Godfall Caverns
Right behind the entrance is a steep 10 meter cliff, a ladder can be seen laying on the ground, and a little ways away from there, a skeleton with ten spent torches laying in a perfect circle around it. With the storm approaching quickly, Wyn Dawnwalker climbs down and the attaches the rope he used to the ladder, which is then pulled up and allows for the others to get out of reach of the storm.
Lavanith Rhovan goes to check out the skeleton and is promptly bitten by a venomous snake that was hidden inside the coil of rope next to the skeleton. Filibert Chubb tries to quickly kill the snake but his attack misses, fortunately Wyn's follow up hits. As some of the others take care of the unfortunate wood elf, Izzy goes and checks out the cave-in at the end of the cave. When examining a large statue of stunning quality, made of a type of stone none of them have ever seen before, and shaped to resemble a dwarf, a voice rings out. It speaks archaic dwarvish and says: "declare yourself, friend or foe".
Not everyone understands what's being said and no one really responds. Then the statue starts to cast a number of spells in rapid succession. Everyone in the cave is blinded, deafened, slowed and the entire area is filled with a stinking cloud, making them all retch for minutes. Eventually the spells run their duration and everyone recovers. Not long after they discover another thing, an invisible wall of force between them and the way back up and out.
A short rest seems prudent and with the snake dead they are now able to get a good look at the skeleton. It doesn't carry much of interest, apart from 18 gp and a piece of vellum that turns out to be a patented questionnaire which makes for an interesting read.
Eventually they clear out enough of the cave-in to make their way to the other side. Here they find a second statue, seemingly an exact copy of the other. Odrik Hilderfinn makes sure everyone knows they are not to touch it. There is a path/road but it ends at another cave-in. There is a small tunnel at another part of the cavern though, and it leads to a new cavern. After a few hours of following its winding path they come to a narrowing and another cavern beyond that. This seems like a good place for a long rest and a proper introduction; no one really knows who the others are.
Down for more
The next morning the party continues on and eventually comes to a shaft dug into the ground, it is illuminated but the bottom is out of sight. They notice a feather fall type effect and travel down the shaft. At the bottom they have to dig through a wall and end up in a cavern filled with all kinds of crystals.
Then they come to a cave with t-junction of roads and a small watchtower with very sharp vines growing all around it. After a lot of hacking down vines and taking care of some rot grubs they manage to find a chest inside, holding some useful items, including some potions and a number of moldy roots.
They follow the one accessible road for a long time and come across a small door set into the right wall. Beyond is a large circular room, in the middle of it are about two dozen large bars of a blueish metal, all perfectly smooth, two or three meters high, a meter wide, maybe a third or fourth of a meter deep. A few are still standing upright, most have fallen over. The floor of the room is made of inlaid clay tiles in a geometric pattern resembling something like a four pointed star. The floor right next to the wall is a simple circle of grey tiles, about a meter wide.
Lavanith is the first to go inside and check it out, only to find that a large part of the opposite side of the room has collapsed. Odrik goes in as well and soon finds out that when he steps from the grey path onto the patterned part of the floor, a force starts to pull on any metal objects he is carrying. He manages to fight the force and makes it back outside the circle. A quick test with a copper piece shows that it is being attracted by the metal bars. Lavanith then tries to get closer after making sure she is not carrying anything metal. Unfortunately when coming closer a lot of pressure starts to build up in her head and she quickly backpedals. Izzy has a look at the ceiling and thinks it might resemble a starry sky.
The party decides to continue on and when passing through a cavern are waylaid by two giants who are quite stone-like, they looked just like boulders. They grab Odrik and speak in a language no one can understand. Fortunately Izzy knows a spell that lets her understand their speech, but it doesn't allow her to speak their language. The second giant grabs Filibert and puts a large snail in the paladin's mouth that dissolves his tongue. The giant then takes the snail and puts it in its own mouth and now speaks common.
An interesting conversation develops with the giants not quite believing the party is from the surface; "nothing can survive there, there's only fire there!" The giants don't have all that much useful information to impart; they seem to spend all their time here and no little of any other creatures in the area. Izzy does exchange a vial of ink from the pack she carries for some of the moss the giants like to chew on cause it makes them see all kinds of weird things. With that they make their goodbyes and Filibert gets his tongue returned via snail.
Something fishy
More traveling eventually leads to a 15 meter tall waterfall. It's not easy descending the slippery rock but eventually they all manage to make it down with almost no injuries. The marl-stone cavern opens up to an underground lake of unknown proportions, but it must be very large based on the way sound behaves down here. A narrow stone dam just inches above the water level is the only way forwards that doesn't involve swimming.
A short way along the dam the party is waylaid by five creatures that look like someone combined the worst elements of a dwarf and a fish. They have gills, stand on legs with fins and webbed feet, their finned hands are capable enough to hold their sticky shields and spears. The way they are brandishing their weapons is all the party needs to go on the offensive and strike first. The battle is hard and takes longer than expected but it ends with the spell casting leader diving in the water and swimming away, sounding a horn.
Our friends rush headlong as fast as they can, some quite injured from the fight. Fortunately the dam leads to a new cavern before their pursuers can catch up. At the end of the cave is a large building that has not quite stood the test of time, most of it has collapsed but some walls are still in good condition. In front of the building are two large statues, similar to the ones they came across at the start of all this spelunking business.
"Declare yourself, friend or foe," a voice rings out from the statue and this time Odrik answers quickly; "friend". The statue then asks if the other three creatures are his guests. Once he answers affirmatively the party rushes to the building and starts on building a defensible position. The dwarf/fish people can be heard coming closer but they seem to have stopped somewhere beyond sight.
A stairwell going down into the ground is still accessible from the building and the party decides to check it out. It ends in an anteroom with a heavy metal door and magical number lock. One sleep later and Filibert is able to cast detect magic and solve it. Beyond is a large room with a pool in the middle, three statues (magical), a large metal barrel (also magical), and three other rooms connected to it.
One seems to be a mage's study and lab but the entrance is blocked with a wall of force. Another holds a large bathtub like construction with a reservoir filled with a reddish black, viscous substance, suspended over it, Izzy takes a small sample with her. The other part of this room contains a very lifelike and life-size statue of a dwarf, a large lectern holding a huge book of metal plates inscribed with runes, and a few cabinets with a rather eclectic collection of things.
There's a cube, a rectangular prism, a sphere, a cone and a cylinder, all made of different types of stone and metal, and all about a foot high. A slender but tall candle. A box with a velvet lining holding a number of small gems, all different types. Bolts of very high quality cloth in different colors lay at the bottom of one cabinet, and sacks of a moldy residue of what might once have been seeds in the other. Izzy takes some of the cloth and the box of gems.
The final room contains a large, metal semi circle of metal standing on the floor, it's curving a little upwards at the top. Runes are inscribed upon it and a field of mystical energy glows inside it. The party concludes that this might be a portal and makes a sketch of the runes. To the side of the room is a large brass and copper construction that consists of a large base with small spokes radiating out from it, all topped with small spheres of different sizes. Filibert has actually seen one of these devices before, though much smaller than this particular one; he declares it to be an astrolabe.
A quick test with a shield and a rope shows that it might be a portal as both disappear immediately when thrown through it. With a likely large force of opponents waiting for them in a cavern with only one exit, the party decides to gamble and jumps through the portal.