Probing the Secret Garden

Jessica walked through the remains of the outer archway into the oasis, taking a moment to savour the cool shade on her limbs and grab a drink from her pack. Once recovered, she set her bag down and began to analyze her surroundings.

She was in a lush desert oasis, surrounded on palm trees on all sides. The vegetation provided a reasonable amount of shade, but it was not deep, only a few hundred meters in depth. While overgrown with shrubbery, she could see a clear pathway to the center of the garden, with pillars, some broken, some still standing, framing the way forward. This seemed like a logical first step in her search for one of the artifacts. She advanced slowly, cautious about any surprises the garden might hold for her.

As she made her way down the path, she could see ahead, in an area still exposed to the sunlight, that there was a stone door blocking the way forward. Eventually approaching it, she gave it an investigative shove, to which it did not budge. Undeterred, she began to investigate a means to open the door. Her attention was first drawn to the clearing she was standing in. She was standing in a perfect circle, someone, at some point, had groomed the oasis to maintain this circle, and nothing had grown in the harsh desert sun. Even the most junior archeologist would recognize this as a ritual site. She was on the right track! Her guess was that performing the ritual would open the door. The question was what the ritual might be.

Her next investigative step was to examine the pillars. Most of them were badly damaged or worn from centuries in the desert, but an archeologist of her skill wouldn't need much. Two pillars were still standing. The first was a picture of a woman, nude save for the collar Jessica now wore around her neck, kneeling in front of the door. The second was an inscription that read:

Bathe yourself in Inanna's light, give yourself to her, and she will bestow her gifts upon you

Jessica took a moment to consider this information. It must be a pressure plate underneath the stone clearing. She jogged back to the door, kneeling in front of it and....

Nothing. Nothing happened. She cursed under her breath. She was missing a detail. Her stomach rumbled as she realized the sun was beginning to set. She would make a rough camp, eat something, and give it another go.