Chapter Eight: The Virid Coronation

The blue light in the sanctum seems to waver as Zangua gets closer to the entrance. Inside he can see the dimly illuminated outlines of another statue on a pedestal, this one intact -- an enormous seated figure, perhaps.

Some of the carvings look like recognizable things to Leth: a house, a pair of crossed lances, a crablike creature, a king. But the style of these carvings is like nothing he has seen before, and he cannot be sure of his interpretations.

You guys can talk. This water-breathing potion you're all on is pretty deluxe.

Domarc sees no six-pronged crowns.

Entering the sanctum, Zangua can see that the dome of the temple holds a large pocket of air, and that the light coming from above is wavering because of the motion of the water's surface above them. The statue, a primitive colossus of Nethuns enthroned, sits with his head and shoulders above the surface. Waist-high steps lead up to the dais where the statue rests, but the only creatures Leth sees are a pair of small translucent fish that dart past his face. The water is noticeably colder inside the sanctum.

The light itself seems to be coming from a large triangular panel in the ceiling of the dome that glows a bright pale blue.

Leth surfaces. The massive head of Nethuns looms above him, its face worn smooth by centuries of submersion. A small amount of what looks like ice and snow has accumulated on the statue's crown and shoulders. Leth looks up.

Behind the statue's left shoulder, a wedge seems to have been cut out of the ceiling of the dome, coming to a point at its apex. The light coming through this apex is bright and cold. The water sizzles and cracks as it laps against the bottom edge of this inexplicable window.

An icy breeze brushes Leth's cheeks. As his eyes adjust to the brightness, he sees a landscape through the window, broad steep slopes of glacial ice, opalescent with faint pink and blue-green hues.

Zangua recognizes immediately this place he has dreamed of so many times: it is the glacier of Caltlikrath in the Eight Circle of Hell.

His first impulse is to hurl himself through the portal and surrender to the cold, but he resists it.

Somebody make a Perception check!

Leth sees faint tracks in some of the ice beyond the portal.