"Sure, let's just watch our backs. And no sense in letting any cleric keep these things." Yasmin pockets all of the remaining possessions, after handing the Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds to Ea. She runs her hands through the warm water one last time, thinking of Qadira.
Skirting around the edge of the pool, the friends move to te northern door. Examining it, Rallos assures himself that it is free of traps - but swiftly discovers that it is securely locked closed...
Listening, he can't hear anything on the other side of the door...
Rallos gets out his tools and works on the lock.
Gray, keep an eye out for a second, please. I'll be just a moment or two...
Perhaps another minute...
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'Guess no skinny dipping tonight...' Murassa thought with a silent sigh as they gathered around the door. "I swear, this place is gonna gove me a headache," he said to no one in particular as Rallos worked on the lock. "So, when we're all rich and famous from delving into the deepest depths of the spire, what will you all do?"
"I don't know - travel the world? I spent a lot of my life in Qadira, but that's not really home any more, so I need to find a new one. Right now, the spire feels like my new home, and you're like family to me. But when we're done with this and go our separate ways, who knows what's next?"
Rallos tries the lock again.
Bit of a stubborn one, this one is...
It takes a while but finally Rallos clicks the lock open…
…moving in through a corridor and then a second door, the friends arrive in a pillared room – a door, currently locked, leads to the east (a check of the map being drafted as they move through suggests that it must lead to the temple) whilst, in the western wall, a natural cavern corridor descends into darkness. A cold wind rises from it, carrying a foul stench…
Yasmin looks around, quite puzzled. "I don't get it, how could Tiawask have just vanished?" Yasmin searches for magic in the room, just in case.
We could go back through the rooms we cleared....I do not think she went on further...
"We should take one more sweep of this level before going down into that cavern. When we find Tiawask I'm inclined to bind her legs, hands, and mouth for the trip back to the surface."
"Ugh, I suppose so. She might have gone into that labyrinth that tried to gas us to unconsciousness. Let's be careful there."
As the party sweeps through the area once more, Yasmin looks for any sigils that might correspond to the name for this level of the Spire, since it seemed quite likely that the party would want to teleport here.
Too bad I didn't keep that set of shackles we had capturing the bandit queen...might come in handy with Tiawask. Aye, a quick sweep for her then we set about getting Ea fixed up....
Rallos looks around the floor for traces of Tiawask's trail.
My friend, you do not really want to know what I like...
Rallos flashes a sly, toothy grin
To Yasmin, in a weak voice, but with a feeble smile
boys will always be boys...
Let's try to find some tracks, and follow them if possible. She couldn't vanish in thin air.
Tiawask - where did she go and why? – is rapidly becoming less of a mystery and much more of a frustration… looking for footprints or other evidence of trails in the room that leads to the swiftly descending cavern, Ea confirms that many serpentfolk have moved through this area in recent days… but as the question, has a human passed through here? Ea cannot be sure…
And so, retracing their steps once more, the friends move back through the rooms that they have discovered… through the temple, through the ovarium (where Yasmin finds the sigil for ‘Eight’ etched into the spire), through the prison and through the rooms that they explored when first they came out of the labyrinth… and, finding nothing, they finally arrive at the entrance to the labyrinth once more…
"Into the labyrinth then? If the spectral snakes come again, we'll know to blast them quickly!"
Aye...into the maze it is. At least we know about those bloody snakes this time....
With that, Rallos heads into the maze.
Grayface leads the group along, grumbling with displeasure and aggravation with the errant Tiawask and the unnecessary - and possibly dangerous - delays she has caused.
Moving into the labyrinth, the friends move around and around in the ever tightening circles until they reach the centre of the maze... ever listening for the sound of gas that previously announced the arrival of the serpents, the friends hustle on through... now moving along the leg of the labyrinth that they didn't explore fully - convinced that this must surely be where Tiawask went - and then...
...a dead end.
With no other option and no sign that she came this way in the first place, the friends backtrack out of the labyrinth...
I have no idea where she went. We should carry on with the underwater tunnel then go back to the hatchery....we never checked that room thoroughly
"None of this makes any sense at all. It's almost like Tiawask was an illusion and not reality. Is that even possible?" Yasmin pinches herself to check that she's awake and not in some weird dream.
"Well, okay, so tunnel then hatchery. I don't know what Tiawask has gotten herself into, but I think it's time to tend to ourselves."
Aye...I think so too.
With that, Rallos sets off for the tunnel, still wary of his surroundings.
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As the day's fighting and other exertions started weighing in on him, Murassa nodded his head. "Yeah, I think a bit of rest is in order for all of us," he said as he popped his neck with a soft groan. "Honestly, if she hasn't died after all of this time, which I take it to be a while if you'be been looking for her, then she must have something going on for her."
I got an idea, and if it's a stupid idea I can blame the poison: could it be possble that she went back to the cell where we found her? Maybe she tought it was the safest place to be?
it's not a stupid idea at all....it makes sense actually. I'm not keen on going up Flafter her though....but.....
The water in the pool is, it turns out, pleasantly warm... and the experience of clambering into the water is, after all of the trials and tribulations that the friends have faced, rather relaxing. The pool itself is slightly egg-shaped, becoming a little wider the deeper it goes before arriving at the pool's floor after twenty feet...
Ten feet under the surface of the water, light comes from a small, water-filled passageway leading to the west... At the end of this passageway is a stone door and, in the wall next to it, is set a stone lever. Even more interestingly, just adjacent to the tunnel, a mark in the rock glows gently...
The mark is in the form of the runic letters “TWSK".
"Wrlgrlrrbrlgrl!"
Gray pointed to the glowing letters that resembled the missing wizard's name, looking a bit silly with blown cheeks and his mane of long hair going medusa in the warm waters.
He swam back up to the surface so that he could speak once again.
"My vision was blurry but it looked like the letters spelled "TWSK". That's got to be her, right?"
"Definitely!" agrees Yasmin from the surface. "Let's see what's behind that door."
"Good point Murassa. Can you use magic to pull the lever?"
"A little paranoid, but if there's anyplace that's worth being paranoid, it's definitely here! I might be able to manage the lever with magic." Yasmin cracks her knuckles, as if to get ready for a challenge. "You all keep watch from here at the surface."
Yasmin will get back in the water and, from as far back as possible, see if she can pull the lever with her magics.
Through the warm water and with more than a little trepidation, Yasmin reaches out with her arcane powers – clutching the lever and then, requiring surprisingly little force, turning it, the door slides out of the way. It reveals another pool, also illuminated yet seemingly a little more regularly shaped than the one into which the friends have entered… letting Grayface and Rallos take the lead, the friends make their way along the small tunnel. It isn’t a long way, no more than twenty to thirty feet, and is easily navigable… reaching the second pool, Grayface grips his sword and kicks upwards…
…breaching the surface in a strangely familiar room…
Dragging himself out of the water, he sits himself on the edge of the pool… to his south, a set of stairs lead upwards (to what was Sartoss’s lair) whilst to his north, a second set of stairs descend out of view… and, in front of him, an empty pedestal where the snake statue once stood – the statue that, once touched, had teleported the friends into the labyrinth…
…one by one, the rest of the friends make their way through the tunnel and join Grayface at the landing between levels.
Let's finish checking the hatchery...there might be clues regarding the eggs and their purpose.
Rallis heads towards the egg room.
Yasmin is very surprised to find themselves back at the place where this all started. "Full circle, then! I guess we now know how the rest of these snakes get into their home." Yasmin checks the stairs quickly, looking for any more of that graffiti that might suggest whether Tiawask went upstairs or downstairs.
Once that's done, Yasmin is still drawn in by the gemstone that caused this mess in the first place. "Do you think we can still fish out that emerald here without getting teleported again?" Without getting too close, Yasmin tries to see if the teleportation effect is still active, and if so, whether there was any gap or opening in it. .
Yasmin's examination of the pedestal confirms that the magic is still present... although it is somehow shielded and contained by the stone column that the statue has been withdrawn into... the magic is as it was before, some form of suggestion spell interwoven with a teleport...
...with no obvious means of retrieving the gem without succumbing to its effects, Yasmin moves on to a quick exploration of the stairs... upwards, there is nothing but, upon descending a short distance down the stairs, the wall ripples and takes on the shape of a human mouth about a foot across. In a feminine voice, it whispers, “I, Tiawask, a mage of the Goldenfire Order, leave this message for any who are exploring the Spire. I escaped from Klarkosh and the serpentfolk, but am continuing my descent in the hopes that I will find a way out somewhere below. If you have come this far, I beg you to help me escape. You shall be richly rewarded".
Yasmin drops back, startled by the sudden appearance of the magic mouth. That is, until she realizes who it's from. Her expression of surprise quickly transforms into one of anger. For all of Yasmin's concern about the mage's safety, the woman had thrown herself into further peril! She hurls a splash of acid at the ridiculous talking mouth before yelling at it.
"You ungrateful b*~*$! You didn't escape from the serpentfolk - we set you free! We were going to get you out of here!" She covers her face with her palm in frustration. "Ugghh! We're done here. Let's go to the hatchery. Tiawask can rot in the depths for eternity, reward be damned."
Having found themselves back at the landing where they were originally drawn into the serpent’s lair and with the Magic Mouth finally destroying all patience that they had with Tiawask, the friends make their way back through the underwater tunnel… and trek back to the strange hatchery…
The green light of the spire is a familiar sight that has greeted them on each and every level of this warren of caves and rooms… and here it seems stronger than ever before; the emerald glow washing over the eggs and casting bizarrely ovoid shadows against the walls. Not much has changed since you were last in here, there are some thirty to forty eggs and, whilst most are around two feet high, several are as tall as four feet… and, in the tallest eggs, it is possible to make out the silhouetted outline of humanoid figures…
…a look around each of the nests also reveals another treasure, the second of the stone fangs that is missing from the huge snake statue in the temple…
"The other fang! You think replacing them will release that big gem out there??" ...Grayface asked greedily.
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Gray examines the eggs looking for any way to differentiate between possible different types of eggs.
"I like your thinking, Gray. Can't hurt to try!" Excited by the prospect of getting her hands on the gemstone, Yasmin will assist with putting the fangs into the slots in the statue when the time comes.
* * *
Yasmin doesn't know much about eggs, but was pretty fascinated with these things. "So, since we have so many eggs, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to cut one open and see what's inside? We can try one of the medium sized ones, so we get some useful information without breaking anything too precious."
Maybe..it's worth a try.
Before examining the eggs in more detail, Grayface clambers once more up the giant statue of the snake... as his friends pass up the stine fangs, he manoeuvres them into position - each of them slots into position with a decisive clicking sound, solid stone keying against solid stone. And then, five seconds after the second fang is inserted, the metal clasps that hold the huge emerald in place withdraw... and it is only the quick reactions of Grayface that stop it plummeting to the floor...
...and so, feeling like conquerors, the friends return to the hatchery. Examining the eggs, itis clear that they are indeed all serpentfolk eggs... apparently at different stages of gestation, the largest of the eggs are closest to the spire.
Well, this will definitely buy us a few drinks at the tavern. Speaking of which, we should definitely head back to town so Ea can get back to fighting shape.
"Serpentfolk eggs, eh? And it looks like they come out of those eggs full size? I'm not sure there's such a thing as a good serpenttfolk. I agree with Murassa on this one. We need to kill at least the big ones, if not all of them."