"Well that is up there with some of the other crazy stuff I have seen. Boss take them before they freeze again or something."
In a more private psychic thread, Flann addresses Telv. ~You can sense the telepathy, right? I know it spans language barriers, but I'm only pretty sure non-gifted individuals can use it. Hold on- Connor's doing something dangerous.~
Flann, carefully hopping across his bridges, comes to an unsteady stop at the doorway behind Connor. Over the broader network, Flann announces, ~Flowers. A much better alternative to both the heart I expected from her, and the sword I suspected from the warrior. Now I wonder what goes on the other end of the scale.~
Connor took the flowers in the clothing he had wrapped around his hands. Walking over to the four-armed statue room, he laid the clothing on the floor, putting the white feather from before beside it. "A scale for the feather, flowers for the open hand? What does go in the other side of the scale?" Connor asked out loud.
"All right, Flann; on to the warrior statue." Connor declared.
"Poor lady who got frozen in the ice." says Telv of the statue.
Connor left the Easternmost room, going to the cathedral-like room, then to the warrior-reliefs room.
It's no trouble at all for Flann to run water to the warrior relief room.
Despite the repetition of copying, not crafting anything "new", Connor put his skill to use, making the warrior with the raised sword. He left off the sword blade on purpose, fearing what a pointed tip would do inside his bag of storage.
Using the trick with the bag of storage, Connor moved the statue from the relief room to the room with the four wells. Once the warrior was centered on the dais, Connor with Flann's help dipped more glowing water from the bucket, making the length of the sword blade.
"Stand back." Connor warned as he packed his tools away. "Just in case this guy decides to get belligerent." Using the last of the current water, Connor finished the final touches on the statue. He retreated nearly to the door himself.
The pedestal slides down into the floor as Connor tries to draw back, and water crashes in on the statue.
It completely submerges.
The pedestal stays under water, and then the sword comes thrusting up out of the water, held by a feminine hand. The sword bursts into a powdering snow, and a silver gilt sword is left behind, gripped in an icy hand.
Connor quickly came forward, using the padding of another shirt to grasp and take the silver-gilt sword.
As Connor takes the sword, the hand slips beneath the waters.
"It'd be nice if one of these was a guide to the prison jewel-keys." Connor muttered as he took the sword back to the room with the four-armed woman. Laying the sword beside the feather and flowers, Connor looked again at the woman and the position of her hands and what was in them. "So what's the pattern, the key here?" he asked no one in particular. "Let me think again. Panther to begin. Unknown obelisk. The flowers in a vase was a spectacular failure. Trapped bridge to hawk room. Hawk gave feather. Unbroken access to glowing water pool, which makes ice to make statues or to go over dangerous freezing water canals. Woman with flowers gave flowers. Warrior with sword gave sword."
Connor studied the four-armed woman. "Sword, shield, scales, open hand. Feather for scales. But do we put the flowers or the sword in her hand? She already has a sword. What opens the stairs to below? Hmmmm..."
Connor notices that on returning to the marble statue, that the black marlbe sword has now vanished as well, leaving her hand still grasping as if holding it, but it's no longer there.
As previously noted, the platform the marble statue is on is remarkably similar to the pedestal in the main room, simply rotated 45 degrees.
If the platform in the room were rotated to the same position as the one in the main room, the statue would face the entrance, rather than the corner of the room.
Flann rubs his elongated ears to get the blood flowing in them again. "Okay. Thinking like a worshiper of a true idol--See, miss halfling Goddess? I'm even multitasking! We'll have a shrine built in no time--you give her the flowers, as an introduction. As one would woo a lover, so do you court a scantily clad being of power. Then, you put the feather on the scale. That measures some metaphor like fear, temerity, or flower arrangement, as is fitting the idol's domain, then you fight the statue in a final proof of your worth, but only the sword will wound it." Flann has slipped from tired-grumpy to tired-facitious.
"Far be it from me to suggest anything that might drag this out, but maybe the flowers are for the vase room. It's not like the other puzzles, since it's a painting."
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In addition to the donkey ears that Flann doesn't seem to notice, his hair now turns a brilliant shade of pink.
"Or maybe you have to replace the stuff she had in her hands previously with the new stuff in your hands?" offers Telv.
"Er, sure, Flann." Connor said, noticing the change in his compatriot's coloring again. Tilting his head as Telv talked, Connor responded "That sounds a lot more likely - maybe this statue had a feather in her empty hand because we finished the hawk before she was found." Trying to keep from staring at Flann's pink hair, Connor continued "And this woman is the statue that needs to go in the throne room - with a 'reward' in each hand: feather, sword, scales, shield."
Connor looked at the others "We need the shield, and the scales." he concluded.
While walking back to the statue to check for missing swords, Flann moves his hand back and forth in front of his face, confirming the stares are not related to an elongated nose.
"Shield and scales, check. Lets do it. Still cold in here."
"Right. We're running out of time." Connor agreed with Adran. "Adran, Flann: you're the fastest, you do the searching - even in rooms we've already cleared. Check for changes. I'm taking Telv to the throne room and making this four-limbed statue so we're ready to place the other items in her hands. We know where the stairs going down are."
"Telv, I need you to be the bucket brigade this time." Connor asked.
Gathering back up the rewards, Connor went to the throne room and started working.
Adran scouts ahead.
Flann takes his time and focuses especially on locating the missing miniatures and probing the fixtures in each room.
Flann checks the floor, walls, the ceiling, behind the statue, etc.
An easy room to miss, Flann pokes at surfaces, knocks on walls, checks the ceiling...
Especially in the vase where the painting is, Flann checks the frame of the painting, pulling and twisting at it, touching the painting to see if it shifts like the reliefs, knocking on the walls and the ceiling.
At some point he catches his reflection in a surface and stops. His reaction slides through shades of simple surprise, academic fascination, professional admiration, self-consciousness, and finally exhausted acceptance. "Fair enough. I suppose pink and green are at least an aesthetically sound combination, uh, Tenfa?" Tugging his hood down, Flann hopes he remembered the name correctly, but checks again to make sure his eyes haven't developed nictitating membranes or extra fingers. In all, it's woken up the poor halvavian.
Oh dear, I like him. He can take a joke... Whatever shall I do to him next time?
Flann finds nothing new. He does notice that the flower vase room's relief's flowers look incredibly familiar, and after a moment, he realizes they look very much like the bouquet that Connor got from the ice statue.
Adran also scouts around, and finds nothing new either. He also notices that the bouquet that Connor got from the ice statue is like the one in the relief, down to having 6 roses and 6 daisies.
Since you've taken an interest again, Connor discussed internally, would you mind telling us why someone or someones would put such elaborate puzzles in sculptures for a prison? Everything here is meant to delay or harm an unprepared team of people. Not like any gaol I've ever seen. Still, I can't help but feel we've done more harm than good with Volita and two opened cells. Kalvara seemly had no problem with leaving when she wanted to. So why did she stay?
Now now dear, there's a difference between using your abilities outside the cells, and using them inside the cells. The cell her little toy was in could hold anything short of a demigod. The cells we will be passing after this level, which you'll note is harder and more deadly than the last, are able to hold demigods and weakened gods. Officially, the trials are here to slow you down until a guard can deal with you. Unofficially, we're gods, and we built a place that could hold us. Of course we put in ways to get around it, if we needed to. Would you build a jail you couldn't sneak out of? Or into? She sighs. As to the opening of cells, well, not all of us put people who are necessarily dangerous to the world in here. Remember, there's plenty of evil gods who used this place to. So I'm sure there's prisoners you'd want to break out, mixed in with things that would destroy the world for a giggle. I just don't know all the beings here. So far, we've not done anything that's overly dangerous, in the grand scheme of things. If you take the really long view at least...
~Nothing... Have we tried the bouquet in the room with the painting? The painting shows the same innocent love arrangement.~ Flann tucks a stray lock of pink hair into his hood. Ridiculous ears were one thing. Obviously, those were an affliction. Flann didn't need any help looking more epicene.
Woman-with-flowers gives flowers to put in vase for vase-with-flowers? Connor put out on the network. In other words, I've been working this backwards?
Connor used his cat's cradle to carry the ice vase back to the corkscrew-staircase room. Nobody come with me up here - I've already been hurt twice by falling freezing water and exploding roses. If this fails, I'll have to go back all the way to making another woman with flowers.
Adran, Connor added, I heard a grinding noise the last time. Look around and see if there is a penalty for doing this wrong.
Studying the picture in the room, Connor adjusted the vase until it fits the picture, placing the flowers in the vase. He quickly backed up, just in case this object exploded too.
"No problem boss, I have yet to see anything useful. Go ahead. I will look."
Looking around for traps or mechanical things.
+3 vs Traps
Carefully settling the vase back on the pedestal, Connor leaps back as water begins to fall from the ceiling again. The vase, which had lost some water due to being moved, fills again with water up to 2/3rds full. Somewhere nearby there is a grinding sound.
Carefully putting the flowers he got from the statue into the vase, he pulls his hands back. The flowers then coat over with ice, and the vase and flowers are complete. Some more grinding can be heard, and then two sections of wall pull back on the landing below.
Within those two sections are two small rooms. In one on a pedestal of ice is a silver shield. In the other room, a pair of balances also on an icy pedestal.
Flann speaks to Connor, to accommodate his seeming preference, but broadcasts the comments across the network. "So I guess the question is, do we put these on the many-armed statue in the side room, or in the arms of a duplicate statue in the grand icebox of doom? Oh, I guess we're lucky that we only had one of the four items before we first saw that statue. Would have been tough to guess which hand held what... or... What goes in that extra hand though, if the feather goes on the scale... Wasn't that hawk looking for something? Is the feather a solution, like the sword, shield, and scales, or is it a key, like the flowers?"
In preparation for the next sculpture, Flann totes the bucket back toward the room with the golden water.
"Nice job. Now we can finish and get some place warm I hope."
"Remember - don't touch the ice." Connor told Adran, tossing him a spare shirt to hold the shield. We have a shield and a set of scales! he sent to Flann. "I think these go in the throne room, the statue looked like it went there, if you turned it a little. And the exit is from the throne room." Connor said on the network.
Taking the scales back to the throne room, Connor placed them in front of the statue. As quickly and as safely as he could, Connor visited the room with the four-armed woman again, taking care to inspect her hands. Memorizing the four hands as they now held the four rewards, Connor went back to the throne room.
"Thanks, Flann, I'm going to need a little more water. We've wasted enough time, and yes, that includes on my account." Connor said as he finished the statue's hands.
Collecting all his equipment back together, Connor put the four rewards into the hands of the statue.
"Be prepared, Telv, everyone - here goes!" Connor said jovially, his good attitude back.
The statue with the four armed woman now has nothing in it's hands.
Finally, Connor adds the four items to the four armed ice statue. As he puts each in the hands, the hands awaken and the icy fingers move on their own to grasp the item.
When all four are in the statue's hands, there's a grinding sound from nearby, and then the water coming out of the floor doubles, then doubles again, so it's racing down the channel at four times the rate.
Off in the distance to the south, the group can see the lower level floors are beginning to fill with the icy water. And the rate of flow of the water doubles again, and then again... At this rate, the icy water will begin to flood the 'throne room' in less than 5 minutes.
As the others begin to assemble the statue, Flann wrings his hands. "I'm not sure-"
Then the room begins to fill with water.
"I uh... What I was trying to say..." Flann walks to the end of the great hall, looking down the stairs to see the rest of the rooms filling with water. "Stairs! The stairs! Ohhh Tenfa, we've sure done it this time." Flann slips and flutters as he heads toward the previously covered stairs.
"Flann, Adran, grab the bucket! Get to the exit room!" Connor shouted as he watched the freezing water accelerate. He whirled around, saying "Telv, you better run as fast as you can, or else I'm about to bag you again!"
When you enter the room with the stairs and marble blockage, the marble blockage has receded, allowing passage to the stairs.
Going down the stairs, the group finds a room with a glowing circle on the floor.
Telv, begins "running" as best he can, leaving a narrow trail of semi-crystalized ooze as he goes. Reaching the stairs, he plunges down then and then slides into the glowing circle before he can stop himself.
"So do we stand in the circle?"
As Telv enters the circle, he vanishes...
"Ok, well. Here goes nothing. See you on the other side boss."
Adran follows and steps into the circle.
Flann scrambles to the doorway with what remains of the gold water, waiting for Telv to get through the doorway. "Everyone though. In this case the unknown is preferable to the rising tides of death that follow." Soon he's left alone in the room with Connor. Flann looks up at the captain, blinking. "Uh... oh, okay. I'll go next then."
Flann tries to take the giant Tupperware and the gold water with him through the circle.
"I hope Telv isn't losing too much of himself." Connor said after the ooze-man disappeared.
"Yep, you're the scout - so secure the area before we arrive." Connor joked to Adran.
"I don't think you're going to need-." Connor began as Flann went before him into the glowing circle. With one last look at the rushing freezing waters of the Plane of Water level, Connor muttered "There had better be a faster way out, or we're stuck. On to the last cells!" as he strode through the glowing circle.
The group find themselves on the top of stairs, which lead down to the cells again. The first row of cells is completely empty, except for the last one on the left, which contains another little girl. This girl has no arms, her sleeves flutter. Her face has streaks on it, where she's been crying, but they have never been wiped away, so the streaks have formed red marks on her skin, almost making it look like she's crying bloody tears.
As the group stops in front of her cell, the path blocked by rubble, she sniffles. "Hello again. The devil and the elf broke the stones behind them. That was a long time ago. Can't you let me out please? I didn't do anything wrong... I don't know why I'm here..."
Oh dear... that's not good.. they broke the prison?
I got that feeling before, Tenfa. Connor sent back. Telv's "father" and the demon didn't appear to be in a custodial mood when they left.
Connor paused. Were those the skeletons? he asked. The centaur and the two others. All this time I was thinking they were adventurers like ourselves, but some final trap, like columns becoming guardians, killed them. But if those were the jailers...
We might have to use that wish in such a way as to repair this place, and make certain things functional again. That didn't work out for me with the statues on the first level. Connor opined.
Using Flann's network, holding a hand over his mouth and looking pointedly at Telv, Connor said Cell two-thirty-eight. The Regent said the occupant could grant two wishes. One is "that they do everything they can to hinder Dargasium for the next year". The other is for us. I hope we don't need a wish to just get out of here.
Telepathy or hand signals from here on, again. Tenfa says this is the dangerous level, with godling-level prisoners. Connor stated.
Connor hurried down the passageway.
"Great, this is going to take some time."
Adran gets to work moving rubble.
"It's blocked all the way down tot he next level." The girl says helpfully. "I can see the other side. The next level down is blocked too, I think they blocked all the stairways..."
Oh dear, if that's true... there's a reason people can't dig out of the prison. There's an infinite dirt and stone behind the walls, if they really did destroy the ceilings as they left... then there's an infinite pile of dirt and stone above each pile of debris to fill in as we dig it out.