The spell takes what feels like an eternity to cut it out. It's actually only a few minutes, but those are a long few minutes.

Eventually, though, it does finish. Her mood suddenly lightens, the dark spirals she was trapped in just... stopping. Nothing really changed, but suddenly everything feels more reasonable. The world even looks more colorful, and nothing she was thinking makes sense any more.

Good, now she can trust her thoughts. Mostly. "The spell seems to be done for me. Without our thoughts twisted to the negative, what were you saying, Yanor? Do you have spells particularly well-suited for demon handling which you could prepare tomorrow? Nothing is evidently urgent here, and a day's delay before we continue could make sense. I do still have at least one true combat in me, but if our foes continue to be this resilient to spells I cannot promise to be fully effective."

"Nothing comes to mind immediately. I'll see if my spirit has any suggestions when I next commune with them for spells."

"Options for penetrating their resistance to spells would also help, if you have any. If you are uncertain, though, I think waiting a day is of minimal value? You still have your combat third circles unexpended, and I have at least one more round of Bursts in me for the day. Further demons would be problematic but not substantially less so tomorrow, and every day we delay is one more day for any of the bound succubi, or I suppose whatever those were, to notice us and begin more coordinated strikes. I do not know that they speak regularly, but it is possible."

"Those are fair points. If everyone else is up for it, we can keep going."

"That's fine with me... though I could use another charge from the wand."

"Oh, of course." Tap. "These demons, whatever they were, do not seem bound to any object. The portrait from before did show object-bound demons, and one of them was bound to the glass statue on the island outside. I do not know what the difference between the methods is, but it may be worth our attention. Of course, we could simply press onwards, I have no true reason to expect relevance."

"I'm not sure. The typical method of binding outsiders is planar binding and that doesn't care about objects at all."

Julen looks better after a minute. He's still injured, but not as badly.

"Information is better before a rest, in case it aids in Yanor's preparation. I have no reason to think the statue will be informative, though. If we knew how risky it would be... Tomas, have you knowledge of human-shaped glass constructs of the proper approximate size? The construct defenses seem to have survived the aging, though this one may be augmented via demonic assistance of some sort."

"The statue at the center of the lake? It could be a glass golem. I'm pretty sure those exist and it's the obvious guess."

"That does seem likely. I can only provide illusions and blinding against a golem, and there was no vegetation for Yanor's Entangle. No adamantine weapons between us, I believe... Yanor, if you were to expend a third circle spell or two, do you think it would substantially shift our odds against such a foe?"

"Hmm. My spirit recently communicated options for unusual spells normally unavailable to shamans to me. I have haste today. Alternatively I could ask for grease or create pit and see if my spirit can give them. That would have to wait for tomorrow."

"A casting of Create Pit would be incredibly useful, though I do not know whether the Anytool would be a suitable focus. If not, Grease would be similarly valuable. Best to await tomorrow on that count. Onwards?" (Thank you Lhín, she would not have remembered the focus existed on her own.)

Tomas searches the room for secret doors and traps. He finds nothing.

She does her own searching!

...as expected, she finds nothing in particular, but she does recognize that pyramid in the mural. That's the Grand Mastaba, the base upon which Castle Korvosa is built. Was it originally built by Sorshen? She... has no idea what to do with that, but that is definitely interesting.

(Also, did it really survive Earthfall? It's a bunch of stone, yes, but that's still impressive! That and then another several thousand years of time! The Thassilonians built to last.)

Julen leads the party into the next room.

The air in this large octagonal chamber is dreadfully hot—the very air shimmers with heat and almost drips with humidity, leaving every surface within shiny with condensation. The walls, floor, and thirty-foot-high domed ceiling are of polished white marble. Ten feet into the room, the floor rises up in a three-foot high step, then again at twenty feet in. At the center of the room, a strange gray flame dances in a central firepit. Two smaller octagonal chambers lie to the south and west, while to the east a ten-foot-square section of wall is a dull gray, contrasting with the white of the walls surrounding it. A single torch in a sconce protrudes from the middle of this gray square on the wall.

"Traps?" Detect Magic. Is there anything visible?

The grey flame emanates an aura of moderate conjuration and evocation. The torch in the sconce on the wall radiates an aura of faint transmutation.

Tomas studies the area for some time. "No traps immediately visible. The flame and the torch are both magic items."

"Conjuration and evocation for the first, moderate. Faint transmutation for the second. Many things that could be, but I would guess it does something to the square surrounding it."

He walks over to the torch and spends a while longer looking at it. "Well that's stupid. The torch causes this section of the wall to open like a door when lit by the grey flame. Who builds stuff like this? Why not a password?"

"The western chamber might lead to the other end of the crack from before, so I say we venture that way before attempting to go east. I see no obvious trap around the flame, but it may have something itself. There is no obvious reason for the conjuration."

Julen leads them around the north end of the room and out the exit to the west.