Not long after most of the adventurers set out into the mist, they started finding odd spots of momentary resistance. It was like running up against a wall, but then they disappeared entirely. Yazmina and Amel both managed to figure out it moments before Torgun called out to the others. "I think this was supposed to be some kind of maze with magic walls, but that part ran out of juice or something." That didn't make much sense to those who were familiar with the way magic works, especially long term enchantments, and that explanation made little sense given all the other old magic still functioning in and around the tower. Deidre found her first ephemeral wall soon after Torgun called out her theory, but rather than walking into it she landed on it and felt the momentary resistance give way beneath her feet; they were only perhaps five feet high, so her jumping would have largely been unimpeded even if they remained solid.
Torgun took up Amel's suggestion, murmuring a Dwarven drinking song as he walked around with his hands held out in front of him. Deidre made plenty of noise with her jumping and slapping the roof, which returned only the sound of wood on solid stone. Wank and Yazmina together made a fair bit of noise just by grace of Yazmina's armor. The other two, however, remained largely silent. Both Jehan and Arwen found themselves struggling to think clearly, like the silver fog had invaded their minds and made everything sort of fuzzy. However, Masawa seemed to be fine, and he judged at the unmoving pair with low rumbles of discontent. They managed to drag themselves enough out of their stupor to grab hold of the unhappy cat, Masawa then guided them along with his nose to the ground.
A couple minutes of searching went by fruitlessly. Yazmina and Wank found nothing but some old and crumbling furniture. Amel found plenty of that himself, but otherwise just a lot of solid stone; his sword seemed to have no noticeable effect on the mist, unfortunately. Torgun's blind search was similarly fruitless. Deidre, however, found something interesting in a rather unpleasant way. She leapt forward for another strike at the ceiling, but she hit something solid instead. Like a bird slamming into glass, she slid gracelessly down smooth stone but managed to land on her feet, and luckily nobody had been able to see her As she heard the snuffling sound and multitude of footsteps that came from Masawa getting closer, her hand brushed against something metal along that stone surface, and suddenly the mist was gone from the room.
Standing before them was a cylindrical bit of stonework that ran from floor to ceiling with a wooden door set in the base, which clearly must have been masked with some kind of illusion even when Deidre first looked into the room. It was inscribed all along its surface with a multitude of runes, though somebody or something had damaged a lot of them, and lines that looked like they might have been created by claws scored the surface. About half of the runes still held the glowing presence of magic though, and this was clearly a better explanation for the walls failing. Another illusion of Highlord Bressos appeared above the door, but it was a flickering image like a candle on its last legs and it produced no sound even as its mouth moved. It disappeared within a few seconds, though it was impossible to tell if that was because it was a short message or due to the damage, and the door swung open of its own volition to reveal a simple spiral staircase within.
Masawa pressed on without waiting for the others to regroup, leading Arwen and Jehan upward as he continued to follow some kind of scent. The others were left with little choice but to follow as they could, lest they leave the clearly disorientated and confused pair holding onto the cat's fur without any other protection. After Masawa made it up, the sound of Highlord Bressos' voice echoed down the open stairwell for all nearby to hear. "This, the Test of Knowledge, shall be your final test, one way or another. Over your education and trials we have granted you hints of the deepest truth, the forbidden truth that the Moon Lords have uncovered. Without knowledge, you are worthless. Should you fail this test, your soul shall be torn from your mortal form as you have proved yourself worthless. You may leave now and try again when you feel more confident, but know that the maze below always takes a new shape so any maps you made will be useless upon your return. Simply place the correct hand in the slot to answer the following question: what are the gods?" Any who made it up to the top of the long staircase before the speech was over would have seen the illusory image of the Elf there in the room again, only to disappear once the question was asked.
Upon arriving to the upper chamber, the adventurers were greeted by a strangely primitive sight. It was a simple stone room, just a bit smaller than the tower as viewed from the exterior, and there was a door at the opposite hand that was made of stone and had two interesting features: a series of brightly glowing runes in and around the door itself, and an indentation shaped like a hand. Everyone could feel the powerful energy emanating from that door, and Wank and Amel both recognized it as something close to healing magic though a bit off, but Yazmina was the one who instantly understood it on a primal level rather than an intellectual one: the magic on the door was made with the cold-blooded intent to kill, to suck the very life essence out of someone, and anyone setting it off would almost certainly die. Around the outer wall of the room there were twelve shelves that each held a stone carving of a hand. They were made from a variety of stones, everything from simple granite to marble to a sparkling ruby hand, and each was inscribed with a rune; though none of them were well versed in the runic language of magic, inspecting a hand made a concept pop into the viewer's mind to bring them understanding of its significance.
The granite hand made a viewer think simply of stone and earth, and it evoked an image of gods rising from the dirt fully formed. A sapphire hand gave a similar vision of the sea, while a grey stone laced with green gave the same of the gods rising from plant life, a white stone the same with clouds and the air, and the ruby gave a vision of gods pulling free from bubbling magma in the crater of an active volcano. The marble hand showed a marble statue suddenly coming to life as a god, though it showed nothing of where such a carved statue might have come from. A light pink stone hand showed an artfully censored mental image of two gods laying with one another as mortals do, and a sense of time passing before the female god gave birth to another of their kind. A hand made of some strange metal, not quite iron but similar to it, showed burning rocks falling from the sky and gods breaking free of them like chicks from eggs. An onyx hand gave a sense of void nothingness, and the gods simply materialized from it. A sandstone hand showed a god waving a hand to make another, and that god waved their hand to make a different one, and so on and so forth with no apparent beginning or end. A hand that proved to be made of petrified wood rather than proper stone showed a mortal sitting and thinking and wishing for guidance, and from those thoughts a god came into existence suddenly. Finally, a somewhat jagged hand of obsidian showed demonic monstrosities simply changing their appearance to look benevolent and kind to unsuspecting mortals.
Masawa stood impatiently in front of that dangerous door, growling and sniffing at the crack at the bottom. It seemed likely that he had caught the sent of the kidnapper they were chasing, and that meant he was beyond the door. "Well fuck me sideways." Torgun walked around looking at all the hands, grimacing at some of the visions they gave him. "None of these look like what I was taught, that there was some kind of extra special god who made the whole world and the gods we know, then fucked off to who knows where. The sandstone one seems wrong for that, seems like the regular old gods just... made themselves? Popping up out of nowhere seems like bullshit for the same reason. Maybe it's some kind of trick question? I fucking hate riddles." The Dwarf continued pacing around examining the hands, muttering under his breath as he considered them all.
As deadly as the way forward seemed to be, the adventurers had little choice but to make their way through if they hoped to rescue the kidnapped daughter of the local lord, and the gods only knew what the kidnapper might be doing to her as they were held up by these tests left behind by the Moon Lords.