Expedition 72: Behind the Shrine

### Summary

We accompany Marzipan through Mae'ra's trials to earn an audience with her. Mae'ra gives Marzipan two gifts: she brings life to the Truewood and offers him the blessing of a new patron deity, her sibling Pelor.

### Detailed Writeup

After crossing Blackwater with the help of some mousefolk, the group enters Frost-Stone and, under Marzipan’s expert guidance, makes their way quickly to the shrine. Marzipan explains that the last time he was here, Uzmir hadn’t been able to detect any magic but through Commune With Nature Marzipan had learned that there was a very cold torus of water behind the bas-relief carving. Unsure what to do, Marzipan tried asking the carving to let him in. When that didn’t work, he tried to tempt it with a croissant—alas, this was also unsuccessful, even though Clarity put on a very convincing performance showing how delicious it was. Now that the gigantic mouth had drawn the party’s attention, Tolyr pulled on the lower lip and, though it was quite a strain for him, managed to open it. Inside the mouth was a current of icy-cold rushing water moving from top to bottom.

Yezra stuck a javelin into the water to try to probe what might be beyond it but the swift current carried it away. Soon, it returned to fall past the opening, demonstrating what Marzipan had intimated earlier: the water formed a loop. Pulling out the immovable rod, Calliope suggested that she go first to investigate what the water trial might hold, even though she had switched out her Cloak of the Manta Ray for beefier armor. She jumped into the water and it carried her around the loop, bashing her about on the stones and freezing her to the bone. On the other side of the loop from the entrance, she tried to hit the button on the immovable rod but didn’t quite make it. Carried around again, she glimpsed infant faces carved into the bottom of the loop. This time, she managed to hit the button at the right time. She saw six gems, two of which were lit up. Receiving a message from the outside group, she explained what she had seen and guessed that the two lights represented her two trips around the loop. She continued to go round, each time trying to catch herself with the immovable rod so that she could bring up the shields on her armor again. At the top of the loop she managed to see wizened faces carved into the rock. Finally, all six gems lit up and she let the others know it was safe to come through, waiting with the immovable rod to catch them as they were carried by the current and help them make their way through the door.

The corridor led into the mountain and eventually let out into the edge of a spherical room with lots of sand in the bottom, a significant drop down from the doorway. The next door was closed and difficult to access. Clarity sent Shabeel to investigate, and he reported that there was a keyhole in the door. Guessing that the key was probably hidden in the sand, she sent Shabeel to investigate that too, worried that the sand might include some trial of endurance including heat similar to the water’s trial including cold. Shabeel was unharmed by the sand so Clarity had him carry the party down into the sand where Calliope led a grid search of the sand. It took hours, but it was ultimately successful when Tolyr found the wooden key. With the help of Shabeel, the party traveled up the walls and through the next door.

In the next room, ~~Noah’s computer crashed~~ we found two statues standing in front of the door, one of a human and the other of an elf. Over their heads was a mural depicting animals and the phrase “Sometimes men tell truth, sometimes they tell lies. Pass forward by finding the truth from the mouth that never tells falsehood.” We experimented with some questions and determined that the elf likely spoke the truth, but always in the most unhelpful way possible, the human likely lied but always with helpfully simple yes or no answers, and that we needed to pull a lever in one of the animals’ mouths. Clarity devised a series of questions to ask the human so as to narrow the field of possible animals. Once we had landed on the serpent, however, it was not enough to flip the switch in its mouth. We heard a click but the door did not open—so we set about devising a question whose correct answer was saying nothing, since the snake could not speak. Calliope suggested “Have you stopped beating your wife?” but with Tolyr’s “Will your next answer be no?” a second click sounded and the door opened.

After passing through the door, the party stood before a radiance. Clarity, Calliope, and Yezra were so moved by the sight that they stood frozen, but Marzipan walked forward fearlessly to meet his goddess while Tolyr looked on. Mae’ra welcomed Marzipan and expressed that she was glad to meet him in person. Marzipan asked whether Mae’ra would take the Bluewood out of stasis, since the age had turned and it would sustain his people. In exchange for a promise that they would conserve the forest’s biodiversity, Mae’ra quickened the Bluewood for the use of the mousefolk of Kiore. She then told Marzipan this was possibly the last gift she would ever give him. She explained that for Marzipan the time for her gifts, for change and dismantling of power, had passed. It was time for him to build a community, and for this he would need the gifts of her sibling, Pelor. Pelor appeared, and Marzipan accepted his blessing with Tolyr and Calliope’s hands upon his shoulders. Then the glory faded from the room. The audience was over. Thinking on the future and what it might have in store, Marzipan and his friends returned to Port Vrall.