![[TBTS-quipper.jpg]] *This rectangular chamber is vast with a vaulted ceiling lined by a narrow stone balcony high above that wraps around its entire perimeter. The corridor ends at a small landing with a large wooden lever set into the floor. The landing connects to a pathway of limestone blocks piled high over inky darkness to form a narrow spiraling walkway that leads toward the center of the room. Each corner contains another large, wooden lever. A bejeweled pedestal sits at the center of the path, holding a golden idol of a caracal cat. The idol is enclosed in an iron cage.* The bottom of this chamber holds blackened waters filled with several swarms of quippers that make their home in this chamber when they aren’t out hunting in the River Nuria. At any given time, the water holds three to six swarms. The surface of the water lies 70 feet below the limestone pathway, and the water is 5 feet deep. The limestone pillars that hold up the walkway are pitted and old, providing plenty of handholds for climbing. Each round a creature climbs a limestone pillar, it must succeed on a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check to make progress. **Navigating the Pathway.** The pathway is narrow, but not dangerously so, and easy, if tedious, to traverse. Characters can leap from one section of pathway to another to circumvent some of the twists and turns. The leaping character must make a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check upon landing, as pieces of ancient limestone rot and crumble as they land. On a failure, the character loses their footing and lands prone. If the check fails by 5 or more, the character falls off the pathway and down to the water below. **Creatures.** The balcony sits 20 feet above the pathway, and it is the home of what remains of a basteti priest of Baez’Keph and his basteti acolytes. The priest gave his and his acolytes’ lives for his god-queen in a ritual sacrifice that tied them to this chamber, which they continue to guard in her name. Four of his acolytes were unwilling and terrified of the sacrifice, propelling them into a unique afterlife. The priest uses the statistics of a fane spirit, and the four acolytes use the statistics of a cackling skeleton, except the skeleton’s Cackle trait is a low, disconcerting purr instead of a cackle. The acolytes’ purring starts after the characters enter, and it rumbles throughout the expansive chamber. The priest lurks on the balcony and flies down to attack any creature that moves within 15 feet of the idol. He viciously defends the idol, determined to keep his god-queen’s final resting place undisturbed. The acolytes aid the priest in combat by taking turns mocking the characters from the safety of the balcony. They attack any creatures that climb on the balcony, but they don’t climb down from the balcony unless the priest is destroyed. If the characters retrieve the idol, the skeletons return to the balcony and become dormant. **Retrieving the Idol.** All 5 levers in this room must be flipped to unlock the iron cage. Each time a lever is flipped, a loud metallic “click” reverberates through the chamber as one of the cage’s locking mechanisms opens. The cage can’t be forced open, and spells that unlock doors and other objects, such as the knock spell, unlock only a single lock, not the entire mechanism. The levers are easy to move but require the Use an Object action to operate. Once all 5 locks have been released, the cage’s sides swing open, and the idol can be retrieved. **Conversion Note:** The tokens for the Swarms of Quippers have not been placed due to the variable nature.