33. January 7, 2012

The party begins to move further into the dungeon, after examining the initial room with diaramas set into 6 alcoves. There is a basin with a lid in the middle of the room with a hunting party scene shown in the associated diarama.

• 1. Hunting (in the depression in the middle of the floor)

  2. Fishing (in the first alcove on the left)

  3. Farming with a priest blessing the crop harvest

  4. Temple on tiered pyramid with offerings and a priest handling a snake and 3 warriors in costume (winged serpent, bear, coyote). 7 dieties are depicted via totems

  5. Tribal warfare (in the first alcove on the right) with red vs. black warriors fighting each other

  6. Creation of the world, showing a diety in green feathers making a nezehualpili man and a woman. There are 4 towering figures painted red, blue, and white stand by a fire committing suicide. Two additional figures - one in the fire burning, and the other is cowering in fear by the fire

  7. Crafting

The diaramas are made of clay, and there appears to be sophisticated craftsmanship, but are mud and dried vs. glazed and kilned. All of this is new to the party and doesn't tie to anything they know about the history of the island. The minotaur does not know anything about what is depicted, but he does point out some writing on the hunting diarama. Kayla makes a copy of this writing (basic carved hyroglyphs), and recognizes similiarities with writing on other native sources on the island. This appears to be an older form of what the group has seen in the past.

The minotaur reads one of the heiroglyphs and says "Chicomoztoc" and indicates that he thinks this refers to seven somethings - maybe caverns or caves. He then mentioned that some dark skinned humans came through the labyrinth, and that they herded something and were looking for a lost one. They kept repeating this word and it came across to him as though they were referring to a multi-fascited benefactor. They were talking to the vampire maker for close to a month, and had a book with this heiroglyph that they would read from and chant about 7 times each day as part of a ritual. Kayla shows the minotaur the heiroglyphs from the temple in the swamp, and he is able to pick out the one that stands for the 3-faced diety.

A few paces down the hallway leading from the room, there are carvings of reeds and then bamboo-like logs. The hallway slopes down and then up, and the party passes through a doorway crafted to look like a styalized cavern entrance with beaten bronze doors made to look like seaweed. Darwyn notices that there are breaks in some spots of the wall, and she finds a pressure plate. She and the minotaur use some rubble to set off the pressure plate. This causes the carved reeds to swing into the hallway and creates a gate blocking the hallway. Shelby squeezes through the gate and removes the rubble from the pressure plate, causing the gate to retract.

The bronze doors open upon pushing them to reveal a large room. The door "slurps" as it opens, and there is a large boulder in the room with a bamboo staff leaning against it. To the left and right are stone doors recessed into the walls. There is mud on the floor and the walls are moist. Kayla steps into the room and notes that the floor is quite slippery. One of the rocks near the main boulder begins to move, and reveals itself to be a crayfish. The rest of the group makes noise to keep the crayfish distracted while Kayla finishes her survey of the room. The giant boulder begins to move, and reveals itself to be a giant crab that intones in a deep resonant voice that stops the small crabs from moving.

The minotaur indicates that it is saying something about "guardian" and "room". It makes several threat displays that seem to be affecting the structural integrity of the room, rising and then falling hard enough to shake debris from the ceiling. The minotaur indicates that the crab says "sacred duty". Shelby asks the minotaur to say "sacred duty" and the name of the 7-faceted diety. The crab settles down and says something else about duty. Shelby asks the minotaur to chant the same song as the dark-skinned humans who visited the vampire maker. Meanwhile, Kayla has reached the first door in the room.The minotaur starts to chant and Shelby provides harmony, causing the crab to sway in time with the chant. When the chant is complete, the crab speaks again very loudly about sacred duty, referencing the name "Tloques Popolocas". This is the name for the master of outsiders. The minotaur and Shelby chant that TP has given the group permission to pass. The crab points to the door closest to Kayla, and the minotaur and Shelby chant their thanks. The party passes through the door.

Kayla scrapes up some of the mud in the next hallway, and discovers that it is slightly acidic. Darwyn believes this is due to a high quantity of lyme, with higher concentration of the lyme deposit on the right side of the hallway than the left. As Darwyn investigates, she stumbles across a secret door. She and the minotaur are able to push the door down. There is a set of bronze double doors with 3 urns on either side that have been sealed with bee's wax and are covered in faded paint. There are glyphs all over the door that read TP's name and may be his crypt. There is another phrase, "Yohualli-Ehecatl", that seems to expand on the "Master of Others" concept. The implication is that this mastery is attained through consumption.

There is a keyhole in the door, and the party speculates that this may match the ruby key that hangs around the neck of the vampire-maker. Darwyn uses her lightening bolt as a lock pick, by conducting energy through it. Behind the door is a room cut out of stone. Warriors and priests with a palor of death surround the room. Engraved on the floor is a seal bearing glyphs, and there is a bronze battle axe with a snake-skin handle embeded in the wall, and the shadow of an arm appears. The axe gives anyone who comes near the heebs. A struggle between a man and a serpent is depicted on the slab. There are 4 face glyphs in a line under the battle scene, and there are 11 more face glyphs at the bottom of the slab. The minotaur indicates that the face glyphs represent numbers and that this place is a tomb. This indicates that the number at the top of the slab says 54-3-9. The Outcast calendar system looks very much like this, but the first number is 78XX. Kayla and Shelby touch the 1 and the 8 at the bottom of the slab, and they depress like buttons but nothing happens. 5,4,3, and 9 are all depressed and the slab opens. In the slab is a skeleton with a mask on it's skull, and a book in it's arms.

When Darwyn removes teh book, a wind rises in the room and dark whispers in many languages say "leave the book". When Shelby touches the spark of life to the book, it is repelled and shot into the ceiling.