Let's go then.
Arsith pauses, then says
You know, I don't know what horrors are hidden beyond thèses doors, but I'm glad you are here with me to face them.
Leaving behind the chambers where, maybe at some point in the long distant past, Runelord Sorshen had explored the arcane school of Conjuration, the friends move back into the antechamber that led to this room - there are two doors as yet unexplored, one illustrated with images of alchemical experimentation and the other of enchantment...
===
Paranoia
Each day, at the beginning of the day, the GM chooses one member of the party, besides Joanna, at random. Halli will refuse to go within 10 feet of this person and must make a DC 15 Will save every hour to not constantly be watching this person and trying to keep Joanna between her and this person if possible. This person cannot aid Halli and Halli will resist all spells cast by this person. For all other members of the party, the DC to aid Halli is 15.Furthermore, Halli must make a DC 15 Will save to willingly enter combat or to go within 10 feet of anyone else in the party. Around other people, at the GM's discretion, Halli must make a Will save or become frightened and cower next to Joanna. The DC of the Will save is set by the GM.
===
At the moment, I'm treating Arsith as the one that Halli doesn't trust at all, because she was the only one that attacked her.
Though she shuffles nervously next to Joanna, Halli remains calm enough to stay by Joanna's side as the others gather around. She does stay as far from Aristh as she can though.
Seeing that the others are ready, Joanna nods and opens the northern door.
With the friends prepared for the unexpected after the conjuration laboratory, Joanna eases the door to the north open... Six stone platforms draped with white sheets stand in this room, with manacles affixed to the four corners of each. What appears to be a metallic bookstand stands at the foot of each platform — one of these stands still holds a large leather tome. The walls are painted a soft, soothing blue.
Joanna cautiously steps into the room, her sword in hand, as she makes her way to the bookstand with the tome still in it.
Halli follows Joanna, her head and tail low. She looks about, her eyes darting from one thing to the next, as she pads along behind the young paladin.
"I don't know, Bri. I don't want to think about what went on here after what we've seen in the Crow," Joanna answers as she moves carefully into the room.
Whatever the room was used for in the past, and Briana's supposition that the tables may be surgical in nature may have some truth... if not surgery then certainly experimentation and restraint, it hasn't been used in such a manner for an age - and, moving into the room, there seems to be no danger. There is but one book on the stands next to the tables...
"On Dreams and Desires, huh," she mutters before checking the book for any malignant auras.
Joanna picks up the tome and brings it back for the others to take a looksee.
Do you know that book, Jo? What is it about?
Arsith gasps
Sorry, I think it's a stupid question, in this place...
Too caught up by the book, Arsith doesn't pay attention to her surroundings
As Joanna reaches out to feel for auras in the room, it seems that there is nothing insidious about the book on the stand... and so, leafing through it, those in the group who are able to read the Thassilonian script determine that it is an ancient text exploring the mysterious link between dreams and enchantment magic.
And, towards the rear of the book, three scrolls have been tucked into the pages - as Ziomarra examines them, she determines them to be Elsewhere within the room, there is nothing of particular note.
Seeing that there's nothing more to be found in the room, Joanna moves to the last door.
Expecting that this third room will likely contain alchemical equipment, the friends are unsurprised as Joanna pushes the door open. Stone counters line the walls of this chamber with an additional work slab sitting in the centre of the room — all of these countertops are cluttered with beakers, jars, tubes, tools, and all manner of ancient alchemical equipment, many of them caked with strange encrustations of crystals, stains, or other residues. A particularly large urn of corroded-looking metal sits in the center of the westernmost countertop.
Looking to the others, Joanna raises an eyebrow.
"Should we wait until after we've rescued Teldon to explore this room? I'd think his skill in brewing would be a great help sorting this mess," Joanna says, gesturing to the array of alchemical supplies.
I have no training in alchemy, and even with 10 years training behind me, I wouldn't be half as competent as Teldon.
She looks at Briana, with empathy
I'm sure we'll find a way to get him back, you know. We will do our outmost, just as he would do his utmost for any of us. And even more for you, Briana
"I am no alchemist, either. That was always Teldon's area of expertise. But I can look for magical auras..."
Ziomarra casts an eye over the flasks and vessels in the room, there is magic here... swirling enchantment, illusion and transmutation auras mix and swirl with each other - so much so, that it would be impossible to tell - without separating them - which containers hold what...
Looking at the room, then looking at Halli, Joanna sighs as she comes to a rather unfortunate conclusion.
"We'd have to be careful. There's no telling what some of this stuff will do, or how long it's had to turn into something dangerous. Unless Zee sees something. I think we might want to check on that other passage that leads from the coco demon room," she says.
"We'd have to be careful. There's no telling what some of this stuff will do, or how long it's had to turn into something dangerous. Unless Zee sees something. I think we might want to check on that other passage that leads from the coco demon room," she says.
Looking at the room, then looking at Halli, Joanna sighs as she comes to a rather unfortunate conclusion.
"We'd have to be careful. There's no telling what some of this stuff will do, or how long it's had to turn into something dangerous. Unless Zee sees something. I think we might want to things be," she says.
"Where do we go from here, though? How do we get down to that place Gnaeus told us about before... before..." Joanna asks, not quite able to bring herself to finish saying what happened in the room with the Incubi.
"Should we take care of the coco demons, though? I don't want...to..." Joanna lets her voice trail off, the awkward deference that had been present since the first night in the Lady's Light reasserting itself once more.
Worried about Halli, Joanna leads the wolf pup into the room she and Zee had shared last night and asks her to stay. Halli curls up just inside the door and give Joanna an apologetic look before the Paladin turns back to the business at hand.
Once everyone is ready to cover her, she enters the steam filled room and readies herself to fight the fiends if they return.
Back in the large octagonal chamber, after leaving behind the rooms where the Thassilonian's studied the nature of magic, the heat still shimmers... and, as the door opens and Joanna steps through the small creatures, the cacodaemons burst through the grey flame at the centre of the room - and instantly retreat when Ziomarra follows the young paladin. Although it is uncomfortable in the chamber, the friends take a moment to consider what is here - and when Ziomarra looks into the aether for auras, she sees the evocation aura coming from the grey flames where the daemons originated from... and over on the section of eastern wall where the torch and sconce are, the residue of the same aura. Making the connection, Sorshen's duplicate takes the torch and lights it upon the flame... placing he burning torch within the sonce, Ziomarra and her friends watch as the wall panel pivots open.
A long stairway of polished stone steps descends nearly forty feet before ending at a ten-foot-square landing with no apparent way onward. The wall opposite the final step depicts a lascivious painting of a beautiful woman - identical to Ziomarra's current body - arms outstretched as if to welcome one into an embrace, lips twisted in a faintly cruel smile. A phrase in a foreign tongue is inscribed in gold across the top of the mural.
It's strange..have you seen? The feet of the woman, on the painting.. they look.. faint. As if someone would have touched them repeatedly. Maybe one of Sorshen's thrall had a foot fetish?
She giggles, and then has the decency to blush. A little.
Zee reads the Thassilonian script, then translates:
"It means, 'Prostrate thyself and demonstrate proper devotion, my sweet slave, if you wish to enter my domain.'" She snorts. "That's so like her: Always making her underlings grovel about. There is magic here, though. I think this command might be literal. Let's see..."
Zee kneels before the statue, and then raises her hands over her head, then leans forward to touch the statue's feet.
Joanna's command of Thassilonian isn't as great as Zee's, only having been studying it for a short time, and was slower translating it. By the time she realizes what Zee's doing it's too late.
"You didn't have to do that," she mutters to the Harrower.
Halli stays by Joanna's side, but remains as far as she can from everyone else.
"Is this completely necessary?" Shadlah asks stiffly, folding her arms across her chest and warily watching for danger. Her eyes land of Halli, and her mouth twitches into a frown. "The young one seems troubled," she mutters.
Seeing Shadlah's frown, and not really sure if a comment about Arsith's and Briana's, uh, theories would be well received, Joanna decides that Halli's recent change in attitude was a safer topic.
"I'm not sure what happened. I just know that it was during the fight with that worm monster that made us go mad while it was around. I couldn't help her during the fight, and she got hurt pretty bad. I don't know if it's the blow Arsith landed or if it's some lingering effect of that abomination," Joanna replies softly. "I know I've only known her for a few days, but it's not in her nature to be shy. She's always been friendly and playful when she hasn't been doing her best to keep up with me in a fight. It worries me to see her so timid."
The entire time, Joanna absently strokes Halli's head, a look of concern and fear in her eyes as she watches the pup watch Shadlah warily.
For a moment, nothing seems to happen... a lock of hair brushes the mural and then Ziomarra's lips touch the cold stone of the wall. The scene is momentarily remarkable - Sorshen worshipping Sorshen...
...and then Ziomarra simply blinks out of existence.
"Uh?"
Joanna stares wide-eyed at the spot that Zee had just been. For a small eternity, her brain refused to work.
"Uh?!"
Her eyes widen even further as panic begins to set in. Zee had just disappeared. She was there just a moment before, but now she is gone! What did she do? Did she wait? Did she talk to the others? Did she look for a door?
One thought soon made the others go silent. Whatever Zee was facing now, she wouldn't face it alone.
Before she could stop and reconsider her actions, Joanna wraps one arm around Halli as she kisses the feet of the painting.
One by one, the friends follow Ziomarra's example... and their worlds phase out of view...
Reality coalesces upon a stone platform overlooking an enormous watery cavern, whose walls are covered by phosphorescent lichen providing modest, yet eerie illumination. Soaked by the waterfall crashing into the lake next to the platform, three rowboats are tied to stone posts on the dock’s northwestern side, while a carving of a leering demon extending a hand in greeting decorates the stone wall just to the north of the platform. A word has been carved into the stone wall just below the demonic carving.
Disoriented, Joanna focuses on finding Zee over getting her bearings. As she spots her friend, and having to remind herself that her friend now looked like the Runelord of Lust, she rushes to her, wrapping the taller woman in a bear hug. The young paladin trembles as the panic subsides and relief floods through her.
"Don't scare me like that," she whispers into Zee's shoulder.
Halli, though, doesn't follow as she usually did. Indeed when the others arrive, crowding the platform, she hops in one of the boats and gets as far as she can from the others while staying as close as she can to Joanna.
Joanna watches the pup with concern, but what could she do for her? She'd have to wait until they got back to see if there was anything that could be done. Now, she needed to focus on saving Teldon. Pushing the thoughts of Halli, Zee's condition, and her sisters back, and wondering how much longer she could do so, she takes a deep breath and takes in her surroundings. She felt refreshed, as if she had a full night's sleep, better even. Her connection with her goddess was even greater, and she could feel her connection to Halli getting stronger as well.
She lets Zee go and points to a stone platform across the cavern. It seemed like the most logical place to start.
"That looks like as good a place to begin as any," she says.
Zee returns Jo's embrace. "Believe me, I am glad to see you, too! I had thought that prostrating myself would have opened a magical door... not being teleported somewhere else." She points at the cascade. "I would guess that we are at the bottom of the waterfall from the other grotto."
She points to the inscription and says, "That says, 'Farewell.'"
She looks across the cavern at the platform. "That looks to be as good a place as any to begin!"
"I thought it was going to be a door too. I'm just glad that you're alright," Joanna replies.
Once the others arrive and there seems to be a consensus on where to go, Joanna looks to Halli and them back to the others.
"I guess Halli and I will go first. I don't think we can have others in the boat with us given how," how what? Skittish? Scared? Paranoid? "uh, oddly she's been acting. Are the rest of you okay taking the others," she asks before realizing that she was starting to take the lead again, and clenches her teeth as she waits for the others' replies.
Joanna helps Halli into the smallest of the boats and pushes away from the platform. Slowly, they make their way across the water to the platform they'd seen. Many would have looked at the chambers beneath the Lady's Light and called them beautiful, but Joanna had noticed that much of the beauty served to hide hidden dangers and traps. Who knows what lay ahead and between the perils this place offered, the tensions that were still between her and Brianna, the worry over what had happened to Zee and Teldon, and now whatever had happened to Halli, she was beginning to feel like she was on a razor's edge. She felt as if she had too much on her shoulders. There was nothing she could do for Zee or Halli. They were doing all they could to help Teldon now, and they'd just have to work to overcome whatever this place threw at them. That left only what was going on between her and Briana.
A soft whine pulls her from her reverie as she glides the boat on the water.
"I know Halli," she says softly, rubbing the pups ears with one hand. A little of the old Halli shines through and she enthusiastically wags her tail while butting her head against Joanna's hand as she lolls her tongue out in contentment. "I'll focus on what I can fix. We'll get through this somehow."
She looks out over the waters, wondering if there was some guardian here as well.
Zee nods in agreement, but then adds, "I can certainly help row one of the boats if needed... but I seem to be able to do this now." Zee folds her hands and concentrates... and she lifts into the air six inches above the floor. She slowly floats above the water, gaining in altitude so that she's about three feet above the surface.
"This must be something that the real Sorshen could have done..."
Zee keeps pace with the boats as they row across the subterranean lake toward the platform across the water.
The walls of the cavern are covered with phosphorescent lichen that produces a blue-green illumination shining down across the entire surface of the large lake... the effect is rather dramatic as the light picks out water-polished stone around the rim of the cave.
Pushing the boats out into the lake, the group quickly discover that the water here is quite deep - dipping an oar into the silt-laden lake, there is just water... if there is a bed to the lake, it must be at least twenty feet below the boat. Heading southwards towards the nearby platform and moving ahead of the boats, Ziomarra sees the huge red panel set into the wall - it is not unlike the door the group passed through when they first arrived at the subterranean beach somewhere above them... She has little time to consider this though as, in her peripheral vision, she notices what appears to be a midnight-skinned figure breaking the surface as it swims, with some deliberation, towards the boats.
...and then, one by one, Ziomarra counts another five or six swimmers... all diving below the surface as they draw near to the boats.
"Friends! We have company!" She points to the other swimmers in the water. "At least five swimmers in the water!"
She looks to see if she can make out any more details.
Joanna pulls the oar in and draws her sword, though she tries not to make it too obvious she has it ready.
"Why can't anywhere in this place not have something trying to kill us, seduce us, or both," Joanna grumbles.
Desperately looking around for the swimmers seen by Ziomarra, the group ready themselves... and then, a blackened hand reaches over the side of the boat carrying Arsith and Shadlah - and pulling down hard, attempts to capsize the suddenly precarious vessel...