Just as the first wheel locked the second platform into place, you find that so too does the second wheel lock the third platform into place.
As you turn the third wheel, Mia alerts you all to something she sees: a pair of large shadows swiftly swimming towards the surface of the water.
This means those gathered around the last wheel are not caught unawares as the water erupts just beside the platform. Two giant piranhas survived Sargon's electric breath and have emerged from the depths of the water in search of a meal.
They leap out of the water and actually carry themselves aloft by their feathery fins. The first one gnashes its many sharp teeth at Oliver, but he manages to dodge the creature. Dargys, however, is clipped by the second one's bite. It is a small wound, but it stings terribly and bleeds profusely.
A curse in Orich at the bite, and the wizard steps back a bit and unleashes a bolt of force.
Just as soon as Dargys is hit and bleeding, Oliver channels some of his life essense to close the wound. "Some of these things just do not know when to quit..." he mutters.
"Well, poor fish, you might think you just jumped up to grab dinner, but unfortunately it is more like you offered yourself to a hungry dragon."
Taking cover behind his shield, he is content to conserve magic and just wait for Sargon and the martial companions to finish the weakened fish.
”Bah! Fookin’ fish. Just jump into the wyrm’s mouth already.” Varr grumbled.
"Yes please.", the dragon says amused.
Dargys' bolt of magical force stuns one of the fish long enough for Varr to crack it across the toothy maw with his waraxe. On his follow through, Varr cuts the head off the other as though getting it ready for a fish fry.
The last of the dangerous fish are thus dealt with.
After working together to turn the third and final bronze wheel, you can hear the grind of stone as the door ahead opens. You can also hear the flow and gurgle of water as drain shafts just behind the stonework empty, further clearing the way for you.
The room beyond is bone dry. The ceiling is polished into a mirror, reflecting the room below it. Apart from the mirror-like ceiling, the only furnishings are three blocks of rough stone, roughly 7 ft. on a side. Each block sits on, but does not quite cover, a bronze grate; there is one grate along each of the north, east, and south walls.
"Many thanks, Olvert. Small wound but it looked to be a gusher."
He glances at the room beyond.
"The blocks, the grates, and the ceiling... they have old enchantments upon them"
"No problem, dear Dargys," He says with a pained grimace. Fortunately, the enemy was dealt with swiftly and he didn't feel as weak as to have to heal himself.
He follows the frontline into the now unlocked room and detects it as per usual. Then he lets out a low whistle. "He's right. Lots of ancient magic in here. I'll try and identity the auras..."
"Perhaps the blocks are blocking the pathway from the grates to the mirrors? Good idea to take a closer look perhaps."
As said, he moves forward with other volounteers to explore the room.
Mia hovers inside in her elemental form.
Hmm... Maybe, I'm not sure what else it could be.
Dargys goes deeper in closer, his plan to study the magic
Oliver discovers that the effects of different schools of magic have been applies to different portions of the room. The stone blocks show signs of transmutation magic, the bronze grates glow with an aura of evocation magic, and the mirrored ceiling (which causes Oliver to feel slightly dizzy if he looks at it too long with his magic senses) radiates with divination magic.
Dargys quickly deduces that, owing to the transmutation spell laid upon them, these massive stone blocks are actually much lighter than they should be. While it might ordinarily require an entire team of mules to move such large blocks, you estimate that only two or three of you working in unison could push these blocks to the left or right along the walls.
Mia, Claudia, and Sargon notice something quite fascinating about the ceiling. As Oliver walks inside the room, they notice that the movements of his reflection in the mirror-like ceiling are not synchronous with his. For instance, they observe that his reflection is shown entering the room a moment before he actually does. Whatever divination magic is embedded within the polished ceiling causes it to reflect what happens a moment before the action is taken, with about a three second difference.
Based upon the evidence of evocation magic identified by Oliver, Francoix also identifies the presence of a dangerous magical trap connected to the blocks and grates.
If you had to guess, pushing the blocks in the wrong direction would trigger the traps, while pushing them in the correct direction would be safe.
Claudia and Sargon also spot evidence of hidden niches waiting behind the blocks.
Dargys shares what he suspects about the blocks, then says "Some sort of... giant puzzle box?"
"It would seem so." Varr said. "And sadly, we just can't feed this problem to a dragon." After a moment he added "Can anyone summon a creature? It would be good to see what the puzzle does before we risk it."
"Conjuration is one of my weak points." A shake of his head, "Also am weak on the oogie boogie dead shambling around stuff."
"Does someone have rope we could drag the blocks with? If close range effort would potentially harm us, being as far as possible away from it..."
We could simply walk up, and start turning the wheel. Perhaps whatever will happen will show up in the ceiling? Lets try right.
She says, stepping forward a bit.
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"Right it is." Varr began turning the wheel, eager to see something happen.
Oliver hangs back and inwardly braces himself for whichever evocation magic this puzzle or trap contained. Usually, that meant something was very liable to blow up in their face - literally...
as they are pushing, Mia seems to get a thought in relation to the strange time phenomena.
Oh... what if its like a clock? Instead of light or right, its clockwise or counter clockwise?
With the ropes secured around the first of the three blocks, Mia and Varr begin to pull and slide the enchanted stone to the right. Just as she begins musing about whether this could be the correct direction, Mia looks up and notices something alarming in the predictive reflection upon the ceiling.
She tries to pull both herself and Varr out of harm's way, but she isn't strong enough to move her heavily armored companion entirely to safety. A wave of deadly cold shoots forth from the grate that was previously covered by the stone, and it catches Varr upon his armored back - leaving wisps of frost upon his hair.
Once the trap subsides, you look past the grate to the niche that has been revealed by moving the stone block. Upon a stone shelf within the niche, you see a preserved reed scroll flanked by a pair of bronze flasks.
"Var!" A look of shock, then "Did not see that coming."
Varr shivered and stomped his feet to get feeling back into them. "Bah! Fooking hell that was cold." He said, as he shook the frost out of his beard. "But worth it to get past that. These ere scrolls are worth a fair bit of coin. Well worth some chill to make a profit off this venture."
"Making a profit indeed. Now let's hope we will not need them ourselves."
"Let's see if there is anything more to be found."
When the team gets to some place new in here;
Claudia and Sargon observe that there are similar niches hidden behind the other two enchanted, unnaturally light stone slabs. These, hopefully, hold additional treasures. However, there do not appear to be any additional doors or passageways down here. You seem to have reached the end of the line for the well shaft.
"Any other suggestions? I am starting to wish I brought a chisel... and several dozen skilled strong fellows to put to work with it" Sheepishly
"Bah...I can't think of anything." Varr said, looking closely.
"Anyone have a hammer? Even if the stone slaps are enchanted, the stone around them won't be. We can break through them. Take the stone out from beneath, and the enchanted stone should fall out."
Varr finds that, like the first slab, these other two slabs are enchanted to be far lighter than their immense size would suggest. By reusing your ropes and tying them around the slabs, it should only take two or three of you working in tandem to move each of them, allowing access to whatever treasures are hidden in the niches behind them. In fact, even if you move them in the wrong direction, by using the ropes and the foresight provided by the magic mirror above, you would likely even be able to avoid further triggering of the cold traps laid upon the bronze grates beneath the slabs.
"See? Profit!" Varr said, straining both physically and mentally as he went to work. "Nothing that can't be done with a bit of exertion, aye? Just give me a hand and we'll be right as stone."
Meanwhile, Oliver redirects the suffered frost damage from Mia and Var onto himself from them, as they warm and he shivers momentarily. "S-sounds like a good plan." He comments rubbing and warming his hands. "I can't claim to be that strong, but I'm more than happy to assist, as always."
The wizard grins, "Good eyes, good brain" And throws in his own muscle
Together, you prove strong enough to move the stones.
Within the niche revealed once the second slab is moved, you find a trio of ancient clay bowls that cradle an assortment of precious stones: 5 citrines, 3 large turquoise, and 7 blue quartz.
The third and final niche contains a more mysterious treasure. You find more ancient pottery, these ones with lids sitting atop their openings. Inside three of the pots, you find bundles of dried yet still fragrant herbs and leaves. Inside the fourth pot, you find three bars of coarse gray soap.
"Something for a ritual cleansing?"
With no other dangers at the bottom of the well, you have plenty of time to examine and assess these new treasures.
With some spellcraft analysis, you deduce that the fragrant herbs and leaves are actually three bundles of magical Seer's Tea, while the three bars of soap are actually Soul Soap.
"Ah, seer's tea and soul soap. Not only is it useful, but it will sell more than an entire cart full of produce. These are, without a doubt, the best kinds of finds to make. Valuable enough that they will weigh less than the amount of coin we will get for them." The merchant smiled. "Let's keep looting the place. This is a damned good haul so far."
"Ah, I like the sound of that." He nods agreement
You can go no further down the well. These once-hidden niches are dead ends, and after a thorough search, you can find no more ancient treasures down here. With a bit of effort, you ascend back through the levels of the well shaft and return to the surface.
Only the old palace remains to be searched.
Once back on the surface, Claudia wipes away the bit of dust the old interior had left on her person.
"That was interesting, at least. Just one more place to visit, right?
The palace itself."
Sargon makes a grin, as far as a dragon's mouth can produce such an expression.
"I hope it is majestic, at least a little. Palaces are by stories, so ruins thereof should be a bit still, right?"
Oliver nods and follows the rest of the group to the palace, but not before quickly healing himself by giving up a minor healing spell.
"The palace is also perhaps the most dangerous. We still haven't run into this Cho-Oda or the room of statues I saw in the vision. We would do well to be cautious," The attractive blonde man gives a wry grin. "Not that I need to tell you any of that, of course."
The humid air weighs heavily upon you as you climb back up, out of the well, and return to the plaza in the shadow of the ancient palace. The stepped mastaba upon which it sits is similar to the architecture of the great ziggurat back at Haven, although there are enough differences to attest to the passage of an age between their individual constructions.
You climb the stairs leading up to the thick stone doorway, wreathed with ferns and creepers, and find the puzzling inscription that has thus far vexed Sargon. The text does look reminiscent of the ancient Kaskkari script that you have seen elsewhere among the ruins both here and back home. However, the way they are carved - at least according to the well-read dragon - is pure gibberish.
"Gibberish or not, this place will either have all of the best loot or it will be picked clean. But if the former, then it may well be trapped. So let's be on our guard, aye? Keep a good eye out, and hope we find traps. Because if so, then it means we may be in for a good haul." The dwarf said, staying cheerful.
"Oh this is terrible, the syntax, the grammar... is all the wrong!" He reads the writing or tries to
It is Dargys that makes the breakthrough which previously eluded the young dragon: the inscription is written backwards.
The epiphany comes from a combination of knowledge that some wizards use "mirror writing" - in lieu of writing in code or ciphers - to safeguard their notes on magic as well as experience, having seen cheeky schoolchildren writing backwards for a lark.
Once Dargys makes this elucidation, Claudia and Sargon are able to translate the message. In the form of a poetic hymn to one of the old Kaskkari hero-gods, it provides instructions to open the door. Holding up a mirror or other suitably reflective surface to face the inscription will cause the door to open.