As they put their heads together about what to do next, the party members realize they never fully searched the plinth room, so they return through the green mist to do so. They already know there are two secret doors in this room, one of which was opened by turning the dials on the plinth. They opened the second secret door from the other side, after descending the pit in the red mist, melting the grate with green slime, and ascending a subtly-sloping corridor.
They decide not to turn any more dials on the plinth. Instead, they search the interior walls of the chamber first, and Cane finds a third secret door on the south wall. Checking for traps and then opening the door, the party sees a staircase beyond, descending to a corridor that runs south, then turns east. Two archways along the left wall of the corridor enter a side chamber.
The party files into the side chamber--a long gallery in which a brightly-colored tapestry and four framed paintings hang on the walls. Another archway exits the gallery to the south. As the party members fan out to look at the various artworks in the room, Steeljaw checks out the southern arch. With his dwarf-vision, he sees that the corridor wraps around the gallery and ascends a staircase before continuing eastward. He keeps his eye on this direction as the others fiddle with the wall hangings.
Aerion examines the brightly-colored tapestry, which he immediately discerns is an illusion like the others. It depicts Bergummo astride a white horse, galloping across a dry plain beneath an azure sky and a blazing sun, and Aerion feels a now-familiar wooziness as the scene animates. The wizard’s beard and the horse’s mane flap in the breeze as the steed charges across the plain. Suddenly, two more horses enter the scene and race alongside them. After a few seconds, the other two horses fall back and out of the scene and the tapestry becomes a still image once more. Aerion declares that Summer is #3 in the sequence of the four bronze buttons.
Saynard and Vic check out the framed paintings, which are also illusionary and cannot be physically touched. At a glance, the paintings appear to be of a landscape, a portrait of a wizardly figure, a portrait of a warrior, and a battle-scene. Gazing upon the landscape painting, Saynard sees that it depicts Bergummo’s tower in its heyday, tall and proud, with the golden light of dawn streaming through the forest trees as the sky above lightens. Taking a closer look, he notices subtle changes occur in the painting: The sunlight patterns shift, the trees sway and the leaves rustle, and forest beasts wander in and out of view. He also detects the faint smells of pine and soil, and hears the wind sighing and birds chirping.
While Saynard undertakes a careful viewing of the landscape, Vic gazes upon the battle-scene. It appears to depict Bergummo and an elderly-looking warrior (Chilton, perhaps?) engaged in a fight with a green dragon the size of a large bull. As the warrior readies his flaming sword to strike at the creature, the fearsome dragon rears its head back, eyes bulging and jaw agape. Bergummo stands to one side and casts a spell of power at the dragon. An enormous pile of treasure can be seen in the background.
Before Vic's eyes, the figures animate in battle. Chilton’s swing strikes the dragon’s haunch, while Bergummo’s spell lashes the creature with lightning. Angered, the dragon breathes a cloud of yellow gas that fills the tapestry scene, then actually billows out of the picture frame to engulf Vic. The halfling rogue manages to hold his breath as the blast of yellow vapors surrounds him, but before he can otherwise react to the poisonous cloud, it magically transforms into a shower of gold coins that fall all about him onto the floor. Surprised and elated by this magical surprise, Vic begins scooping the gold coins into a bag.
Saynard explains what he is seeing in the landscape to his comrades as he watches the scene evolve. After about 10 minutes, the sun has risen into the sky and seems to depict the forest in the early hours of mid-morning. The party decides to take a short rest while he continues watching the painting to see what happens next.
While this is going on, Steeljaw takes a look at the wizard’s portrait, which depicts Bergummo dressed in fine robes standing in a study of some sort. He holds a thick tome and has a sapphire lozenge floating about his head (both items seen in the tapestries in the octagonal entry room). As he gazes upon the painting, he sees the portrait move slightly so that Bergummo looks directly back at him. For whatever reason, the wizard scowls unapprovingly at the dwarf barbarian and then returns to his original position. The painting’s reproach sits poorly with Steeljaw, and he withdraws to a corner to stew over it. He tries not to care, but something about the wizard’s look puts the dwarf in a foul mood he can’t seem to shake.
Cane tries gazing upon Bergummo’s portrait, and something about the monk seems to please the wizard, for he gives a slight grin and nods respectfully to him. This small gesture is meaningful to the wood-elf monk and gives him a sense of reassurance that he can rise to meet any challenge.
Aerion looks at the portrait of the warrior, an elderly but still-handsome man-at-arms who must be Chilton. He wears chainmail and a steel pot-helmet identical to the one the party recovered, and brandishes a flaming longsword (an item seen in a tapestry in the octagonal entry room). Despite the man’s age, he looks fierce and prepared for battle. As Aerion gazes upon the figure, the portrait moves slightly so that the warrior looks directly back at the dwarf paladin. Chilton smiles and bows to him, and Aerion becomes aware that he can now cast the spiritual weapon spell three times to come to his aid.
As the short rest passes, Saynard continues watching the landscape scene unfold, progressing through the entire day until evening falls. At this point, he suddenly collapses into a deep magical sleep from which he cannot be awakened no matter how hard his concerned comrades try to rouse him. Fortunately, Saynard comes to a few minutes later, and he immediately notices that it is dawn again in the painting’s scene. He also feels fully refreshed and revitalized, as though he’d just taken a comfortable night’s rest.
Gathering themselves, they decide to continue down the corridor to the east and up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, two side passages bear off: One to the south and--further down the corridor--one to the north. At the far end of the corridor is an alcove containing a stone fountain. The arched alcove is bathed in a cool blue glow from above.
The party continues eastward toward the alcove. The side passage to the south leads a short way then turns eastward. The side passage to the north leads down a staircase and then also turns eastward. The party examines the arched alcove before them. Within is a marble fountainhead sculpted in the image of a frog’s head. From a tiny hole formed by the frog’s pursed lips, a trickle of clear, fresh water pours into a marble basin. The surface of the basin water is covered in a scum of bright green algae. The blue glow illuminating the alcove is obviously magical as it has no apparent source.
Vic and Cane creep down the stairs to the north while Saynard and Aerion keep an eye out from farther back down the passage. At the top of the stairs, Steeljaw stirs the fountain algae with his axe handle, and sees that the water below it looks clear. As he messes with the algae, the dwarf also notices that the frog’s stone snout is rubbed smooth.
He rubs the frog’s snout, and a giant frog surfaces from the basin, exposing only its head. It regards Steeljaw curiously and lets out a long croak. While this is happening, Vic and Cane wait at the bottom of the stairs, at the corner where the passage turns east. Pricking up his ears, Cane hears a strange sound from far down the darkened corridor--a methodical, metallic sound: “Clank---clank---clank.” His keen hearing also discerns that the sound is getting subtly louder; whatever is making this sound is getting steadily closer.
Back up the stairs, the weird frog in the fountain speaks to Steeljaw, posing a riddle:
“Six frogs upon a lily pad sit, watching tasty flies buzz about.
One frog—hot from the midday sun—decides to jump off.
How many frogs remain?”
Steeljaw’s quick wit solves the riddle right away and he declares: “Six still remain…,for the frog has only “decided” to jump off; the riddle does not say it did so.”
As Vic and Cane move back up the stairs, the curious frog chuckles and sinks beneath the surface. The fountainhead’s mouth then opens to reveal a quarter-inch wide by 6-inch tall slot in the back of the stone frog’s “throat.” Meanwhile, Aerion moves past Steeljaw and heads down the stairs with his torch to get a look at whatever is approaching. He can definitely hear the mechanical sounds slowly approaching: “Clank---clank---clank.”
Steeljaw turns and prepares to face the incoming threat, and motions for Aerion to come back up the stairs where they can try to team up against it in the tight corridor. Aerion ducks back around the corner before whatever it is comes into view of his torchlight, but he hears the pace of the metallic sounds suddenly quicken: “Clank-clank-clank!” Whatever it is has seen him and is now charging forward.
Aerion continues retreating up the stairs, but before he can mount the top landing, an armored sentry rounds the corner and engages him. The sentry wears a full suit of bronze plate armor, but it has no head. Instead, there is only a blue phantom glow where its head should be. It wields a bronze scimitar in each hand and slashes relentlessly at the dwarf paladin. Badly wounded, Aerion scrambles up the stairs and past Steeljaw, who moves forward to engage the armored guardian.
Steeljaw delivers a powerful axe blow that staggers the sentry. It stumbles backward from the force of his attack, but then reengages with its own attacks. Cane joins the fight and strikes the sentry with his staff and powerful kicks. As they fight it, they can see that the armor magically repairs the damage done to it. Nevertheless, the party soon defeats the sentry. It collapses into a pile of useless junk and a pair of mundane bronze scimitars.
Inspecting the scimitars, the party notes that one bears a unique feature: the medallion at the cross guard is formed into the shape of a blue-bottle fly. Steeljaw takes the scimitar and inserts it into the slot in the fountainhead, sliding the curved blade in up to the hilt. A loud “click” is heard, and the entire alcove sinks into the floor to reveal a chamber beyond.
Within this new room, the party sees six semi-circular bases lining the north and south walls. Upon each stands a statue of a human skeleton fabricated entirely of bronze. Each bronze skeleton brandishes a longsword and a javelin. Between the statues, four bronze chests sit against the walls. A brightly-colored tapestry also hangs on the east wall.
Aerion checks out the tapestry, yet another illusion. This one depicts Bergummo standing in a verdant meadow next to a blossoming tree. As Aerion gazes upon it, the scene animates. Bergummo turns and points to a (previously-hidden) serpent coiled in the branches of the tree. As expected, Spring is revealed to be the first season in the button sequence.
Inspecting the bronze skeletons, Saynard attempts to remove a longsword from one statue’s grasp. When he touches the metal blade, however, the skeleton animates and, with the shriek of bending metal, raises its weapons toward him. In unison, the other statues animate and begin to move as well.
Aerion swings at the nearest skeleton, delivering a precise blow that crashes down on the metal construct. The skeleton registers the blow, but seems unfazed by it in the slightest. Steeljaw steps up and clobbers the same skeleton with his great axe, again delivering a crushing blow that could cleave iron, much less bronze. But again, the skeleton seems unharmed by the dwarf’s attack.
The skeleton statues step from their stone bases and attack. Three are unengaged, so they hurl their javelins into combat before stepping up and brandishing their longswords with both hands. As the skeleton in the northeast corner hurls its javelin and brandishes its sword, the blade becomes steel and erupts in flames that reflect menacingly off the construct’s metal bones.
The ensuing fight is fierce, and the party has a momentary sense of panic as they realize their attacks are having no effect on the skeletons. On a party hunch, however, Cane maneuvers to engage the skeleton brandishing the flaming sword. He delivers a series of punishing blows that destroy the creature, causing it to collapse into a pile of bronze bones. The flaming steel sword goes out, leaving behind only a mundane bronze blade.
The other skeletons continue fighting, however, and the flaming steel sword appears in the hands of a different skeleton. Continuing their strategy, the party times their blows to attack only the skeleton with the flaming sword and, soon, all six constructs lie broken in pieces on the floor. When the last one falls, the flaming steel sword remains behind. Curious, Cane retrieves it and examines the flame-licked blade.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party begins checking the chests for traps. Vic notes that each chest is a simple wooden box with a hinged lid and handle, lined inside and out with bronze plates. The chests have no locks, and the lids appear to open easily. Earlier, Aerion had flipped one of the chest lids open to reveal three bulging leather bags full of unknown material. Aerion picks up one of these bags and realizes it is full of coins. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he declares that he has found some loot.
Flipping the lid of a second chest open, Vic finds it empty so he makes a careful search of the interior. He determines that there is no false bottom, but discovers that the box is bolted to the floor from the inside. Using Steeljaw’s crowbar, he loosens the bolt and removes the chest, but finds nothing underneath.
Vic opens a third chest and discovers four potion bottles labeled “Healing” inside. Retrieving all four bottles, he searches the interior of the box but finds no false bottom. He notes that this chest is also bolted to the floor, but he does not pry the bolts loose. Vic then helps Aerion retrieve the other two leather bags from the first chest. Each bag turns out to contain 500 coins: one bag full of copper, one of silver, and one of gold.
Steeljaw flips open the lid of the fourth chest and finds it filled with an opaque, copper- colored liquid. Touching it, the liquid feels watery and slightly greasy on his fingers, but it does not hurt his skin. It seems to have no effect on either the metal of his axe blade or its wooden haft. Aerion fills a waterskin with the water, noting that doing so did seem to lower the water level by a tiny amount, and also that the water had no effect on the leather that came into contact with it. Cane dips the flaming sword into the water. Neither element seems to affect the other, and the blade is still aflame when he draws it out.
Using his thieves' tools, Vic drills a small hole in the wooden gap between two bronze plates lining the chest’s exterior. Soon, water begins trickling from the hole and, after a while, the chest is emptied (but surrounded by a puddle of the coppery water). Jumping onto a nearby statue base, Cane retrieves from the chest a slender wand made of platinum and engraved with arcane runes.
The party searches the walls of the room and Vic discovers a secret door behind a statue base--the one the first skeleton with the flaming sword stood upon in the northeast corner. In addition, he discovers a small bronze keyplate on the stone base. The party quickly searches the bronze bones and finds that the skull of the first skeleton to brandish the flaming sword has a hinged top. Something rattles around inside it--a bronze key.
Vic uses the bronze key in the keyplate, which opens the secret door. Beyond is a short passage and the obvious back side of another secret door at the far end. The party spikes open the secret doors and passes into the room beyond the yellow mist, with the four bronze buttons. Just to make sure, they try the newly-confirmed code, but nothing happens when they push the buttons. They resign themselves to having lost the fourth of Bergummo’s treasures--his tome of magic spells (worth a small fortune to the right buyer).
But having recovered three of the wizard’s four legendary items, as well as a small hoard of other valuables, the party declares their expedition a success. They return to base camp that night to count their loot, toast their success, and enjoy a well-earned rest.
A few days from now, they will be back in their homes in the city of Remedios--richer, wiser, and ready to take on a brand-new challenge.
The adventure ends here.
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