Dearest Naughty Toes,
A strange thing happened after I finished the last letter and before we turned in for the night. A five foot section of the floor rose briefly into the room. We caught a brief glimpse of the intricately carved surfaces made of a dark material before it descended back down through the hole through which it rose, which closed instantly behind it, but not before the room was filled with the smell of forest.
It seems that at this point we all fell into a deep slumber. When we awoke my hair had grown back and we had all be granted the ability to ride camels with a strange supernatural ability. Cool or what!
Murals and Motion
Anyway we checked the last of the crystal domes covering the final plinth but this one was as empty as the first. I checked out the down ramp and saw that it was covered in dust with no footprints suggesting that we were the first to explore this pyramid in may a long year. It continued down for some way, with several twists and turns before eventually emerging into a chamber, three of the four walls of which were rendered and painted. In the far wall was a pair of large double doors which appeared to have been covered with gold leaf. After checking that nothing could be heard behind the doors we turned our attention to the walls, or more precisely, the images depicted on them.
There were images on three of the four walls but the final part of the west wall had not been completed. After checking that the images were not trapped we inspected them closely. Lady Helena told us that they were in a traditional Azlanti style and showed a caravan progression through a city, fourteen camels with seven riders and one great cat. At this point we realised that we were looking at stylised versions of ourselves wearing Azlanti costumes leaving Absalom!
The next panel showed the ship being escorted, the next the battle on the beach, the next the banquet, the next the incident at the oasis, the next the camel train across the desert and the final one us in the room examining the mural.
Weird!
Ziyana used her strange oracular skills to see what should be in the final unfinished panel but could not tell.
Leaving this rather disturbing room behind we opened the double doors to reveal a plinth and a lowered section of floor that continued into a tunnel to the west. In the centre of the lower part of the floor was a metal rail. Lady Helena studied the plinth and pointed out the Azlanti word for 'Summon' on it beside a gemstone button. Needless to say I was taking notes, by the end of this I should be fluent in Azlanti! She pushed the button. Nothing seemed to happen and we spend a few moments studying the mural that encompassed the whole room. It was in a fresh, new, style unlike the stilted formal Azlanti of the previous room. Lady Helena said it showed Aroden, the 'Last of the First Humans' who somehow survived the fall of the Starstone and the destruction of his lands.
We felt a breeze coming from the tunnel and moments later a strange contraption much like a trio of connected carriages, without a beast of burden to pull them appeared and stopped beside us. Made of glass and polished wood they appeared to be powered by a magical waterwheel at the front. It reminded me of those tales we were told as children of the magical flying city of Serraine with its many mechanical wonders created, ruled and maintained by the gnomes.
The doors slid open and we stepped on board. At the front of each carriage there was a plinth with the Azlanti words for 'Up', 'Down' and 'Stop' beside more jewelled buttons. Seeing that the passage sloped downwards to the west Lady Helena pressed the 'Down' gem. The doors slid shut and we started moving along the tunnel. We soon saw a tunnel leading off at right angles to our passage and glimpsed crouched figures in the gloom. Lady Helena pressed the stop button and the train slowed to a halt at the next of these passages.
We climbed out of the carriage and advanced along the perpendicular tunnel. Crouched in alcoves were foetal figures, man-sized and probably mechanical in nature. Resisting the temptation to fiddle i tied myself to a rope and handed it to one of the stronger members of the part to hold as I advanced along the tunnel that sloped, gently at first then more and more steeply downwards. Eventually the passage became too steep to walk along and I made a controlled descent to the bottom which was a deep sand pit. I had a quick search but I could find nothing in the sand nor could I determine why the passage sloped the way it did nor what the purpose of the sand was. Climbing back up I rapped one of the mechanical figures with my knuckles. It sounded solid and on closer inspection appeared to be constructed of cogs and gears. I put my ear to its chest but could hear nothing but the beating of my own heart. Lady Helena judged that they were some form of clockwork golem1. We returned to the carriage and continued on our journey. The passage continued downwards in an expanding spiral path.
Fearful Fungi
After passing several more of the perpendicular passages we arrived at another of the platform rooms. Like the first it was the end of the line with a pair of double doors in the north wall. The mural in this chamber showed a giant pyramid being constructed by the strange golems in the tunnels and a massive number of slaves.
Even without getting close to the doors we could hear the sound of falling water from beyond the doors. We checked the doors for traps then swung them open. Instantly we were assaulted with a wave of piercing screams. Illuminated by the light flooding in from the platform room the sound issued from four vibrating man-sized mushrooms. Some of the party were almost incapacitated by the noise leaving the rest of us to move in and kill them. However as we did so we came under attack from several other similar fungal foes that had long whip like tendrils that drained Kordex, Miria and Dio of strength and health.
Vast Voids
Shaken by the powers of these creatures even after we managed to despatch them we were much more cautious as we moved on. This room, though similar in shape and size to the one at the beginning of the line, had no decoration. It did have a massive waterfall forming what should have been the far wall, leaving a narrow opening to one side.
We peered through the gap and were astonished by what we saw - the inside of the pyramid was a vast hollow space. Five foot cubes of intricately carved material - identical to the one that emerged into the chamber this morning - float following complex intersection and sometimes colliding paths. We appear to be near the top of this void and the narrow path beside the waterfall leads to a platform while a ramp spirals down the sloping interior wall of the pyramid. Light floods into the chamber from a large faceted dome at its apex. Three other waterfalls tumble down from the walls at different elevations and the air is moist and full of the scent of the forest.
In the centre of the platform is a large rectangular building with a pair of wooden doors on one of the short ends above which is painted the symbol of a winged eye. Lady Helena identified this as being the device of Aroden and suggested this might be a temple of his. Standing by the bridge, motionless, is another of the clockwork golems, covered in vines, motionless and seemingly oblivious to our presence. Rising up above the platform are the topmost branches of a gigantic tree some of its aerial roots have pierced the golem pinning it to the platform. Kissara reckons that the tree is at least ten thousand years old.
We turned our attention to the building on the platform. I climbed the wall and had a look through one of the narrow windows. Inside there were several pillars and an altar but it was difficult to see much more than that despite my gnomish eyesight. The door wasn't trapped or locked and opened easily. Placed upon the altar stone at the far end of the chamber was a jade statue of Aroden while the walls seemed to have had murals on them once but despite Mirria's best attempts to clean them magically we could not make out what they depicted.
Cryptic Cubic Collisions
We headed down the ramp and after walking for about thirty minutes one of the floating cubes bumped into the ramp and stopped. Kissara pushed it and seemed to be momentarily dazed. "I saw a fight between two gladiators and it seemed to me that the tree has disturbed the machine in some way."
Several Slaves Saved
We continued down the ramp and eventually came to another balcony. This one was the same size as the one above but contained a well tended orchard in which one of the clockwork golem moved sedately tending the trees. Spaced amongst the trees were a number of five foot diameter, eight foot tall crystal cylinders, all covered in mossy green mould. Near the edge of the platform were a pair of the Azlanti statues - abstract in design - we had been sent to find. Standing by the entrance to the platform were a plaque and a finger-post pointing back the way we came and down the ramp which continued to wind its way along the inside of the pyramid. No sooner had we started to examine the plaque than we were attacked by a trio of huge wasps - the size of a horse! Dio, Lucciola with assistance from Adyel managed to kill them before they could do any damage.
Lady Helena read the plaque, "Here are displayed the best of Azlanti civilization." The finger post pointed up to "The Temple of Aroden" and down to "Pilgrims' Rest".
The statues were heavy and we wondered how we would get them back up the ramp, little did we know that the problem would soon be resolved. The arcanists amongst us determined that the cylinders were magical and once we cleared all the gunk off of them we found that each contained a number of human figures all of them constrained by bejewelled manacles and a temporal stasis spell while some had ioun stones hovering motionless above their heads.
I found a secret panel on each of the cylinders behind which was a pulsing gem which I pushed and got a small electrical jolt. I tried pulling it, twisting it, manipulating it in every possible way and each time got the same small electrical shock. Lady Helena touched the gem and the cylinder vanished, the magic must be attuned to her Azlanti blood2. Lady Helena caught the four young ladies as they stumbled briefly while I deftly removed their manacles. She asked how they got there, at first in the common tongue to which there was no response and then in Azlanti. The young ladies were shocked that Helena knew the language when she was obviously not a pure blood Azlanti. They replied that they were the property of one Ureste as were the others in the cylinders.
We released the rest and removed their manacles in the same way. Adyel identified the ioun stones, each of which provided a small bonus to the understanding of some knowledge. It seems that Ureste used to converse with the very attractive men and women and the ioun stones provided a more stimulating conversation.
Rather cruelly seeing that they had just been removed from bondage we asked the former slaves to take the statues up to the first platform and await us there. While we left them to do all the hard work we continued our stroll down the ramp.
Restroom Restorations
We came to another, much smaller platform after another period of walking. This one was only twenty feet square and was devoid of constructions of any sort apart from a pair of the abstract statues. Instead, some of the light streaming through the crystal dome was focused into a diffuse beam that illuminated the platform with a warm welcoming glow. A plaque beside the entrance to the platform named this as the pilgrims' rest so indicated on the floor above. Stepping into the light we were made drowsy, especially those that had been injured and drained by the fungal foray earlier and we fell asleep for a period.
Pesky Pixies
We woke to find a tiny, whimsical humanoid3 floating on gossamer wings around the platform. His name was Flixar and he and his small tribe of pixies tend the tree. The leader is a seer and can see the future, as can the floating cubes. He was puzzled by the concept of outside so I let him scan my mind. After a while he fluttered off and we continued down and reached the base of the tree.
Sunken Settlements
The ground was soft and slightly springy being made up from partially broken down leaves from the tree and other such debris. Here and there small pools could be spied and we moved to investigate. Strangely they appeared to act like portholes onto a sunken word beneath our feet. Peering through the water we could make out, the exact distance was unclear, a flooded city. Parts of the city were ruined by the roots of the Great Tree, it seemed that the ground we were walking on was floating on a huge lake fed by the massive waterfalls. Where this water came from was a complete mystery.
I stopped a passing rabbit and asked if there were any large predators. Before she could answer a hawk swept down and plucked the rabbit from the ground and flew away from us so answering my question. The light from the crystal dome started to fade so we found a sheltered and defensible spot between two buttress like roots to spend the night. As we started to settle down Kissara announced that we were being watched but we never found out who it was though we suspected it was Flixar and his friends.
Persistent Prodding Produces Powerful Pyramid Performance
The following morning we woke as the light from the crystal dome grew brighter. I looked around and saw that the roots had grown around what appeared to be a door shaped magical effect. Lady Helena4 touched the 'door' and it opened, moving the roots out of the way.
Beyond was a pristine room some thirty feet square lined with amazing mechanical devices, levers, buttons and shield like mirrors attached to the wall. In the centre of the chamber was a metal lined grove that formed a circle some ten feet in diameter. Needless to say I walked straight in and pushed the largest button I could find nothing happened but then I tried to do it in the same way that Lady Helena had. My mimicking didn't immediately produce results but after several attempts the button lit up as did several of the shields on the wall and numerous gems on the panels. The centre of the room rose up, much like the cube the day before but this time the block was cylindrical. Amazingly the shields on the wall seemed to be able to show what was happening outside the pyramid. A huge army was camped outside the pyramid. Suddenly an intense beam of light blasted out and destroyed much of the army scattering the rest. Before they could get away numerous clockwork golems climbed up out of the sand and killed the rest leaving the desert littered with torn and burnt flying carpets and the remains of many, many bodies. The pyramid started to shake and rattle and loud crashes, groans and grinding sounds5 could be heard from outside. Lady Helena pushed the button again and the noises subsided, the lights went out and the shields went blank. The cylinder started to sink back into the ground and the juddering got less but did not cease completely.
Have you tried turning it on and off again?
Ziyana warned us that we should leave and soon as the pyramid was trying to fly but because of the tree and the passage of time would probably tear itself apart. Working together with Lady Helena and Adyel I determined that the best way to both destroy the pyramid and still give us a chance to escape would be to press the large button again to power up the pyramid then turn it off again but before the floor cylinder could totally retract jam the immovable rod into the gap so that it would self-destruct but slowly.
With the plan set in motion and using the wand of levitate to ease the statues up the ramp we moved as swiftly as we could back towards the temple of Aroden. On the way we met a swarm of pixies who told us that this had been foreseen by their seer and the helped us by towing us along.
Reunited with Ureste's former slaves we crowded onto the mechanical carriage and returned to the platform room. A quick glance in the room of unfinished murals showed that they were still unfinished so we got no help there to see if our plan would be a success. Leading the camels back outside through the desert that reeked of rotting flesh from the earlier carnage we made the best time we possibly could to put some distance between us and the shaking pyramid. With a wrenching roar the pyramid rose from the sand toppled sideways and started to fall apart leaving just the massive, ancient tree to continue rising into the cloudless sky, fragments of the flooded city attached to its roots.
The adventure over we returned to the oasis, then back to the ship and finally home to Absalom knowing we had seen and experienced something wonderful but had made a number of very powerful enemies.
We sold all the goods we found, apart from the ioun stones of which I took the one that granted me an insight into local knowledge, and freed the slaves.
Sorry for the length of this6 but so much happened that I didn't want to miss anything out. Hope the fishing is good this season, GG
