Note # 17 : What was hidden is revealed

You sit down on the knee of a fairly austere looking statue of a being with the body of a man and the head of what may have been an elephant at one time, but had had a botched cosmetic surgery.

Your mind tries to wrap around this riddle done in rainbow - colored ink of some sort. "Sad mice????? Race across....well that seems obvious...what was hidden... hidden...what would be hidden... lost and concealed...........Well it couldn't be THIS message, because I found it fairly easily...... If you want to conceal something though, you put it where everyone can see it, but not notice it. And the beauty of the ink actually MADE me notice it....hmmmmm."

You tap your pursed lips with your finger and your brows furl in deep thought. "When you hide something in plain sight you place something that will draw attention nearby, but not too nearby...."

You turn the page of the map around and around under the torchlight, then up against the light...you see...........................nothing.

The mice squeal again and in whatever altercation of passion they were having some items fell to the floor with a reverberating clatter, scattering them all.

You feel a warmth on your chest where your talisman rests, and then it fades. "Odd..." you think, I wonder what that means?

A few minutes later you hear a scraping sound and a pitiful squeak. The talisman warms again. You are trying to concentrate so hard and these strange occurrences keep distracting you.

You begin to get frustrated and pick up a dented goblet and toss it in the direction of the noise, there is no scurrying away, which surprises you.

You get up to investigate. As you grow closer, the wee squeak sounds more and more pitiful, and the talisman gets warmer and warmer. You wonder if that means there might be danger there, or danger coming closer.

With trepidation, you peek over a small chest and see a mouse that had been mortally injured in the arguments he'd had with his roommate's earlier. You take pity on the poor creature and try to help it.

It doesn't flinch or try to bite or defend itself, as if it knew it were going to die and was thoroughly depressed.

A gong goes off in your head.... Sad mouse... DEPRESSED??? �?a depressed mouse????

As you bend over to pick it up the map falls to the ground next to the mouse which suddenly comes to it's senses and tries to scurry away running across the map. And the same thing happened with this 'depressed mouse' that happens with many creatures who are frightened out of their wits, it peed!! On the map!

"NO!!!!!" you cry, "Galdangit!!!!!".

Sweeping the map up and shaking off the urine which only seems to be absorbing every drop into the map like a sponge, your frustration peaks. "Ugh! how gross!" Fearing now that you have destroyed the only hope you had of ever escaping this place, you hold it near, but not too near the flame of a torch to dry it out.

You don't want to wipe it and smudge the ink. As you hold the map up to the warmth of the torch, your unbelieving eyes see words forming out of nowhere, on the back of the map.....it says:

Seek not the riches
There danger lies
Blood marks the path 
of failed tries
Truth comes into play
In the footsteps of the fae

Invisible ink! The mouse urine must have something in it that made it visible!!!!!!

Each word spoken becomes clearer and clearer, the riches... could it mean what was here, in this room? There was definitely danger here for these poor corpses....hoping the map might reveal more you hold it up again to the torchlight and see the map of the labyrinth on the front has changed!!!

The pathways were filling with colors!!! Most of it was reddish, but some was purple, and the colored spots on the map sparkled again in the torchlight. But they were dead ends, could these be gems... the riches that led to danger?

Most of the pathways in the maze were filled with red...blood... failed tries... these must be false paths! Well, that was a VERY big help!!!

You could have spent a lifetime lost wandering around in here. The thought strikes you that many people, probably some of the dead in this very room, must have done just that, spent their lives as a sacrifice to collect this information. You close your eyes and hold the map close to your heart and offer a prayer of thanks to the souls who sacrificed so much to help someone they would never know.

Your eyes follow the purplish path on the map and see it does indeed lead out to the place marked "Freedom Gate!!!"

Suddenly your talisman begins pulsing with vibrations, like an alarm.

You hear voices!!!! the same kind of voices you heard when you emerged from the Elve's Crystal Cavern.....Pirates!!! They seem to be coming from the wall... no... now it was dark glass!!! You gasp and recognize the magickal doorway you entered by was being opened and they were coming in!!!

They must becoming to load the treasure on their ship for that evil woman...there is no time to hide, or douse all the torches!!!

You see the gaping entrance that leads into the labyrinth. You snatch up your pack containing the Phoenix's egg, and the map and race into the darkness of the Labyrinth just as the men pass through the gelatinous mirror into the Treasure room.

Terror strikes as you hear not only men's voices behind you in the Treasure Chamber.....but the guttural grunts of Troll voices rumbling also!!!!

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(After you enter the labyrinth, e-mail Qyzida [email protected]  for the next step)

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