Dragon of Icespire Peak ***CLOSED***

Minsys, followed by the others, gathers his things and proceeds to the courtyard outside. The morning was cold and a dense fog clung to the floor of the forest clearing, but had begun to dissipate in patches as the sun rose higher with each passing minute. Tink had cast the book aside, giving not a second thought to how it had come to be in her possession during the night or the content of the text upon which her finger had been placed.

As the group gathered around the short lip of the well, they noticed that it lacked several features normally would accompany such a structure, specifically any water at the bottom from which to draw or a rope-and-bucket to draw it with. Instead, they found a set of narrow stairs jutting out from the circumference of the wall, which descended spirally about 30 feet to a paved floor below.

Minsys began the descent careful to point out the third step, which he had surmised was the trapped one from the day before...

Vaxis ponders on the dream he had. Why here? Why now? He mutters prayers to Bahamut as they walk, concerned where that particular avenue may take him.

He follows his companions through the well, eyes on a swivel for danger.

The interior diameter of the wellshaft was only about 10 feet wide, meaning the floor at the bottom only provided enough area for 2 or 3 of the party members to occupy without having to cram together. Minsys reached the bottom of the shaft and stepped onto the flagstone surface as the others stacked up behind him on the narrow spiraling stairway. No doors or other pathways were apparent, just flat rock lining the surfaces around them.

No sooner than Vaxis had finished his silent prayer to the Platinum Dragon, a single yellow canary fluttered down the wellshaft and lighted on his shoulder. The tiny bird chirped from its perch on the dragonborn cleric for a few moments, as if to announce itself before it sprang forth and clung to one of the stones lining the interior wall where it then began to sing loudly whilst flapping its wings, drawing as much attention as it could.

Tabesha'l's lilting laugh filled the lugubrious stairwell as she witnessed the tiny bird's antics.

" Brave Vaxis, 't would seem as if thy canary friend wants us to inspect yon stone wall, wouldst thee not agree ? How quaint for a bird..."

Belying her amused tone, the elven witch is proceeding with a very careful scanning of their surroundings, her azure eyes roving from place to place trying to spot anything that could prove useful in activating what she is sure must be some sort of mechanism to open a passage past the walls.

Inscribed in the center of each of the wall stones, is a small character which Tabesha'l (and Connk if he cared to look) would immediately identify as a letter of the elven alphabet.

The canary had lighted upon the stone which bore the elven symbol for the Common letter "A".

" Oh, I see. An annagram mayhaps, or a cryptic riddle ? How very literate... and amusing."
Tabesha'l reads out the other letters, already hoping to guess what they could be... " Is this an Ylthë*  I spot there, praytell ? And that one could be an.. Enhd* ? It is, isn't it ? Thuniviel, dearest, wouldst thee look upon these ! How perfectly fitting..."

(*) Ylthe and Enhd: these are phonetic pronunciations of elven characters. Difficult to equate into Common, the closest resembling letters would be respectively Y and E, although many elven scholars would judge it a grossly limiting comparison (T.N.)

Minsys scratches his head as he leaned closer to the wall.  "So, Y... Y..." he says as he struggles with the elf letter pronunciation.  "That letter marks the spot.  Alright, back up all give me space," he finishes as he hefts the maul.

The canary’s cheerful singing rapidly shifts to frantic, angry squawks as it sees Minsys unshoulder his maul in preparation to do what it assumes is old fashioned demolition work…

Connak quips, "Too bad you can't talk to birds the same way you talk to rats...This one seems to have a lot to say."

Minsys stops mid swing.  "Huh?  Oh, da bird wants to say something?  Hmm... okay fine.  Let's have a chat.  Yall just give me a few minutes," he says as he lowered the maul and starts his ritual to speak to animals.

Ritual casting speak with animals

After spending 10 minutes conducting his ritual, Minsys addresses the canary in Common but finds that he could not exchange words with it any better than before. Meanwhile, Tabesha'l searched the well for some sort of mechanism that might be related to the runes or provide some other pathway forward, but finds none.

(OOC: edited for better clarity/conciseness)

Vaxis frowns. 

“Yes. Most peculiar, friend Tabesha’l. Perhaps…”

Vaxis tries to push the letter in.

When Vaxis places his hand on the wellstone, the small elven rune at the center begins to glow softly with a sea foam/turquoise-colored hue. The light pulses in a very slow cycle, fading almost completely out before gradually coming to life again.

Minsys jumps a little with his maul hand and growls.  "Warn a guy next time.  I don't fancy another fall and spear to the stomach.  And just so ya know, this bird ain't no bird.  My only magic let's me speak to animals, this thing don't speak like an animal so it's something different."

The canary chirps happily once again, as if to indicate its agreement with Minsys statement that it is indeed not an animal.

(OOC: in the context of this post, the word "animal" refers to creatures of the Beast type, as defined by the D&D 5e rule set: "Beasts are nonhumanoid creatures that are a natural part of the fantasy ecology. Some of them have magical powers, but most are unintelligent and lack any society or language. Beasts include all varieties of ordinary animals, dinosaurs, and giant versions of animals.")

" So... Not a mere chirping aviary beast, is it ?" Tabesha'l waves for the bird to come to her and presents a finger for the small canary to perch on, all the while looking at the runes, then back at the yellow bird:
" It doeth present a lovely and quite friendly disposition, indeed... almost as if its intelligence was leagues beyond a... shall we say more 'common' member of its species, doeth it not seem such ?"

Then turning back towards the wall:
" Let us see which other symbols are there, then. I do believe I may have an idea about how to operate yon wall scriptures..."

And as she says this, she presses the elven letters following the Anëh already lit by Vaxis, in order: Endh, Ruy, Ylthë, Darhë, Endh, Syhlë, Inë, Anëh. They spell the word AERYDESIA. She then takes a short step back, to see if anything notable happens.

The wellshaft goes dark as a pair of hidden doors near the opening at the top slam shut. The runes change color from soft sea foam green to burning orange in color. They also stop pulsing and instead stay illuminated casting an orange glow throughout the well (in addition to the light from Minsys' lit torch.)

Inspection of the doors would reveal that their operation is entirely arcane...no moveable parts gears or other internal machinery is found...

The elf mage coughs, a little taken aback by the way things are going. " Now, let us remain calm... I should have... yes, of course. There !" 

Tentatively, she lifts Aerydesia's staff and brings it closer to the orange runes. 
" Erdaneleth Ythrenil ! Hum... 'Open, Please' ? Grandmother ? Can you hear me at all ?"

Tabesha'l remembers that many arcane locks of elvish design (at least those she had seen crafted in the secluded arcane research commune she grew up in) always featured two passwords: the first which in some way "secures" the access seeker and a second, which either grants them the access they are authorized for or, in some way or another, heavily discourages the would-be code-craker from ever again trying to attempt to access forbidden elvish secrets...

The mage frowns, then shrugs, half to herself, half for the others, as she relays her information:

"Well, 't would seem we hath started the process of opening yon magical passageway. We wouldst yet require a complementary word to complete the first, which was my grandmother's given name of AERYDESIA. Of course her family name - and mine - is PANANTHYR, as I'm quite sure thee all dost remember by now..." she takes a deep breath before she continues, "... yet 'tis a gamble of sorts, as if we do not find the required word - or if we 'choose poorly', as the old ancient texts say - we shall surely meet some terrible fate in yon dark well, and I for one am quite uneager to meet my untimely end just yet !"

She shows her staff to the group: " However, this-here item is imbued with mine ancestress' own magical prowesses, one of which happens to be the dissolution of all magical effects in a given radius... like... so !"