Akili, Sarai, Moonlight and Nathaniel are at the Temple of the Gods (Crystal Temple) on the ceiling of the world. Kenlow has just left to Vortex. Kala appears and tells them that the world is in danger once more. She explains that Nox and Herulok have disappeared, and that Koron of Slavak is causing problems, after being mostly peaceful for all this time. Eldar then appears, and swaps out Moonlight and Nathaniel for Andune and Oy-aht, declaring them to be the four greatest heroes. Koron's group has taken over the Tower of the Watchers, which is under siege. Eldar believes that there is a stronger concentration of Koron's forces somewhere, but he does not know where they are. After some discussion, the four accept the quest, and are sent to a small fishing village near the Tower of the Watchers, which is currently under heavy seige. The four have been informed that although the Tower is protected from teleportation directly inside, they are to try to get inside it and handle the current inhabitants. Preferably without destroying the tower. This miffs Akili, as he figures his magic is more appropriate to reducing the Tower to rubble with all inhabitants than trying to sneak inside, until he is told that he wouldn't be able to do much to it anyway, which mollifies him.
The four find a dead elven woman shortly after they arrive at the ruined fishing village, crushed by a building, holding a magic sword sized for a giant. A small lizard approaches and shapechanges into a young elven girl, self-claimed to be six years old. Upon questioning, she reveals that the crushed woman is her mother, and could change into a giant. Akili and Sarai free the crushed woman from the fallen building, and take her remains to a grave that Oy-aht dug. Kaira, the young elven girl, asks Akili why he looks like a lion. Akili asks why Kaira looks like an elf, and explains that it's just the way he looks. She asks why he's wearing a shirt. He fails to come up with a suitable answer. They head towards a distant pass in the mountains, which is the direction in which they need to go. Kaira also tells the group that the things her mother was fighting went the same way.
On their way to the pass, the group finds some kind of structure up on a mountain, with some sort of glass shield around it. It appears that it was originally disguised to look like part of the mountain, but the giant crack in the side with water pouring out gives that away. Andune climbs up the cliffside and the beginning of the glass shield with the aid of magic, and carries a rope with him, allowing the others to climb up. The crack leads into a flooded library containing history and religious texts, all slanted towards Koron's teachings. They open a door and get the very strong impression that it is a temple of Koron, if the books weren't enough evidence. Sarai gets the impression that something is currently living here. Oy-aht pulls out a large barrel from a super bag of holding. Beyond the library door is a large chamber with two doors on each side, and a fifth door at the far end.
While Andune detects for magic and finds none, Sarai investigates the doors for seepage. She finds that one once had some kind of painting on it that has since been scratched off to unrecognizabilily. Akili makes sure that the Eyes of Koron (eye symbols) carved into the walls aren't secret switches, but does find that they used to contain what was probably faceted gems. Andune searches for traps around the doors, and doesn't think she found any. She finally opens the door at the far end, and a little more water pours through, but it jams and won't open more than a few inches. It is very dark inside. She attempts to shine a light inside, and warns everyone to be on her guard when her owl (which she has an empathic link to) becomes nervous.
Sarai discovers that another one of the side doors has a orange flower. Akili finds one with a dark skull (Tarlek's image) carved on the granite doors. All five doors, in fact, are made of stone, probably granite. The fourth door has a carving of a foot.
The door on the far end that is only slightly ajar is revealed to have rubble piled against it. There appears to be some kind of chamber with another door on the far side, which has water in it. There is a bit of discussion regarding whether this temple deserves being investigated, given the quest they're on. Sarai in particular makes the point that this is a temple of Koron, which is currently occupied (according to what she believes), and it's not supposed to be here.
Oy-aht climbs into his barrel and transforms it into a mobile robotic lobster to help Akili open the jammed doors. Sarai, in the meantime, opens the Plant door. She discovers a very damp bedroom with two large beds, which are both soaked. Andune charges the jammed door in his lobster (Akili manages to jump out of the way) and crashes through, taking damage. He climbs out and stashes the barrel again.
Everyone piles into the newly-accessable room, which has a lot of rubble and a pair of staircases, going up and down. Akili gets the farthest into the room, just in time to be surprise attacked by a Cloak (an irritating creature kind of like a flying stingray). Combat ensues.
They defeat the Cloaks. Sarai falls during battle, but she is healed by Oy-aht. They go back to the room with the scratched painting and open that door, finding another room with a damp bed. Andune finds a storage room of sorts with a flooded bathroom. Akili finally opens the Dark Skull door and finds a temple of Tarlec, also underwater. The water is heavily stained with blood, and the mild scent of it is in the air. It looks like the temple has been used since it's been flooded, according to Sarai's distant inspection of the altar. They close the door again to keep the bloody water from seeping into the other rooms, as it was quickly creeping towards the doorway when the door was opened. Akili realizes that Andune is missing, and asks about him just as he returns, describing what he found in the rooms with the Foot symbol on the door. She also found some ledger papers, containing a message to Febbit from Salorvin. Akili and Sarai immediately perk up and go to look. They read something about 'how Febbit's services were needed (blur) thank you for your past services. Signed, Salorvin' The note is 20 years old.
Everyone camps out in the library - Akili and Andune on tables, Sarai on the balcony, and Oy-aht on some rubble. Sarai seals the doors closed with the immovable rod. They sleep.
Akili hears a thump during his watch. He goes up to listen to the door, and hears a lot of splashes. He casts Weirdness on the other side of the door. Everyone is now wearing rollerblades. Akili manages to stay standing, but everyone else wakes up. The noises on the other side of the door stop. Sarai complains at Akili for doing what he did. He responds, "You're making the unwarranted assumption that I actually knew this was going to happen." Everyone but Akili figures out how to take them off. Andune goes back to sleep. Kaira never woke up. Akili tries to make it back to the table and falls. He tries to stand up and falls. He walks on all fours, and skins his knee. He tries to stand up and falls. Oy-yat makes offers of help that Akili is turning down: 'Do you need some help? No!' *pause, splash* 'Need a hand? (Akili is now in the water) I like it down here.' Andune finally explains how to take the skates off after casting Light. Akili takes the skates off - now soaked - and goes back to the table, and lets himself air-dry. He hears one more splash, and his watch ends.
Oy-yat checks out the geography beyond the crack in the glass through his magical spyglass, and later hears a thump at the door, which get more frequent and louder. He wakes up Sarai, and they decide to leave them alone. The thumps eventually stop.
Morning arrives, and everyone starts waking up. Everyone gets upset at Akili because their boots are gone. Sarai is especially miffed because she was wearing Boots of Speed. Now she has Skates of Speed. Sarai asks for Eryn's Scepter. Akili reluctantly hands it over. Sarai takes it, and hands it back, asking him to turn it on. Akili activates the climbing pole function, with rungs. Sarai tells him, no, the other one. He takes the scepter back, turns on the Plasma Sword, and hands it over. Sarai slices the wheels off, and returns the sword. Everyone else besides Kaira takes the boots off, although Oy-aht uses the soft boot inserts as replacement boots.
Akili and Sarai go back to the temple. They don't see any skates. Andune wanders back into the Stairwell Chamber. Sarai opens a farther door in the Orange Flower room, and sets body-looking shapes on fire. They are mannequins with cloth robes, and they have inline skates on their feet. She riffles through the desk, and finds paper, ink, and quills. Akili ganks a quill. Sarai also finds a jug. She dips the paper sheet into the liquid, and tosses it on the fire, discovering that it's some kind of fermented flammable substance. She stashes the jug.
The group ends up upstairs. They find a temple to Koron, and there is a blindingly bright sword shoved into the altar. They conclude that it is a holy sword that is preventing Koron from continuing to run the temple here. There is a painting of Koron One-Eye on the wall across from the altar, and his single eye is closed, as if he was wincing. Sarai firmly believes the sword should stay. Akili recognizes it as a Sunblade or a Holy Avenger, and feels that it should remain untouched - for if it really is a Holy Avenger, it will probably cease to function as it is if someone who is not a Paladin touches it. Sarai starts to reconsider leaving this sword alone, but Akili persuades her to leave it alone. They eventually go back down to the temple of Tarlek.
Sarai studies the interior of Tarlek's temple, tells Akili to wait, and runs off. She runs back and asks for his Sword. He frowns a little, and hands it over. She runs off again. She returns once more, returns the Sword, and grins, having fetched 4 gargoyle claws from the remains in another room. While they check out the temple, Andune and Oy-aht continue investigating up above, and describe the balcony she found - with another altar - to the pair. It contained another altar, and it had a balcony that would have been an easy entranceway for flying creatures.
They learn that the blood in Tarlek's temple is semi-responsive. It was flowing towards the doorway again when they opened the door again, and yet it wasn't as close as it was after they first closed the door. The blood ignores rocks and arrows, although Akili discovers that it hurts to get even close to it, after firing a crossbow bolt into it and reaching near it to recover the bolt. Akili postulates the existance of extraplanar creatures that might behave this way, using the altar as the gateway - for Akili noticed that blood is continuously flowing out of the altar. After retrieving the now-bloody crossbow bolt, Akili hands it to Sarai, and asks her to Burn This. Note that this is likely the first time Akili has asked Sarai to burn *anything* outside of combat. Sarai instead stashes it as a future spell component.
While Oy-aht meditates for a potentially useful spell to counter the altar, Sarai and Akili investigate the remaining doorways. Sarai loots a chest of drawers. A stone statue they found earlier is now carved as though it was wearing inline skates instead of boots. Sarai finds a spellbook and a ring in a drawer. Sarai tries to read the book, and suffers damage, dropping the book back into the desk, spread open. Sarai tries to read the book from the distance, and can't translate it aside from the fact that it is a spellbook. Akili, figuring it has been discharged, picks up the book. He takes heavy damage and is blown back across the room, landing on his back - and getting soaked again. The book falls into the water. Climbing to his feet, they find a treasure chest. Akili uses the grabbing claw function and grips the chest lid from 10' away. The chest wouldn't tilt upward - it's very heavy - and it doesn't open. Akili reapproaches, extends the Plasma Sword, and inserts it into the locking mechanism. He wiggles the sword tip around, melting the mechanism. He repeats the distant open experiment, and nothing still happens. Returning to the chest, he stands aside from the chest and cuts into the latch. This time the distant open works, and they discover what is probably 10k in gold, which would weigh about 1,000 pounds, plus the weight of the chest. Akili helps Sarai scoop it into the Super Bag of Holding, and decide to later get some ordinary sacks to put all of this loose gold in.
They go back to Tarlek's temple. Oy-aht blesses the altar, and... the blood is gone. Nor is any more flowing. They discover more empty unused rooms behind the temple, and decide that it's no longer in use. They also decide that they can't permanently disable the temple, and resume their journey.
They arrive at a dark forest that is the mountain pass, and they enter. They eventually make camp. During the first watch, Akili sees something moving around in the forest. He watches closer, and sees a glint of what might be metal. He lights his blade, and sees lots and lots of what seems to be metal. He finally awakens Sarai and the others, and large bugs attack. Combat ensues.
They defeat several bugs. Akili masters Wild Rain.
They return to sleep, after figuring out camping arrangements. Sarai finds more Cloaks patrolling over the lake during her watch, but they either don't spot the party or choose not to attack. The next morning they resume the journey, going left around the lake.
They discuss bags of holding and that you can't breathe in them (so Sarai can't stuff them in the bag and run with Haste), so Akili demonstrates the malfunctioning bag of stasis. He says, "Well, this bag is... broken. Take a look at this broom...." He reaches in and cuts his hand on the sharp edge of a polearm. He drops it on the ground, shaking his hand. Sarai looks at it and comments, "You know, I was asking if you had one yesterday." Akili replies, "Hey, you can have it." Sarai is speechless for a long while while the players laugh for several minutes. Sarai answers, "Well, I don't need it now." Akili puts it back in the bag.
Hours later, traveling through deep forest and trying to avoid notice, they're ambushed by more Cloaks. More combat follows.
The cloaks are defeated. Akili puts wild rain to good use. Sarai is knocked out, but is quickly healed by Oy-aht.
They take a break. Oy-hat memorizes a cure poison spell to use on Sarai.
Game paused.