The Outlands Odyssey Part 7: Wheel of Death

We picked up inside the spinning chamber of death. As 12-Bar appeared inside the Temple’s inner sanctum, he found himself pinned to the wall by centrifugal force, and struck by a wave of nausea. Following in after, the party was able to get inside the (also spinning) central chamber with benign transposition and other magic, though M’narr did take a level of exhaustion from the effort. Inside the sanctum stood a statue with four arms, magically appearing to each hero as one of their own species. Below the statue, a set of twelve dials and a cryptic inscription:

THE ANSWER NOW IS AS IT WAS THEN

SEARCH YOURSELF:

ENLIGHTENMENT COMES FROM WITHIN;

KNOWLEDGE, FROM WITHOUT.

M’narr fiddled with the dials, and aged two years in the process. The heroes were stumped for a long time.  After a long time, they realised that each of them was seeing the statue differently. M’narr cast light, and saw that the inner walls of the dome were polished to a mirror shine. Looking his reflection in the eye, M’narr asked it if it knew the key to the puzzle. His reflection suddenly took on a life of its own, and politely explained the combination. Keying it in, an amulet appeared around the neck of the statue the Amulet of Tvashtri. The heroes grabbed the necklace and headed for the door. But as they tried to take the Amulet from the temple, they learned the purpose of the Mytholabe.

Upon entering the central chamber, the Mytholabe attacked 12-Bar, its whirling blades carving chunks out of him. Having seen its power, the party opted for the better part of valour. But Mytholabe had some tricks up its sleeve, locking the doors to the next chamber after Ragados had already sprinted through, leaving M’narr and 12-Bar trapped inside. 12-Bar fell unconscious in a whirl of blades. Ragados successfully picked the lock, saving his comrades’ lives in the process. With a combination of desperate spellcasting and dedicated fleeing, the party all managed to make it out of the dungeon, with none falling on the slippery entrance ramp.

Safely above ground, the party finally had a rest. As 12-Bar began attuning to the Amulet he noticed that the entrance to the Temple had moved a few feet back towards Ironridge since they last stood outside it. Funny that.

*             *             *             *

This session went fine. The players struggled greatly with the puzzle; but it later turned out they had not listened fully to the details. As each player entered the room I described the statue as being a Gith, or a Modron, or a Gnome, but only after twenty minutes of headbutting did the players realise they each saw the statue differently. After that they solved it quite quickly.

The Mytholabe battle was also incredibly hairy, and I wondered if I would finally be killing a PC. I can’t remember if I fudged any rolls, but if Ragados hadn't picked the lock to let the others out, they would surely have died. It was serious luck.

On the whole, the Temple of Tvashtri was a great success. The theme was fun, kept just Planescape flavour, and the players had a blast. I am writing up the dungeon, and am hoping to put it on the DM’s Guild as soon as it's ready. Watch this space.

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