For the walk, and still, Fianna has her Eldritch Sight up so that she can detect magic within 30 feet of herself.  Upon reaching the rift in the ground, Fi'Finella immediately scrambles down into it to see if there is indeed a path this way still, if the dispatching of the demons means the ones trapped down here are gone, and if the other traps noticed before are still out and about.  The familiar stays invisible the entire time, as she does as a matter of course.

     "Plan?  Do we do those?" Fianna asks, with a smirk.  She certainly doesn't have one...

Chen inspects the charred timbers from the previous attempt. It will take some time to collect fresh wood, he murmurs, so perhaps we should abandon this strategy. I'd still like to ensure the dragon doesn't escape though. How far did we progress on deconstructing the teleportation circle?

((I believe we never get to the part of destroying teleportation circle. We only tried to smoke out the dragon or cave in that back entrance))

Mirica was indeed quiet still helping when help was needed. She grimaced at the heavy smell smoke and burned dirt when the party reached the "backdoor" and answered Chen's question. "I thought we planned to destroy the circle after we are done here? And we never finished closing that entrance because of the demons. I still think it might be worth to try to get inside and see it it indeed leads to the dragon lair - we can not be absolutely sure even about that. But with all the traps inside not sure how to proceed. There are ways to walk between the plains - the one Jahren used before. May be that... But I am not ready to use it right now. May be one of teh familiar can try again - carefully this time?"

Responding to Mirica, Chen suggests: Then in the interest of simplicity, I propose we disable the circle sufficiently to prevent the beast's escape, then just tackle this tunnel ourselves. I can also send Morco ahead if needed. One can only assume that Chen is referring to the bear that sits beside him as he speaks.

Fi'Finella scrambles down the crevice, crawling between burned lumber and chunks of rock.  There is still quite a bit of room to move down. The groups effort to block it were hindered by the fact that much of the rubble was falling quite a ways down the long crack in the ground, which is 8 feet across and fifteen feet long.  The imp moves down into the darkness, giving real time updates to Fianna as she goes once again into the pit, flying between great slabs of stone that were cracked apart by the force of impact. Wether it was the ground before, or a piece of mountain from above is hard to tell. Moving through an area of crushed stone, and then a different marbled rock, she sees the same glowing below. The cave opens up into a room carved into the stone. There, frozen in a shimmering amber field, are six demons. They look perfectly preserved, the glint of evil still in their eyes which glare out of the amber with hate. Fi'Fanella catalogs them...a Glabrezu, a Nalfashnee, and four Nabasuu.  Powerful demons locked in some sort of magic. Any other exits from the room are caved in, but a winding crevice continues down. Fi'Fanella sees the shimmering field that is the Mythal cease before her as she descends beneath the magic's reach. She reaches that point and then recalls, last time, this is where she set off the magical trap that killed her.  Does she dare try again? 

Toc nods to Mirica and Chen, "Alright, let's go take care of the teleportation circle, then come back."  

The group picks their way through the ruins once again, past giant heaps of rubble, ruined buildings, upside down and crushed ancient monuments...and past numerous small holes in the ground that dot the ruins. Either Toc's familiar or Fi'Finella fly above watching for trouble.  They spot a hawk circling in the air ahead. Beneath, it looks like a group of six people, all women, are picking their way through the ruins. You avoid them...and then another of the magical vortex's.  You also spot a ruined camp, looks like some big tents setup that were all knocked down with dead bodies nearby. Lastly, the group passes two Illithids with several hobgoblins moving stealthily about the ruins. Determined not to be side-tracked, the group .... oh...there some strange music coming from that hole over there.... NO!...the group continues and eventually arrives at the section of ruins they're looking for.  

This portal is in the north part of the ruins, in a large crater in the ruins.  The clearing here seems to have been excavated since the cities fell, and what looks like it may have been the interior of a building, but is now just crushed stone flooring and fragments of walls has been cleared. In the center of one section of floor is a cracked and damaged fresco of a sailing ship entering a port.  Fianna recalls that FinFin had watched one of the dragons place its claw down across the whole image and then abruptly vanished.

The group looks around cautiously, but there doesn't seem to be anything around so you move down to investigate. The fresco appears to not be a teleportation circle, but instead it is a magical gateway of some sort. Fianna can see that glows with conjuration magic that slowly pulses in waves.  

     Fi’Finella tries to trigger the trap from afar, hefting stocks and sticks past the area.  If that fails she grabs the biggest and longest stick she can find and pokes around the suspect area, trying to trigger something.

     If nothing triggers it, Fi’Finella flies back topside and tries to find a mouse or other small critter to capture.  She then returns and throws the living thing past where she remembers the trap being...

The sticks and stones don't trigger any trap...neither do they break any bones.  Fi'Finella gets her hands on a fuzzy little grey mouse a few minutes later and returns.  She tosses it into the darkness below her where the trap triggered.  A whirling swarm of sharp steel blades erupts in the air all around.  The mouse makes it a few feet before a spray of blood announces its death and mouse bits tumble into the darkness below.  A moment later the blades vanish. 

(Is this like a closing aperture of blades, a bunch of blades being thrust out on sticks, magical floaty blades?  Does there seems to be holes or slots where they protrude from? )

The blades literally appear in mid air, swirling all about, full of magic and death...and then simply vanish. 

     Fi'Finella will repeat the experiment 2 or 6 more times.  Throwing small critters into swirling blades is kind of fun for imps, after all.  But mainly she is trying to peg whether or not the blades always appear at the same point or if there is variance...

((And will be killed by Mirica after the second mouse if priestess witnessing imp's entertainment)) 

Fi'Finella can be seen occasionally appearing near the crevice as she pounces on a mouse, but the imp quickly vanishes with her prize.  No one can see what she's doing since she has to go quite far down the crevice, past the room with the demons, before finally reaching the lower shell of the mythal. It must be at least 200 feet down. She catches a few mice to save herself the travel time and tests the trap. Mouse after mouse goes into the blender. It always fills the entire space, appears in the same area, and is about 40 feet to the other side. 

     ((I had thought the party continued to the other location and Fi’Finella had stayed behind exploring...  but Fianna would have explained the exploring being done and the experiment... though would have gotten more vague as Mirica started showing annoyance.))

     “The trap seems permanently set and to react only to living beings...” Fianna speculates. “Perhaps it could be dispelled but there’s no telling how many are beyond that one.”

Chen takes some time each hour to refresh the spell that connects him with Morco the brown bear, and has the bear remain alert and patrolling the area while the group is working. (Perception: 18, or with advantage if using smell: 7)

Disabling a magic gateway is not Chen's expertise, but smashing things is. He offers to do so with the fresco if the arcane specialists believe it will make any difference. Alternatively, he is prepared to use the magical gateway and enter the dragon's lair directly and meet it head-on, if the others know how to activate it.

Nuzej ritually casts detect magic in the room with the teleportation circle, trying to see what is there beyond an assumed conjuration school emanating from where the dragon placed their claw to disappear. He's trying to see if there's other magic here, illusions, traps, anything else he can glean. He's been quiet for the trip there, fumbling with his spellbook, which has been filled with several new spells.

Toc thinks on this.  "I mean, a city fell on it, and it still works....but...maybe smashing it some more might work. Otherwise, without knowing the activation key, or signal, or whatever it takes to activate it, I wouldn't know how to use it.  If anyone starts experimenting, please say out loud what you do, BEFORE you do it, so the rest of us know how to follow if you vanish."   He shrugs, "I've learned this lesson before." 

Nezuj casts detect magic.  He's sees the conjuration magic of the fresco's magical portal, but not much else. It's less a room, and more an open area, where the floor of what once was a room has been excavated from the rubble.  The tile fresco on the floor is all that remains of whatever building once stood here.

"So, we either teleport over the trap or find the means to appear not-alive - and we do not know what is past it, get through that teleport or destroy it and wait for the angry dragon to show up from the main entrance," summed up Mirica. "Just out of curiosity - let's try to put something dragon-claw shaped across that part of the fresco".

If there is any long enough rock or piece of wood she will try to do that. Mirica could go only with description, but if it was detailed enough it should not be the problem. 

     “Assuming it’s old, from before the city fell, it would likely meant it was created for the denizens of the city.  Not dragons.  My guess would be one just needs touch the object and either say some word, phrase or other trigger... or perhaps it could even be a mental trigger.  I mean it’s worth trying, but I think unlikely dragon specific...” Fianna ponders aloud.

     “We could also have Fi’Finella try out what we think might work,” Fianna suggests.

     Fi’Finella, in response, makes a quite rude gesture which mainly goes unseen since she is invisible.

((Assuming this is after rodent experiment and Fi’Finella has been bamfed out of there and back here.)

     “But before we start trying to enter... is that our plan?  To enter?” Fianna asks.

"Yes!" Chen half-shouts. "And the sooner the better."

Mirica attempts to use a branch that's roughly dragon shaped to press into the fresco, but it doesn't work. 

Toc smiles at her, "Dragons were barred from even entering the Mythal, so....it is unlikely to be dragon related. More likely an elven word of some type. I suppose I could start saying words randomly..or rather....I could say words from a safe distance and Fi'Finella can repeat them while touching the fresco."