Adilior's party delved into the Canyon Temple on the Ninth Day of Cold Moon. Their names and roles were as follows:
Adilior, Troubador of the Vinyard Academy: Bard of Harmony and Dissonance: inspiration, amplification, interference, diplomacy, and strategy
Reghior, Journeyman Mage of Blue Spire: Shieldmage and Summoner: warding, abjuration, tempo, action economy, arcana, and construct mechanics
Heaghighaior, Sage of the Holy Church: Healer and Rebuker: restoration and mitigation, curing, purging, protection, smiting, and sacred blessings
Iara, Highlands Witch: Opener of Ways: harming and helping, charms and enchantments, fortune, curses, divination, knowledge of nature
Groaopthox, Soldier of Fortune: Frontline Fighter: aggression and defense, distraction, rescue, pursuit, maintenance of weapons and armor
Noaonia, Arcdown Delver: Archeologist and Scout: surveying, detection, traps, infiltration, deception, analysis, runes and languages, history
They also brought with them the following auxiliaries:
Eriothet, Guard
Laotlhelh, Mage
Darion: Wagondriver
Emeilia: Horsekeeper
Semilia: Porter
Enmior: Porter
The auxiliaries remained in their camp at the foot of the temple stair. There, they hunted, fished, gathered herbs, cooked, crafted potions, and constructed shelters and fortifications.
The main party ascended the stair and reached the high terrace, where they found that the stone door had been broken open. This door, nearly thirty yards tall, was made from two solid slabs of marble, and engraved with scenes of natural life depicting the various biomes of the river canyon. Since the great stones were spit, an enormous force must have been applied. Among the rubble, they found an entrance large enough for humans to pass through. Thus, they entered the grand hall, nearly one hundred yards high, arrayed with mighty rows of pillars, lurking in shadow. A cleft in the roof of the temple, the sky canyon, provided light, while a channel in the center collected rainwater and delivered it to the depths. Alcoves and offices, warrens of balconies and hallways, adorned the periphery.
In that dusty and quiet hall of pillars, there lurked common beasts mountain lions, lash snails, scroungers, thinkers, viper bats, skyworms, and gremlins. They repelled the worms without effort, though Reghior expended a few shields to slow their advance. The territorial snails they avoided. The scroungers, lions, and bats all kept their distance. Among all those beasts, the only true danger came from the gremlins, smirking, who slunk away into the darkness and awakened the ancient temple constructs, the sentries, servitors, and judges. Perhaps few of them remained, but Noaonia trailed one gremlin down a sunny garden hallway and spotted it provoking a guard rune to attack. She killed the gremlin with her shortbow, but the guard rune fired a bolt of blue fire and she was forced to retreat to the pillar hall. Groaopthox charged and destroyed it with a throwing-hammer.
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Noaonia assumed that the temple constructs were created in the Age of Wonders, while the temple itself was much older. They could not have survived until the Age of Sorrow if there was not a Foundry of some sort within the temple complex. Any Foundry, even a small one, was immensely valuable. It would give anyone, whether a nation or a single man, the power to conquer the world. But a Foundry defended itself with the constructs it created, and the strongest constructs guarded the Foundry itself. Besides, nobody knew how to control or command a Foundry. It could be destroyed, at the cost of many lives, and its parts could be salvaged, but it could not be turned to any purpose other than that for which it was created.
Meanwhile, nobody had found any interesting loot. They had scouted the entire hall and its adjoining chambers, but nothing of cultural importance remained. Everything had been taken long ago. Yet there was a way to go deeper. The channel in the center of the pillar hall carried rainwater down into the back of the temple, like a river descending into the earth, an artifical canyon. This river flowed through a gate, flanked by two roads, cascading into the darkness. It was impossible to take wagons or pack animals down those steep stairs, so the lower interior might not have been looted so thoroughly. It was still early morning at that time, so they continued deeper.
The roads disappeared, leaving only the river. Pillars emerged from it, a series of platforms and obstacles that could be jumped across or climbed. Entering that chamber awakened trial constructs: crawlers, hoppers, climbers, and fliers. The party defeated these without great struggle, for the constructs refrained from using lethal weapons. Noaonia explained that trial constructs differed from sentry constructs: trial constructs were designed to test aspirants (seeking, in this case, an unknown goal) while sentry constructs were designed to protect the temple. At the end of that long river, they reached another gate and another waterfall, so the descended again.
Another road of trials followed, as long as the first. A series of maze-like branching gullies, clefts, and grottoes led steadily downward, while intermittent floods rushed through the various courses, bettering the adventurers or washing them away. Still the trial constructs harassed them at every turn. Heaghighaior kept them in decent health, while Reghior used his shields to divert the water. Thus, they completed the second trial.
The third road was as long as the first two. It featured shifting gravel underfoot and cascades of stones and bolders raining down from above. The constructs were larger, with their heavy legs sinking into the unsteady terrain and causnig shockwaves that rippled across the road, sending sprays of water in every direction. To defeat these threats, the party expended the majority of their resources. Iara twisted fortune in their favor, casting both blessings and curses at once. Groaopthox, shielded and warded, hammered the constructs apart. Then they descended to the final chamber.
Dim light emerged from the ceiling through long, narrow skylights. Strange plants grew alongside a gentle brook: leafless purple bows, trailing fiberous tendrils, dark bulbs. Nothing moved. Arrayed along the waterside were thousands of coffins and urns of ashes. At the end, the water poured through a grate, falling down among the mighty boulders of the broken lands. No treasures, no loot, no villains. Adilior called for a rest, then returned to the surface. They never found any sign of the Forge either, nor were they strong enough to search for it.
