The monk begins to climb down, loses her grip, and falls right onto a stone chair-back. Ouch.
I'm ready to come back up. Everyone else okay with that?
Seeing Leifa slip and fall, Layali begins climbing down the rope after the elf! Though at first her gusto seems to outmatch her ability, she quickly stablizies herself from swinging wildly around on the rope and shimmies down into the chamber.
Excitement turns to disappointment as Layali quickly moves to the bookshelf to look at the possible ancient knowledge, only to discover they are actually stone as well.
Looking at how the books seem to be part of the bookshelf, and the bookshelf itself seems to be part of the floor and walls, and the table and chairs all seem to be part of the rest of it, "I am starting to think our stone friends out there and these chambers were part of some kind of terrible arcane disaster. I am no dwarf, thankfully, but see how these stone bits all seem to be part of the same larger whole?"
To Layali: "It does seem odd to think someone would take the time to carve all of this by hand. But for a spell to turn a whole region into stone-that would be some fearsome magic." "Are you ready to head back up?"
When they are ready to climb up, Leifa will let Layali go first. Then attempt to climb up herself.
"It would be odd to carve such a detailed...still life." Layali agrees. "Help me climb up dear?"
Nathadriel will do what he can to assist from the surface as the others climb back up.
Gordon taps his foot impatiently.
climbing
The ladies successfully return from their climb, and relay the information they found to the menfolk.
Nathadriel offers a quick prayer to heal Leifa's wound.
After a quick healing spell, the party is on the move again toward the ziggurat. It takes some time to weave through the bizarre mixture of quasi-geometrically-shaped hills and erratically-placed buildings, but by late morning you've reached the base of the massive structure.
A stone-tiled path leads toward the structure, looming some 50 feet ahead of you. As is often the case with ziggurats, each floor of the building is smaller than the one beneath it. This ziggurat appears to rise about four stories above the ground, with a small open-air structure (much like a stone gazebo or some such) adorning the roof. A very wide staircase (about 20 feet across) ascends the outside of the structure on the side facing you, going all the way to the top. At each floor, a gap in the stairs offers ingress in the form of an open doorway cut out of the middle of the stairway, with the stairs continuing uninterrupted on either side of each such doorway. The outside of the ziggurat is heavily weathered and spotted with moss and other overgrowth; whether any portion of the outer surface bears any discernible markings or engravings cannot be seen without getting a closer look.
"Perhaps we should climb to the top and look in each door to get some idea of what lies inside before we choose?"
"It's worth a try, I suppose."
to Nathadriel "Thanks. Feel much better now."
To the group once at the ziggurat: "I like the idea of heading towards the top first, but it be worth looking in each door on the way up."
You approach the ziggurat and peer into the ground-level entrance. The opening itself is about 10 feet wide and 10 feet high, a simple square hole in the broad staircase that ascends the side of the structure. Rather than being a doorway into a larger room, however, the opening is instead the beginning of a 10ft wide passageway that extends into the structure.
Along the walls of the passageway are engraved circles not unlike images of the sun, spaced at regular intervals, near the ceiling. Some glow with the brightness of a torch, some flicker dimly, and others emit no light at all.
About 20ft ahead, the path splits into a T-intersection.
My votes for keep going up to the top. Peeking into the other doorways on the way.
You ascend the stairs up to the second tier and have a look at the entryway. It's about the same dimensions as the other (10ft by 10ft), but this one is blocked by a heavy portcullis (seemingly made of stone) and behind it is a set of stone doors that look like they were carved to resemble iron-barred wooden doors.
You also notice that on this tier, the outer walls have narrow windows, not unlike arrow slits, spaced about every 5 feet.
Look through a window
Leifa peers into one of the windows. Inside, she sees a back wall about 15ft back from the outer wall, and she can see no walls or doors to the left or right, suggesting a hallway running along the rim of this tier. Within that space, Leifa can see mostly-empty weapon racks, with both the racks and their sparse contents made of stone.
"Nothing's attacked us yet? Let's keep going up."
"Agreed"
Ascending to the 3rd tier, you notice that the outer walls of this level have large engravings of stylized flames. Peeking in the doorway, you see that the entryway opens up into a room of unknown size, at the center of which is an interesting sight: a massive, stone sculpture in the shape of a huge flame, with bits of pieces of it actually on fire (despite stone not normally being flammable). Due to the narrow scope of what you can see past the entryway and the immensity of the burning, flame-shaped rock; you're unable to see anything else inside without going in.
"Color me curious. I'd like a closer look at that thing."
Layali will accompany Gordon and see if she can discern anything interesting about this strange flame.
After glancing at the flame, Leifa will look around the room and will stand guard as best she can (either at the doorway into the room or by a hallway if there is one. If there are multiple blind spots, she'll walk around continuously letting the others investigate).
Nathadriel will also remain on guard, probably at the doorway watching the room but predominantly keeping an eye outside.
Gordon and Layali head into the chamber while the others keep watch.
The room seems to be empty and symmetrical: exits like the one you came in exist in all four directions, and the giant burning stone flame statue thingy takes up most of the space in the center. Additionally, you discover that the "stoneflame" is not sitting on the floor, but is rather floating. That is, the floor of this tier only extends about 10ft in from the walls, forming a sort of walkway with a big open space in the middle that is almost entirely filled by the levitating stoneflame.
Drawing near to the stoneflame, you can feel a soft warmth coming off of it, that seems somehow less harsh than the heat of an ordinary flame. Layali would even guess that the flames have more in common with radiant energy than with common fire, but that's about all she can guess from a quick look.
Some of the stone parts that don't have open flames are nevertheless glowing slightly and giving off heat. Watching for a few moments, you can see the edges of the stone slowly receding, giving way to actual flame. It appears that the stoneflame is gradually converting from stone to flame.
Layali looks around, taking it in...
Leifa will try investigating the flamestone.
"You know the more I look at this, the more I think it's turning from stone back into flame. If you are right Layali that some spell has turned this whole region into stone, I wonder if the spell is starting to lift?"
"Fascinating. So the stone beings we fought may be returning to life or coming out of some strange torpor?"
Joining the others in investigating the strange stoneflame, Nathadriel nods to Layali and Leifa. "That theory certainly fits with what we saw fighting those statues. If they've been hibernating for long enough it could possibly also explain the old Hilvan style of knife we first encountered back in Linhaus when that unfortunate man appeared during Gordon's feast.....although not how it arrived in midair."
"Shall we continue to the top, or do we begin exploring here? I would like to finish getting a better view of everything personally..."
"Lets continue on up. I would like to see what's on top as well."
"Yes, up first, then down."
Leaving behind the stoneflame for the moment, you ascend the final flight of outer stairs and reach the doorway into the fourth tier. The interior of this area is the smallest yet, no more than 20ft across. In each of its four corners is a stone brazier, and they are all alight. In the center of the room is an altar upon which some incense slowly burns. The inside walls of this room are lined with images of the sun, flames, and winged humanoids.
Directly above the altar is a 10ft wide, circular hole in the ceiling, through which you can see a bit of the open-air structure that you saw on the roof back when you were first approaching the ziggurat. From here, it appears to be little more than a circle of decorative stone columns, with a stone ring connecting their tops. You could get a closer look if you got up there, but the stairs don't go to the roof.
Layali investigates the braziers and incense to see if they are magical alight.
"Leifa can you boost me up through the hole?"
After helping Layali up, Leifa will climb onto the alter and follow her up through the hole, being careful to not touch the burning incense.
"Looks inhabited. Or maybe the incense just now un-stoned itself. Creepy either way."
Taking a closer look, Gordon sees that the altar shows no sign of being in the process of transforming from stone to anything else, and that the incense looks like modern stuff; thus, he concludes that someone put fresh incense on the solid stone altar and lit it. Same with the braziers in the corners.
Layali climbs up onto the roof by balancing on the monk, who in turn climbs up onto the roof by balancing on the altar. Looking around, the ladies see that unlike the coarse stone that comprises most of the ruins you've seen, the decorative columns on this rooftop are made of fine marble. Lying on the roof is a leather pack filled with small metal tools of various sorts, all with green smudges on their edges. You then realize that although the stonework up here is as weathered as everywhere else, it's almost entirely devoid of the moss and lichen that's splotched all over most of the ziggurat's exterior; someone has been slowly and meticulously cleaning this rooftop.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, you all hear someone shout, "TIKKA NIKT KRIT TAGGA!" The words are followed by a low boom and a lightning-fast blur from out of the sky toward the roof, seeming to come launching out of thin air.
The figure slams into Leifa, who goes tumbling backwards toward the edge of the roof!
Leifa skids painfully across the stone rooftop and over the edge, but reaches out and clutches the edge of the roof, keeping herself from tumbling down the backside of the ziggurat!
Meanwhile, the figure that tackled Leifa is hovering just over the roof: a humanoid creature with a head, legs, wings and feathers like those of a bird of prey has come to a stop and now directs its attention (and its Hilvan-style spear) toward Layali.
Then, a second such creature appears in the sky (again, out of thin air), this one extending a hand toward Layali and launching three beads of magical force!
Layali calls out, "Go down below!" Layali disengages and climbs back down the hole in the roof!
Gordon tries to fire a shot from the shadows down below at the spearman.
Leifa will drop down to tier four and run into the building to join the others.