Episode 35

Episode 35: Solar Remnants.

The temple rumbles and shakes wildly, and the party decides to split, one half investigating the rumbling roar and the other half investigating another unnavigated hall. Cici, Scrungus and Taylansta run back and find that the monster statue has come to life, attacking Cassidy, Jeremiah and Dyna. They leap into action, the monster flailing wildly about the room. While Jeremiah hides, the rest of the heroes show off their abilities: Cassidy uses a stasis ability to lock it into place without making attacks while Scrungus counters the monster with his hardening skin and heavy hitting blows, Cici wails on it with her great axe with a surge, and Taylansta makes clones of xemself to attack the monster for xem. With Cassidy’s help, this half of the party is able to take down the monstrous abomination with relative ease. The monster crumbles, and a new passageway behind them opens up, leading to a new part of the dungeon. During this, Callisto and Ganymede scout ahead, entering a mysterious room not yet visited. In this chamber, there is a strange, metal altar surrounded by blue flames. There is a circle window in the ceiling directly above it, covered with sand from outside. Callisto approaches, ascending the set of stairs. Letters and runes begin to light up on the altar as he goes up, eventually reading, “Total eclipse reveals the way”. The altar has two podiums in the center of it, the twins mirroring each other as they stand behind them, trying to make sense of the code. Callisto and Ganymede were born during an eclipse, but they have a hard time making heads or tails of the riddle.

As they go to leave, Ganymede traces her hand along the podium, which tears her skin as she tries to walk away. Callisto watches as a little spike on the podium retracts down, taking Ganymede’s blood with it, dripping and swirling it into a basin at the bottom. Callisto, seeing this, does the same thing on the spike on the other podium. The blood of Callisto travels down into the basin in the same way, mixing with Ganymede’s. It lights up in various colors; blue, orange, white. A tornado of light from the bottom shoots up towards the ceiling, melting the glass window at the top. The glass melts and quickly reforms, making an entirely new window spanning across the ceiling. The room goes dark as the blue flames go out, leaving the twins with none of their questions answered. After taking in all of the details, the twins leave and catch back up with the others, about to investigate the new path opened up by the monster’s destruction. They enter into a sprawling maze, with narrow halls and many dead ends.

The party splits off here, investigating their own ways for a bit, with Cassidy and Dyna staying behind to collect more riches. Callisto senses something within the maze, and his instinct tells him to follow it. He eventually finds a dead end room with nothing in it but a cage holding an animal. Inside, there is a frilled lizard, alone and upset, sitting by itself. Callisto frees it, and it seems to take a liking to him. He decides to take it with him, naming the lizard Equinox, inspired by Ganymede and her lizard companion Shortstop. Everyone spends some good time in the maze lost, but eventually everyone meets back up with one another, mainly thanks to Ganymede’s directional skills. A long, narrow exit leads everyone into another lone chamber. Another altar and basin is in here, this time with no podiums or blue flames. The steps light up with runes and letters again, reading, “The liquid that burns hotter than the suns”. Callisto and Ganymede investigate the altar, this time having their lizards spit molten acid into two of the basins, igniting them with blue flames. Callisto and Ganymede then use their powers to pour molten magma from the earth to ignite the other two basins, now four blue flames surrounding the altar. Yet another passageway opens, the opposite wall crumbling down. The twins step into this room together, and are met with a display of two symmetrical red daggers, and a set of tattered robes and armor plates. Callisto picks up one of them, and a word enters his mind: “Sunspot”. For Ganymede: “Corona”. Ganymede also picks up the tattered robes, a cloak believed to have belonged to their ancestor Jupiter. She quickly discovers that the cloak has an invisibility power from it, and promises to learn how to use it. With the Divine Weapons found, they begin their way out of the Temple of the Twin Suns.