The heroes crowded into the teleportation circle and Borovik touched the key to the hourglass shaped symbol at the bottom of the control panel. The circle glowed after a few seconds, and they found themselves in a small rectangular room with a 10 ft. high ceiling. Magic lights came on as they entered. The bodies of 3 dead cultists lay on the floor of the room.

"None of these looks like Iskander," said Bree. "I wonder why they're here?"

"Mara and I will examine the bodies to see how they died," said Talis.

After examining bodies, Mara declared, "This bloody one over here was clearly stabbed, I would guess with a shortsword. The other ones have scorch marks as if they were hit by a blast from electrical energy. Maybe they chased Iskander down here and he killed them."

"Well, then, where is Iskander?" Neega asked crossly.

"Let's follow the trail of blood that leaves the room," suggested Kellen.

They walked out the room following a narrow hallway going east. Near the end of the hallway, they abruptly halted. Blood streaked the floor of a 15 ft. square room. Two earth elementals and a fire elemental stood in the center of the room, watching them intently. A set of bloody boot prints exited the room to the north.

"If Iskander is down here, it looks like he left through the north exit," mused Borovik.

"Then let's go find him," said Neega, as she stepped into the room and prepared to head out the north exit.

The moment she stepped into the room, all three elementals came toward her, menacingly.

"By the Sword of Tempus! They're attacking!" shouted Neega, as she retreated back into the hallway.

She and the rest of the party went back into the teleportation circle room and waited to see if the elementals followed them. The elementals stared at them from the doorway of the other room but didn't advance into the hallway. After a few minutes, the elementals retreated from the doorway back into the room.

"It almost seems like they're blocking us from continuing further into the dungeon," commented Kellen.

"But if Iskander went down that way, then we need to go that way in order to find him, even if it means battling these elementals," said Preston.

"I don't look forward to fighting 3 elementals at once," Mara worried.

"Can we distract them so we can sneak past?" Talis asked.

"If I had prepared Conjure Animals this morning, I could have sent creatures running in there to distract them. But I didn't prepare it. Maybe I could use the Wand of Winter to cast Sleet Storm on them That will make the floor slippery and obstruct their vision."

"Kellen and I both have the Shatter spell. I think earth elementals are susceptible to thunder damage," said Borovik

"I can also distract by aggressively attacking them while others try to get by," offered Neega.

"So, let's try to distract the elementals so Bree, Kellen and Talis can get through. Bree and Kellen can then start doing ranged attacks from the other side which might let some of the rest of us sneak by," suggested Borovik. "Maybe by then at least one of them will be down and it will be easier for the rest of us to get through."

"Do you suppose they'll follow us to the other side?" asked Talis.

"One way to find out," said Neega.

Shouting, "Eat steel!", she went into a rage and rushed forward to attack one of the earth elementals. She approached and attacked the earth elemental who was in the NW corner of the square room, right next to the exit door. She hit twice and chips of stone flew off the elemental's hide.

The fire elemental, who was in the SE corner of the room, flew up and swiped at Neega, attempting to burn her with its fiery touch. Both attacks missed. The second earth elemental then stomped up from the SW corner of the room toward Neega. It tried twice to punch her, hitting with one blow. Neega's resistance to bludgeoning damage kept the injury to a small amount. Finally, the earth elemental near the door took swings Neega in response to her harming it. It hit with both blows and, although Neega was resistant to the damage, her injuries were beginning to mount.

Talis, Bree and Kellen all made dashes to get into the room and out the exit door. Before she got out of the room, Talis attracted an attack of opportunity from one of the earth elementals and sustained a little more injury. Kellen followed her and also made it into the northern hallway. Magic lights came on as they entered the hallway to the north. Bree only made it as far as the elemental near the north door.

Mara pulled out her Wand of Winter and got a line-of-sight on the elementals. She cast the Sleet Storm spell, placing it to catch the fire elemental and the second earth elemental, without effecting party members. The falling sleet made the floor slippery and effectively blinded the both of them. Mara smiled to see the earth elemental fall down, but then frowned as she realized that the fire elemental was immune to being knocked down. The falling sleet sizzled as it touched the fire elemental's skin, but it wasn't sufficient to cause injury.

Preston ran forward to get line-of-sight on the earth elemental and the fire elemental enclosed in the falling sleet. He cast Shatter and a loud thunderclap hit both of them. The earth elemental shuddered as it was severely shaken by the thunder damage, although the fire elemental managed to dodge some of the injury. Borovik moved down the hall enough to target the elemental near the north exit door. He cast Bigby's Hand, placing it next to elemental and ordering it to punch. A powerful blow of force damage left the elemental hurting and shaken. It bellowed and stomped in anger.

Frostbite flew up over everyone's heads and landed just behind the earth elemental next to the exit. He hit with his bite, delivering both piercing and cold damage. Neega then continued her attack on that same earth elemental. Two mighty blows from Hazirawn sent it back to the Elemental Plane of Earth.

The fire elemental tried once again to attack Neega. It hit with one blow, and caused her burns, as well as setting her clothing on fire. The remaining earth elemental tried to get up but slipped again on the icy floor. Nevertheless, it still tried to punch Neega while lying on the ground. It hit with one blow and gave her another bruise.

Talis returned to the elemental room, approached Neega and cast Cure Wounds, using extra magical energy to apply more healing. This took away most of Neega's injuries and provided a little healing for Talis herself. Mara then cast Blight on the fire elemental. It dodged and took only half damage but was still slammed with necrotic energy. Preston once again cast Shatter at the 2 remaining elementals. Both dodged, but still took some damage.

Bree came up to the remaining earth elemental and stabbed it with her Dagger of Venom. She hit and got sneak attack damage, because of the proximity of Neega to the elemental. The earth elemental roared loudly from pain and pieces of stone fell from its hide. Bree used her bonus action to disengage and safely get out of melee range of the elemental. Borovik used his bonus action to move the Bigby's Hand next to the fire elemental and do a punch. The fire elemental took a good deal of force damage, and its flames began to flicker. He then unsuccessfully tried to use Chromatic Orb to deliver more thunder damage to the remaining earth elemental.

Frostbite once again flew over the heads of the party and landed next to the prone earth elemental. He hit with both teeth and claws, doing piercing, slashing and cold damage. Meanwhile, Neega was busy snuffing out the fire on her clothing. She did sustain a little more burns before it was out.

Kellen cast Crown of Madness on the Fire Elemental, successfully charming it. He ordered it to attack its comrade next to it. The fire elemental punched with its fiery touch and burned the earth elemental, as well as enveloping it in ongoing flames. The earth elemental spent its turn snuffing out the fire surrounding it, sustaining a few more burns in the process.

Talis took this opportunity to back away from the combat and retreat up the northern hallway. Mara cast Blight on the earth elemental, and the necrotic damage left it barely clinging to life. Preston targeted the earth elemental with a Fire Bolt spell, but the earth elemental's stony hide deflected the spell. Borovik moved the Bigby's Hand next to the earth elemental and gave it a final punch, sending it back to the Elemental Plane of Earth. He then did a dash to get into the northern hall. Frostbite flew over to the fire elemental and hovered in the air, a short distance from it. He blew his breath weapon at the fire elemental, and it succumbed to the cold damage, returning to the Elemental Plane of Fire.

"Okay, they're dead, now," Bree said gleefully. "Let's go check out that chest on the table over there."

"I think I would rather just get on with finding Iskander," griped Mara. "With our luck, there would be a demon hiding in the chest and we would have another fight on our hands!"

"I'm with Mara," sighed Kellen. "I have about had it with this tower, and I just want to be done with it."

Bree looked unhappy but accepted the party's decision. As they left the elemental room, directly to their left was a short passageway leading to a door, The bloody boot prints continued north along the main hallway. Following the boot prints, they descended a 20 ft. long stairway. A closed door was directly to their right. An arched doorway ahead of them opened onto a path that seemed to bridge over a large area of open night sky. Stars twinkled above and below the path. Meteors streaked by, some of them coming close to the path. At the far end of the path, there was a door and intersecting paths going left and right. The boot prints continued along this suspended path.

The party looked at each other in fear and amazement.

"What in the Nine Hells is this?" exclaimed Neega.

"It has to be some part of the cosmos, but I don't recognize any of the constellations," said Borovik. "I don' t have any idea where in the cosmos it might be."

He stepped just past the door and felt around to see it the image they saw was real or an illusion. There were no walls to be felt along the path, and no floor on either side of the path.

"It's not an illusion," he announced. "We need to be careful not to fall off. I have no idea what would happen to anyone who did. You might get teleported to some strange place. You may float around forever in this void. Who knows?"

"It looks like we have to get across, but how will we ensure no one falls off?" asked Kellen.

"We could tie a rope to Neega, then have her cross. If she falls off, we can pull her back. Then when she gets to the other end, we can secure both ends of the rope so the next ones to cross can hang on to the rope."

"Sounds like an adventure!" grinned Neega. I'm willing to try it!"

Bree took one of her ropes and fashioned a harness, tying a free end of another rope to the harness. Neega then got into the harness. She also grabbed the end of a third rope to pull it across with her. A number of party members held on to the rope as Neega began to carefully cross the suspended path. Looking off to the side made her feel dizzy, so she concentrated on the path itself. About halfway across, a bunch of meteors crossed the path itself, pummeling her. She managed to dodge the meteors. For the rest of the crossing, she nervously scanned the skies for more of them.

At the other end, she could still see faintly see the bloody boot prints. They appeared to turn to the west, toward an open door leading into another chamber.

"He went that way," she called to the rest of the group, pointing to the open door.

She removed the harness to allow it to be pulled back across the bridge and used by others. She then sat down on the floor just around the corner, tightly gripping the rope in her hands and bracing her feet against the wall. Frostbite then flew over the bridge to join her and help secure that end of the rope. She called for the next person to cross.

On the other side, the party members pulled the harness back over the bridge. Bree created a rope loop to secure the harness to the rope now being secured by Neega and it allowed the harness to slide as the next person crossed. A person wearing it who fell off the path would still be connected to the spanning rope and be able to get back on the bridge. Bree secured the free end of the spanning rope to the knob to the door immediately to their right. One-by-one the party members carefully crossed the suspended path.

Once across the bridge, they followed the trail through the open door to the west. It led into an odd room shaped like a figure 8, whose ceiling rose 30 ft into the air. Though initially the room was dark, magic lights lit as they entered. The room was dominated by 2 enormous hourglasses, each 15 ft. wide and nearly 30 ft. tall. Each was suspended from chains, pulleys and gears in such a way that it could be turned over to let its sand run.

They also saw a figure slumped motionless against the opposite wall. Approaching the body, they saw it was Iskander, the cultist who had called to them from the tower balcony. His clothes were scorched, torn and bloody. His hands clutched the Blue Dragon Mask they had come to retrieve.

Talis and Mara ran over to the figure to see if he was still alive and could be healed. A quick inspection revealed that he was stiff, cold and dead. It looked like he had died hours before, not long after he had called down to them from the tower balcony.

"We won't be able to rescue him now," said Kellen sadly. "We won't be able to question him, either."

"If we take a long rest, I could prepare Speak with Dead afterward and we could ask the body 5 questions." offered Talis.

"That sounds like a good idea," sighed Borovik. "Some of us are running out of magical energy and it has been a long day."

They closed the door into the room. Kellen cast Leomund's Tiny Hut in the center of the room between the two huge hourglasses, which was the only place in the room big enough to accommodate the spell. They grabbed the Blue Dragon Mask and entered the magical hut.

No cultists disturbed them during their rest. Perhaps the cultists were afraid to come into the dungeon. Perhaps the cultists just didn't know they were in the dungeon. No one really knew. They awoke the next morning feeling refreshed

Talis prepared the Speak with Dead spell after they ate. They went back out to Iskander's body. Talis cast the spell and the corpse sat up stiffly, animated but clearly no longer alive. It looked blankly at them without saying a word.

"Why did Severin Silrajin loan the Blue Dragon Mask to Cult of the Dragon traditionalists?" Talis asked.

The corpse spoke slowly and with no emotion, "They wanted us to examine it to determine if Severin's understanding of its power is accurate."

"What did your examinations reveal?"

"The mask clearly has magical power, but we have not yet determined the extent or nature of its power."

"How did you die?"

"A cultist chased me into the room with the elementals and we were both attacked. I fled here and died in this room from my injuries."

"How many cultists are in this tower?"

"There are 27."

Borovik did some calculations based on the number the party had killed and seen dead.

"So, there are 6 left who could come looking for us," he said. "Or who could wait for us as soon as we teleport back to the above ground levels."

Talis asked her final question, "Are there any more dangers in the dungeon besides the elementals?"

"I don't know," replied the corpse.

"I have asked the five questions, allowed by the spell," Talis said. "It will wear off soon and the body will slump to the floor as before."

Bree got an excited look on her face.

"I want to explore the rest of the dungeon," she cried. "There might be treasure to be found!"

"As long as the rest of the cultists don't come down here looking for us, I'm game," said Neega.

Bree and Neega ran out of the room, with the others following more cautiously. At the intersection, Neega peered back down the bridge over open sky to the stairs on the other side. No sign of the cultists was seen.

Bree stealthily approached the door to their left, which faced north. She listened at the door and heard nothing within. Very quietly, she opened the door and Neega peeked in. The far wall of the room was 30 ft. away and it was around 15 ft. wide. She saw no enemies. She and Bree stepped in, and the magic lights came on.

Several of the group joined Neega and Bree in the room to examine if anything was worth looting, while Talis and Frostbite kept watch outside the door. The walls were lined with shelves holding hundreds of mundane and exotic reagents and components. However, most of the supplies had evaporated, congealed, or decayed over the long years. Nothing was worth taking. Bree was disappointed.

The party left the room, and Neega and Bree led the way further down the hall to the east. After 20 ft., it bent to the NE and Neega could see that it led into a 30 ft. square room which was lit up already. In the center of the room, a red-skinned creature wearing armor of flame, bronze, and volcanic stone sat cross-legged on the floor, studying a chessboard.

She and Bree crept back to Borovik and whispered, "Go peek in that room and see what you make of that creature in there. What is it? Is it dangerous?"

Borovik crept up as close as he dared, then came back to the group.

"It's an efreeti. It's definitely dangerous and it's powerful," he said. "I suggest we get away from it while we can."

Mara and Talis both saw a thin line of salt on the floor going across the doorway, in the cracks between floor tiles.

"Hey Borovik, what's this salt for?" asked Mara.

Borovik studied it for a short while.

"I'm not sure," he said. "But it reminds me of some ward spells I once read about. Perhaps it magically keeps the efreeti from getting out."

By this time the efreeti had noticed them and stood up, giving them a fiery smile.

"Ah, guests!" said the efreeti. "Come on in and play a game of chess with me!"

Borovik subtly shook his head no for the party's sake, then whispered to Kellen, "Do you detect any deceit in him?"

Kellen grimaced. "I am not getting a good feeling about his intentions." he said.

"Why are you here?" Kellen called out to the efreeti.

"Xonthal imprisoned me here to play chess with him. He will only let me out if I beat him at a game of chess."

The party members looked doubtfully at each other.

The efreeti, sensing hesitancy on the part of the party, called out again with a laugh, "Don't be afraid to come in here. I have no intention of harming you."

Neega gripped Hazirawn's hilt, using 2 of its magic spell charges to cast Detect Thoughts, and concentrated on the efreeti. She sensed that what was uppermost in the efreeti's mind at that time was getting the party to free it.

She then concentrated a little more to see if she could get more insight. The efreeti detected that someone was reading its thoughts and resisted. It successfully broke the spell and Neega got no more information,

Speaking quietly to Borovik and Kellen, she explained that getting the party to free it was uppermost on the efreeti's mind.

"We need to get away from here," said Borovik. "I don't want to deal with this creature any more. My hope is that salt is indeed a ward that will prevent the efreeti from following us or casting spells at us."

The party began walking away.

"Wait!" cried the efreeti. "Can't you just come in here and talk for a while? I haven't had any company since Xonthal stopped coming down here! I swear I mean you no harm!"

The party continued back down to the bridge across open space, noticing as they did that the efreeti could approach, but not cross, the line of salt.

They began one-by-one to cross back over the bridge across space, using the rope line and harness that Bree had set up. The entire time they were subjected to the efreeti piteously begging them to come and keep him company. Once all the humanoids had crossed, Frostbite untied the rope from his end so that it could be dragged back over the bridge. He then flew to the other side. Thankfully, by the time they all reached the other side, the efreeti was out of earshot.

At the foot of the stairs back up toward the teleportation room, they examined the door going east. Bree listened at the door. Hearing nothing, she quietly opened it so Neega could peek in. The room was a 40 ft. circle, and looked like a library. Its walls were lined with bookshelves that extended from the floor to the domed ceiling twenty feet overhead. A wheeled ladder was connected to a rail that ran around the curved wall, allowing access to the upper shelves. No enemies were seen, so she cautiously went in, motioning the others to follow. The magic lights once again came on.

A delicate, ornate desk stood at the center of the room, surrounded by piles of blank paper. A large map sat on the desk, its corners held down with stones. Borovik came up and examined the map.

"What a beautiful map!" he cried with glee. "It shows the region of the Elemental Plane of Fire surrounding the fabled City of Brass. Arcane scholars would pay good money for this!"

Bree carefully rolled it up and placed it in her portable hole.

Looking up at the books, Borovik sighed. "I bet there are lots of other fine books in here. I'm going to look through them to see what I can find."

Others decided to do the same. After about 10 minutes, Borovik had found a book of arcana, Kellen found a book on performance, Mara found a book on Animal Handling, Bree found a book on Sleight of Hand, Neega found a book on Athletics, Talis found a book on Persuasion and Preston found a book on History. The books all went into the Portable Hole.

"Looks like we got what we can out of here," laughed Bree. "Let's move on to the next room."

They left the library and ascended the stairs to the south, and at the top of the stairs turned into the hallway going off to the NW. The short hallway ended at a door. Bree and Neega listened at the door. They heard a loud whooshing and whistling. Neega opened the door and looked in. The whooshing sound came from a large whirlwind n the center of the room. It was 10 ft. across and stretched from the floor to the ceiling. There were several sparkling gems swirling around in the whirlwind.

Bree's eyes sparkled at the mention of the sparkling gems.

"What can we do to retrieve them," she asked.

"We'd have to take them out of the whirlwind," said Neega. "I don't know if the whirlwind would object or not."

"We can give it a try," said Kellen. "We can all get into the room in case it does fight back and take it down together."

They entered the room, which instantly became illuminated by magic lights, and took up positions on the south side, preparing themselves in case the whirlwind attacked. Neega cautiously put her hand into the whirlwind in an attempt to extract a gem.

To their surprise, a disturbance formed in the air flow of the whirlwind around her hand and one of the gems was ejected. It fell to the ground at the north end of the room, smashed and turned into an air elemental. The air elemental looked very angry.

Mara, knowing something about air elementals by now, shouted, "Don't use poison, lightning or thunder on it!"

The air elemental flew over to where Mara and Neega were standing side-by-side, occupying the spaces where they stood. It turned itself into a whirlwind, attempting to bludgeon them and knock them over with the forceful winds. Both of them did dodges and received less damage than intended. Neither of them was knocked over by the whirlwind.

Kellen unsuccessfully attacked the air elemental with his rapier. Neega slashed out with Hazirawn and hit the elemental twice, doing significant injury. Mara cast Blight on the elemental, and it shuddered as it took a blast of necrotic damage. Preston realized his most favored spells were not going to work on the air elemental, so he tried the Fire Bolt spell. The air elemental dodged out of the way and avoided injury. Bree then approached the air elemental and attacked it with her Dagger of Venom. She hit and got sneak attack damage because of the proximity of her allies. This was enough to take the elemental down.

"Okay," sighed Bree. "Let's forget about taking those gems! Maybe there is something else in the room."

They searched the room, being careful not to touch the whirlwind in the center. Several worktables were covered with notes, alchemical flask, beakers and braziers. The equipment had fallen into disrepair in the time Xonthal had been absent. The reagents had dried up or decayed. Nothing was really worth looting, so they decided to leave.

As they stood on the landing just outside of the room where they fought the elementals, they were relieved to see that no new elementals had appeared in their place. Bree made a beeline to the small chest on the table in the room. It was locked and Mara cast Guidance on Bree to increase the chance she would succeed in unlocking it. Bree successfully unlocked the chest. It contained 2 Scrolls of Protection from Fire Elementals and a Scroll of Protection from Earth Elementals.

They made their way back into the teleportation circle room and threw the dead bodies into the elemental room. There they discussed their next move.

"We got what we came for, and some loot as well," said Bree, "I suggest we try to get out of this tower with no additional fighting."

"I agree with you," said Neega. "But if they realized we got down into the dungeon, they may be waiting for us to come back up to the above ground tower."

"Well, then we need to be prepared to fend off an attack as soon as we teleport out of the dungeon," said Kellen.

They crowded into the teleportation circle and pressed the symbol that would take them to the ground floor. As feared, when they appeared in the room, 6 cultists were waiting, sitting at the table in the center of the room. One sat at the far end of the table, and one sat at the near end. Two sat on the side to the party's left and 2 on the side to the party's right. Although they were expecting the heroes to eventually return from the dungeon, they weren't paying close attention at that precise moment. The party was able to make their moves before the cultists made theirs.

Kellen began by casting Crown of Madness on the cultist sitting at the near end of the table. Its eyes glazed over, and it looked around with confusion. Kellen then stepped out of the party, hoping to reduce the chance that some area of effect spell could encompass the entire lot of them. Neega ran around to the further of the 2 cultists sitting on the left side of the table and attacked with Hazirawn. She hit with one of her blows, and the cultist cursed in Draconic as Neega's blade slashed it across the chest.

Frostbite moved so as to be able to target the cultists on the right side of the table with his cold breath. He found a spot where he could hit the one on the far end of the table and the 2 on the right-hand side of the table. He blew the cold breath at them, and all took full cold damage. All 3 of them fell unconscious.

Preston moved a little closer to relieve the party clumping, and cast Fire Bolt the nearer cultist on the left side of the table. Unfortunately, his spell went wide. Mara became an earth elemental, strode up to that same cultist, and punched it twice. Both punches connected and it knees nearly buckled from the blows. Bree came up next to that same cultist and stabbed it with her Dagger of Venom. She got sneak attack damage because Mara was right next to the enemy, as well. This delivered enough injury to drop it.

Borovik now targeted the cultist whom Neega was battling. He cast Chromatic Orb and threw fire damage at the Cultist. He hit and the cultist groaned from its additional injuries.

The cultist who had just been targeted by Borovik decided it was time to flee. It cast Shield of Faith on itself to reduce the chance of any attacks hitting it. It then ran toward the teleportation circle, hoping to escape that way. As it was fleeing, it attracted attacks of opportunity from Neega, Mara and Bree. Neega got her blow in first and took the cultist out with one blow.

Only one cultist remained, the charmed one, and it looked to Kellen for instructions. Kellen ordered it to remain in place and take no action. Neega approached it and slashed away with Hazirawn, downing the cultist in 2 attacks. The cultists were now defeated, and they looted the coin purses.

"Now that we've survived this battle, let's get out of here!" Neega griped. "I'm ready to get back to town and have a mug of ale! Or maybe 3 mugs of ale!"

"So, which symbol do we press to get out of the tower?" asked Mara

Borovik studied the symbols for a few minutes.

"There is a symbol that looks like a right triangle that's between the dungeon and the ground floor symbols. That sort of implies that it might also be at ground level," he said. "The others we haven't tried are higher on the panel and so probably go to upper-level floors."

"Let's try it and see where it goes," Kellen said.

They again stepped into the teleportation circle and pressed the right triangle symbol. To their delight, it did indeed take them to the sundial outside the tower. They could see a path that took them back to the village.

They walked along the path. Just as they were emerging from the hedge maze, Bree pointed excitedly to the sky.

"Look up there!" she cried. "We have another dragon to deal with!"