Episode 13

After a tough battle against the harpy's, Lilith's death and resurrection, the party found Mera and Kaldur. Heading into the halls beneath the ruins, Cade secures the trap door behind them just in case more harpy's decide to follow them down.

Badly hurt, the party takes a moment to see to their wounds and question Kaldur and Mera about the halls. Cade explores a short distance ahead and comes across a statue of a star. The statue seems to display a different star depending on the direction it is perceived from. Cade believes there to be infinite stars visible in the statue. With some careful investigation, Cade determines that who ever lived here had to be extremely wealthy. He is extremely excited by the possibility of treasure.

After their rest, Cade stays a short distance ahead of the party and points out places of interest. The party follows a short distance behind with a very weak Lilith. Mera and Kaldur stay at Lilith's side while Taman and Nok-Nok investigate what Cade points out. Cade notices a wall which seems slightly out of place. Finding no way to move it, Cade tells the rest as they catch up about the wall. Nok-Nok tries to blast it open but only manages to send a booming sound echoing through the hallways. Cade doubles back and tries to use the direction the star statue is pointing in from the doors perspective as a means of determining where the wall can be opened from. Cade and Nok-Nok also try to turn the star statue to no avail.

Cade leads the party into the next room. Here they find a depressed square. Unable to figure out how to activate it, Cade and Taman refer to Jeffel Tanglestrand's journal. It seems Jeffel has been to the ruins and they discover that pressure on two stone slabs causes the square to rise revealing a lever. Lilith and her escorts leave the room in case of traps and move back to the room where Cade found the strange stone wall. Using Nok-Nok and Taman as weights, Cade manages to pull the lever and can hear a stone sliding. Lilith immediately sees the stone wall open. Before she has a chance to let the others know, it closes again. Cade figures out how the lever works and this allows Nok-Nok and Taman to move off the slabs while the door remains open. This time Lilith lets Cade know as he comes running into the room. It seems he has heard the wall open and without a second thought he rushes into the room.

As Cade steps into a small 10' x 10' room, he hears a click sound and immediately tries to back out. Two darts shoot across the entrance which barely misses Cade. A bewildered Cade takes a deep breath and looks at the source, hearing it starting to reset he determines that there is a pressure plate on the floor which needs to be avoided and he briefly informs the party before jumping over into the room. Almost immediately Cade finds a secret hiding space inside the wall which he tries to open. Unable to move it and not finding a lever or switch to activate, Cade comes to the conclusion it is opened somewhere else like the stone wall. Taman decides to see if he can move it and has it open within a couple of seconds. He finds a very beautiful wooden lock box which he shows the group. Cade, a bit irritated that he did not find the box offers to unlock it. Inside they find what looks to be close to 1500 gold pieces and beautiful dagger, the box alone seems to be worth at least 20 gold pieces. Taman picks up the dagger and handles it briefly to inspect it's craftsmanship. The blade is perfectly balanced and Taman wonders why he could never have had such quality weapons for all the battles he's fought while in the military. Kaldur and Mera stare with wide eyes at the treasure in front of them. They have only ever heard of people finding treasure in ruins but never have they seen such amounts of coin in one place. Nok-Nok places the lock box and contents inside his backpack and the party hands the dagger to Cade.

Moving further into the hallways, the party consults Jeffel's journal for more clues. They find a room with two opposing pillars and grooves running between them. Finding runes on the pillars, they ask Lilith to see if she can identify them. With her recently obtained knowledge of runes, from the book found in Jeffel's study, Lilith easily identifies the runes as runes of warding. Though she is not exactly sure what they do, she knows three of the four are dangerous and the 4th is just a rune marking but is not active. With this knowledge the party figure out that the grooves form a line between the two pillars, from one rune to the other matching runes. Lilith warns them not to match two of the same runes of warding, she feels the results will be very bad. With that she leaves the room. After a very long time staring at and attempting to move the pillars, the party learns that the one pillar is out of place and Taman with the aid of Cade lifts and turns the back pillar. This results in front pillar moving very slowly in comparison. Continuing the lifting and turning and with a few close calls, the party manages to align the two inactive runes. White liquid starts pouring from the rune into the groves. Where they meet in the middle, they seem to flow down and away, but the stream seems continuous. Curiously, Cade tries to catch some of the liquid in his hands, but after a short while it becomes to heavy for him to hold and he drops it onto the floor.

Hearing the slight ending of a door moving in on the opposite side of the hallways, the party moves on to the next room. The room seems to have once been a reception room, with beautiful pillars lining the room and intricate patterns on the walls. There are other hallways leading off the room. Excitedly Cade moves on the inspect the other halls and find one leading back in the direction of the entrance. Cade sees a lever and pulls it, revealing the star statue where they came in. With Cade wanting to explore deeper into the runes and the rest of the party wanting to go another way, Nok-Nok sarcastically gives him permission to carry on and go die alone while the rest of the party moves back to the entrance and start searching the other side. Cade not needing a second invitation sets off on his own into the hallways. His second and only Nightsight poison about to come to an end.

The rest of the party moves around the right flank coming across what seems to be a torture bed. With dried blood stains on the table and floor, Lilith feels there could be ghosts. Nok-Nok decides to cast a spell creating a ghostly hand in the back corner which caresses the table. Both Taman and Lilith are convinced there are ghosts in the room and immediately leave it. Nok-Nok wanders off chuckling to himself.

A little further on they find the source of the door they heard opening because of the pillars. Entering the room they are met with a surprise. A very old figure sits in a cage in front of them, the cage seems littered with rat bones. With a weak voice, he calls out towards them, asking if anyone is there and almost expecting no response. Taman answers and the figure responds by immediately warning them not to touch the cage. The party moves around the cage throwing stones at it while he explains what will happen. One stone hits the floor while in contact with the cage and sparks fly from the contact point with the cage.

The party learn that the person in the cage is an Eonic Drifter by the name of Denis Platt. Some of the party members have heard of them before but thought them to be myth as their sightings are so rare. They question him and learn that his last interaction with anyone else was a gnome more than 100 years ago. They learn that he has been locked in the cage for more than 200 years. Denis explains to them that he cannot drift without his crystal belt which is why he is still stuck in the cage. The crystal belt was taken by the person who imprisoned him. Nok-Nok summons his battleaxe and starts throwing it at the cage. Taman joins in with stones while Lilith carefully pours acid on to the cage. Nok-Nok notices a barrier around the cage and informs the rest of them to make sure they do not touch it. Within moments the party cuts an arch shape into the cage. As Lilith applies the last acid to the cage, it starts to fall and Taman cannot react fast enough to avoid it. As the piece of the cage hits him it is still in contact with the barrier and he is sent flying across the room from the connection. Hurt but alive he gets up and dusts himself off.

Meanwhile Cade has made his way through some more hallways and doors and finds himself in a large room. There seems to be a throne at the far end and a ritual circle drawn on the floor towards the top of the room. There are some pillars and six braziers line the wall. Cade moves to the braziers and lights them. Heat lines emanate from them which all seem to travel and meet at the base of the throne. behind the throne something starts to glow. Cade moves towards it and finds another star statue, this one is glowing bright orange. Looking at the base he sees that it can be rotated. He rotates it clockwise and walks to the middle of the room and listens and inspects it. Nothing seems to have happened. Shrugging his shoulders he moves back to the statue and rotates it anti-clockwise back to it's original position and then continues to rotate it past until it comes to a halt. The throne shudders and starts to move towards the room revealing a set of stairs leading further down. Unsure weather to wait for his party or to go in alone, Cade stands there pondering the possibilities below.

Back with the rest of the party, Taman and Nok-Nok are busy inspecting the barrier to figure out what it is and how to disable when it suddenly disappears. Denis sees this and weakly starts dragging himself out of the cage with all his remaining strength. He manages to crawl out and sits with his back to the wall looking at the cage. The barrier suddenly returns. Denis starts sobbing softly. Visibly relieved he accepts water and food from the party while sobbing.

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