Vanyel tugs it shut and has a look. 

There are definitely a bunch of protective enchantments laid into this stone. They're much more dispersed than the traps and alarms; there's nothing to cut into.

He passes this on to the others. "I think that'll probably hold it?" 

"Cool. So maybe we - clear out the throne room, then keep that door shut. Put up a sign that says 'ghost dragon, do not enter unless you are grinding sixth circle'."

"Oh, right, because others will turn up to explore once we tell people? That's a good idea. Er, what does 'grinding' mean, here?" 

"It's a word for - deliberately getting into lots of fights with the aim of increasing your magical capacity. Sparring won't get you there but summoning elementals to fight, or repeatedly walking in on that dragon, probably will, eventually. People say it's slower than if you get there through regular combat but the rate is so individual anyway that it'd be hard to know for sure."

"Oh, so people will sometimes pick the same fight over and over just to get stronger? That seems - well, I mean, it's not pointless if it in fact makes you stronger for important things later, but it feels that way a bit to me. I guess back home I had to do more than enough fighting just in the course of defending the Kingdom." 

"It's always kind of seemed that way to me too but probably if there's known to be a ghost dragon here you can fight some people will come repeatedly fight the ghost dragon on purpose. - in the meantime we should take the ghost dragon's stuff."

"All right. I'm a bit confused on its state right now, since it's not 'dead' due to being a ghost. Are we all right to go in now but it'll come back together and get in place again in a few days?" 

"That's right. I would expect to be safe tomorrow as well and expect not to be safe in a week."

"Right. I think I need to sit down a bit longer but then we can explore?" 

"That sounds good."

:Did you bring anything for lunch?: Yfandes Mindspeaks from the surface. :Vanyel isn't hungry because node-energy suppresses the appetite, but it also burns a lot of energy, he should eat something: 

"It's going to be really good for you when that ring kicks in," Hagan says, and makes them sandwiches.

After sandwiches, Vanyel is feeling up for exploring the room. 

The room contains what was probably once a magnificent carpet and wall hangings, a spacious spot where the dragon once roosted (the gold it presumably roosted upon was taken in the evacuation of the palace, leaving just some rocks), some smashed weapon display cases, a long shelf covered in odd extremely magical jade formations, and a beautiful feathered cloak that Fazil pronounces in horror is angelskin. 

"So someone killed and, um, skinned, an angel? Euugh." 

Vanyel is intrigued by the very magical jade formations, and tries to get a closer look at them with mage-sight and guess at what they do. 

It's hard to guess; Mahdi is doing the same thing, and is fairly frustrated. They look like they're set up to interact with other magic, and with each other; they bend the magic in some way. 

Huh. 

"Do you know of work room setups that help focus or otherwise modify magic done there? That would be my best guess of what this is for, although it really is just a guess." 

"It's not uncommon. I guess it makes sense that it's hard to interpret, the style would be completely different. I just wish I could figure out if they're safe to pick up and whether we can use them."

"I am trying to think of safe ways to test that. I do not think they are trap-protected or have alarms against their use? Maybe if you cast something near them I can see if it affects your spell, and have us well shielded in case something explodes? That is still not entirely safe, though." 

"It doesn't look to me like it'll explode on us in some fashion but messing with ancient magic is in general not going to be entirely safe. 

I think it's worth it, if you want to give it a go."

"Sure." 

Vanyel will provide magical shielding and his mage-sight while Mahdi casts a (preferably low-level) spell to see if the presence of the jade formation makes it behave differently in any way. 

It does make it behave differently in some way!! It's not aligning it with an Outer Plane and it's not intensifying or extending it but it is sure doing something.

(They do not explode, even when Mahdi runs through a bunch of different spells trying to figure it out; whatever the thing is, it seems to be consistently the same, not alter any of the measurable effects of the spell, and not explode.)

Hmm. If he tries re-powered Mahdi's spells for him and putting them back, does it alter that process relative to other times he's done it?