09. March 21, 2021

We take a second look, and figure out the concussive blast is a spell doing damage each time. We take a short rest, then go again. Detect Magic reveals transmutation on the four glyphs. We hit all four simultaneously (like a croc standing on a human’s shoulders would) and it opens.

The Croc Pot

The next chamber has bones on the floor, and charring on the bone and walls (from heavy electric discharge--lightning?); there are spires, and a narrow staircase winding around the walls leading up. There are hundreds of glyphs/pictures in this room, of crocs standing on humans. We climb to the top of the spire, using the stairs. On top of the spire is an iron cauldron (maybe 40-50 lbs), it’s a croc pot, 30 feet above the floor below.

Unfortunately, Jaindoh and Reddy fall while trying to carry it down; they land in a horrible crunching of bones (their own bones, alas) and slam into the cauldron (completely inside it); it turns itself inside out with a pop and the cauldron and the girls disappear.

The Girls’ Sad Disappearance and Death

Jaindoh and Reddy see the darkness from the cauldron, then a bright light. “Welcome, my Children,” they hear. They squint into the light, and see the figures of Dol Dorn and Ulaa come into focus. They stretch out their arms and accept the embrace of their god and goddess. Just kidding.

The Boys’ Adventure

The boys wait an hour, but the girls do not rematerialize. The boys speculate the cauldron might have reappeared elsewhere in the temple or the swamp, or even another world. Hakon doesn’t sense a portal where the cauldron disappeared. They investigate the chamber. They notice there is heavy webbing on the ceiling...and light behind it. The hole is 40 feet up in a top corner, but maybe they can avoid the traps we encountered on the way up, by climbing out that way, but the walls are too smooth inside.

They climb back down, go around to the back of the pyramid/temple, and there are vines and easy climbing so they clamber to the top. It’s swamp all around, as far as they can see, in all directions. The temple is enchanted, otherwise it would have sunk into the swamp by now. From the outside, they peer in and can see the webs (and hear skittering and sucking noises) and see something shiny glint inside the webs. They peek in...there are lots of shiny trinkets, necklaces, a shield, a longsword...plentiful shiny objects. Cam snakes a hand in, tips the edge of the longsword, and his hand becomes caught, like it’s glued, in the web. A swarm of spiders come up his arm. Hakon throws torches and oil onto the web and Cam to start a flash-fire, causing both the swarm and the loot to fall to the ground.

Loot!

They swing down on a rope and recover a bracelet, two rings, one necklace, one carved box, one brass bottle, a shield, a longsword.

Attempting an Irish Exit

They try to casually walk to the portal. The crocs close in; some of them nip at the aggressive crocs, like they are telling them to be nice since we fed them. Hakon and Cam make it. At the threshold of hte portal, Cam speaks “we know your history. We want to help you see the world again, and will make that offer to you. But two of our friends have disappeared, the one who can open the portals. When we are reunited with them, we will return and will make the offer to take you to see the worlds. And if you meet our friends, please give them safe passage to here, and we will then take you to see the worlds, in friendship again.” Cam’s audience doesn’t respond. So he and Hakon step through the thankfully-open portal.

Reunited!

Everyone is reunited at the temple at the crossroads. The girls and the cauldron were somehow transported into the temple when they disappeared. Andor is there too, and takes the cauldron up to his workroom. People identify what the loot from the webbing is:

Bracelet: A normal bracelet, very pretty. Worth about 27 gold.

Ring: A normal ring. Worth 21 gold.

Ring: A normal ring, worth 11 gold.

Necklace: A pretty necklace, worth 15 gold.

Carved Box: It’s simply a box. Worth about 23 gold. We give the box to Bernard as a donation.

Brass Bottle: Eversmoking bottle. Magic wondrous item.

+1 Magic Shield

+1 Longsword

The Book

Detect Magic spell is absorbed by the book, it doesn’t detect as magic, it seems like the book eats the spell instead of the spell doing what it is supposed to. Cam reads the book...it is a story about two lost children who travel, guided by a crocodile who comes out of a tapestry (and the book describes the location where Andor found the tapestry very well, the description helped him find the tapestry that has the picture of the crocs around the croc pot).

The Tapestry

The tapestry led us to the croc pot.

The Cauldron

The inside of the cauldron seems to be some kind of extra-dimensional space. When we smashed into it, it sent us to some other space. Andor can’t tell if it let us hop to other spaces, he doesn’t know without more research.

We examine it. It sits directly on the floor (does not have feet) and thus it would not be possible to light a fire under it; nor does it have soot underneath.

Cam tries sleeping under the blankie, next to the cauldron. At some point in his dream, he is on a familiar street, outside Grichye’s Goods again, which is closed up, it is night and a new moon is out. Two people are casing the shop, making chalk marks around the door that Cam recognizes as marks assassins will make before a hit. The marks are runes, specifically.

Andor thinks that is interesting; he usually dreams the same dream each time.

The first dream was about an interesting book, calling to him.

The dream he just had was horrifying, this time the book was chasing him and eating parts of him, nibbing off his arm. (The book that seems to absorb magic.)

Andor says that sometimes, found it helpful to go through a random portal and say “tell me about so-and-so” and if they don’t know what he means, he tries a different world.