Agenar’s journal, page 235

I woke from a sleep uninterrupted either by dreams or by standing watch to the sound of grating stone on stone and Travis announcing that he intended to see the chamber of horrors below. No entreaties would persuade him from discovering some news of his origin. I wandered into a chamber from which glowing sprites emerged, discovered a giant, iridescent flower that pulsed with a heartbeat rhythm, and relieved myself against its stalk before returning to follow the group down those spiral stairs toward danger again.

A quick swig of ale helped calm my nerves, so I took another, until my flask was empty and I saw the alter. Beyond it, Travis was leading our group down the green hall to meet Bob. I hurried to catch up.

Bob greeted Travis as an old friend, pointing out casually that Travis had lately been remiss in his duties as Thalnoth facility maintenance and custodian. Travis was welcome to the green liquid, which he would need for creating an access stone if visiting the temple.

After pouring this over the green-glowing alter stone, Travis turned down the red hallway. Here, in addition to an unguarded pool of red liquid, we found a fine library, with books in many languages. I was able to read several titles, including one in Infernal, ‘On the Negative Planes,’ before returning to the alter. Next Travis opened the yellow doors, where the ghasts also greeted him as a comrade, pointing out another library after he had filled a vial with yellow liquid for his access stone. In this second library we found an even greater number of volumes, and at Travis’ suggestion I added ‘On the Origin of Titans,’ in Primordial, and ‘The Beast Lands,’ in Celestial, to my bag. The marginalia in the books I examined showed several hands, while their questions and notes suggest they were studied by many and understood by few. Once the yellow liquid had been added to the alter, Travis progressed to the blue room.

Here, however, he was not welcomed by the Fire and Water elementals standing guard. When the Fire attacked Travis, Wynlynn and Val turned on the water – and Val was immediately injured. I cast a shield of faith over Wynlynn and urged the others to flee, but Tilia blocked my escape. With no alternative, I aimed an Eldrich blast from Dagon’s Reach at the Water elemental, who had already been greatly weakened by Teal’s conjuring parts of it away toward the Fire elemental and the now-smoldering woodman. My blast dispersed the water beast in a great splash. After bringing Val back to consciousness, I gave aid to her, Travis, and Pantaghion. Before I could do more, Tilia conjured water from the floor to douse the Fire elemental and we saw the still-steaming Travis calmly collect his unnaturally-blue prize. We are now resting by the alter to recover from the encounter, but I can see that Travis, with only one more color to collect, is anxious to continue.