"Oh yes!" Jasun says, remembering. "I remember now. We're here to find keys to Baba Yaga's Hut." he says, reading a prompt. "Hook us up, please, and we'll be off so you can continue looking after your..cow."

"I don't have that, so I can't give it to you, but I can give you this." She tosses a key at you. "It'll open a door, somewhere in the dungeon." Before you can ask for more info, she poofs away, along with her cow.

Jasun picks up the key, looking at it, then after a moment, puts it in his coat pocket.

The moment the woman poofs, Zaf startled for a moment, and then squinted at the place where she was. "... Wait...a minute." He glances over to Jasun, giving them a mildly suspicious look. "I do apologize if this comes out wrong, but... did you spike my drink this morning?" He asked softly and sounded genuinely apologetic for even asking.

Area C7

While the walls of this small cavern are rough and jagged; the stone floor is smooth and has been swept clean. A small pool of water surrounded by pale white stones lies to the west. Along the opposite wall to the east, an oaken table holding a wooden bowl and a silver chalice sits in a small alcove. To the northeast, a short passage leads to a stone door engraved with the image of a naked, pregnant woman sitting in a meditative pose. The woman’s hands lie folded in her lap, and a full moon is painted upon her belly. A trio of waist-high pillars of stout gray stone stands in the corridor just before the door.

The tops of the three stone pillars in the northeast passage have been hollowed out to create shallow fonts or bowls, each with an engraved symbol chiseled into the bottom of the font. From west to east, the symbols are a stylized ear of corn, a six-spoked wheel, and a downward pointing triangle inside a circle.

DC15 Arcana: ???

"If you did indeed have a mimosa, the ingredients are orange juice and champagne." he says. "So, I suppose I did. And I suppose I might have made your a little stronger than usual." he smirks mischievously. "Can't remember."

Arcana: 4

Ah, that's my boi.

*crawls out of the depths of hell to make an Arcana check*: 16

Rose is able to identify the symbols on the pillar as representing corn, the sun, and water and that these are the elements of a crop-planting fertility ritual used by Iobarian witches to celebrate womanhood. The engraving of the naked pregnant woman also represents fertility. Rose also knows that in order to successfully perform the ritual, the items must be placed into the correct fonts. Corn seed must be placed in the first font, water poured into the third font, and light must be placed into the middle font. 

Zaf nodded and simply replied, "Then it is fortunate that I had not partaken either which way. But nevertheless, what a strange place this is. And that is saying something, as I... I think I've been in plenty of strange places, though not always of my choosing." He smiled with his eyes at the admission as he carried on behind the others to the new area.

"My word. It seems this place is absolutely lousy with pretty women, isn't it? But, at least this one is but an engraving, eh?" He gives Jasun jovial look. If after Rose passes along the nature of the ritual, Zaf nods and would start towards table first, but catch himself after barely taking the third one. "Hmm... Though I could be perhaps misconstruing or be simply paranoid... perhaps either Seraphina or Jirel should perform the ritual?"

While the others spoke of mimosa's, Rose got to work with observing the entirety of the room. She remembering reading up on all types of rituals like these. "It's... supposed to be a ritual. Done by lobarian witches..." She says aloud to anyone who cared to listen. Her finger follows one of the lines of the engraving. "To celebrate womanhood." She steps away from the engraving, giving Jirel a quick worried glance behind her bangs prior to looking at the bowls. "I could teach them... If they would like to do the ritual themselves..."

"That's a hard pass from me." Jasun remarks, in case anyone asked, or cared. "Sera do be careful." he added, though.

Jirel would give Rose an encouraging and confident nod.

Sera takes a deep breath and nods. "Okay. Teach me, I'll give it a try."

Jasun was about to protest but someone interrupted his thoughts.

Do I need to do something bad to that one, too? Isn't what happened with Nadya enough? 

Leave me and her alone. Sera is a grown woman who can make her own decisions. I warned her. I did my job.

You care for her don't you, you fool. You like her. How utterly pathetic.

I do. She showed caring and compassion despite her cold interior when I displayed my feelings and intentions to everyone the other day. Not to mention that afterwards she offered to me something I least expected her to do. It was nice of her to do that. She didn't have to, and least of all, with me. I respect that. And, I respect her. Of course I like her.

Isn't that sweet. Still sticking to insignificant connections and emotions.

I am truly beginning to think my academic study of the cosmos and it's deepest secrets was a grave mistake. You have caused me NOTHING but pain, trouble, and misery for as long as I found those symbols in the tomb. In the beginning you were sweet, kind, and possessed an innocent curiosity in the heavens, and look at you now. A pawn.

I am not a pawn, mortal.

You already ruined things with Nadya by being a part of my life. This isn't what I signed up for. I will not relent.

We shall see.

"The three of us can do it, actually..." Rose mentions, picking up the chalice from the table and handing it to Sera. "Get water from the pool and pour it into the third font." She then picks up the bowl filled with corn kernels and hands it over to Jirel. "Put these in the first one." She then brings herself to the middle font as she digs into her pouch to pull out an unlit torch and her tinderbox, quickly lighting a flame for the torch to cast light.

The cleric then gives a look to the two other women and nods, signifying she was ready. When they were, she puts the torch into the bowl and takes a step back.

Sera gives Jasun a reassuring smile and then fills the chalice and pours the water into the third font.

Jirel puts the corn in the font. On the other side of the door, you hear what sounds like a trap disengaging. 

"Well, that sounds promising. Shall we?" Sera cautiously approaches the door.

You open the door and walk through the archway without issue.

Area D2

Warm yellow light fills this huge and lavishly decorated bedroom from three golden chandeliers suspended from the ceiling. The walls are painted white and draped with plush velvet curtains. Finely woven rugs cover the floor, while the furniture is upholstered in fine brocade and chintz. Silk sheets and a delicate lace canopy cover an overstuffed poster bed to the south. Occupying the room is a half-elven woman with short blonde hair who appears to be upset. Upon seeing you enter, she immediately rushes towards Seraphina, tears in her eyes.

"I know that it is you, Jadrenka! Stop hiding behind your disguises and let me out of here! I am tired of your constant tests!"

Sera does her best to evade the furious half-elf. "Uh...no. Not...not Jadrenka. Can someone else get in here, please? Sorry, who are you?" She blinks.