66.8 The Tests of Mishikal

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Taran – Half Elf Fighter/Priest of Mannanan Mac Lir, cousin to Carinne and Galvish
Carinne Rhianne Talynnart – Half Elf Ranger/Mage, Cousin to Taran and Galvish
Krachtig – A Lucky Gnome out of the blast radius.
Galvish – Half Elf Fighter/Thief, Cousin to Taran and Carinne
Barrigan Stonebeak – Dwarf Fighter/Priest, Company Engineer.
Lanneus Tuard – Paladin of Manannan Mac Lir
Saeryn Ghent – Fighter – (Kalans Sister)

4/13/13
A Testing Time

The smoke clears from the mighty battle with the red dragon. Wounds are healed and Brother Francis charred corpse is bought back to life and completely healed, luckily for him it happened in an instant and he has no recollection of the event, but looking at the charred ponies and useless gear he has an inkling of his fiery demise.
We find the dragons lair and fill our pockets and capacious sacks and then turn our attention to skinning the beast and removing as many teeth and scales as we can, some of the mage types collect some of the blood – but they are a weird lot anyway.
With our ponies and prospectors tools a charred ruin we abandon our miners disguise and summon phantasmal steeds to let us fly the rest of the way there, this way only flying beasties will be able to attack us and hopefully the 100’ fall won’t kill us, although Brother Francis and Krachtig are a little uncomfortable at this height.
Krachtig is flying as a scout in advance of the party and is spared the wrath of the Gorgimera which seems to appear from nowhere and breathes a nasty petrification cloud over the party as well as a cone of fire from its red dragon head. Luckily none of the party is petrified although Galvish appears a little scorched.  We kill the beast but not before it breathes over the party again, luckily Brother Francis had moved out of the area of effect and was better protected by more magicks cast on him. We track down the lair of this beast and load up with more loot.
We are within striking distance of the water source we seek. We make camp by the river and can see where the water flows through the mouth of a cave; we rest for the night to make a fresh start in the morning.
We enter the cave at first light and are diverted from following the waters source by a fork in the passageway. Unable to follow the water due to low headroom and the water causing the passage to be almost completely submerged, we branch off and eventually come to a set of locked (and trapped) doors. Krachtig unwittingly triggers and acid spray trap and gets a little fuzzy at the edges but emerges alive. He unlocks the door and we peer into the room to see four large metallic statues. Sure enough as soon as we enter they animate and we are looking up at Iron Golems, they breathe a poisonous cloud of gas which Saeryn succumbs to, Carinne rushes to her aide when the first golem that has been destroyed explodes in a ball of fire after a short delay. We kill off the other three and Galvish quickly casts a wall of force around the four cousins keeping them from further harm.
The Golems each hold a holy symbol of Mishikal, several of which survived the blasts. It is one of these that is needed to open the exit out of the room.
We trek down another corridor enter a room with a steps leading down in the center; on the opposite end of the room is the exit door.  Around the rooms are murals and small shrines to 14 different gods. Soon after entering the room we are attacked by spectre like automatons, luckily they do not drain levels. This combat soon turns into a comedy of errors with Corinne hitting herself, Taran becoming entangled in his own equipment, Galvish hitting Barrigan and Saeryn flailing wildly and barely staying on her feet.
We manage to defeat the creatures and look at the exit door which has seven circular imprints. Each of the small shrines holds a corresponding circular token imprinted with the deities symbol. Each mural is done in a different color. It takes a while before the colors of the rainbow are chosen and inserted into the door which silently opens.
We exit the room and make our way to a room with a narrow span crossing a pit of magma. An apparition appears and instructs us that the last four people across the narrow bridge must travel in pairs holding a special holy symbol of Mishikal, the people take a differing time to cross and only one person can return with the symbol for the next pair. A time limit is imposed on the crossings and those left behind will be permanently destroyed. It takes a while before the wisdom of Taran prevails and the order established. The unlucky four (who did not include Taran) make it in time.
Another corridor and set of doors finds us entering a room with 10 giant sized copper coins on the floor arranged in a triangular pattern. An apparition appears and challenges us to rearrange the coins by moving three only to invert the triangle. Galvish and his street magician ways come to the fore and he solves the puzzle quickly. Once solved the giant coins turn into platinum with a large ruby embedded in each, similar to the symbol of Mishikal.
We emerge to see the origin of the spring and an Astral Deva who challenges us to defeat her before we can access the spring. We manage this and gather the waters in the specially prepared vessel. We now have to go the blighted lands and pour a small amount of this water into the well of each affected village.