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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2184850" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Halfing Prophecy7/21/369 O.L.G., 10 a.m.Immediately after second breakfast, our heroes approach the final unexplored door in the Guardian of Secrets’ chamber.  This one is graven with a dwarven rune signifying water.  “I wonder what that implies,” murmurs Mys to herself.Mys, the riddle-master who had been trapped for about two centuries before our heroes released her by solving her riddle, is garbed in a shirt of mithral, with a silver rapier at her side and a light crossbow strapped to her back.  She is not a very militant-looking figure; in fact, she is downright scrawny.  Her sharp features are accented by her tapered ears and her slanted eyes.  She has already made clear that her most powerful weapon is her mind.  So far, the halflings accept her; though several of them have reservations about her, so far she has been a pleasant and helpful companion (though, again, not much of a fighter).  She says, “A riddle of some sort, no doubt.”“What do you mean?”  Naomi looks at her.“This entire place is sacred to Cyldon, the god of secrets and riddles.  The rune on my door was gems and gold, was it not?  Yet neither was in there.  There was treasure, Cyldon’s most precious treasure, in the form of an extremely difficult riddle.”  She gestures at the door the wyvern-fiend had been behind.  “And there was poison in there, all right!  But not like one might find in a bottle with such a sign on it.  It was in a living stinger!”  Now she turns to the water-rune.  “Water... what does it mean?”“How can we find out?” Thelonious asks.   Mys shrugs.  “We will know what it means in retrospect,” she states, “after we go past the door.”“I guess I’d better search the door for traps then,” Beau remarks, and starts doing so.”Well, neither of the others was trapped,” begins Martini.“Hey, I found something!” Beau exclaims, and Martini shuts up.  Slowly the rogue-sorcerer first discovers and then distorts and ruins a magical glyph of warding.  Jawbreaker moves forward and throws open the door. This reveals a 30’ wide hallway leading to a large steaming pool of water that opens into a natural cavern full of water as far as our heroes can see.  A bridge, clearly unfinished, has been built partway out into the water, but the architect never finished his task.  The half-finished bridge is decorated with sculptures of earth creatures and elementals all along it.  The pool is hot, but not boiling hot.  It’s definitely hot enough to scald, though.  Jawbreaker thrusts a hand in for just a moment, and finds it bearable, though painful.  Our heroes walk cautiously out to the end of the finished part of the bridge.  From there, they can see some kind of circle of high rocks thrusting above the water level.   “Hmm,” Beau says, “there’s magic out there.”This, combined with a complete lack of any way for them to get out there safely (other than Achtung), leads them to send the urd ahead.  He flaps out there on his skinny wings, and as he approaches the circle of stones the water starts to churn.  He squawks, then retreats as something starts to arise from the roiling waters.  Excitedly he reports to the party.  Jawbreaker, Naomi, Beau, Ezeekiel (clutching his new, glowing axe), Hortense and Martini brave the scalding waters and wade out towards the stone.  The churning that has arisen forms now into a serpent of water, splashing sounds substituting perhaps for a hiss.  In the light of Zeke’s axe, the water serpent is revealed to those back on the bridge. “Don’t attack it!” cries Mys.  “What is it?” Naomi demands.”It is a water weird.”“What the hell is that?”  Naomi is very tense, but starting to relax.  Despite its menacing demeanor, the so-called ‘water weird’ has not yet struck.  Several of our heroes pull themselves onto the rocks around it.“It can prophesize!  Offer it tribute!”Swiftly, several of our heroes throw some coins, gems or minor magic items in the pool.  The serpent resolves into a beauteous humanoid form.  For a long moment it merely watches them with an unsettling gaze; then it speaks.  ”Long have your kind sought your way to the Promised Land.  Know this: it is behind you.  The homeland of bread and butter, the place of mead and milk, the fields of strawberries, the cows that give cream, the orchards of apples from which springeth pie- all these things are there, waiting to be plucked like plums from the tree.  But first the isle must be freed by small hands for small hands, which can work the isle to paradise in but three years.  Blessed is it, for it is the home of your rightful gods.  Their breath is upon it, causing berries to spring forth.  The fountain of wine makes the land drunk.  Yet by the drunk with power it was seized from your folk.  Now the power is gone, and still drunk are its dregs; but liberation awaits.”“Whoah,” breathes Naomi.Cows that give cream, thinks Beau in wonder.“Where is this place?” Jawbreaker demands, full of awe at the thoughts.“Hey, can we get this written down?” asks Ezeekiel. This is generally agreed to be a good idea, and the weird agrees to speak her words again.  Both Ezeekiel and Naomi note it down, although Naomi adds a line about herds of thumbless humans.  Then our heroes quickly cross to a small finger of land on the opposite side of the cavern from the bridge.  There’s nothing of note there, but it gives them a brief respite from the heat of the water.  Then they move on through the water, following the perimeter of the room further to their left (where it extends past their ability to see; they have seen all of the other half of the cave at this point).  Soon they reach another finger of rock, which has a natural stair descending from it.  Warily, our heroes descend into another cave filled ankle-deep with water, but this time it is only pleasantly hot.  The halflings and their friends move forward, but a swarm of huge water skeeters skims towards them from the only passage out of the room.  Suddenly the party is being swarmed!Naomi cries out, “Duck!” –and without an instant’s hesitation she fires a swarm of crystals, catching several of her companions in it but killing many of the bugs.  A second manifestation a few seconds later, and the swarm disperses, the bugs skating away across the water.Our heroes follow the passage as it zigs and zags, until it finally opens up into a good-sized chamber with a central island elevated above the water.  Another island, in the chamber’s northeast corner, has a bunch of rubble strewn about it.Cautiously, our heroes advance.  The central island is dotted with nubby stalagmites but otherwise unremarkable.  The other island holds a surprise or two, however.  As our heroes investigate it, Beau spies a few coins among the debris.  And suddenly, something bursts up from underneath the ground, something almost as wide as it is tall, colored a burnt umber color.  Its huge mandibles clack and its great claws click.  Its eyes are huge, multifacted- no, wait, those aren’t its eyes, those are, or... it’s so confusing... Next Time: Our heroes vs. an umber hulk!</blockquote>

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