"Let's put money on it, then. I say the statue is ruined, and the ball hardly changes its path, if at all.

50 gold pieces?"

"I accept your Wager Wrukaog," Aurion extends a tattooed hand to shake the orc's clawed paw, "but if you win you'll have to accept my payment in gold dust to go with your crushed silver."

Tesseryn retrieves his greatsword from the doorway.  He looks with disgust at the goblin-faced belt then glares at the greedy giant.  "I do not trust your words, vile creature!  You have altered my belt!"  He flings the belt to the floor at his feet.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:19, Tue 12 Dec 2017.

Wrukaog returns the gesture and shakes Aurion's dainty paw, remarking, "it is not... was not, my silver," and while speaking and shaking he shoves the statue over into the path of the sphere with his other hand, more or less how Aurion described it, the sound of deforming silver clashing against the ground forming the abrupt punctuation of his short sentence.

He then backpedals a bit, getting out of the way of the expected impending destruction of the holy statue of Mitra, "That dust will come in a bag, lest you see me unamused."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:56, Wed 13 Dec 2017.

"Bagged and  ready Master Orc." Aurion ushers everyone back down the passage to the safety of the side passages, just in case the steel ball actually is deflected from its path.

Aurion and Wrukaog ponder the affect the relentless steel ball might have upon the silver statue of Mitra, their musings resulting into a wager as they decide to put their theories to the text.

The statue does indeed bend a little as the Orc positions it across the gently curving passageway and the pair step back, Aurion seeking the safety of the southern passage (after urging Leisha and Cogwitz to do the same), while Wrukaog merely takes a few steps back, both of them confident in their predictions as to the outcome.

Inexorably the ball rolls slowly round ...

... only to reverse the instant it touches the silver statue, rolling back the way it came, leaving the statue unharmed.

Meanwhile, the ridiculously attired and rather larger stone statue in the southern chamber ignores Brindle's questions in his eagerness to lay his hands upon the Paladin's belt, tossing his broom aside (much to Tesseryn's perplexity) as he doffs his hat and snatches up the belt.

However his eagerness visibly fades as he finds himself unchanged.  With a sigh he drops Tesseryn's belt into the upturned hat and puts his hand in, up to the elbow, fishing around a bit before pulling another belt out.

This belt is a broad leather band, plain and unadorned, pleasingly free from the taint of goblin faces.

True to his word, the statue offers the belt to Tesseryn, disappointedly but not reluctantly.

"If you find any other belts I'd be eternally gratef ..." he tells the Paladin, looking over to the doorway and breaking off as he spies Brindle as if for the first time, though obviously not as he finally addresses the Halfling's questions.

"Eh ?  My name is Samalgidacion.  I am ... was a giant.  As I was dying I prayed to the gods to save me.  But Set it was who deigned to answer me ... and you see what a cruel joke he played upon me.  If I find the belt he seeks then he has promised to lift his curse."

Having rattled that off, the statue eyes the Halfling intently.

"Do you have a belt ... ?"

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

"The gods do love their jokes, don't they?" Brindle responded sympathetically. "I only have the plain little belt that came with the entertainer's outfit I'm wearing. I don't mind swapping that for another one if you think that would offer a moment of entertainment for all of us."

Brindle unbuckles the short belt from around his waist, slips his dagger scabbard and spell component pouch off the belt and walks into the room to offer the belt to Samalgidacion.

Wrukaog slowly removes five platinum pieces from a pouch on his belt then holds them behind his back, hand open, but remains facing forward.

"Gods be damned."

One eyebrow lifting itself in surprise, Aurion concludes the wager "It's a draw. Neither of us predicted that." He approaches the ball track again. "Would you care to wager what might happen if you were to stand before the ball?"

Tesseryn is perplexed indeed, and remains suspicious of the giant.  With one hand he accepts the offered belt, keeping his sword levelled in the other.  He glances behind to take in the positions of the other party members, and edges a step to the right to offer them a clearer view.  He would ask many questions to cut through this fog of vagary and deception, but settles on just one to definitively determine Samalgidacion's place in the battle betwixt good and evil "Which god did you pray to?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:08, Sat 16 Dec 2017.

The orc turns and nods in silent approval of Aurion's conclusion of the bet, then shakes his head in disapproval of the second question.

The platinum pieces are stowed again.

"Is it the material of the statue or its subject? The javelin did not affect it."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:48, Sun 17 Dec 2017.

"You could try this," Brindle calls to Aurion and Wrukaog. "I have a spare."

He tosses one of the acolytes' amulets down the corridor to Aurion and Wrukaog. The amulet has a stylised lion, the symbol of goodly Mitra, upon its face and the coiled serpent, symbol of the evil god Set on the obverse.

Wrukaog slides the amulet into the Hall with the rolling ball with his foot, Mitra side up, so that it will be reached by the rolling ball before the statue as the ball rolls back around.

Though the Orc and Elf agree that the last test of the ball's crushing ability ended in a draw, Aurion is eager to up the ante, though Wrukaog wisely decides that losing both coin and life on the same wager is a mug's game.

Overhearing them, Brindle comes up with a solution, tossing one of the acolyte's amulets over which the Orc positions in the corridor.

The ball rolls around again, right over the amulet, only to reverse direction as it reaches the statue of Mitra, running back over the amulet as it does so.  The amulet is now very much thinner and has a nice curve to it, shaped to the groove in the floor.

Back in the other chamber, Samalgidacion eagerly takes Brindle's belt ... but once more his disappointment is evident as he remains as he was.

Shaking his head sadly he drops the Halfling's belt into his hat, then reaches into its depths and pulls out another, fashioned of leather braids and with a rather ornate buckle in the form of a dragon, which he hands to Brinde, all under Tesseryn's watchful gaze.

"H'mm ?"  The statue ponders the Paladin's question.  "Oh, I prayed to whatever god would save me ... I wasn't fussy at that moment - figured I had nothing to lose !  I suppose this is better than death ..." he doesn't sound exactly certain on that score.

"Don't suppose either of you have another belt ?"  He's nothing if not hopeful.

The orc chuckles a bit, or what kind of grunting might pass for it, at the sight of the medallion being smashed flat.

"Alright, arcanist. What would you do next, if anything?"

Wrukaog stands the statue back upright, but leaves it in the corridor with the ball.

Brindle accepts the belt from Samalgidacion, fastens his dagger and belt pouch onto it and buckles it around his waist.

"Very Nice! I like it. Sorry, Samalgidacion, that was the only belt I had. Say, have you explored very far around here yet? Can you tell us about that pit over there, or what lies beyond those other doors in this chamber, or down the foggy corridor out there, or is there anything interesting once you get past the rolling ball out there?" he asked the giant statue.

Tesseryn lowers his sword and releases a slow breath  ."You seek the same belt we do.  If we were to find it, we would not give it to you to hand over to Set, our enemy.  Yet I know what it is to be the victim of a cruel jest of the gods.  Who were you before you were altered thus?  And can you aid us in our search." He nods toward Brindle indicating the giant should answer his questions as well.

Aurion retrieves the flattened metal, his snakes appearing from a sleeve to taste the metal with their forked tongues before he flips it back to Brindle. "So far only the silver statue <studiously avoiding any further utterance of its OOC name> is known to be effective in changing the balls direction. And it mattered not that the statue was lying down. Working with that, could the statue be made to touch both sides of the ball? Could you bend it into a horseshoe shape and trap the ball between the two sides?"

Wrukaog frowns at what seems to him as such a large leap of logic. "Before ruining it so much, maybe we just smash some silver coins into the backside of it, like an extension, to see if the new silver has the same effect as the old connected to it."

"Be my guest." Aurion empties a purse and offers 18sp to the cause.

Wrukaog gets to work gnawing the silver coins into a rough-shod shaft of sorts. He then picks a smallish hole in the back of the statue and unceremoniously jams the shaft into it.

I'm hoping it can be at least 7-8 inches long, if not longer?

If all goes well, he'll twist the statue to where the first point of contact will be the "extension".
This message was last edited by the player at 00:11, Wed 27 Dec 2017.

After a brief but strangely illuminating discussion with Aurion, Wrukaog demonstrates his metal-working skills, bending the coins the Elf proffers into odd shapes with teeth and, more effectively, axe, swiftly producing a short silver shaft of such fine craftsmanship that ... well, it basically falls apart at the slightest provocation.  Such as glancing in its direction.

Eventually the pair settle for simply laying the mangled coins in a line running from the statue of Mitra, each one touching the next, in the hope that whatever the statue has going for it will somehow impart itself to them.

The ball comes around once more, crushes the silver coins beneath it into whatever is the next step up from horribly mangled, brushes the statue and reverses direction, again doing more damage to the coins as it runs over them a second time, though to be honest they passed repairable a long, long way back.

In the other chamber, Samalgidacion looks downcast as Brindle denies having any other belts to offer.

"Since Set cursed me, I have never left this room," the giant statue replies, morosely.  "I cannot leave this room.   And I know naught of what lies beyond it.  Though I believe down there," he waves towards the pit, "is where I fell.  I remember rising upwards through a shaft as death claimed me ... only to be trapped here."

The Paladin's words anger the statue, though he manages to control himself.

"Bring me the belt !" he grinds his teeth, unmoved by the Tesseryn's assertion that he know how he feels. "And I shall tell you where my treasure lies hidden !"

Samalgidacion pauses, consider whether or not to answer the Paladin's questions, finally shrugging his shoulders as he relents.

"I was a giant of the cold and ice, my home the frozen mountain tops to the west of the village."

"I ... will help you if I can ... though I cannot leave this room," he reminds Tesseryn.

"Well then, thank you Samalgidacion. We should go and explore some more of this area and see if we can find that belt. I am sure we will see you again later," Brindle told the giant statue.

Brindle went back out to the main corridor to talk to his friends about where they should explore next. He suggested for Tesseryn to close the door to Samalgidacion's chamber as he left.

"I wonder whether that curved wall with the great ball rolling around it could be the outer wall of the tower of Set? I would have expected it to be dark rather than white, but I suppose that could easily be a deception of some kind. We're not near the tower of Mitra now, are we?

"The ball moves slowly enough for us to easily stay ahead of it and Wrukaog can easily move from front to rear of our group with the statue to turn back the ball if we want to stop anywhere. There is at least one other corridor leading off to the north we could explore.

"The foggy corridor to the west is another option but upstairs we were warned to avoid the foggy corridor up there, so I am reluctant to enter this one too.

"Then there are the three other doors leading out of Samalgidacion's chamber. I would wager good money that when we do find the belt we will need to carry it through that chamber. Why else would the giant be confined to that one room if Set wanted him to find the belt? That may very well mean it lies beyond one of those doors, or must eventually be taken to some place through those doors.

"The pit in there sounds like a death trap if it could kill a frost giant, so I don't fancy exploring it if we don't have to.

"I am inclined to explore past the rolling ball first, then through the doors in Samalgidacion's chamber after that. Does anyone else have other suggestions?" he asked everyone.

Tesseryn closes the door and returns to the curved passage.  "I agree with you, Brindle.  Samalgidacion reeks of evil and yet appears earnest.  He may yet be saved if Set's curse can be lifted, or otherwise put to the sword.  Either way I would prefer to deal with him as a last option."  He raises an eyebrow at the dented statue and mangled coins.  "Is it safe to pass this way now?  In this armour I do not run."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:27, Fri 29 Dec 2017.

"Your suggestion is sound, Master Thistlefoot, but if Wrukaog would indulge one further experiment..." From memory, the silver statue has one arm outstretched giving the overall statue something of a 'C' shape. "Lay the statue down on its side beside the grooved track, then slide it at the ball as the ball passes, such that the statue's hand and foot are placed before and behind the ball."