We manipulated the gravity-reversing magic just so – I had to pronounce the words very quickly, and in just the right order – to lift us slowly off the floor and grant us access to a door we found halfway up the wall. We proceeded through this door and up a corridor, eventually coming to a massive door. Then Maeve and I stopped to prepare the rest of our spells; at nearly the same time, additional spell energy (and spells of the Fourth Circle) became available to us. I feel an enormous sense of accomplishment in this. The Fourth Circle holds one of a transmuter’s most famed spells – Polymorph. I have also learned how to cast a Greater Cloak of Transparency; I expect that Fel will be very pleased when first I cast this spell on him.
We inspected the door at great length. Inscribed on it were the words: “Beyond these doors lie the Tests of the Pharaoh. Turn now from the doom of power and evil from a heartless man. Great and Awful is the horror beyond these doors – yet if You turn away, what lies beyond you shall never know.” Gerron lifted me up so I could examine some artwork above the door, which depicted a man reading something, and small figures bringing him books. Eventually we settled on opening the door.
Inside, a strange sight, difficult to describe. A staircase rose throughout the center of the room, with many landings along its course. At the top, one who we immediately guessed to be Munafik, and beyond him, a massive bronze fist, and a set of double doors.
Munafik greeted us and taunted us, asking if we came to die like all before us. We accepted the test, and the doors slammed behind us as I cast a few divinations to help me figure out what we could expect. Fel raced toward him, triggering the first landing. It conjured mud men of some sort. Gerron tried to fight them, only to find that they were too easy to cut in half – at which point they reformed as two full-strength mudmen. We hurried past.
Fel also triggered the defenses of the second landing – illusory walls of fire and stone that entirely deceived him. He was badly injured and jarred by his collision with the latter wall. Gerron, thinking perhaps to simply wade through the wall of fire, instead saw through its deceit and continued on his way. With his passage as our proof, we were all able to do the same.
At the third landing, a mirror spawned an image of Gerron that immediately attacked. The same occurred when Fel passed by. Unwilling to let loose two more images (and additional spellcasters, to boot), I transformed myself into a griffon and bore Maeve to the final landing, where we hurried past Munafik and the fist to the double doors. Fel was struck down by the fist. Gerron was embattled from several sides, but eventually he pushed his way past and reached the doors. We were forced to temporarily abandon Fel. Our weapons could not significantly injure Munafik, and the fist was a deadly foe that we did not expect to be able to kill. He continued to attack us with spells once we were all inside, and I was nearly killed. He is a stronger spellcaster than any we have yet seen, excepting only the beholder in the Eldeen Reaches. He was definitely capable of casting spells of the Fifth Circle.
Beyond the doors, we found a strange column of water, with a question mark inscribed in the floor before it. While Gerron ransacked Munafik’s sleeping chamber for clues, I stood on the mark and asked a question. A voice within said, “What is your quest?” I replied, “To restore the waters to the lands of Thune.” Then, “Whose holy chamber is this?” Noting the waters and the hand, I correctly guessed that these were the waters of Arwis, that we in the north call Arawai. The flow of the waters reversed, now coming up from the ground. Uncertain as to how to proceed, I delayed, and eventually they returned to their normal flow.
Gerron found a book, so evil in its nature that it harmed him. He showed it to me, but I did not take the time to translate – that will wait until later. Continuing our exploration, we found room filled with dangling chains. In one wall, there was a rough passage into the earth. Within, a clay golem attacked a changeling woman; we intervened moments too late to save her life. She was indeed one of the students we had sought. A jeweled canopic jar rested on a pedestal here, and Gerron quickly smashed it with his axe, drained of strength though he was by one of Munafik’s spells. The destruction of the jar felled the golem and Munafik at the same moment. We healed Fel, whom Munafik had paralyzed in anticipation of future torment.
We gathered together by the column of water to prepare for the next step. The power of Gerron’s dragonmark informed him that Amun-Re’s symbols of office are nearby, and we expect that the column of water will take us to them.
Some questions that remain:
Most of the pressing questions have been answered. But where are the rest of the students, and what condition are they now in? If possible, I will have Maeve speak with the one we found by magic. We may yet have to explore the rest of this damned pyramid – since we no longer know the way out at all. We will have to retrieve Yowen in any case.
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Amusingly, Polymorph (that I was picking up with some reluctance) was one of the single most fun spells I have cast. And I'm looking forward to using it again in the future. There aren't all that many spells that I could squeeze +10 Str, +2 Con, +6 natural armor, Large size, 3 attacks per round, pounce, rake, and an 80 ft Fly speed out of. Voof. Also, turning one of us (could be anyone) into a troll for the first time ought to be deeply satisfying. Who wouldn't want natural reach, 23 Str, 23 Con, and +5 natural armor? Dude. What was I thinking? Oh, right, didn't want to be a ridiculous powergamer. Oh well. I have no choice but to embrace the powergame.
Haven