"It's like you can read minds, Seiren. I have the spell prepared, so we don't have to wait. And knowing the magic off the bat might make it easier." Ezri calls, jogging over to the rest of the group. She mumbles a few words, and waves her hands over her eyes, to cast Detect Magic.

"Bill, Jimmy, if that Hoot-Growl gets loose, give 'em the ol' stomp and chomp, you hear?"

Grizzle instructs his animals in a stern voice.

The passage reads the following: “The key to your salvation is an unholy amalgamation“ and “Deep you must dive to avoid what dwells inside”

The detection of magic allows you to see that this is some powerful divination magic in the passage, and that there’s a rune that seems to look similar magically to everyone in the party, and then some.

Seiren writes the passage out in Kane's notebook if he allows her to and scratches her cheek when she's done. "I.... don't believe I have any clue whatsoever what that means. Could it be... Deep we must dive to avoid what dwells inside.... Inside of this cavern? The owlbear? Or inside of... our... selves? Anyone have any idea how deeply or not deeply we're meant to interpret this?"

If possible, Enoch will use this time to move dirt into the space above the owlbear, releasing it to start to fill the hole from the top down, while hoping that the bear cannot dig as fast as Enoch can move the earth.

"There's a strong divination magic to it. The magics seem related to us, perhaps more specifically our types of magic. Wizardry, Bardistry, et cetera." Ezri taps her cheek, watching the magical colors of the runes swirl. "Spells are a tricky thing with their meanings. There is little consistency when it comes to how its presented, and to be interpreted. The owlbear most likely was a distraction of some kind, not part of the spell at large."

If no one stops her, Ezri strides up to the runes. She approaches the one that feels closest to her magically, and pokes it.

The owlbear stops struggling, and is forced deeper into the ground. The rune glowed with blinding light when Ezri touched it, though it was only seen by them. The ground shook a little bit at the same second.

Leaving the ground mostly smoothed over above the owlbear, Enoch steps away from his efforts, quickly noting the tremor in the ground. "Say again the riddle in these runes, please - you were saying that each rune is somehow related to us? Or our magical talents?"

"The key to our salvation is an unholy amalgamation," Seiren repeats, "And we must dive deep to avoid what dwells inside." She nods at the runes and Ezri. "It appears that they're related to each of our unique types of magic? Seems like a common theme. Once is happenstance, twice is a pattern... Most likely."

Ezri looks around, trying to find a source for the ground shakes, or something that might have changed due to it. "We are going to be in a school catering many forms of magic usage, so it's not surprising. Along with this forest's innate magical connection."

Investigation: 12

"What's ama-glatshun? Oooo, this one looks nice!"

Grizzle pokes the rune that seems to call to him.

(hmmm, DDB never notified me of other posts for an entire week....)

"Ah-mal-ga-may-shun," Seiren repeats, watching Grizzle to see if anything happened when he prodded the rune, "Like, um, a blend of things. Mixing or putting things together into a bigger thing. All of us are an amalgamation of students."

"Ah-mally-gmashun. Like a soup?"

"And so are our magics! Perhaps we must all of us at once cast a spell that, together, will get us out of the forest?"

(I never got notifications either.)

Kane looks over the runes, "Unholy amalgamation. Hmmm. Since I am a Tiefling, and many consider my race unholy, do you think they could be talking about me?"

"That sounds rude. Grizzle likes Soup-Kane the Amaglation."

Grizzle pats Kane comfortingly with his "clean hand".

((Well, there hadn't been posts in this thread for a week. Assuming CV8 is busy, but hopefully healthy.))

"A cluster or gathering of students perhaps would fit better. Amalgamation does have a more unnatural connotation to it. Such as, some may view owlbears as an amalgamation of two animals. Or a gauntlet with several blades attached an  unnecessary amalgamation of weapons."