“This scooby-doo session may get boring, but at least there is lots of killin”

Our session begins with the aftermath of some killing. Both of some flying starfish creatures called “Skyfishers” but also some humanoids. This looks gross, bodies filled with self-inflicted wounds and mutilation. They have not showered in months and their clothes are made from cloth and leathery flesh of other creatures. They are both dead and cannot say who or why they are attacking you at the home of Dr. Stolstarni.

You search her house for clues and find a few things. One clue leads to a bar, but after investigating it you discover it to be a dead end. You are aware that she has been having correspondence with Eyerub Paqual. Since there are no better ideas, your team decides to transport using the ancient elf portals on Castrovel. It takes you to the “Forsaken City” which is in the heart of the jungle. It’s hot and humid and you instantly get attacked by a plant creature that is trying to eat your face, just one of the nasty creatures on this planet.

Next, you defeat a Ksarik and it is not easy.

You soon reach the ruins of what Halkueem Zan called “The Forsaken City”, but millennia ago, these ruins were Loskialua, the small elven settlement that sustained the Temple of the Twelve and its astronomers. The citizens built their homes upon tiered platforms, both to create an even surface in the sloping region and because the elves believed that elevation reflected the heavens’ blessing. As a result, those ranked higher in society lived atop low pyramids, and in places these connected to form honored acropolises. After the elves abandoned the site long ago, their homes crumbled, windblown soil accumulated, and plants took root, creating a graveyard of pyramids studding the landscape that rise between 2 and 25 feet in height. With hundreds of structures, Loskialua represents a rare archaeological treasure that would require years of dedicated fieldwork to excavate and document. Of greater interest to you, though, is the intact temple and observatory—the Temple of the Twelve—perched hundreds of feet up the side of Alhuenar Spire, one of the Singing Range’s highest mountains.

Standing imperiously on a promontory partway up the mountainside is a temple of elegantly sculpted stone with a single domed tower rising from its center. Expanses of the structure’s weathered exterior bear scores of tall, glass-paned windows that cause the facade to shimmer in the sunlight. Wide stairs are carved into the rock face, winding back and forth as they ascend to the temple from the ruins below. The greater temple complex once included numerous smaller outbuildings to house the scholar-priests, their equipment, and food. These have largely collapsed over time, being of less durable construction than the temple itself.

Next, you start the ascent towards your destination. When the Temple of the Twelve began receiving more pilgrims and required greater upkeep, the elves carved a staircase into the steep slope leading up to the site. They called this the Path of Enlightenment, placing small monuments at each landing carved with cosmic wisdom that have since eroded beyond legibility. The climb is steep—a reflection of Ibra’s teachings that the greatest discoveries require hard work to reach. Having no idea of the temple’s true purpose, Halkueem Zan called this pathway the “Stairs to Eternity.”

The top of the stairs opens up, and you see a series of weathered pillars arcing around the entrance of the temple, marking a curving border around a small plaza. A steep, narrow trail leaves the plaza from the northwest, winding more than a mile up the mountainside to the temple’s ruined observatory.

You look up, and before you the ornately carved wooden doors leading into the temple, thanks to sophisticated preservative varnishes and the extensive metalwork crisscrossing them, they have just barely survived. Upon entering your eyes are bugging out. From its floor to its curved ceiling thirty feet above, this entry hall is covered in sweeping arcs of constellations marked with delicate lines and numbers at regular intervals. All the inscriptions are written in ancient Elven. The intricate constellations and curves depict how key stars and galaxies migrate across the night sky, though the placement of the constellations doesn’t match their actual locations as viewed from Castrovel. You realize it is a code to disable a trap in the next room.

This next room is ornately designed. The exterior wall of this gallery contains nearly one hundred tall, narrow windows that allow thin streams of anemic light to pass through their foggy panes. The interior wall depicts the night sky and its stars. Dozens of stylized starburst carvings decorate the floor. This hall was known as the Sovyrian Gallery because its interior wall depicts the night sky as seen from Sovyrian in the southern hemisphere.

Your party keeps walking tentatively, scared, quiet, and worried about what they will find next. Arriving at the southernmost point in the temple is a high-ceilinged sanctuary with tall, narrow windows filled with foggy, discolored glass. The vantage point juts out over the cliff below, overlooking the stairs carved into the mountainside and the ruined settlement below. As you gaze below you wonder how much longer your own civilization has before becoming nothing more than ruins for a new generation of beings. Bringing this closer you wonder further. You continue gazing through the windows below and wonder how much longer you have and if what you are doing is worth it. You are reminded of Chiskisk’s suicide. Just then, your contemplating gets interrupted. An interruption others may find chaotic and spine chilling, but you have walked through this scenario before. The Mellon collie expression on your face changes to a smile as you turn to face the source of the interruption - Roll of Initiative!