Lumday, 4th Shadow 211 EoL
The group headed down the stairs. At the bottom waited another apparition of Gullitiklan, warning them about potential traps that lie ahead, as ancient Giant defenses were activated when Gullitiklan closed the structure down to protect against the Yuan-ti assault. The next room, for instance, would fill with water. They proceeded down the stairs, to find an elongated room. The walls were lined with gargoyles and a large door in the center led to the next room. In the two corners, there were two huge turntables. In the middle of the room, a body lay on the floor. Size and shape were humanoid. The skin, however, was a mix between dark blue and purple. There was no single hair on the entire body, and his head seemed more like an octopus. Its mouth was a small beak surrounded by four tentacles. The body was wearing the gear of one of the mining company men they found upstairs in one of the tanks within the circular room.
As
Lucky tried opening the door, using the same rune combination as upstairs, a force field appeared, blocking the way back up the stairs, and the gargoyles started spewing water into the room, filling it up rather quickly.
Shirel and
Yelena managed to turn one of the turntables with all their might. This set of a mechanism within the door, but the door did not yet budge. More turns of the turntable were clearly needed. As they readied for another push,
TT simply walked up to the door, knocked and it opened, releasing the water into the next room. The gargoyles stopped spewing water, and the force field disappeared.
The group continued onwards but were quickly stopped by a large pool of water with a chest floating in the middle of it. The chest was connected to a chain leading deeper underwater. A little prodding revealed the chest to not be a chest at all, but a monster with sharp strong teeth and a long sticky tongue. However, still attached to the chain, the chest did not pose a significant threat.
As they made it across the pool, Yelena led the charge and continued onwards. As she stepped off the small staircase she just vanished and with her the light from her flaming sword. They tried to pass the area at the bottom of the stairs by a variety of means, but they all disappeared until only BB remained. The rest were on their own, probably still within the structure, but not in the same location. There were lots of narrow hallways leading almost everywhere, and the water on the floor was particularly sticky. Yelena, and TT both, were attacked by a weird water creature, which tried to grab and drown them. They managed to fight them off, however. All the while BB decided she might shoot one of her magic-infused arrows into the portal. The arrow would locate her targets and let her know where they were. She fired one at her brother and one at
Lucky. Both hit their mark, and while TT and Lucky were not together they were still within the ruins. In an effort to help her companions, she contacted Gullitiklan and got him to reveal the layout of the labyrinth to her. Armed with that knowledge she was ready to head out and help.
Meanwhile, TT was also having a conversation with Gullitiklan, who clearly wanted TT to agree to some kind of deal. TT wanted to know more about Mellion and Gullitiklan could oblige. TT insinuated "being in", while not wanting to make a pact with Gullitiklan it was all the latter needed to put TT under his control. Overconfident, he shared the layout and everyone's location with everyone else. All he needed now was for them to come to him. While
Lucky and
Birdy were recovering from their own mind control,
Belle-Breeze caught up with her brother. She didn't want him to go to Gullitiklan, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he had to. Although, he managed to fight the urge to get aggressive.
As the others converged on the twins' location, TT took off, charging towards Gullitiklan. BB, in desperation, fired an arrow at him. TT called upon his water connection, wanting to create a wall of ice between him and BB to protect himself, and with a little help of Gullitiklan he succeeded but not before BB's arrow struck his chest.
