March 25, 118
Having defeated the ooze creature, the party pause and catch their breath. Ellyanna's clothes have been ruined, but luckily they are still carrying a set of robes from the Guild of the Twinborn and the robes that the necromancer below Frosthaven was wearing. Worn together they provide her with enough warmth to handle the temperature in the dungeon.
Moving past the remains of the ooze and into the room, they take a closer look at the statues. The first is of a slimy, ooze-like creature that has taken humanoid form. Its features are indistinct and hard to identify. The second, uniquely among the four statues, is made of a jet-black stone with thin veins of purple running through it. The figure it depicts is humanoid, and on its forehead is a stylized purple eye that appears to have been painted on. The third statue is of a humanoid figure wrapped around by a huge snake, which starts at its feet and wraps around its entire body, such that the snake's head is next to the humanoid head.
The fourth statue is the strangest, being a six-legged creature that is somewhat similar in build and proportion to an elephant. It is depicted in a rearing pose, and each of its legs ends in vicious claws. Its skin is covered in scales and two rows of sharp spines run down its back. Finally, its head is disturbingly human-like on the top half, but the bottom half houses two long trunks which each end in fanged mouths.
Kaplan is trained as a stonemason, so he studies the statues and tries to learn anything he can from that perspective. Based on the style and technique of the carving, he is able to say that the statues are quite old; probably around 1000 years. This seems consistent with the rest of the complex. Most are made of normal stone, but he does not recognize the black and purple stone that the second statue is made of.
The rest of the party also inspect the statues, trying to see if they can recognize the depictions or if they know anything about them. Dark Star finds the fourth statue to be vaguely familiar, but cannot put his finger on why. Calanon also recognizes the fourth statue. He recalls reading a book during his education that referred to the "Great Old Ones", a group of legendary god-like beings who are theorized by some to have long preceded the current gods of the world. This particular statue depicts a Great Old One known as Zargon.
The statues don't seem to have any magical or otherwise special properties, so the party decide to rest before continuing on. During this time, Kaplan chisels off a small piece of the black and purple statue, hoping he can get help identifying the stone later. Several others search the rest of the room. Hidden underneath a bit of smashed wood, Feyrith unearths a pair of books - one large and bound in black, and one medium-sized and bound in brown. Neither has a title or any identifying marks, and both are written in High Imperial.
Dark Star is the only person who can read the language, and he identifies the black book as a spellbook and the brown book as a ritual book. He isn't a wizard, so although he understands the language, he cannot really understand the contents of the spellbook. The ritual book he can basically understand, but it hasn't weathered the years particularly well; it is missing many pages and in many spots the ink is faded. He can tell that it pertains to a single, extremely complicated ritual, but would need more time to study it to learn more.
Leaving the room, they head down a nearby passage and eventually find themselves in front of another door. After listening and hearing nothing, they open the door and find another statue-filled room beyond. This room is slightly smaller and contains six humanoid statues, a ritual circle drawn in blood, and the dessicated corpse of a goblin.
The six statues are near identical, with each depicting a robed figure holding out a scroll. Each scroll has a single word written in High Imperial on it; the six words are "POWER", "KNOWLEDGE", "OBEDIENCE", "SECRECY", "FEAR", and "PERSEVERANCE". The third statue ("OBEDIENCE") has been smashed and is lying on the ground, although the word is still legible. Ellyanna compares the black robes that she is wearing to the robes depicted in the statues, and finds that they do seem to be similar in cut and style.
The ritual circle is fairly recent, given the state of the blood using to scribe it, and seems to be a demonic summoning circle. This most likely means that either there is a demonic creature on the loose somewhere nearby, or that this circle was the source of the monstrous ape-creature that they fought previously.
Finally, searching the goblin corpse reveals that it clearly died from a slit throat, and based on the state of the body, it has been dead for only a few days. However, something seems to have sucked the blood out from it, resulting in its dessicated appearance.
The party decide that these statues may be significant and start investigating them. They place one party member in front of each statue, trying to match each person to the word that best suits them. Counting Feyrith, there are seven people and only six statues, but Elvish wants nothing to do with the statues and waits outside. They match Calanon with "POWER", Ellyanna with "KNOWLEDGE", Feyrith with "OBEDIENCE", Ash-Daughter with "SECRECY", Dark Star with "FEAR", and Kaplan with "PERSEVERANCE".
At first nothing happens, but when they each reach out to touch their respective statue, they each feel an effect related to the word on the statue. Calanon feels stronger, Ellyanna feels more knowledgeable, and so on. The only person who feels nothing (apart from Elvish, who isn't in the room) is Feyrith, who is standing in front of the broken statue. It seems to have no effect on her.
Having learned everything they can in this room, the party continue searching the complex. A nearby branch leads them back to the central hallway, where they find several additional crypt rooms. Like the ones they've already found, these rooms are full of alcoves and disturbed coffins, with the coffins' occupants nowhere to be found. They search each room, but find nothing of interest.
In the north-western corner of the complex, the party find themselves in front of a wooden door; above it, they see an inscription written in High Imperial that reads "Speak the Name of the Master". Dark Star says the name "Zargon", while Ellyanna, remembering her studies from back in Vornheim, speaks the name "Duvan". Nothing seems to happen, so they open the door and step in.
The room beyond is dominated by a large pool of water, twenty feet across and two feet deep. At the back of the room, two stone fonts contain a mysterious black liquid, and a black-bladed ritual dagger sits between them. Dark Star picks up the dagger, and immediately starts to feel somewhat uneasy as he holds it.
Checking out the black liquid, they learn that it absorbs both fire and ice when Ellyanna throws magic at it. It also instantly snuffs out a light spell that she casts. Dark Star tries hitting it with an Eldritch Blast, which causes it to splash all over, hitting himself and Ellyanna and knocking some of it into the pool of water.
Apart from smelling terrible, it doesn't seem to have any negative effect on Dark Star and Ellyanna, but when it hits the pool water, it sticks to the surface and forms an oily sheet above the water. Deciding that this must be what it's for, Ellyanna conjures a small bowl and starts scooping the black liquid into the pool.
After a few minutes, the surface of the water is completely covered in black, but this doesn't seem to have accomplished anything useful. The party try various things that seem to have no effect, until Dark Star tries pricking his finger with the ceremonial dagger and dripping some blood into the pool. When the drops of blood hit the water, they seem to react and form a yellow-greenish color, but with only a few drops, they can't tell for certain what it is.
They briefly contemplate dragging over one of the dead bugbears and using its blood to fill the pool, but the eventually decide to finish exploring the rest of the complex before continuing to investigate the pool.
Returning to the main hallway, they bypass a few more pit traps and pass by several rooms that seem to be goblin and bugbear living quarters - now unoccupied. They scavenge through the creatures' belongings until they have enough warm clothing to provide an outfit for Ellyanna, who will need something warmer than the robes that she's wearing once they make it outside.
After passing by the living quarters, they arrive at a stairway leading up, and they can see faint light in the distance. Right before the stairs, they also discover a secret door leading to the northeastern corner of the complex, apparently the last bit that they have left to explore.
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