Wandering through the forest in the late afternoon, the party is still feeling the effects of the harsh sun, but both Raenerys and Gaia seem to be unaffected. Miryks keeps an eye out the path following the captured crew, and finds some aloe plants that she uses to soothe some of the sunburn on those affected.
When darkness creeps in over the forest, the party realizes they cannot continue without risking detection, so they find a quiet secluded spot a bit away from the trail where they can try to get some sleep. Raenerys and Quill both still have their rations, while Miryks takes a quick stroll around, finding some berries and mushrooms to eat. Gaia apparently doesn’t need food, so they theorize that she probably photosynthesizes like a tree.
During the night they all keep watch, and at one point they spot torchlight nearby, but they decide against approaching and confronting them, letting them pass by in peace. They hear two voices, but it’s too low and too far away to hear what they are saying. They eventually disappear into the night, leaving the party undiscovered.
The party has a hard time sleeping, as the ground is hard, the night is cold, and the local bugs are feasting on them, so they wake up in the morning exhausted and miserable. They have a hard time picking up the trail, so Miryks asks the grass once more where the pyramids are, but the grass doesn’t know about any hurt prisoners, so the party worries that they might already have been killed. They decide to head to the pyramids anyway, hoping to learn something. On the way, Miryks finds some plants that might work as an improvised bug-repellent. Raenerys, Quill and Miryks rub it onto their face and arms, but something feels… off. They don’t manage to put their finger on what’s wrong, but something is wrong. They shake off the feeling, continuing towards the pyramids.
They walk for a couple of hours, trying to head in the right direction, but it’s difficult, considering the canopy is blocking the sun, making it hard to judge the right direction, but they eventually hear movements in front of them. They quickly hide, seeing six or seven members of whoever is pursuing them walk past; a few gnolls, one lizardfolk and a couple of goblins, all dressed in primitive clothing and wearing warpaint. It doesn’t seem like they’ve been walking for long, and they are apparently in good spirits, so they must be close to their camp. After they have safely passed by, they continue in the general direction the tribal members came from.
𐡸
Finally they see the end of the jungle, and they emerge onto a rocky cliff edge which stretches left and right seemingly across the entire island, as they can see the ocean on both sides. In front of them, right next to the cliff edge is a large, 100 feet tall pyramid. On top of it is a table that seems to be coated in blood, both old and new. The party immediately worries about the crew's wellbeing.
Not wanting to be discovered, Quill casts a blanket of fog, allowing them to get closer to the pyramid. The whole plateau is scattered with large boulders, but it’s best to be on the safe side. As they get closer to the pyramid, seemingly undiscovered, they hear some sounds coming from a nearby tent. It appears to be someone chopping up something wet and hard. Not wanting to imagine what goes on inside the tent, they start to examine the pyramid, while also looking around for any sign of the crew. Strung across the chasm there are several cages made of what appears to be bone. The closest cage has a couple of ribbets which aren’t moving, but Gaia and Miryks spots another cage which has a katari, a drow, a dwarf and a galapa in it. They seem to be alive. About a mile away, on the cliff, there is a large village of huts and tents, the home of the tribe pursuing them.
Quill and Raenerys try to examine the pyramid itself, finding what appears to be a door of some sort, but it doesn’t appear to have been opened in a long time. There are some writings on the door, above a relief of some elves looking up at a blacked out sun. Quill quickly deduces that the writing is an old drow dialect, and tries to translate it, taking a rubbing of the text to have it on hand.
Suddenly, they hear movement and voices coming from the tent. Gaia and Miryks quickly jump over the edge of the cliff, using their magic to keep them from falling down, trying their best to hide, while Raenerys runs to a nearby rock, trying to get out of sight. She notices that Quill is completely distracted by the text, and so quickly runs back, grabbing Quill, and they just barely manage to hide in time before a couple of tribal members appear around the corner.
The tribal members walk over to the cliff's edge, throwing something off it. Gaia and Miryks who are beneath the cliff can see various body parts and clothing falling to the jungle far below, the discards of whoever was unfortunate enough to encounter the tribe. Raenerys and Quill take a chance, peeking over the edge of the boulder they’re hiding behind, seeing two gnolls and a lizardfolk shaman walking back towards their tents, but they’re suddenly distracted by the door. It appears the party’s attempt at examining it has alerted the tribe that some have disturbed it, so the shaman sends one of the gnolls running, and then returns to their tent.
Miryks emerges from the cliff edge, rejoining Raenerys and Quill who immediately starts working on deciphering the text, hoping it’s some sort of riddle or something. Miryks examines the door, finding no way to open it, agreeing that there must be some sort of word or phrase to be spoken to open it. Gaia remains near the cliff edge, keeping watch over the village to see if there is any movement. The lone gnoll runs towards it, and after a few minutes a large group is making their way over towards the pyramid. Gaia returns to the others, just as Quill and Raenerys figure out the meaning of the text above the door.
“I have no mouth, yet I devour. I have no hands, yet I carve all things. I turn kings into sand and pyramids into dust.”
They quickly realize the keyphrase is, so Raenerys says out loud the old drow word for “Time”, trying her best to enunciate the word to the best of her ability. Luckily, as soon as the word leaves her lips, there is a shifting sound as a mechanism inside the door unlocks, and the door starts sliding down, revealing a dark staircase within. Gaia tells them to hurry inside as the tribe will be here soon, so they quickly enter the darkness. There is a staircase within, and on one of the steps Miryks feels a pressure plate give, causing the door to start closing again, trapping them inside.
𐡸
Trapped in darkness, the party lights their torches to get a clear view of their surroundings. The walls are completely smooth, black like obsidian, and lead down deep below the ground. Miryks takes the lead to check for traps, finding a few more pressure plates that she helps the others avoid, before they reach the bottom.
They enter a small room, which has hallways leading both left and right, but the one to the right seems to have collapsed, and the party realizes that it has probably been closed since the crevasse outside was formed. They check the other hallway, which leads to a large chamber with six sarcophaguses, and a large door leading to another room. Raenerys looks around at the sarcophaguses, seeing what are presumably names of the deceased, as well as an illustration of them on the lid. She leaves them alone, as the party turns their attention to the large door.
The door seems to have no obvious way to open it, with no handle, keyhole or levers. Looking closely however, there appears to have been smeared something on it at some point. Raenerys takes out her dagger, slicing up her hand, smearing her blood on the door. Suddenly, all the sarcophaguses around them, one by one, have their lids pop off, as the undead resting within has awoken. Quill, being spooked by this, suddenly catches fire.
Six zombies move towards them, two of them larger and stronger than the rest, but at the same time slower. The party takes their defensive positions. They look at Quill, who appears to be fine, albeit fully engulfed by flames, so they assume she’s at least part emberkin. The zombies move towards the literal beacon, attacking her, but are burned in return. Gaia takes flight and fires beams of divine energy at the zombies, while Miryks takes on the form of a wolf to fight back.
Raenerys is targeted by one of the larger zombies, who grabs hold of her and starts to bite her neck. In return, she stabs it several times with her dagger before she accidentally uses some more of her newfound magic, much to her surprise. Suddenly, she’s covered in blood and guts from the zombie, as Gaia cleaves her ax clean through it. As the last zombie falls the door slowly creaks open. Raenerys enters the room to examine it while the rest of the party checks the sarcophaguses for any valuables, finding some gold.
In the other room, Raenerys is staring at a shimmering shard of glass, hovering above a pedestal. She deduces by the way the light moves that it is an arcane prism, which can enhance and focus their magic. She takes it, pocketing it. The room has engravings on the wall of the island they’re on, with seven distinct pyramids, all beneath the mountain. The group deduces that the other six probably now rest at the bottom of the crevasse.
𐡸
Seeing as it is a dead end, the party now decides to try to help the crew. Not wanting to be ambushed by the tribe, they move back to the collapsed hallway to see if they might be able to get out that way. Miryks takes on the form of a small spider, allowing her to try to climb through the rubble, while the rest of the party takes a short rest, waiting for her.
After some trial and error, Miryks manages to climb through the rubble, emerging on the outside. She climbs up the wall, looking over the edge, seeing five gnolls trying to break through the door with some primitive tools, while the lizardfolk shaman observes. Other gnolls and goblins are patrolling the area, looking for them. Not wanting to be discovered, she Miryks returns through the collapsed hallway to the rest of the party.
Meanwhile, Gaia uses some of the sap from her body to heal Quill. She glances over at Raenerys, and cannot help but notice that she doesn’t appear to have any wounds or cuts on her skin, even though she was clearly wounded in the fight with the zombies. Eventually, Miryks joins them, telling the others about the situation outside, joining them in their rest.
They decide they have to try to clear the hallway, so they begin moving rocks however they can. Miryks beastforms into a strong wolf, helping them pull away the bigger rocks, while Quill uses her magic hand to help remove rubble. Gaia, being the strongest in the party, does a lot of the work, while Raenerys helps with the smallest rocks.
Eventually, after a lot of hard work, they break through, and realize they have worked throughout all day and evening, emerging in the pale moonlight. They peer outside, seeing a couple of gnolls patrolling the other side, and a few more walking across the walkways holding torches, but there aren’t too many of them. Gaia, who can fly, picks up Miryks who have taken the form of a mouse, while holding on to Quill, carrying her into the night, leaving Raenerys behind. They manage to make their way across the chasm undetected, so she drops them off to fetch Raenerys.
As Gaia returns, she gives Raenerys a look. Raenerys asks what the problem is, but Gaia just shakes her head, telling her “maybe you can tell me how you don’t have any scratches from the fight?” before picking her up and flying her across. Raenerys doesn’t answer, too stunned to reply. As they land on the other side, Quill and Miryks both notice the tension between the two, with Quill wondering if it's sexual tension, drawing looks from the rest of the party.
Wanting to not linger for too long, they quickly tie together the ropes they have to make it long enough, with Gaia flying down to the cage with the crew, fastening it on the bars, in order to pull them up. Quill takes position near the closest walkway, ready to cut it if they are discovered.
As Gaia finishes fastening the ropes, she tries to wake the crew, seeing the katari missing a large chunk of her ear, the drow having a nasty gash across her arm and the dwarf being beaten to hell and back. The galapalooks no more worse for wear, but her shell has taken some damage. The katari is the first to awaken, who at first, when seeing Gaia flying in front of her, wonders if she is dead or just going mad. Gaia explains that she’s their figurehead from the ship, and that she doesn’t know why it has happened, but they’re here to rescue them, along with the rest of the passengers. This seems to lift the spirits of the crew, who asks Gaia to hurry. She takes position behind the cage, pushing it, while Raenerys and Miryks both pull on the rope.
Unfortunately, the sentries notice the escape attempt just as the cage reaches the cliff edge, as a horn blares. Dozens of torches are lit on the other side, as most of the tribe starts making their way across the walkway. The sentries on the side the party is on looks around confused, seeing little in the night. Quill elegantly cuts the ropes holding the walkway up, causing three tribal members to plummet to the depths below, before returning to her group. Seeing as they have no other choice, as soon as the crew is released, the whole group makes a run for it, into the jungle, towards the mountain.