Secrets of the Seasons P2 - 19/04/2023 - Archie’s Extracts
Apr 21, 2023 23:13:46 GMT
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Post by Andy D on Apr 21, 2023 23:13:46 GMT
Continued from Part 1
On Curious Chamber Mechanisms
Raine and Corilla turned the two keys to the cold iron double door simultaneously. The large doors opened up to a cube shaped chamber, approximately thirty feet at its length, with a peculiar accessibility issue...
Steps led down to a smooth, limestone floor with grates on the orthogonal points of the floor. At the bottom of the steps down, a gate of sorts marked the entrance to the floor. Across the floor on the opposing side of the aforementioned gates was another set of gates, and a balcony midway up the wall. The balcony was in line with the top of the stairs where we entered. There was no stairway on the other side that led up to the balcony. There was in fact no access point to reach said balcony. Although, the as of yet unmentioned interior water feature did provide access to the balcony, if you were prepared to swim…
Between the two gates and taking up the vast majority of space in the chamber was a continually replenishing and emptying pool of water that rose above the height of the balcony all the way to the ceiling, and then emptied back down to bare floor in approximately thirty six seconds time, like clockwork. The water rose from, and emptied through, the four orthogonal grates controlled by a mechanical contraption behind the walls - never spilling outside of the gates’ limits.
There was one more curiosity to the chamber beyond its inaccessible balcony and immense water feature. There was the statue head of a bear, to scale, in the very centre of the floor. The rest of the bear statue was nowhere to be seen.
I casted the Detect Magic spell to verify the obvious; there was immense abjuration magic emanating from the gates that restricted the water spilling onto the entrance or balcony, no matter how high the water rose.
Cechec and Raine began investigating the statue bear head. They were at the centre of the room long enough for the water to rise higher than their height, and caused them to float upwards. All of a sudden something unseen in the water grappled Raine and dragged her back down to the floor of the rising pool. Mittens summoned his fey goat - the one he cheekily named after Record Keeper Artolos - and sent the goat into the water as aid.
On The Application of Abjuration Magic
To my own disappointment, it took me far too long to comprehend the entirety of arcane power before me.
I became confused. I had successfully used the Detect Magic spell outside of the gates. I had witnessed Mittens cast the Flame Sphere spell from within the gates. Both spells had worked. But, I neglected an important observation I made when I casted Detect Magic; the abjuration magic of the gates was containing the spread of water from spilling outside of the gates. It only occurred to me much later that I should have concluded; magic could not pass from outside of the gates to within the gates, and vice versa!
Before I realised I had misunderstood the boundaries of abjuration magic in the chamber, I had cast the Enhance Ability Bull’s Strength spell on both Raine and Cechec to best aid Raine escape her invisible assailant. Like a fool, I did not realise the spell had not penetrated through the magic gate. It was fortunate that Raine, with Cechec’s help, escaped her assailant without arcane enhancement.
I got closer to understanding the dispelling magic field’s frontiers when I sent my spell book’s Manifested Mind into the rising water pool, through a gate, and my luminescent tribute to the great Mordenkainen suddenly disappeared. I wasted more magic attempting to teleport to the balcony with the Misty Step spell. At this point, I finally understood the boundaries of the gates’ abjuration magic.
With the questionable ‘help’ of Mittens’ goat, Raine managed to reach the balcony for safety. The invisible assailant, as well as ‘friendly fire’ had thrashed her up quite badly. Cechec was, at that point, now the one enthralled by the concealed attacker.
On Why Learning Well From Second Hand Accounts is Valuable
Learn well from second hand accounts, so that first hand learning is redundant rather than required!
My day of intellectually embarrassing myself had not ended at failing to quickly assess the scope of the abjuration magic at hand. The shame continued when I failed to propose a reasonable hypothesis about how best to negotiate the dangers, based on the experiences I had heard from Kavel’s account of the Temple.
Salient information I should have recalled instantly from Kavel’s accounts were:
At the time, I would not have known there was a bear statue beyond the balcony missing its head. Nor would I have known of the sundial and brass lever there too, as well as some new doors. But, prioritising finding a sundial beyond the balcony, should have been an idea well within my mental capabilities to have proposed based on the information I already knew about.
It is fortunate that none of my party were severely injured by, what was, a Water Weird attacking us concealed in the water of the chamber. Both Raine and I comprehended the Water Weird’s spoken Primordial dialect when it screamed from Cechec’s rapier piecing its body. Together, Raine and I attempted a ‘good cop bad cop’ approach to dealing with the Water Weird. In the end, bladed points, be they from a rapier or a psychic blade, did away with the Water Weird - temporarily though. The, or a new Water Weird came back when the water rose again. Raine and I took too long deliberating over whether to take action with the sundial and lever, but eventually, the solution to our aggressors persistence was permanently solved, when Raine altered the sundial’s position to summer, and the Water Weird vanished, replaced by warmer water and pleasant fish.
Corilla fastened a method to guide and hoist the bear head statue from the pool of water and over the balcony with pitons and a rope, demonstrating a good deal of ingenuity.
On Secrets Beyond the Balcony and By the Encampment
With the season in the chamber set to summer, our accompanying researchers swam safely across the room to reach the balcony and join us on the other side, where Raine and Cechen hand managed to complete our bear statue puzzle. With its head fully attached, the statue bear stood on its hind legs, and the much stronger looking cold ‘steel’ door opened to reveal a very large chamber with eight doors opposed by another eight on its opposite side. We had, it seemed, found a prison of sorts, which we had expected based on Lily’s account of what likely lay beyond her own pool, between the Great Hall’s chimaera door, and the cold iron door.
It was quite exhaustive just reaching the newer cold steel doors. Artolos recommended we call it a day.
We were treated to a rest outside at the research encampment.
In the absence of Ms. Calla Prim, I was delighted to see Cechec take on guardianship of Mr. McKittens. In the now relaxing warm air of the encampment, away from harm, Cechec rightfully demanded Mittens owe Raine an apology for commanding his goat to ram Raine up on to the balcony, when the amount of force applied was unnecessary and gravely harmful given Raine’s exhaustion from grappling and receiving harm from the Water Weird. As lessons were being administered, and Raine herself was receiving a gift discovered from within the Temple from Artolos, I sought a private word with Master Galan.
I brought Corilla to explain what she had observed to Galan. Earlier in the day, Artolos gave no perception of Omnis’ absence from his shoulder during the Summer Warrens’ chimaera fight, which I asked him about.
Back at the Summer Warrens, Corilla, as she had explained, had reached the chamber where we found the chimaera on its plinth ahead of everyone - except a couple people from of our group. Corilla witnessed Jasper wiping something from the plinth, before teleporting away. Before him was Omnis, who also vanished. Artolos disputed a moment where Omnis wasn’t present on his shoulders, and I discovered from Galan that Artolos is also the only person who claims to have seen Jasper after he teleported away. If there are more secrets within secrets here, I hope I went to the right person in Galan to confide my confusion.
I came to the Court of Harmony to investigate whether Kavel’s party had caused problems obtaining a hunting horn from the Temple For All Seasons for a lady named Drusilia. In two visits I have not come closer to discovering the answer and have only discovered more secrets.
Upon arriving back at Daring Heights, perhaps the most peculiar discovery was made. Somehow the same symbol discovered near the chimaera nest has been seen in the Dawnlands and Joran…
On Curious Chamber Mechanisms
Raine and Corilla turned the two keys to the cold iron double door simultaneously. The large doors opened up to a cube shaped chamber, approximately thirty feet at its length, with a peculiar accessibility issue...
Steps led down to a smooth, limestone floor with grates on the orthogonal points of the floor. At the bottom of the steps down, a gate of sorts marked the entrance to the floor. Across the floor on the opposing side of the aforementioned gates was another set of gates, and a balcony midway up the wall. The balcony was in line with the top of the stairs where we entered. There was no stairway on the other side that led up to the balcony. There was in fact no access point to reach said balcony. Although, the as of yet unmentioned interior water feature did provide access to the balcony, if you were prepared to swim…
Between the two gates and taking up the vast majority of space in the chamber was a continually replenishing and emptying pool of water that rose above the height of the balcony all the way to the ceiling, and then emptied back down to bare floor in approximately thirty six seconds time, like clockwork. The water rose from, and emptied through, the four orthogonal grates controlled by a mechanical contraption behind the walls - never spilling outside of the gates’ limits.
There was one more curiosity to the chamber beyond its inaccessible balcony and immense water feature. There was the statue head of a bear, to scale, in the very centre of the floor. The rest of the bear statue was nowhere to be seen.
I casted the Detect Magic spell to verify the obvious; there was immense abjuration magic emanating from the gates that restricted the water spilling onto the entrance or balcony, no matter how high the water rose.
Cechec and Raine began investigating the statue bear head. They were at the centre of the room long enough for the water to rise higher than their height, and caused them to float upwards. All of a sudden something unseen in the water grappled Raine and dragged her back down to the floor of the rising pool. Mittens summoned his fey goat - the one he cheekily named after Record Keeper Artolos - and sent the goat into the water as aid.
On The Application of Abjuration Magic
To my own disappointment, it took me far too long to comprehend the entirety of arcane power before me.
I became confused. I had successfully used the Detect Magic spell outside of the gates. I had witnessed Mittens cast the Flame Sphere spell from within the gates. Both spells had worked. But, I neglected an important observation I made when I casted Detect Magic; the abjuration magic of the gates was containing the spread of water from spilling outside of the gates. It only occurred to me much later that I should have concluded; magic could not pass from outside of the gates to within the gates, and vice versa!
Before I realised I had misunderstood the boundaries of abjuration magic in the chamber, I had cast the Enhance Ability Bull’s Strength spell on both Raine and Cechec to best aid Raine escape her invisible assailant. Like a fool, I did not realise the spell had not penetrated through the magic gate. It was fortunate that Raine, with Cechec’s help, escaped her assailant without arcane enhancement.
I got closer to understanding the dispelling magic field’s frontiers when I sent my spell book’s Manifested Mind into the rising water pool, through a gate, and my luminescent tribute to the great Mordenkainen suddenly disappeared. I wasted more magic attempting to teleport to the balcony with the Misty Step spell. At this point, I finally understood the boundaries of the gates’ abjuration magic.
With the questionable ‘help’ of Mittens’ goat, Raine managed to reach the balcony for safety. The invisible assailant, as well as ‘friendly fire’ had thrashed her up quite badly. Cechec was, at that point, now the one enthralled by the concealed attacker.
On Why Learning Well From Second Hand Accounts is Valuable
Learn well from second hand accounts, so that first hand learning is redundant rather than required!
Dr. Archie Haltuhr (very recently)
My day of intellectually embarrassing myself had not ended at failing to quickly assess the scope of the abjuration magic at hand. The shame continued when I failed to propose a reasonable hypothesis about how best to negotiate the dangers, based on the experiences I had heard from Kavel’s account of the Temple.
Salient information I should have recalled instantly from Kavel’s accounts were:
- Five stone heads were needed to act as keys to open the chimaera door.
- The use of a brass lever locked into a sundial controlled the season in chambers, which could alter the hazards within those chambers.
At the time, I would not have known there was a bear statue beyond the balcony missing its head. Nor would I have known of the sundial and brass lever there too, as well as some new doors. But, prioritising finding a sundial beyond the balcony, should have been an idea well within my mental capabilities to have proposed based on the information I already knew about.
It is fortunate that none of my party were severely injured by, what was, a Water Weird attacking us concealed in the water of the chamber. Both Raine and I comprehended the Water Weird’s spoken Primordial dialect when it screamed from Cechec’s rapier piecing its body. Together, Raine and I attempted a ‘good cop bad cop’ approach to dealing with the Water Weird. In the end, bladed points, be they from a rapier or a psychic blade, did away with the Water Weird - temporarily though. The, or a new Water Weird came back when the water rose again. Raine and I took too long deliberating over whether to take action with the sundial and lever, but eventually, the solution to our aggressors persistence was permanently solved, when Raine altered the sundial’s position to summer, and the Water Weird vanished, replaced by warmer water and pleasant fish.
Corilla fastened a method to guide and hoist the bear head statue from the pool of water and over the balcony with pitons and a rope, demonstrating a good deal of ingenuity.
On Secrets Beyond the Balcony and By the Encampment
With the season in the chamber set to summer, our accompanying researchers swam safely across the room to reach the balcony and join us on the other side, where Raine and Cechen hand managed to complete our bear statue puzzle. With its head fully attached, the statue bear stood on its hind legs, and the much stronger looking cold ‘steel’ door opened to reveal a very large chamber with eight doors opposed by another eight on its opposite side. We had, it seemed, found a prison of sorts, which we had expected based on Lily’s account of what likely lay beyond her own pool, between the Great Hall’s chimaera door, and the cold iron door.
It was quite exhaustive just reaching the newer cold steel doors. Artolos recommended we call it a day.
We were treated to a rest outside at the research encampment.
In the absence of Ms. Calla Prim, I was delighted to see Cechec take on guardianship of Mr. McKittens. In the now relaxing warm air of the encampment, away from harm, Cechec rightfully demanded Mittens owe Raine an apology for commanding his goat to ram Raine up on to the balcony, when the amount of force applied was unnecessary and gravely harmful given Raine’s exhaustion from grappling and receiving harm from the Water Weird. As lessons were being administered, and Raine herself was receiving a gift discovered from within the Temple from Artolos, I sought a private word with Master Galan.
I brought Corilla to explain what she had observed to Galan. Earlier in the day, Artolos gave no perception of Omnis’ absence from his shoulder during the Summer Warrens’ chimaera fight, which I asked him about.
Back at the Summer Warrens, Corilla, as she had explained, had reached the chamber where we found the chimaera on its plinth ahead of everyone - except a couple people from of our group. Corilla witnessed Jasper wiping something from the plinth, before teleporting away. Before him was Omnis, who also vanished. Artolos disputed a moment where Omnis wasn’t present on his shoulders, and I discovered from Galan that Artolos is also the only person who claims to have seen Jasper after he teleported away. If there are more secrets within secrets here, I hope I went to the right person in Galan to confide my confusion.
I came to the Court of Harmony to investigate whether Kavel’s party had caused problems obtaining a hunting horn from the Temple For All Seasons for a lady named Drusilia. In two visits I have not come closer to discovering the answer and have only discovered more secrets.
Upon arriving back at Daring Heights, perhaps the most peculiar discovery was made. Somehow the same symbol discovered near the chimaera nest has been seen in the Dawnlands and Joran…
