"I'm not sure that's wise on reflection. As I understand it both options are Set's judgement, either for wrong doing or for achievements. Give Set's nature it would seem unlikely we would pass either criteria. But maybe it will not be an issue, the responses are વરદાન and નિર્ણય I do not know which is which sadly, I said નિર્ણય last time. Perhaps we should allow Mahsati to decide if she is to trigger things?"
The group gathered outside the room of glittering mosaic serpents. The fires from the broken lanterns had burned out. It was dark once again. The snakes were gone again, having retreated back into the writhing surroundings.
Hasani casts light upon Mahsati's weapon.
"Right." Hefting her now-glowing hammer in preparation to strike anything unpleasant that may appear, Mahsati edged into the room, continuously muttering "વરદાન....વરદાન...." Half of it was done as much so that she could remember the unfamiliar word as it was to see what exactly the word would trigger.
Zayid holds his bow ready as well.
Serpentine eyes stare from all sides and the coils beneath Mahatsi's feet move just enough to be unsettling and keep her off balance.
A soft voice speaks from all around.
"શું તમે નિર્ણય અથવા આશીર્વાદ લેવી"
Mahsati, unfamiliar with the words, turns around to glance questioningly at the others. Perhaps they had heard and would be able to provide an answer...
Zayid just shrugs helplessly.
"As long as they aren't attacking, I don't much care if it's talking about its favorite formal attire."
He shrugs again and steps into the room.
The strange words seem to echo across the writhing walls, waiting for an answer. There are two exits to the room, but both are covered by a door of moving serpents.
Zayid steps back out of the room. "Uhh... Farooq? You have any idea what they're asking?"
Mahsati frowned, lifting her chin almost defiantly at the question. "વરદાન" she repeated to the room, loud and clear.
Hasani nods encouragingly, mouthing the two phrases again as mahsati looks back uncertainly, then he nods as she answers, hoping for a better result than last time...
The serpent coils blocking the outward archway slither free, revealing another room.
The archway is large, easily eight feet in height. Through it stands the statue of a huge man carved from terra cotta and covered in the same many-colored mosaic scales that adorn the glittering room. Instead of a man's head, it is that of a hooded cobra carved from gold.
It bears a golden shepherd's crook and a golden scythe crossed across it's chest and a sarong woven of tiny golden chain links. Even it's sandals are gold.
It's eyes open, spraying ruby light down onto Mahatsi.
It is like staring into the eyes of creation. A sense of manic energy fills you. These are the eyes of freedom and inspiration and genesis. These are the eyes that see all things, unbound and unfettered.
They do not judge. Judgement implies a need for order.
Set does not judge. Set gives permission.
This temple is yours. The world is yours. All doors are open for you.
You have stared into the eyes of chaos. It was fun.
Instead of being fearful you found a lust for life and the joy of discovery. You found a sense of self-importance that you didn't realize you were lacking. You gave yourself permission. The world has done it's best to shape you into what it wanted you to be, in spite of your own desires.
F%&@ that.
As a Barbarian, you know the thrill of unfettered emotion. The gaze of the serpent has amplified that. Morality itself is an arbitrary set of impositions. True freedom does not care about right and wrong.
Raising an arm instinctively to shield herself from the unexpected beam of light, Mahsati squinted back at first in awe, then mounting indignation. Permission? She had often done as she pleased without requiring such a thing. What she had wanted, she had always taken by virtue of her own power. That was the only permission she ever felt that she needed. This changed nothing!
After a few moments, she turned, fixing the group with an inpatient gaze, her eyes glimmering oddly in the light. "Are you lot coming or not?"
Zayid steps into the room and looks around. "Is everything alright? Can you tell if the previous group came this way?"
Hasani watches events with alarm, but seeing Mahsati apparently unharmed he casts and scans her with detect magic,
"Do you feel well Mahsati? It clearly did something to you, and being at the instigation of Set I doubt it was anything good, the opposite is far more likely. Now I suppose we need to find out if another of us entering will activate the room again, or if we can pass..."
You activate your Detect Magic just as the red energies are dissipating. You manage to catch remnants of what you think is Divination magic.
Also, the snake-headed statue gives off a powerful aura of Divination, Enchantment and Universal magic.
"Divination magic, powerful, it read her somehow? And enchantment, and general magical energies besides. I suspect its done something to her mind..." Hasani says, eyeing Mahsati warily.
Instantaneous effects tend not to leave auras. They effect some change and then dissipate. No instantaneous effect that you can think of could cause a permanent change in something.
Some instant effects can permanently change objects into other objects, or rearrange their properties. Very few effects could do such things to a living creature. None that you can think of could effect something's mind.
The magics that could accomplish something like that are incredibly powerful. A Wish granted by a Djinn or the direct intervention of a deity through a Miracle are examples of ways something like that could be accomplished.
If such magics have effected Mahatsi there is little chance of it being able to be detected, or reversed, without magic of similar power.
"I guess it's safe enough, shall we press on?"
"There are no simple and instant magics that can change a living person. At least, not that I have ever heard of."
"I suppose we go on then," Hasani says, bracing himself and stepping cautiously into the room.
As when Zayid entered and retreated a few moments earlier, nothing happens when others enter the chamber.
The other doorway is still blocked by a knot of colorful serpents.
"Shall we continue forward or venture to get past this wall of serpents?"
Shrugging off the questions Mahsati did not have a clear answer to, she stared at the knot of serpents gathered in front of the door. "I could smash them," she offered.
Zayid shrugs as well. "Might as well try."
Mahatsi did not need to do anything but approach.
The large doorway of knotted serpents uncoiled as she neared revealing a fairly steep downward slope into what must have been a stunning pool in the days when the ruin lay above the sands. Pale clay bricks were laid with perfect engineering, held together with mortar that looked like poured gold. At the edges of the pool were statues of serpents and men, and a myriad of unsettling hybrids all bowing toward Mahatsi.
A shallow slick of oily looking brackish water sat in the bottom of the pool, still rippling slightly from having been recently disturbed. Three human forms lay face down in the muck, a pair of broken lanterns were half submerged at their heels.
Zayid yells in surprise at the forms. "Our explorers came this way, it seems..." There's no way they're still alive...
"Well we had better press on to see if we may save the rest... But what did for these poor souls?" Hasani says, surveying the room.
Meanwhile, toward the back of the party, Farooq and Ayaal moved into the snake-chamber with Apedemak as the rest gathered toward the exit with Mahatsi.
The statue's ruby eyes flared open casting it's ruby gaze down onto the group, centered on the devotee of Bast.
"તમે દરવાજો પહોંચવા માટે પસંદ કરો છો?" a whispered voice echoes from the statue.
Apedemak stands transfixed, rocking back and forth on his heels. His chest shudders. he nods almost imperceptibly.
"Hold on... be careful on that slope. Here, hang onto this rope so you don't slip."