Original Arcane Temple

Found at a split in the road leading deeper into the **Lodge of the Caves**, this is the Original Arcane Temple, which can be found behind a massive locked Golden Vault door.

After **Garmelio** was successfully able to deduce the combination on the Golden Vault door, the **Rift Walkers** continued deeper into the regal abandoned ruins.

## The Original Arcane Temple

A map drawn by the Book of Lore as the Rift Walkers explore deeper into the Original Arcane Temple.

Found in the deepest layer, down a bloodied staircase, a immaculate gold throne inside a majestic gold chamber with ornate water features can be found, as well as the now dead again corpse of a Gold Tusk loxodon undead that the Rift Walkers put down.

### Location

Behind a Gold Vault in the Lodge of the Caves

### Inhabitants

Monsters (animated armor, ghouls), Morning Star the White (undead)

The Rift Walkers are halted by a massive open chamber which has progression blocked with a thick golden vault door with seven different knobs that are able to be twisted to change the number on it.

Garmelio is able to easily deduce the solution using the information he learned from **Rayhl**, unlocking the sealed vault with the sound of the pressure shifting and the draft of the air pulling into the sealed room.

## Floor One

The environment inside the sealed room is immaculate, with gold trimming on almost everything, vibrant red rugs are dotted all around the floor, and torches of magical golden light burn keeping the chamber lit with a warm glow. The duo deduce that this location must be the Original Arcane Temple. The Rift Walkers find statues dating the chronology of a folk tale of **Gold Tusk** and the Red Dragon within these chambers.

Suddenly the Rift Walkers are ambushed by one of the armor sets which are intricately positioned along the walls, which reveals itself to be a set of **Animated Armor**. With some blood shed and skin bruised by the duo, they are able to defeat the entity which drops Steel Gauntlets, **Xanthias** appraises them and when he puts them on feels a surge of strength flow through his hands. He puts the **Gauntlets of Strength (+1 Strength)** into his bag.

Blood seeps from the empty armor and flows into two reservoirs etched into the floor. The blood fills and creates a vibrant red image of a star and crescent moon, and then a click can be heard, opening the door to the next room, a stairwell down.

## Floor Two

Progressing deeper the Rift Walkers find another carved relief on the floor, and a bloodied bag in the corner of the room.

Disgusted by the sight and smell, Xanthias lets Garmelio figure out the solution as he wanders into a small room off to the side, which houses three cells with bars made from gold keeping bleached loxodon skeletal remains trapped within.

Garmelio inspects the bloody bag, and sees that its a decapitated head which has only been cut off a few weeks or perhaps months ago. Using the still bloody head he splatters the relief on the floor of the next room with the blood, causing a locked door to slide open vibrating with sound of stone scraping along the floor.

Before the two head further using the newly revealed staircase leading deeper down, they opt to take a long rest having each other take watch every 4 hours until they fully recover. Xanthias recovers from his arcane drunkenness from the **Ancient Loxodon Fountain**.

## Floor Three

Now fully recovered and ready to proceed, the Rift Walkers head deeper down.

Walking down the stairs they find themselves in a hallway with two pressure plates, one with the symbol of a star and the other with the symbol of a moon. There is also a rag wrapped pair of gauntlets which Garmelio appraises to be **Gauntlets of Effect** (requires focus, behaves like the spell Mage Hand). Xanthias replaces his old gauntlets and takes the rag, putting both it into his bag.

Three **Ghouls** ambush the Rift Walkers as they drop in from above, Xanthias is able to quickly kill one, and Garmelio is able to destroy the other but is bitten and grappled by the third on the neck. Xanthias attempts to kill the ghoul but accidentally slashes at Garmelio at the same time. Garmelio is able to use his shocking hands to grab onto the ghoul turning it into a pile of ash. They find 50 silver coins and 2 slabs of mysterious meat, they split the money and Xanthias takes the meat, wrapping it carefully with some of the leftover parchment paper he saved from consumed rations, storing it away in his bag.

Garmelio picks the lock on the door in the room of ghouls which leads to another intricately crafted room.

Within the ornate but small chamber, there is a door leading into the next room which is blocked by a thick gold door with two holes covered in soot and ash, which seems to lead into some sort inner workings. Xanthias tells Garmelio to attempt using his fire magic to burn both slots simultaneously, which causes a loud mechanical click as the door begins to shudder open.

The next room leads the duo into a dining room or study of some kind, with a table in the center covered with 6 gold coins and cutlery sprawled all over the table. On a nearby lectern, there is a golden ornate chest. Garmelio attempts to use his few remaining lock picks to open the chest but fails twice breaking his lock picks on each attempt. Frustrated, Xanthias takes out the Elegant Mason's Tools and with determined strength and precision is able to break open the lock with one mighty swing on the butt of the chisel. Inside he finds 40 gold coins which he splits with Garmelio, and a Ceremonial Dagger made with an ivory handle and a golden blade. It features on the side of the blade the same symbol that the **Dragon Book** has.

## Floor Four (Throne Room)

Going deeper in leads into another holding cell area, with golden skeletal remains of loxodons trapped inside. There lies a chest which opens with no resistance, offering the duo 4 healing potions, 2 potions of vitality, and a spell scroll which Garmelio appraises to be a **Death Ward** spell. Xanthias takes the scroll and keeps it on a easy to reach part of his bag.

Heading into the next room, they come into the most ornate room they have seen yet. Everything from the floor to the ceiling is made from pure gold, which has many beautiful decorative etchings engraved on the material. A massive vibrant red carpet rolls out towards a massive golden throne.

The Rift Walkers come closer to investigate the opulent chamber and throne, only to be surprised by a massive creature as it drops from a secret alcove near the ceiling, knocking the duo back and on the floor. It reveals itself to be a giant armored figure, with glowing red eyes and thick golden tusks coming from its fitted helmet.

* The armored creature takes a mighty swing on the grounded and surprised Garmelio who has his chest slashed with its massive golden battle-axe, cutting apart and spilling blood across the floor, revealing to Xanthias the red dragon scales that seem to be growing on Garmelio's torso.
	+ Having the chance to get up, Xanthias quickly runs over to Garmelio and uses the Death Ward scroll on the bloodied half-elf sorcerer, causing the scroll to burn up in an instant.
	+ Garmelio gets up and casts **Aganazzar’s Scorcher**, destroying one of his pocketed dragon scales from Tolterro. The attack blasts through a chunk of the armored opponents armor with the brunt of the blast hitting his leg, white bone can be seen revealing that this creature is actually a skeletal loxodon.
* The monster is taken aback by the blast and retaliates, targeting Garmelio again he gets a clean slice across his head decapitating him for a moment only to have mere instant moments later, a swirl of arcane energy reconnecting his severed head back into place, chunks of blood and bits of brain matter splash across the floor and wall. Writhing in pain and screaming in agony, Garmelio is left wounded and at the cusp of death, clutching his face and permanently scarring where the cut occurred.
	+ Xanthias attempts to draw the attention of the skeletal loxodon and stabs at it from behind, his rapier bouncing off its golden armor. With a worried smile Xanthias attempts to use a Vicious Mockery which cuts into the skeletal loxodons emotions deeper than he thought it would.
	+ With the creatures gaze now focused on Xanthias, Garmelio chugs down two different healing potions, one a flask filled with a purple liquid he picked up in **Cobblestone** and the other being one of the healing potion he picked up in the room prior, bringing him back from the cusp of death.
* The creature attempts to hit Xanthias with his golden battle-axe, and successfully lands a heavy blow with the dulled edge of its heavy battle-axe, knocking the wind out of him and bruising his chest, tearing slightly into his leather armor.
	+ Xanthias attempts to disable it with **Tasha's Hideous Laughter,** failing to tell a humorous (or humerus) enough joke to send it into a magical laughing fit. Its eyes now dead focused on Xanthias, the dragonborn attempts to use another Vicious Mockery which successfully lands and causes the creature to groan and hiss with pain and anger.
	+ Garmelio uses a quick Fire Bolt against the monster, destroying another chunk of its armor away sending it reeling back, following up with a Fire Bolt which bounces off its battered gold armor.
* The armored skeletal loxodon attempts to swing its mighty battle-axe against Garmelio but he swiftly dodges out of the way, causing the creature to accidentally slam its weapon too hard into the ground causing it to get wedged in the floor, it tugs and pulls but fails to pull it out.
	+ Xanthias focuses and marks the armored monster with **Faerie Fire**, he then taunts it with a Vicious Mockery by making a fool of the gold tusked skeletal loxodons critical failure.
	+ Garmelio concentrates and blasts the armored monster with a **Scorching Ray**, the illumination of the Faerie Fire helps connect all three shots against the monster dealing incredible damage destroying even more of its armor.
* With its red glaring eyes now focused on the dragonborn bard, the monster retaliates and using its massive golden tusks it swings its massive head and gores Xanthias in the shoulder, causing him to bleed out rapidly from the puncture wound and stagger with pain.
	+ Garmelio utilizing the opening uses another one of his red dragon scales acquired from Tolterro, and focusing his mind he conjures another Aganazzar’s Scorcher, the monster gets blasted by the fiery ray and is pushed back against the golden throne, letting out a ghastly sounding roar of pain.
	+ Xanthias chugs down his potion of vitality which he picked up in the room prior, he clutches his shoulder and focuses using his heightened regeneration, he is able to completely heal all of his wounds.
* The monster attempts to attack Garmelio but is quickly halted as Xanthias takes a reactionary attack at the creature with his rapier, the thin flexible sword slipping through the cracks in its armor and working its way up the monsters spine the dragonborn bard is able to destroy the skeletons skull from the inside out, causing the golden giant to fall limp and topple over, the magic force keeping it together ends and the bones separate and crumble apart.

After the battle Xanthias gets up and goes up to Garmelio, and feeds him one of his own healing potions. The two spend a while laying on the carpeted floor, just catching their breath and bandaging up their wounds.

The Rift Walkers later learn from Elder Starseer that this creature they counted was actually a **Gold Tusk** loxodon, and was a hero named **Morning Star the White**.

## Vault Room

Using a sleeping mist and paralysis spells, the unknown loxodon figures that captured the Rift Walkers to be interrogated by the Enforcer.

The triple locked chamber, opened by trial and error with the items the Rift Walkers "procured" from the Lodge of the Plains.

### Location

Original Arcane Temple, Throne Room (Floor 4)

### Inhabitants

Morning Star the White (undead)

The golden vault room found at the end of the hallway after the encounter with Morning Star the White, the Rift Walkers are able to enter after successfully after bypassing the three lock mechanism using the **Stonehorn** family heirlooms.

Garmelio took a look around at the bookshelves and found a plethora of important and interesting looking texts.

#### Dust Covered Bookshelf

* **Glossary on Dragons** (book)
* **Construction Documents & List of Hired Contractors related to the Lodge of the Plains** (paperwork)
* **High Priest of the Lodge** (book)
* **The Godly Dragons** (book)

The duo proceed and look through the chests, none of which are locked. They find a plethora of gold coin with a few platinum sprinkled as well.

#### Golden Chests

* **2p** + **1p** + **12gp** + **15gp** + **9gp** + **21gp** + **25 gp** + **14 gp** = **(3p, 96gp)**
	+ 15 gold coin left over from miscount, garmelio should take
* **x2 minor health potion** (1d4 health)
* **x3 health potion** (2d4+2 health)
* **Golden Flute "Masonic Battle-Pipe"** (+1 bardic inspiration die, +1 AC for round when used in combat)
* **Red Dragon Scale Gauntlets, with Golden Claws** (no attunement, does not affect spell casting, adds fire resistance on arms and hands, melee slashing *Swipe Attack* [2d8+4])
* **Golden Scepter of Morning Star the White** (1d6+3)
* **x14 Gold Tipped Arrows** (+1 damage)

The Rift Walkers were not able to look inside the central golden safe before they were ambushed by a mist of sleeping fog. Garmelio was unaffected because of his **Fey Ancestry** and Xanthias was able to use an **Enhance Ability** on himself to stay conscious.

The attackers didn't anticipate a fight, so Garmelio was able to cast an **Aganazzar’s Scorcher**down the tight hallway, but was quickly stopped as a mages in the back targeted the duo with **Hold Person** spells, unable to stop themselves from breathing in the sleeping fog they fall unconscious and are taken to the **Arcane Temple's** Arcane Prison..