The ancient stone door slid open as they approached, revealing a long corridor lit by a series of square openings in the roof. The slots were spaced at regular intervals, radiant beams of sunlight creating a stark contrast of light and shadow. Hieroglyphs adorned the walls, and the floor was covered by a thin layer of sand, obscuring pavers that were likely older than humanity itself.
It reminded Sam of photos he’d seen from ancient Egyptian tombs, and he realized that they were likely inspired by these very designs. It felt like stepping into a scene from Indiana Jones, and he made a specific point of leaning inside and checking above the door to make sure they weren't going to get run over by a giant boulder.
There was no suspicious opening, but a quick glance with [Arcane Eyes] showed multiple traps. Sam couldn't determine their exact nature, but if movies had taught him anything, it was that there was likely a gamut of pitfalls, spikes, and darts.
“I think we might need to put Molly away,” he said, turning to Siel. “This place is absolutely full of traps. If we accidentally set one off, we’ll have no room to maneuver.”
Siel frowned and stepped up to the threshold. “I don't like the idea of storing her. It takes a minute to resummon her. If this is a Bronze Dungeon, we’re going to need all our strength. I can't use [Channel Familiar] with her in storage.”
“It's a big risk. You said this was a series of trials, right? Let's store her for now, and if we encounter something later where we need her, I'll create a distraction while you summon her.”
“Very well, but I'm bringing her out at the first sign of trouble.” She put her hand on Mjolna’s snout and closed her eyes. The air around the War Boar began to shimmer, and after a few seconds, she disappeared with a loud pop.
“Whoa,” Sam said softly, blinking at the sudden empty space. He’d become accustomed to summoning and resummoning items from his tafla, but whatever spell Siel used seemed to take not only the Familiar, but the space around it. The darker part of his brain began to wonder whether it could be used as a weapon.
“It's done. Let's get moving. I don't want to waste any more time here than we need to.” She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow, pulling her hair back and tying it into a knot behind her headband.
“Alright, follow me. Walk where I walk. I'll tell you if I'm going to try activating one of the traps.”
Siel nodded, and they stepped into the corridor. Unsurprisingly, the door slammed shut behind them, sending up a thick cloud of dust. It twinkled as it passed beneath the sunbeams, refracting the light with an almost prismatic quality.
[Quest 1/3 - Exit the Grand Plaza]
Find your way through the Temple of Bast, where she is the one who stands above all. Exit the Grand Plaza by claiming the sacred tokens.
Tokens: 0/4
[Time Remaining: 00:12:00:00]
[Reward: 2,500 Spira]
“Twelve hours,” Sam said softly, not wanting to disturb the sudden stillness.
“It seems like a long time, but something tells me we will need every minute of it,” Siel replied, summoning her dagger.
Sam nodded in agreement as he led them down the hallway, taking special care to indicate which sections were booby-trapped. He couldn't imagine trying to navigate this place without some sort of magic sight or trap detection. Suffice to say, he was feeling extremely validated for his paranoia in the Twilight Crypts. His insistence on going slow and steady was finally paying off.
The corridor continued straight ahead, burrowing deep within the Spire. Sam wondered how sunlight was still being funnelled in, as by his reckoning, they should have been underground almost immediately. The air smelled dry, like an old library. His mind filled with the furtive sounds of books and paper, as he was transported back to late-night study sessions, trying not to flunk chemistry.
They reached the end of the first hallway without incident. It opened up into a medium-sized chamber, flanked by two wide stone pillars. Each was richly carved with the image of a woman with a cat’s head, staring down imperiously at the raised dais in the center of the room.
The dais itself reminded Sam of the control modules from Stargate. On its curved surface were a set of hieroglyphs, each glowing with inner radiance. The door on the far side of the room was sealed, making the purpose of the dias clear.
“Looks like we’ll need to enter some kind of code to open the far door,” Sam said, giving the room a quick once-over. Subtle fluctuations of mana radiated from the walls, and he used his enhanced vision to confirm that they came from symbols which matched the ones on the dais.
“It appears so. Luckily for you, I am excellent at puzzles.” Siel gave him a smirk and walked forward, sending out a network of vines to probe the walls for any hidden traps or openings. Once again, the door slammed shut behind them, sealing them inside.
“I’m not too bad at them myself,” Sam muttered, looking over his shoulder at the solid hunk of stone. He shook his head but followed behind, letting Siel take the lead.
She walked up to the dais and began carefully inspecting it, pulling out her tafla to take notes on the various symbols. They were extremely varied, yet Sam thought he recognized a few of them. The Ankh and the Eye of Ra stood out prominently, as well as the Kneeling Cat of Bast.
It was his first time seeing such a clear connection with Earth culture. While much of the architecture in Homst had clearly inspired ancient Romans, they were still distinct. These hieroglyphs were one-to-one representations of images he’d seen on Earth. Clearly, humanity had achieved a series of victories in the ancient past and had brought back many cultural touchpoints from the Spire.
“Any ideas?” he said, rounding the dais to get a better look.
“It appears we are meant to match the glyphs on the dais to those on the walls, but I can’t yet determine a pattern. In our culture, we’d be given some sort of key or clue to reference. I can find nothing here, and the walls are solid rock.”
“Normally we’d be given some kind of riddle,” Sam agreed, stepping over to get a better view of the statues carved into the walls. Something about their faces bothered him, but he couldn’t quite place it. “There must be something here; we just have to find it.”
Siel nodded, and the two of them spent the next hour combing over every square inch of the chamber. It was hot and dirty work, as Siel suggested they sweep all of the sand from the floor to see if there were any hidden glyphs. The still air was almost unbearable, and Sam knew that he likely would have passed out from heat exhaustion if it weren’t for his enhanced constitution.
The only thing they discovered was a pair of small Bast glyphs on either side of the dais. They were carved into the stones directly in front of the statues. They didn’t have any obviously magical properties, and Sam wondered if they were meant as some sort of label.
“This is stupid,” Sam said after their fourth complete examination of the walls, floor, and ceiling.
“Well, what do you suggest?” Siel replied, face flushed from the heat.
“Honestly, I think we just start pressing buttons and see what happens. Maybe clues will reveal themselves as we go.”
“You just want to start…pressing buttons,” Siel repeated, trying and failing to keep the annoyance out of her voice. “This is a carefully crafted puzzle, set by the gods themselves, and you want to just ‘press buttons’?”
“Yeah, fuckit, unless you have any better ideas?” Sam stared down at her, trying to keep his temper under control. “We’re on the clock, remember. We have to do something. We can’t stay trapped in here all day, or I guarantee you, we will be dead. We need to take a risk.”
Siel took a deep breath and gave the room one final sweep. Eventually, she rejoined him in front of the dais and let out a small sigh. “Fine. I cannot find any other clues. What symbol do you want to try first?”
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“I mean, it’s the obvious one, but Bast? This is her temple after all, it makes sense she would come first.”
“Alright,” Siel replied, stepping back, giving him a wide berth. “You may begin. I will observe and look for clues.”
“Oh, you’ll observe, eh? Sounds convenient.” Sam shook his head as he summoned his shield, taking a defensive stance as he tentatively reached out and pressed the image of Bast on the dial.
The response was immediate, as a grinding noise came from both sides of the room. He glanced over and saw that the statues had turned their heads and were both looking directly at him.
“Oh shi–” he was cut off as blasts of energy shot from their eyes. He ducked backwards and raised his shield, imbuing it with [Apostate]. The reinforced mirror finish reflected three of the beams, but the fourth snuck by and took a chunk out of his unarmoured shoulder.
I really need to get a second pauldron, he lamented as he adjusted his stance. The blasts only lasted for a handful of seconds before the eyes went dark, and the heads returned to their original positions.
A slow stamping came from the back of the room, and Sam turned to see Siel shaking her head, her face doing a fantastic ‘I told you so’. “Excellent first test. Next time, try being a little faster with the shield.”
“Oh, you want to come here and give it a shot?”
“No I am quite content over here, thank you. Please proceed with the next glyph.”
Sam could only curse under his breath as he reached for the next glyph, shield held out preemptively.
The following tests did not proceed any better, as he was blasted by fire, water, poison darts, and even had a snake dropped on him from a sliding panel in the ceiling. How the snake had stayed alive up there was anyone’s guess, but it had elicited quite a shriek from him when it landed on his head out of the blue.
By the time they reached the final symbol, he was burnt, battered, and bleeding. Siel’s joking demeanour had slowly faded as she watched him take increasingly more intense levels of abuse.
“Are you sure you want to try the last one? At this point, it’s clear the dais is a trap. Clearly, there is something we are missing.”
“I have to see it through,” Sam replied through gritted teeth, fighting through the pain as [Battle Healing] went to work on his various injuries. “Maybe there is something that unlocks after we press all of them. This is a trial, afterall. Maybe part of it is how we endure pain.”
Siel frowned but didn’t respond. It was clear she had her own opinions, but wasn’t going to stop him seeing things through.
Sam stepped forward and activated the final glyph–a stylized set of scales. There was no immediate effect, and he stood frozen, waiting for the inevitable attack. “Well, well, I think we have a winner,” he said after almost a minute had passed. He let go of the glyph and straightened, still keeping a tight grasp on his shield. There was no perceptible change to the room, other than a slight hissing sound.
“Do you hear that?” Siel said, doing a quick sweep of the room.
“I do. It’s not another snake, is it? I have fucking had it with snakes.”
“I don’t think so,” she responded, putting her ear to the wall. “It’s too consistent. It doesn’t sound organic.”
“Okay, I am going to try another glyph and see what happens. If that’s the first in the set, we just have to go from there and work it out.”
“That will take far too long. There must be thousands of combinations.”
Sam threw his hands up in the air. “Please, if you have any alternatives, I am all ears.” He pulled up his tafla and pointed to the timer.
[Quest 1/3 - Exit the Grand Plaza]
[Time Remaining: 00:10:12:27]
“We’ve wasted almost two hours here, and I don’t even think we’re in the Grand Plaza yet, let alone secured our tokens to leave it. We have to go.”
Siel met his gaze and nodded, “You are correct. I was expecting this puzzle to behave like an actual vents-damned puzzle. But it is not giving us any clues! I am frustrated and taking it out on you. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, I get it. Trust me, this isn’t going how I expected either. I feel like I’m back in the fucking water temple just throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks.” Siel raised an eyebrow, but he just shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Get ready, I am pressing the next glyph.”
He started back at the top of the dais, pressing the Bast glyph, jumping back in preparation for the laser beams. Instead, nothing happened beyond a barely-perceptible increase in the hissing sound.
“Did it work?” Siel asked, stepping up next to him.
“Maybe?” Sam replied. “Check the door, see if it’s unlocked, or opened or anything. Stay there and check after every glyph.”
She nodded her assent and rushed over to the door, pressing on it without success. “Nothing! Keep trying.”
He proceeded to press glyph after glyph, but the only change was that to the sound, which was now distinctly audible in the small chamber. “What is that?” he said again, coughing on the swirling clouds of dust.
“Sam,” said a small voice from the other end of the room.
“Yes?” he responded, heart dropping. “What is it?”
“Sand.”
“What?” he replied, walking over to join her.
“It’s sand,” she repeated, gesturing at the walls.
He leaned forward to see what she meant, but it took him a moment to decipher it in the dim lighting. At first, he thought he was just imagining it, but after a few seconds, he could see a clear trickle of sand pushing its way beneath the stones that made up the wall.
He took a step back and checked another section, aghast to find sand pouring in from nearly every crack. It had happened so subtly at first that they hadn’t noticed, but now it was coming in at a perceptible rate.
“Well, that’s not good,” he said aloud, returning to the exit. “I’m sorry. I’ve fucked up. You said it before, the dais is a trap. Somehow, we’ve missed something vital.”
“I had no other ideas, and you were right, we had to try something.” She shrugged, face set in a determined grimace. “There still has to be a way out; we just need to find it.”
The two resumed their frantic search of the room, Sam using the point of his spear to try to pry bricks from the wall. Despite the openings being big enough, the ancient stones just wouldn’t budge.
Sand began to visibly pile up on the floor, and Sam knew it was only a matter of time before they were buried alive. He had a sneaking suspicion the sand would have appeared regardless of what they did, as the flow seemed to increase in tandem with the timer. He pulled it back up again, reading and re-reading the quest prompt.
[Quest 1/3 - Exit the Grand Plaza]
Find your way through the Temple of Bast, where she is the one who stands above all. Exit the Grand Plaza by claiming the sacred tokens.
Tokens: 0/4
[Time Remaining: 00:09:38:54]
[Reward: 2,500 Spira]
“Where she is the one who stands above all,” he muttered to himself, wondering why the line felt out of place. Normally, the Arbiter kept their descriptions fairly succinct. This one felt arbitrarily flavourful.
He glanced up at the statues, once again getting a nagging sensation at the back of his brain. Something about their faces was wrong. They were supposed to be staring down at the dais, clearly challenging Warriors to enter and try their luck. Only now, he realized, they weren’t actually looking at it. He backed up, positioning himself under the goddess’s gaze. He looked down and, through the now almost foot of sand, realized he was standing on the tile with the hieroglyph carved into it.
“Siel,” he said slowly, trying to piece together the disparate ideas flashing through his mind.
“What is it?” she replied, rushing over.
“I think we had this all wrong. I think you were right. The dais was a trap. But not in the way we thought.” He waved up at the statue. “This is Bast’s temple. I don’t think this was ever about the puzzle. I think it was about acknowledging her power. We’re in her domain.”
He pointed down at the kneeling cat. “She stands above all. Above us. I think we’re supposed to kneel to her.”
Siel looked taken aback but didn’t question his logic. She rushed over to the other side of the room and stood on the corresponding floor tile. The sound of the sand had increased dramatically, and tons of it were now pouring through the cracks. It was now or never.
“I’m ready!” she yelled over the deafening hiss.
In unison, they both knelt, the sand rising almost to their chests. The moment their knees touched the stone, the sound stopped and was replaced by a low rumble. Sam turned to see the door at the far end of the chamber begin to open, and he whooped with joy.
His cry was short-lived as the hissing returned and appeared to have doubled in volume. The two of them clawed their way through the waist-high sand, desperately making their way towards the door.
Whatever mechanism was behind it was agonizingly slow. The door crept up inch by inch, but couldn’t keep up with the influx of sand pouring in from every direction.
“We’re not going to make it,” Sam said with a snarl, pounding a fist into the door.
Siel joined him, slamming her shoulder into the unmovable stone. Her face was set with a mask of fear, eyes wide with panic. “I don’t want to die like this,” she wimpered, voice cracking. “I don’t want to die underground. I want to die under the moon, under the stars.”
“We’re not going to die,” Sam said, pulling out his hammer and activating [Platebreaker]. “I am getting you through this fucking door.”
He brought the hammer down near the top of the door and was rewarded with a satisfying crunch. He brought the hammer down again and again, even as the sand piled up to their shoulders. Siel had to cling to the side of the mantle, trying desperately to keep her head above the rising tide. Her eyes met his as he brought the hammer down in one final, frantic swing.
The door broke like an overfilled dam. Sand rushed out in a torrent, spilling into the hallway beyond. Sam grabbed Siel by the arm and threw her bodily on top of the door as he scrambled to try and keep up. The large stone rode on top of the sand wave as the hall descended. They were at the top of some sort of ramp, and behind, the grinding returned.
Sam turned to see even more sand flowing down behind them, creating a choking river of dust.
Siel’s voice could barely be heard above the din, as she turned, hand outstretched on top of the door.
“Run, Sam. Run!”
