October 12th, 2024
Mare, Artis 15th, 1194 (Continued)
We reenter the giant statue room and find it unoccupied. While walking down the next hallway we begin to feel an unveiling effect. At the end of the hallway is a large room with a gate. A single skum is here and he dies swiftly. During the brief combat he chanted something in a language we don’t understand and he stabbed himself.
Afterwards, in an enormous basin, the shul’thar’queth emerges. It retreats after only a few rounds, but not before giving Ty some affliction that is similar to an aboleth’s curse, turning her skin jelly-like. The large basin is actually a portal and we take it to a new, non-aquatic area.
In this area the unveiling effect is stronger and none of our magic functions; after walking about 300ft. down the entry hallway, the magic returns. The ceiling is decorated with a starry motif and the area seems to stay magically clean as well. One of the rooms has a lot of new runes carved onto the walls, this is probably the work of the shul’thar’queth.
As we explore deeper, the runes show up less and there is more Architect writing. Ty’s book is now completely in the Architect language. Farther in the writing disperses and more the motifs are of portals, gates, and water. There is a turquoise stone floating above a basin in a room. It’s pretty large, about the size of a person. Ishtar can tell it is covered in engravings that look like more of the Architect language; the script is so small that it’s probably not meant to be read. We attempt to dislodge is with no success.
While exploring, Sigmund gets a sending from Morgra letting us know she disabled the traps here and to let her know if we plan on resting in this area. We take a short rest with Morgra’s protection (miracle)—She makes a temporary demiplane for us to recuperate.
This used to be the main research facility for the Architects. Originally the they were not evil and more of a gathering of powerful spellcasters. Eventually, some off shoot members started to get into the evil stuff that we know them for.
During our exploration we encounter a group of monks and one wizard. The wizard manages to escape, via invisibility and maybe teleportation effects. There are lots of books and documents in here. We can’t spend the time to peruse them now and will have to return.