The fieldstone walls and finely carved woodwork adorning the posts and eaves of the Greenforest Inn have are now familiar sights, as are your faces and reputations now to the locals after your previous adventures. The innkeeper ushers you to a private booth room set aside for important guests so that you might meet without interruption and prepare for another expedition beneath Thornkeep.
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Maddie sits quietly in a corner, alone in her thoughts as she waits for the others to arrive. Much like the previous times she's journeyed into the bowels of Thornkeep, she's dressed in a shroud-like cloak with her silver symbol of Pharasma exposed to announce her faithful duty to The Lady of Graves. Her posture is straight and the expression on her face is calm, thoughtful, and serene.
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The feathered Ranger walks back into the inn, he thinks about the fact that nobody else was dispatched to complete the work while he was away in Absalom recruiting troops for the cause. When he sees Maddie he bows low, and his beak cracks a large smile.
"Maddie. I am very happy to see you. Has Pharasma been treating you well?"
With that, he silently gestures an invitation for him to be seated.
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While Ayaki is getting settled, another familiar figure slips into the inn. He scans the crowd before settling on the tengu and cleric, his face lighting up. "Ah, friend Ayaki! And friend Maddie as well. It is good to see you both--I heard you were in Absalom, Ayaki, but I missed you there." László sidles quietly over to where his compatriots are sitting and signals the server for a glass of something palatable.
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In the distance, "No, I DON'T have whatever that compass is, but YES, I'm supposed to be in here! Snave! get her- Get us in there!" The sounds of a minor grapple end with the meaner gnome floating in on a now-airborne lump of sentient plant life. On both her new headband (complete with gold spike fringe) and belt (with a large golden buckle) read the word "QUEEN" in bold lettering, though she sports no other new gear.
"Pah! Useless know-nothings," she says, looking back into the hallway. Back to the group, "I heard your Society of people are going into the tower again! Good thing I've got ears everywhere or you'd probably end up dead!"
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Snave wears new leather cords that wrap around what could be considered his shoulder-ish area. The look on his gathering of leaves "face" bears the usual, depressed expression.
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Maddie smiles as she meets familiar faces once again, rising in her seat to greet them, "Ayaki, it's a pleasure to see you again. Pharasma continues to watch over and guide me despite my inclination to enter dangerous places." She offers a chuckle at her own joke, then nods to László as his enters, "You're both looking well. I have just returned from Varisia myself, a messy business involving a fallen Pathfinder, but it's done."
"Ah, is that Turg? It appears they may have reunited us all once again."
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A farmer, simple-looking but for his armor of dragon scales, wanders nearby in the Greenforest Inn. Although he has been here before, he still manages to do a good impression of looking lost, though perhaps more among the people than within the walls themselves. "Anyone seen a half-dozen near suicidal pathfindin' adventurers sitting around--" he stops short as he sees the others.
"Well if it isn't Laszler! And the cleric lady! Bird feller, little wizard... Stump, is it?" Barlor asks of Snave.
A short time passes as you reacquaint yourselves and share stories of other adventures found since the last expedition into the ruins beneath Thornkeep. Previously a Venture-Captain has given you a briefing on what you might next find there, but none are present as you have a meal and catch up with your companions. Then, suddenly, a strange sound like the soft crash of ocean waves comes to your ears, followed by a voice, soft like a whisper, but clear and slightly abrasive.
"All here, finally?" It asks, and you all recognize it as belonging to the Master of Spells, Aram Zey. "Well it's about time. I would join you, but I am quite busy, and so I this will have to do. Pay attention, for I will not repeat myself."
The voice is quite for a moment, then continues. "My research has uncovered information that indicates beyond the prisons in the Enigma Vaults lies one of the deepest levels of the Halls Under the Hill. In this place the dread wizard Nhur Athemon kept an entire zoo of powerful and strange creatures imprisoned in cages of his own design—chambers enchanted to mirror the natural environs from which he had stolen his pets. Called the Dark Menagerie, this enchanted place entered a state of deep, magical stasis when the wizard died thousands of years ago to protect both the rooms and the creatures therein from aging and the elements. It is my concern that the tomb robbers you encountered in the Enigma Vaults might have compromised the stasis spell in their foolish endeavor. If it has collapsed, then the monsters that have been caged in these halls for thousands of years will awaken with a hunger for freedom... and for blood. If the stasis spell is still functioning, good. Explore the Menagerie and learn what you can. If the monsters are free, deal with them as you see fit, but try to bring back specimens or detailed notes."
There is a very short pause, but before you can so much as open your mouths, Aram Zey is speaking again.
"No questions, then? Good. On your way then!"
The ocean-wave sound dissipates as the spell carrying Aram Zey's voice to your ears ends.
Your mission given, you eventually make your way to the entrance to the ruins under Thornkeep. Passing through the levels previously explored, you come to a set of stairs leading down from the prison section in the Enigma Vaults. There you descend into the unknown...
At the bottom of the stairs is a bare stone room. A short railing permits a view of the room from the staircase’s landing. A scuffed circle of blue-white chalk marked on the floor of the northern section of the room is filled with various sigils and runes. Four-foot-tall torch holders adorn the corners of the room, and a wide, closed stone doors take up half of the western walls.
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Turg rides atop the floating amassment of plant life, hovering off the ground. She allows these well-coordinated minions to do their work.
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Maddie detects powerful magic in the area, but cannot identify the purpose or even the school of magic it is from.
Identifying the magic is also beyond Pai's ability, and she sees nothing to indicate any way László might be able to disable it - if indeed there is any mundane way to do so.
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Turg will utilize her flying mount... plant... thing to traverse the squiggle death trap of death.
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As you leave the stairs and step into the chamber, a large unseen bell emits a single, deep toll. Then a concealed compartment in the ceiling opens and a gray helmet, flickering with a blue magical aura, descends to hover in the center of the chamber.
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"Is it dangerous? If so, we could have Snave put it on and be literally no worse off."
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Maddie and Pai both recognize the helm as a simple construct, though what purpose it serves is unknown. For now it seems content to floats silently, though it turns to face Maddie, then Pai, then Turg, then occasionally alternates between facing Maddie and Pai.
As the helm's magic flickers, so does the helm itself, appearing to be affected with some kind of magic that makes it incorporeal.
The helm does not respond to Barlor or anyone else attempting to talk to it.
It turns towards Pai when she casts a spell upon it, but doesn't do anything else.
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"Who could blame it?" Turg adjusts her hair a little, "We're beautiful, magical ladies who demand attention. At least I am," says the gnome with a matching belt and headband with studs that read "QUEEN".
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The helm remains quiet.