The Gauntlet of Challenge-Cry, Part 3 (Neth (X) 1st, 4712 AR)

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The Chamber of Ascension. The columns in this chamber imbued with fire (see below) create shadowy illumination.

This chamber, four hundred feet high and eighty feet across, is another immense vertical shaft carved into the heart of the mountain. Twelve evenly-spaced iron columns five feet in diameter stand along the chamber’s perimeter, rising to support a ring-shaped platform near the ceiling. The ceiling itself is some form of shimmering screen. The columns stand in matching sets of three. Three columns glow orange with heat, three glisten with green perspiration, three are frosted with ice crystals, and three crackle with electricity, all very similar to the portcullis-gate in the last chamber. There are no visible exits.

Appearances here aren’t deceiving — the columns have similar properties as the gate in the Challenge of Might, except they don’t change energy type. Two wings of protection attacked the heroes when they flew up the chamber to the platform atop the columns.

The wings of protection grabbed opponents. They fought until destroyed.

The Challenge of Arcana. From the height of the ring-shaped platform, the ceiling thirty feet above appears to be some form of magical screen, with strange runes darting across it. A chamber beyond the screen is barely visible.

The screen composing the ceiling is equivalent to a wall. The heroes identified the runes dancing across it as Draconic, and they noticed that the rune for “open” appears frequently and in large groupings, although the rune itself is of different sizes and orientations.

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