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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 533004" data-attributes="member: 5137">The Broken TempleIt took the trio the rest of the day to hike back upriver to buy a rope, so they waited until morning to hike downriver. Despite some nervousness on Merideth's part, the crack was still present when they arrived at noon.Greppa skinnied through the crevice once more, then climbed up to the top of the miniwall. Not sure how to tie a proper knot, he wrapped it around a projection, looped it through itself a few times, then lay down on top of the rope and held on to be sure.Once in the little dip in the cliff wall, they looked at the scene.The tree was as twisted up and tortured looking as the dream had promised, and seemed mostly (if not wholly) dead. About thirty feet away, a 5' diameter wooden sphere with a slick, textured surface was chained to a rocky outcropping. The chain was thick iron, and deeply pitted with rust.There was no cup, and the would-be heroes pondered the situation, brows furrowed.Greppa, on a hunch, finally walked over to the tree and climbed up on the lower roots. Sure enough, the coiling shape of the trunk created a nearly hemispherical hollow, that looked like it might fit the ball. He grinned and repeated his find to the other two.Athan grinned back, "So all we've got to do is rip that ball off the boulder?"Merideth and Greppa both nodded solemnly. Any excuse to see Athan flex, after all. Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a show. Athan heaved, grunted and heaved again, but didn't manage to break the chain or pull it free. Merideth and Greppa helped, and it still wouldn't pull free.Having tested the limits of their ability to pull it by normal means, Greppa decided this was a fine time to field-test earth's strength, and he cast it on Athan. Athan's tan deepened into an earthy brown, and his eyes changed to resemble yellow agates. He let out a brief sigh of pleasure as he felt the strength in his limbs increase, and then he hauled on the ball one more time.Nothing.Finally, he had built up enough frustration, and with a primal yell, raged against the chain, jerking this way and that, calling upon his deeper reserves...It broke in two like thin twine.Athan, still breathing hard and wild-eyed, heaved the ball up on his shoulders, clambered up the roots, and dumped the ball in the cup. For good measure, Greppa beside him knocked three times.Neither noticed when the iron chain fell off the ball at the knocks.What they did notice was the transformation the tree was undergoing, and they scrambled off as quickly as they could. The tree pushed itself outward and upward, uncoiling like a bullwhip in slow motion. The roots fattened, swayed, and plunged deeper into the earth, and the ground shook with their force. The trunk also fattened, and the tree swiftly straightened into a wide, ancient oak.When it was done, two of the roots nearest shore and formed an archway, revealing a darkly shadowed cave beneath the tree... and the crack that Greppa had squeezed through behind them had split open into a tiny lake inlet.Merideth peered into the depths of the cave, her hand shading her eyes, and then looked at the mostly-used torches they'd kept from the tower... "We're going to need more torches."</blockquote>

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