The Second Trial: The Steps of Power
After making their way past The Crossing, they find themselves in a narrow hallway. Torches ignite on the walls as the band walks down this path.
Kirfog transforms into a hedgehog and begins charging up ahead of the band. ”So excite!” he squeals.
At the end of the hall is a stone door with numerous carvings etched into it. At the top of the door is an ornate hourglass carving with tiny specks of stone that dance along the wall and flow from the top to the bottom. Below the hourglass is a gong etching with a mallet next to it.
At the bottom of the door are various stick figure humanoids in danger.
One is running from a large boulder, another seems to have a volley of darts flying at it, and a final one is facing off against a swarm of giant beetles.
Kirfog examines the door for a moment before turning to the band. ”Go fast. Much danger. Ring gong!”
Lemmog pushes the door open, the band hears the sound of grinding stone and see on the left wall a huge hourglass carved into the wall with buckets of sand falling from the top to the bottom at an alarming rate.
The path in front of thee band turns into a set of stairs that descends for sixty feet, goes flat for another sixty, and finally goes up another set of sixty foot long stairs to a platform where there is a gong.
The chamber is roughly thirty feet wide for its entire length and the ceiling is high overhead.
Kirfog hops up into the air, transforms into a large mallet, and shouts ”Kirfog ring gong!” as stone slides open on the walls and hound-sized beetles of stone pour into the area.
Heironimyo checked for traps by triggering the first one and falling into a pit. Gribble then created a bridge over it.
Ekham uses his ability and grants Lemmog, Kirfog and himself the ability to fly.
Kirfog refused the ability as that would be cheating and when Lemmog tried to fly with him, Kirfog's weight changed dramatically and rooted Lemmog to the spot, until he no longer tried to fly with it.
Bo and Hydrica, flew out. Lemmog picks up Kirfog again and runs and jumps over one set of traps, triggering the next, falling into a spiked pit trap.
No sooner than they are out they are attacked by the giant beetles, who try to grapple the band.
Ekham, Bo and Hydrica, fly about blasting or breathing on the beetles.
Gribble goes on a wonder and sets off another pit trap, but this one is bigger and deeper. Ekham casts feather fall on Gribble, so he is in a forever slow fall, so Bo sends her broom off to fetch him.
After stalagmite falls, more traps, including blade slices from the walls of staircases.
Lemmog eventually makes his way with Kirfog to the opposite side of the room and uses him to ring the gong before the timer on the wall expires.
Hitting the Gong
As the gong is struck, the hourglass fades from the wall and Melco’s face takes shape once again. “Excellent work!” he bellows, and the entire room shakes and trembles. “Now, we shall put your minds to the test!”
A door forms in the stone along the wall. Engraved on this door is a single, large jigsaw puzzle piece.
The Third Trial: The Puzzle Chambers
This door leads to The Puzzle Chambers with two doors leading off of it.
The Compass Rose Puzzle
The band step into a rather small square-shaped room. On the wall directly in front of them is a 4-pointed star painted on the stone.
At the center of this star is the word “Rise” but the dot topping the letter “i” is a perfectly round, glowing yellow orb that protrudes from the wall.
At each point of this star is a vase sitting on a small stone shelf. All of these vases are identical in style and size. On the wall around the star are eight circular recesses - one just beyond each of the star’s points and then one halfway between each. These recesses are all empty and seem to be the same size as the orb in the center of the wall.
Along the edges of the room are sprawling flower beds filled with beautiful flora.
Each of these flowers have a small sign embedded in the dirt in front of them, but they are too difficult to make out from this distance.
The Flowers
Hydrica checks out the flowers and finds out they are labeled in the flower beds as follows:
- Orchid
- Sunflower
- Iris
- Tulip
- Water Lily
- Daisy
- Rose
- Hibiscus
- Narcissus
- Edelweiss
- Peony
- Carnation
The band gets stuck thinking of spelling out RISE with the flowers
- Rose
- Iris
- Sunflower
- Edelweiss
They spend ages trying every position with the flowers and every position with the orb, to no avail.
Bo and Gribble have some inspired thought that the shape looks like a compass, it then takes a further age to twig that possibly the points are compass points, and even longer to work out.
- Narcissus for North
- Edelweiss for East
- Sunflower for South
- Water Lily for West
Then through trial and error, they find that when the orb was placed into the slot by the Edelweiss, the puzzle was solved.
Never fully dawning on the band, that the sun rises from the East.
With this completed, the door opens.
Mirror Match
The doors open to a large square room, roughly eighty feet wide, that is filled with mirrors of all sizes.
Ekham loves this room and starts preeming infront of mirror straight away, distracted from whatever else what goning on.
Each of these mirrors appear to be on a swiveling base and are scattered through the area.
There is a shining source of light at the center of the room and bright lines of light are cast across the area in focused beams. There is a door on the far side of the room with a few large patterns engraved upon it.
Hydrica goes to move one of the mirrors, and it shatters and bits of glass fall to the floor.
Kirfog gives out a loud shriek of terror and glances nervously around the room whisper “oh no” over and over.
After a few moments pass, Melco’s face appears on a nearby wall with a frown. He looks at the broken glass for a while before speaking. “Well, that isn’t supposed to happen. No matter, the trial shall proceed in a different fashion! This shall instead be a battle of might!
Prepare yourselves!”
The mirrors in the room begin to shine and then explode into swirls of glass, metal, and stone.
They spiral and pulse for a few moments before condensing and lowering to the floor, taking on the form of four-legged beasts with a bodies of stone and metal.
Their claws, teeth, and a set of spines down their backs are formed of broken glass.
The light in the center of the room begins to grow brighter and brighter, then explodes in a blinding flash.
When vision returns to you, each of the creatures in the room are radiating their own pulsing light. And they look angry.
As the band defeat each of the creatures, their light flies back to the orb at the center of the room.
When the last one is killed, a blast of light shines from this central orb and into the wall where it reveals the outline of a door that cracks open ever so slightly.
The Final Challenge
The band step into a massive domed room that extends for hundreds of feet in each direction.
Hanging from the ceiling with a single glorious beam of light shining down upon it is what is no doubt the Primordial Seal.
Though the band cannot see him, Melco’s voice booms through the area. “You have done well to get this far, but only the most worthy amongst you may retrieve the seal. If any other but the one who is worthy attempts to touch this seal, they will be torn asunder and their body spread across all planes of existence! Find a symbol that most closely represents your warrior spirit and the final trial shall commence!”
With those words spoken, dozens of additional beams of light shine down upon the room, illuminating a variety of stone symbols that are scattered through the area.
The closest of these is a greatsword inside of a 5-foot wide circle of coloured stone.
There are eight different types of symbols available in the room:
- A Greatsword
- A Dagger
- A Shield
- A Quarterstaff
- A Fireball
- A Bow
- A Lute
- A Claw
The band moves across the room and find a plaform that represents them.
- Heironimyo chose the Dagger
- Lemmog chose the Shield
- Ekham chose the Greatsword
- Gribble chose the Lute
- Hydrica chose the Claw
- Bo chose the Bow
Melco once again booms through the room. “The warriors have chosen. Let the trial commence! You must use only the weapon you are given and the last remaining above is the victor!”
The platforms beneath the band begin to rise up and grow - first expanding to ten feet across and finally to fifteen as they are lifted thirty feet off the ground.
The bands ears are assaulted by the deafening sound of grinding stone as holes open up along the wall and begin letting tens of thousands of gallons of water flow into the chamber. It doesn’t take long for the floor to disappear and be replaced by churning waves.
As the water rises, the platforms begin to slide. They shift and pull the band across the room until they are all sixty feet apart.
When everything finally comes to a rest - an opaque barrier appears around each of the platforms and each band member turn to see a weapon hovering just behind them.
- Heironimyo - Dagger - Six short-handled, foam-tipped daggers.
- Lemmog - Shield - A massive foam tower shield that is quite light.
- Ekham - Greatsword - A large handle attached to a four foot long foam “blade”.
- Gribble - Lute - A lute with a round neck and an open hole at the end that fires foam balls when strummed.
- Hydrica - Claw - A set of large foam fists that fit over your hands.
- Bo - Bow - A bow and a set of foam-tipped arrows.
Gladiators are you ready.....
When the band have all grabbed their “weapons”, the opaque barrier falls and the band members find that 5 foot wide stone walkways have formed between some of the members.
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| The band all start out on their own platforms, before they move further apart and bridges connect them in a circle |
Each platform is connected to exactly two others and are exactly sixty feet apart.
So for a party of 4, this is simply a square, for a party of 5, this forms a pentagon, and so on.
The band members can choose which band member they want to battle.
To Battle
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| Ekham charges Lemmog |
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| Lemmog bats Ekham off of the bridge |
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| Heironimyo Thunderwaves Gribble off of the bridge |
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| Invisible Bo pushes Heironimyo off of the bridge |
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| Lemmog picks up Bo and hurls her off the bridge (he is apologetic about it, but also screams for the King as he does it) |
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| Hydrica sets a trap for Lemmog, who rushes in and bounces off of a wall of force into the water |
A Victor Declared!
Hydrica as the last band member remaining up above is considered the champion and is the person worthy of taking the Primordial Seal!
A platform appears at the center of the room - between all of the battle platforms - and a path extends from each of the outer platforms to this central one.
Hydrica walks into this center platform and into the glorious beam of light beneath the seal.
The Primordial Seal flashes with a bright pulse of green energy that causes the entire room to glow for several seconds afterward. The Seal slowly lowers from its location at the apex of the dome and towards the central platform, spinning slowly as it descends.
Melco’s voice booms once again, “You and you alone are worthy of taking this ancient device. You with a clever mind, a virtuous heart, and the strength to keep it safe from any who may want to take it from your possession. Banish the evil that dwells below!”
The seal hovers three feet off the platform, giving off a pleasant hum that draws Hydrica to it with an insatiable need.
Once the victor Hydrica takes the seal, the ringing and the shine of the seal fades. It appears to be little more than a simple stone disc with engravings along the outside.
The water swiftly drains from the room as the platforms lower back to the level of the floor.
“ You do very good! “ Kirfog squeals as he runs up to the person holding the seal in the form of an otter.
He hugs Hydrica's leg and leads the band back through the puzzle chambers, the steps of ascension, and to the main entryway. The Crossing now has a sturdy stone bridge across its length.
When the band reaches the main door, Kirfog asks if he can travel with the band.
Which the band agrees to, hey they may have a new mascot if things play out right.
The band makes their way back to the town of Gwenthas without
complications once again.
Kirfog runs alongside the band,
still maintaining the form of an otter.
As they break through the forest and see the town in the
distance, the sound of screaming reaches the bands ears.................
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