Editing Journal - The Crown of Wisdom (section)

==The Temple to All Gods==

At the very top we reached a plateau, but it was too dark to see what was at the centre. A little farther on we reached a steep slope leading up to a promontory, although again we couldn't see how large it was. There were no heat sources in view, so Falcor used his grappling hook and dagger to pull himself up the ice. I followed closely, enlarging the holes with my own dagger to make footholds that we could use to safely climb. Arad remained at the bottom to cover us with his bow until Falcor reached the top. Once Falcor was safely up, Arad began his ascent. There were no obvious threats, but he did see a warmer patch in the ground about ten yards from where he was.

He waited, though, and we gathered at the top of the slope while Falcor lighted a lantern; this took a little while as the oil had to be warmed to ensure it was a liquid. Once we had some light it was clear that the warmer patch had been liquid at some point in the centre, but had frozen over since. Falcor then directed the light ahead and revealed a stone structure that had once been well constructed but was now old and heavily eroded. The walls were partially collapsed in many places and the floor inside was covered with snow.

Arad blessed us with the power of the Creator, but then immediately had a sense that he was being watched from somewhere ahead and to our left. Falcor and I approached the structure cautiously, but then Arad sprinted past slipping on the snow occasionally but keeping his feet. He passed to the right of the building and then stopped to pray again, creating some light ahead at the far end of the ruin. The light highlighted an area ahead and to our left that contained another corner of the structure. It was odd; there were at least two piles of rubble but they appeared to be placed where they were as if someone had collected the pieces together and made the piles deliberately.

While we were contemplating this there was a noise from the warm spot that we had passed and a large wyrm with intensely glowing spines along its back emerged from beneath the snow. It scuttled towards me as I reached the wall of the temple. Falcor rushed to intercept it and used his mind in a brutal attack that caused it to slump to the ground and didn't move again. I tried to reach out to Karmana, but there was no connection to be found here! Cernurros was present, but there should have been no reason for Karmana to be excluded from what the Guardian had told us. After reaching out in this way I suddenly felt compelled to leave, thinking that it was unsafe and that we shouldn't be there. Arad agreed, also saying that he didn't feel we should be near the temple. But whilst I started to back off on the ground, Arad started to levitate, rising straight up above the ground.

The water was melting around the creature, as it was still intensely hot, but it seemed to be running in towards the centre of the temple. There seemed to be a slight slope inwards, and according to Falcor there might be a circle of slightly different temperature at the centre of the temple. This was of interest, but Falcor was confused as to why the rest of us wanted to leave so soon. It was clear, looking back, that something was impelling us to leave when we called on our Gods' power, although it seemed like a reasonable aversion to the area at the time. Arad lowered a rope so that Falcor could tow him around but refused to get any closer, being happy about thirty feet up in the air!

We started moving to the east, away from the fire wyrm, but Falcor asked if Arad could see any more at the centre of the temple from where he was (there was no roof, and nor did it seem to have had one originally). Arad prayed to the Creator again, causing the centre to become brightly lit, and we could see that there was a hole in the centre about ten feet across that the water was draining into. The hole was well constructed, so it was built there intentionally and not damage or decay. Strangely the compulsion to leave seemed to have diminished and Arad was all of a sudden interested in investigating further. He started to descend, getting some help from Falcor yanking his rope.

Once Arad was on firm ground again, Falcor entered the temple and made his way towards the hole. However as he did so he felt that something on the floor was trying to draw power from him and he pulled his foot back before it made contact, stepping back. He was in the temple, so it wasn't a general effect - it had to be localised in some way. I tried setting light to some oil on the snow, but it was so cold that it didn't melt easily and I had to dig under it and around to make a runoff for the water. Falcor passed me a trident (which he made suddenly appear out of nowhere) to help move the snow, and that at least meant my hands were warmer.

Falcor investigated the interior more while I worked. It seemed that there was an entrance in the direction we approached from originally, with some of the arch visible still. Falcor also lowered a lantern down the hole on a rope to see if there were any remains of stairs or side passages, but it seemed to be just a very deep shaft. Once I had got rid of most of the snow in the place he had drawn back from, Falcor placed the burning lantern on the last bit and let it melt away. Underneath we could see the tip of two gold lines meeting, likely to be the point of a star, inlaid in gold into the stone floor.

We spent another half an hour or so revealing the rest of the star, and were a little surprised to see a solid gold circle at the centre - not something we had seen before. One pile of rubble, just outside the nearby wall, would have formed a pedestal that could have sat on the solid gold circle and presumably be used to activate it in some way. So if a circle is around a star then the Gods associated with the circle are dominant; if the star is around the circle then the Gods associated with the star are dominant; and here we had a circle beside a star, with neither dominant - it seemed that it had truely been a temple that welcomed all Gods.

We decided that we needed to wait until morning to see more clearly and pick up any clues that we were missing in the dark. Falcor watched the wyrm closely as we rested, but it didn't move for the rest of the night. As the sun rose in the east on another beautiful crisp, clear day we could see that the rubble under the body of the creature was made of a similar material to the walls and flagstones of the temple. The pedestal remains were marble, and there was another pile of rubble that looked like basalt to the north of temple. When I took a closer look at the basalt it was clear that it had been an obelisk of Karmana.

Looking farther afield, we could see six structures arranged evenly around the central temple, on the lower plateau. Each of these structures had six pillars holding a conical roof above them, and were all intact. Each also contained a stone pedestal about a yard high, with what looked like some kind of concave top. Falcor took another look at the hole at the centre of the temple, and found that it had once had a structure above it that had been sheared off cleanly at ground level, and it was likely that this was the source of the pile of stone under the creature.

Falcor then moved to a flagstone that looked slightly out of place, and would have formed a third place evenly spaced with and in line with the circle and star. Falcor hammered a spike into it to try and move it, eventually breaking a little that he could move to get a purchase. The stone was a good four inches thick, so no wonder it took some effort. Meanwhile I checked the opening that used to be an archway for any trigger traps, but found nothing; there was an engraving on the outside, though, a set of runes that we had never seen before. In fact we had never seen any language like it before.

Having surveyed the central temple we decided to explore the structures around it, and specifically the one to the south as that was more likely to be linked to Air and the Sarn we sought. On the way we approached the structure to the southwest so that we could compare them. It had a star-shaped base with six hexagonal pillars holding up the conical roof, and a pedestal in the centre of the base with a concave top. Each pillar had a star with runes inside, and each set of runes was different. The runes from the northern pillar were also on the pedestal, although there was no star around those ones.

When we then looked at the structure to the south we surmised that the same runes always faced the central temple, and that each pedestal had runes that matched the set to the north of their location. This meant that in the southern structure, significantly as the stanza for the Sarn we sought was found in the south when we revealed them in the Elvradhil halls, the runes on the pedestal matched the ones facing the temple. We focused on this, deeming it more significant, and Arad called a blessing on us from the Creator. There was a sudden gust of air as he did so, coming from the pedestal inside the structure, or so it seemed.

Arad had a think about a potential offering and pulled out a scroll, stepping onto the base to approach it... but as he stepped onto it there was a sudden, explosive in-rush of air that drew us all violently towards the pedestal. We were all just about able to hold on to the closest pillars, but Arad's legs were left flapping behind him with the constant pull of the air rushing inwards. Falcor manged to fight against it, moving away to where the wind wasn't so violent, but Arad and I lost our grip and flew in towards the centre, disappearing with a pop.

We both arrived in a grey nothingness with no air, completely unable to breathe! I quickly used Cernurros' wand to create a pocket of his realm for us, and thankfully we had arrived together so we were both able to gasp in the warm, humid air whilst laying on the soil. After a moment we considered how to get out of this place... I had an idea but was reluctant to use Cernurros' power so freely unless there was no other way. Arad said a prayer to the Creator and then sat motionless for half a minute or so, his eyes staring into space and what looked like pain on his face for some of the time, but eventually snapped back into focus breathing heavily. He had been almost overwhelmed and described being transported to what looked like his holy tree... but not quite the same, with some of the leaves curling and falling off at the edge of his vision.

He had concentrated, suspecting Eversor's work, and instead found himself in a chaotic realm with only unformed energy surging all around, the chaos causing him physical pain until he was able to withdraw back to this place. So it seemed that we had no choice but to appeal to Cernurros, and I took the sap he had gifted me from my pack, warning Arad to look away in case it affected him as Milada's tear had. I called on its power to move us physically to Cernurros' realm, feeling a wave of life energy washing over me from the sap and filling the pocket we sat in. As it reached the edge of the pocket it dissolved away, causing us a moment of panic, but what it revealed was that we had indeed arrived in Cernurros' realm properly and the sounds of the vibrant forest came flooding in.

This was Arad's first time here, of course, and I explained how we should be able to reach Aergarnion's clearing if Cernurros allowed it. We were not left wondering whether he would, as Cernurros himself came striding to meet us, the trees moving aside to grant him passage. He welcomed us even as we bowed low and gave him thanks for his aid. He warned that the place of vacuum contained dangerous forces, which made sense from what Arad had seen. Cernurros was a little confused as to why we would want to go back to a place of snow and ice, but was kind enough to agree to aid us in reaching Aergarnion.

I remembered the tree that I had transported myself to when I tried to return to the clearing myself, and Cernurros' power allowed us to both travel in the same way. We stepped into the nearest tree at his bidding; Arad was comfortable with the idea of traveling this way, but was slightly revulsed when he physically entered as it was an unfamiliar feeling not at all like he was used to. There was no incident, though, and we emerged in the place I remembered right next to the barrier to Aergarnion's realm. Once more it seemed I was now allowed to pass, with Arad this time, and the slight resistance didn't stop us from walking through into Cor'iltuarladecaeli.

The clearing was empty, but we were eager to return to Falcor and Arad used Aergarnion's feather to call out to him. We did not have to wait very long at all, and Aergarnion blinked into the air above us and drifted down gracefully to join us. He seemed surprised to find us there, saying that it was rare for anyone to find their own way to Cor'iltuarladecaeli, but if anyone could he supposed that it would be Arad. To be fair Arad did say that I had something to do with it, as well as Cernurros of course. Aergarnion did warn us that Cernurros' love can be smothering, and that few leave his realm.

Arad thanked him for his concern, and then quickly spoke of the temple we wished to return to. Aergarnion thought he knew the place, where life and death hung in the balance... although it sounded as if the balance might have shifted towards death. As Arad was explaining how we ended up needed help to return, Aergarnion reared back at the mention of the place without air we had been trapped in. Aergarnion agreed to take us back to the temple, and Arad thanked him for his aid. We carefully climbed onto his back as he dropped a wing, and readied for the launch into the air. Arad promised Aergarnion that he would not overuse the feather to make demands of him, and the response was that he would come when he was needed but not just because he was asked, then he leapt powerfully into the air and we felt the transition to another place as we had before.

We traveled through the place of air again, where Aergarnion felt most comfortable, and he flew for what seemed like half an hour or so before making the transition to Karmana. The biting cold hit us as soon as he did so, and we could see that he was circling the temple as he descended towards the central temple building. He landed gently on the star we had revealed, and once we had dismounted he said that he would leave us as it was quite cold, and disappeared quite suddenly as was his manner. Thankfully Falcor greeted us from the far end of the building, having returned here once we disappeared (that had been sufficient to end the trap that had caught us it seemed.

We recounted our experiences and then Falcor told us that he had spoken with Milada about how the temple worked. The outer buildings were locks that could open portals in the central temple when activated correctly using the opposite element to that desired (in order to maintain balance). If they were misused then a trap was activated instead, which is what we had experienced. As Falcor was talking about this detail, Arad and I noticed that there were four flying creature approaching from the west and I alerted Falcor as he had his back to them. They were icy in nature, with glowing red eyes, and I worried what their appearance might do to the elemental balance here. I stepped outside but kept my back to the wall so they could not surround me.

Falcor ran forward to engage them but slipped on the ice and fell on his arse! Arad moved to the south and the creatures divided into two pairs to engage him and me, ignoring Falcor. They flew to within about ten feet and then spat ice shards at us before closing to melee. Their breath chilled our skin painfully, but the claws were worse with cold lingering in the wounds long after they were made. We each landed good blows on at least one of our respective attackers, but they were flying and difficult to bring down. Falcor and Arad both tried attacked with their minds but the things were shielded by another, more powerful mind so they could not affect them. Falcor tried magic as well, throwing a small diamond into the air whilst shouting an incantation, which caused a red orb to appear, but again it didn't seem to affect the creatures.

I suppose we'd just have to do it the hard way, and I connected with another sword blow although again it failed to bring down the creature. Arad was caught in the icy breath again, and I suffered as well despite dodging the worst of it. Now that Falcor was on his feet and a threat he was also targeted. Thankfully my next blow shattered one of the attackers into shards of ice, so they were not immune to being smashed with solid steel. Arad connected with a decent swing, splintering the creature but somehow not quite shattering it.

My fears about balance were about to be realised, though. As we had been fighting a glow had appeared from one of the outer pagodas and now a massive column of water appeared above the star behind us in the temple, and then turned into a creature that moved with purpose. It flowed around the hole, splitting into two to do so, but losing some of its form as it froze and fell away when it got too close. It was heading our way, though! Arad finished off the foe he nearly killed last time, and it shattered like the first one. He twisted and struck the other attacker with a it, and lands a blow on his other attacker. Meanwhile Falcor and I concentrated on the other one, both landing hits and then Falcor delivered a killing blow which freed me to aid Arad.

I quickly approached behind it and stabbed it with my short sword, and Arad took the opportunity to swing both is weapons into it, shattering it completely. It let out one last icy breath at Arad just before it died, but we were able to turn our attention to the water creature in the temple. We saw it smash into the fire wyrm and, despite the wyrm still not moving, there was an explosive burst of steam that scalded me slightly. Once that cleared we saw that the water creature had been much diminished in the exchange and was slinking back away from us... this time avoiding the circle. It went right back to the centre of the star and then disappeared in a vortex up into the sky, leaving us alone once more.

We had all been hurt in the fighting, though, and I took a couple of swigs of Churl's fertiliser to help with the pain. I offered it to Arad who found it most invigorating... but also turned slightly green as he drank it! I took it back quickly, wary of Aergarnion's warning and what it might do to Arad. We made our way back to the pagoda that had caused us so much trouble the first time, knowing now that we would have to create a vacuum to get a portal to the place of air in order to seek the Sarn. We tried melting water in bottles and a flask and then calling on Karmana to destroy the water, creating a vacuum, but the vessels were not strong enough to stay intact when we did so.

We had to resort to me calling on Karmana to create water inside the concave pedestal inside, hoping that destroying it afterwards would create the vacuum in the right place to activate the portal. We knew that this was risky because it created an elemental imbalance when the water was created but we had no other option. Sure enough, as soon as Karmana had granted us her blessing of water a lightning storm focused into a tight area appeared just inside the pagoda in front of me. Falcor summoned a wall of fog, trying to shield me from sight, but lightning bolts shot out and one struck me painfully. Tendrils of lightning discharge snaked out around a wide area and the others were hurt even though they had stood well back (thanks for the vote of confidence there).

Arad did move up to my side and tried to protect me with a prayer to the Creator, and Falcor ran forward to throw something at it. This certainly helped; there was an explosive detonation within the creature that sent puffs of its essence out in different directions, and then the lightning surrounding it was contained within an invisible sphere that surrounded the creature. I quaffed a healing potion, feeling a bit better, and seeing that the lightning was contained I prayed once more to Karmana to destroy the water in the pedestal. As soon as I finished my prayer the creature disappeared, a bright glowing ball of force appeared above the pedestal, and we heard a rush of wind from the central temple. We could see the snow being blown up and around the building there as well, and it was clear that the wind was strong.

We made our way back to the temple and it was clear as we approached that the air was moving in towards the centre. We tied ourselves together with rope in case anyone lost their footing and moved up the slope to approach the main structure cautiously. The wind was strong, but we were able to get inside the temple safely. It was as we drew closer to the star that the wind rose to the point it felt like we were standing in a storm. It was now, inconveniently, that we had the revelation that simply opening a portal to the place of air was not enough, after all we had just come from there with Aergarnion. In order to take us closer to the Sarn we would need to move closer to chaos (we knew that he was closer to Eversor), which meant introducing order to the temple. So... we probably should have repaired the pedestal for the star BEFORE creating a towering vortex above it!

We decided that we would try to repair the "lock" that was the cap for the chaotic/death circle to start with, so we ferried the rubble from outside the wall to the area around it, roughly rebuilding the shape as best we could. I then knelt and touched the remains, trying to use the crown in a way I hadn't before to flow death energy into the substance rather than life. I felt the power flow, but as it did so my sight went purple and I collapsed unconscious. The others saw a bright white glow around the object and it was reformed without damage, and a noticeable glow in a crescent on its top marked several runes that had appeared. The others pulled my body backwards, concerned for my safety, and found that I was barely hanging on to life. Arad treated some of my minor wounds, but then called on the Creator to bless me with his energy, which seemed to counter whatever dark energy had drained me. Whilst I came to, though, Arad's prayer had attracted the attention of something powerful again and he was driven away with the compulsion to leave as he had been before.

Arad at least managed to stop himself before leaving the plateau, and Falcor looked out for him as I examined the cap we had repaired. The runes on the top spelled "C???ATBALAMAT" from what we knew of the script, and made a crescent from north to south via the west side. As we pondered what this might mean, the air column abruptly stopped; it seemed that the connection closed after a time. This gave us the chance to repair the pedestal with the star, so we moved the pieces to rebuild it in a rather shaky best effort of what it should look like. Again I used the crown to reform it, but this time with life-giving energy that I was much more comfortable with. This time I saw the bright light glowing around the pedestal as it reformed, and again it was left unmarked as if it had never been destroyed. Runes could be seen in another crescent, this time from north to south on the east side - the other half of a circle if they had been put together: "C???ATBALLERAL".

Then we heard the sound of horns and roars, the Guardians were approaching from at least three sides - had we offended the Gods in some way? Falcor asked us to stay together and used his power to turn us invisible just as arrows rained down from above. Falcor was hurt, although we couldn't see it at the time. The attackers were blue-skinned flying humanoid creatures above the temple... were they Elvra? I tried to reach out but they didn't respond to mental communication. They did target me, though, despite not seeing us so they were seeing and hearing me, just choosing not to respond. Arad prayed to the Creator and silenced the area we were in, allowing us to jog away to escape the bow fire.

We headed south outside the temple and seemed to have escaped for a moment. I called on Karmana to allow us to walk lightly across the snow again, and we made our way carefully down and away from the temple using our footprints in the snow from earlier movements. Then finally left a fainter trail once we had almost reached the outer pagoda and found shelter in a rocky outcrop to rest. Falcor kept watch and saw heat sources entering the air pagoda and disappearing after a while, hopefully marking their departure.

Falcor woke us at the first pre-dawn light and we returned to the temple finding it empty apart from the body of the wyrm that was still scorching hot. We were holding hands all of this time as we were still invisible and didn't want to lose track of each other, but were able to approach the star without any threat of attack. Arad went inside and poured some holy water into the pedestal bowl and it glowed as the water touched it. The brightness grew until the whole bowl was glowing as bright as daylight and uncomfortable to look at. The light spread down the pedestal and then radiated out until the whole star was glowing brightly. Falcor felt drawn towards its energy, but managed to stay outside knowing that we were not done with the ceremony to open the gate we needed. Arad felt the energy restore him, as if he were connected to the tree of life, a wholesome warmth that penetrated every part of his being.

Reluctantly he and Falcor moved back and then we returned to the air pagoda again. We knew what to expect, and also that it would not be easy. Once again I created water in the pedestal inside the pagoda, and sure enough the electrical storm that formed into a creature appeared again. Falcor was ready with his beads of force to try and contain it again, but it took three throws to trap it this time and we couldn't avoid getting shocked by its forking bolts of energy. That really hurt, but I now had time to destroy the water to create a vacuum as before. This time there was no rushing column of air within the temple, which was good, and we trudged through the snow back to see what had happened there.

As we approached we noticed a crackling energy between the south and southeast points of the star, so we had opened something that seemed to be in the right place. Before we investigated that, though, we wanted to try to reform the obelisk as we might not be able to return to the temple. The problem was that the wyrm was lying across the remains of the obelisk. Arad levitated the creature and we rushed forward to shove it as hard as we could. My crown protected us from the worst of the heat, but I was still left with burns and I quickly stuck my arms into the snow to ease the pain. We had done just enough to shift its bulk away from the pieces, although we had to be careful getting too close as we moved the bits away.

Falcor got closest, and seemed to love taking hold of the molten essence of karmana where the heat had almost liquefied it - much to our alarm! It didn't seem to hurt him, though, and he played with it before putting it with the other pieces. Again we were able to roughly rebuild the form of the obelish, but this time it was Falcor that touched it and the shards knitted together to become a perfect shape once more. As he did this, though, he started to turn into a glowing magma form himself! Arad grabbed him and pulled him away from the obelisk, finding that he was unresponsive. We both dragged him out of the temple and then I used the crown to heal him. At that he returned to us, but actually seemed a bit peeved that we had brought him back! He had been enjoying wherever he had gone until we wrenched him away, and he seemed very invigorated and happy in himself - certainly much more than before.