34. January 22, 2012

Kalya decides to perform a nature ritual to see if she can locate the vampire-maker. She "feels" the air around her, calling the wind to bring her information on what is in the temple. It gusts strongly enough that it distrubs the corpse, and Darwyn could swear that she sees it moves slightly as the wind passes over it, but no knowledge comes with the arrival of the wind.

Kayla proposes asking TP if he can have the book. Shelby joins the Minotaur in the hallway, where he informs her that the structure has been repurposed from its original use. The upper portion with the bat and altar is older than this portion, and was a shrine. Over time, a massive temple complex appears to have been built under the altar, and then it seems that it was later turned into a prison in some haste, with the intent being to keep people out of it. The traps stand out, and don't fit with the rest of the structure. Shelby asks Kayla to take a look at the crab and see if she thinks it was part of the original temple complex, or an add-on.

Kayla can say immediately that the crab is not a natural creature. The minotaur says that the crab did not act like a guardian. Kayla decides to ask TP nicely for the book. The wind picks up and coaleses at the head of the tomb (between the coffin and the ax on the wall) and takes the form of the ruddy-faced, small-horned boy. He tells Kayla that the book is a trap. If you read the book without the mask, it will drive the reader insane.

The minotaur asks Shelby who the apparition was. Shelby says that they are unsure, but think that this is one of the children upon who's body the island was made. The minotaur believes that the boy speaks with the same voice as that of the vampire maker. The party decides to take both the mask and the book. The skeleton begins to move and Darwyn blesses the bones, telling them to rest in peace. Skin begins to form on the skeleton and it begins to sit up. Shelby hears the crab coming into the acidic hallway and warns the rest of the group.

Darwyn throws the hibernation soil on TP, but it has no effect. The crab cannot fit into the hallway, but it plugs up the entrance. TP teleports next to Darwyn pins her, and begins to suck the life essence out of her. Kayla shoots an arrow which explodes, but some of the shards embed in his arm. Darwyn grabs the ax and slashes at TP. The ax actively resists Darwyn's attempts to use it. Shelby takes a flying leap off the coffin and lops off TP's arm. The arm grows back together in moments.

Shelby chops off his arm again, freeing Darwyn, and Kayla levers her onto the other side of the coffin. The minotaur attempts to throw Darwyn's war hammer at TP, but misses. TP tries to swipe Shelby out of the way, but she manages to block his path forward. Darwyn takes a rolling dive to recover Darwyn's war hammer, while Kayla distracts TP with an arrow shot. Darwyn cannot let go of the ax but uses it to attack, knocking TP across the room, slumped against the wall. Kayla calls the wind to batter TP and keep him immobilized. Shelby rolls an urn into the room, it explodes on TP and it turns out that it is full of oil. The minotaur lets the war hammer go into the gout of wind and it smashes into TP. He stands, but Darwyn uses her lightening bolt to hit him and set the oil on fire. Darwyn and the minotaur feed the fire with more urns of oil, while Kayla shoots him each time TP tries to get back up. The minotaur then points out that the mask is off of TP, and he has the war hammer underneath of him.

Darwyn tries on TP's mask and he begins to rise again wild Darwyn's life essence begins to drain from her again. Shelby grabs the mask off of Darwyn and manages to slam the mask back onto TP's face while Kayla distracts him. Darwyn emphatically insists that she wants her life essence back and the energy begins to flow back towards her, but Kayla and Shelby are concerned that receiving life energy from a necromancer might not have been a good idea. Shelby removes TP's head from his body, leaving the mask in place. Darwyn is unable to set down or give away the ax that had been hanging on the wall. Shelby gives Darwyn's war hammer to the minotaur. Kayla takes the skull with the mask and the book. Shelby lays the rest of the bones into the coffin and says some words of repose.

The group leaves the room and finds that the crab lets them pass. The party goes down the West hallway from the crab room and comes to a brass doorway. They notice some lyme around the door, and they speculate that this is the source of the lyme. The minotaur opens the door and water tainted with lyme starts to flow through. The room behind contains pedestals and statuary that is now broken and not intact. There are painted tiles depicting a starry sky on the ceiling, and a three-sided pyramid. The star map look relatively current, and there are strange patterns that may depict constellations. One of the statues may have been a coyote or wolf, another may have been a crab-headed humanoid, and another may have been an alligator-headed humanoid, one that may have been a cat (jaguar or leopard), and one that looks like the Outcast eagle warriors.

Beyond the room is another hallway with yet more slime and mud. Through the muck, a stead stream of water flows away from the room. Kayla is able to determine that the water is not coming from the same source as the water in TP's chamber. She is also able to detect a hint of salt on the air coming from ahead of the group. The come upon another set of doors, and before them stands a statue of a Nezahualpili man with a sword on his belt and a tray in its hands. There is no indication that the statue has moved, but its hard to tell with the mud on the floor. Kayla investigates further and discovers that the sword is not fixed to the statue but is separate and fits into a receptacle attached to the statue. The statue is affixed to a stone behind it. The sword is covered with stone drippings, but is actually laminated wood. Under the muck, Kayla can see that the entire statue moves from its current location.

Kayla pulls the sword out of the sheath using a rope. It triggers a catch as it comes out and the statue pops slightly. It swings aside revealing a long, skinny hallway beyond. It turns out to be a secret entrance to another hallway in the complex. The door in this new hallway opens to the top of a stairway, and the room is filled with water. Going the other direction in the hallway, there is another door with locks on it. A female voice can be heard singing once the door is opened. A beautiful woman can be seen, and her flesh radiates a soft, silvery light. After finishing her song, she dives into the water. None of the party, including the minotaur, recognize the language she is singing in. Shelby sings a halfling song of joy in response and she reappears, still singing. When Shelby puts things into the water, a male water spirit appears with a trident and attacks her.

When Kayla sings an Eladrin song, the woman begins to talk to her in Elvish. She indicates that she is trapped and that she wants to find the ocean. There is a guardian that prohibits her from leaving. She gives Kayla a shell and asks her to place it in the ocean when she comes across it. This will enable her to escape the complex. She says that any water will do, but she prefers the ocean.

The water spirit tells them that the master of this place is evil and has many faces. There are screams of many people coming from somewhere in the complex, and the way out is in the direction of where the master is located. The minotaur indicates that Darwyn is tainted by the evil of the master, and Kayla and Shelby are also slightly tainted, but less so than he and Darwyn. Other minotaurs are less tainted than Kayla and Shelby.

At the end of the hallway is a staircase that brings the group up and out of the cold water.