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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8972740" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 47: THE SWORD OF TEMPTATIONPC Roster:Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 10             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 4             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 5/paladin 5             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 4             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 10Game Session Date: 18 March 2023 - - -"This was found in Councilor Kandalwine's study," Sharnabet stated, handing over a piece of paper.  In hastily-written script, the following was written:I can't make a sound!  It had to have been one of those strangers the Queen brought back with her.  I need a remove curse spell, or a break enchantment. Idiot!  What good would that do me?  I can't read the words to a scroll aloud any more than I can cast any of my own spells! A wish would do it.  We'll have to hope the thief is successful and brings back the sword.  You sent him to the right place, I trust? You'd better hope so. Well, then I guess you'll be making the first wish, then.  And no funny business either if you know what's good for you. We can't stay here - they'll be looking for us soon.  Let's go see if he got the sword yet. NOT FUNNY!A smirk crossed Thurloe's face as he read over the parchment.  "Sounds like Kandalwine's getting a bit frantic," he said.  "This must be his half of a conversation he had with somebody after he realized he was struck mute by Wakuren's spell.  It's someone he's very familiar with, too, the way he writes.  Does he have a brother or something?  Or a wife?""He'd better not have a wife, given he's calling whoever he's 'talking' to an idiot," observed Alewyth.  "That wouldn't be a very smart thing to do.""He has neither wife nor siblings," replied Sharnabet, adding after a moment's thought, "that we know of.""Whoever it is, he's apparently not a wizard," Zander observed.  "Otherwise, he'd be able to use a scroll of remove curse."Wakuren snapped his fingers.  "A familiar!" he cried.  "He's talking to his familiar!"  He turned to the elderly leader of the Druidic Circle.  "Does Kandalwine have a familiar?""Not that is known to us, but there is much of his life he apparently kept hidden.  It is possible he has a familiar he keeps hidden away.  In any case, if you are ready, I am prepared to take you to the location of the item in question."  Sharnabet pulled out a token from her pouch and passed it over.  It was a cameo, ivory over obsidian, carved as a silhouette of Queen Zarabelia in profile.  "You may present this to the Guardian to show you have been sent by the Queen," she informed them.  Zander Quilson took it and placed it into one of the pockets of his robe."One more thing: I will need the command word to your lamp, that I may enter to inform you upon our arrival," Sharnabet announced.  Wakuren told her the command phrase, then gathered everyone together and said it aloud to demonstrate it.  Once the heroes were all within, the elven druid wildshaped into an eagle, picked the lamp up with her talons, and flew away.Inside the lamp, Thurloe cast a vampiric touch spell into Spellslicer, his bastard sword.  He'd already switched over to the new scabbard he'd been presented by Queen Zarabelia, which granted his blade the effects of a keen edge thrice a day.  "We should have had her wear that gem Wakuren wears that let's Alewyth see what he sees when he's the only one outside.""That would defeat the whole purpose of us not knowing where we're going," argued Alewyth."Yeah, I know, I'm just curious.  Hey, Wakuren, you could always turn invisible and pop outside and walk behind her, see where we're going.""I decline," replied the half-orc.  "She's a high-ranking druid - she'd probably see right through any tricks like that we'd try.  And I, for one, don't have any inclination to try anything stupid like that.  We really don't need to know where the sword of temptation is kept, just that it's still there.""Fine, whatever," grumbled Thurloe.  Zander activated his jade cooshee, bringing the statuette to full life.It was 30 or 40 minutes later when Sharnabet suddenly appeared inside Hesperna's lamp.  "We are here," she said, with a slight smirk on her face.  "Junipaerna is the one who guards the door to the area inside of which the sword of temptation is kept.  I will remind you she knows not what it is she guards, so I caution you not to mention the sword in her presence.  But there is someone else here I think you will be pleased to see."  She looked expectantly at Zander, who gathered everyone together inside the circle and said the word that shunted everyone outside the extradimensional space inside Hesperna's lamp.The group was in a large room made entirely of wood.  Standing before them was an elven woman, looking rather as if she had been carved from wood herself.  "This is Junipaerna," Sharnabet said by way of introduction.  "...And I believe you have already met Councilor Kandalwine."  The white-haired elf sat frowning in a wooden chair, to which he had been thoroughly and tightly bound by vines.  He looked straight ahead, not making eye contact with anyone."I greet thee," said Junipaerna in an archaic manner.  She was quite lovely, with skin like polished wood and a cascade of green ferns as hair.  "I shall watch over your lamp whilst you embark upon your task; your way leads through this door."  Here she waved her hand to indicate a large, wooden door in the wall behind her."How did you end up with him here?" asked Xandro, indicating her bound prisoner."I found him outside my home, trying to gain entry.  He was subdued with an entangle spell and, after several attempts, finally fell sway to a charm person spell.  Knowing that Sharnabet was soon to bring you here, I kept him bound until your arrival.""We will take him off your hands upon our departure, Junipaerna," promised Sharnabet, making herself comfortable on a sofa."He have much to say?" asked Thurloe knowingly."Indeed not; he hath spoken no single word at all the whole time I have been with him," the dryad replied."What's the matter there, Vultros, old boy?" taunted the spellsword.  "Cat got your tongue?"  That at least got a reaction out of the traitorous councilor; he turned his head in disdain and scowled up at the human with the ridiculously large sword sheathed in a scabbard on his back.Alewyth would usually be the one to ask Thurloe to tone it down, but she was frowning and looking about the room.  "Does anyone else feel like we're being watched?" she asked."I know not," replied the dryad, "but I have detected the occasional hint of sulfur about since capturing yonder knave."Zander activated his scout's headband and channeled its power to grant him the ability to see invisibility.  "Ah, there's your problem," he said, pointing a finger at the top of a bookcase.  "There's an invisible quasit right there!"The quasit, not liking being able to be seen, skedaddled from his position atop the bookcase, scampering down it side.  Robin took this as her cue to begin playing her song of inspirational courage, for it looked like combat was about to start - although how the heroes were planning on fighting a foe only one of them could see was beyond her.  Still, she knew well her own role: she stepped to the back, against the wall where she'd be out of the way, and began her tune.Zander cast a lightning bolt spell at the quasit, but it dodged the blast completely, leaving only a scorch mark on the wooden wall as any indication a spell had even been cast.  The lantern archon, hovering over Wakuren's shoulder, cast out its senses and detected the presence of evil on the floor by the bookcase; it flashed out a beam of light at the spot where it believed the quasit to be, with no success; Kandalwine's demonic familiar was using its invisibility to its best advantage.  Thurloe knew he'd have little luck trying to stab something he couldn't even see and opted instead to cast a mage armor spell upon himself, while Wakuren, focusing in on his own evil-detection abilities as a paladin in service to Cal, tried slamming his magic shield at the unseen quasit, but it too made no contact with the nimble (and panic stricken) quasit.There was the pattering of frenzied feet on the floor by the half-orc and he slammed his shield down in an attempt to catch the quasit as he scampered by, but that too met with no success.  Finally, a second lightning bolt spell from Zander brought the thing down, its body returning to visibility as it lost consciousness.  "Do you want us to kill it?" Zander asked Sharnabet."Best we bring it before the Queen," the elderly druid replied.  She turned to Junipaerna.  "Do you have some sort of container we could seal it up into?"  The dryad went to the kitchen and returned with a clay jar whose top clamped closed.  The quasit was dumped unceremoniously into the jar, sealed up, and presented to Sharnabet.  "Thank you," she said, placing the jar on the low table before her where she could keep an eye upon it.  "Now then, with that out of the way, perhaps you would like to enter through the door an verify that all is well beyond?"  Zander pulled out the token with the Queen's silhouette and showed it to Junipaerna, prompting Sharnabet to smile and say, "That is for the Guardian within.  Junipaerna knows full well that anyone I bring to her can be trusted.""I take mine orders from Queen Zarabelia and Sharnabet, in that order," confirmed the dryad."Prep spells before we head in," ordered Thurloe, casting a protection from evil spell upon himself.  Alewyth cast a magic vestment spell upon her armor and a magic circle against chaos spell upon herself, while Wakuren boosted his own combat prowess with the spells shield of faith and bear's endurance.  Xandro further boosted it with a heroism spell cast upon the half-orc, while Zander settled for a mage armor spell and a stoneskin.  "Okay," replied the spellsword when the spellcasting was complete.  "We're ready to go in.""Remember, you seek two things," Sharnabet reminded the heroes.  "The person who snuck through the door, and evidence that the item he sought is still in place.""Yeah, about that," replied Thurloe.  "How'd that guy get through here in the first place?  I thought you were a permanent guard or something?""There was an attack upon my dwelling," Junipaerna replied."Your tree," Thurloe specified, to let her know she wasn't fooling him by using imprecise language."The very same," agreed the dryad.  "I went outside and found a hatchet had been used to cut into my tree - three strikes, with the weapon left in the bark after the third blow.  I can only imagine that the rogue doubled around behind me and gained entry into my dwelling in that manner, for I know when strangers enter my domain.  As he is not there now, he can only have gone through the door I guard.  I know this, verily: whilst he hath entered, he hath not yet returned.  You will find him within, somewhere in the area into which I am forbidden to trespass.""Well, let's get to it, then," decided Zander, pulling open the door.  He was surprised to see nothing but a wall of inky blackness covering the doorway.  "Step into the darkness," Junipaerna instructed him.  "The way will part for thee.  The darkness merely prevents those out here from getting a glimpse of the interior."  Zander stepped forward into the darkness and was a bit surprised to see the way light up as soon as he had passed completely through the doorway.  He could see he was in a short corridor, ten feet wide, an equal height, and 20 feet long, opening up into an octagonal room beyond.  This room had a ceiling height of 20 feet, with a door on each of the other seven walls.  At the top of each door was a carving of a specific animal, no two the same - but the most striking feature was the floor-to-ceiling column in the very middle of the room, around which had been carved a serpentine creature with a large dorsal fin rising up from its humanlike head.  Illumination was provided by eight everburning torches, each hanging from an iron sconce at the junction of two adjacent walls.The other heroes followed the elven sorcerer into the room and Junipaerna closed the door behind them, although none of them saw her do it, for looking from the dungeon complex back through the doorway from which they had just entered, there was nothing but blackness; apparently whoever had designed this place didn't want anyone seeing from one side to the other.  (Either that, or the whole dungeon interior was yet a different extradimensional space withing the extradimensional space of the dryad's home tree, and that's just how the adjacent spaces worked.)As soon as all six heroes were inside the octagonal chamber, the carved naga turned its head and began to speak, saying:"Temptation had brought you here seeking that which is not yours; luck won't be enough, I fear, choose between the seven doors."Robin started playing her song of inspirational courage as soon as she saw the snake-thing's head move, thinking it might be about to animate and attack, but while she started strumming the strings of her lute, she opted not to begin the words to the song once the statue started to speak, thinking the heroes would want to hear whatever message it was giving them.  Then, after having stated its piece, the guardian naga's head returned to its original position and the statue resumed its immobility."Probably a magic mouth spell," observed Thurloe."So we've got seven doors to choose from," mused Alewyth, looking at the animals carved on them and wondering at their significance.  She wandered around the edge of the chamber, noting that in a clockwise direction they were a dragon, a pig, a goat, a snake, a peacock, a lion, and something she'd never seen before.  "What's this one?" she asked.Wakuren stepped beside her and gave it a puzzled frown.  Some kind of...monkey-puppy?"Zander looked at it and smiled.  "That's a sloth!" he laughed.  "They live in jungles, hang upside down from vines and tree limbs, and move very slowly."  Alewyth and Wakuren just looked at each other and shrugged - they'd never heard of such a beast.  "It's cute, though," the dwarven priestess admitted."Seven doors," repeated Thurloe, "or the column in the middle of the room!  Remember, it said 'between the seven doors.'  The column is in the middle of the seven doors.""Is there a way into the column?" Alewyth asked, and after a brief examination Thurloe admitted he didn't see any.  "So which door do we think the sword is behind?" the priestess asked."The snake," Thurloe said decisively.  "It's the most like the naga."  Robin pointed out that it was also the fourth of seven doors if you started by the nearest door to the entry corridor and continued trying doors while moving either clockwise or counterclockwise until you hit the right one.  Alewyth and Zander searched the walls for secret passages and found nothing.  Wakuren pondered aloud whether the animals on the doors might represent the seven deadly sins, but then he and his companions had a difficult time recalling which exactly they were and whether there was a good "animal representative" for each of the sins...which was admittedly made more difficult by the group only being able to conjure up six of the seven."Ah, screw it!" decided Alewyth finally.  "Let's just start with the snake door!"  She walked to the door, opened it, and saw that the doorway was also filled with impenetrable blackness.  Poking her head forward through the doorway, she saw a short corridor leading into a larger room, all seemingly carved straight out of stone like the rest of the complex they'd seen thus far.  She described what she saw to her companions, allowing them all to learn that sound passed just fine from one side of a doorway to the other.  Then she stepped forward and, to the views of those behind her, was instantly lost in the darkness.Alewyth looked up at the ceiling in the short corridor, but it was as featureless as the rest of the passageway.  Stepping forward, though, she could see the square room just beyond had a ceiling height of 20 feet, and that furthermore the ceiling of the square room was a fully reflective surface, like a silver mirror.  Stepping fully into the room, she looked up and saw an image of herself looking back down at her - which wasn't at all surprising until the mirror duplicate fell down from the ceiling on top of her, knocking her over.The mirror-Alewyth regained her footing at once and stood over the original, an identical Sjondra raised in the opposite hand - for Alewyth was left-handed but this mirror image, understandably, favored her right.  The duplicate warhammer came down and slammed into Alewyth's body, giving her a thorough understanding of exactly just how that felt.  But then Thurloe entered the corridor and then the room behind her, bringing Spellslicer swinging into the Alewyth holding Sjondra in the "wrong" hand.  (This also triggered the vampiric touch spell he'd stored into his blade earlier, which stole a bit of the mirror-duplicate's vitality and transferred it to Thurloe.)  The spellsword was a little surprised that his weapon's touch didn't automatically cause the second Alewyth to disappear - it wasn't just an illusion, then.  From the other side of the doorway, Alewyth could hear the strains of Robin's inspirational courage song starting back up.Wakuren and the lantern archon entered the room next, Thurloe pointed out which one was the "fake" Alewyth, and the half-orc swung his shield of Cal into her face.  That made it easier to tell the Alewyths apart: they were now trying to take down the one with the bloody nose.  Zander entered the room and cast a haste spell on all those in close enough proximity, which meant all but Xandro and Robin, who were still outside in the octagonal chamber.  The glowing sphere of light sent a beam of energy shooting at the fake Alewyth, but it was Alewyth herself who brought the killing blow with her own dwarven warhammer - at which point the fake duplicate's body shattered as if made of glass, each piece dissipating into nothingness before it hit the ground.  "Weird," observed Thurloe, but as the room was otherwise completely empty the group opted to depart immediately.  "It's not in here," Alewyth informed Xandro."We need a new approach," decided Thurloe.  "Why don't was all stick our heads into a separate room, see what we can see, and then report back?  We might save some time that way."Zander adopted the plan immediately.  "Dibs on the sloth room!" he cried, heading over that way, his cooshee trailing behind him.  Wakuren decided he'd give the lion room a try; Alewyth chose the peacock; Xandro the goat; and Thurloe decided to check out the pig.  "Do you want me to check out the dragon room?" Robin asked, but the general consensus was it would be best if she continued buoying up their combat prowess with her song.  "We'll tackle the dragon room together if these others don't pan out," Alewyth promised the young bard."Stay here, boy," Zander instructed his cooshee, and the elven dog sat on his haunches and wagged his tail.  Then the elf opened the sloth door and stepped into the corridor beyond.  He expected to be able to see just fine once he was through the doorway, but while he could see a very dim source of light in the distance, the hallway was all foggy and dreary.  Furthermore, he had a tough time pushing his way through it; eventually, he recalled there was a spell called solid fog and he was fairly sure he was caught up in the middle of it.  But he pushed his way steadily through the thick cloud of shadow that seemed to be fighting his progress every step of the way.  As he trudged slowly down the diagonal corridor, he mused that this fog being behind the door with the slow-moving sloth carved on it made perfect sense.Alewyth opened the peacock door, saw only blackness, and stepped inside.  The other side of the doorway was a diagonal corridor, but this one, instead of opening into a larger room like the others, ended in a closed wooden door.  The dwarf stepped to the end and examined the door.  It was locked, but it had a keyhole; peering through it, she saw the other side of the door had no corresponding keyhole, so she couldn't see into the room beyond.  She briefly considered using Sjondra to batter it down, but then recalled Queen Zarabelia had asked them to verify the safety of the sword of temptation, not tear apart the complex in which it was housed.  Instead, she opted to retreat and go fetch Xandro; of the whole group, he was the one adept at picking locks.While the others were opening doors, the lantern archon hovered over to the guardian naga statue and gave it a quick examination.  It sat in the same position in had been in since the group entered this dungeon, eyes unblinking, body unmoving.Xandro had, by this time, entered the corridor on the other side of the goat door and was surprised to see the room beyond was fashioned in the shape of an eight-pointed asterisk, with the northwestern edge being the corridor he traversed.  The oddly-shaped room was lit by a hanging chandelier of eight everburning torches, from whose illumination he could see the seven alcoves each contained a bed.  And, once he exited the corridor and entered the room proper, he was astounded to find he was not alone: there was a voluptuous woman standing there before him, although he couldn't for the life of him seem to recollect how she had gotten there."Come here," the woman purred seductively, and Xandro found his feet were already obeying.  During the short trip his roving eyes traveled all over her curvaceous form and was pleased by what he saw; only later would he realize this woman was somehow the physical embodiment of what he considered to be the pinnacle of feminine beauty...except for the batlike wings growing from her shoulders.  But by that time, Xandro had been fully charmed by the succubus and his will was no longer his own.When Thurloe opened the pig door and stepped through the doorway, he found the shortest corridor yet: it extended a mere five feet before opening into a vertical tunnel leading straight down, with a ladder on the near side.  Temporarily sheathing his bastard sword, he climbed down enough to see the room below was a smaller octagon, empty but for the glowing sword hanging along the back wall and the distinct - and disturbing - smell of rotten meat wafting up from below.  "Aha!" he cried in delight, clambering back up the ladder to go tell the others his findings.Wakuren, directly across from the spellsword, opened the lion door and, once he'd passed through the doorway, saw a set of wide steps leading down to a lozenge-shaped room beyond.  There were everburning torches along the walls of this oblong room, providing enough illumination for the half-orc to see the numerous bones and weapons strewn across the chamber's floor.  The cleric-paladin spent a few moments trying to detect any evil in the chamber (of which he found none) and then, after having cast a detect magic spell, whether he could pinpoint any sources of magic.  The whole chamber seemed at first to be magical, but once Wakuren had traced the magic specifically to the scattered bones and not any of the weapons - whose blades seemed to be universally dented and rusted - he deduced the bones would animate into some sort of swarm and attack anyone who entered.  Figuring the sword of temptation was not to be found among the dinged and battered weapons, he turned and went back the way he had come without springing the magical trap.Alewyth appeared at the goat door and called to Xandro inside.  "There's a door here that needs your attention!" she yelled, and then when that got no answer, she stepped into the corridor herself.  "Xandro?  You in here?"  Xandro was indeed inside the room, fully experiencing the kiss of a succubus for the first time.  A part of the back of his mind was cognizant of the fact that this gorgeous woman was somehow draining the very life essence from him, but for some reason it didn't really seem that important.  Not, that is, until Alewyth approached him from behind and engulfed him in her magic circle against chaos spell, at which time his mind cleared immediately and he recognized the extreme danger in which he was presently situated.With a flash, Deathwhisper was out of Xandro's scabbard and swinging at the lithe and nimble demon, but she read his intended actions at the forefront of his mind as he was first thinking them and made sure she was out of the blade's arc as it swung to her side.  But seeing the jig was up, she lashed out with her fingernails, somehow now having taken on the form of sharp, wicked claws.  Parallel lines of blood welled up on the side of Xandro's cheek, but he'd suffered more damage at the hands of more powerful enemies than this she-demon.Thurloe, seeing nobody but Robin in the octagonal room, stepped back into Junipaerna's room to check on matters out front.  "How do things progress?" Sharnabet asked, sipping a cup of tea Junipaerna had made for them.  The pot sat on the table before the two women."Oh, fine, fine," the spellsword answered.  "Nobody's come out this way, I take it?""None save for thine own self," assured the dryad."Okay, just checking," replied Thurloe.  "We've still got a couple rooms left to check.""Best be back at it, then," advised the elderly druid.  Thurloe took the hint and returned to the octagonal chamber.Wakuren and the lantern archon were now in the goat corridor behind Alewyth, and the half-orc cast a spiritual weapon spell that sent a solid force in the shape of a heavy mace flying over at the succubus - where it unceremoniously struck up against the demon's inherent resistance to spells and shattered away to nothingness.  The archon sent a beam of energy at the succubus, which did hit her, although she didn't seem particularly discomfited by the minor attack.  But then Alewyth cast a dismissal spell at the demon and she howled in anger as she dissipated from view, cast back to whatever fiendish plane she'd been drawn from.By this time, Zander Quilson had finally forced his way through the solid fog and burst into the room, which was square in shape save for the corner connecting to the corridor.  Fortunately, the room was free of fog; unfortunately, that just made the symbol of sleep glowing on the middle of the floor that much easier to see.  But luck was with the elven sorcerer, for he still had the see invisibility spell active from his scout's headband, and that allowed him to see the invisible figure laying in the corner, sprawled out in a noiseless slumber.  By focusing his attention on the prone form, Zander was able to avoid looking at the magical symbol on the floor and activating it; he wasn't sure what it was but he was fairly certain he didn't want to trigger it.  Stepping past it and moving over to the figure, he found it to be a male elf of roughly his own age, dressed in combat leathers and with a pair of wicked-looking daggers sheathed at a belt on his hip.  This, no doubt, was the thief Councilor Kandalwine had hired to slip into this extradimensional complex and find the sword of temptation for him.  Squatting down beside the thief, Zander lifted him up, got him propped up onto his shoulder, and started his way back through the solid fog.Xandro, Wakuren, and the lantern archon exited the goat door, moving back into the octagonal chamber.  But Alewyth, thinking the threat inside the goat chamber had been dealt with, stepped fully into the room - and was instantly met with the physical manifestation of her own views on the perfect male form: a broad-shouldered dwarf, his muscular chest covered in thick hair, perfect in every way save for the batlike wings growing out from his back.  Fortunately, even though she felt her heart quicken at the sight of him and became uncharacteristically weak in the knees at the thought of rubbing her hands over his hairy chest, her magic circle spell prevented the incubus from being able to charm her - or, to his surprise, to even approach her any closer than 10 feet."Release your spell, and we can be together," he pleaded."GUYS!" Alewyth called at the top of her lungs.  "WE'RE NOT DONE IN HERE AFTER ALL!"Xandro re-entered the goat corridor and saw the incubus trying to coax Alewyth into dropping her magic circle against chaos spell and allow him to approach.  Wakuren did likewise, only he was spurred to action, and raced up beside the dwarven priestess, swinging his shield of Cal into the demon's side.  Only when another succubus appeared, the very epitome of what Wakuren visualized as the perfect woman (with the unfortunate but excusable addition of a pair of bat wings sprouting from her back), did the half-orc realize he had strayed too far into the chamber."Come with me to my bed," purred the succubus, and Wakuren had only the proximity to Alewyth's magic circle to thank for him not even considering that as a potential course of action.  The lantern archon entered the corridor and sent a beam of light striking the incubus in the chest, causing a bit of smoke to arise as it set a few of his chest hairs on fire.Alewyth just glared daggers at the incubus, knowing she couldn't advance toward him as she'd like (for combat, not romantic, purposes), and slowly backed up, ensuring she didn't get too far from Wakuren or Xandro, both of whom needed her to remain close enough for her magic circle to protect their minds from any charm effects.  Xandro stabbed the incubus with Deathwhisper, causing him to snarl in pain and swear bloody retribution.  The succubus continued trying to charm Wakuren until it became apparent he was fully shielded from her enticements.  The incubus was having a similar lack of luck with Alewyth, and her spell kept either demon from being able to approach.  Finally, Wakuren summoned an air element hippogriff to stand between the demons and the heroes, allowing the heroes to all dash out of the goat door and close it behind them.  The sounds of combat coming from the other side of the door told them the hippogriff was doing just fine holding its own against the seductive pair.Zander suddenly reappeared through the sloth doorway, dropping to his knees and allowing the unconscious figure he'd been carrying over his shoulder to drop to the stone floor.  The elven rogue continued his slumber.  "What's this?" Thurloe asked, for to him the whole act had been one of pantomime - the unconscious elf was still invisible."Caught the thief Kandalwine hired," Zander said proudly.  "You got any rope I can tie him up with?"  Thurloe passed over a coil of rope from his pack and watched as Zander continued his pantomime actions, but by the shape of the rope tied around the body it soon became apparent the elf was absolutely right: there was an invisible guy being bound there!  Once Zander was finished - he was the only one able to see the invisible figure, so the binding of the prisoner fell to him - he and Thurloe made another trip out side to Junipaerna's sitting room, this time to drop off their next prisoner.  "Halfway there!" Thurloe announced.  "Now we just have to find the...item," he finished, recalling the dryad was not to be informed about what it was she guarded.  The two heroes went back inside the doorway before either of the women could respond."He strikes me as a very unusual person," Junipaerna observed."He's a human," Sharnabet replied, as if that explained everything."Hey, you got that token on you?" Thurloe asked Zander, and the elf fished it out of his pocket.  Holding the cameo up to the guardian naga statue, Thurloe announced, "Hey, naga!  We're on orders from Queen Zarabelia to make sure the sword of temptation is still secure!  Are you the guardian we're supposed to show this to?"  But the naga statue gave no response and made no move, making the spellsword wonder if maybe the fool thing wasn't just a statue after all.  "Lemme check out the dragon room," Thurloe said, dashing through the doorway and disappearing into the darkness within.Inside the short corridor, Thurloe could see it spilled out into a five-sided room - and this one also had a glowing sword hanging on the back wall.  Figuring one of the glowing swords - this one or the one in the pig chamber, that smelled of rotting meat - had to be a fake (if not both), he looked all around the odd-shaped room without actually entering it, a task made easier by the everburning torches lighting up the chamber.  The room itself was empty save for the sword, but the ceiling, Thurloe noted, had suspicious-looking grooves all along it.  That, he decided, had "trap" written all over it, so he exited the dragon corridor and returned to the octagon chamber.By then, Alewyth had taken Xandro down the peacock corridor to show him the locked door.  Wakuren and the lantern archon had followed along, and the dwarf had noticed something she hadn't before: "Hey!  The floor doesn't line up with the wall!  See?  There's a crack here."  She checked both sides of the floor, where they met up with the side walls of the corridor, and save for the first five feet or so closest to the peacock door, there was no connection between wall and floor.  "You know what this means," Wakuren observed.  "It's a trap: as soon as we mess with the door, the floor falls out from beneath us!"  Just to be sure, he cast an air walk spell on Xandro and then he and Alewyth returned to the octagonal room, leaving Xandro and the lantern archon to test their theory.  Sure enough, as soon as Xandro put a lockpick into the keyhole, the floor beneath him gave way, hinging down to dump them into a pit some 40 feet below them, where a bone golem awaited to crush them into pulp.  But with Xandro buoyed by the air walk spell and the lantern archon able to hover at will, they merely returned to the octagonal rom the way they had come, and there wasn't much the bone golem below could do about it.The group gathered back together and discussed what they'd seen in the various rooms.  Thurloe and Wakuren opted to go down the ladder and check out the smelly chamber with the glowing sword, the half-orc going first so he could check the place out with a detect magic spell.  After determining the entire room reeked not only of rotting flesh but also of magic, Wakuren asked Thurloe to pass him down his bastard sword.  The half-orc touched the nearest wall with the point of Spellslicer's blade to no effect, but when he touched the floor with it, it cleaved through the illusion casting the contents of the room in an invisibility spell.  Everything touching the room's floor had been invisible to anyone not touching the room's floor, but now the two adventurers could clearly see the hunks of rotting meat scattered all around the room, and the two hungry aurumvoraxes scurrying their way.  They decided to climb back up the ladder before the multilimbed badger-things tried making a meal of them, for by then Wakuren had determined the only thing magical about the sword was the permanent light spell that had been cast upon it.So now what?" asked Zander.  "That's all seven doors."Thurloe approached the main column in the center of the room again, looking at the guardian naga statue.  "It's got to be this," he said.  "'Choose between the seven doors,' it said.  Well, this is between the seven doors!  It's got to be where the sword is kept.""Let me see," said Alewyth, examining the column and the naga.  "You know," she pointed out, "the naga and the pillar aren't carved from a single piece of stone.  The column is one piece, and the naga's a separate one."  She ran her hands over the naga's cool scales.  "I don't even think this is stone!"  She cast a soften earth and stone spell and cast it upon the stone pillar, weakening it enough she was able to pull chunks of it away, revealing it to be hollow.That proved to be too much for the guardian naga.  "Very well," it said, animating and slithering higher up the column.  "I have observed your progress and you do not seem like you are trying to steal the sword of temptation.  Now that I have moved out of the way, there is a secret door along the bottom of the column, previously hidden by my coils.  You may go below and speak with the Guardian.  But know this: if this is a trick, I will slay each and every one of you upon your return.""Fair enough," agreed Alewyth, finding the hidden panel and deducing how to open it.  It led to a pair of winding stairs leading down.  She led the group of six heroes, one cooshee, and a lantern archon down the stairs, which led to a small chamber.  In the back of this chamber rested a regal figure, a creature with the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and a beautiful female face that seemed vaguely familiar.  It was only after a few moments into their conversation that Alewyth was able to place the familiarity: the gynosphinx's face, she realized, looked more than a little like that of Queen Zarabelia herself, although how an elf and a gynosphinx could possibly be related was beyond the dwarf's comprehension."I believe you have something to show me," the gynosphinx, Alciavanna, said.  Zander hurriedly produced the silhouette token of Queen Zarabelia, explaining why they had been sent and what they had accomplished thus far.  Thurloe felt an oddness in the air around them and realized the entire room was covered in a permanent zone of truth spell effect; Alciavanna would know at once if any of them were lying.At the end of their tale, the gynosphinx smiled.  "You may return to your Queen and assure her the sword of temptation remains here, by me, in this chamber, undisturbed.  The thief you found upstairs has fallen victim to my symbol of sleep spell, after which he was rendered invisible and subjected to an involuntary stasis.  The latter two effects will cease by the time he is returned to the Queen.  But if you had not come for him, he would eventually have been slain and cast down with the aurumvoraxes in the chamber of the pig."  The gynosphinx then bowed her head a fraction of an inch, which Alewyth took as a dismissal.  She thanked the Guardian and led the group back upstairs.  On the way up there was a moment of disorientation, and when they returned to the octagonal chamber, they saw the damage Alewyth's soften earth and stone spell had done had been repaired.  Had they looked, they'd have found the corridor floor behind the peacock door had been returned to its upright configuration and the aurumvoraxes (and their rotting meals) returned to their own stasis.The guardian naga was still high up enough around the pillar to allow the heroes to exit through the hidden door, but he was back to pretending to be a statue again himself.  He turned his head towards the heroes and intoned the following farewell greeting:"It's now the end of the line Return to your destination Report back that all is fine You have avoided temptation.""Yeah, you have a good time there," Thurloe waved, as Zander opened the door and the group returned to Junipaerna's sitting room, where she and Sharnabet were each finishing up another cup of tea."And have you succeeded in the second part of your mission?" asked Sharnabet."All is as it should be," replied Zander.  The elderly druidess tapped Hesperna's lamp and said, "In you go, then.  Don't forget to bring the prisoners."  Wakuren hefted the still-invisible bound elven thief, while Junipaerna released Kandalwine's vines and Thurloe and Xandro took hold of him by the arms.  Alewyth picked up the clay pot containing the quasit, and said farewell to the dryad.   Then, with the command phrase, they all entered the extradimensional space inside the magic lamp."Until we meet again," said Junipaerna, opening the front door to her tree interior."Indeed," replied Junipaerna.  "Thank you for the tea."  Then she wildshaped into an eagle, gripped the lamp in both talons, and flew away.Half an hour or more later, she wildshaped back into an elf, entered the lamp, and bade the heroes emerge.  They did so, to find Queen Zarabelia there, along with several of her paladins, who took the prisoners into custody.  A pair of attendants carried a chest with them and placed it at the heroes' feet.  "Five thousand pieces of gold, with gratitude for the service you have provided us this day," the elven Queen proclaimed.But Sharnabet had been in conference with a few of her druids, and after their conversation, she stepped over to the heroes once again.  "I wonder if you might be willing to stay with us one more day," the leader of the Circle of Druids said.  "There is a druid who reports back to us on a weekly basis.  He is now two days overdue, and my Circle has cast divinations to learn the reason for his tardiness.  It seems he has fallen asleep, and cannot awaken on his own.  I wonder if you might...?"Zander cut her off.  "It will be our pleasure," he replied. - - -We did a lot of poor rolling during this adventure - for a while there, none of us had managed to roll double digits on a d20 for over an hour.  (We all roll in the open.)  So while Dan had pretty much figured out my "choose between the seven doors" trick (which I had been worried Logan would latch onto, given our mental "wavelength"), when they went to investigate, their poor Spot check results didn't give them much to work with.We also had a time constraint on this one: Joe was with us, running his own PC for a change (he's in college now, so Dan has been running Thurloe and Zander in his absence), but this was during his Spring break and he had been back home all week.  However, we game on Saturdays and he wanted to get back to his dorm by early Saturday evening, so we had a "hard stop" at 4 PM.  I managed to get us finished under the deadline, but the PCs opting to spread out and check five rooms at once certainly helped on that front. - - -T-shirt worn: My blue TARDIS T-shirt, to represent the "bigger on the inside than on the outside" nature of not only the dryad's tree interior, but the entire "seven deadly sins" dungeon behind the door she guarded inside her home.</blockquote>

Verification