A Clue is Given

"Lets try the south doorway first," Fanara suggested.

Jorgen moved to the double doors and tried the keys that he had.  The same key that worked on the other two doors in this chamber opened these doors also.  The doors opened into another passageway that led south, southwest to another arch that clearly resembled the other teleportation arches the party had used before.

"We should try the other doors before going through this arch," Casia suggested.

Again Jorgen tried the keys on the locked doors and found the same key opened these doors also.  This doorway led to another passageway that headed west and then quickly climbed to the south.

"Everyone stay back there is a trap here," Jorgen exclaimed.

Fanara and Santrel moved forward as Jorgen stated there was a rune carved upon the steps.  It was identified as a Greater Glyph of Warding.  The rune identified life, but the glyph held the spell Slay Living.

Debate followed on how to press on from here.  Finally Amadeo suggested using his Serpentine owl figurine.  The owl came to life and flew over the rune, falling to the floor and reverting to the figurine.  Santrel determined that the glyph was still active.

"Maybe we should go another way, slay living seems awfully dangerous," Casia suggested.

"Okay, we have the teleportation arch down the other hallway," Amadeo said.

And so the party headed in that direction and stepped through the arch.  They found themselves in another tunnel, with a door behind them engraves with the image of a hunched and withered crone.

"I've been here before," Jorgen informed the group. "This leads to another set of standing stones."

Sure enough the when following the hallway entered a chamber they recognized.  The ceiling of the broad natural cavern arced upward, forming a narrow crown high above the cavern floor. In the center of the cave stood a ring of worn, moss-covered menhirs, their inward faces carved with mystic symbols. Jorgen moved into the chamber circling the standing stones while Fanara and Santrel attempted to determine the use of the stones. As best they could determine by using some magic it was possible to see outside the eyes of the carved mother on the mesa and possibly move the whole figure.

Just as they were finishing up their analysis a woman appeared among the party.  A tall and handsome woman who was visibly pregnant and nearly naked, wearing only a cloak trimmed with raven feathers, she certainly was related to the maiden and crone the party had already met.

"You should not have let Marislova out of her prison," she scolded the party in a motherly fashion. "She was being held for her transgressions."

"What did she do to offend you?" Fanara queried.

"Why she was gallivanting with that nymph Kyrisjana, slut that she is."

"I think you should be a little forgiving with Marislova, that nymph will lie with anyone."

"I know she already has several offspring, such as they are."

"Enough of this small talk, what are you after in these monuments?"

"As we said we are on a mission from the Black Rider to find Baba Yaga. Maybe she is in trouble or such as she was supposed to return. At least according the the Black Rider, apparently her daughter, Elvana, is attempting a coup."

"Good luck in your quest, I cannot help you with any specifics of Artrosa but you have done quite well for yourselves."

At that she popped out of the room. Again the party was frustrated in their attempts to determine the purpose of their visit to Artrosa.  Fanara was certain they needed to find the keys to Yaga's hut.  She surmised that would allow them to move the hut once again.  Casia was less certain and asked what the keys could be.

Santrel was studying the standing stones and trying to further decipher the runes when another woman appeared from thin air. Grisly fetishes and the rags of once fine clothes hung off the corpse-thin frame of the horrifying, sharp-fanged crone. 

"Are you really searching for Baba Yaga?" she asked in a raspy voice.

"Yes, we have been tasked by the Black Rider to find the hut and then to find Baba Yaga," Casia responded. "Who might you be?"

"Is the Black Rider dead?" the hag asked.  "Oh, I am Nostafa."

"Nostafa, yes the Black Rider died and passed his mantle to us," Fanara answered this time.

"What about the Red and White Riders?"

"We found their bodies hung from the fence surrounding the hut in Whitethrone," Santrel responded.

"In that case I have something from Baba Yaga that I was to give to a Rider if need be," Nostafa said pulling out a stoppered bottle from her rags.  She offered it to the party, "Baba Yaga ordered me to pass this on. I do not know what it is."

"Thank you, we think," Casia replied.

"I hope you find what you need," Nostafa said then cast a spell and disappeared.

 Fanara and Santrel both indicated that the bottle was magic.  Casia gave the bottle to Santrel and he indicated it was a Bottle of Messages.

"Lets hear what it says, " Fanara said excitedly.

Slowly Santrel pulled the cork free and a old, raspy, stern voice was heard.

"If you hear these words, my own blood has betrayed me. Jadrenka has one key; the other lies in the Eon Pit. Follow my trail!"

"Is the Eon Pit the big hole in the floor?" Casia asked.

"I believe it is," Fanara said. "But I do not want to go there yet.  We need to find something to get 'time on our side' as the Crone said."

"Where would we find that?" wondered Casia.

"I think we need to explore further."

"We have been here before, lets go back to some doors we did not take." Jorgen suggested.

Since they appeared to be in the Mother, the group headed to the temple area where there was a door that they hadn't opened. Jorgen used one of his multifarious keys to open the door. This led to another tunnel heading up and it ended at a stone door engraved with the image of a hunchbacked crone.  This door was not locked and Jorgen led the party through into a dark hallway, walls engraved with scenes of winter and death.

"Apparently back to the Crone," Milos surmised.

Moving forward the party entered a chamber where a forest of stalactites covered the high ceiling of the enormous cavern. Several stalagmites rose from the floor as well, most with their tops shorn off. Huge 
webs filled the north end of the cavern, and a large, cryptic rune about the length of a grown human was carved into the ground at the south end of the cave where another passage exited.

"I don't really want to explore this room," Jorgen stated.

Five web -wrapped cocoons, each almost 10 feet long, hung from the ceiling among the stalactites. A sixth cocoon lay on the floor near the middle of the cavern. Santrel identified the rune as part of a binding spell, seemingly not just for this room though.

Then from the sixth cocoon, a spider the size of an elephant scuttled toward the party The dark blue arachnid reared up on its six hind legs to raise its barbed and razor-edged front claws. It eyed the party as they decided to march toward the other exit from the chamber. This led to another passage, going down.  A door was noted on the right side but the party continued past it for quite some time before coming to another chamber.

The air was still and rancid at the entrance to the cavern, permeated with the scent of rotting flesh. At first glance, the floor and walls appeared curiously wrinkled, but closer inspection revealed they had been carpeted with some sort of dried flesh. In the center of the chamber, five wooden totem poles held aloft a macabre canopy crafted from an untold number of poorly preserved skins crudely stitched together. The poles supporting the canopy were carved with the leering faces of old women. Each of the carved faces was slightly different, though all are hideous and disfigured, with hooked noses, oversized warts, snaggle-toothed maws, and other exaggerated features.

Inside around the room were four leopards or panthers, skin sloughing off of them in patches. To Fanara they appeared to be zombies of leopards or panthers. Suddenly one began to sniff the air and then the others followed, identifying the areas where the party was.  As the party retreated a high pitched, small, squeaky voice said.

"What is it boys.  Something new for a meal."

The party retreated to the door where a string of lobarian runes surrounded a waning crescent moon carved into the door. None of Jorgen's keys worked in this lock and just as he was going to try and pick the lock Santrel said,

"Translating those characters I get, 'As the seasons of life change, so must we sacrifice our past for the wisdom of our winter years.' Should we continue on?"

"That sounds vaguely about time," Fanara said. "So let's continue."

Jorgen opened the door and found another hall heading down.  At the top of the stairs he saw more faded runes carved across the threshold. Santrel again translated the message.

"Blessed be the path you are about to walk. Cling not to what you were, but only to what you shall become."

"Don't come any further in," Jorgen warned, "There is another rune on the stairs and it is a trap."

Fanara and Santrel moved forward to study the rune, identifying it as a Greater Glyph of Warding with the embedded spell Sands of Time.  This spell ages a creature moving over it.

DM's Notes: The party earned 1,067 XP for this session.