Session 26 - Manor Gains and Desert Travels

We arrive back in to Trentsigrad and we tell Minstraa Lusterkin that we dealt with the Drummen Manor mystery. Minstraa Lusterkin agreed to give us the manor to us as thanks for solving and dealing with the mystery.
 
I went to Silverman's Jewels and purchased another diamond worth 300 gold to replace the one spent on reviving Austar earlier in the day.
 
We then spend the rest of the day at the Passage House. We are joined briefly by Volcon who stays for some drinks before taking mine and Ape's armour to adourn the dragon skulls to. We'll meet him in the morning to pick up our armour. We also agree on our next plans, in the morning we'll do a once over our Manor and make sure there's nothing else we left behind and then head to Sansura and to the Sul'Partha ruins.
 
In the night, all of us appear within Sudden Space again apart from Malaphor. Kari said she spoke to Master Xaifeng and that he was ok with us not coming directly, which she thought was strange. Lost contact with the Twins coming from Sumara. Master Xaifeng told Kari to let everyone she can get in contact with that they have 1 month to arrive.
Said Relvie arrived and someone from the Fey Wild arrived as well. Kari told us if we're coming by boat, come up the Sheng Dao River towards Xiaoshan. They no longer think the Murath War is connected to the evil deity they are trying to stop.
 
In the morning I sent a message to Arcanist Sishan about the weird fleshy spellbook we found. He said he's ok for now dealing with the last thing we gave him. The book also says whispers and when I thought that Isra might be a good recipient of the book, it whispered his name. Went to Isra and he wanted nothing to do with it. Mentioned an island in the Jastim Sea that might have the magic to deal with the book.
 
We do a once over on our manor, and I find a box of letters that Isaiac had written about people in town, and I also find a gold necklace with a sapphire gem in it which isn't magical.
 
I message Norman regarding Raskin's armour, said he can meet us by Beverman Bridge but it'll cost us. We go to the Trentsigrad Stables to get some horses to make our travel quicker and I'll message Norman again to organise when to meet.
 
Overall, after leaving Trentsigrad. it takes us 4 days to go from Trentsigrad back towards the capital, and then towards Sabre's Peak. As we arrive, in the distance we see a keep in the distance, a top the arching bridge we see four Peryton Guard guarding the border between Laelos and Sansura.
 
Once we're in Sansura, it gets suddenly much hotter. The earthy road now a packed sand. Of the path slightly we see a small hamlet, and off to the side a paddock, with half a dozen camels and some Momoko's, the desert beast that we were told about by Dayrin Lane which are used for travel. A feathered bird type creature.
 
We get off our horses and speak to a man who we trade our horses for Momoko's which are much quicker than horses, and specialised for the desert.
 
During our second day of travel we pass by a small tent, half buried in the sand. Austar uses his Wand of Enemy Detection which pings an enemy in the tent so we decide to leave. During these days I'm getting very uncomfortable in my armour so I start to cast create water and shape it to go in my armour and freeze it to keep me cool.
 
In our 3rd day of travel, we notice 60 feet off to the side, a small stone structure, similar to a temple but uninhabited. Looks about 30 feet tall, front is sunken to one side with an open archway with 2 pillars at the front. Both have a bronze plate, and carved on them is the face of a smiling woman. The god Leira, known for Illusions and Riddles. We head in the entrance into a small chamber. The back wall on the stone bricks there is a sentence that is carved into the stonework:
"I cover cities and destroy mountains, I make men blind yet help them see".
 
Raskin figured out the answer was "Sand", he picks some up and throws it at the riddle which then changes the shape of the room, closing off the entrance behind us and revealing a passageway in front of us.
We end up in another room, and the passageway closes behind us. The wall in front of us has another sentence, which looks like it's being written in real time. We also notice the word "Wisdom" is written on the ceiling.
The sentence reads:
"Two halves have I, though both joined in one, the more I stand still the faster I run". The answer was "Hourglass", which Raskin draws on the wall and another passageway opens up.
 
In the second room, another sentence on the wall, the ceiling still has "Wisdom" on it. The sentence is:
"What takes many knocks, but never cries? The answer is "Doors".
 
A third room, the sentence says:
"I get cut but I never bleed, I have teeth but I don't bite, I get put on a ring but I'm not a diamond". The answer was "A Key".
 
A fourth room, this sentence says:
"With sharp edged wit, and pointed poise, can settle disputes without making a noise". Answer was "Dagger"
 
A fifth room, another sentence:
"Alive as you but without breath, as cold in my life as in my death. Never a thirst thigh I always drink, dressed in a mail but never a clink". Answer was "Fish"
 
The sixth room is different and larger. Room is probably about 60 feet length and width. See a passage leading off the other end. Stone statues of knights in armour on either side of entrance and exit. On the floor, dozens of tiles with different shapes on them. In the ceiling it says "Memory". We figure out we need to jump on the symbols relating to the answers of the riddles, and we have to go on them in order otherwise the tiles break away and fall. Ape manages to jump across and reads some books on the other side but they only say "memory" over and over again. Raskin attempts to make it over but falls, but with rope attached he gets pulled up. Malaphor makes it across himself. I try and fall at the second jump and Ape pulls me up. Austar goes next and stands on the knight symbol, but 4 harpoons go flying out, and Austar get's impaled by one, which takes him to the other side, but he does go unconscious with the damage dealt but my healing potion brings him back. Unfortunately the room caused magic to be ineffective.
 
We go through the tunnel at the end into another room, but smaller like the riddle rooms. The back wall is one large clean mirror, showing our reflections. We all feel apart of us has come back as we step into this room, magic being able to be cast again. The ceiling says "sacrifice". I notice in the mirror a difference. Behind us in the mirror, there is a severed hand, and Ape in the mirror is missing his right hand. Austar creates an illusion of Ape, missing his hand, and the hand on the floor and the mirror disappears into a hallway.
 
The next room is a octagonal shape, with torches around it. In the centre of the room on pedestals are 6 chests, and the ceiling word says "reason". The door has 3 keyholes, one of the left, middle and right. The chests all have symbols on it.
Top Left - Lock, Top Middle - Door. Top Right - Hourglass.
Bottom Left - Sword. Bottom Middle - Fish. Bottom Right - Key. We collected keys from the Top left, top middle and bottom right. We turned all the keys at the same time in the locks and I was forced back with damage. We tried opening the locks in the order of the riddle answers, which was Door, Key, Lock. The door descended down and lead into a passageway.
 
In the next room, a semi circular pool of a deep dark blue water, about 5 foot back, 5 feet long and 10 feet wide. A sentence in the room "Wisdom, Memory, Sacrifice, Reason, if you believe you are deserving, reach for it". Raskin steps forward and reaches into the pool of water. He pulls out a pair of slippers, made of a silky silver material. As he puts the slippers on his feet, the silvery grey colouration changes to red, around the ankles and heels there are flames threaded in like a design.
I step up and reach my hand in, I feel something sturdy, like it's metallic. I run my fingers over it and it feels uneven, the top is smoothed. I pull out a goblet/chalice. The cup itself is made of a beautiful clouded sapphire glass with a golden rim. The stem/neck and base resemble that of a tree, a knot of moss covered roots twisting up around it. I also notice a tiny crack on the side of the sapphire glass. I identify the chalice and find out it's "The Living Chalice".
Ape pulls out a box from the pool.
Austar pulls out a gilded ring, with 5 different sized blue gems placed around the ring.
Malaphor pulls from the pool what looks like a rifle, resembles a large slab of wood, bound with metal strips and cylinders. The stock itself is the hilt of a longsword.
The box that Ape pulled out, he says a phrase and it grows to the size of a door, and he opens it and below is a ladder going down 30 feet. Down the bottom is a table, lots of parchment on it, ash on the floor and a dagger half sunken in it, and some spectacles on the side.
We spend some time and pull ourselves up through the crack in the ceiling and appear back out in the desert, behind the initial structure we saw, we go to the front and see our Momoko's still there. We saddle back up and carry on our way towards Hashal.