The Sunken Hatch

"The Sunken Hatch" is the name used by the lowly Teb for the immense, magically sealed, stone hatch that lies hidden deep in the bowels of Wildcliff, although the name may be used to refer to both the hatch itself and the area it is in.

## The Entrance

The only known entrance to the hatch is through a secret passage in the kitchen that the party was lead down by Teb. Accessing the entrance appeared to involve a ritual of pulling spices from a spice rack in a certain order, and pushing on the stone wall to open the door.

There is a switch to close, and presumably open, the door on the inside.

The rough, stone, tunnel leads downwards, eventually opening up to a staircase, and then to a large cylindrical room that the stairs lead down in a spiral.

## The Central Chamber

A large cylindrical room, 250ft tall and 100ft in diameter, with a domed ceiling. A single beam of light shines through a hole bored in the exact center of the ceiling (the location of the exterior of this hole is unknown).

The staircase spirals down the wall of the chamber, with landings every 10 or so feet, with statues built upon them in alcoves. Most of the upper statues are broken.

About halfway down the stairs, behind a statue that that is broken down to the waist, is a hole cluttered with collected trinkets that Teb welcomes the party to as his home.

At the base of the chamber, in the center of the room, is "The Sunken Hatch": an immense, circular, stone slab. It is 3ft high and 10ft in diameter with four spherical indentations, each matching the 4" diameter of the four orbs. Around the stone slab, in a circle, is the inscription in Draconic -

> *"Power from Progress, Progress from Might, Might from Reverence, Reverence from Power."*
>
>

In the walls around the hatch at the base of the chamber, in the four cardinal directions, are four archways, the eastern one of which is collapsed, each with a corresponding statue that is slightly larger than life.

When the Orb of Reverence and the Orb of Progress were placed into random slots in the hatch, a dull green and blue light, respectively, emitted from them to fill the room.

## The Trial of Might

The northern archway corresponds to a statue of an unknown warrior, dressed in ornate metal armour, with their face covered by a helmet.

In the chamber through this archway is a single circular plinth, on top of which is a bronze ball, slightly larger than one foot in diameter. Behind that is a large slope the entire width of the room, at the top of which is another plinth.

The party completed this trial by using their combined weight to press down the upper plinth, which promptly popped the lower plinth ajar. The presumable means by which this trial was intended to be completed was by moving the heavy ball to the upper plinth.

Within the plinth, which once contained the Orb of Might, the party instead found an envelope which contained a a greasy black stone, and a letter from Digger written on yellowed paper with black ink. which reads -

> *To whoever should overcome this trial, we must speak immediately.*
>
>

> *Contained here is a sending stone, which matches a stone I’m in possession of. If I’ve not already passed from this world, I shall respond to any questions you have with haste, though we may not be able to meet for a long while.*
>
>

> *Tell no one of this, else you risk their lives as well as your own.*
>
>

> - *Digger.*
>
>

> *P.S. Give the lowly Teb my greeting if he’s still kicking around the bowels of the school.*
>
>

However, when attempting to use the sending stone by speaking the words **"HELLO? IS THERE ANYONE THERE?"** into it, rather than making contact with "Digger", Mira instead received a message in her own voice that says -

> "*I have the artifact, it is safe, do not seek the others, it is a foolish task. This is not Digger, she is lost."*
>
>

This message was presumably left by Artis Artisian.

Upon any further attempted usage of the stone, the party only received a repetition of their own words in their head.

*(the sending stone is presumed to currently be in the possession of Integrity, who was last to use it.)*

## The Trial of Reverence

The collapsed eastern archway corresponds to a statue of an unknown robed individual holding a long thin knife to the sky.

The archway appears to have been collapsed by some manner of tremor rather than with any intent. Mira makes short work of clearing the rubble enough for them to squeeze through.

Within is a triangular room with a smooth stone alter about 3ft tall, upon which is a small statue of two snakes coiled and wrapped around each other in helices, holding a knife. The knife is not attached as part of the statue; rather being held by it. The knife is identical to the one held by the statue outside, and is stained with blood. In the side of the altar is a locked circular tile covering an opening, with blood stains leading from it and covering the floor.

In each of the corners of the room is an alcove containing a ceramic-looking enameled stone urn, firmly attached to the stone beneath and magically sealed, each with a carving in Draconic in the alcove.

Upon using the knife to make a small prick in the finger and touching a drop of blood to the urns, the urns each open.

The inscription in the alcove of the north urn reads -

> "*Devour"*
>
>

-and contains a huge rotten black heart that leaves a black film on whatever touches it.

*(The heart notably resembles The Heart of Gold)*

The east reads -

> "*Envisage"*
>
>

- and contains an oily black stone talisman in the shape of the a spiral, strung with a leather cord so as to be worn as a necklace.

*(the same shape as the marking in the trial of power)*

And the south reads -

> "*Ascend*"
>
>

- and contains green power, which seems to resemble, but be distinct from, 'arch-sand', a blue lightning infused reagent.

As the party simultaneously bite, wear, and lick each of the contents respectively:

-Integrity, with the heart, manages to swallow a bite of the spongy rotten tissue. It leaves a film on her hands and face where she touched it.

-Mira, with the talisman, has her vision go black as she finds her self in a shadowy plane, with a floor of oily black stone that feels slick underfoot, as around her appears everyone she's ever met is standing in a crowd circling her. On their knees before her, with blood covering their face like some kind of macabre flower, is Murundeen with tears in his eyes. As he looks up at Mira, as she raises a Crystal Cube to the sky. Then her vision returns to normal without any time passing.

-Winsler, with the green powder, has his legs begin to feel like jelly and starts to have simple visual hallucinations, and take on an intoxicated demeanor for only a couple of minutes.

The tile on the side of the stone alter then falls to the floor, revealing a 2ft diameter tunnel. Written in front of it in Draconic is the inscription -

> "Kneel"
>
>

- which Integrity quickly realises is instructions to enter the tunnel. The tunnel opens up to a cavern with the skeletal remains of a humanoid, their wand in their hand broken in half, with gnaw marks in their bones. On the far side of the room is the immense skeleton of a serpent with most of their ribs snapped off, and a spherical socket the size of one of the orbs in the skull between the eyes. Upon the wall is the word in Draconic -

> "*Worship"*
>
>

As the party talk over the situation, the four remaining ribs of the serpent fall to the ground. As Mira picks up one of the ribs, it turns into a snake which they fight and kill.

They were later met by Teb on the way out, who asked Mira what she saw when she used the talisman, explaining that what he saw was was *"a bunch of humans that looked like the statue, killing another one"*

He then gave them a sandstone coloured pebble, that he says can be used to contact "Artist", which is presumably taken by Mira.

*(Integrity is in possession of the broken wand found on the skeleton.)*

## The Trial of Power

The southern archway corresponds to a statue of Empress Terrasis, a beautiful *not-quite* human, seated in a chair with a small crown upon her head.

At the far side of the room through this archway, there is a throne, identical to the one in the statue, and there is a counter, with two crowns sitting upon it, both seemingly identical to the one in the statue.

However, with further inspection, Mira determined that only the gem in the left crown was authentic, so she elected that it should be the one to be worn and sit on the throne to complete this trial.

When she sat on the throne, the crown faded to nothing, as she felt excruciating pain in her left arm as a dark grey spiral smeared across her forearm resembling a tattoo.

*(the same shape as the talisman in the trial of reverence)*

As they received no orb, Integrity chose to try sitting on the throne to try the other crown. While Winsler walked over to her with it, two 3” spikes shot out of the arm rests, which she narrowly avoided being stabbed by. As soon as the crown was placed upon her head, there was a small click from the counter, as the compartment within unlocked. Inside, they found only a note which read –

> *Power is an illusion
> - Rime*
>
>

*(The fake crown is also presumed to currently be in the possession of Integrity, who was last to have it.)*

## The Trial of Progress

The western archway corresponds to a statue of The Progenitor, an amorphous humanoid statue made of black stone with the statue's head broken off, holding a cube in their extended hand.

Beyond this archway, steps lead down into a perfectly circular room with three equidistant, diamond-shaped reliefs around the wall, and a domed ceiling.

In the center is a square plinth around 2ft tall. Upon it sits a three sided, crystal-clear pyramid, which is notably cold to the touch.

Upon using ‘Detect Magic’, Winsler saw that it emitted an immense magical power. Additionally, he saw that there was magic seeping from the cracks between the wall and the floor around the edge of the room.

When the party lifted the pyramid, insects began to swarm from the cracks, covering the wall and floor. The insects were repelled by fire, and stopped, making a hard edge, at the stairs leading down into the room. When light was brought close to the pyramid, specks of magical light appeared in it. As it was brought beneath the light shining down upon the hatch in the central chamber, it began to glow bright blue.

This trial was passed by Integrity using ‘Thaumaturgy’ to enhance the light of a match brightly enough to activate the light of the pyramid while it sat in its place on the pedestal and Mira and Winsler ensured the insects were out of the way for the light of the pyramid to shine upon the reliefs on the wall.

As this happened, the insects dissipated, while the pyramid and it's blue light faded away to reveal an orb in its place, The Orb of Progress.

*(The Orb of Progress is currently in the possession of Integrity)*

## Speculation, Trivia and Meta considerations.

* Before Mira's vision in the Trial of Reverence, Sarah is asked to roll a percentile die. This suggests some manner of randomness to what she saw, and may mean that it was purely chance that Murundeen was the figure that she saw.
* Upon seeing Winsler intoxicated, Mr Wiggles claims to have "*..seen stuff like this before..*"
* Teb says that his vision consisted "*a bunch of humans that looked like the statue, killing another one"* which suggests perhaps that the knife and attire are those of some manner of cult associated with Sheora.