The charau-ka looks about for a way to escape and almost seems to consider rushing to the southern edge and jumping off. Instead, she raises her hands into the air in surrender.
Douena is delighted. "Oh, look! Another monkey-man-...person! What's your name? Do you know Filgru?" she asks the charau-ka in Polyglot.
Mahjik punches the air a couple of times, escalating into a bit of a shadow display. "Hey Urza, do you think this amulet makes the punches faster? It feels a bit like it, but maybe it's just giddy excitement."
"Urza was able to discern that the amulet will allow you to strike faster and hit harder. The magic will also allow you to better penetrate the defenses of monsters resistant to harm."
Douena is delighted. "Oh, look! Another monkey-man-...person! What's your name? Do you know Filgru?" she asks the charau-ka in Polyglot.
The charau-ka looks uncertain and hesitates a moment before speaking. "Filgru? Uh... Yes, I know Filgru. Do you? I'm Sildu. Are you going to kill me?" She looks nervously at Pezock, whose hand is at the hilt of his sword.
"Urza is talking about himself weirdly again." Makoa chuckles before looking at the charau-ka, wondering what it was saying to Douena.
Douena pats Pezock's feathery hand away from his sword
The charau-ka points to the hole in the floor, then picks up one of the dead animal carcasses. She says a few words, puts the carcass back down, then speaks some more.
Douena beams.
Mahjik re-explores the currently safe area in case some clue or other element was missed during all the commotion.
When Douena mentions the machinery, she shrugs. "Issilar was studying it. A lot. He seemed really frustrated that he couldn't get it to work. I think he said something about missing a part, but he didn't tell us much. He thought we were too stupid to be able to help him with it."
After talking a bit more with Douena, the charau-ka hesitatingly takes the hand Douena has held out to her. Pezock eyes her suspiciously.
------
Back in the other two rooms, Mahjik's explorations do not turn up anything new.
"So, is this what we came here for?" Lorenz asks, indicating the columns. "If so, it doesn't seem all that impressive."
"There is more to be discovered yet, my friend."
"This is Sildu," Douena announces happily, leading a skittish charau-ka by the hand as she re-enters the room with the mechanical puzzle. "She's a friend of Filgru's, and she used to work here so she knows lots about it, like how to keep the wasps happy and that the snake-person-wizard couldn't get the machinery to work."
"Urza is amazed at your ability to make friends, Douena. What else can he tell us?"
The charau-ka looks nervously around the room at everyone. She raises a shaking hand and gives a little wave.
"She says hello and she's pleased to meet us all," Douena translates promptly (and creatively). "And, Urza," she hisses urgently, "Sildu is a girl. There's a hole in the floor in the next room," she goes on, "where they feed the wasps to keep them out of the temple when they're in it. So as long as we have dead things to toss through there, the wasps should leave us alone."
She turns back to Sildu and asks something in Polyglot.
Sildu nods.
"There is also the flooded room to the west. It has strange carvings, and by that room, there is the room with the stone circle on the floor. It has many carvings, too. We do not understand them."
"OOoh!" Douena coos with excitement. "There's a room downstairs with floating idols! We should go see that. And a couple of rooms with carvings she doesn't understand. She says the snake-person-wizard wasn't able to get the machinery working." She waves her hand vaguely at the room around them. "There was a missing part. Did you ever figure out what all this is supposed to do?"
Lorenz shrugs. "It's way beyond me. Maybe those carvings hold a clue, or the floating idols."
"A girl? OK. Well Urza hopes that demon worshiping creature that wants me dead wasn't too offended by Urza's oversight." he says dismissively.
"Urza's guess right now is that it is some sort of orrery that will lead us to our actual destination. It is possible that the lost city is not on this plane."
"What's an orrororry?"
"A map of the sun and moon and stars that moves to show their positions relative to one another as they move about the dark tapestry."
"Well, it's not working at the moment," Pezock says. "I say we find something more interesting." He turns to Sildu and speaks to her abruptly in Polyglot. She nods nervously. "Excellent!" he says.
"Yay! Floating idols!" Douena heads for the stairs.
"Oh!" she stops short and turns to Sildu before asking a question in Polyglot.
Sildu nods.
Sildu hurries off to the west room. Pezock follows her, clearly not willing to trust her on her own. If anyone else follows, you see her take one of the animal carcasses and drop it into the hole. She then grabs another and drops it in as well. A loud flurry of buzzing can be heard through the hole.
She then returns to the rest of you and motions for you to follow. She heads over to the stairs you used to come up to this level, the ones that arch over the courtyard. When she reaches the lowest point before the descend into the blocked area, she stops, points over the edge and speaks.
She then hops off the side.
Once everyone is down, she leads you through the double doors on the west side of the courtyard. They take you into the main area of the bottom tier of the ziggurat. Most of this large chamber surrounds a smaller inner structure. Loud, frantic buzzing comes from the smaller chamber.
There are two doors along the north wall, and Sildu leads you to the eastern of the two. As you reach the door, you can now see there is an opening in the northern wall of the inner structure and within it, you can see a massive wasps' nest, where huge wasps are busy devouring the animal carcasses Sildu dropped down a short while ago.
The door leads into a sunken chamber. Stairs lead from the door (and the far west door) down into the chamber itself. The stairs are flanked by two broken columns. The entire room is set in white marble, trimmed with elaborate inlays of jade and turquoise. Along the south wall, four small, faceless humanoid statues carved from pale bluish stone hover above marble display pedestals. Where their faces should be, there is only a flickering glow.
Suddenly, a loud voice speaks, each of you hearing it in your own native language:
Douena gasps and claps her hands in jubilation. "Fun!" She carefully hands Pezock her starknife for safekeeping, drops her staff and sling, and hurries down the steps.
Pezock looks surprised as he takes the starknife from Douena. As she drops her staff and sling and hurries down the steps, he shakes his head. "I will not lay down my sword," he says, crossing his arms in front of him.
"Urza can't let her go alone." He hands over his crossbow and mace before going forward to stand with Douena. "No one else come forward. We may need help coming back."
Nothing happens at first when Douena descends to the bottom of the steps. However, when Urza follows after and reaches the bottom of the steps, three of the idols begin to shake slightly and the glow where their faces should be brightens. Only the westernmost idol remains still and unchanged.
the voice says and Sildu gasps in surprise.
Suddenly, beams of light shoot from the three agitated idols straight at Urza, surrounding him in bright light. He stiffens as the beams continue and the nimbus of light around him gets brighter. The westernmost idol, however, remains still. No beam of light emits from its face.
"A trap!" Pezock yells. "I knew it!" He draws his sabre.
Unfortunately, however, the information is incomplete. It only explains the settings for the sun, moon, and stars pillars. He receives no information about the pillar representing the Dark Tapestry.
Mahjik pushes forward next to Pezock, "Trap? What happened?" He looks down the steps. "He doesn't look dead yet, maybe because that fourth idol is broken?"
Looking disappointed, Douena waves her hand in case she has been overlooked. "Hello? Douena Trestleben of Whistledown, favored of Desna?" she asks the idols forlornly.
The idols do not respond to Douena.
"A good suggestion," Pezock says to Mahjik. "We must break the other ones! Charge!" He raises his sabre and rushes forward, but just as he does so, the beams of light stop and release Urza, who looks none the worse for wear.
Pezock pauses. "A wise decision," he says to the idols. "You would not have survived a fight with us." The idols do not respond.
"Urza did not like that at all. But Urza knows how to operate the Orrery, mostly. We need to find that last orb."
But Urza knows how to operate the Orrery
"Ahem... so is this then what they call a flash of inspiration?"
Lorenz groans.
Clearly crestfallen, Douena attempts to put on a brave face for Sildu.
Lorenz groans.
Tar'kanas raises an eyebrow at Mahjik's words before his attention is drawn toward Douena as she speaks to Sildu.
"Sildu, three of the idols work, the last does not due to it missing its orb. Would you happen to know where the last orb might be?"
Sildu listens intently to Douena's words, then nods slowly.
Sildu looks quizzically at Tar'kanas.
Sildu looks over at the westernmost idol as she waits for an answer.
Douena turns to Urza. "Show Sildu one of the orbs. Maybe she's seen the other one."
Looking to Urza as well, "Yes, do. If she is able to recognize it, she may know of where the last might be."
Urza produces the orb for Sildu to see.
Mahjik wonders out aloud: "Douena, can't you ask Desna to help guide you to the orb?"
"Desna has been a bit fickle with our luck. Are we sure it's best to try and ask for her help again?" The previously quiet half-orc asks Mahjik.
"What do you mean, fickle?" Douena demands indignantly.
Sildu's scurries over to see what Urza is holding out. She nods excitedly when she sees the gem.
Douena is distracted from Makoa's blasphemous talk by the monkey-woman's revelation. "She knows where it is!" she claps her hands. "It's in a tree! Let's go get it!"
"We are close to our goal and it is tempting to rush off, but Urza warns against that. First let's make sure we are ready to go." Urza puts away the orb and prepares to go get the last one.
"What are we preparing for?" Lorenz asks. "I'm ready. I think."