Chapter 25: Warehouse 5147

We’re standing in the library of Theia’s house in Coral Gate. It’s a mess, but Eowyn is in her element, excitedly talking about libraries and ancient tomes. You remember why we are here, right? We’re here because Theia, a high enchantress, has gone missing, and we suspect foul play. We need her help to stop the war with Coral Gate, and finding her is our top priority.
 
The room is cluttered with books and artifacts. Julia still has Detect Magic up, which makes me feel a bit envious. Not having Detect Magic prepared makes me feel blind. If you recall, I decided not to prepare Detect Magic on the advice of Eowyn, in case I needed Moonbeam to deal with shape changers. But I feel blind. That does it, I’m preparing Detect Magic tomorrow instead of Plant Growth.
 
Julia points out an illusion spell on the bookcases in the back left corner. There’s divination magic on a crystal ball on the table and enchantment magic on some jars. On one of the bookcases, Julia finds a Medallion of Thoughts and asks to keep it. She also discovers several books with curious titles:
 
Pet's Grief
Spouse's Betrayal
Teen Heartbreak
Natural Disaster
Yesterday's Worry
Time and Peace
Compassion's Cork
 
I am also on the lookout for any books about necromancy. I need to purge them before Eowyn can be tempted by them, but I don’t find any. As we go through this library workshop, Eowyn for some reason mentions how she doesn’t like enchantment spells. I find that odd because she uses them quite often.
 
Curiosity gets the better of me, and I touch the crystal ball. Crap! It shocks me and starts trying to suck me into some extradimensional portal. Before I’m completely pulled in, Will springs across the room and grabs me, yanking me back. But I am able to catch a brief glimpse of a room with a teleportation circle before being pulled out.
 
That shock hurt enough that I have to cast Goodberry to heal myself. Have I mentioned how much I like Goodberries? (Yes, I know, I have.)
 
Eowyn decides to identify the crystal ball. I remind her that it will shock her, but she looks at me smugly, like I’m a little apprentice, and says I need to watch and learn. I am a little insulted by this. She is obviously going to risk her familiar by casting her Identify spell through the familiar, which she does. She summons her familiar, enhances its resilience, and casts Identify through it. Eowyn identifies it as a magical crystal ball with embedded scrying spells. She then proclaims to the party about the nature of the crystal ball, “It’s not evil, just temperamental.”
 
While Eowyn is casting, Julia finds a note. She examines the note, which describes Warehouse 5147. Julia asks me if the teleportation circle I saw matches the markings for the warehouse. I’m not sure; everything happened too quickly. Since we have a scrying crystal ball, I suggest scrying on Theia to help find her. While Eowyn starts scrying, Julia discovers a spiral staircase hidden by the illusion spell. She checks it out and finds a room downstairs with a teleportation circle marked with Coral Gate symbols.
 
Eowyn’s scrying ends without locating Theia, but she sees an empty room she can’t place. It looks like the teleportation circle can take us to two places: the warehouse or the unidentified location from the scrying. Eowyn casts Augury to decide our next step.
 
Let me explain Augury. It’s a divination spell that helps to determine whether a specific action will bring weal (good) or woe (bad). Although I could cast it, I never have prepared it. Maybe I should experiment with it, but so far, I’ve had no desire. After all, what could “woe” mean? Could it mean someone stubs their toe? Could it mean we complete the adventure with great satisfaction, but the ending point leaves us near a tavern without any moonshine in stock (that would definitely be “woe”)? And what is “weal”? We win the fight, but Will goes down three times during the fight? We find a stock of moonshine, but Eowyn becomes a necromancer during our victory. Whose perspective is to say “weal” or “woe”? I’m not sure we should be trusting the Augury spell. We should trust ourselves to make our own fate.
 
The Augury spell indicates “woe” if we go to the unidentified location, so we decide to head to the warehouse. Eowyn repairs the symbols in the teleportation circle, and we step through it.
 
We arrive at a warehouse, presumably Warehouse 5147. Vardai casts Pass without Trace, and then Vardai and Julia scout the perimeter. It seems to be storing supplies for one of the magic schools in the Coral Gate academy. We decide to enter, courtesy of Julia’s lock-picking skills. Will takes the lead as we step inside.
 
A big troll blocks our path and says we must answer riddles to pass. Seriously? They guard the warehouse with a troll that asks riddles? Apparently, if we get a riddle wrong, the troll will kill us; otherwise, it will let us pass. Remind me if I ever become an evil overlord and stock a dungeon with troll defenders, have them attack first rather than ask riddles.
 
The troll asks, “What has to be broken before you can use it?”
 
I know that one—an egg. I tell Will through Julia’s telepathic link. The troll is disappointed when Will answers correctly. We then give the troll some Goodberries to eat, and Will tells it we’re looking for dragon bones. Of course, we want the troll to help us find the bones, so Will tells the troll we’ll give him a bone to eat if he helps us find the dragon bones. Unfortunately, the troll knows nothing about dragon bones.
 
If you recall, Grandma Willow had asked me to look for Dragon Bones before we set out to Coral Gate. Of course, Grandma Willow was cryptic, not directly stating “why” we needed to find the bones. She did, however, emphasize their importance and hinted that they were precious and needed careful handling.
 
Back inside the warehouse, we find many doors along the perimeter. We open them to find lots of useless stuff:
 
A tiny wooden box containing a croquet set sized for pixies or sprites
A silver hand mirror with a nymph-shaped handle
A rotten ogre’s tooth with the Elvish glyph for “moon” etched into it (transmutation magic)
A rock that floats and is small enough to hide in your closed fist
A thimble that helps you daydream when worn
A vial of viscous liquid labeled “Fomorian spit. Do not drink!”
A wooden mouse figurine that squeaks when held
We also find a hatch leading downstairs and descend into a hallway filled with vines and flowers. I’ve got this; my short few years of studying nature will surely enable me to identify these plants… which it doesn’t. Maybe I need to study harder under Grandma Willow. I quickly discover the vines are a trap as they attack me. Ember, my Wildfire Spirit, teleports me out, burning the vines with her fiery teleportation. The remaining vines are easy enough to burn away with my Produce Flame spell.
 
Further down the hall, we hear people playing cards in the north room and cooking sounds from the south room. The door to the south opens, and Fatina steps out. Julia is overjoyed to see her. “Fatina, I’m so happy to see you! We’ve been looking for Theia.” Fatina calms down and closes the door to keep her voice down.
 
Julia, using her disguised name, “I’m Oriana. Remember me from the shoppe?” If you recall from earlier, Julia is potentially “wanted” in Coral Gate, so she’s been using a disguised name here.
 
Fatina asks, “I’m trying to find Theia. How did you get here?”
 
Julia answers, “She left a note with a partial teleportation circle to get us here.”
 
Fatina, thinking, realizes, “You were in her workshop. That was my note. I was trying to track her down. She is imprisoned.”
 
“Do you know by whom?”
 
Fatina answers, “High Wizard Zenovia was supposedly killed by Theia’s brother.” Of course, Theia’s brother is Bartholomew, a powerful wizard with his own agenda. “Theia’s network of spies discovered Zenovia is still alive and imprisoned. When Theia found out, they came for her and imprisoned her too.”
 
Julia, pointing to the northern door, speculates, “Sounds like people playing cards.”
 
Fatina and Julia discuss that we need to find the missing pieces to complete a teleportation circle to figure out where Theia is. Fatina suggests asking the people in the next room.
 
Julia and Fatina walk into the room. Julia says she has a delivery for someone, whose name I don’t catch. Trey, the name of someone in the room, starts giving her directions. While the rest of us stay hidden in the hallway, Julia plays dumb, asking him to constantly repeat the directions in order to buy herself more time to investigate the room.
 
While Julia is doing that, we hear someone coming, so we sneak into the south room. We start talking to the cook, who introduces himself as Darin. We make small talk with him, and Julia signals us she found what she was looking for. On the way out, Fatina tells me the cook is wearing the robes of a cultist.
 
We head back to Theia’s house and rest for the night. The next morning, I prepare Detect Magic.
 
Thank you to George Sanders, his Anhult Campaign, and World Anvil.