The Crucible Heroes head toward the disturbance and come across the remains of an ancient building or temple constructed of dark granite and literally thrust up out of the ground. The columns and "floor" of the structure have been carved with strange runes and writings that the Company cannot decipher. On the floor is the burnt and disfigured body of a wraith elf, who appears to be Ikinya. A broken rod lies nearby. His final word before dying is "Tennyson."
After investigating, the heroes discover a metal "plug" in the floor which appears to have already been lifted out and hastily replaced. B'gokktem and Grumash lift the plug again and a secret staircase reveals itself in the floor, heading down into the earth. They enter the darkness and discover an underground passageway leading into a maze. The maze is littered with traps, all of which have been sprung. Pit traps, walls scorched with fire and lightning, and pendulums are just some of the traps laid to keep people out. . . or were they designed to keep something or someone in? Nevertheless, each trap has already been triggered.
Reaching the center of the maze, the heroes discover a large room with ancient frescoed murals. The main mural features six stylistic female figures, each with different clothing and skin tones but all with slightly fey features. In between the six women stands a dark male figure, also with fey features.
The heroes spend little time investigating the actual room, as they have also found a locked chest. Slumped over the chest is another burned body which they discover belongs to their old companion, Tennyson. She is dead and badly burned, although her cloak appears to be in good shape. They take her cloak while Sebastian examines the chest. He eventually opens the chest and the Company is immediately targeted by a Flamestrike trap. Jeremi takes a lot of damage from the flames and falls to the floor, unconscious. Rafe and Sebastian then examine the chest and discover that it is full of gold and platinum and a large jewel. They begin to empty the chest, but after taking out only a pound of treasure, they hear whirring and clicking out in the hallway. The quick-witted adventurers realize they have just reset all of the traps in the maze. Thinking quickly, they grab the body of Jeremi and race from the room. Roughly 12 seconds later, they are forced to stop about 2/3 of the way out of the maze to contend with the now-reset traps. Rafe and Sebastian scout ahead to disarm or disable the remaining traps and the Company return to the surface, having been badly injured by the Flamestrike and not having had time to fully investigate the inner room or recover the body of Tennyson.
Worst yet, if the structure was created as a prison, it appears the prisoner may have escaped.
Night falls as the heroes make camp, heal wounds, and prepare for another day of adventure.
After a brief discussion, the company continues toward Barrid. A short way from camp, they discover four walking dead creatures, who attack the party. The creatures are much tougher than the zombies that the group has fought in the past, but Jeremi uses his divine powers to turn away the unnatural beings, leaving them easy prey for the rest of the company.
Shortly after this encounter, three green-skinned fey creatures jump out of the trees and surround the company. One of them creates a zone of silence around Jeremi, preventing his spell use. Another one announces that he has detected no evil among the company, with the exception of a strand of prayer beads that Jeremi took from the evil priest leader of the brigands. Jeremi is relieved of the beads by one of the fey humanoids.
The leader seems unconcerned with the rest of the company but has a brief parley with Uso, explaning that they are hunters of arcane wyrds but will let the company go since they saw the company defeat the evil undead creatures, and have not seen them perform any evil acts. He warns Uso and Jeremi to give up the study of the arcane arts, which in almost all cases leads to demonic possession of the wielder.
Later, separate from the rest of the company, Sebastian encounters the same three fey men and has a brief conversation with them concerning his heritage.
The 8th - 11th of Ebupell
The company travels toward Barrid.
The 12th of Ebupell
The Company rejoin Sebastian and continue to Barrid. At the gates of the city, the Company are met by more professional guards than they have previously seen. Several patrols of actual uniformed guards (as opposed to the hernandes) pass by them as they make their way toward the home and temple of the Jimalate, Cristobal Arino.
Jeremi and Rafe are eventually allowed to see Arino, after being kept waiting for nearly three-quarters of an hour. Arino is surprised to see them, and even more surprised that the "simple country priest" has recaptured the stolen Chalice. Jeremi delivers the Chalice to Arino and tells the Jimalate of the whereabouts of the Crucible of Hallowed Laessal in the small town of
