Walking up to one of the crystal spheres, Killian touched one of them turning it green. As it turned color, it emitted a high pitched noise that made his fellow adventurers slump to the ground and leave in a panic. Not understanding why his friends had reacted so violently, he touched the crystal again until it turned off. He then went outside to hear that the noise, which was loud but not unbearable, was excruciating for his friends.
Unsure of how to proceed, Rykasha came up with an idea to soften sealing wax and put it in her ears. The was helped considerably and they were able to withstand the grating sonic attack, which apparently didn’t phase Killian.
After some experimentation, they discovered that the scrolled note depicted a song that Killian was able to play on the crystal spheres. Because one of them was cracked, he had to make up the last note using his flute. Once the final note was created, a bright blue spark of electricity arced across the floor creating a doorway. Killian was momentarily blinded by the sudden introduction of sunlight emanating from the other side of the doorway, and he stopped playing the note to shield his eyes. As soon as the note stopped, the doorway disappeared.
Not willing to exit the Citadel without fully exploring it’s contents first, the party proceeded down the hallway deeper into the dust filled chambers. In the next room, they discovered a white marble statue with red veins in a northern alcove. As soon as Killian got close to it, the dragon’s mouth began to move and it spoke aloud a riddle. Without hesitating, Rykasha spoke the answer aloud, and a secret doorway opened in the western wall.
Going through the doorway, the party was confronted with five marble statues depicting elves that were taller and leaner than normal elves. One alcove was empty, and at the far end of the room was a ten-foot wide pit filled with spikes. Trusting to her training in the monastery, Tai attempted to vault the pit, but stepped wrong at the last moment. She fell into the bed of spikes injuring herself mightily. She stood up in the pit and laid her hands on her wound using a trick learned only recently. When she pulled her hand away, the cut had closed and the bleeding stopped. Her fellow adventurers pulled her out of the pit and tried to devise another approach to getting across the pit. Ideas were mentioned of retrieving a wooden door from a room past, or using rope to secure a hand-over-hand system, but it was finally Alton’s idea that was followed through. Alton focused his mind, calling on Pelor’s might to melt the stone on both sides of the gap together creating a narrow bridge. Once the bridge had finished forming, both he and his fellow halfling Elwyn crossed into the other room to investigate.
Because the bridge was created with a halfling in mind, the bridge was too narrow, and proved too much an obstacle for the rest of the party who fell into the pit of spikes causing heavy abrasions and many curses. While the larger party members were busy falling into the pit of spikes, Elwyn and Alton were busy investigating the room on the other side. They found a white marble statue depicting an elf holding a weapon barring entrance further into the room. Upon closer inspection, they found that the statue had been moving at some point long ago, but was crumbled beyond repair. They skirted the crumbling sentry and began investigating the rest of the room. After a couple moments, the rest of the party entered the room behind them and they all spread out to examine the room’s contents. What they found was at one point a highly decorated room with a single casket inside. Wanting to know what was inside, Elwyn opened up the clasps, and Rykasha slid the lid off with her hands. As soon as the lid was removed a powerful creature leapt up at her and latched on with it’s rotten teeth. Momentarily shocked, she quickly regained her composure and struck out at the beast with her free hand. The beast, which appeared to be a decayed form of humanoid, released her hand and began to attacking randomly at anyone that came within a few feet of the beast. After a few minutes, the combined might of the adventurers proved to be too much for the creature, and it fell to the ground. As our heroes were inspecting the body, they saw the wounds caused by their weapons begin to close up.
Alarmed now that the beast may attack again, Rykasha ordered it’s head chopped off, but even that did not slow down the beasts regenerative powers. Not wanting a second encounter with the beast, Rykasha picked up the thing and laid it into the coffin while Elwyn quickly re-sealed the latches. The sound of the beast thrashing within stopped after a few minutes, and the room became as quiet as a tomb.
Regrouping in the chamber with the crystals, they slept for the night with the intentions to travel through the unexplored sections of the citadel the next morning.
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