"I quite agree. If I become a powerful wizard, my puzzles will test exclusively cleverness and not physical prowess. However, even if it seems improbable, the creator may nevertheless have decided to test both."

"Do you have any sense of whether the puzzle is rewarded in some way or just a more elaborate trap?"

"Perhaps the summoning magic is intended to deliver some form of reward, such as the opportunity to interview an unusual creature for my encyclopedia."

Woljif runs his hands along one of the walls. "I think this wall's got some kind of secret door to it. See, look, this looks like it's just a crack, but it's too perfect—"

"I suppose it would be a fairly classic dungeon behavior to - summon something for us to fight and then open the secret door upon its defeat?" He'd ask who would bother to expend resources in this ridiculous way but there's one right over there.

"...Would that be bad for whoever it is that's summoned?"

"If it's a summon, no, summonses aren't really present in the material plane - it's possible it'll be inconvenienced, but for the spell duration, not longer than that. If it were a call - can we rule that out -"

It seems like it would be upsetting and scary to be kidnapped to another plane and attacked even if she survived it!

"It's a lot harder to tell the difference between a summoning and a calling, but I can try." He peers at it.."—It's definitely conjuring a creature, which rules out some edge cases. There aren't many calling spells that could fit into a third-circle slot, it could be a Planar Inquiry if they've got a solution for the component but a Planar Inquiry won't fight us."

"All right. I am leaning toward completing the puzzle on the theory that this is unlikely to be anything we can't handle and might reveal more about the dungeon and its contents but will hear arguments against."

"No arguments here. We should stay on guard, but better us facing it than someone who just wandered in."

Can Blai lift the slabs?

Yes! They're pretty heavy, but he can carry them as long as he's lifting them one at a time.

Then he will place them as Nenio directs.

It's really quite straightforward! You simply align the symbols in the following pattern—

It really isn't.

When Blai places the last slab, the ground trembles, the secret door in the back of the room starts to grind open, and the ghost of a masked half-elf appears.

"It was easy, wasn't it?" the ghost says in a monotonous tone. "Simple puzzle, simple solution. But it was just the beginning."

"He doesn't Detect as Evil."

"Ghosts sometimes don't... Hello, do you have anything else to tell us?"

"Mortals are not meant to unveil the secrets of the Universe and grasp the meaning of Creation... But is this really so?"

"Oh! Oh, I want to unveil the secrets of the universe!"

"The secrets of the Universe will only be revealed to the most worthy of mortals. Prove yourself, and be the first for whom all the secrets of the world are revealed."

"But it would be so much more accessible to simply seed the dungeon with imitation secrets of the universe."

The figure smiles, though it's hard to see it behind the mask, but otherwise seems to largely ignore his remark.

"The Heart of Mystery is located west of here. Solve the puzzle, and you will comprehend the forbidden knowledge."

He gestures, and a map appears in his hands. It looks vaguely like the area around the Worldwound — there's the West Sellen, there are the mountains near Drezen, and so on — but there's no sign on the map of any of the Abyssal rifts that mark the modern-day Worldwound. The "Heart of the Mystery," or the place labelled as such, is located solidly on what's now the Worldwound side of the Wardstone barrier.

"What an intriguing prospect! Though your point about imitation secrets is well-taken, select boy; we would certainly need to conduct careful research to determine whether the so-called secrets were accurate before I included them in my encyclopedia."