hmm," Senja observes, rubbing his chin in thought, "it appears that what seemed to be a pillar is actually some sort of rotating hallway, constructed with a right angle. Different settings of the levers must move it to different orientations, allowing one access to different points of egress from the hallway. But why?"
With a gesture to Asvald, he says, "Let's see what up/middle does."
Moving the black lever back to the middle position has no readily discernible effect.
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"I hear something!" Senja cries out. "Way down the hallway we just opened, I hear a faint whirring, like of some machine moving far away. Maybe putting the black lever in the middle moved something other than the cylinder we can see. Maybe the black lever doesn't have any effect right here at all..."
Moving the black lever to the lowest position has no readily discernible effect.
The by now familiar whir sounds from the alcove. On investigating, the cylinder has rotated to a new position, corner opening to the right now.
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The others her a small cough from the door.
"Pardon, lovely people, but am I by chance in the presence of Pathfinders?" The voice comes from lips of a voluptuous looking ifrit, dressed in a pirahan and chalvar far too light for the cold stone of the spire. "Morvius Eruthiel... charming man... assured me there was a group headed this very direction. I can only assume that you are the group; no other madness then hope of fame and a love of the unknown could possibly such an unlikely group together. Please, I am Nuria, here to chronicle your exploits." She smiles and does a needless twirl. "Or at least to sing about them"
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Senja whirls to look in the direction of the cough, then says, "Oh, interesting." He is an odd little figure, his movements quick and and jittery, and his skin a shadowy grey. In fact, he resembles nothing more than a small shadow, perhaps of a bird, that has stood up from the ground. He's as short as a small halfling, but reed slender, as if he'd disappear if he turned sideways.
"Yes, we are a group," he says, his voice rather lacking in warmth, "and it is the case that we've lost one of our number, thereby making us a smaller group, of course. I am Senja Kala, and I'm perfectly capable of recording the relevant details of our exploration." After a pause, he adds, "Though I do not sing."
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Immediate smitten, Asvald is all grins. "You've found us. And you got here at the perfect time."
Asvald's a young ulfen man with a wild golden mane and oiled beard. Although only middling in height for a northerner, he's powerfully built with a physique that tests the limits of his glittering mithril armor. The heavy furs draped across his shoulders make the young northerner's profile even more impressive. A broadsword with a notched blade sits comfortably within a hoop at his waist. "Welcome aboard. I'm sure we'll make beautiful music together."
Troubled by an all-too-vivid dream of his own death, Kragnor has elected to remain behind for the nonce.
The doors here are quite impressive, actually--a large double door, reinforced with unrusted iron bands, and looking much newer than the stone walls. An emblem depicting an automaton's head inside interlocking gears is painted on the door, the pigments still bright.
Asvald and Eva take point after Kali examines the door. As the double doors open, the party is taken by surprise at the presence of a large and hostile creature, an axe-wielding minotaur with brass plates grafted onto its body. It chops twice at Eva .
Round 1:
Initiative order
Senja
Nuria
Kali
Eva
Minotaur
Asvald
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"Oh, this can't be good," Senja mutters in alarm as the minotaur slices Eva quite badly. He conjures up a short pole with a peculiar symbol of some sort affixed to the end, then draws his arm back and throws it! As it flies, it's evident that the shadowy object flying through the air is a branding iron, with the Glyph of the Open Road on the business end! It flits around the minotaur, poking and prodding at the thing and distracting it at every turn!
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A young woman with short red-hair and pale skin eyes the newcomer with curiosity for a few moments. With a bandolier of shiruken across her chest and dark clothing over her mithral shirt, she appears to be prepared for some skullduggery, "I'm Kali, charmed I'm sure. To get any deception out of the way real quick, I'm actually a kitsune, but I prefer human form with humans. It's really good to see you, we've been suffering a bit since our healer was recalled."
-Posted with Wayfinder