As the last of you runs into the cave, you see that the main "entrance" to the cave only extends about ten feet into the mountain before branching off into three paths, left, right, and center. Temellen is standing near Kano when you enter the cave - Bolus, you open your mouth to shout, and you see Temellen whirling to face you. You didn't notice it before, but you get a flash of recognition now when you see his face contorted in fury at you. You remember when you saw him. He was an assistant to one of your team's Mimics! Even as your lips form the words, Numaloyo's lava flow covers the entrance to the cave with magma and superhot rocks. There's another shudder in the mountain that knocks you all prone or to your knees, and the natural light is extinguished.
You're all plunged into darkness. It takes a few moments for you to recover your balance and for your eyes to adjust to the dim light provided by the magma. Temellen is nowhere to be seen. What do you do?
Sinathel's eyes ajusting quickly to the dim light, makes sure the others are okay and notices one of their number is missing."Where is Temellen? Was he not here moments ago?" She moves around cautiously, her eyes and nose near the cave floor. She searches for disturbances beyond those caused by the current eruption, for foot prints, possible dropped items. Soon she moves to the walls, looking for hand prints. Reaching out she tries to find any spirits, both of The People and of Nature itself. 'Do you know where the two-legger-chicken-elf named Temellen went?' She was using everything in her power to find the elf. Perhaps, it would come down to her needing to Track his scent...
What here is not what it appears to be?
What happened here recently?
What should I be on the lookout for?
Bolus coughs and looks around with his stun rod raised the blue glow lighting an expression that is anything but calm. That elf, how do you know him? he's from my time
"He was... chased up a tree. The bug-men want him. Attacked him. Tried to take him. He hides why." Sinathel answers, focusing more on her examining of the area.
He is evil. Bolus states flatly. He grips his dog tag and concentrates seeking direction on which path is the correct one to take on order to save his people and hopefully chase down Temellen as well.
"If he is from your time, why does he talk of Pegasus Knights? He claimed to be an Elf of the Sky. Wished to summon a Beacon to have them save him."
"All things considered, I think that worked out well." Regos blurts out in the dim glow of the magma. It's a weak defense, but worth attempting. "We got away from those things, and we got inside the mountain... so those are the important aspects to remember when we relate this!"
He hadn't noticed Temellen's absence until Sinathel points it out. As she does, his confidence begins to wane. "Did he not make it in? I really thought he was ahead of me... I thought all of you were."
The other two seem to be covering his questions in their own discourse however, so the immolator's voice gradually fades. He lets them hash it out while he tries to get a better look at their surroundings. He's not poking around, but at the very least trying to see where they are. Would it be too serendipitous for there to be a passage from here that they could follow, or are they trapped in here for good as soon as this magma cools?
Bolus snorts No horses where we are from let alone flying ones. Seems like he's been taking you for a ride. No idea why.
"...then I will hunt him. He will become the prey he has set himself up to be. Perhaps he is the cause of this first beacon that begins the destruction of Gaia." Sinathel's eyes almost glow in the faint light, full of feral determination. She could feel the pull of her tiger form just below the surface. Soon. Soon she would take her favorite form.
[dice=Discern Realities]2d6+2
What here is not what it appears to be?
The very stones are doing the rock-equivalent of screaming at the pressure building from below. The heat is rising. Still, you're able to discern which tunnel Temellen ran down. Bolus the armored warrior seems to be staring determinedly down that very same direction, the middle tunnel, clutching his strange talisman and with a fiery light in his eyes. But the tunnel is not as safe as it appears. You "smell" a trap.
What happened here recently?
Others have been through this cave here recently, before Kano or anyone else. The tracks have strange treads, but are difficult to make out.
What should I be on the lookout for?
Your instincts warned you of Temellen's intentions, and Bolus' recognition seems to confirm them. Be on the lookout for the traitorous future elf's tricks.
Olivius spits and curses. I knew he was bad news. I have a vow to fulfill now. Two daggers to the spine. Sinathel, my dear, now is when I show you that I can be a hunter! Lets move. No use in staying near this entrance. It won't be cool for weeks.
"He took the middle tunnel, though there is a trap that way. Others were here before all of us. The treads of their tracks are strange, but they are hard to make out. Perhaps, they are the strange shoes of your people?" She asked Bolus curious. "Kano, Reglos, what do you know of this cave system? Does one of these other paths cross with one of the others further down the path?"
Sinathel smiles at Olivius's determination, eager to see this come true. "Yes, show me that you can be a hunter and not prey. This I wish to see with my own eyes."
Olivius takes the lead when a trap in mentioned. Give me a moment with it. I'll see what I can do.
Olivius moves carefully forward and examines the cave with a practiced confidence.
Olivius, you initially see nothing when you stare down the tunnel, but all of your thief instincts are screaming that that bastard Temellen left behind something nasty for you. Sinathel's warning only confirms your instincts.
Glancing left and right, you look for anything out of the ordinary. Your vision adjusts to the dim red glow, and you spot something out of place! A rock that doesn't quite fit with the wall it's part of. Examining it carefully, you find that the rock is actually mounted on carefully-disguised hinges. It's got a lock, but appears to have been closed hastily. When the rock is opened, you hear the hissing and crackling of electricity, and a row of turrets facing the interior of the tunnel are revealed from their hidden positions along each wall. Kano curses in surprise. "What devilry is here, in the heart of Numaloyo itself?" he demands, fury tinging his voice. Activating the trap - a tripwire at thigh height, thin as spidersilk - causes the turrets to fire....well, you aren't sure what, but you're pretty certain it's unpleasant. You feel warmth along your stolen blade as you discern what the trap's weaknesses are.
You also find a way to circumvent the turrets safely - in the ceiling - there, is that a hidden zipline? Yes, by clinging to a long iron bar that resembles bicycle handlebars, you can hold your body off the ground and zip down the tunnel at a terrific pace. That's probably how Temellen disappeared so fast. It looks like it only supports one at a time, though.
You can either try to disable the trap to pass or try to use the zipline to circumvent it. What do you do?
Disabling this will take too long. he announces. Time to go the fun way round! He leaps up and grasps a bar cleverly hidden in the rock of the ceiling. Within seconds he is whizzing down the tunnel at break-neck speeds!
Upon arriving at the bottom (barring instant combat) Olivius will seek for a way to return the zip line, if its not automatic, then attempt to make himself scarce until the rest of the party arrives.
While waiting, he will apply one dose of Serpent's Tears to each of his two throwing knives.
Edit : As soon as be hops on Olivius is painfully reminded about the gaping hole that resides in his left hand. It burns like fire and he thinks he feels a bit of a tear as the ride continues on. He screams most of the way down. It was endure the pain, or die. He'd rather endure. Death had already let him off once. Chances of that happening again... Well he doesn't want to test that.
You land smoothly on a what looks like a stone but apparently is a false one, for it's slightly padded under your feet. You rub your hand momentarily in pain, then look around to see a raised pedestal with two red-handled levers on it. There's also a door built into the mountain's wall, closed, and with a window in the center that shows a bright ruddy glow - presumably from the lava of Numaloyo's core. The shuddering of the mountain has stopped.
Failing that, Olivius will peek in the window to make sure it is safe I that door opens, then, if its safe, experiments with the levers until he sends the zip line handle back.
Sinathel watched Olvius zip through the cave, heard his pained screams. She debated with herself momentarily. As much as she iched to change into her tiger form, there was one that would better serve her here.
Sinathel's form shrank. Her skin, stretched itself from her arms and down her sides creating leathery wings. Her long elven ears became longer and larger in proportion to her size. Covered in fir, her eyes small and mostly useless in the light, b. Her bones became thinner, allowing her the ability to fly. With a cry she saw the world around her. The echos bouncing off the walls. She flitted around the others in the cave, just for a moment, before taking off after Olivius, using her Echolocation to avoid obstacles in her path.
That little jerk must have been here for a while to set a fancy trap like this Bolus growls. When the zip line comes back he motions for someone else to go across first. Looks like the far side is safe. I'll be rear guard
Sinathel, in order to navigate the tunnel you must spend 1 hold, but you get to Olivius safely and without incident. Olivius, the first lever you try causes the turrets to disappear once more or deactivate whether you pull it or push it forward and the zipline's controls are the secondary lever; the panel's relatively easy to understand. Neither affect the door, which appears to be shut and unlocked.
Olivius first sends the zipline back, then deactivates the turrets (just in case). He waits for his comrades before venturing further.
Sinathel, finding Olivius, decides that the best perch is to hang from his clothes.
Olivius jumps a bit when a bat lands on him. It takes a moment of staring before he realizes who it must be. Why hello, my dear. I expected you to be a tiger or ape.
Bolus walks cautiously to the rest. That was a gutsy move he says to Olivius.
Gutsy moves are the key to keeping the enemy from locking you down. Olivius seems more alive here than he has in a while. The environment is to his liking and he just got to go down a Zipline! My only wish is that Yala was here beside me.
Hitting them on the head works too! Bolus grins. How do we open this door?
Olivius goes to the door and pushes/pulls on it. If it opens he continues through.
It opens easily. You surmise that in his haste, Temellen may have simply trusted to the confusion of the three tunnels and the turret trap to dissuade pursuit. Little does he know that the Hand of Gaia is not so easily deterred. With Bolus and Sinathel backing you up and Kano and Si-Yi not far behind, you look beyond the threshold.
The first thing you notice is that you can hear a new sound with the door opened - the crackling of electricity. The hallway beyond the door is dimly lit with a combination of ruddy light from the omnipresent lava and the lighter, bluer light coming from some other unknown source.
Following the hallway cautiously you notice that it descends downward at a steady angle that continues from the angle you noticed before. Kano cautions you to be wary. "No outsider has ever been allowed even this far into the caves of the sacred mountain," he murmurs in his deep baritone. "The spirits of my tribe's ancestors are said to dwell in Numaloyo's heart, and do not brook outside interference lightly. I fear this...Temellen does not know what he has done."
His voice trails off and all you can hear is the soft crackling of electricity, snapping and cracking some distance ahead. You trek lower and lower until you can tell that the crackling is coming from a widening in the tunnel up ahead.
Rounding a corner, you have difficulty suppressing a gasp of surprise. Before you is the heart of Numaloyo, a pillar of molten lava pressed constantly upward by massive tectonic forces below. The cave opening surrounds the lava pillar, and you see what looks like an ancient stone shrine carved of obsidian stone near the center of the lava flow. The mountain is quiet, for now, but the room is hot, very hot. There are other tunnels leading to this room, spaced elsewhere along the cave walls, that appear to have been largely covered up by cloths. The statue itself is giving off a soft purplish glow and is also emitting large bolts of electricity that are being contained in control rods spaced 15 feet on either side of the statue.
Kano narrows his eyes and chuffs in rage. "That...cursed elf is defiling the Shrine of Demon's Maw! That is a sacred place! Who is that with him?"
Bolus is the only one to recognize him - for indeed, he has a sacred guidance leading him straight to him. It is Doctor Orwell, also known as Mimic Orwell, the scientist that was leading the expedition that Bolus was accompanying. Bolus hasn't seen him since the incident that sent him, and apparently his research team, back in time. He and two other Mimics that you recognize are studying the sculpture with handheld scanning devices and have a larger workstation covered with technology nearby.
Bolus confused by the flight of Temellen, who he knows to be evil, leading him right to the people he has sworn to protect grips his cherished tags and whispers urgently What here is Evil?
Regos has been following the others in relative silence. Olivius' maneuvers were impressive, making a potentially dangerous situation much more manageable.
As the enter the room with Numaloyo's heart, Regos is stunned. He doesn't even notice the interlopers until Kano's rage draws attention to them.
Olivius jumps a little at the voice. Noone should be able to get that close without him noticing. He spins and sees noone, but does note the blade in his pants getting warmer. He slides over to Khano and decides that now might be a good time to find out more about what he had taken.
Khano, this may seem like an odd time, but I overheard some of your tribe talking about a special dagger in that but that stood apart from the rest. They wouldn't say how it was special though. Might it be related to that obelisk down there?
Bolus, you know Temellen to be evil, but all other "signatures" in the room are made suddenly irrelevant to you. Staring at the shrine as it emits bolts of lightning to the adjacent control rods, you are overwhelmed by the enormity of what you see. Clutching your dog tags so tightly that they cut into your palms, your eyes behold evil the likes of which you have never seen before. The energy being emitted from the shrine...it's loathsome, disgusting. An abomination. You sense the spirits of the dead's screaming in every bolt of electricity. The evil from that shrine shines like the radiance of a dark sun, and the people operating their machines nearby are like pale fireflies, completely obscured in its light.
Only your paladin's sense of steel resolve prevents you from falling to your knees in shock.
Regos: Temellen is speaking urgently to the other men, but they seem absorbed in their work, busily tinkering with something you can't quite make out from your angle.
Kano turns to stare at Olivius for a moment before responding. "Who...no matter. What you say is true, outsider. The dagger of which you speak is used in our most sacred of ceremonies. It's forged from rare materials offered up by Numaloyo herself. That dagger is said to exist partway between the lands of the living and the spirit world." Kano points with a huge finger at the shrine. "When a warboss spends his life subjugating lands, as is his holy mission, and yet remains unconquered, he sacrifices himself to Ku, the Great Conqueror, at that shrine. That altar. Using that dagger."
That unholy construct is PURE EVIL! Bolus roars. It is powered by the SOULS OF THE DEAD! IT MUST BE STOPPED. Mimic Orwell! What are you DOING? Where are the other Guardians?
They make one wrong move and I'm skewering Temellen. Olivius growls while searching this own knowledge base about spirit knives and anything else that might be of use that he has learned in his career.
He stays out of sight as much as he can. An unseen thief is a thief with an advantage. He searches the room for an unseen route to flank the men and possibly get close to Temellen without being seen.
An idea comes to him. What would happen if a coward like Temellen were sacrificed on the altar?
Sinathel, biding her time while on Olivius, has been busy as they moved talking to the spirits that surround them. Learning more about their surroundings.
What here is not what it appears to be?
Who’s really in control here?
What happened here recently?
"It is powered by the SOULS OF THE DEAD! IT MUST BE STOPPED. Mimic Orwell! What are you DO-" click.
Without even a grunt, Bolus' voice is cut off. Mimic Orwell, his eyes cold and detached behind his flashing spectacles, lowers a hand-held device and stares at it. "Marrrrvelous!" he comments, rolling his r's. "The time-arrestor device is functioning within normal parameters. A bit...abrupt, for a field test, but what is science without a little improvisation?"
He sets the device down on the table beside him, adjusting it slightly after the fact to ensure that it's still pointed directly at Bolus. A soft purple glow emits from the end pointed at the paladin. Bolus, you feel paralyzed, as if no muscle in your body will obey your command. You can't even speak. You're stuck in the self-righteous pose you were in as you stormed across the room toward the Mimics. Before you rises the tall pillar of fire that is the heart of Numaloyo, and before it - the perversion is even more repugnant to you this close.
"I thought you said you lost them!" he snaps, his pleasant tone of voice fading instantly as he turns to Temellen, who cringes.
"Hey, I did my best! They were suspicious of me from the start, and avoiding Bolus' notice took all of my ingenuity! You should respect me for that!" the elf cries.
The Mimic rolls his eyes and gestures to the other Mimics behind him. "Begin the final countdown. The eruption should be taking place any time now - it's the perfect catalyst." The other Mimic, Bolus recognizes him as a mousy man named Doctor Withers, nods in assent and moves to a panel of buttons next to the shrine.
Kano growls in fury and makes to charge them! What do you do?
Answer me, great Khano! Then smash your foes! What should happen if an unworthy coward is sacrificed!
Sinathel, biding her time while on Olivius, has been busy as they moved talking to the spirits that surround them. Learning more about their surroundings.
[dice=Discern Realities]2d6+2
What here is not what it appears to be?
These Mimics smell like weak-willed prey to you - but they must be aware of you coming, and they don't seem concerned. That should make you concerned.
Who’s really in control here?
Mimic Orwell obviously is in command here, judging from the way he treats the other Mimics and Temellen.
What happened here recently?
Off on the far end of the cavern, difficult to make out, you can see tall standing clear plastic canisters about 10-12 feet in height. There are dead or unconscious humans inside them, and the glass is almost completely covered in bugs on the inside. This must be where the bug-men were granted their strange ability to discorporate into swarms.
Answer me, great Khano! Then smash your foes! What should happen if an unworthy coward is sacrificed!
Kano turns back and shouts his response as he charges forward. His eyes are wild with bloodlust and righteous rage. "This will please Ku! And that is EXACTLY MY PLAN!"
What else can Bolus do? He strains against the paralysis gripping him with all of his weakened might
Olivius dashes off down the route-least-obvious and draws the warm, primitive blade. He holds it in his wounded hand and flicks his wrist to draw the throwing knife into his right hand.
You struggle valiantly, but the most you're able to manage is the slightest movement of your throat, making the sound "...grggrrrrrrrrrrgh". Unfortunately, you're well and truly trapped for now.
The dagger flickers with ghostly-silver fire along the blade, and blood from your wounded hand flows into the hilt as you hold it, staining it a darker shade of red.
The cavern is large, a donut-shaped cave around the pillar of lava in the middle of the volcano. Above, you can see the roof curve toward the central pillar to support the caldera itself. You're able to loop around, but there's not much cover and you notice one of them glancing at you as you sneak around.
Sinathel angered at this... defilement of nature, takes flight from Olivius and begins to change form. Her size grows and her form begins to shift, but it doesn't seem to be going to any animal. Adopting a form only her instincts could guide her too, she becomes rock and her form grows!
Sinathel completes her change, now an Earth Elemental.
Olivius, the only thing you can recall about spirit weaponry is that the spirits that imbue them often retain the personalities they held in life.