Rested and healed of some of their past injuries, the adventurers descend the shaft deeper down into the Shrine of Tamoachan. They exit into a macabre fascinating chamber depicting an underworld in diorama.
Tabai recognizes it as "Mictlan," which in the old religion is Land of the Dead. The diorama figures are about 6" tall, and everything else to that scale. The adventurers tower above the dioramas like storm giants.
Bruno the gnome thief-acrobat goes first, hanging suspended from rope to examine the floor for traps. He finds none. The rest of the party descends down to the top of the hill in the middle of the room. Besides the different areas of the dioramas, there are doors to the southeast and in the west wall.
Tabai,
Blade Rain, Leomar and
Grindhelm stand guard at the top of the hill.
Kitchi the ranger examines the ground for tracks but sees none.
Azoth of Nodens Faith tosses a coin to the marsh diorama to the north, the chasm to the south, the sands to the west, and ice to the east (
see map.) The coins plop down as they should and remain, the environment around them calm. The cleric is not familiar with the real geography around the Shrine, but doubts it has the diversity of geography that this diorama chamber has.
Bruno proceeds down the hill looking for traps and anything out of place. It's hard to tell the latter, given the exotic nature of the diorama chamber. The gnome feels a push from behind but stays on his feet. He sees no one. The thief circumnavigates the hill and finds no traps. He moves along the west pebble path toward the west door, intending on checking the walls from that starting point (
next round.)
Siavel the elven enchanter, with
Calto the druid behind him, proceeds southwest down the hill toward the west-side pebble path. Half-way down they both feel a distinct push behind their knees. Calto retains his footing. Siavel falls and tumbles down the small hill to the base at the pebble path (
1 HP damage.) He looks up the hill and sees no one to blame. As they cross the sands to get a look beyond the thorn hedge each gets a bloody nose (
1 HP damage.) Siavel and Calto see behind the hedge a diorama of a grassy plain where men hunt antelope and deer. Their noses are still bleeding.
Map