The eastern door opens into a square room with a strange mechanism in the center of the room.



The center of the floor has carved out of it an octagonal shaped indenture, from which a mechanism sticks up out of the ground.  The mechanism consists of a parabolic dish carved and smoothed out of the face of an octagonal block of granite, all mounted inside a framework with eight metal tracks. A large, screwlike device moves the granite block along these tracks. At the front of the tracks, eight rods hold a crystal in place in front of the granite dish. Each crystal pulsates with light.

This diagram shows the mechanism coming horizontally from the wall, but the one in this room comes vertically up from the floor:



Mounted to the western wall next to the door is a set of twelve wheels with numbers painted on them (like an odometer).

Borimer moves back to the previous room and closes the secret door, and then returns to watch the others puzzle over the strange machine.  He clenches and unclenches his hand over the hilt of his sword, until finally pacing back to the winch room.  Borimer places himself where the others are in view from one angle, the secret door from another, and there he keeps watch.

"Should we continue looking for the way out first?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:05, Thu 24 May 2012.

Syrissa says, "This must be all part of the puzzle that Esylia was obsessed with.  Solving it is the exit."

"If she's gone then maybe she figured it out. That would mean it's already set at the right point. If not then she's still here somewhere, right?"

"That's right, I think," Syrissa agrees.

"Then we just need to figure out how to activate it and see if it's at the right number sequence."

Borimer looks at the machine with all of his intellectual might, but to no avail.

"This could take some time..."

You hear a scream from somewhere back where Lumen was at.

"Quick!"

Borimer sprints back through the winch room and out the secret door.  He moves through the room with pillars to the door on the east wall and goes through room 15 to the Crossroads Ark room (16).

OOC: I'm going to hold here to let everyone catch up.

Running back to the Crossroads Ark room, you find that the northern doors are open.  You look through the doors and see across the room.

You are looking north across room 19.

Room 19:
Shattered benches have fallen in rows in this dust-covered chapel. Shelves, now devoid of books, stand against north and south walls. A large, ornate altar stands near the eastern end.  Near the center of the room, there are four statues of warriors in gruesome poses, their heads stricken from their bodies.  They do not look familiar.

However, standing near the northern door, you see two more statues bearing the likenesses of Lumen and the other warrior that followed him through.

The northern door is open, and something rolls in from that room, a round orb that strikes near their feet and stops for a moment before exploding, sending the statue of Lumen and the warrior into shards and rubble.

Syrissa stands next to you.  "Esylia!" she says in a half whispered curse.

You can see a little into room 20.  It appears to have some sort of giant hole in it.

The vial of bluish liquid held by Lumen falls to the ground, undamaged by the explosion.

Borimer moves into the room and towards the vial of blue liquid.  He averts his gaze from anything unnecessary and picks it up, then glances into the room with a hole before going back to his previous spot near the others.

Flint suddenly pops into the room at the globe.

Reaching into his haversack, Kahan pulls out his mirror and, after motioning for everyone else to stand back, carefully walks into the northern room, the mirror held up where his face should be. He looks out from underneath it, watching his step and looking out for any feet in front of him.

OOC: You are in room 16, so when you say "northern," do you mean 19 or 20a?

Borimer runs in, grabs the vial of blue liquid while averting his eyes, looks quickly into the room with the hole (20a), and then runs back to the others near the doorway between 19 and 16.

Syrissa sees what has happened and rushes north.  Edmure is dragged along like a donkey on a rope, nearly tripping over the rubble in room 19.

"Esylia!" she cries out, "It is I, Syrissa.  Your sister.  You must stop this madness."  She will stand at the doorway between 19 and 20a, looking around.

She sees Kahan approaching cautiously and says, "It is an old wives tale that mirrors will protect you.  They only work on lesser gorgons.  When gorgons are as powerful as Esylia and I, mirrors might as well be windows."

Kahan notices near the ruined rubble that used to Lumen that there is an undamaged sack on the floor about the size of a shoe.  It was a small sack that Lumen had been previously carrying.

OOC: I will move slowly here because I want Harak and Flint and everyone the chance to get caught up.  I will assume everyone is in room 16 unless they state otherwise.

I'm caught up.  Harak is in 16 watching the others.

Borimer hands the vial of blue liquid to Kahan and bolts back towards Lumen's remains.  Keeping his eyes averted as much as possible, Borimer grabs the sack and then runs back to the others.

When Borimer is near Lumen's remains and Syrissa, he hears a distant voice calling down, shrill and taunting.  "I SEEEEE YOUU!"  Or was that voice coming from above.  It is difficult to tell where that voice is coming from in the room with the hole.

For those who approached closer, they have seen that there does not only appear to be a hole in the floor but also an identical one in the ceiling.

Syrissa moves north into the room, yelling, "This must stop, Esylia!"  Syrissa is looking around.

Edmure says, "Don't look at her, my dear.  Don't look!"

Borimer ignores the terrible voice and grabs the sack, bolting back to room 16 with all due haste.

Kahan sighs and puts the mirror away, grabbing the vial as Borimer gives it to him. "Esylia, my name is Kahan. You may not trust us, but perhaps we can help you to solve the puzzle of getting out of here." he calls out, careful not to look into the room where Esylia is likely to be, keeping his gaze on the ground, or on the vial of blue liquid.

You hear no response, but Syrissa has no moved completely into the room with Edmure and has not yet turned into stone.  If you had to take a guess, you would say she is now evading you since finding out Syrissa is here.

Kahan turns the vial over in his hands, now that the imminent danger has apparently passed.

Syrissa stands in 20a, looking up and down.  She turns back to you and says, "She's gone.  The question is: 'where has she gone.'"  She again looks up and down at the hole in the ground and the hole in the ceiling.

"Can you see anything down there? Or is there no light? I can cast a spell so we can see if that's the case." Kahan states, slipping the vial into his haversack and retrieving some rope and a grappling hook, tying the rope to the hook and preparing to cast a spell on it if they need it.

I'll make my next post from the perspective of you standing at the doorway to room 20a.  I haven't actually described 20a yet because everyone's been too afraid to look in there for more than a quick glance.

"There was another room beyond some arrow slits, but we never found it. Least not that I can tell. We should find a way to explore it."

Flint looked around "So this is where everyone has gotten off to"  He started walking around asking questions of the others.

(OOC:  going back through the earlier post, figured that was an easy way of getting him up to speed)