As quietly determined as her master is chatty, Latys bites and claws with a fury at the monstrous plant!
Rikar and Latys come close to bringing the plant creature down, but it takes Josef and Telman archery to finish the job.
As you search the now, rotting vegetation, you find another one of the tablets, and with glowing edges you piece it together and you have a square stone slab, about twenty inches to a side.
Casting detect magic on the stone, runes appear. The same "open" rune as before, but also a rune that says "evil".
Therena sighs as once again, she uses her magic to repair the broken ranger.
"'Evil.' That's reassuring," Misha says. "Anyone got any ideas as to why someone hid these in the compost? I mean, the mounds are formidable guardians, but not exactly the guardian statues and the like we've seen before. Feels almost like these things were discarded rather than cached away."
Misha rubs her arms. "I just got a sudden, bad sense that maybe we're dealing with something that wasn't meant to be tampered with. I want to solve mysteries, but I don't want to 'open evil.'" She chuckles. "I've been so dead set on finding the bottom of this mountain, finding the mystery's no one's made it to, you know I've nearly forgotten why we're here? One fight after another, everything blurs together. All the nuance, the purpose. There still is a potential danger to be stopped, if Fiall was right. I don't want to help that danger come to be by accident or because I was too dead set on the end point I miss what we see on the journey on the way."
She sighs and looks at the group. "I'm not saying we should go back, but... I don't even know. Maybe if we find another moss room, we leave it alone. At least till we've determined the purpose of these stones. And I reckon we should keep them in extradimensional storage until we do." She puts the tablet into the large compartment of her haversack.
|
"This is just a random idea, but what if the dragon god that the Athan people worshiped was a real actual dragon? What if it is the thing locked behind whatever seal these stones and tablets point towards? Do we want to open and potentially unleash something like that? And if we do, would we be able to deal with it or treat with it?"
Misha stores the newly formed table in her haversack, and the group moves to explore the final area of this branch of the level.
Impossible as it may seem, this cave appears to have some carvings on the floor and a strange, inexplicably ominous pile of stones arranged against the far wall, indicating an intelligent people were here at some point in the far past.
There is a twenty foot tall Athan burial mound against the far wall. Carved on the wall, just above the burial mound, is a 20 inch wide, 1 inch deep depression, of the exact shape and size of the assembled Stone Tablet. The indenture is twenty five feet above the ground.
"Well, folks, this is the decision point. Activate it, or turn back?"
"We can't just turn back. That would mean everything was for nothing. A journey is only a joy when there's a destination. Not even Sinishakti enjoys a dead end street."
|
|
"I think we need to see this thing theough. First, we should heal up and make sure we're prepared for a fighr, should something pop out and want to chew our faces off. Who knows, maybe this tablet will turn off the abjuration preventing teleportation, and we can escape this place. Or maybe not, that's probably wishful thinking to be honest."
"It might turn off the ward, you're right. But 'open evil' just doesn't sound like a good idea. What 'evil' might have been trying to port in here? Fiall wanted us to stop the dangers from happening. Not cause them. Our original worry was the others trying to awake the dragon god. If we walk away with the key that opens this, they can't get any further."
"I know, I know, 'where's your spirit of adventure, Misha?' Part of me SO BADLY wants to see what happens. But I... I don't want to make the mistakes my father did, uncover something he couldn't handle and then..." she trails off. She wouldn't abandon her friends like her father had, but she didn't want to be responsible for hurting them either.
"Could you not use another of your divination spells about this tablet, to maybe learn something about the evil, or what it will open."
"That's a good idea, Therena, though I only have so many supplies for it and it takes a little time. We haven't seen all of this cave network either. Maybe we'll get more answers if we keep looking, and then come back here, and I can cast legend lore if we've found nothing else."
Rikar listens as his companions discuss what to do with the tablets they've found and assembled, then weighs in, "I think exploring the rest of this area makes sense. We might learn something more about what these tablets do, or what 'open evil' means." With a nod to Therena, he adds, "And I like the idea of trying to divine what might happen before we make it happen. As I've often said, it's important to know your enemy - perhaps this time we'll know whether we're going to invite an enemy in, or something else altogether."
"Then let's check out what's out there! I think the last corridor we skipped was back toward the north. Rikar, shall we?"
Doing his best impression of a courtly bow, Rikar leans forward awkwardly and replies to Misha, "Lead the way, milady."
Deciding to leave the tablet and the depression where it looks to fit alone for now, you head back to the main hallway and moving past the first encounter with the shambling mounds, you move north to a large chamber. There is an exit to the northeast, and the cavern is flooded.
The water in this chamber seems to whisper and murmur softly, with a sound that is both soothing and disquieting.
Misha steps forward quietly, though not into the water before them, and examines it carefully to see what (or who) might be within it, and how deep it is.
Telman concurs with the notion of exploring the rest of the area before "opening evil" so nocks an arrow and takes his position in line.
"Shall I shed some light on what is beneath the surface?" Therena asks, picking up another rock, casting her daylight SLA on it, but hiding the light in her hands for now.
Therena tosses the glowing rock into the water. It's a daylight spell, rather than just a light spell, so it should light things up pretty well.
Rikar and Latys wait to see how the forces of light and sneakiness resolve themselves, ready to sneak forward with Misha should the opportunity arise.
While everyone else waits, Misha stealthily approaches the edge of the water carefully, making sure that she does not disturb it. Peering into the water, she sees that it is very deep, quite beyond walking depth. She also sees, deep within the pool their are "waves" as if a submerged creature swam past.
Misha steps back a bit. "Definitely something in there. Deal with it now or come back later? I'll note I'm getting short on spells."
"It doesn't seem to be in any hurry to pay us a visit," Rikar replies as he considers Misha's report of something in the depths, "so I'm fine with everyone resting up a bit. Any thoughts as to the best spot for a nap?"
"Ick! Really? They're so damp and mushroomy. I suppose you have a point, though."
"You can always experience the joy of feeling mud between your toes, Therena," Misha teases. "Although any of the caverns we've already been in should probably be defensible enough."
"Agreed, there are plenty of dead-end tunnels here so we can put our backs to a wall if needed. Might be nice to sleep on soft moss instead of hard stone......"
Noting that the spell-casters were a bit low on both arcane and divine power, you come to the decision to rest to regain spells and catch your breath after going for some time. During the night, several of you have dreams, nightmares really and wake up groggy, but still spelled up.
Rikar wakes up craaaaanky! "That was the single worst night sleep I've ever had...awful dreams, though I can't remember any details. And I feel like I slept on a bag of hammers, my back is killing me!"
Telman gives a sharp twist, his shoulders letting out a loud popping noise. "Eh, I've had worse. There was this one campaign on the Fields of ....". Seeing from the look on his face that the ranger is in no mood for stories, the archer turns to check his gear for another day in the dangerous tunnels.
Misha casts good hope on the party, but also says, "I doubt it will be the case, but given we weren't attacked last time, we might be able to communicate with this thing." She casts tongues on herself and heads out with the group.
As usual, Therena puts mage armour on herself and Latys.
Is the con damage noticeable? Therena does have a couple lesser restorations prepared she can use if folks are hurting.
After a good nights rest for most, but not Rikar and Josef, you head back to where Misha saw the underwater waves.
Now try the daylight spell on the rock trick, after they buff.
Therena uses her wand to enlarge Rikar. She also casts Bless and prayer. Then she puts her daylight on the rock and tosses it in (after others are done with buffing).