Branding's Age of Worms, the 4th Generation

[Branding Opportunity]

The wind continues its relentless battering of everyone in the corridor. At moments you think that it has begun to die down, but then it picks up again, as strong as before.

Judging that eventually muscles will weaken, Gregor, Azten, and Owen take every precaution and slowly climb down the chain. They are assisted by Majakilar, Alexi and Kenneth from below. Eventually everyone makes it safely to the bottom without further injury.

As the howling of the wind makes it practically impossible to hear one another, you retreat out of the "Blue" corridor and back into the "Star Room". Hunkering down behind the empty sarcophagus, you find that it provides a bit of shelter from the ferocious tornado still raging in the corridor above. At least you can hear each other here, although you still need to shout in order to be heard.

 

[Mista Collins]

Shouting over the noise of the wind, Owen looks to the others. "What in the blazes happened up there!! I want to apologize! I should have checked the corridor for any tripwires or activation plates!"

Looking at the colors of the lanterns and remembering the colors that paralyzed him, Owen continues. "You think what happened up there is tied to these lanterns?!"

 

[Branding Opportunity]

After a few minutes the wind begins to die down a little, just enough to let you hear peals of childish laughter. "Oh, I think you need to be a bit more careful than that! You almost bought the farm on that one." The cackling continues, the ghost seeming quite pleased with himself.

 

[Voadam]

Gregor shouts to Owen "Could be!" With all the excitement and death defying leaping he's forgotten which lanterns they have recovered and hung up. He will look up and if there is a blue one hanging he will attempt to take it down to see if that stops the magical wind.

 

[Branding Opportunity]

With the wind slowly dying down, Gregor takes a look around at the lanterns. Despite the fierce wind, both the green and blue lanterns are lit, swaying back and forth. The red lantern which you recovered from the corpse with the red leather armor on the lower level is still in Majakilar's pack. Gregor guesses that the orange, yellow, indigo, and violet lanterns still hang unlit at the ends of their corridors. It's only a guess as the blue and green lanterns provide the only current light in the room, and it doesn't reach to the ends of the branching corridors. Their flickering, multi-colored light is being wildly refracted by crystals embedded in the ceiling, causing little blue and green motes to dance about the central chamber. All other mundane light sources were blown out by the wind trap.

 

[Azten]

Praise be to Moradin we all made it down safely. With the memory of the unsettling whirling colors and powerful winds fresh in his memory, Azten offers: Perhaps we should investigate down here more before going back up?

 

[Mista Collins]

Seeing the blue and green lantern lit and recalling the colors he saw before being paralyzed, Owen gets an idea.

"That face up there, had eyes that flashed blue and green, did it not? Those are the same colors as the lit lanterns down here. Maybe these lanterns are some sort of key?" Owen finishes with more of a question.

 

[Thanee]

Alexi

“Whew! I'm just glad we made it in one piece. We really need to be more careful around here.”

Thinking about what Owen just said, she then adds: “That could be! Maybe we can try it with some other lanterns and take a careful look?”

 

[Mista Collins]

"After what just happened, careful is a good idea."

 

[Voadam]

Gregor braces himself and tries to reach up and take down the blue lantern to see if it stops or immediately lessens the wind.