Onyx stared blankly at Chazrael for several seconds before giving an exasperated sigh. "Fine. But just as a fair warning... the first sign of trouble from that possessed corpse, I won't hesitate to kill it a second time."

Still irritated, but also--covertly--starting to wonder why the situation bothered him so much, the warlock turned and started walking down the tunnel.

Arbon pats Onyx on the shoulder, "I'm sure it will be fine. Let's move on." He nods to Grahl and moves further down the tunnel.

The four of you set down the tunnel. The owl at first desperately tries to hover closely behind but then perches on Chazrael's shoulder in exhausted defeat.

It weighs nothing. The only reason you are aware of its presence is its seldom breathing, and lightly grasping claws.

It takes less than 5 minutes to get all the way down, and the dancing stops in the lights. All the while the flicking and flickering of the shadows in the candles flame never revealing more than now no longer bounding silhouettes.

You enter a break in the tunnel, a kind of clearing but not at all the same as the other.

This one is smaller, less than 5 feet by 5 feet, with an 8 foot ceiling. Curiously, its only on the left of the tunnel, and the tunnel continues on immediately 5 feet ahead.

Once again there is a desk, a mirror, and some candles. The key difference this time are tiny objects in front of the light source.

They are small figurines on the desk in front of this mirror, just ahead of the candles.

Perhaps they are the ones casting the shadow? They cast a large enough one.

All thats sure is this mirror is covered in dust and the tunnel continues.

Still silent, Onyx's face contorts into obvious curiosity, and he sets to investigating the desk, mirror and figurines.

(( Investigation Check: 18 ))

Seeing Onyx approach the mirror Grahl raises his axe, not trusting another mirror in this place. He prepares himself to attack anything that might come out of the mirror. 

Moving in closer behind Onyx he will glance around to see if he notices anything. It seems like a strange place to leave a mirror and figurines. Is there anything else that would suggest that people are staying in this room?

(Grahl perception 13)

Chazrael will stand behind Grahl and draws his bow and arrow to prepare an attack if anything comes out of the mirror. 

Arbon moves over to the desk as Onyx investigates it, leaning down and looking at the figurines, he turns to Onyx. "So, mister wizard, do you have any ideas of how these things might have cast such beautiful dancing shadows?"

"Well," began Onyx as he continued looking over the desk, his tone becoming almost painfully academic, "they could be constructs, although they don't look it. Or it might have been the light source itself moving, with the figures' movements simply being among the many illusions we've been seeing.

"And of course, there are a handful of spells that could have been used to, ah, animate the figures."

He suddenly frowned. "The problem with that," he continued, his voice slowing and lowering, "is that that would require someone nearby to cast the spell." Turning back to the others for a second, he finished, "A pair of eyes focused on that tunnel would probably be wise." His face a bit more tense now, the warlock resumed his examination.

"Right," Arbon says as Onyx suggests a watch of the tunnel. He turns and focuses his attention that way, watching for any movement (Perception: 21).

Chazrael nods as he focuses on the tunnel as well. 

Perception - 23

Onyx exits the tunnel first, walking up and examining everything. The desk is made of oak wood and iron nails. The unnaturally dark brown color seems to be from some kind of stain applied repeatedly but in expert fashion. You are positive this is why the desk has endured in such harsh conditions. The mirror is as brilliantly ornate as the others, the glass expert quality and the gold work of the frame elegantly chiseled to depict the swirls and curves of vines. The figurines...

The small wood figurines, carved of the same kind of wood but painted with a kind of pigment that is brilliant in color but smears when touched, are carved in the visage of people. They are people with faces of sheer terror, displayed in stances of happiness.

As he recognizes this, Grahl and Chazrael shove him away slightly with one wooden figurine in his hand, aiming their weapons at the mirror.

Arbon finally exits the tunnel and asks Onyx what's going on, Onyx gives his best estimate and Arbon looks back down the tunnel seeing an empty path backward. When he looks forward, however, he can hear the light scratching of something just out of sight. He lifts his hand to point out the direction of it, perhaps to intercept or attack it in some way, just as Chazrael's owl leaps from his shoulder and lands on something in the darkness. Its eyes allow Chazrael to release an arrow, and pin the creature's body to the floor.

The owl then hobbles back to Chazrael and leaps once again to its upper body perch.

Retrieving the arrow, Arbon and Chazrael can see that this was a rat. Its pitch black with talon like claws that had overgrown into dagger like needles. The hair was oily and ragged, painfully stretching pores to small for their thick stalks. Its tail equally grotesquely jetting from its back, spine bones exposed by its size.

Most curiously, however, was that the arrow had split it down the middle, of what appeared to be a third eye socket. The two on either side of the split were totally undamaged, yet there were half a space where an eyeball could indeed rest on the forehead in the skull where the arrow landed.

The two of you look to each other, and you are positive. This was a demon rat, and it was watching you.

Grahl growls as he sees the demon rat. The unnatural creature angers him. He looks around left and right to see if there are other exits or places creatures could come out of. 

He takes another step towards the mirror using his left arm to knock aside the remain figurines.
Grahl will then raise his axe over his right shoulder. He holds it there a moment asking Grahl destroy mirror?

Looking into the mirror he awaits the response of his allies. 

Chazrael nods. "Got for it." He'll ready another arrow. "If something comes out and attacks, I'll fire another arrow." 

Grahl brings the weapon down on the mirror and feels it split down the middle like he was dropping a steel spear through a sheet of paper. The glass fragments and shatters instantly, the desk, figurines and candle exploding onto the floor. There is a huge cloud of dust that kicks up, obscuring vision. 

In the moments after, those of you who look about can see things moving in the mirror shards. As the dust settles, you realize that it was probably just the three of you reacting to the glass breaking. 

As Grahl destroys the mirror and it all shatters he uses one arm to shield himsefl from any debree flying around. 

Once the dust settles a bit he glances over his arm to see the movement in the mirror parts but shrugs it off as the pieces are probably still moving just like his companions might be. 

Clearly this was more effect then he thought he would get simply by attacking the mirror. Somehow everything was linked. So Grahl again stood vigilant to anything in the room coming their way. 

(Perception 20)

But with all the dust still lingering he does not see much at all, instead he rubs his eyes trying to get some better vision. 

"This truly is a curious place," Arbon shrugs, "Do you wish to continue studying the remains of the desk and mirror, Onyx? Or shall we continue on our path?" He brushes some of the dust off his armour and joins Grahl in standing vigilant in defence of the group.

Onyx blinked. Grahl's attack had been a bit of a surprise, but thankfully, he'd already finished his examination. "I didn't find anything useful," he sighed, a bit defeated. "We might as well carry on. If you would please lead the way?"

Grahl gets a little bit of glass dust in his eyes as he looks around immediately after shattering the desk without taking a step back. (take 1 damage)

Passing through to the tunnel where the rat was killed, the lack of the desks candle made the light bright and unyielding to be around in the stark contrast of such heavy darkness. As this tunnel just continued on for what seemed too long, the slight headache at breathing the stale air, magical white light burning like a sun and incredulous amount of pain coming form your feet grow to lengths you'd thought reserved for the entrance to final judgement.

When you do finally come to the next room, it is open. An empty hall with nothing in it but a pair of doors at the end. When you walk inside it, there are echos of your footsteps all the way down. The ceiling expand up triple in size, now 40 feet above your head. The air here is breathable, fresh, as if trees were about but only the solid ground of whatever crushed stone and mixed with water concoction created these floors. There are some scrawling on the walls, but they seem mostly incoherent.

In the middle of the room, you feel as if you are once again on the bridge, but there is no forward or backward. Standing in the center of this openness, you can imagine yourself standing in the void of space far from any nearby planet or star.

At the other end, the door opens before you reach it, and a mirror image of the hall stands before you. The only exception being a statue about 8 feet high in the center of the mirror world.

The hall remains empty, and the closer you get to the open doors, the more of a sense of finality you feel. You've gone from some of the darkest depths and most unstable heights this day. The air has gone from toxic gas to unseeable fog. It has been entirely too cramp and at other times unreasonably large...

Right there, at the top of the door, the entrance to this mirror hall with a statue in the middle, is a chiseled messaged in Dwarven: 

"From Ash Came Fire, From Fire Came Ash" 

(( Some questions:

 - How strongly "mirrored" is the mirror hall? Is it just an identical-looking hall, or, for example, does the scrawling on the walls also appear, in reverse?
 - Are there reflections of ourselves staring back at us, or is it just the hall (with the out-of-place statue?)
 - Are there any light sources in the hall(s) other than our torches and lights? ))

"Well, I'm pretty sure that that's Dwarven," said Onyx, his brow furrowed as he scrutinized the message. "Unfortunately, I can't read it. I don't suppose any of you know the language?"