"If there are no guards atop the waterfall, then coming in from above might be our best bet. A distraction to make everyone look away while we go in would be helpful. Or just being unseen."
"Sounds good to me, Chief."
Oberlin nods. "If that is the plan, I will simply rest, and prepare myself for the morning."
Malaswyn checks if anyone needs healing before getting some sleep.
Kalsgrim claps Kriger on the shoulder. "Get some sleep, my friend. I will wake you in two hours."
Kalsgrim will keep watch for two hours, then wake Kriger to watch for the rest of the night.
Nodding, "Sounds good." He then says to them all, "Get ready, fellas, tomorrow's gonna be a good day. Ol' Kriger can just feel it," he says with a confident grin and a nod as he prepares to get some rest.
Night passes with but a sigh of cold rain and some strong winds. When you wake, you notice that dark clouds have gathered low over the hills, giving the raiders' camp an ominous look, as though something terrible is taking place there.
As you make your way, the wind picks up, howling in the narrow crevices between steep hills.
Malaswyn rises and makes his obeisance to Sarenrae with the dawn's light.
"A dark day. The gloom may help obscure our passage, although I would prefer to see Her blessed rays above us."
You board the carpet and lift off, remaining low enough to prevent being spotted. You make your way swiftly and silently, following the same path Kriger and Marcel took before.
As you get nearer, you leave this path to instead go around the back side of the hill, avoiding the raiders' camp. From within a deep crevice near the foot of the hill, you cast your spells and, now invisible, rise up in the sky.
On the crest of the hill, you easily spot three hill giants. They are sitting, resting, visibly bored. One is lying on his back, looking at the clouds, while the other two are playing some kind of game with their fingers. It would be easy to just go around them and go over the lip to the other side of the hill, where the waterfall overlooks the camp.
Marcel whispers to the group on the carpet: "Let's pass them by. Engaging this lot just ruins all the prep we did to stay hidden."
Kriger upon his broom, What I wouldn't give to cut those three down to size, he thinks to himself as he reluctantly continues on to their destination.
Oberlin quietly peers at the giants lounging on the hill, curious about their interations with the Tiger Lords.
As mice, you sneak around the three hill giants. Being invisible and floating helps tremendously, and so does their careless attitudes.
The top of the hill, a mix of brown and yellow long grass and jagged dark brown rocks, ends abruptly, as if cut by an impossible sword. Below you, the cliff drops 400 feet or so. Near you, it drops vertically, but then quickly recedes further into the cliff, forming a overhanging structure. It is from the bottom of this overhang that the water gushes down for about 300 feet, into a small pool.
The mist of the water rises softly and wraps everything, including you, in a thin layer of icy water that further drains you from your heat. Magic helps, but it nonetheless feels unnervingly cold. too cold for comfort, and a shiver courses through your bones.
There is no doubt. This place is special. You extend your fingers in the air and feel like you can reach through, as if they're touching a wispy veil of the thin silk, then the impression disappears, and you're left shivering from the touch, but perhaps it's just the freezing mist?
As you hover your way down the cliff, you reach the bottom of the overhang and are able to see underneath. The water gushes out of a hole about ten feet wide. The dark brown rocks forming mouth are carved. You can make intricate reliefs depicting an impossible battle between immense armies. The relief is intricate, but otherwise cut crudely, and the mist deflecting and absorbing light gives the illusion that the carving shimmers, as though the battle was still raging. The clanging of the water gushing out, down, and crashing at the bottom is like the dim of swords of shields.
And your mouth tastes like iron.
Malaswyn peers through the mist.
Oberlin quickly casts a detection spell, the words swept away in the roar of the water pouring over the cliff.
Kriger smacks his lips to try and remove the iron taste out of his mouth. He then takes a look along with the others to see if he can find a way in.
The waterfall and the opening radiate a faint aura of magic and evil. It pervades the place. The hole where the water comes out points directly down and looks like the only entrance to this place. It seems people wishing to enter are meant to get under the icy water.
The mouth itself has a much stronger aira of abjuration.
Kriger reaches down and puts a finger within the water before quickly drawing it back. Looking to the others in disbelief, "You mean to tell me we're gonna have to swim in that?! In ice water?!"
”Be still for a moment Krieger.” Oberlin snaps absentmindedly ”I am having difficulty parsing out what spells are placed on this location, and you floating around on that broom, invisible, is distracting me every time your combined aura passes by.”
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Oberlin grunts in annoyance. "Of course."
"Gentlemen, we are going to need to land and walk. The mouth of the cave itself is enchanted to remove spells, which means I wasted a few spells this morning. Magical items should be fine passing through the aura, but our invisibility spells will be removed, as will my spell to see in the dark." he said, grumbling.
"Once we are on the other side, we can warm ourselves once more with spells, I believe, unless the effect extends further into whatever lies beyond." he postulated, professorially pontificating.
Marcel shrugs, more to himself than anything else. He grins under the balaclava he always wore when it came time to 'serious'. He didn't need spells to go unseen.
"Just put us down. Let me go first and I'll scout it out."
Oberlin shrugs invisibly, then mentally kicks himself for the useless gesture. "Good enough then. Its at least the bare minimum of a plan. We only have minutes remaining on the spell, so it would be best to be quick about it. We don't want anyone wondering why there is suddenly a picnic occurring at the foot of the waterfall." Oberlin says, mentally instructing the carpet to land, which it does, in the damp heath near the water's edge.
Kriger lands and stows his broom. "Alright. Let's get this over with. If this is how we gotta roll then let's roll. Should be fun," he says with a waggle of his eyebrows as he readies to move in.
The entrance is shaped like a circle, located underneath an overhang at the top of the cliff, and points directly downward. The water pour down from that circle and makes it almost impossible not to get showered. You have to levitate up the shaft to enter the place.
The entrance is the mouth of the waterfall. The entrance is vertical. You have tof ly up through it. It is likely that the abjuration will affect magic items differently than spells. You can also approach it from the side, which could give Marcel a chance to study it and maybe neutralize or bypass it.
While observing the configuration of the waterfall, Oberlin absently scratches his beard.
"Lets just fly the carpet in and see what happens. Krieger can fish us out of the water from the broom if necessary. I don't think the spell on the mouth of the cave will affect the carpet or the broom, so its likely the fastest and safest way to enter." Oberlin says, staring upward and inward.
"If there are runes, we might be able to determine how to activate or deactivate them as well. So, how about we just move slowly and see what we can see."
Oberlin moves the carpet into position beneath the opening but away from the falling water and slowly begins to have the carpet ascend along the wall, keeping his eyes open for anything out of the ordinary.
"Please watch the walls and see if you notice anything out of the ordinary. I will immediately stop if anyone says we should...I do not fancy activating any traps."
Marcel balances on the edge of the carpet alongside the entrance to get a better look at what was producing the Dispel. Noticing a series of runes etched on the opening he carefully pulls out his tool kit.
Removing an etching tool from the kit, he slowly works to remove some of the lines and symbols, just enough to disable the effect.
Marcel balances gracefully on the edge of the carpet as Oberlin carefully maneuvers it nearest the waterfall. As Marcel directs, Oberlin moves the carpet, making it painfully slowly around the whole hole.
Finally, Marcel, with a last light tap of the hammer, nods, the abjuration magic is neutralized.