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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4959193" data-attributes="member: 3285">Ocean Meets the Sky: Part 6 – Riddle of the WheelThe idol’s movement revealed a hidden passageway beyond.  Kham stepped gingerly through the hallway, rattled from the encounter with the incarnation with Leviathan. He heard a click.“Guys, there might be a trap—“ was all he got out. The walls slammed together, smashing into Beldin just behind him.  The dwarf was saved only by his shield and armor.  The force was so quick and so powerful that it left Beldin stunned.  Sebastian shoved him forward as the walls retracted and reset.“Sorry,” said Kham.  “I’m not really the trapfinding type.”Sebastian shot him a glare. “We noticed.”  He fed a healing potion to Beldin.The dwarf wiped blood from his nose.  “I should have caught that,” he growled.  The danger temporarily passed, they took in their new surroundings.A large set of scales flanked an altar made of soapstone, covered in dried blood.  Chains that ran through holes in the ceiling supported the scales.  The altar was carved in the shape of Leviathan.  Standing behind the altar was another statue, with four of its tentacles grasping four of the six handles of a huge, bronze ship’s wheel.  There was bizarre writing on the floor of the chamber.“On the altar give to me that what sets a pirate free,” read Kham.“Pirate?” asked Beldin.  “What do pirates have to do with a place like this?”Kham pursed his lips.  “I think this is Captain Wendron Krubach’s real treasure.  The one you found was only part of it.”“So that’s why k’n-yan possessed him,” said Sebastian. “They were manipulating a minion of Leviathan, a sweet revenge.”“Which means the k’n-yan forced Krubach to erect these traps so that the Moonsilver Orb could not be found,” said Sebastian.  “If we resolve this riddle, we should have the Orb.”“Sure, easy enough,” said Kham.  “What sets a pirate free?”  He smirked.  “Death, of course.”“But what represents death that we can put on the scale?” asked Beldin.They tried water.  They tried dirt.  They tried one of Kham’s pistols.Sebastian thought of Bijoux.  “I know.”  He took the noose that he had torn from Bijoux’s neck.“What’s that?” asked Beldin.“A noose.”  Sebastian placed it on the scale.“More importantly,” said Kham, “why did you hold onto it?”The balances moved and the statue’s tentacles lifted from the ship’s wheel.  Upon being released, the ship’s wheel rotated one turn to the left with a loud, grating clank.After the wheel made one turn, the tentacles dropped back down upon the handles of the wheel, although only barely touching it.  Kham looked down.  “The writing on the floor changed: If pirate be, then stand ye ground and face the awful, stirring sound of ocean’s riddle with six to grasp. Choose ye well or breathe ye last.  The first, a damsel, loved and lost.  Two, a pirate, who paid the cost.  Three, a wheel, and captain’s gold. Four, sharp adventure for the bold.  Five, eighteen graves tell every story.  Six, a burning, molten glory.”“Four,” said Sebastian.  “We seek adventure.”Kham shook his head.  “Krubach killed his crew after discovering the most precious treasure of all.  There must have been eighteen of them.  Pick five.”“Are you sure?” asked Beldin.  The dwarf had paid for Kham’s mistakes before.“No,” said Kham.  “But if we were sure about anything we sure as hell wouldn’t be here now would we?”Beldin crossed his arms and said nothing. He looked to Sebastian.The dark-kin nodded and turned the handle to the fifth position.</blockquote>

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