Argon’s ability to track gives him a detail that whatever made these tracks was the same size of a human or humanoid, the footsteps reveal that the being in question wears sandals, and at least three of the toes have claws. Two of the claws have a serrated end to them, more used for tearing into flesh, but the last one is broken off shorter than the other two, steps themselves are light, as they disturb the dust as little as possible.
Argon also notes that there are gaps here and there as if the being moves without walking all the time, and on those prints there is haste as if the being is excited or fleeing perhaps. Even with Argon’s training it is hard to pinpoint what type of being, it could be the steps of an imp, a winged demon, a tiefling, or something from the dragon spectrum.
Argon relays the interesting subject of the tracks to the others. He looks to see if they are going the same direction they are.
In any case, he stands and continues on. "We're getting closer. I'm actually getting excited!"
Considering what Argon had mentioned about the tracks, Ssilax nods, looking over at the walls. He was a bit curious as to way the runes had suddenly stopped. Perhaps it was the undead marking the territory they had claimed for themselves.
The dragonkin felt excited as well, they where close to finding Dainoth. It was still a bit unclear as to if they where rescuing him, or breaking into a place he had arranged to hide in. Not that it was going to stop the group from finding their adoptive father.
The group keeps moving forward, there were many theories upon the runes in the walls. Time itself has erased what knowledge of whom was buried here, the fact that there was someone here forging wrapons ans armor itself.
Once the party has moved past the forge, thwre was less of the despir and horror that the previous area held.
Wrathe follows.
"It feels like we left an area of dessacration," Ssilax whispers. It was slightly unclear if he was speaking to the others, or himself. "No complaints from me. I have my guesses about that forge area. "
The words are true, but the tone is light, "That explains why I never noticed, since I am already damned to become Asmodeus' chamberpot when I shuffle off this mortal coil."
Wrathe glides forth, like a wrathful wraith.
Once the group reaches the end of the passageway, they notice that this section of the crypt is well lit. There are four statues in this room which is about 300 ft wide by 100 ft tall, there are more murala crafted into the wall in much better conidtion then the first one. The party also notes that there are no shadows in this room.
While there is no feeling of danger in this room, when they look back towards the hallway that they had come from, there is a silver door with no seems or handles. There is no magic radiating feom the door, it looks like it would stop a charging demon from smashing it in
Wrathe muses aloud, "How in Ptah's rock hard nipples did I miss passing such a portal?"
His eyes flit from the shadowless room to the shadowless cl/izard and back.
"Well, that's just unnerving."
Argon looks at Wrathe and suggests, "Wrathe, please keep Ptah out of your profanation. There are plenty of other divine beings you can verbally defile... And no, that door was not there when we went through it, seemingly. This sure is a strange place."
With waggling eyebrows the wizard keeps his retorts to himself.
Though he does do circles around his nipples and giggle like a naughty schoolboy.
Looking up from the discovery of the lack of shadows in the chamber, Ssilax grins, listening to the others. A low chuckle escape's from the dragonkin's maw.
"Nipples are fun," Ssilax comments. "Although, they would be a little silly on a reptilian being, such as myself."
A faint grin appears along his muzzle.
"Would anyone object to me summoning a brontosaurus and having it charge through this dungeon destroying everything in its path until we stand before Master Dainoth?"
Wrathe looks about ready to start lobbing fireballs. They were so close and sneaking was not his forte.
"What is a prontotaurus, some kind of giant bull?" asks Argon, unfamiliar with paleontological terminology.
"Shall we keep on?"
"A "pronto"saurus is never late, and looks like my sister, but less ugly."
Wrathe magestically glides on avoiding contact with the ground.
"I would slightly mind actually," Ssilax whispers back to Wrathe. "Maybe once we encounter a large group of foes, then, if the space allows, sure."
The dragonkin grins at the horrible puns, then turns his eyes back to the well lit chamber they are in.
"If this the correct portal, the key should activate it as we get close," the dragonkin says. He glances around the room once, expecting an ambush or trap as they get closer.
Wrathe glances back at the portal. They had just walked past it en route to this room and it had not activated in an obvious manner.
A single spell is cast upon on that are willing to be touched (life bubble 3.33 hours each including Dog and Taylor). He would refresh the spell before it lapses.
"Let us carry on."
(wizard mana: 73/84, druid mana: 70/74)
Shockingly one of the Murals in the wall depicts the scene from when the three half-orcs made the deal to help save Sel Torin, another mural reveals Wrathe escaping from the Hell and unto the material plane, another depicts Argon and Ssilax, light glowing behind them. The final mural shows Daxniss and a monstrous shadow handing her a weapon, while she is casting a spell.
Every eye starts to look at the statues in the room and with a start and a gasp as each of the statue is a larger then life sized work of art of each of you. Everyone can practically see and hear the statues breathing, each one is standing in relief, a plaque reads Saviours? Or Damnnation?
"WHAT THE HELL!!!" shouts Argon, unable to contain himself.
He studies the statues and murals in disbelief. Hoping to find a date these were made, he looks at the equipment his simulacrum is carrying to see how recent, what "version" of Argon, it is.
He looks around at the others to see what they think. Perhaps one of the smart ones have some ideas. He shakes his head in disbelief.
"What is this place?"
Staring wide-eyed at the murals, Ssilax maw opens and closes several times. Mind whirling at possibilities he could barely grasp. At Argon's explosive exclamation, the dragonkin quickly gets his mind into gear.
"Time travel? Reincarnation or possibly resurrection? And I am not terribly comforted by the plaque," Ssilax says quietly. The dragonkin's sapphire orbs searched over his own image.
"Perhaps these are versions of us from a different dimension," Ssilax says after a few more minutes of silence pass. The dragonkin doesn't really sound overly convinced by his theory. Once more his eyes sweep over the murals.
"Or perhaps someone is trying to stall us, and have found just the right things for it," suggests Argon, having no clue about dimensions but trying to think strategically.
A laugh birthed in Madness echoes from the room, while there are no magical aura’s that are attached to the laugh, there is a hint of an angelic rings in it. As if the owner of the laugh was in search of a prosaic lithium cocktail to attempt to ease the storm within. The laugh goes on for 16 seconds then is strangled, and a voice that speaks sounds like the signing of the damned in every hell possible echoes off the walls “ Oh children! These are not the traveling of time, nor are they from the multiple universes, we see these with words and scripts from older brethren, those gifted… or cursed with the ability to read the future, we seeeeeeeeeeee yoooooooou . “The voice ends in an almost childlike sing song elements, the common tongue is mixed in with Celestial and abyssal.
“ Followers of the Fallen, know that our brothers and sister are here. Questions must be asked, be they answered in the manor of choice! ” The voice fades and the laughter starts again.
Magic rises from the statues as they disappear, those that can see magical auras make notice of the illusion spells that were wrought as a contingency spell goes off, removing the statues and the murals as well. Everyone in the party can see the room for what it really is, cages from the ceiling with occupants sitting inside, big enough to hold huge sized beings, various humanoids can be seen in the cages, along with both divine beings and unholy beings as well. In the center of the room is a cage that holds a large angel… at least a first glance, one half of the being holds the splendor of the divine, with including one glowing wing, the other half is the tale of nightmares, as the second half of the ‘diva’ is demonic, with a wing made from blood.
As everyone in cages starts to laugh it shouts “ Silence! We didn’t give you the gift of voices yet! ” The diva in the cage, has skin the color of pale moonlight, the angelic half is stretched in a frowning visage, while the demonic half has a twisted grin on its face. The laughter stops, and the diva’s left eye twitches, all of you note that while the ceiling is 100 ft high the cages are hanging 50 ft from the ground, each cage is thick enough that there would be little chance for a being inside to break free, there are 50 cages in this room alone.
Shocked at the sight that is revealed as the illusion bleeds away, Ssilax turns in full circle. The dragonkin's eyes take in the sight of the hanging cages and the occupants within. Ssilax breathed a prayer to Nethys as the Abomination of angelic and demonic speaks.
"Who are you? Why did you create such an illusion?" the dragonkin asks, looking at the bizarre diva/demon. He wasn't angry, more confused by what was transpiring in front of them.
Concerned for their safety, Ssilax wasn't about let his guard down.
The dragonkin wondered if this was the fallen diva and it's forces that they had been warned about.
Agog is Wrathe as he moves about examining the murals, searching for clues as Argon does about what iteration of each of them is depicted, and storing all details in memory for future sketches.
Gliding upwards he intends to place himself close to one of the cages with a divine being, ignoring the hybrid, though far enough away to avoid being grabbed.
"Explain."
(wizard mana: 73/84, druid mana: 70/74)
" What better way to get everyone of you shocked of course, when we have been down here longer then a sun being born, the fall took forever but it was so much fun on the way down. " The diva says with a serrated smile, the smile that promising nothing good.
" We who have all the time in the worlds, to move freely about in our kingdom. " The diva says and walks straight through it's bars, while it was was completely naked in the cage, with both sexes exaggerated, once it passes through the bars it is clothed in a simple purple outfit.
Looking at Wrathe, right in his eyes, the diva smiles even wider, both the angelic and demonic, Wrathe notes that this is a being is powerful and it's very nature twists words, but it is not lying.
Head cocked to the side within his voluminous cowl the wizard/druid remains silent.
(wizard mana: 73/84, druid mana: 70/74, ongoing: overland flight, mage armour, unseen servant)
As confused as ever, though realizing what was seen before was a powerful illusion, perhaps taken from their very minds, Argon decides a simple question is in order as he looks at the caged (and uncaged, now) creatures one by one. He counts the cages.
"What is this place?" he asks, loud enough that any of them may hear, and hopefully answer.
" Oh princely dreams to talk to my subject, I haven't given them their voices back, but if you so desire to speak to one of them, you may, I'll just squirt acid on one of the others that you won't speak too. Oh boys! if the prince asks you a question you may answer, and don't displease us. " Giving a mocking bow to Wrathe the fallen diva fly's over to another cage and drops water, conjured from the ether in a slow stream on the nearest dweller.
The answer that is given to Argon is: time, at this point in all of the timelines and the various paths, this is the nexus where the most important decision is made. Wrathe and Ssilax are free to ask questions of the other caged beings but most of the answers are "because we follow our god. The diva waits for questions that everyone will have. All of make notice that some of beings in cages die, but within a minute or two come back to life.
Any answers that the party will have seem to lead to the fallen diva as it has taken time to kill or save those that are in their cages at random. Both Angel, Demon, Devil, and Humanoid die at Random, ones that everyone would expect to die are spared. The purple clad fallen diva seems to be waiting for questions, and the fact that it had been around for a very long time.
The only answers are whatever the group will decide to ask the fallen diva, as each caged being keeps their answers close to their chest, or a disturbing answer is " Because our God says so. "
Gliding down to rejoin the others, Wrathe relays to the others the nothing he has gleaned.
Ssilax nods, absorbing what Wrathe had said. Struggling to get his thoughts in order turns and looks at the fallen diva. Thinking over a few different things, he combs his memory for any possible mention of any such a being.
Bowing slightly to the creature, Ssilax stands back up and nods to it.
"Very well, how may we address you?" the dragonkin says politely.
" Fallen one is what I go by, now that you have asked my subjects I will answer a few as well. This place is my home, the undead do not stray into here often, and those that do... become fixtures in here or new subjects that sometimes come back from death. We have all died here and come back again and again watch. " No sooner than the Fallen one says that, it snaps a demon's neck killing it instantly, 16 seconds later the bones realign and the demon wakes stands up again.
"Please stop that," suggests Argon to the Fallen one.
He heads over to the northeast corner and looks down the hall there.
"Well, this has been a lovely neck-snapping adventure, but we must be going. Good day."
Wrathe glides along to join Argon.
The Fallen One laughs again and bids you all a fair travel and that it will see you all again, a door opens up at the end of the room that is big enough for everyone to fit through without any problems. Once everyone has walked through the door, it closes behind you, with a feeling that you had all just walked through an abyss that if the Fallen one wished you would never had made it out intact, you give a sigh of relief, and spend a few seconds composing yourselves before moving on.
"It was both an amazing and terrifying experience meeting you, Fallen One. I shall never forget it, as long as I exist," Ssilax says with a bow. The dragonkin follows the others out, looking around the bizarre chamber one last time.
After a few minutes, the dragonkin turns to the others.
"That did just happen correct? I haven't completely lost my mind. We did just encounter a being with some impressive control of the bounds of life and death," Ssilax asks as he looks back the way they had just come.
Reaching down, Ssilax scratches behind Dog's ears.
"No, Ssilax, I don't think any of that happened. Maybe we have lost our minds, I don't know. I may try to just forget it like a bad dream." He starts heading down the hall carefully.
His mind wanders back to the forge they saw earlier. This is a strange place, or dimension, or whatever it is, and he wonders why there would be a forge here, in that room.
Wrathe keeps pace with the others, after taking a few seconds to do a few quick sketches, and trying to process what was going on.
"Never thought I would miss Sel Torin. As dysfunctional as I find it, one has to admit that it follows laws one can comprehend."
Shaking his head in bemusement the wizard carries on carrying on.
(wizard mana: 73/84, druid mana: 70/74, ongoing: overland flight, mage armour, unseen servant)
"Ah, damn it. I just thought of a really good question," the dragonkin says, stopping in his tracks and looking back at the door they had just left through. "You don't think that the Fallen One would mind a little more company for a few minutes. I would really like to see what it knows about my people. " Ssilax looks like he is ready to walk walk back and ask the being.
When ssilax turns around to consider going back to talk to the Fallen One, the door says shut, no way to open the door from this side. Even if Ssialx had managed to talk to the Fallen One, the information might have been nothing but lies.
"Or not," Ssilax says looking back at the silver door, lacking any means of opening the door. "Ah well, so much for short cuts," the dragonkin's looks at his friends and Aliza and grins, shrugging his shoulders slightly.
"Master Dainoth awaits."
Coordinating his movements with Daxniss, Wrathe glides forth, providing a cursory overlook of the first room, dead end, and going south to discover what lay for them in the small southern room.
(critical success)
He brings forth creatures to aid their search (summon nature's ally IV, summoner's charm).
1 summoned
A single Satyr comes forth and the wizard urges it to continuously play its pipes (fear to a 60' radius, DC 18 will save) as it moves ahead of the party.
(wizard mana: 73/84, druid mana: 65/74, ongoing: overland flight, mage armour, unseen servant)
Argon moves east, to what looks like a wall at the northeast corner of their current corridor/room.
He looks for a door of some kind there.
Ssilax follows along, keeping quite and his eyes open for, seeking any trouble that might be looking the groups way. Dog bumps into the dragonkin's leg, and gives Ssilax a wide canine smile.
Argon notices at the dead end of the passageway that there is in fact a secret door, Daxniss stops him and disarms the trap that was tied to opening the door itself. Wrathe, tries to summon a creature once the his summonded creature appears, magic ripples across all the walls, Wrathe notes that while he has brought a being here with magic, it can no longer leave this area. Wrathe found that the magic in the walls of this crypt, likes to hide from sight, or perhaps the effect of the Fallen One's presence for so many years.
Chuckling at the sight of the satyr that Wrathe summined, he winces slightly as it begins to play it's pipes.
"Perhaps not the most intimidating of instruments," the dragonkin says with another chuckle.
As Dax works on a trap, Ssilax turns his head from watching the traps being disarmed, to look at the satyr. He thinks for a few moments.
"Wrathe, did you do anything to extend how long your summoning stays around? " Ssilax asks, keeping an eye on the summoned satyr.
Wrathe nods in response to Ssilax' question as his eyes watch the distant Satyr walking into each of the three areas just ahead of the wizard, keeping his distance using the Sylvan tongue so the affect of the pipes did not wash over any of the group.
"Those of my school of specialty focus on conjuration spells ad nauseam. It increases the short duration by a half, but it should be long enough to walk this area before the magics collapse in upon themselves."
(wizard mana: 73/84, druid mana: 65/74, ongoing: overland flight, mage armour, unseen servant)
Argon bows to Daxniss in thanks, and then, if she gives the okay, he opens the secret door and looks through, prepared to jump aside if need be.