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Elementals!     Golem

The thought is left to hang as Balin searches about, Suva scratches a frustrated head and Morin examines the pedestal with the invisible key atop it. After a while, he suggests that perhaps the mirrors have nothing to do with the key but could be refocussed at the pedestal and somehow used on the barred cell by somebody, as suggested, trying to affect lycanthropy.

There is a frustrating lack of obvious answer and Balin even vainly swipes at the key – proving, at least, that it is indeed ethereal. Meanwhile, Suva is wielding his divine magics and is the essence of concentration whilst Darius feeds Jax and Jiriki taps his greatsword against the plaster on one of the walls, dreamily hacking tiny pieces away as he muses on what beast was kept in the cell. Jarek stands patiently, ready to swivel the first mirror into position as Kin scratches his chin.

Dalrylshana looks a little uneasy, however, glancing from Kin to Darius to Balin and then Suva reveals the result of his divinations – “aligned and alone, your aid will be sure”; he remains unsure what this specifgically means.

With various more and more elaborate theories arising from the party’s musings Jarek rather testily suggests that the mirrors should just be aligned to see what on earth happens but before anything can be done, actions are curtailed by Dalrylshana who shouts,

"No - stop!!! Don't align the mirrors - we're not alone!!"

Morin instinctively draws a silver dagger he had discovered in the curious cell as Suva is called over by Dalrylshana. The priest takes the Illuminatus and looks around the room before asking Morin to bring the dagger over and the three mutter as they examine the weapon and set it upon the pedestal. Morin request’s Kin’s amulet and it would appear something intricate is going on when it abruptly turns out that this was a ruse to check something: by the light of the Illuminatus, Dalrylshana had suddenly noticed that three of the party appeared to have some sort of 'spirit' echoing an identical form about their bodies like a ghostly corona.

The three in question are Kin, Darius and Balin and a consideration of past events lead to a rationale that this 'ghost' was somehow due to the items they carried - Shurudien's longsword, amulet and armour, items known to be strongly connected to one another, as Beryn had revealed some time ago. Morin momentarily wearing Kin's amulet seemed to further prove this as the corona passed immediately from Kin to he.

Thus, since the three items united offer even stronger protection than when used separately (and particularly against undead attacks), it is felt that they may be of use here. Following from this and Suva's divine inspiration the plan is to give Suva the
three items to wear and then the rest of the party will retreat to the relative safety of the corridor beyond the Black Gardens, ready to hurry back once Suva has aligned the three mirrors onto the pedestal. The Hawker bags will be used to communicate that the party is ready and then that the deed is done – although Morin insists upon a time limit, just in case.

Suva passes his chainmail to Darius and puts on the warrior's armour with Kin's amulet already about his neck. The party prepare to leave through the west door and bid Suva a temporary farewell and good luck. Suva adjusts his new chainmail and mentally readies himself for his task ahead, rolling his neck and stretching a little before taking hold of Balin's offered sword.

And then suddenly, as soon as he takes the weapon, he is surrounded by a blue corona of light and his body goes rigid. It lasts but a few seconds and is gone, Suva recovering unharmed, but stood before him is a figure.

It is a chainmail-clad half-elf with a tower shield, two daggers fitted on the inside, a longsword in hand, amulet about neck, greatsword strapped across his back, a hand axe strapped to his thigh, a gleaming ring on each hand and an ornate belt about his waist. His body is transparent and ghostly blue and flicks at all its edges as if about to burst into flame. The face stands out however: the eyes are bright red, and flame at their edges continuously and the grin is wide and manic.

A couple of members of the party have a feeling of deja vu as they vaguely recall the shape of a figure seemingly following them out of the vampire's crypt.

When the voice speaks, it is hollow but compelling.

"Ah, at last! The last person to take my items, I helped into a well, ha, ha! But you," the ghost glances around the party, "I shall allow to continue. You have had my aid already" - you suddenly oddly recall a blow landed here, resisting a wraith there, a door being locked here, three turns of a key there - "and you have finally freed me."

The figure looks around as the party are momentarily dumbstruck.

"And here of all places! In a dragon's own lands. Had you taken me to Serestius' lair I could not be happier! Ha-ha-ha!. Shurudien Dragonslayer shall rekindle his quests and the Mogradjinn shall fall!"

And with that, the crazed spirit figure simply vanishes, leaving nothing in its wake nor any sign of spirits any longer about the wearer of the three items. The room remains cold and as it was.

The party react with staggering calm (with the slight exception of a gaping Dalrylshana), Kin merely commenting, “Well he might get past the dice and sort out the next opponent for us,” and then decide to move on with the plan as discussed.

The party leave the room and head away, Suva remaining behind to await a signal of readiness from Morin via the Hawker bags – it comes soon enough and a return pebble is received almost as quickly as the bags’ pause-before-sending will allow. 40 minutes or so of separation and the party are reunited in the octagonal room.

Suva is looking quite pleased, as the party reunite, and clearly holding a golden key, whilst the room itself looks a little more dishevelled than it did previously. Ice is sliding slowly from the walls as it melts and more small pieces of the plasterwork are thus coming away. It's as cold as it was but the floor is damp with melted ice.

Balin asks what on earth happened and the cleric explains with a smile that it was fortunate nobody was in the room as, upon aligning the final mirror, a great explosion of cold spread like an expanding diamond from the centre of the pedestal and crashed against the walls. Suva himself, remained safe in one of the adjoining rooms beside a mirror and in the wake of the magical explosion, the key was revealed and solid. His augured words are now understood – as is the reason for the doors being warped and the walls losing plaster.

Onwards the party press, through the ‘secret’ door into the corridor with the invisible barrier – the Illuminatus reveals a keyhole as does lightly striking the barrier, which causes a mild gong-like sound and makes the keyhole visible for the duration of the sound.

Kin has the key and edges forward, wary of setting of the fire trap – after a few moments his body slouches forward slightly as resistance is removed: the key remains in his hand but the doorway has simply ceased to exist; no impediment now exists to further passage north and the door that awaits there.

There is something else, though: a buzz fills the air - it was vaguely noticeable before Kin used the key, you realise retrospectively, but now is louder. It takes but couple of seconds to identify where it is from: the ornate, garish spear that Jarek is carrying is vibrating.

The buzzing is slowly increasing in volume and it seems irrelevant as to where Jarek moves the spear. Unable to discern what its purpose may be, the end of the passage is at least investigated and reveals a small room with a single door; it's
altogether annoyingly identical to the door found by the waterway, except that the "dice" are marked with triangle, square, circle, pentagon, hexagon and octagon. No other symbols can be seen on the door, nor traps or panels revealed by roguish investigation.

The problem of the doors seems intractable without actually trying something - and there is sufficient respect for the magics here that nobody is overly keen to do that. Meanwhile, the buzzing becomes more irritating. The lack of its change regarding position leads Morin to postulate that perhaps something is this place in general that it is reacting to. Jiriki looks up - "Or maybe it's arrived at the lizard folk's village?"

Suva's eyes widen at the thought and within moments the party have decided they must check: after all, not so long ago, they gave their word to aid the lizardfolk. As they edge back along the corridor, the spear becomes ominously silent after a sharp cracking noise - a hairline fracture extends along its length. A brief check at the cleric's behest reveals nothing within the spear and he then mends it back to one piece. Suva has elected to stay behind whilst the party head back to the tropical garden as he needs time to contemplate and stops in the room with the four pools to take prayer as Morin carefully leads the rest of the group on.