Story - Part 1 - The way to Icespire peak

Laughing at the type foolish blunder Garic drinks from the flask carefully and only enough to get the color match.

Garic drinks a mouth full of the potion. It tastes like a strange kind of herbal liquor with a consistency comparable to milk. His stomach cramps a bit and suddenly he begins to sweat. But just as Garic worries that the potion poisoned him the feeling subsides and he feels normal again.
His appearance though is not normal any more. His whole body as well as everything he's wearing is suddenly pink.
Garic tries to penetrate the barrier once more and without even a hint of resistance he's able to pass through it.
Behind it is a stairway that leads up to the next floor.
In regular intervals he can hear a sizzling noise coming from upstairs.

Sprout gives Garic a silly look as he turns pink but it quickly subsides after he walks through the barrier. He turns up the flask just enough for a mouthful, passes it off to Vienne, and then heads up after Garic.

Vienne glances briefly at the potion before tossing her portion back and heading after them. She has probably drank stranger things.

Foldrat and Gale decline the opportunity to drink the potion
We'll take watch here. Don't like pink drinks Foldrat grumbles

Vienne and Sprout drink the potion, turn pink too and pass through the barrier.
You ascend the stairs up to the next floor.
The next floor looks... mysterious. Colourful lichens cover the walls and mushrooms grow in the corners between wall and floor.
A giant red sphere hovers in the centre of the room. It looks as if red clouds were enclosed in a glass sphere.
At the far side of the room an apparatus, about as tall as a human emits a ray of red light shining at the sphere.
The sizzling noise you've heard before comes from green projectiles that the apparatus shoots through the room every few seconds. Whenever they hit the walls they produce a shower of green sparks.
As long as you stay near the stairs they shouldn't be able to hit you

"Let's test these projectiles out." Sprout produces a torch from his bag and places it where he's seen some of the bursts impact.

For now he will stay on the stairs bu Garic strains his magical sences to see if he can discern anything about the green bolts, the red coud, or the aparatus.

Shortly after Sprout places the torch it's hit by a burst from the machine.
The torch twists and turns until it's not a torch anymore but a small wooden figurine of a duck

Garic meanwhile can sense that the whole place basically radiates magical energy. The green bolts seem to have transformative properties.
The red orb feels.... displaced. The magical energy of it doesn't belong to this place and wants to return back to from where it came from. But the apparatus seems to prevent that with the ray it's emitting

After relaying his findings to the others he smacks his head. We should have brought the bird. It might have been able to explain things If the potino is still in effect then Garic wil quickly duck back downstaris and politely ask the metal bird to acompany him up to the room and use a drop of the potion on it before returning upstairs.

Vienne stares into the room, generally confused as to what she was seeing. "Good idea, Garic! Any thoughts bird?"

Garic rushes down the stairs, grabs the bird, pours some potion over it and brings it back up.
He shows the bird the room. The room is very different to when I last saw it. There was a sleeping room up here before master transformed it into this here. He never showed me what he did here. Maybe because he was afraid that someone could extract information from me the bird croaks

Setting the bird down on a step out of the way Garric conciders. The question is what do do?
I am thinking we should turn off the machine but do not want to become a gerbil.

Vienne, do you think we could combine magis to protect one of us from those trange green energies. I figure two should be stronger than one but I havn't tries mixxing magics with others before.
He keeps an eye on the bird to see if it reacts .

"There are many colors present here as well. I wonder if the potions from downstairs might have some sort of effect on those that suffer from the beams?"

"I've never done that either, but it could be possible." Vienne stroked Akhi's head and had a thought. "The magic might not effect Akhi. He could scout for a way to turn it off." She looked down at her snake, and if he thought he could do it then she'd let him.

The bird stays still while you discuss how to proceed.
Akhi nods shortly and then slithers towards the apparatus.
The snake returns after a few minutes and crawls onto Vienne's shoulder

Vienne takes a moment before she speaks up and explains that the machine has a lot turning wheels but the green bolts are coming from a crystal at the backside, pointing to it when she mentions.

"Someone very good with thier aim might be able to shoot it. Or there could be a way to take it off. It does seem to be the dangerous part - magic green transform into other things wise."

"I don't have any ranged weapons. Do you all? If not then could a mirror reflect the beams and keep us safe?"

I do have my two shields but who is to say if they can stop the magic. We could try to match the color again to see if that helps.. So saying he looks around noticing where the beams strike to see if anything resists their power.
The walls arn't affected, perhaps it doesnt work on stone?
Garic will look at the aparatus for any large controls that an adventurer might foolishly play with.

Garic watches where the beams hit. They all seem to hit the wall and leave no marks there.
The apparatus itself would seem like a complicated clock if you didn't know any better. While the sides are open on the front is a brass plate holding the emitter that creates the red ray directed at the sphere in the center of the room. On the inside cogwheels and other mechanical parts are turning. You can also see the glowing crystal that Vienne mentioned.
There are also two levers and a button. The levers seem to be constructed in a way that allows you to turn them sideways. The button is between them.

I knew we should have brought that silliy hamster with us. Garic mutters eyeing the room.

Well here goes and Garic focuses for a moment before sending a magic bubble across the room to bump into the button. Hopfully simply pressing the button will work