Omara makes it to the Pagoda as Dullia begins lowering her rope. "Hey, where'd everybody go?"
"Down there" she says, pointing to the drain. "Looking for something or other I suppose."
You all squeeze around the damp rain sewer, avoiding the caiman carcass as much as possible.
Eldak's magical elven eyes spot a gleam amid the murk. He extracts a silver necklace from the waters. The necklace resembles a braid of hair with a flawless opal as its centerpiece.
Everyone can easily clamber back up.
And yes, there are stairs.
Once up the rope, Eldak takes a closer look at his prize
The necklace seems to be made of silver, which was your first guess anyways. You estimate it's value to be around 50 gp, a relatively fine find.
Spines climbs back up to the main floor and shakes off as much water as he can. He turns to the rest of the group and says, "Let's check upstairs to make sure the rest of this place is safe."
Eldak discreetly pockets his prize before nodding in agreement to Spines suggestion
Handing off the rope to on of the others, Dullia heads up the stairs to get a first look at the level above.
Spines catches up to the half-elf and examines the surroundings.
After helping the others get out, Omara carefully coils the rope and goes up to return it to Dullia. Having heard about the Caimian, she draws her shield on the way up.
After making her way up back to the group, Sun Xian joins the rest of the party. She cautiously keeps an eye out of danger.
#3: Pagoda 1st Floor
The stairs exit onto the 1st floor which consists of a large stone room. Two doors sit in the stone walls, one to the north and one to the south. A large empty firepit sits in the center of the room, worn rugs surrounding it.
You look around and spy that there's a small hole in the ceiling, and you can see another chamber above. However, the hole is tiny, much too small to get through.
When Dullia spots the hole in the ceiling she immediately heads towards it and repeats the chant she gave earlier, letting her consciousness slip into the space above.
Spines looks at the fire pit and warn rugs. "This looks like a good place to set up and dry off."
"Shouldn't we make sure it's safe first?" Omara asks, looking around.
Sift fails to see anything due to the prevailing darkness. It does seem to be a sizable room though since you cannot make out the walls, nor ceiling.
Omara scouts the room and comes across the far wall (the one without any doors)
Covered in dust, wiping it away reveals a large mural... of a map.
"Hey everybody," Omara said looking over the mural and wiping away the dust, trying not to get too much on herself. "take a look at this!"
The map seems to show an unknown landmass, likely where you currently on.
A stone pagoda beneath a cliff can be seen. Assuming correctly, you have found your location. Numerous other landmarks dot the map. A winding inscription encircles the map' border.
"Interesting. Is anybody here much for map reading?" He scans it for magic and tries to make sense of the thing.
"I can't tell anything about the upstairs. The room is huge and poorly lit from what I can find."
Then Dullia wanders over to Malthizar and Omara starts to look at the map as well.
Hearing Omara's concerns, Spines takes another quick look around and says, "I don't see any dangers around here. The least we can do is make a fire." Spines then sets his bag down and begins to pull out his bedroll.
He turns his head when he hears the work 'reading.' "I am great at reading!" Spines says cheerfully. "Let me see what it says." He grabs the map and looks it over, "Wait! These are just pictures." He gloomily hands the map back over to Omara and returns to the fire pit.
Sun Xian approaches the mural and tries to make out the inscription.
Eldak moves towards the map as well in an attempt to decipher the writings
Pooling your collective linguistic capabilities together, you quickly decipher the map.
It appears to be a regional representation of a series of dangerous locales, dungeons so to speak.
Oddly enough, one of the dungeons seems to be slightly glowing, pulsing actually.
You are filled with the sense that pressing your hand to the dungeon's representation may actually transport you there.
The label beneath it reads Kalavesh Hollow
"Well, that's something..." Omara said, reaching towards the glowing image. "Maybe we should check it out..."
"Touch it?" says Dullia flatly while she searches the faces of the rest of the group for intent.
"Better to do something than nothing." Malthazir offers, then touches the nearest location to them.
Sun Xian, seeing no other course of cation other than to be stuck on a deserted island, touches the Kalavesh Hollow.
Those who touched the strange inscription feel a surge of raw elemental magic.
Moments later the pagoda seems to melt away leaving you standing atop a high ledge overlooking a cavernous hole.
A strange moan can be heard from below, drifting upwards on the wind.
A stone idol behind you glows softly. You get the impression this is your way home.
Dullia draws a torch from her pack and lights it. She then moves to the edge of the hole and looks inside.
If necessary she'll drop a stone into the hole to try and gauge the depth.
Omara looks over the glowing idol.
Dullia draws a torch from her pack and lights it. She then moves to the edge of the hole and looks inside.
If necessary she'll drop a stone into the hole to try and gauge the depth.
The stone falls for a fair bit of distance but you hear a definite "clink". Leaning over though, you notice that a series of stone steps lead downwards.
Anyone manipulating the idol finds themselves whisked back to the Pagoda.
In the middle of trying to start a fire, Spines looks up and notices that everyone is gone. He becomes greatly confused and starts running around trying to find them. He looks outside to see if the went out there, and upon returning, finds them standing right where they had been.
"What the hell just happened?!?" Spines shouts at the others. "Where did you go?"
"Huh..." Omara took a moment to get her bearings. "Got sent to somewhere else, I think. Big hole, so maybe try somewhere else?"
"You mean the pictures are magic?" Spines asks dumbfoundedly. "Can I see?"
Dullia motions to the remaining explorers that came through the painting and starts heading down the stairs into the chasm. She also draws her sword as she advances, holding it in her main hand with the lit torch in the other.
Omara shows Spines the part touched. "Right here, we should stay with the others."
Spines touches the part of the map to which Omara has pointed. After experiencing that kind of magic for the first time, he is rather amazed. Confusion and wonder fill his head as this new place comes to be around him. "Wow..." he says, unsure how to verbalize his thoughts.
He quickly snaps back to the current situation and sees the others running down the stairs and chases after them to catch up.