The Next Chamber

The room the party entered a room that was almost three times the size of the prior chamber and adorned with pieces of statues along the wall with what looked like platform-like bases at each of the corners and center of the room. It looked like everything would be mostly straightforward, if a little more time-consuming than such an activity would usually anticipate. Naturally, Jonah and his companions opted to return to wearing their attire as they glanced about the room, so most of the observations came as they were putting what passed for their clothes back on. After they had their attire back on, the party decided to further investigate the room. The results proved more amusing than one would anticipate. Who found what in the search was a bit of a surprise when all was said and done.

Molsalkisa somehow ended up searching through her bag instead and found a blue diamond she thought she had lost in her component pouch; she was reasonably embarrassed when she realized the state of her decisions. Ulnarka studied the nearest platform; it was unreasonably smooth, and she barely found what seemed to be a peg poking out of the top of the platform. Ariana didn’t find anything that seemed helpful; she could barely tell one piece from another; at best, she estimated there were somewhere between 25 and 35 individual pieces. Jonah started to piece things together when he read the plaque on the center pedestal; it looked like it had a riddle on the plaque that made mention of a figure in the role of a hero; he would work out what that meant when he talked with the ladies. Trisha found a plaque on the back right pedestal with a riddle making reference to what she took to mean another story archetype. Marsha, amusingly, found the most out of all of them; she was able to find what pieces were most likely going to fit together and noticed the riddles on 3 of the 4 corner pedestals, making reference to different story archetypes she recognized as Fantasy story archetypes being mentioned, even if she couldn’t quite recognize the exact archetypes being referenced thanks to the wording, but at least she was able to get the gist of the kind of archetypes to expect from all this.

The group convened near the door, which had silently closed and pulled a disappearing act while the party was searching, to discuss what they had learned. “So,” said Jonah, “What have we learned? I think we should compare notes.”

“I spent more time searching my bags than the room,” said Molsalkisa with an overtly embarrassed tone.

“Checking what we have is important too,” said Trisha, “I didn’t find much, in my opinion.”

“What did everyone discover,” inquired Jonah.

“I studied one of the platforms,” said Ulnarka, “it seemed to have some sort of protrusion one of the pieces could potentially slot onto.”

“I’m not sure if it’s notable,” said Ariana, “but I counted what seemed to be about thirty individual pieces for the broken-up statues.”

“I noticed the plaque I investigated had some kind of riddle that seemed to be a story archetype reference,” said Trisha.

“I noticed something similar,” said Jonah.

“I think I figured out what pieces most likely go together and noticed the plaques make references to Fantasy archetypes,” said Marsha.

“The center statue made reference to a Hero archetype,” said Jonah. “Marsha, how about you take Ulnarka and Ariana with you and guide them in the direction of where you’ve judged the pieces most likely go? After that, we can break up into teams to stack the pieces to rebuild the statues.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Marsha, “what about the rest of you?”

“I think Molsalkisa will need to organize her spell selection for the day,” said Jonah, “I get the feeling she forgot to finish her prep for the day.”

“Well,” said Molsalkisa, “he’s not wrong. Also, your sister appears to be a storm sorceress; it would probably be a good idea to help her better understand the basics of arcane magics, which I’m currently the best qualified to handle.”

“And seeing as Jonaha literally spent most of his time in the prior room fucking most of the party,” said Trisha, “and given how that first room went, we can probably expect similar chambers in the dungeon. Probably for the best if we let Jonah rest up a bit in this room while we all take care of most of what’s here.”

Jonah thanked Trisha and went over to the wall to take a quick nap. Marsha went over to the pieces with Ulnarka and Ariana to start sorting things out. Molsalkisa got a few simple items out of her bags and placed them between her and Trisha before getting ready to give Trisha a brief beginner course on magic.