As Alex's servants took care of wagons and horses, the heroes returned to to the Lyceum.

Back inside, the heroes were able to retrace their steps through a D-shaped room filled with onyx colored benches facing a lectern, behind which was a secret passage, through a corridor to a large room with a domed ceiling supported by pillars and a huge statue, hiding another hidden passageway downstairs.

But they pressed on and through a dining room, that just like the two previous times they'd past through here no one had cleaned up since breakfast. And then they were back to where they had fought the last group of draconians. Several groups really.

And then turning right. As it had been everywhere else, the floor was light marble. The walls were masonry and most walls so far hadn't been. They could see one door in each wall before the corridor turned a corner to their left.

"Eenie, meenie, miney, moe."  Olven looks at the two doors, and then moves to the door on the right.  "Get ready, guys," he says, and with spear in right hand, his shield on his left arm, he opens the door.

OOC:  Open the righthand door.  Spear in right hand, shield on left arm.

Like all the previous doors, the handle, in the shape of a hand, grabbed hold of Olven's hand as he started opening the door and didn't let go until the door was fully open.

Inside was nothing but a room that probably hadn't been cleaned in quite a long time. It was about 25 by 25 feet in size. Half of the left wall and half of the far wall were hewn stone, while the rest were the same masonry walls as outside the door.

Des moved in slowly, looking around for anything useful or noteworthy.

"Doesn't look like much is in here," he said. "Shall we move on?"

17:11, Today: Desidras Rak-Mahl rolled 7 using 3d6. Scrounging 12.

GM passing a message

Jeram nodded as he wandered through the place, sticking close by his allies and friends.

Alex wandered through, following his companions.

The heroes opened the door on the other side of the corridor, but the room beyond the door was just as exciting as the previous room, not at all. Nothing to see here either.

Frowning, Olven says, "It looks like these two rooms are empty.  Let's press on, then."  He walks toward the corner and looks down the hall that turns to the left.

Around the corner, the corridor soon turns right. And around that corner, there were two doors in the left wall and a corridor between them leading to the right.

Olven takes a moment to scan the room.  "Doors, doors, and more doors," he says quietly, and then steps up to the door on the left, tugging it open.

This room was as big as the previous two rooms and slightly more exiting. In the center of the room, on a small stand a crystal globe was resting at about chest height and dark purple lights twisted upon themselves within the globe.

D'aden eyes the stand in the center of the room warily. His trepidation such that he doesn't pass through the door. Standing at the threshold, he exclaims, "My mom always said 'only fools and wizards mess with orbs'."
"Then she'ld make me put down the snowball and get back to chopping wood."

"Your mother was a font of wisdom," Olven says, keeping well away from the sphere.  "What's the safest way to get that thing out?"

Alexander looked into the room, "I guess that's my cue, eh?" He began chanting in an arcane language.

The globe lifted from the stand and floated slowly, but surely, towards the heroes.

[Alex spends 2FP]

Spear in his hand, Olven takes a few steps back.  "Uh, is that safe?" he asks.  Whatever was in the orb, he didn't like not knowing what it was.  "Have you ever seen anything like it before?  Is it some kind of trap, or something beneficial?"

"I have no knowledge of this," said Des. He eyed the object warily, pacing the room around it and looking for anything else unique.

Frowning, Olven keeps away from the object.  "Well, let's pop it in a sack or something.  We can figure out what it does later, I guess."

Jeram involuntarily raised his shield to ensure that if it moved towards him it would crash harmlessly upon his defence.

He looked at the others and offered a small shrug, indicating his equal ignorance. "Careful, though... it might explode..." he offered

Alex caught the orb as it floated towards him and put it in his backpack. "Well, there's no trap involved in picking it up off the stand at any rate. Shall we go explore the rest of the room now?"

As soon as Alex touched the orb, the purple light writhed out of the crystal, rising higher and higher. Flashes of lightning ran through its tendrils. The light folded upon itself suddenly and with thunderous crashes formed into the figure of a huge dragon highlord mask.

And the mask started to speak: "I, Rugoheras, have sealed myself within the holy place. I shall emerge only when I escort the Queen beside me, and only then will I respond to your need. Speak your need and location and I shall contact you at my pleasure."


[OOC: This occurs before Alex places it in his backpack, so the orb is still in his hands.]

"By the gods!"  Olven takes a step back, expecting to be attacked by the form that appears from the orb.  A dragon highlord?  This wasn't good, not at all.

"Let's take the orb back to the queen.  She can decide what to do," he says, though he doubts that Rugoheras is referring to the Queen of Kalaman.

D'aden starts at the apparition, but when he speaks his words are careful and sound lethargic. "I don't think that's a good idea, Olven. If the being sealed in the holy place can hear someone speaking to the orb, it's possible the being can influence someone listening to the orb. I don't think I want them to notice me, in any case."