"I'm happy to wait for a few minutes." She leans against the wall. "Alchemical like bombs? Do you think the hag was this Oracle or should we be concerned about another person running around these caves?"
"I honestly have no idea. But if we are taking a few minutes, I would like to look around a bit." Tessa tells them, poking through some of the alchemical items.
While searching through the largely mundane alchemical reagants, Tessa discovers a hidden compartment tucked inside the curved shelves. The chamber holds a chest containing 17 pp, 457 gp, 3,770 sp, and 11,700 cp. Additionally, there is a +1 chain shirt, a +1 light steel shield engraved with a spiral-and-star symbol, a +1 shortsword, a silver statue of Desna in Pharasma’s embrace worth 600 gp, assorted gemstones worth 550 gp, a scroll of corrosive touch, a scroll of darkness, a scroll of delay poison, a scroll of fox’s cunning, a scroll of mage armor, and a scroll of restoration.
Arma looks through the stash a little, frowning at the statue and frowning further at the engraved shield. "I could be wrong, but, that spiral--it's Pharasmin, right? And the star, it's Desnan? This feels...sacriligious."
She lights up briefly at the Scroll of Restoration, only for her face to fall as she realizes just how complex of a spell it is. "Would need to do a lot more research to make use of this..."
"I'm unsure. It does seem to be in keeping with general Azlanti ideas, though. They both have a shared interest in prophesy, after all, especially before Aroden ascended, and it was something that Azlant prized. I could see how this would arise between them." Tessa muses, "Anyway, this is all really nice. That symbol on the shield... does it remind anyone else of a combination of Desnan and Pharasmin symbols? I wonder if this was a full sect. Relia, do you want the armor? I do think we should move on soon."
"I would be very blessed to be able to use the shirt. The longsword is not something I can make use of. I could make use of a couple of those scrolls. They are spells my god has given or might give me someday."
Once Relia is decked out in her new armor, you proceed up the stairs. This great foyer is a picture of faded majesty. Walls once decorated with colorful murals are now flecked with mold, the discolored paint peeling off in large flakes. A strong odor of brine and musk clings to the air. However, no amount of disrepair can diminish the awe-inspiring scale of the two thirty-foot-tall statues that loom in this room, flanking a weathered marble altar that bears the seal of a star and spiral. The eastern statue depicts a robed goddess in a dramatic pose, holding a knife in the air with the blade angled down toward herself. A blindfold shrouds this figure's eyes, and she clutches a stone hourglass under one arm. The western statue depicts a young woman in robes like those of her partner, with hair flowing down to her ankles, a pair of immense butterfly wings, and a five-pointed star held in one hand over her head.
Two hulking, green-skinned giants are in this room, keeping a watchful eye on the stairs from the basement. As soon as they see you, they roar with rage and move to attack!
Tessa easily identifies the giants, "Scrags! They're like trolls, but need water to regenerate. Pity I'm out of fire. Still.... go quickly!" Tessa casts a spell, and emerald lightning crackles around her hands, leaping out to the others and making them supernaturally fast.
Relia casts Bless on the party. "We'll do our best"
"Looks like a coupla angry booger-fish," Arma remarks as she slides in past her teammates and takes a swipe at one with her dagger.
The troll howls in fury as Abigail and Arma wound it with their weapons. The wounded giant lashes out at the ranger, raking her side with a claw. The other one roars and assaults Arma, biting the alchemists and rending her flesh with its claws! The brutal attacks leave Arma barely standing!
Tessa focuses on the wounded troll, trying to bring it down before one of her friends fall to it. She summons her arithmancy magic, and uses it to send a trio of bright missiles at the wounded scrag!
Relia channels Positive Energy and excludes the two trolls. "Those things hit hard."
Arma staggers from the hits, even after the touch of healing, steps back, and drinks her extract of Shield.
Tessa's magic missiles slam into the wounded troll, and Abigail's mighty swing eviscerates it, finishing it off! As Relia heals the group, Arma steps back and wards herself with a shield spell.
The remaining scrag roars as it steps forward to attack the alchemist again! It manage to bite her, but the shield keeps its claws at bay.
Relia moves up and Stabs at the creature with her Trident.
"Be gone."
With the last of her combat spells, Tessa once again pulls numbers out of the air and pelts the surviving troll with hard numbers and logic.
"I think these ones need water to regenerate, but I could be wrong. Still, let's just not get them wet."
Arma steps in and attacks, her flurry of swipes augmented by Tessa's magic.
The scrag staggers under your fierce assault. Relia stabs it, Abigail slices it, Arma impales it, and Tessa blasts it. The hulking giant falls!
”They should stay down now, but just to be safe...” she pulls out her wand and summons an orb of fire, which she uses to scorch the fallen trolls, ”They’re defiantly dead now, and I’m out of spells. “
"Well, when I use magic, it draws on a certain level of energy I have every day, refreshed when I sleep- sort of like running a marathon. I've just used all my energy for today, at least that I can use in a fight. The hag, unless she's been casting, will still have her magic." Tessa explains, looking around the room for anything of note.
Oh no. What should we do? Leave or try to find a place to rest here? I know the plan was to get the hag to use her spells and then attack. That didn't take into account that Tessa is out of spells."
”I do. And that was close to my thoughts, I was just warning you that I’ll be of limited help going forward.” Tessa explains
Abigail sees stairs leading up on the opposite side of this foyer. There are also doors behind the statues leading to other rooms on this level.
Tessa nods, loading her crossbow, "Onwards and upwards. We can come back here later. There's so much history here...." she marvels.
"We will. Once this is cleared, we might be able to catalog this on our on time." She falls into line trident at the ready.
Two sprawling bas-reliefs decorate the second-floor landing. The interior wall is engraved with depictions of a robed Azlanti man bearing a sword and an unmarked shield, battling a colossal demonic creature in a hellish landscape. The outer wall is likewise carved with a dramatic bas-relief etched with the finest details, in this case illustrating a turbulent ocean. In the image, shattered pieces of land are spiraling down toward the center of a massive whirlpool, each with fragmentary pieces of crumbling cities atop them. A single shaft of light or energy lances up from the middle of the whirlpool to the top of the relief.
A pair of staircases wrapping along the outer walls ascend and descend the tower, while double doors embellished with images of Desna and Pharasma are located in alcoves at the top of each staircase.
The relief on the outer wall is more open to interpretation. It either shows the destruction of Azlant (though by different means), or it depicts an event that has not yet transpired. It is clearly showing the destruction of an island landmass as the ocean floor collapses into an impossibly large vortex.
Relia looks at the doors, and casts Detect Magic on them.
There are no magic auras in the area.
"Let's go then." Relia carefully tries to push open the doors.
Both doors open onto adjoining chambers. A long-collapsed oaken table litters each of these rooms, along with the dilapidated and ancient-looking remains of several chairs. The far end of the rooms open onto another chamber.
Here, an enormous marble basin sits on a stone dais flanked by iron braziers. The inside of the basin is caked with dried blood, and dark splotches mar the steps leading up to it. Behind the dais, an etched mural depicts the goddess Pharasma with her head down, cradling the light of a single star between cupped hands. Desna is depicted standing behind her, arms wrapped around Pharasma's shoulders and butterfly wings outspread behind her. Opposite this dais is a pair of enormous stone doors engraved with arcane writing and geometric shapes.
Tessa takes in the room, and tries to study the arcane writings to try and understand them.
After a moment, though, her head perks up and she looks at her familiar, "You sure?" she asks, then shrugs, "Okay then. Azil says he hears something like chains on the other side of the door?"
"Not good at all. That statue isn't right. It seems so sad." She stands still waiting for Tessa to tell them what the Arcane writing say.
Some of the glyphs on the doors are related to divination magic, but most of them seem to be unintelligible ramblings.
"I hear it, too, that can't be good." Arma throws Tessa a look of surprise. "Wait, since when can you understand what Azil's saying?"
She goes to the far end of the room to check out the passage to the next chamber, making a face at the dried blood in the basin as she passes.
Tessa shrugs, "Uhhh... A couple days, I guess? I've been working on it for a while. He 'talks' mostly through slight color changes, but it can express a surprising amount of detail. Plus, I've been working on strengthening our telepathic connection, so that probably helps. Anyway, the writings are mostly gibberish, but gibberish with the flair of divination magic."