Our heroes stand at the rear of the large temple room, 4 lines of wooden pews separate them from a stone altar at the far end of the room. Off to one side, the charred skeletal remains point ominously at the swirling orange vapours. Finn walks over to the burnt corpse and inspects it carefully, judging by the scorch marks, whoever it used to be was subjected to an immense amount of heat. Sigrid strides down the central aisle between the pews and walks up to the chair sat behind the Altar, she looks around for any ominous snake statues but despite their absence she is still reluctant to touch the chair in any way. Finn, having concluded his extensive autopsy on the charred corpse, moves over to the stone altar and begins to examine it carefully. However it appears that he was not cautious enough, as his hand glides over some of the carved runes a bolt of lightning streaks out from the altar and shoots down the aisle. Thanks to his honed reflexes, the Halfling is able to dodge out of the way, but Lucian, at the back of the room is not so lucky. The forks of lightning strike him in the chest and he stumbles to the ground. The electricity coming from the altar fades but there is a foreboding thrumming coming from the stonework. Lucian gets to his feet and moves closer to the Altar. "Hmm, whatever you did Finn, seems to be only part of it, something else may need to be done". The Halfling wanders over to the burned corpse, looking from the altar to the body to the magical swirling mists he seems to some to a conclusion.
"Garrick, Lucian...come here will you?" he asks, an idea forming in his head. "You both know how to conjure a Mage Hand don't you? I'm thinking if we use each of our spells we can lift this corpse onto the altar and hopefully trigger the second part of the mechanism and perhaps these mists will disappear to reveal the way forward". The two of them look quizzically at the Halfling, Lucian isn't convinced, the scorch mark from the earlier bolt of lightning the full stop on his question mark of doubt. With no one else offering any better suggestions though, the two of them reluctantly agree to Finn's plan and 3 spectral hands appear over the blackened corpse. Slowly the hands drift down and underneath the body slowly lifting it into the air. Unfortunately the flames that had killed this poor fellow had also burned the ligaments to dust and the bones began to fall off and onto the floor as they tried to lift it. Abandoning his plan as quickly as he cam up with it Finn directs his own magical hand, now holding a single thigh bone, over to the altar where it places it carefully on the thrumming stonework.
As the bone and stone meet, the question of how the corpse came to be is answered as flames erupt and fill most of the temple. Red and orange flames sweep through the room, Finn manages to launch himself over one of the pews as the fire roars overhead. Garrick and Sigrid also manage to evade the worst of the inferno but Farraine and Lucian are not so lucky. The two heroes scream in agony as the heat penetrates their clothing, blistering their skin. The flames die down and the stone altar returns to its normal state. Finn rises to his feet, a sheepish and apologetic look on his face as he gazes over to see Lucian and Farraine attempting to extinguish the small fires on their clothes by rolling around on the floor. The rest of the party rush over to help.
Lucian sits up, his hair and beard are frazzled and there are holes in his robes, "I am sick of being the test subject in your half-brained, poorly thought out and quite frankly FUCKING DANGEROUS experiments Finn. From now on if you want to mess around with shit, make sure I am not in the room first"
"Look, I'm sorry but you were the one who said something else had to be done and no one else was offering any other suggestions. It's not like these things come with instructions you know." replies Finn before turning on his heal and walking over to the west wall. The halfling wanders down the length of the room, in search of any hidden mechanism or secret doorways but he finds nothing. He continues his search along the back wall and then the east wall, all to no avail. It seems the only way out is either through the magical mist or the way they came.
Farraine gets to his feet and takes a long swig from one of his healing potions, "Hey Finn," he shouts, "have you tried sitting in the chair?" The Halfling scowls at Farraine, "Fuck off"
Tensions are high as our band of heroes gather beside the misty vapours to ponder their next move. It seems foolish to simply go back the way they came and the only way forward appears to be hidden by these mystical colour mist. Without a word, Garrick takes a couple of steps forward into the vapours and promptly disappears from sight. The rest of the party hold their breath and strain their ears for any hint of a scream, but there is nothing but silence. Looking at each other in bemusement, they shrug their shoulders and follow Garrick into the unknown.
Garrick finds himself stood at the top of a flight of stairs leading down to a small corridor that heads off to the right. As he is taking in his surroundings he is joined by the rest of the party. Together they make their way down the steps and with Finn in the lead carefully looking out for any potential traps they find themselves at another door. Finn carefully guides his spectral Mage Hand and the door swings open to reveal a small 10ft by 10ft room on the other side. The hand floats inside and vanishes from sight. Finn takes a step forward but Garrick places his hand on the Halfling's shoulder and points to the flagstone beneath Finn's hovering foot. Looking closer, Finn notices a small pressure mechanism that had Garrick not stop him, would have triggered as he stepped forward. Reaching into his quiver, the Halfling retrieves a crossbow bolt and jams it into the flagstone. Carefully he takes a step forward and he too disappears from sight. Once more the rest of the party follow Finn into the small room. Their vision blurs suddenly and they feel a slight jolt as they find themselves once more at the top of a flight of stairs. Garrick points to a small almost completely hidden latch in the wall, pushing past his fellow adventurers, the Cleric moves closer and carefully fingers the mechanism which could probably have been described differently but hey, what are you going to do about it? Cracks appear in the stone wall and a door reveals itself. Garrick calmly pushes the door open and steps over the threshold, another corridor lies beyond, leading to yet another door. All of a sudden a strange voice echoes through the hallway "RUN PUNY MORTALS!"
The party look at one another, "Er what the fuck was that?" asks Finn
"Well, whoever or whatever it is didn't specify a direction so I say we just carry on" suggests the fearless Farraine.
The rest of the party pause for a moment, unable to find a flaw in the Fighter's logic before continuing to walk down the stone passage. The door at the end is opened to reveal a medium-sized room, filled with dust. Linen wraps and dried herbs hang from the ceiling above aged, wooden workbenches. In the centre of the room three large clay pots and three vats filled with mysterious liquid. Garrick surveys the scene, it appears that the practice of mummification took place here.
"These appear to be some kind of embalming fluids" suggests the Cleric.
"A bomb! What did you bring him a bomb for" replies Finn as inter-dimensional comedy permeates his consciousness.
Sigrid moves into the room and scours the floor for signs of the footprints she spotted earlier, she manages to find faint traces of them leading out of the room on the far side, Finn joins the Druid as she begins her pursuit. Their progress is halted when they are faced with a large gap in the floor some 20ft across. Lucian, Garrick and Farraine join the two of them as they gaze down into a spike filled pit some 30 ft below. Garrick rises slowly off the ground and looks down at Finn, inviting him to grab onto his shoulders. The Halfling scrambles up the Cleric's back as he glides across the gap to the safety of the other side. Farraine wastes no time in displaying his agility and takes a small run up and leaps effortlessly to the other side. Finn tosses some rope over to Sigrid who ties it around her waist so that the three of them could pull her through the air as she jumps. Now whilst this approach was, in theory, a good idea, in practice it needed a little bit of fine tuning before it was put into practice. First it would have been an idea to co-ordinate when the Druid should start running, and second check that the stone floor was free of tripping hazards. Alas they did neither of these things and as a result Sigrid ran towards the hole whilst Finn, Farraine and Garrick were still discussing the plan. As she reaches the edge of the gap her foot catches on a protruding flagstone and she tumbles into the spiked depths below. Garrick, Finn and Farraine look over the edge and are relieved to see that the druid somehow managed to avoid being mortally impaled on the spikes but there are a number of fresh wounds to suggest that she did not escape unharmed. They grab the rope and gently pull her back up before tending to her wounds. On the other side of the gap Lucian decides that he is not going to chance it and simply casts Misty Step to join his companions on the other side.
Our heroes continue to make their way through the dungeon. Searching for hidden doors, and stealthy traps until they reach another room. This time the room seems to be some kind of living quarters, a couple of trunks invite further investigation with the promise of potential treasures. Finn inspects them carefully before giving a thumbs up. However he is not reckless enough to simply open them by hand himself, he knows all to well the potential dangers in this place and so conjures a mage hand once again to do the dirty work. The trunks open to reveal 22 shining diamonds and a bag filled with platinum coins. The halfling picks them up and tosses them into his backpack. A detailed search of the rest of the room fails to uncover anything else of note and our heroes look for a way forward. In the far corner of the room is a door, Finn walks over to it and obviously bored with all of the prior investigation he has carried out thus far in this place, simply reaches for the handle and pulls the door open. A spear whizzes past his ear and several others fly over his head tearing through the tapestry hanging on the wall opposite. Finn slowly closes the door and turns around, relieved to see that none of his friends were stood behind him. Garrick walks over to the torn tapestry and notices that all is not what it seems. Pulling down the woven fabric to reveal the wall behind it. There are a number of holes where the spears passed straight through and the Cleric begins to pull at the loose brickwork. Lucian joins in to help and before long there is a gap in the wall large enough for them to squeeze through and into the passage beyond.
Our heroes follow the path around a corner and down a series of stone steps. At the end of the stone corridor the carved brickwork gives way to more roughly hewn stone walls that curve out of sight. Binky takes the lead and scouts the way ahead, disappearing round the corner. "Master, I can hear singing" reports the Imp, "It's so beautiful". Finn is troubled by this revelation, something in the depths of his memory recalls a book his father once read to him which mentioned the dangers of Sirens and their song. Thinking quickly the Halfling reaches into his backpack and retrieves his weavers tools. Using some thick wool his fingers are a blur as he quickly and expertly knits some makeshift earplugs. Taking a cue from the Halfling, Garrick takes out a candle, lights it and drips some wax into his hand, balling it up and shoving it into his ears. Finn hands out the bespoke, woollen earplugs to the rest of the party and Binky before they slowly edge around the corner.
Before them is a massive cloud of silvery mist, golden flecks of light swirl within it. Lucian observes the phenomenon cautiously and concludes that it is indeed magical in nature and very powerful magic at that.
"Wait!" he says to the rest of the group behind him "Don't go into the mist"
"WHAT??" they all shout, struggling to hear him through their woollen protection.
"I SAID, DON'T GO INTO THE MIST!" shouts the Wizard
They step back around the corner it seems their way forward is barred and their only way onwards is backwards.
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