Journal Entry 26.00 Meet The Trickster God

Morvion leads the party back to the Death Temple to find a weakness to Majalacturis. The Trickster god is freed, however the party gains the Rod of the Solar Titans in exchange.

Morvion began their lunch together by relating his plan of returning to the Death Temple to the rest of the party. If Majalacturis had a weakness, it might very well be found in that temple. After explaining his reasoning, they were all in agreement.
Aja said she would need three more days to finish some research studying up on a few spells but said she would then be good to go.
During that time, Graykar told Aja that he had remembered where he’d heard the name Rockspit. He then volunteered to spend a few days running down those leads with the dwarves. Rockspit was not a dwarf that lived in Chrailis, Graykar explained, he was a dwarf from before Coalescence. Graykar couldn’t say why the Coterie might believe that Rockspit, or his burial urn, would be something Aja could find.
True to her word, Aja was ready to go after three days.
Once gathered, she teleported the group to just outside the Death Temple. When the party entered, they found the outer caves were now guarded by large masses of tentacled shadows undulating in dense balls. No central body could be seen from all the writhing appendages. These masses rolled toward the characters and attacked as soon as they sensed the party’s presence. Aja didn’t want to waste time on these masses and simply cast ice spells on them to render them harmless, their waving tentacles frozen in motion. This allowed the party to pass safely to the interior of the Death Temple.
Once the party got to the back half of the temple they found it guarded by only a few followers of Majalacturis. Though these dark servants fought to the death, they didn’t offer any real resistance to the party.
With the temple secured, they now had time to explore the back rooms of the temple, searching for any hidden rooms. The first time they had been here, they had all been too inexperienced to fully understand much about the temple and its relevance. The runes on the back walls had been just that, runes, and nothing of much importance.
Most of the runes were complex recipes on how to craft various undead creatures.
In the farthest room, in what appeared to be a waiting room or possibly a living chamber just off the main sanctuary, they found several arcane writings on the wall. It was not in a known language and required the use of magic to translate. Even then, they never figured out what language it might actually be or what peoples it belonged to. Aja assumed it was the native language of Majalacturis’s land.
Translating, Aja said, “It speaks a lot of how Majalacturis is a moon god and Codesta is a sun goddess. It also mentions a third. I am not sure of the familial relationship from these writings, but there is a triad of gods in this culture. A third god. It reads at times like he or she, maybe even it, is the offspring of Majalacturis and Codesta, other places it reads as if he is the parent of both, which would imply they are siblings. The third god’s name is this symbol,” she pointed to a glyph on the wall. “Without hearing it spoken aloud, I don’t have a name for him.”
Urik was confused. “So, this third god is either a parent or a child?”
Aja shook her head. “Both I think. It’s a cyclical thing, he spawned them, and then they spawn him. I gather that the cycles of this world’s moon and sun are somehow relevant to their mythology.”
“I’ve been wondering,” Graykar asked, “with us having thirteen moons, does that make Majalacturis more powerful? In our land, that is.”
“Or weaker, possibly since we also have three suns.” Morvion continued the thought. “If anything, it might mean he is stronger at night and even weaker during the day.”
Reading the runes, it detailed that a portal lay beyond the wall. Gathering all they could from the runes, Urik then smashed the wall to reveal an inscribed portal behind the wall. With bricks and stone crushed away, a large portal glyph was revealed on a second stone wall. Using an incantation they had gathered from the runes, Aja was able to activate the portal. A wall of fire erupted across the glyph.
“We go through here?” Graykar asked. Aja nodded.
Not seeing any other choice, Graykar entered the flames and disappeared.
Aja looked at the others, “It's definitely a portal of some kind. Graykar was transported, not incinerated. I can tell you that much?”
Morvion countered, “Well, he was transported, the incineration part remains to be seen.” He then stepped through with a rue smirk at the others. Aja and Urik followed after a brief pause.
With all four appearing in a new realm, they saw the tunnel continued. The walls were now twenty feet tall and the stones of the floor, walls, and ceiling were immense blocks of black rock, each stone nearly eight-foot to a side. The tunnel visibly opened into a large circular chamber about another 50 yeards away, and in the middle of that chamber stood a giant human, nearly twelve feet tall dressed in what was best described as traditional wizard garb. His robes were green and brown. He even had a conical hat crafted of some green felt.
Without a chance for parlay, as soon as the four appeared, the wizard started casting.
Aja and Morvion, without conscious thought, began trying to figure the spell being cast and were immediately alarmed by the potency of what the wizard was attempting. It was a disintegration spell, but one far more powerful than any mortal should be able to cast, definitely one which Aja and Morvion could never attempt.
Aja also picked up on that the spell was so complicated they had time for some basic actions, so she screamed out “It’ll take about half a minute for him to finishes casting that spell. We really do not want that to happen.”
“Agreed,” Morvion hissed as he charged forward. If the wizard wished to engage in hostilities, then Morvion could comply.
Morvion used his magic to fling himself forward in one of his blinding charges. However, halfway down the tunnel, his legs hit an invisible barrier, barely a foot tall, and he went flying forward. The invisible barrier was stair-stepped up and if stairs could have been seen, it would have looked as if Morvion had just charged a set of stairs without bothering to try and climb them. Instead, he hit the first step and rocketed forward into the next step several feet away.

Seeing that Morvion’s attack was stopped and that he was crumpled on the stairs, moving slowly and trying to recover, Graykar moved forward next, cautious that a barrier existed which he could not see. Morvion appeared to be floating in mid-air. Graykar understood that there were invisible surfaces at work so he moved forward as fast as he could while still feeling for obstacles in front of him. He climbed the shallow stairs and by the time he exited the tunnel to the main chamber with the wizard, he was about six feet off the ground.
He was also able to report that the passage seems to similarly decrease in size from the ceiling after bumping his head on solid air. It was a reverse stair effect on the ceiling.
Using Graykar’s report, Urik proceeded to cast some battle magic and slowly moved forward while Aja summoned one of her servants, an azata, to aid in the battle, ordering it attack the wizard. The servant appeared in the large chamber and then immediately veered off in a direction away from the wizard, somewhere to the right side of the circular room just out of Aja’s view. Aja then followed up the summoning by creating a large cloud barrier between her and the wizard to obstruct his view.
Graykar meanwhile began to crawl through the last bit of the invisible stairs through the gap provided and realized that the chamber didn’t have a floor. This was only visible now that he was almost upon it. The pit below stretched into the darkness. From his location at the edge of the tunnel, he could also see the passageway that Aja’s azata had gone down. The azata was standing at the edge of this new tunnel, bow in hand, shooting arrows down the passage. Reasoning that the main threat might not be the wizard in the center of the room but coming from the down the tunnel, Graykar hurled himself across the gap into the new passage.
Once there, he saw the same wizard casting at the end of the tunnel. Looking behind him, he witnessed a crystal shard floating in the center of the chamber, somehow reflecting the appearance of the wizard down the tunnel where his companions were still at. It was only a mirror image of the wizard in the circular chamber, probably a trap for anyone foolish enough to charge him. Before rushing what he perceived as the real wizard, he yelled out, “Everyone hold up, the room is a trap. There’s a side passage here with the real wizard.” He then moved in to attack. Graykar missed his first few attacks against the wizard, the wizard having some sort of energy shield which protected him and deflected his rapier blows. The wizard’s shield was very reminiscent of the energy shield both Aja and Morvion carried about themselves when in the battle.
This gave Urik enough time to also navigate the invisible steps and also jump over to the side passage. Morvion followed.
Urik charged, running by the azata and swung a mighty overhead blow at the wizard, this one penetrating his mystical shield and cleaving deep through the wizard's collar bone down toward his heart. Instead of dying, the wizard exploded into a ball of force and fire. The blast knocked Urik to the ground, threw Graykar hard against the wall and expelled Morvion from the tunnel back into the large circular room. Fortunately for Morvion, he had a flight spell active and merely floated for a few seconds rather than falling into the darkness as he regained his senses.

Aja flew across the gap and joined the rest of the party as they healed up. While preparing to move further within the structure Aja said to everyone, “Something is wrong, rather different with the magic. Be careful as you cast your spells”
“What do you mean?” Urik asked, thinking his heal spell had just worked fine. He was dubious of Aja’s intentions with this new instruction.
“We are in another dimension or plane – again. And the rules of how magic work here is slightly different, not sure exactly what is changed, but I think certain limiters on our spells aren’t working. In other words, cast a big spell and it might be bigger than expected. You might find it affecting you when before it wouldn’t. Just be careful with large area of effect combat magic is all I am saying.”
Graykar then gave a wary look at Aja before covering up his expression. Something felt wrong with her. He wasn’t sure he could fully trust her. He thought to himself, Why do I suddenly distrust her. What’s my gut trying to tell me here?
This same sentiment was affecting all the party members, each was now harboring doubts about the trustworthiness of their comrades, though none spoke up. Urik and Aja both had a lingering suspicion that the evil which constantly lingered behind Morvion’s motives was finally about to break through and would soon influence his actions to the detriment of all.
Meanwhile, Morvion noticed Urik’s continual glances at him. He was certain that Urik would soon be trying to settle some imagined wrong in the name of his deity. Did Urik know that Morvion was now a priest of Letheria? Had he failed to keep it a secret?
As Urik thought about it, he realized that some type of domination magic had just washed over him. He had resisted it, but was forced to wonder, had the others resisted also?
Despite their growing suspicions of each other, they moved further into the structure without challenging each other. The floor tiles changed to a bright mosaic made with individual tiles each containing blue, red, and green highlights. A smoky white mortar lined each of the various geometrically shaped tiles. When they came upon the next room, they saw it was adorned with two statues. Both statues were larger than life-size. One was of an elderly man sitting cross-legged with arms frozen in the motion of explaining something. The other was of a supplicant holding a large empty bowl.
Detecting strong magic about the bowl, the party investigated it further. Around the edge of the bowl was an inscription reading You Have Come Seeking. A Cost to Seeking Has Already Been Paid. So Tell Razzool What You Seek and Answers You Shall Have.
The party proceeded to state various requests but nothing happened. On a whim, Urik created some water and placed it in the bowl. The bowl then started to fill up with more water and once full the inscription on the edge shimmered and changed. A Worthy And Noble Goal. Descend Further Into the Bowels At the End of These Passages and Find What You Seek.
“Which request was answered?” Graykar asked. No one answered, too many questions had been asked.
They proceeded further down the tunnels encountering more strange statues. Some statues attacked while others remained inert statues. Of those that attacked, the most curious ones were the statues that seemed to replicate any spell cast in its vicinity, whether the statue was the target or not. As Urik cast a spell, he noticed that the statues had small gems on their chest which would light up as the spell was cast. Then after a few moments, the very spell Urik had just cast was recast with random targets. Aja and Morvion also figure this out in short order. It didn’t matter the spell, it was recast. To make matters worse, as the spells were recast, sometimes one of the other statues would also start copying it should it fall in the effect of the randomly cast spell.
The party quickly destroyed all three of the spell copying statues without taking the time to fully investigate their unique properties. Graykar pried a few of the gems associated with this ability loose from the chests of the destroyed statues but would later learn once he had time to pursue their nature that the stones were useless and worthless having been freed from their hosts.
The tunnels kept making right turns with occasional rooms along the way and eventually led to a large circular room at the center of the dungeon with an eighty-foot ceiling. The statue at the entrance spoke a single sentence as the party approached, “You breach the sanctuary of the might trickster.” It then remained quiet.
Aja explained to everyone, just in case one of the party members didn’t understand, “Magic Mouth spell. Beginners’ magic.”
Inside the room, they could see on a large stone platform three giant statues arranged in a circle, all facing one another. One was a tall beautiful female statue made of solid gold, her arms crossed. “I am guessing the bright one is Codesta,” Graykar said.
“And this one would be Majalacturis,” Morvion followed, pointing to the second statue of a tall armored warrior. This statue was made of a jet black stone. If it had been a shiny stone, they would have called it obsidian, as it was, it was a dull stone.
Looking closely at the third statue, directly across from them, nearly forty feet in height, they could see it was made of solid white stone-like pure marble. It depicted a crouching demon-like being with a horrendous visage. “And that, I presume is the trickster god, the third god mentioned,” Aja proclaimed. The white statue was also similarly holding a large empty bowl to that of the first statues they had encountered.
Between the three gods, floating in the air, was a vertical and hollow cylinder of gold with several parts missing, shapes cut out of the metal, enough so it was easy to see through to the other side as the cylinder slowly rotated. The walls of this floating structure were thin, less than a quarter of an inch.
The party hesitated and conversed, deciding on a course of action. With nothing else to do, they entered. Upon entering, a loud booming voice was heard in the chamber, “Welcome to the crypt of Razzool.”
The golden structure started rotating faster, and as it did, Aja walked out to the center, raised her hands, and started chanting.
Urik looked to Grykar who looked just as confused. Morvion was just as concerned, but became panicked, once he realized the spell Aja was casting. “It’s a spell of unbinding,” he yells. “I knew something felt off about her.”
Urik looks at Morvion, “I thought it was you who was acting strange.”
Not wasting any time, Morvion charged forth. He didn’t want to kill Aja, merely take her down, so attacked but attempted to do so in a way merely to knock her out. Succeeding in knocking Aja senseless, Graykar stuffed a rag in her mouth and bound her arms.
The spell casting urge then jumped to Morvion who involuntarily started casting. This time he teleported himself to the top of the white demon statue and began casting.
It was Urik’s turn to attempt to take Morvion out. Succeeding, they bound both of them before Urik healed them enough to regain consciousness. It was obvious Morvion still wanted to complete the spell. Aja just sat their glaring at Graykar, unhappy with the rag gagging her.
After some talk, and after letting Aja talk again, Graykar convinced Urik that maybe they should let the spell proceed. If they want to find an answer, maybe this is it.
Urik begrudgingly agreed, “Ok, but just in case. I’ll let Morvion finish it – but should things go bad, I hope you are able to raise a headless elf,” he stated to Aja.
Graykar untied Morvion, who then began finishing the spell. The whole spell took nearly ten minutes to cast, Morvion’s voice starting to go hoarse toward the end of the spell. As the spell progressed, the cylinder started speeding up and an electrical field of bright white arcs, alive with hisses and buzzes, started coursing around the glowing tube.
A fire then burst into life in the bowl the white demon statue was carrying. Once Morvion finished, he collapsed. Then nothing. The room was silent, the electric buzz around the cylinder had disappeared, and even the fire in the bowl held by the statue went out. They cylinder slowed down and eventually stopped rotating.
As Morvion started recovering, the other three look at each other.
“What happened,” Urik asked.
“Not sure,” replied Aja, “I think we released something. Possibly this Razzool character.”
Morvion groaned. “Yes, I got the distinct impression we just freed him.”
“You mean we just released another god!” Urik demanded. “By Sten! How do we keep doing this.”
Aja shrugs, “I don’t this one is a malevolent god.”
Urik just glared at her. His intent and thoughts were obvious.
It was Graykar who brought everyone back into focus, “The statue at the beginning of his said we would find what we seek, I suggest we start looking.”
All agreed and they started to search the room. Underneath the statue of Codesta they found a drawer with several powerful magic items in it. All items were related in some way to darkness and the night. Looking under the statue of Majalacturis, they found a similar drawer, this one filled with wondrous items associated with goodness and light.
Both drawers also contained a few items associated with trickery and deceit. One such item was a belt of gender swapping. As they stow the items away, Graykar muttered to himself, “I got an idea for this belt, I think.” No one else heard, so no one misconstrued his statement. He was thinking about Morvion’s need to find and elvish priestess, preferably an evil one.
They did not find a similar drawer underneath the white demon statue. As they searched, Aja commented, “The magic contained in this room is considerably less than when we entered, especially this white statue. I think maybe it was the vessel containing Razzool.”
Not wishing to anger Urik again, Morvion diverted the conversation, “Yes, we are here looking for a way to defeat Majalacturis. I don’t think we have found it yet.”
Aja helped pursue this new avenue, “There is still strong magic associated with the bowl.”
About that time, Graykar announced, “The demon statue, the platform he is sitting on is suspended about a foot off the ground, I think I could fit under it, maybe I will find something.”
Squirming underneath the platform, he found a single hole going up into the platform and on up into the statue. Thinking to himself that the riddle at the entrance to this part of the temple had said something to the effect of descending further into the bowels, he grimaced at the literal interpretation. He climbed up into the small tunnel leading up into the statue. It winded around several times and then eventually opened in a large cavity. Inside the cavity were several gems, pieces of jewelry, and what he could only guess at would be thousands of pieces of metallic coins, most of them gold.
He started scooping everything up into his backpack.
Meanwhile, outside the statue, the other three started to become worried. Graykar had been gone several minutes and wasn’t responding to any hails. About the time they started to convince Aja to go in and explore the hole, Graykar crawled out. He lied and reported that he had not found anything in the statue.
They had already considered the possibility of relighting the bowl with fire. Maybe that would lead to finding something of value. Urik cast a quick spell and the fire in the bowl relit. Again nothing.
With the fire lit, Graykar once again crawled into the belly of the statue. This time in the middle of the large cavity was a single rod of amber about eight inches long. Detecting immense levels of magic from it, Graykar picked it up and brought it out.
Everyone looked at the wand and all agreed it contained potent summoning magic. “This wand is on par with our artifacts in power,” Aja confirmed, “Not only does it have a strong summoning element, but I can also sense an enchantment tied heavily to positive energy. This would be a direct opposite of Majalacturis’s dark powers.”
Morvion agreed, “I may be wrong, but I think this wand is directly what we seek. It may be a weapon that belonged to Codesta.”
With nothing else to find, the party departs and heads back to Chrailis. On the way back, Graykar felt guilty and confessed to the presence of all the gold coins in Razzool’s stomach chamber. Expecting them to get mad, he is surprised that none of them seemed overly concerned. Aja just winked at him and said, “I knew you’d come around.”
Almost in unison, Morvion said, “There are far more pressing matters than shiny metals,” while Urik said, “Gold is a lure for the weak. Friend Graykar has shown much honor today.”
Aja again winked at Graykar, “And there you have it, two of our party are wise and sage when it comes to excess profits. I guess you and I will have to be the foolish greedy ones.”
Graykar nodded, “That is something I can manage, and manage quite well.”