"There is no exit from this room," remarks Simeon, "unless we return from whence we came."  

Simeon then stands at the edge of the pool, taking one of his arrows from his quiver. He tosses the arrow into the portal to see what might occur. 

"Our enemies, perhaps, are asking us to abandon this world by returning to our own." 

Abraxas rubs his face with both his hands. He looks at Waterdeep and signs.

"They want us to leave, perhaps, so they can go on unimpeded with their plans."

The arrow seems to disappear through the portal when Simeon tosses it through. It does not appear on the opposite side of the room or splash into the water below.

Harmony had heard Simeon and Abraxas, thinking. "If there is no other way out, then we'll have to backtrack and go out the way we came in. We can't just leave this world and let them attempt to take over it and our worlds too. Let's go." she would have said back to everyone and would have made her way back toward the door they came in from.

Simeon listens to Harmony and then glances at Garu and Abraxas. "Are we in agreement then?"

The wood elf makes an inspection of the room, looking for any clue that might suggest there is another way to exit. (Investigation w/ guidance: 22)

Abraxas look longingly into the portal. Eventually,  his jaw clenches, and he turns away from Waterdeep. "We are agreed," he says. He will investigate the room for other exits as well, looking through the new eyes the god gave him: 18.

“Agreed - this feels too much like a trap.”, Garu states.

Abraxas and Simeon examine the room over once more, but still find no sign of another exit from the room. By all looks, this does appear to be the summit of the citadel.

OOC: Is there any specific room on the way down that you would like to stop in, or shall I advance your descent until something is obviously different?

"Very well then, my friends," remarks Simeon. "It seems we must now retrace our steps."

(No need to stop in any particular room on Simeon's account)

"Yeah, hopefully it'll be much easier going back since we cleared some of the rooms." Harmony had said back, nodding as she now thought about the room with the three women and the room with the one older woman. Would they be able to get through those rooms again peacefully without trouble or fighting?

(Yeah, continue/no need to stop unless something happens of course.)

Abraxas turns to follow the others. He too is slightly worried about the people they passed on the way in.

OOC: Advancing our decent until something is different sounds fine.

Your trek down the winding stairways of Turmaether provides much less resistance than the ascent, and you pass the effects of your presence in the strange citadel. Through the persistent sulfuric haze and past the brick-lined walls you pass the body of the sphinx, the lifelike statues of former companions, the pool of fallen manta rays, and the interesting woman in the room full of sculptures. She nods at you with a wry smile and waves her hands, and the statues shift aside, allowing you to pass further.

Past the anemone and the paper model of Lyrikav, however, you enter what seems to be a new room.

The macabre sight that greets you when you open the door would cause the hardiest of adventurers to retch. Three floating heads, radiating a slight ghostly glow, circle around you with entrails dangling where their necks should be. The floor and walls of the room are covered in blood, some fresh but most dried long ago. The metallic tang assaults your senses as one of the ghoulish heads speaks in a terrible voice, "Back so soon? Come to your senses, have you?"

Another of the heads floats around Harmony. "I do so like this one. I suppose we can look past your offense. Our offer still stands," it says.

Harmony had waved to the woman she performed for before, making their way back through the rooms they had been in before. But then they got to a room, not remembering this one at all as she saw the three floating heads with entrails, the floors and wall covered in blood. Immediately she gagged and threw up from the sight as she smelled the blood too, so utterly disgusted. But then she heard the first voice and then the second one as the head was floating around her, now remembering. This was the room they were in before with the three women who wanted her to stay?!! "Get me out of here!!" Harmony screamed as she started crying and ran straight for the door out of here, not wanting to be in here any second longer.

"And our answer remains the same," replies Simeon firmly. "And what offense have we committed? Speak plainly."

Abraxas moves with Harmony, Ray of Frost readied if the three heads become overtly hostile. "Are we seeing the truth of this place for the first time?" he says. He watches Simeon and Garu ready to help them as well, in necessary.

Garu puts her hand on her Holy Symbol and reaches the other in the direction of the incorporeal heads and uses Divine Sense.

For Garu:

One of the floating heads cackles as Harmony flees. Another smiles grimly at Simeon and replies, "The way you plead ignorance was cute at first, but I must say it is growing thin. Our offer for your companion was more than fair. If you would still refuse us that delight, then just leave."

The room that Harmony flees to is barely a better sight than the previous. There is a cage along one wall with three humans inside, tired and beaten. Blood covers the floor here too, around the old woman that still sits patiently in front of a checkerboard. She glances up and gives a thin smile to Harmony. "You look troubled, dear. Don't tell me you are the only survivor," she says.

Harmony panted until she saw what was in this room, screaming at all the blood covering the floor and around the old woman, seeing the tired and beaten humans in a cage. Then she heard the old woman, shivering as she quickly shook her head no. "Get me out of this place!!" Harmony screamed as again, she ran straight for the door out of this room. This place is a true nightmare!!

Abraxas slows until he stands between the two blood-soaked rooms. He tries to watch Garu and Simeon at the same time he watches Harmony. Ray of Frost remains readied. 

Simeon watches for Garu's reaction to the three floating heads. "Are they what they seem to be, Garu?"