5/6/2024 Godday, Fertility Week, Sea Season, Year of the Overlord 2164 After the skeletal snake creature disappeared, the party resumed exploring the rooms they had found. The first room appeared to be a weaving craft room, with two functional magical contraptions against the far wall. While Xaris explored the room, Igny escorted Tempest back to the entrance of the complex to let in Siris. Unfortunately, when they arrived back at the entrance, they realized that it was again magically sealed, and they had no way to open it. Meanwhile, Xaris, Gunther, and Chance were standing in the hallway just outside of the craft room when they were suddenly hit by “Lightning Bolt”! The skeletal snake had evidently returned, but scurried off again before the party could retaliate. Garrack, who had been inside the craft room at the time of the ambush, used “Lay On Hands” to help heal some of the damage the party had taken. Xaris led the group down the corridor and opened a door to a room containing a large bath. Xaris touched the water, and suddenly a creature, apparently made of water, rose up from the basin and slammed into Xaris, tossing him from the room! Rather than try to reenter the room, Xaris continued down the hallway, until he encountered a shimmering barrier with balls of red and orange appearing inside it. By this time Igny and Tempest had rejoined the rest of the party. Igny tried piercing the barrier with a javelin, but it bounced off the surface. Chance tried casting “Eldritch Blast” at the barrier, but it ricocheted back at the party forcing everyone to duck for cover. Around this time, Tempest noticed a sun symbol on the wall of the corridor that resembled the hidden doorway activated by the moon key earlier. Gunther confirmed that there was a hidden doorway there, but the party deduced they would need to find a sun key to open it. With no more open rooms to explore, the party decided they would need to search the basin of the water monster to see if it contained the sun key. The party entered the room, careful not to touch the water in the basin until they were all in position. Igny took position in the front, while Garrack guarded the doorway in case the skeletal snake creature reappeared. The party was able to see that there was, indeed, an object that looked like a sun key in the pool of water. However, as soon as Igny touched the water, the water creature rose up and attacked. This time the party was ready for it, and unleashed a barrage of attacks, with Tempest casting “Shatter” and Gunther casting “Ray of Frost.” In the heat of battle, Xaris used his new ring of languages to speak to the water monster, and said, “give us the sun key and we will let you live.” At this, the water monster stopped, tossed the sun key to Xaris, and returned into the water. While the party was still battling the water monster, the skeletal snake tried again to ambush the party. However, this time Garrack was ready for it and killed the snake creature, leaving behind a silver vial which Garrack picked up and stashed away. The party returned to the sun door which opened easily with the key. Inside was a short hallway opening into a wider room, which unfortunately contained two tall stony creatures, with two undead creatures behind them. Rather than rush into the room and become surrounded, Igny held his position most of the way down the corridor so that only one enemy could attack him at a time. Igny attacked with Kekax, while the ranged spellcasters in the party attacked from further back. This strategy proved effective at first, but when Igny switched off with Garrack for the lead position, the gargoyle-like creatures became wise to the party’s tactics and withdrew around the corner, forcing Garrack to enter the room. However, when Garrack attacked with his nonmagical sword, it merely bounced off the stony creature, forcing him to retreat. Igny entered the room to fill the gap and was quickly surrounded. Xaris gave Garrack his backup magic sword [+1] and Garrack reentered the fray. With the party’s combined firepower, the enemies in the room fell shortly thereafter. In searching the hallway and the room, Tempest found a silver key that appeared to be the key to the opening of the complex, allowing her to let Siris in to join the rest of the party. Also, the party found a small red bowl, and a round door marked by an orange circle. In fact, the party had encountered a similar door earlier except that it had a red marking. The party took the red bowl and returned to that door, which opened revealing a circular room. Igny and Xaris entered the room, and the door shut behind them. Suddenly, images of primitive lizardmen filled the room and a voice spoke to them: “the times before the coming of the asteroid were filled with simple pleasures of hunting and gathering.” Then the voice asked, “what color is the largest sun?” Xaris, having noted the mosaics on the walls of the complex, answered, “red.” Suddenly a small orange bowl appeared, and the door to the room reopened. And with that the session ended. TL;DR: The party continued exploring the complex under Strum.