Tesseryn once again finds herself distracted from the cornered elf.  She does well to hide her amusement at Brindle's predicament, but sees the opportunity for herself to be rid of the distasteful belt.  "You seem to have the knack of it Brindle.  I shall gift the golden bowl to the one who can remove mine also!"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:16, Thu 27 Dec 2018.

Brindle fished out his silk rope and cut off a length to serve as a belt while he checked the belt Samalgidacion had given him. Then he tried to unfasten Tesseryn’s belt for her. Whether that succeeds or not he will then cast Detect Magic to examine both belts. That will take a few rounds to learn all he can about them.

“I have prepared spells to Identify the magical properties of an item, or to Dispel Magic which might allow the magic to be suppressed for a short time. When I know more about its magic we can decide whether that would work or not.” He explained to Tesseryn.

"Basic magic suppression really isn't enough for cursed objects," Leisha points out.  "Which is certainly what it looks like to me, I'm afraid.  Maybe the gnomes would have something or someone that can help?"

"Oh, the 'together we will drench this world in blood!' form." Aurion replies casually to Omphalos, "Probably a tad more than a taint, I'd say." He watches the doorway opening in wall beside him. "But I do agree, one sword is as good as another." While Tesseryn is distracted with accessories, he slips through the entrance to Mitra's tomb and out of sight.

While Tesseryn, Brindle and Leisha earnestly discuss the Paladin's belt, Aurion enters Mitra's tomb.

The Halfling, his own pants now supported by a length of silk rope does his best to remove Tesseryn's belt, while Wrukaog and Cogwitz look on with much amusement, but he too fails, even with the prize of the now non-evil golden bowl dangled as an incentive.

Thwarted but undaunted, Brindle casts a simple spell upon both the dragon-buckled belt he was given by Samalgidacion and the Paladin's grinning goblin affair.

"Your belt has Transformation Aura of Moderate strength. That's about the same strength of magic as Aurion or I could cast. It is clearly a cursed item since it can't be removed. I'm not sure what sort of change that Transformation aura relates to but, well, one change in you is quite apparent. I have heard of a cursed item that changes the gender of the person wearing it, so I wonder whether that might be what this is? Can you tell us what happened when you went in there and when you changed back into a woman, Tesseryn?"

While he talks Brindle calmly puts his dragon-buckled belt back on and returns the length of silk rope to his backpack.

Grinning like the cat that got the cream, Aurion_ emerges from Mitra's tomb holding a glass sword. "Lord Mitra also agreed, one sword for another. If our paladin still wishes to break something useful, I'm sure He'd agree to swapping swords once more." He weighs the glass sword across his long finger, testing its balance. "Brindle, while you have that divination running, would you mind testing this?"

Brindle is only too happy to oblige and turns his attention to Aurion's new toy.

OOC: Continue scanning with Detect Magic.

"Ah!"  Tesseryn exclaims as the penny drops.  She looks from Brindle to Leisha, her mind running with their speculation on the cursed belt.  "It does sound far-fetched, my friends, but that would fit the facts.  I see no reason that I should have appeared as a man other than a prank from Grum Gog. That could account for the first cursed belt.  Perhaps Samalgidaceon handed me a second cursed belt, reversing the effect of the first!  Such a thing would sound unlikely by chance, but perhaps the gods watching over us are not only those we choose to follow."  She glances suspiciously towards the ceiling.  "If this is what happened then I see no reason why the second belt apparently had no effect until now ... except that within the Heart of Law all falsehood is stripped away."

She ponders the puzzle as she buckles on her shortsword and pouch and settles the goblin-faced belt comfortably about her metal-plated waist.  Remembering Leisha's suggestion, she raises an eyebrow and smiles, "I don't think we need to trouble the gnomes with removing this belt."

Her musings are interrupted by Aurion's reappearance.  She chuckles when she recognises the glass sword and realises what he has done.  "Oh ho!  So our dispute has been settled by a higher court.  That is a most satisfactory outcome, Aurion.  I have no doubt Lord Mitra will prevent that evil blade from doing any harm."  She points towards the glass sword and grins.  "And should that toy ever decide to run amok it should prove easier to break than the first."

She takes the remedied golden bowl from the Naga.  "Thank you again Omphalos for your wise councel."

"Wrukaog, would you be so kind as to carry this treasure also?"  If he agrees she will stow the bowl in Wrukaog's pack.

"Do I look like a carking packhorse?" Wrukaog responds indignantly. "Carry it yourself... no, alright, I'll carry it. But if we get split up after this is all over then I get to keep what I'm carrying, right?"

Despite the old maxim that two curses do not a blessing make, Tesseryn is not displeased by the changes in her circumstances, and positively pleased at Aurion's exchange of weaponry.

At the Elf's request, Brindle turns his mystical talents to an examination of the glass sword, while the Paladin and Wrukaog discuss the transporting of the no-longer-evil golden bowl.

"Your glass sword has a transformation aura of moderate strength," Brindle tells Aurion. "But look at this glass blade. It has the nicks and scratches that you would expect to see on a well-used steel blade but if this was ordinary glass any one of those nicks should have shattered the blade. I believe this weapon was made with a particular spell that imbued glass objects with the properties of steel. The secret of that spell has been lost for some time, which makes this a rather special item now."

"Ah, ancient and mysterious, my favourite type of sword. I'll have to be sure not to get blood all over it." Aurion sheathes the sword and it disappears somewhere within his blue and silver robe.  His snakes can be glimpsed as squirming lumps within the voluminous folds, their exploratory hisses sounding somewhat less than enthusiastic about this new addition.

"We should get on with it. I believe we must head towards the fourth level below, and presumably that means getting past Samalgidaceon." He looks towards the others. "Do you think we should explore any more of the unopened doors on this level before we venture down?

"I don't fancy any more exploring up here. We know we need to go down to the lower levels," Brindle responds. "However, I do have an Identify spell prepared if you would like me to investigate that glass sword more thoroughly before we go. That would take an hour but it might be worthwhile understanding the properties of the weapon and how to use them. Unless someone else has another item that should be identified first?"

"Thank you for the offer, master Thistlefoot, and much as I'd enjoy watching you swallow the fish..." Aurion grins, "I'm sure this sword is far less interesting than the first. Save your spell for the next wand I find."

"Let us be on our way then."  Tesseryn leads off through the southern exit from Omphalos' room, but stops abruptly at the doorway and turns back, now as a man again.  He frowns and retraces his steps to Omphalos' room, and then to the Heart of Law.  Tesseryn emerges once again as a woman.  "Proximity to the Heart of Law?" she speculates.  With a resigned shrug she turns and heads south again, becoming a man as she leaves the room.  "The armour fits better." he observes to Wrukaog with a wry smile.

Tesseryn briefly glances toward the corpses laid in the shrine to the west.  "That room has healing properties.  A ghoul scratch was healed when I entered there yesterday.  I doubt it will do much for the slain villagers, but the air is fresher in here." .

He leads on through the first level passages, intending to pass through the despoiled chapel of Set and then east to the gargoyle tunnel which should lead directly to the second level.  "Does anyone wish to speak with those ridiculous doors again?"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:32, Sat 12 Jan 2019.

"If you would seek the lower levels," Omphalos suggests, seemingly not at all perturbed by the changes Tesseryn is going through, "I believe there is a stairway leading down from the chamber at the end of the east passage that runs from the room just south of here."

"If it has not been sealed or collapsed.  Though I know not what perils might lie beyond - it has been many years since I ventured beyond these chambers whose guardianship has been placed in my charge."

"Ah!  That settles it.  Thank you Omphalos.  With luck we can bypass those annoying doors altogether."  He shoots a speculative glance in Leisha's direction to see if she agrees, knowing that she alone found them amusing.  He hurries off in the direction suggested.

"Keep a sharp eye out for invisible goats." he suggests wisely.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:14, Sat 12 Jan 2019.

Aurion moves off towards that far staircase, not the first in line but not the last either. He keeps his wits about him but his hands empty, save for the tickling kisses of forked tongues now and then.

Wrukaog grunts in satisfaction.

"It's about carking time. I was beginning to think you were going to stand here all day just talking and never make a carking decision. Maybe we will still have time to find something to fight before we all get too frakking tired to even stay awake!"

He waits for Brindle, Cogwitz and Leisha to follow Tesseryn and Aurion out before he follows at the end of the line, still carrying the silver statue, Tessey Junior, under one arm and his greataxe in the other hand.

Taking your leave of Omphalos, you follow his suggestion, taking the south corridor out of his chamber, to find yourself back in the cesspit.  Though Tesseryn earlier removed the remains of recognisable bodies, the place was but marginally improved by so doing, and you all hold your breath until you regain the narrow corridor to the east.

Trailing along in the single file which is all the width of the passage permits, you pass through a small chamber littered with the bones of the skeletons you slew and the mirror you shattered, continuing east down the corridor on the wall opposite, perhaps forty feet till it opens up into a large rectangular room, perhaps thirty feet wide and sixty feet long, bare of all furnishings, but with another passage leading north, the hint of a stairway descending to the west and an army of undead, whose serried ranks perhaps explain the lack of furniture and other appointments for there's scarce room to swing a greataxe in there !

A blessedly quick headcount indicates about thirty skeletons, three of whom are adorned in platemail, the rest in tattered rags that resemble the garb of merchants, and eight zombies four of whom are rather fresh looking as if but recently raised to unlife.

All have sturdy broadswords.  None, as yet, seem to have noticed your arrival, though given their undead state, perhaps it's just that they don't really care.

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

"Well, I could stick them where they are with a Web spell..." Aurion ventures an opinion. "Anyone have a better idea?"

Brindle looks at Aurion and grins.

"Great minds think alike! I was thinking exactly the same thing. I have a web spell prepared too. Do you want me to do it and save yours in case we need it later?"

Leisha does, indeed, pout a little at the prospect of avoiding her new friends Sydni and Hargrove, but follows along without sulking overmuch.

"I'm rarely one to decline a good webbing," she notes, "But don't we have to get through there, too? Unless we wanted to go another way," she supposes.  "I can think of at least one door we haven't tried yet," she notes, standing up on her tip-toes to try to send a teasing grin down towards Tesseryn in the narrow passage.

Much as he would enjoy cutting down the whole field of bones, he is eager to press forward to the lower levels without further delay.  And these mindless wretches don't seem to be going anywhere... "Please proceed." Tesseryn gestures for Brindle to advance.

He raises a hand in reply and smiles bemusedly in reply to Leisha's suggestion. "We'll cut through to the stairs soon enough, but there should be time for you to reconnoitre that door if you wish."