The pillar doesn't light up... Though there is something there still. How curious...

Oriander walks up to the pillar himself and raises the club. "...Do ya thin' we smash it?" 

(cause I also just realized Oriander hasn't like, said anything lol

Zack holds up a hand, "Perhaps let us look closer at it first." He leans in close and investigates the pillar to see if he can make sense of it (Investigation/Arcana: 9).

Vigil will immediately head towards pillar in the middle and help Zack investigate it.

(Hopefully try to give help action)

Second roll if advantage gained from help: 9

(OOC - hahaha)

(*sips* I didn't see anything.)

(OOC - I take it that means roll again? Thank you!)

Investigation: 18

(OOC - haha oh come on. My rolls have been rubbish!)

Kalgren shrugged.

'Nothing ventured, nothing gained.' He said as he pulled out a dagger. He took a couple of steps back to a point he deemed far away enough to be safe and close by enough not to miss. He lined the dagger up with the pillar and with a mighty swing threw the blade at it.

Seeing as everyone is investigating the pillar, Vigil will help as well by plunging the still burning blade into it to see if it will go through.

The blades do go through, albeit stopping as if hitting something. The illusion shimmers and fades, revealing a massive stone. It... definitely is not a naturally carved stone. It looks like someone took a giant key and slammed it into the ground, and formed spikes and other funky things around it. In fact, a facsimile of one of these creatures seems to be carved and coiled around it.

Almost immediately after the illusion is dropped, the ground starts to shake. Oriander looks up at the ceiling worriedly before shaking his head. "No. No, this thing isn't supposed to be here... but ah really REALLY have bad news. We ain' got the power to destroy it." He looks around in an almost panic compared to his normal demeanor. "...There is... is a legend about this stone. And we can't destroy it. We have to, and we can't."

The shaking gets louder and cracks in the ground start forming. The goliath moves and grabs hold of everyone in his arms and leaps towards the door as the floor collapses, and the stone plummets deeper into the cave system. The goliath looks outright terrified. "...May the gods have mercy on us. They... They've already been awoken... And if they are truly unleashed..."

Oh dear.

"Well, that's a little unfortunate," Zack says under his breath as Oriander mutters his fears then scoops them up.

(OOC - before this there was tapping at the door still, does this stop as the illusion fades? And do we now face them as Oriander drags us out the door?)

(Oh, he doesn't drag you out the door, my bad. just closer TO the door.)

Vigil looks confused by the situation in general.

"What is going on!? What is that thing? Who is ‘they’? Why do you seem to know so much of what is happening?", asks the tiefling in rapid succession.

Zack shakes his head and nods at Vigil's flurry of questions, "Indeed, my friend. All very good questions, even if the time is most unfortunate. Though I see no other time to ask!"

"There... is a legend, from long ago. Of monsters from another world." Oriander looks down into the hole before shaking his head. "...Their true name, if they even 'ave one, was never passed down to us. A powerful mage, more powerful than anythin' we had seen before or since, came to the world and warned of these creatures. A living, evolving apocalypse."

Oriander quakes more. "That stone is what spawns them, controls them... in the absence of a queen." He gulps. "...'ow did they come here...?"

"Do we jump down then?" Zack asks the others. "I mean, we either jump down or go out to fight them out there. I'm morbidly curious as to what's down there though."

'If the hive has no queen and the stone is the only means to control them, we need to retrieve it.' Kalgren said already not relishing his next course of action. 'Better a controlled and contained plague than letting it run rampant.'

He put down his backpack and retrieved his climber's kit. With a soft whisper he enchanted a hammer with a Light spell and began to hammer pitons into the wall and securing rope to them. 

'We best hurry.' He told the others before sliding his body over the edge to descend down deeper into the dark bowels of the earth, ever further from his beloved sun.

Zack likewise, grabs a rock from the ground and casts Light on it, then gets his mage hand to hold it aloft in the tunnel behind Kalgren to offer him more light to work with. Before the mage hand fades, he places the rock down somewhere safe and picks it up again with the newly cast hand.

Vigil follows into Kalgren’s path using the pitons he left and providing the holy man additional ones if he needs more.

(how much rope do you guys have between all of you? I forgot off hand. also apologies, been sick for three days and couldn't do JACK. that sucked)

(I have 50 feet of rope and a climber’s kit. I think the others do too. Sorry to hear about your health. Hope you get better)