You wake up the next morning feeling much refreshed and take some time to plan your approach to the shrine that defeated you yesterday. You decide to take a similar approach, but with some differences. You all place yourselves in a good viewing position around the gladiator pit while Besh goes down, stepping on the pressure plate to release the clay gladiators. He places himself in the entrance of the tunnel so that only one gladiator can easily get to him and then retreats into his shell. The gladiators march into the pit and start to attack Besh, but this time he is much harder to damage with no soft parts exposed. Meanwhile the rest of you pepper the gladiators with spells and missile weapons, while occassionally Grizz Lee sends a healing spell Besh's way. In this way you are able to kill all of the gladiators one by one. They disappear, but their bronze spears clatter to the ground. You gather the spears up, place them in the hands of the statues and then the pedestal in the main room starts to turn on the spot. An ornate stone cub corkscrews up from a hatch in its top. You have found your second puzzle cube. From there you decide that you should cross over a nearby river by means of a massive fallen log that crosses high above the water. You start to cross wit Trayzeal leading the way when suddenly from up on a raised roadway an old looking Tabaxi leaps, flipping across an open space to the roof of a nearby building and yelling "Ardu o Raisu". Besh and Orvex recognise these Chultan words, but they make no sense. He is yelling "Bag of Nails". As he flips he fires his shortbow, draws another arrow and shoots again. Both of these arrows hit Trayzeal and as well as being severely damaged he feels poison coursing through his veins. He staggers, nearly falling off the log, but makes it to the other side of the river. He is severely hurt. You all race across the log to join battle, but 'Bag of Nails' is nowhere to be seen. Suddenly he appears again flipping out from behind a wall, shooting and then running to another building where he takes a mighty leap and disappears behind another wall. A game of cat and mouse occurs with you chasing him with spells and weapons only for him to appear from elsewhere. At one point he jumps out with sword drawn to finish off Trayzeal, but Grizz Lee sees an opportunity and summons a giant constrictor snake. This snake immediately traps the tibaxi and starts squeezing. You consider sparing his life, but Trayzeal ends that debate with a sword through the tibaxi's chest. His last words (in Chultan) are: "I am honoured to die at your hands. You are worthy adversaries". Trayzeal gathers some of the tibaxi's poison arrows and you look through the nearby deserted buildings to see if you can find a lair. You find it in a basement underneath a house filled with sleeping stirges. There is not much in there that can be used, but it is obvious that the tabaxi had been there for some time. There are tools to make arrows, a pot of stew and many bottles of wax and liquids. You take one small vial that is particularly interesting even though you do not manage to work out what it is and continue onwards. You make your way to a building that looks obviously like a shrine. You approach with great wariness, but soon find that someone has been there before you, defeated some ghasts and taken the puzzle cube that was here. There is a statue to the trickster-god Unkh in this shrine. This worries you as you know that there are red wizards scouring the city looking for the cubes. You approach another shrine, but it is on a huge pillar of land that rises up from the pool of lava at the south of the city. There is no obvious way to cross over the gap so you continue to explore. You make your way further along the edge of the lava pit and explore buildings along the way. You find a building full of vegepygmies, but these do not seem to be a threat, but in another building you are surprised by assassin vines. Trayzeal is almost killed again and it is getting late, so you discuss whether to rest for the night. As you are discussing this there is a sizeable earthquake. Several buildings collapse and you note the lava level rising slightly. You hear a massive roar coming from elsewhere in the city. You head back towards the river and camp the night in a tower that gives a good view of the surroundings. Grizz Lee takes the first watch and notices, far to the north, that there are kobolds going in and out of the shrine of Unkh. They remove the bodies of the ghasts, take them to the river and dump them. Then they cross the log and disappear into the city. The next morning as you are rising and preparing to head out, you see another group crossing over to your side of the river via the log. This time it is a large group consisting of three Chultans, a red wizard and six skeletons. You decide to allow them all to cross to get into range of spells and then ambush them. Trayeal takes sniper position in the tower and the rest of you climb down to the ground floor of the tower. The chultans cross the log, but as the red wizard gets halfway across Trayzeal shoots one of the tabaxi's poisoned arrows into his chest. He flies back, off the log and into the water and his dead body begins floating down the river towards the waterfall. Grizz-Lee runs towards the river. They had discussed whether the wizard would have any puzzle cubes, and Grizz Lee realises that if he goes down the waterfall any puzzlecube will be destroyed in the lava pit below. Orvex casts an hypnotic pattern at the chultans which mesmerizes two of them, and Trayzeal begins shooting at the remaining one. Orvex then casts a fireball at the skeletons, shattering them all. The single chultan who is not hypnotised flees, but it doesn't take long before you hear a cut-off scream. He has obviously run into some other danger. Meanwhile Grizz-Lee has made it to the river and transformed into an octopus. He swims to the red wizard and recovers the body. It does not have a puzzle cube but Orvex is very happy to find that it has a spellbook with quite a few spells he does not know. The body also has a scrap of parchment: It reads: Rue, Devlin has a lead on the Eye of Zaltec! The old goat found an obelisk in the north that marks the entrance to the Tomb of the Nine Gods. The Eye must be within, but the door is magically locked. We think the secret to opening it lies in the holy shrines. We're headed into the ruins to check them out: Gods willing, we'll be back tonight. Ras Nsi's serpent people are on the prowl, so be careful. If you get into trouble, sound the swan horn twice and we'll come running. For the Yellow Banner, Lord Brixton Orvex recognises the name 'The Eye of Zaltec' as a very powerful magical item that has the power to resurrect the ancient dead. The rest of you recognise the name 'Lord Brixton' as the leader of the Company of the Yellow Banner, who had abandoned the crew of the crashed skyship some time ago and had also been employed by your patron to end the death curse. You realise that this means there are three groups looking for puzzle cubes. You, the red wizards, and the Company of the Yellow Banner. Orvex recognises the Chultans, and when he ends the effects of the hypnotism spell on them he is able to convince them to join the group. Their names are Selu and Weshtek and they have no loyalty to the wizards. They are sad that the person paying them is dead but they see opportunity to find treasure if they follow Orvex instead. Orvex agrees to them having an equal share of any treasure found. They tell them of the areas of the city they have explored, but much of it is area that you have already been to. They did find an abandoned campsite with a dirty yellow cloth hanging from a pole and the wizard had recovered the note that had been left there. You decide to continue on. There is a massive palace complex nearby, but you decide to skirt around it and you stumble upon another shrine. A pair of needlelike columns mark the entrance to a walled ruin. In the courtyard beyond, banyan roots envelop a squat building. The stone doors that seal the entrance are carved with images of snarling bears with long, sharp claws. A plaque above the shrine's entrance bears the following message in Old Omuan: "Obo'laka teaches us to tread warily and stay in the light." You push open the doors which screech loudly as you do so and look into a corridor. The walls of this dark corridor are covered with painted reliefs showing Omuan people hunting, harvesting fruit, planting crops, crafting weapons, feasting, fighting, weaving, and skinning animals. Eight empty torch brackets protrude from the walls under the reliefs. But there are no torches to be seen. You all enter the corridor, but Grizz Lee tarries behind, looking at the Banyan roots. Suddenly four small creatures drop from the trees above him and cling to the obelisks. He recognises them as Zorbos - also known as drop-bears - creatures that take on the characteristics of whatever they are touching. They attack him but he is easily able to avoid them. You enter the shrine and navigate the puzzles and traps. In the shrine is the Red Wizard, Voj, who has been petrified. When you solve the puzzle he starts to slowly change back to flesh. Before he animates fully you run him through with a sword and then take his equipment. You also retrieve Obo'laka's puzzle cube You make your way around the outside of the palace walls and arrive at the edge of the water that has flooded part of the city. Nearby you see another shrine. Monoliths adorned with prancing, frog-like figures rise from the swamp. Beyond, a ruined edifice shaped like an arrowhead squats in the muddy water. Bushes and trees grow from its roof. At the pointed front of the building, steps ascend to a stone door caked in slime. The shrine seems to be defended by a small army of grung who attack you as you approach, but ducking around the side you are able to isolate their leader and attack him. He surrenders, but then is killed by one of his followers for the weakness he has shown. This new king has seen your power though and declares you friends of King GRAAARK. He then takes you into the shrine where you manage to open a locked door and retrieve Nangnang's puzzle cube. You then return to dry land and find a space to camp the night.
