The group decided to head back to the Lyceum of the Ancients with their two rescues (the translator they'd found Vulpe, and Arius's rescued friend Uran). Upon heading back out to the next part of the caves, they found that there are now many more statues, similar to the one there used to be which had said "Guardians of the Guardian" on its hilt.
Even more mysteriously, there were what appeared to be wet footprints coming from the water where the group had found the key and swords. Unnerved, they examined the statues, but carefully, concerned there may be something alive and ready to attack. They didn't seem to move or be anything other than statues while the group was passing through, but they did notice a few other things: (1) the statues had spears with some interesting runes, which the translator helpfully read as "Defenders of the Endless". (2) The statues were magical, with enchantment magic on them. (3) Two of the statues were missing their swords (exactly the number of swords the group had taken). (4) The spear tips on each statue were glowing green, but the ones missing swords were glowing gold.
The group debated the purpose of the statues for a bit, and the implications of two missing swords. Eventually, they agreed to put the swords back. Greer misunderstood this and tossed her sword in the pond at first. Ari helpfully offered hers to try putting her sword into the statue's scabbard instead. This made the statue look like the others with a green spear tip. This satisfied the group, and they retrieved the last sword from the pond to put back in its scabbard. They left the cavern unsure what exactly they did, or whether it was good, as nothing momentous seemed to happen after returning the last sword.
When the group moved on they stopped at the strange contraption they'd seen on the way in. They took the opportunity to boost Vulpe the translator onto it and ask him to look at the unidentifiable text. He made a rubbing of the text to translate with the help of some book back at the Lyceum, and the group quickly moved on.
Upon making their way to the exit of the cave, the group found some guards standing by Freya's horse, who had been tied to a bush. The guards were not too happy about the "abandoned" horse, and fined her for leaving the horse there. Oops! The group tried to talk them out of it but they weren't having it. At this point the group also realized they left one of their enemy in a magical sleep tied up in the cave. They made some jokes about it but decided he'll have to wait for interrogation until they can get back.
The Lyceum was quite grand, with huge libraries and displays of information and objects. The group enjoyed looking at things (as well as flirting with docents) while waiting for Vulpe to settle in and translate their text. Eventually he came back and told them it said, "By Atlandeas we shall overcome." He also offers that Atlandeas was a great King of Atlantis from before the Great Freeze, around 15-20 thousand years ago. But the object itself strangely appeared to be only 1-2000 years old, so he was a bit confused by the reference appearing on it. He also suggested that the statues likely had something to do with protecting or guarding Frisayna, as the terms The Guardian and The Endless seemed to indicate her. What they could be protecing her from was beyond the group's comprehension.
The group left Vulpe to continue doing some research. He planned to start heading up a team to go back into the caves and examine the various objects and texts more closely. Arius's friend also wished to stay at the Lyceum, as he felt like he could safely contribute to something interesting there. Meanwhile, the group went back to find the tied up enemy they'd left behind and see what they could get out of him. He'd woken up and was trying to crawl away but didn't get far. They play a little "good guard bad guard", and Greer stood on his hand til he gave up what we wanted. We learned that they were working for an organization called the Banner Hawks. They were interested in finding something down in the caves and the writings were key to getting to the next area to find it. He finally describes it as some kind of relic after attempting to kill himself to get away. He also finally says that the people in charge are "The Mothers" and he seems very afraid of them. Then he reattempts killing himself and is successful this time.
Next, the group took a few minutes to explore the cavern a bit more closely, searching through the bodies of the bandits and looking for the supposed exit route to the next area. There were several braziers around. Since the statues had not changed, they tried taking swords from them to put in the braziers, but that yielded nothing. Freya dove into the small pond to see if there was anything at the bottom of this one (Other swords? Something else important to the braziers?) and discovered a puzzle at the bottom that the key appeared to fit into. It took some group work to open the puzzle, and ultimately an emerald was retrieved. The group decided to try putting this in one of the braziers - they chose the one at the top of the path near the writing on the wall, as it seemed the most "important", and this successfully turned all the brazier flames green and opened up a new path.
What will the group find down this path? What did those statues and other objects in the cave mean? Stay tuned for more Myths of Gaea to find out!
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