Chapter 29: The Wizard Trials

General Summary

Date: 17th of Eleasis to 18th of Eleasis, 1491 DR

  As the skies darkened and dusk arrived, the heroes decided to rest for the night before seeking out the entrance of the Wizard Trials. When morning finally arrived, they placed a gold coin on the well of Longsaddle and muttered the incantation. The coin began to float towards east and the party followed keenly behind.   Arriving at a field of grass the GoodFellas watched as the coin disappeared into the ground. Bene investigated the spot and realized there was an illusion of some sort covering the hole where the coin went. Before he had time to relay this information, Ranvas jumped in and began descending down the 100 ft. deep well. The rest of the heroes scaled down with rope and found the Triton still alive at the bottom, where they squeezed through a crack that led them into a ancient man-made tunnel.   As they walked through, braziers were lit by blueish flame that illuminated the path ahead. The corridor ended, revealing a massive underground cavern illuminated by pale moonlight. A stone bridge in bitter disrepair led to a lone island of rock that held a single stone temple on top of it. The Goodfellas made their way through, gawked by the grotesque statues that watched their every step until they reached the temple.   Walking between the pillars they saw a round pool in the middle of the temple, filled with light blue water. On the other side of the pool where three large granite walls with text written on them in multiple different languages. The heroes investigated and realized the walls held a welcoming speech to the students taking part in the Wizard Trials. After reading through it, the party rested for a short while until each of them took a dive inside the pool.   They emerged into a mirror maze, where the walls spread into an infinity of reflections of the party. A riddle appeared on the mirror for a brief second, until it vanished completely. The Goodfellas pondered the answer for a while, before venturing out to navigate out of the maze. They were ambushed by shadows and their own reflections until eventually they found a stone room with an obelisk in the middle of it. The obelisk held a poem which was clearly another riddle. Bene muttered the answer and a mirror opened in the obelisk. The party stepped in.   Coming out of the mirror, they found themselves in a warm and cozy study. Massive bookshelves decorated the walls and the warm fireplace brought heat and light into the room. The heroes found a chessboard with another puzzle to be solved, as well as riddle on the fireplace. Bene and Ranvas opened few of the books, which resulted in Bene growing a third eye and Ranvas being paralyzed for a minute or so.    They walked up to the fireplace and solved the riddle by throwing coal into the flames. A brick fell from the fireplace revealing a hidden compartment where the party found a strange deck of cards. Nomime pulled a card and was imbued by a magical challenge. The party then solved the chessboard puzzle and the answer was a book title that the Goodfellas picked up. They opened the book and muttered the incantation written on the pages. The book opened a portal and sucked the party inside.   They appeared standing on stone square slabs looking at a sand arena. The warm sunlight passed through the glass roof above and a stone plaque next to the party gave them information about the challenge; The wizard should conjure a familiar to fight in the battle, but should the wizard not possess the ability to do so, they could step into the arena themselves. Nomime, imbued by the card's challenge jumped into the arena, where it was closed off by a force cage.   A massive fire elemental spawned in the center and the battle began. Since Nomime was facing off a fire elemental, her normal fire-based spells were useless against it. She breathed ice onto it, but was hit by its scorching fists. The three members of the Goodfellas watched as the teenager desperately dodged and jumped away from the attacks of the elemental and fired off her spells against it. Against all odds, she finally managed to defeat the elemental and the card's power activated, imbuing her with a newly-found strength.   The cage around the arena disappeared and a sand pit opened in the middle. The party took another short rest before jumping down the hole. The stumbled into a dimly lit dungeon room with only walls surrounding them, no exit on sight. In the middle of the room was a long dark wood table, with various potion bottles on it as well as a parchment with instructions. The party faced another riddle where the seven bottles, three were poison, two were wine, one took them back and one forward. Only one of them could move forward. After re-reading the riddle the party was sure where the right bottle was and they decided that Nomime should move forward.   Nomime drank the potion and was transported into a dark stage, illuminated by a spotlight. In front of her was a U-shaped podium that stretched into the darkness above, where a voice broke the silence. She was interrogated by various persons about her motivations, her goals and ideals. Nomime was then informed that in order to finish the trials and gain the items and powers she searched, she had to sacrifice her friends that were waiting for her in the previous room. Nomime declined and told would rather fail the trials than to sacrifice her friends. Thus, the interrogation ended.   Nomime as well as the other members of the party found themselves in a cozy hallway decorated by paintings of various witches and wizards throughout the ages that had taken part in the Trials. Nomime found a graduation note as well as items tailored to her ideals and goals. She also found a chest filled with coinage that was meant to fund her future studies in the arcane arts or establish a base of operations for the new Weaver.   After gathering the items and coins, the heroes made their way out and found themselves in the grassy meadows where they began the trials. They started their hike back to the village of Longsaddle where they would rest and then continue their way north towards Xantharl's Keep to find the outlaw Weevil. As the sun shined above them, Nomime had survived the trials and thus found hidden strength within herself. She would be ready to face the challenges ahead.

Rewards Granted

• Deck of Some Amount of Things, But Certainly Not Many
• Hat of Wizardry
• Ion Stone of Absorption
• Wand of Healing

• 30pp
• 1400gp
• 700sp
• 9x gemstones worth 100gp each

Missions/Quests Completed

• Wizard Trials (Completed)

Character(s) interacted with

• Mordenkainen
• Bigby
• Leomund
• Otto