"Huh," says Ember. "Don't know who that dragon is, but I can tell that these crystals are the vestiges of an ancient warding system that's currently inactive."
Rhyol allows Ember to tell us all about the crystals, and then scoffs. "Lot of good that does us. Where do we GO, little wyrm?"
Zephyr possess only limited knowledge of Planes, but has to ask the obvious, "So how do we activate it?"
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"Five doors, but which to choose first? A great wizard would be able to divine such things. As I am a great wizard, then...ah... I should be able to do so!"
Octaris mumbles some strange syllables, which sounds like nonsense, closes one eye and points to the 3rd door.
"That's the one we want."
Right?
Ember flits to Octaris's side and examines the block of granite. "I wonder what the chairs are for?" He zips inside to take a closer look!
Zephyr takes a look
Rhyol follows, ready to beat up on things, as she does best.
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The next room along appears to be some kind of armory, filled with a plethora of mundane (but still quite serviceable) weapons.
In addition, a Detect Magic sweep of the room discovers a pair of magical bracers...
...and another warding crystal.
Rows of silver pipes emerge from the ground in this otherwise unadorned room. A few of the pipes are capped with silver lids.
Similar lids rest on the floor near the open pipes.
Once again, a floating blue warding crystal occupies the center of the chamber.
"Perhaps these pipes are some sort of instrument that can activate the warding crystals. Ember, do you see it as such?"
"IF so, I can move those caps. But I don't recognize what they might do." says Rhyol.
"Before we remove the caps, let's make sure something isn't going to crawl out."
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With a little bit of effort, Rhyol is able to lift the lid from one of the pipes.
As soon as she does so, the smell of an aromatic incense, with distinct woody and fruity notes, suffuses the room.
(Peering down to tube does not reveal anything of interest.)
When the lid is returned to its proper place, the scent gradually abates.
"I have a bad feeling about this, but let us hope I am wrong."
Rhyol follows Octaris, not at all interested in the strange smells.
Ember excitedly follows Octaris, wondering aloud what the unknown smell is. "Do you think that's how it smells on the Upper Planes? Or maybe in the First World? Or in the City Brass? Or maybe in Axis?"
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Dragon statuettes made of multicolored crystal hover in this room. Its walls, floors, and ceiling are covered in a hovering layer of small crystal fragments. Once again, another purple crystal floats in the centre of the room.
The shelves of this library hover and hang from the walls at a variety of artistic angles. Surprisingly, despite the unusual orientation of the bookcases, the grimoires and scrolls rest neatly on the shelves.
Zephyr takes a moment to study the literature
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Like all of the other crystals in each of the other rooms, this one cannot be moved.
After several minutes of searching in the library, Octaris finds a ledger that indicates that the library belonged to a djinni named Pahwal ijil Ranginori, who was so devoted a servant and worshipper of a being called Ranginori that he was granted the immense honor of taking Ranginori’s name as a part of his own.
At this juncture, everyone in the party notices that the warding crystal is starting to spark with electricity.
Consequently, it does not take damage from positive energy—instead, it takes damage from spells with the chaotic, earth, evil, fire, lawful, or water descriptors (1d6 points of damage per spell level).
Destroying the warding crystals themselves would also have some effect on the 'haunt', although to a lesser extent.
Round 1: Ember(-), Octaris(-), Rhyol(-), Zephyr(-), ??(-)
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The crystal itself seems to be largely unaffected by Octaris' attack, but to his surprise, he notes with interest that immediately following his watery blast, *all* of the electricity arcing from the all of the crystals starts to reduce in intensity, although it does not stop.
Round 1: Ember(-), Octaris(-), Rhyol(-), Zephyr(-), ??(-14)
"Anyone know what that thing is doing? Should I hit it? I'd like to hit it."
Not sure why the crystal is reacting, but suspecting Octaris knows something Zephyr does not, Zephyr casts Resist Energy electric on himself.
"Ooh! Ooh! I heard about this! It's an old echo of elemental power! Certain spells will erode its power! Umm... Let's see. The power of Chaos, Law, Earth or Fire will harm it. Hmmm... Evil, too, but that's yucky."
"I'm afraid I won't be much help here."
So saying, he breathes fire on it.
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With the judicious application by Ember of fire to the crystal, the tower's defenses once again go dormant.
As they do so, the semi-crystalised tornado at the centre of the main room disappears, revealing a palpitating 10-foot-diameter ring of hundreds
of colors near where the tower’s roof once existed.
"Why, it's a portal... to the Maelstrom, I should think!" says Ember. "That could be the cause of all these weird happenings."
"Is that where we need to go? If so, should we look around a bit more for anything else that might be useful?"
Zephry offers a wry smile, "Then let us be under way."
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Stepping through the gate, there is a blinding flash of white light, and then you find yourselves... elsewhere.
The color-streaked blackness expands to fill the entire sky.
Above, a ring of electricity hovers in midair. Brightly colored formations shaped like cracks running through stone pepper the sky around it. Below, a forty-foot-wide stone platform bears a runic circle. Smaller pieces of stone are connected to this platform with sturdy iron chains.
Over on the other side of the central 'island' floats a strange beast: Tentacles tipped with snapping jaws emerge from this serpentine creature’s back, complementing the vicious maw in its reptilian face. Its flesh roils and twists constantly, never quite remaining the same, but nevertheless retaining the creature's overall form.
Four elemental whysps float chaotically about the demiplane, but there is something... wrong with each of them.
The party's sudden arrival surprises the beast, and two of the Whysps shake off their confusion.
The large beast roars.
"Сущности заказа! Вы осквернить мой прекрасный хаос! Приготовься умереть!"
It then moves to attack.
Round 1: Octaris(-), Whysps(A -, E -, F -, W-), Zephyr(-), Rhyol(-), ?(-), Ember
Having at least identified the creature by name and type, Zephyr shares the basic info, "This creature is a chaotic outsider, shapechanger, and protean, be warned."
"Ember, those wisps are not in the right frame of mind. Perhaps someone can reason with them..."
Protean Subtype: Proteans are serpentine outsiders of pure chaos. They have the following traits.
Blindsense (distance varies by protean type).
Immunity to acid.
Resistance to electricity 10 and sonic 10.
Constrict and grab as special attacks.
Supernatural flight.
Freedom of Movement (Su) A protean has continuous freedom of movement, as per the spell.
Amorphous Anatomy (Ex) A protean's vital organs shift and change shape and position constantly. This grants it a 50% chance to ignore additional damage caused by critical hits and sneak attacks, and grants it immunity to polymorph effects (unless the protean is a willing target). A protean automatically recovers from physical blindness or deafness after 1 round by growing new sensory organs to replace those that were compromised.
Change Shape (Su) A protean's form is not fixed. Once per day as a standard action, a protean may change shape into any Small, Medium, or Large animal, elemental, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, plant, or vermin. A protean can resume its true form as a free action, and when it does so, it gains the effects of a heal spell (CL equal to the protean's HD).
Zephyr cast's Bull's Strength on Rhyol.