The noble drow cannot believe the team's luck, suddenly having found no less than three very specific components for the dark heart at the same place. Quite content after all had been collected and properly packed, he would eventually rest well in the obsidian tower. 

Easy enough to put the tower up and take a long rest.

Khessa is galvanized first of all by having made such a big step forward in the recovery of the components and secondly also by the proximity to the mythical Maze Engine, which she is now very curious to see.

The blonde arcane warrior, before sleeping, completes two important activities. First, she reports in her armored spellbook the last notes on the Goristro, including the peculiarity that his heart, apparently, is able to continue to beat - radiating evil madness - even after a creature as powerful as a Demon Lord has massacred the rest of the body! A fact that she would struggle to believe... if she were not even witnessing it at that very moment.

Secondly, the tall adventurer, knowing that the wise firbolg suspects that the Demon Lord Madness has struck her yet another time, uses the healing power of Dawn on herself.

Whether Dawn's efforts are in vain or not, Khessa still wakes up in a great mood after her rest, eager to finally admire the mythical eldritch device.

Horkas spends some time cataloging and testing small samples of the demon's blood, shavings from its hooves and teeth, and various other items harvested. Perhaps he can find some helpful concoction or find a way to use the creature's resistances to support the party. Either way, he rests well in the tower that night and is eager to find the Maze Engine!

Unfortunately, Dawn's power is not strong enough to purify Khessa's mind. Horkas is able to, if he wants, to mix up a potion of resistance to poison from the goristro's parts.

As you all leave and set out once more, you speed along in your cloud form,  until the passage you follow climbs upward as it corkscrews through stone, finally emerging through the floor of a large cavern. The ceiling arches sixty feet overhead, bristling with stalactites that drip water onto stalagmites rising from the uneven and broken floor. Here and there between the stalagmites, several statues of winged humanoids are set in poses of suffering and anguish. Some cover their faces, while others claw at them. Others reach toward the ceiling, their faces twisted into expressions of longing.

Katryl had given Traydark a sharp, "No!" when he suggests succubi flesh, though her demeanor with him seemed a bit more jovial. "Really, we can find better things than demons to eat! Really! That can't be healthy!"  She shakes her head, "Maybe we should just take Lunaria's example and keep a vegetarian diet."  She quickly moves along to follow Lulu as she looks about for the mushrooms.  Although with the ease in finding them, her help was probably not totally necessary.  

"How strange," she says once they've found the mushrooms. "These actually seem to be a size that we can carry normally.  Unlike everything else that was massively bulky or heavy."  

Once items are gathered, she settles in for the night in the tower.  Hopefully with minimal barbeques. 

When the group reaches the cave with the statues of winged humanoids, Katryl pauses briefly.  She tries to study a couple of them to try to get an idea of what they might have been doing before being frozen into their current state. (Insight: 9) She doesn't make any attempt to change into physical form, hoping the others might follow her lead and just try to move along from this place. 

Khessa is uncomfortable at the sight of the poor petrified angels, their pain locked in stone for eternity... "Is there anything you can do for them, Lulu?" she turns her hopeful blue eyes to the gentle Firbolg "Can you cure the petrification?"

While she is overcome by pity for the noble creatures, the blonde arcane warrior hears Vizeran's words echoing in her mind again and repeats them in a whisper, as she begins to examine the environment, especially near the statues: "Six feathers from six different angels — the authority of the celestial realms and a force to enrage fiendish creatures".

Perhaps it is possible to find yet another component of the Dark Heart here! The tall adventurer carefully searches for any feathers of angels... non-petrified feathers, if possible... otherwise, she considers whether it might be possible to somehow detach (maybe with a hammer and a piton used as a chisel) petrified feathers from the angels. All in all, even if petrified, they would still be feathers...

"Tis not a power I've yet been given, lass," Lulu replies, stepping up next to Khessa. Her tufted ears droop low as she looks upon angels. "What could put celestials in such a state, if not the Gods themselves? The Demon Lords?" It's a question repeated in her mind as she holds her holy symbol--a question poised for her own Goddess' Guidance.


((Can Lulu try some kind of check to see what she might be able to discern from the statues and their situation? Especially since they're divine in nature? 
Religion: 15-1+3 (guidance) 17))

Khessa can certainly try and detach a petrified feather if she wishes.

Lulu the best you can gather is that they must have done something awful, or been a part of something terrible to deserve a fate like this. 

As the team comes upon what indeed could be petrified angels, the noble drow too would take on solid form, watching in awe these fearsome creatures all turned to stone. He keeps his distance for now but he won't stop the others from trying to harvest the required angel feathers somehow.

Lulu gently tucks her holy symbol back under her vestments. "It seems this is a punishment befitting the crimes they committed, which must've been great." She skirts around the petrified angel to look at its wings. "Any idea how we might get a stone feather from each of them, Kas? I'd rather we no' touch them, but it may very well be unavoidable." 

"I am certain the earth elemental servant won't mind collecting the stone angel feathers for us." The noble drow suggests with a grin.

Khessa turns to the noble drow, smiling: "I do not doubt it, but if your 'servant' is limited in the number of uses or in its time of service, I would save it for a more essential need..." she takes out from the backpack in piton and a hammer, usually used to plant it "As a first attempt I will try with these".

"We could encounter hostile forces, in reaching the Maze Engine..." the blonde arcane warrior muses aloud, while she gets to work, like a stonemason, to detach the necessary petrified feathers "...or perhaps even once we reach the Maze Engine. Perhaps it is better to save The Thing for that eventuality. Or in case my method does not work, of course".

'Poor things...' the mind of the tall adventurer in the meantime can only turn to the unfortunate angels, given the proximity 'Can you reach their minds, Dawn? Are you able to understand if... if they are aware of what is happening around them? If they are still alive? Perhaps they had come here from some Upper Plane only to help the prime Material Plane and its common folk... as we are trying to do now... but they were more unlucky. Was it an effect of the Maze Engine that petrified them? And that same Engine... will it be able to restore them to their state? These poor things do not deserve to spend an eternity like this, like grotesque statues in a gallery of horrors...' without realizing it, while she works, she has begun to caress the cold petrified flesh, in the moments in which she rests from the work of extracting feathers.

Katryl reluctantly takes solid form as well.  Once she does, she says, "You don't suppose there might be something here that turned them to stone? Perhaps some danger?"

Seeming a bit annoyed, she keeps her (many!) eyes out for anything in the area.  (Perception: 17)

Katryl while you only see the stone angels here, it is curious that they are the only things here. There aren't even any real tracks through here, save for perhaps some very small critters. Despite being in a region swarming with monsters, this particular area seem quite undisturbed.

7

"Perhaps," Khessa admits, pleased that her genasi friend is maintaining a cautious approach "the pity for the fate of these poor things and the prospect of having found another of the rare ingredients we need have made me a little impulsive..."

"It's nice to know I can count on you" the blonde arcane warrior concludes, continuing her work. "And I mean it. However, petrifying so many angels is no small feat..." she muses aloud "I'm more inclined to believe that someone used the power of the Maze Engine on them, rather than to hypothesize that there is a creature lurking powerful enough to be able to overwhelm so many powerful celestials".

"But of course I could be wrong," the tall adventuress sighs "so it won't hurt to stay alert".

Khessa, as you touch this angel, kneeling on the floor with its face buried in its arms, you hear a voice: “What would you know? Ask and I shall answer.”

Make a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw. You do not have an opportunity for help.

Horkas, ever the exploring soul, would retain his misty form and (if possible) move towards the roof of this cavern. If he can't float up there, then he will at least move around the area looking at the upper area to ensure nothing is lurking up there to fall upon his friends, consumed with their task of carving feathers off of the statues!

If, after his look around, all is clear, Horkas will resume solid form and use his crafting tools to remove a feather from each statue (Horkas is proficient with mason's tools, and can cause his hammer and pitons.) 

8

Horkas, this angel reaches toward the ceiling where you had scouted and found nothing there, its face a mask of hatred.

Make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. There is not an opportunity for help.