Editing Epic - The Hidden Temple (section)

==The Path of the Second Pagoda==

This time the symbology was for Earth over Iron on Water; the four pillars rose to support a dome with carved structures atop it, which were all man-made stone structures of some kind, and a humanoid stone creature at its highest point. There was an armourer's beating iron surrounded by a pool of water beneath the structure. These were auspicious in their order, suggesting that we were indeed on Shang-Ti's path. We did not have time to reflect for long, though, as the stone creature on the dome animated and jumped down. At the same time a creature rose from the water, and fire, air, and iron creatures emerged into the room from the walls. Each seemed to leave a trail of some kind that linked it back to its origin, and they all quickly moved to attack us! It was clear that Wood was missing, so the plant creature from the last room was significant.

Fulgar was attacked first and bitten by the fire-lizard whilst being surrounded by the air creature (that was like a dust devil from the desert but being directed by some will). Garuk suffered too, being punched by the iron and earth creatures (they had a humanoid form). I threw some crystal dust at the trail of water, breaking it and somewhat diminishing the creature facing me, and Garuk conjured magic missiles to strike the iron form and started to phase in and out of sight. Fulgar shouted that we must restore the creature of wood to bring balance, and tried to run back to do so, but the whirlwind around him prevented any escape. I was enveloped by the water thing, and it covered my head so I had to hold my breath, and Garuk was struck again... the situation was quite desperate!

Garuk used his mind against his attackers and forced the iron creature to move away. Fulgar managed to break through the air barrier through sheer determination and force, getting clear and running back to the archway to sprinkle water and bring the plant creature we had seen previously back to life once more. Garuk conjured some kind of magical barrier around himself to protect against further physical attacks. I was also able to break free of the enveloping water, moving into the room to make space for the plant creature to enter... although it seemed slow!

When it eventually lumbered in, the plant creature confronted the stone/earth foe first and ripped it apart with grasping tendrils. It then turned and did the same to the water creature, dissipating it into nothing as it lost its form. I tried to weaken the fire creature with an attack, expecting it to be the strongest against our new ally, but I destroyed it in one strike! Another fire creature appeared in its place, looking more powerful than the first one, but then I lost sight as I was surrounded by the whirling air creature as Fulgar had been before.

Garuk healed some of his wounds with the wand we had found on the table. The air and fire creatures were focused on me, which was painful but in lots of small wounds - at least I was keeping them busy and away from the others. The plant creature struggled to find purchase on the iron construct but eventually managed to rip that apart as well, and moved to engage the air thing next... which was unfortunate as I was still inside it! I was battered by both the whipping whirlwind and the plant's tendrils trying to attack that which constrained me, but thankfully Fulgar came to my aid and pulled me out roughly.

With me removed, for the moment, the elemental creatures tried to attack the others instead, and Fulgar was engulfed by the whirlwind againd! Thankfully the plant creature somehow dissipated the air creature before Fulgar could take too much damage, which just left fire. The plant creature was started to wilt a little, with a couple of its tendrils no longer moving, so Fulgar ran back to pour more water into the holes that brought it to life in the first place and that seemed to rejuvenated it. Even with this aid the plant was set alight as it fought with the fire creature, so Fulgar ran behind it and used his ability to heal others to sustain it. Garuk, in turn, used his wand to heal some of Fulgar's wounds. With this support the plant creature was able to overcome the fire and extinguish it after a fierce battle.

Seemingly satisfied now that the other creatures were beaten, the plant creature returned to the previous room and slowly returned to its original stone form. We assembled in front of the pagoda again, and Fulgar prayed to Shang-Ti, saying that we had faced his challenge and asked that the Way could be revealed to us. It seemed that his prayer was answered as we heard stone grinding on stone somewhere on the far side of the pagoda, followed by the sound of rushing air. Garuk asked Fulgar whether it was acceptable to take water from the pagoda, and as they debated what might be a violation of Shang-Ti's holy place I moved around to see what had made the noise.

It was clear that there was a strong current of air moving upwards at some speed behind the pagoda, but there were no visible holes either above or below that could explain how it was moving. It was strong, that was for sure, pushing my hand up hard when I reached out to it. It would probably carry our weight, although it seemed that it would just smash us into the ceiling. I described this to the others, and we were of the consensus that we needed to travel up with the air to continue on the Way. Before we did anything, though, Garuk used his wand to treat our injuries - it was truly a gift from Shang-Ti.

We looked again at the column of air and the stone above, and I commented that it seemed to be a test of faith... at which Fulgar immediately stepped into it, not wanting to show any doubt of Shang-Ti's path! He disappeared quickly, and it was clear that he had been taken somewhere else, so I followed as quickly as I can with Garuk just behind me. We all appeared quite close together bathed in a pale blue light, but were all strangely aligned at angles... I couldn't tell which way was up! I started to fall almost as soon as I thought about "down" and "up", but Fulgar grabbed me and stopped me in mid-air... how was he flying? I asked him as much but all he could answer was "I don't know"!

Garuk appeared to be able to move around, even though he made no effort with his arms and legs. He tried to explain that we had to use our minds to control our movements. I was very confused, but as I tried what he suggested it was almost as if my mind knew what to do and it only took a few moments before I found it quite easy to move around without effort. Fulgar asked if there were any land, wanting to be stood on firm ground, and Garuk pointed out a blob of something solid he could see at some distance (it was hard to tell how far in this place). As we looked around we noticed that there were a lot of blobs of all kinds of shape and colour around. Fulgar, thinking that whatever it was would be land and that he wanted to be there suddenly shot towards it at incredible speed! I shouted that he needed to wait, and that we needed to make a choice rather than just go to the nearest thing we liked. We had to give chase just to stay within sight of him, again using our minds.

As we approached the "blob" we saw that it was actually a massive cube of metal that began to loom in front of us as we grew closer. Fulgar stopped sharply when he realised this, and we had to quickly stop nearby in fear of overshooting. We took a moment then to discuss where the fuck we were. Garuk was the only one that seemed comfortable, and just described it as a place of Air. I did feel strangely at ease here, perhaps because Air was aligned to Shang Ti in some way? As I was thinking this I suddenly saw a great warrior riding on a chariot pulled by winged horses, and saw that he was being chased by a handful of winged people. As I looked he started to bank towards us, and it felt to me like this was meant to happen, was part of our test of worthiness. The others wanted to escape and avoid a fight, but I said that we must stay to meet him... but only I could see him - they only saw his pursuers!

As they approached I saw and heard, more softly than I expected, the warrior calling to me to protect him, addressing me as "Protector of the Path". We could also see the flying creatures more clearly and there was a strange aura around them, almost as if there were elements in conflict: dust and sparks of lightning mixed with the air. Garuk, for a moment, also saw the great warrior... surely a God come to judge us? The next moment his chariot passed straight through us, and we heard a command for us to destroy them. We felt energised by his touch, even though he disappeared, and Fulgar suddenly felt emboldened to fight. The Gods were with us! The creatures were onto us quickly, but Fulgar made the first blow, punching powerfully into its abdomen. They appeared like flying females but with the weird aura making their existence feel wrong here.

Garuk was struck by spears twice but Fulgar dodged a blow and I blocked one with my shield. They produced nets, and it was clear they wanted to capture us in some way. I struck one with my Khopesh, and Garuk drew his sword and connected with an overhead swing in one smooth action. Garuk attacked with his mind, but it wasn't clear if it had changed anything. Fulgar lashed out again and killed one, and my second blow finished another. Garuk didn't disappoint, managing to the kill the one he wounded. That left two of them.

Fulgar was struck by one of the spears, and immediately fell into a deep sleep. His foe threw their net, which wrapped tightly around him, and then turned as if to make off with him. Garuk started to phase in and out as we had seen before, and a spear that would surely have hit him found nothing to connect with as he did so. Fulgar was dragged away, but we were able to keep up and I cut at the thing dragging him twice, killing it. When I tried to free Fulgar, though, the magic affected me and I fell asleep as well!

Luckily the last foe had been confused by Garuk's mental assault and was still "fighting" with the air where we had left it behind so we had time to try and sort out the mess we were in... well Garuk did anyway. He used his knife to unravel the net without touching it, so that Fulgar was at least free, but we were both still asleep. He messed around a bit getting his bow back and healing some of his wounds before moving us away from the last foe in case they regained their senses. Then he tried to use water to revive us, but instead created some kind of electrical monster that quickly built in strength and injured him and me. He fled again, taking us away from the new threat as fast as he could but leaving a massive electrical storm behind.

Eventually we woke up, and were grateful to Garuk for protecting us. We were ravenous with hunger so I started eating some rations. Fulgar went back for his kill, but trying to eat it sent him asleep again and we had to wait even longer! As we waited I heard a message in my head from the warrior we had fought for; he said that we had served Shang-Ti well and that a messenger would come. As foretold, just as Fulgar was awakening again, a huge bee-like thing the size of a man flew up to us. It spoke, bidding us to come with it and flew away. Fulgar was feeling shame again and doubting whether he was worthy to follow the path. I tried to reassure him, after all the shame was theirs for bringing magic to a fight, not ours.

The bee creature took us towards a section of floating earth with water flowing across and down the side, and and trees growing atop it. He would go no farther so we continued and alighted on the ground before the trees. There were iron figures standing between us and the trees, and as we landed they reacted - moving slowly towards us. There was a stream to our left flowing quickly and we split up as we moved forward, noticing that they moved to intercept one of us each. The others moved around the edges as I drew one into the centre. Once they were apart we ran towards the trees, hoping that they could not catch us. Fulgar was hit by a blow but then we were into the treeline and they stopped, seeming unwilling to enter.

The trees were thicker that we thought and I lost track of where the others were until Fulgar shouted that he had found something. I moved towards him, arriving almost at the same time as Garuk. There was a star inside a circle on the floor, about ten feet across. The lines were inlaid with gold but grass was growing between lines. At the centre of the star was a raised circular bowl about a foot and a half across with burning embers inside and an iron grate covering them. A stick of wood was floating above the grate, although it was really dark and tapered at one end unlike any natural stick I had seen. Fulgar stepped inside the outer circle and doubled over in pain, coming out quickly and making us study the patterns more closely.

There was more detail there, with a crescent moon in light and darkness, and other moon symbology around the edge. It seemed like life was on the left and death on the right - Fulgar had entered on the wrong side. There might be a time element, with the moon waxing towards the top and waning towards the bottom although we couldn't be sure. We stepped in from the top left, and were enveloped by a golden glow that made us feel revived and refreshed. Our waterskins refilled, food reappeared, everything we had used on the path so far was restored. Another great blessing from Shang-Ti, although I couldn't help but think that the warrior that had spoken to me was Huang-Ti; was it him I should be serving given my role of protector?

Garuk discovered that he had some new bits of paper that he seemed very interested in, and Fulgar now had a golden torc around his neck that had not been there before. We were all stronger from our experience on the path. Now that we were closer, Garuk used his dweomer to understand the "stick" floating above the embers - apparently it would enable him to summon a pocket of a different plane, whatever that meant. We applied a lighted torch to the grate and it caught fire easily, quickly growing into a massive fire that surrounded us all - we had been transported to a place of fire and the heat was unbearable! Thankfully Garuk was able to use the "wand" he had studied to create a place that we could survive on, the heat instantly subsiding.

It was difficult to see much of anything outside the sphere we were in, but it was clear that there were other pockets of different material out there. Garuk was able to extend the sphere incrementally until it intersected with what looked like the nearest, and turned out to be a rock wall. Given the heat it had been subjected to, though, it was hot, molten rock rather than the solid stone we were used to. Following the sequence of Shang-Ti and the elements, we applied the lighted torch to the surface of the molten rock and instantly flames ran along the surface. Garuk stepped right into it, disappearing! We followed, despite it seeming really unnatural, and although we did not get covered by molten rock I still emerged from the other side on fire! Fuck that hurt! My friends managed to extinguish the flames before too much damage was done, although it used precious waterskins.

Once they had done so it turned out to be very dark, though, so Garuk put flame to a lantern revealing another pocket he had created. There was a pattern on the floor - another runestone-like symbol with five pedestals. I started to approach the one we thought should be activated only for a triangle to fall from beneath one of my feet! Fulgar grabbed me and pulled me back before I lost my balance, but it did at least reveal the correct way to approach the pedestal given the pattern. I did so and dumped the last of the crystal dust onto the pedestal, and at once we were surrounded by water.

This journey was more trying that I had expected! Garuk summoned another pocket so we did not have to hold our breath for long, but as he did so the wand crumbled to dust and was gone. Fulgar investigated the water, as it turned out he was a good swimmer, and found that there was a bubbling air pocket tantalisingly close to where we were. He warned that it was not an easy swim, with currents swirling around, and said that he would investigate further and come back. He made the journey safely, and as he crossed the boundary he passed through the bubbles back into breathable air. The pocket he was now in contained a fiery creature in the centre, about eight feet tall, and there were loose flasks, cases and bits of equipment floating around in its vicinity... along with the charred remains of a body.

The creature closed quickly to engage Fulgar, so he was forced to defend himself. Will all the fire it hurt Fulgar badly, but he was thankfully able to best it and a mini-fireball imploded leaving nothing but a little smoke that dissipated in the air. Fulgar screamed "that was unnecessary!" in pain and frustration, although there was nobody there to hear him. We were oblivious to this at the time, but eventually Fulgar returned although he was gasping for breath and barely made the crossing. He looked oddly scorched but wet, and he explained about his encounter with the fire creature. He had brought three vials back with him in case they were another offering from Shang-Ti to aid us, and given the distance we had to travel and our inability to swim we each took one and drank them in good faith, stepping into the water to see what effect they might have had. It turned out that Garuk and I were able to breathe the water, and Fulgar could swim really fast. A solution presented itself - Fulgar was able to drag us across one by one to the air pocket using his new speed, so Shang-Ti had indeed provided for us.