Against the cult: the Forest Ruin (1.5)

Kragga finishes reading and translating the passages for the group, then repeats several passages more slowly as the monk scribes a copy of his translation. Then he carefully tucks the pages into his spellbook for safekeeping.

Aanbo sees remains of many other containers in this conservatory, but they're all smashed. The aperture on waterskins is too small to pour into; the skins are really designed to be filled by submersion in water. If anyone has a flask, the contents of the alembic would fill two of them. Failing that, there might be some kind of container in the kitchen of the ruin or a bottle might be found somewhere. Having so recently catalogued the plants, Aanbo is quickly able to find blackvine, rosemary, and sundew...the mention of the bowl prompts a vague memory...

Ogbar pokes at some flowers in a desultory manner. Everything is making him think of Olga, suddenly. This often happens when he sees things of beauty when he's not fighting.

Joseph shrugs and continues his search of the room, hoping to find something else of value.

Theran looks for writing materials, but even though there is a desk in this room, there are none of the other necessary items. Then he recalls that the "office" room that the party had been in previously had stacks of blank parchment and ink pots. He steps out, retrieves some parchment sheets and an ink pot, and returns to the sleeping old man's room. Xana nods, confirming that there's been no change with the sleeper in the few moments he was out of the room.

Kragga determines that the glowing orbs have solidity; they also give off a fair amount of heat, which may be why the creeping plants have not overgrown the orbs. It might be possible to remove them, but to do so would probably require climbing up to the ceiling and figuring out how they are attached by touch, as they are too bright to look at directly. Kragga can attempt an Arcana check to try discerning more.

Aanbo calls Joseph over, and the rogue examines the northern door of the conservatory. Convinced that there are no traps, Joseph opens the door, confirming what everyone suspected: the door leads back to the meditation room with the murals on the wall. Crossing through that room, Aanbo descends the stairs back into the kitchen and rummages around in the kitchen cabinets in the dark...which seems very dark in contrast to the extremely bright light of the conservatory. Joseph speeds up the process by appearing a few moments later with his lit candle. Quickly they find two stoppered bottles, one of vinegar and one of oil, magically preserved and of the right size. They can be emptied and could be refilled with the pink liquid from the frothing alembic.

After triggering the trap on the stairs up to the third floor, Aanbo waits for the spikes to begin to retract, then rushes up the stairs to the site of Kaufra's unholy ritual. He grabs the silver bowl, shakes it out, and heads back down the stairs (careful to trigger the trap beforehand again) to the conservatory. There, in the bright light of the orbs, he sees how beautiful the holy etchings of Pae are on the outsides of the bowl...and how gory and befouled the inside of the bowl is with the residue of the dark ritual. If only they had some running water, or some other way of cleaning the bowl...

Squinting and using his peripheral vision, Kragga inspects the blindingly-bright globes. Recalling various bits of esoteric history and research that he's conducted in the Boccoboban Temple, he remembers reading lore concerning long-forgotten magic. In particular, there were accounts of an ancient, lost spell called "Continual Light," that was said to create an enduring radiance that rivaled the sun. Blinking green afterimages out of his eyes, Kragga strongly suspects that these orbs are simple stone knobs that had this Continual Light cast on them. Certainly it's bright enough. Fascinating. The spell even generates a fair amount of heat! The ancients really had impressive magic. Blinding, but impressive...

In the midst of his musings, Kragga realizes that the others were talking about scouring the silver bowl some time ago, and that he could easily clean it to a sparkling shine with the basic Prestidigitation taught him by the sages early in his studies...but this realization comes too late. Albertus has already poured out his water and scrubbed the bowl using his elbow grease. Unaware that the half-orc could have saved them time and trouble, Albertus proudly hands the cleaned silver bowl back to Aanbo.

Ogbar hacks at the plants, slicing through canes and yanking away vines to clear a space to work on the stone table. Aanbo puts the freshly-cleaned silver bowl on the table, puts the herbs inside, and uses the pommel of his dagger as a pestle to grind up the herbs. Although only a drop is needed, nearly everyone is able to provide some blood to add to the bowl (from their wounds). Then they step back, wondering if the brightness of the Continual Light orbs is enough to stand in for "the glorious light of Pae."

As Kragga is considering whether a globe could be removed with the spell intact - someone with stoneworking experience could probably break it off without disrupting the magic - Theran enters the lush conservatory, blinking in the bright light. The druid is looking for him to translate his letter, since the wizard's the one who has been translating the ancient texts. Albertus figures nearly anyone in the party could climb onto the table (once the monk is finished with his experiment) and then be able to reach the shining globes; Xana still wouldn't be able to reach them, though.

With nothing better to do, Joseph toys with the amulet that he took from one of the Heralds. Ogbar pines for Olga, sighing loudly in both impatience and longing.

As Aanbo considers the question of heartbeats, he notices that the simple mixture - just a damp vegetable paste, really - has gradually changed color, gaining a purplish tinge that wasn't present in any of the ingredients. Barring the possibility of magically-comatose heartbeats - which he does, figuring that the recipe's writer wasn't comatose at the time of writing - Aanbo figures that the mixture is as ready as it will ever be.

The Dungeon Busters are all in the conservatory now; what do you do next?