"Whoo-ee, Dat suah soun's lahk iz guud advise chere', yassir. Guud Advise." He says appreciatively. He then leans over to Altai and says Sotto Voice,..."An it maht be. But durn if'n ah kin tell. Ah caint unnerstan' ha'f o' whut dat boy sez!"
Altai leans back, muttering. "Well, the essence of it was that Riese feels that if Gittik was smart like Riese, then Riese wouldn't have to tell him how to be smart. At that point, he could tell you how to be smart instead. Good times."
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
"Ah, yeh, right. T'anks Altee." Elgan nods sagely, obviously only understanding 3/4 of what Altai had said. ;)
"So, Yeh wan' me tah scout it out?" He asks, indicating the large, inviting, hole in the floor,...
"Yes please. We don't want to get jumped by anything while dangling from ropes 40' off the floor."
Elgan flaps around a bit down there; this is what he gathers.
The hole goes down about 50 feet; the ceiling's 20 feet above the floor.
There's a bunch of broken statuary and a cracked altar in the center of this 100 foot square room.
In the center, there's 4 statues about 20 feet from where the altar was; there's a square of writing on the floor bordered in red about 20 feet out; the statues are at the points of this ornamental square, which is bedecked with the same ancient writings as the beetle coffin from the firewraith ship. Each statue looks like a 10 foot tall ramphorhynchus; pterosaurs that are obscure but not unknown to tropic jungle still in this day and age.
The North wall has an immense circular piece of stonework, 20 feet in diameter, covered with totemic carvings; the south, east, and west walls open out into the night. For standing in this room, one is apparently at the temple saddling the top of another pyramid(?).
The jungle night assails you with an alien cacophony of insect and hooting monkey or bird.....
"Huh. What you're describing should be impossible. I guess it must be some kind of alternative dimension. By climbing down the hole, we go... somewhere else. Sounds good to me. Let's get down there."
Climbing down; have to look out for the odd shard of statue or dead serpent man......you're able to swing on the rope to the other side of the square of writing. The pterodactyl statues consider you, as they have this room, for a long long time. All is still, and all is silent but for the jungle that apparently exists outside the portals from this room to the west, east, and south.
“This is … weird. Um. Want me to search anything?”
"Are the writings on the floor some sort of trap? I can probably decipher them, but not if they explode in my face or turn the dinosaur statues into great flapping beasts."
Beldan will carefully look about for traps, magical or mundane.
The writing on the floor seems pretty innocuous; it doesn't explode anyway.
Outside the three portals, there's high platforms as if atop a pyramid, and stairways down. You can see the volcano calderra still, but now it is girded in jungle, and stone buildings stand where the lagoon with the lizardman village was. The night sky is starless, moonless; though there are no clouds in the sky.
On the northern wall Bel can find a flagstone that pulls out, and there's a clutch mechanism in there. Examining the giant stone circle shows there's a rut on the ground to the left of it. It appears to be mobile by the power of some cunning mechanism.
Climb: 1d20+3=17, K (History)1d20+7=13
Pip shinnies down the rope and tries to look for anything familiar in the odd room
Nothing much other than what has been described.
The big round thing on the wall, though, looks like an Olman calendar.
Yes; they all look out on the same place. It's....the volcano, but without the lagoon. And it's night.
“No moon and no stars … that’s really odd.” Beldan then brightens. “Oh well, I guess that means no werewolves…”
"I can make one of you fly down if you want?"
"Give me a minute or so. Now, this looks suspiciously similar to the glyphs on the beetle carapace we found in the hold of the Hellwind..." Altai kneels down by the writing on the floor, quickly sketching out the writing on a sheet of vellum.
It's a longwinded diatribe extolling the greatness of the wind lord, and something about summoning....something.
"I can make one of you fly down if you want?"
(LOL) I thought you was gone last week....
"Windlords blah, blah, blah... Where to now? The village?"
Elgan eyes the dino statues with a wary glare.
"Whutevah you guys say Altee. Jes' let me know, ah'll scout it out."
“I don’t know,” says Beldan, looking out into the night nervously. “If we go out there, do you think we’ll be able to get back?”
"Yeah, we get back. We just walk back through door, like we walk out. You stupid or something?"
“Yeah … yeah I am. You better go first Gittik, show me how it’s done.”
"Hey! Meh, OK."
Slightly nervously, Gittik heads out, hesitating momentarily at the threshold before stepping outside.
"See, nothing bad happen!"
"Hey! What you do? You no leave me here!"
"Ah, I'm just kidding you Gittik, I wouldn't do that..."
Pip strums Lucille nervously
Gittik, Pip, and Beldan on a routine expedition
Met the strangest temple ever known.
High up on the pyramid they found a bizzare trapdoor,
that plunged them down a thousand years ago.
To the Land of the Lost.
Beldan activates the clutch, and the massive stone calendar rolls to the side, revealing another room....it's pretty dark.
Looking in, it's rectangular with the long sides running north and south; towards the back there's a massive block of limestone forming a platform.
On top of that is a massive ogre mage.....the biggest one you've ever seen. Huge....not large....he's dinking around with a kabob in a massive brazier...
He looks at you, and says, in common,
"none of you is painted blue. How am I supposed to know?"
know history or bardic 15:
S*~!...I missed Beldan's "or not part..."
wanna go with it?
"Heh. Das jes' rong. AH knowed ah liked yew."
Elgan is nevertheless relieved when Beldan DOESN'T actually close a secret door on Gittik,...
He turns, wide-eyed, and watches as a massive block slides aside, revealing the ginormous ogre creature.
"Ah,... Raptor poop,..."
If you end up in a fight......
the room is a-m across the top, 1-15 down the side; there's a wide stair down into the room from d-j 16-19.
The platform, 5 feet tall, is at c-L 1-5; the ogre is at g-i 2-4.
From a-d 1-7 is a pit opened up by earthquake; the edge of the platform hangs over the pit. At a-b 1-2 is a ledge connecting to a lava tube hallway that is outside this room.....
the walls are adorned with skinned sahuagin hanging on hooks; might be about 20 of the things; hanging 10 feet up in the air.
"Sorry to disturb you, Great One." Altai tries as hard as he can to adopt a fawning, obsequious tone. "There are no sacrifices tonight; as you see, not only is the moon not up, but it is also in an inconspicious conjunction with the red stars in the Sign of the Kraken. So, no blood or heads tonight; doing so would offend all sorts of otherworldly principals."
He glances conspiratorially around. "Now, I hate to be this direct, but we do not want to waste your precious time... We are tired of our current leadership. The chief is impious and soft, and more moral strength is needed to hold that position. What will it take for you to just... do nothing for the next few moon cycles while proper order is restored?"
"Oh,.....oh....ha...." he laughs, a booming menacing mirthful wicked sound, "I have. Nothing. But. Time. Think of it as not wasteful, more amusing. So, you want my non-interference, as your kin burrow like maggots in my house? Fine....pick one of your number there, and I'll have his steaming heart to cook here in my brazier."
"None of us are expendable, Great One; however, anticipating your request, we brought these along with us." Altai nervously drags a snakeman carcass forward. "We have three of these exotic heretics. They've been dead less than five minutes, as we thought we would save you the trouble of killing them."
"DoTo......receive these gifts!!!"
a tiny ogre mage, about 3 feet tall, suddenly appears, and approaches the party.
"Hey, look at stupid little ogre! Hee hee!"
Atai (and two others, probably Oso and Gittik) drags the three snakemen over to the giant's familiar.
"Hey, look at stupid little ogre! Hee hee!"
He goes crosseyed, picks his nose, and proffers it towards you with his bad finger.
Smiling, you see his teeth are all filed down."Hahahaha! DoTo likes you!"
The little ogre grabs them all and drags them to his boss; slinging them irreverently up onto the platform...
"I've waited thirteen thousand years for this......stupid Yiggites."
Elgan hangs (inconspicuously?) in the rear of the party, happy to let the caster talk to the large, no, Gi nor-mous ogre facing them. He is nervous, but reamains as relaxed as possible, in case sudden movement, forward or back, is required,...
"Thirteen thousand years? That's a very long time indeed. Could we inquire how the Yiggites wronged you, Great One?"
"By claiming Yig was Qetzalcouatl, and taking over all the hallowed sites of Ithaqqa the True Wind Lord....and spreading their blasphemy to all places under the wind."
he pauses, slicing up his bounty and attaching it to the kebob.
The dwarf ogre searches the robes of the things..
The jungle night assails you with an alien cacophony of insect and hooting monkey or bird.....
<Coming out of his stupor.>
"Them soonds ur ooliphants ur they? Ne'er seen a body 'em. Weel, nae 'at Ah min' anyways. Kin ye eat 'em?"
He goes crosseyed, picks his nose, and proffers it towards you with his bad finger.
Smiling, you see his teeth are all filed down.
"Hahahaha! DoTo likes you!"
The little ogre grabs them all and drags them to his boss; slinging them irreverently up onto the platform...
"I've waited thirteen thousand years for this......stupid Yiggites."
<Stig shrugs and takes a sip of rum.>
The dwarf ogre searches the robes of the things..