35. February 4, 2012

Kayla blesses some of the water from the Nereid's pool, and Shelby finds that she is unable to enter the dream state and probably would be unable to sleep here restfully. Kayla asks Shelby to lay in the tidal area while she reaches out to the pure natural forces to ask for their blessing. While the evil spirits are not driven off, Shelby can see that they are actually trying to pull her into the dream state from which she might never return.

The group proceeds into the rest of the complex, with the minotaur taking up the rear. They climb the nearby stairs and arrive at double brass doors. Kayla opens them easily and enters a large room. The walls are covered in frescos, and the one across the room depicts dark-skinned humans searching for a new home while escaping horned humanoids. A battle is depicted between red-skinned natives and black-skinned horned humanoids. Everything is in good repair, and made of glass, metals and gems that reflect and magnify the torch light.

The conflicts were depicted as being done primarily with weapons, and very rare instances of magic. The room is actually not as big as it appears, and the murals are constructed in such a way that it seems to go on and on. Kayla finds a secret pannel and the minotaur is able to depress it and open the portion of the mural that depicts a sun. Behind this is a tube that opens into a corridor.

The party enters the corridor and finds writing that the minotaur can read. It says "Danger. Go back from whence you came." Sculptures of 4 animals decorate the walls: a coyote, bear, bison and an eagle. Something shines from the beak of the eagle. The minotaur tells about a mythology that says that the minotaur have always been here, and that the nezahualpili arrived here later. He sees the bison statue as a relative of his, but indicates that he's never seen one that looks like this on the island. He suspects that this may be an ancestor from another location.

Kayla calls the wind, loses control, and lightening erupts from a globe that approaches the party from the first hallway leading off of the corridor. The lightening hits near the coyote head. Shelby leaps to the offense and smashes the globe to the ground, shattering it. Slimey residue explodes onto the walls and floors as a result. Darwyn is able to identify the creature as a Will-O-Wisp. The eagle's mouth holds a ring that is sized for a 25 - 30 foot tall giant. Kayla takes the ring, and the eagle's beak snaps down on her arm. Shelby is able to disable the mechanism with some of the lightening-conducting goo, but Kayla's arm is broken in the process. Shelby is not able to heal the arm, but Darwyn is successful. Darwyn and Shelby create a fanciful bracer for Kayla, decorated with sparkles from the walls and lightening goo, that helps to steady her still-damaged but no longer broken arm.

One of the hallways off the corridor has statuary lining it. Lightening arcs can be heard from the hallway where the Will-o-wisp came from. As the party moves into the hallway, the statues begin to move and one of them steps off of its pedistal. Kayla attempts to back out of the hallway, but is grabbed by two statues. Darwyn is able to severe an arm, and discovers that these are zummies (zombie-mummies). The party manages to defeat the zummies, but suffers many wounds in the process. They return to the water spirit to heal. They learn from the Nereid that each time the party

performs a magic that does not work properly, then air spirits (mischeivious and malevolent) are attracted to and enter the complex. Shelby notices that both Kayla and Darwyn have wounds that appear to be infected by zumbie bites. The group is unable to heal these wounds.

The party decides to lure the Will-o-wisps into the tunnel leading to the mural room. They defeat them, and are using the Spark of Life to heal everyone when Kayla notices that the water she is carrying from the Nereid is boiling. She visits the Nereid and discovers that the use of the Spark of Life is summuning more air spirits. They decide to lure the 6 remaining Will-o-wisps into a trap. They use the urns of oil to light the zummie bodies on fire and then cast a ritual to attract the air spirits. They also coat themselves with mud to reduce lightening conduction if they are hit. The bodies burst into flame just as 5 Will-o-wisps come into the hallway corner where the trap has been set. The party then goes in search of the remaining 2 air spirits.

They find a spinning pyramid, and on the other side of this are the last two Will-o-wisps. The group removes one corner of the pyramid, and then spin it so that they can all pass through. They kill the air spirits and continue through the complex, coming across a tunnel that was bored out by a creature. After clamboring through the tunnel for several hours, they come to a large room where the passage continues into the ceiling. Darwyn believes that they are now one level below the top of the complex.