Dr A takes a large mouthful of the stew and is pleasantly surprised by its flavour and complexity "Ahbut this is a good stew. What sort of meat did you use?"

"Eh, meat?  Dinosaur actually.  There are a few smaller species that can be found that are good to eat." He responds.

'Ahbut its more flavorsome this way than as jerky I must say" Dr A says as he takes another mouthful. 

"So tell us about this fabled treasure called the Navel of the Moon.  And you said that you have searched Omu for years? Or searched years to find Omu? Perhaps if we join together, we'll have a better chance of surviving this forbidding city, and find what we a each looking for. We've been along the western portion of the city, and searched several temples. We need to find the rest of these cubes in order to break a great curse. Have you explored much of the eastern part of the city? What can you tell us about the red-robed ones?" Kirinar asks, hoping to win the sniper to their side. He could be a valuable ally in this city - especially if it had any more of these giant dinosaurs!

"I don't even really know what it is.  It was fabled that it could help me so I went in search of it.  It took years to learn it was somewhere in Omu.  It then took years to find Omu.

Bag of Nails answers.

"I have been in the city now for a few months.  I've explored the whole city and have found several temples.  The red robes arrived very recently and also seem to be searching the temples.  I found that one cube but that was it."

“I believe we have taken care of the red robed ones.  Or at least part of them.”

((You can consider the meal with Bag of Nails a short rest.))

"So where are you headed then?  I can guide you to the closest shrines if that's what you want.  They seem to have puzzles that I can't understand.  But I can guide you to them."

“That would be much appreciated. Keyleth, here, is our navigator. I believe we are needing to expand our search north from here. Is that right?”

"Yes, if this one came from the island in the lava, we should make our way north, to find the next shrine," she says, after swallowing a mouthful of stew, which she finally tucked into after seeing the Tabaxi eating some himself.

OoC: Sorry all for being out of touch; family road trip this weekend. I think I wound up not getting on the computer at all! 

"No, I have not been on the island.  I think there may be some red wizards there.  I got this cube from a shrine just to the east of here."

Bag of Nails puts down his unfinished bowl and gathers some gear together.  

"Come I will show you."

You follow him a couple blocks to the east and he shows you the shrine he retrieved the cube from (8).  Swirly carvings decorate two obelisks at the entrance to this compound. An overgrown courtyard lies under the shade of tall palms. Stone doors seal the entrance to a windowless shrine, with a smaller ruin standing nearby.

"Ah, alright, well then. I guess we still need to find a way to that island. I imagine there's a cube there," says Keyleth. "It looks like coming from the north gives us the shortest distance to cross..."

Do the swirly carvings make any sense to Dr A

Quote from GrantFromCanberra >>

Do the swirly carvings make any sense to Dr A

 

 Taking a quick look Dr A can read the carvings.   Above the doors is written an inscription in Old Omuan: “Unkh urges us to contrast all options before acting.”

Continuing east you go a couple blocks and turn south and quickly find yourself at the edge of a cliff, the lava far down below.  Indeed the island is much closer now, a column of rock rises 200 feet above the lava. A walled ruin overgrown with palms perches on the summit.

At its narrowest point, the gulf between the shrine and the rest of the city is 60 feet wide.

"Well..." Keyleth says, "Everyone ready to do some climbing? We're going to need two lengths of rope just to make a bridge, and once we do we probably ought to try to make some harnesses to secure ourselves to the rope... though I'm not sure how we're going to fasten the bridge securely on the other side, to be honest. I don't suppose either of you have the ability to teleport?" she asks, looking toward Dr. A and Timber.

OoC: We crossed a fallen log bridge over the river, didn't we? How big was that? And could all of us working together move it?

“Hang on a minute my young friend. This carving here says we should consider all options. Are you absolutely sure we need to climb this structure.” Dr A asks Keyleth

Kirinar looks at the column, the walls to the ruins, and the palm trees. "Hey Keyleth, I could shoot an arrow at the palm trees, or maybe into the walls. But, like you said, I don't know how we secure a rope on that side. An arrow won't support anyone's weight!"

Quote from GrantFromCanberra >>

“Hang on a minute my young friend. This carving here says we should consider all options. Are you absolutely sure we need to climb this structure.” Dr A asks Keyleth

 To clear things up... This writing is on Unkh's shrine (#8 on map) that Bag of Nails says he got the one cube from.  You are now trying to figure out how to get to #6 on the map.  Sorry for any confusion.  I put that one map up in case you wanted to go inside. 

OoC: So, nobody has teleportation or flight, or a mage hand, or a grappling hook. Any other ideas? DM, is it at all plausible for the group of us to carry the fallen tree over here to make a bridge?

Edit: Wait, Dr. A has mage hand! I don't know if it has enough fine motor control to tie a knot, but I would think you could at least wrap it around something. If we have 150' of rope we ought to be able to make a double rope bridge by wrapping the rope around something on the other side and then back to this one and hammering it down. I'm not sure Keyleth has seen Dr. A use mage hand though, so not sure if she'd plausibly be able to suggest it.

Timber shakes his head, "Sadly I have no control over that type of magic."

Artus steps up.  "I can create a dimension door once per day but I already did it today.  We could wait till tomorrow if we wanted to.  Perhaps explore somewhere else."