Once they are across, they find themselves in a forest and descending to the ground, they cannot see any pool at all, in fact they can see nothing but trees for over 150' in any direction and that is as far as they can see. Having decided to explore, they end up traveling for hours and eventually they break out of the trees into a vast plain.
Continuing on:
They camp at the edge of the plains and in the morning they decide to travel out into the plains and after a couple or three hours it begins to get really hot, so hot that they are not sure they can make it back to the trees. So they decide to dig into the loose soil and use the cooler temperatures to survive the hot part of the day, which looks like it will be most of the day.
When they dig, the soil is loose and holes big enough to put their heads a foot below the surface are easy enough to make. They dig two large holes and then use what they have to create a cover for shade from the sun. The last foot or so is small gravel and it is wet with abundant moisture so they have to create high places with dry soil to keep from getting wet. But they are cool enough in their holes and the water seems to be very clear and cold.
The day passes slowly and when they check a couple of times, the heat on the surface is deadly hot. As dusk comes they emerge as the temperature drops and decide to travel back to the forest. As they travel they see eight moons in the sky, of a eight different sizes, some moving faster than the others.
As the sun goes down, dozens of different plants start growing at a rapid rate and travel becomes difficult. The start seeing a number of very large creatures emerging from the ground to start feeding on all of the vegetation. Other creatures, predators emerge and several work together to take one of the larger creatures down.
They hurry faster towards the forest and find it also very busy at night, they retrace their steps, climb the tree, fortunately the rope is still there and they soon find themselves back in the tower. Once they have crossed the pool and the last one sets foot on the floor, the pool disappears and the rope with the hook on one end falls to the floor. There is no trace of what just happened. Looking out a window at the sun, it appears almost no time has passed since they left.
The device at one side of the room still sits there and oddly enough it is covered with a thick layer of dust with no sign of being disturbed. They leave the tower and it is apparent that their hirelings has sensed nothing amiss nor are aware that they were ever gone.
Now they don't know what to think so after a quiet discussion among themselves they leave the tower alone and resume hunting for access to the dungeon.
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