Djinn and Phonics

Thumbnail for Season 1 Chapter 17 featuring Geordie

## **Synopsis:**

In Chapter 17: Djinn and Phonics, the party tumbled down the excavated chasm and landed safely with the help of the Feather Fall spell on a strange, smooth stone surface.  The hill giant that fell with us was not keen on his new surroundings, and upon realizing he was not going to understand we were not a threat – we used various means of distraction to keep him busy while we looked for a way out.

The only lead we could find was a series of symbols that Safira recognized from her days of military training – Primordial numbers with an image that suggested one should speak the digits out loud.  Safira obliged and the floor beneath us opened up, dropping us into a curious circular cell with a young man we didn't recognize – strange markings on his skin and little in the way of possessions.

He introduced himself as Shaleer Olivinus, a descendant of genies from generations long ago, trapped in this prison after an archeological expedition attempted to access a hidden temple.  After our arrival, a message appeared that instructed Shaleer to escort us to the "arbitration chamber," and with no other discernible path forward we agreed to follow him.

A stone wall retracted and revealed an icy cavern that represented a kind of fork in the road – a large central stone basin had engraved instructions on how to access different areas by mixing colored liquids from various pools around us.  Requiring the blue and yellow fluids to make our way to the arbitration chamber, we did our best to carefully and quietly procure the necessary mixture – but a sudden slip and fall from Graven made enough noise to alert the cavern's frozen guardians.

Using fists and fire we eliminated the creatures, paving the way to a second chamber that contained a puzzle to solve based around more Primordial symbols and communication under the pressure of time – as a caged beast was rising from the ground while we attempted to complete the task.  Despite finding it somewhat difficult to focus and some things getting lost in translation – we prevailed before the lurking creature was set upon us and entered with caution into the next section of the temple.

Here we found rows and rows of Genasi men and women quietly playing chess – the first people of his race that Shaleer had ever come into contact with, but they largely disregarded him despite his pleading.  We traversed this long hall until we reached a point where two genies sat waiting for our arrival – an intimidating Efreet and a rugged Dao.  For doing his part to direct us to this point, the Dao offered Shaleer a reward of his choosing: the opportunity to join the Genasi here and be a part of their society, or to be transported elsewhere and granted freedom after a lifetime of servitude.  In defiance of his desire to be accepted into a world of his people, Shaleer elected freedom – and with a snap of the Dao's fingers he vanished before our eyes.

The enraged Efreet accused us of breaking into the temple to steal their relics and treasures, and we did our best to proclaim our innocence but we discovered the genies had a deeply ingrained bias against humanoid creatures after a betrayal hundreds of years ago.  Apparently the Lightwhistles (that we had heard so much about) originally got their trademark chess pieces from an alliance of genies by promising them divine powers – but the Lightwhistles did not uphold their end of the bargain.  They replicated the original pieces which became the foundation of the Lightwhistle Estate Social Club – valuable trinkets that were a symbol of status and power.

The genies wanted their treasures back and we reached an impasse when we could not convince them we weren't thieves, but a Genasi courier arrived to inform the Efreet that a human woman and a Halfling had arrived at the temple's entrance – and the halfling supposedly had information about the Lightwhistles.  The human woman – who we presumed to be Jillian – proposed a trade: the halfling for Erland, with the hope that whatever information she could provide would ease the genies' mind.

Graven, Orba and Safira were instructed to wait – and as Erland was marched away.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: two natural ones were rolled in this Chapter. 1 each by Anthony and Riley.