Ep 64: "It Magics!"

Owen had been spending time with the new council members. He was trying to establish a good relationship with as many of them as possible. During that time, he found out that they were watching the group closely and didn’t all appreciate the group’s methods.

Kali was a Triton now and had been adjusting to this change. Nathan went to Tip to Tail and got a waterskin full of animal blood. The group didn’t ever find out why. Everyone else went about theri morning as usual and met at the Beer Forge for lunch.

The Beer Forge was very crowded that morning. For once there was no sign of the tiefling, hunter, goliath, Red, or the cloaked figure. The party had gotten together early to make it a longer day in the caves. They ate and chatted before heading to the cliffs to enter the caves.

The group went down stale tunnel again. They got to the area the last group had reached and continued past it. The group discussed a strategy to keep the healers near the non-healers for safety. They got to the point where a light could be seen ahead in the cavern.

Nyx and Mari scouted ahead, with Mari in a rat form, in order to see what was near the light. They discovered walls that were man made instead of natural cavern. They continued ahead and got to a large steel door. The group caught up and examined the door.

The large steel door was covered in dust and had writing on it: “Beware. Death lies beyond. This is your only warning.”  There was no handle on the door and it resisted when the group tried to push it open. Eventually, Saxi used Nyx’s crowbar to leverage it open and the group continued through the door.

Behind the door they found a male sphinx between them and the next room. His name was Somatoth and he was bound to ask the group their intentions as part of guarding the next door. He asked the group riddles, which they had to answer in order to go past him. At one point, the group gave an incorrect answer and the sphinx pretended not to have heard them. It was obvious that he wanted to be able to leave. The group finally answered the last riddle, the sphinx left, and the group went through to the next door.

The 2nd steel door had a faint shimmer and writing on it. Nyx used the eyes of minute seeing and saw that the writing was an arcane glyph. They drew it in the dirt and the group realized it was a glyph of warding. Binxie was able to cast Dispel Magic and the group went through the door to find a hallway with alcoves that contained statues of various types of adventurers.

In the alcoves there was a proud looking fighter, an elf ranger with a bow, a wizard with a staff, a dwarf with a holy symbol and armor, a half-elf bard, and a rogue. Rosie rushed down the hallway to the other door and four walls shot up, separating her from the rest of the group. The wall nearest Rosie was made of fire, so the group began to take down the walls as fast as possible to get to her.

Nathan and Owen attacked the first wall made of crystals. They managed to damage it and Mari finished it off with another spell. The second wall was made of ice. Nyx threw oil on the ice wall and Nathan used Burning Hands to light the oil, melting the ice. The third wall was made of darkness and Binxie cast Dispel Magic to get rid of it.

The 4th wall was made of fire and hurting Rosie on the other side of it. The group could not figure out how to destroy it until Nyx realized that the wizard statue had an open pouch with no components. The group looked at the other statues and realized they were all missing something. The group quickly started fixing whatever was missing from the statues. Nathan put fireroot in the wizard’s pouch. Mari put an arrow in the ranger’s hand. Owen covered the missing hole on the bard’s flute. Nyx put a scarf over the rogue’s face. Saxi drew a holy symbol on the blank emblem the cleric carried. The statues turned as the missing items were given to them and the fire wall disappeared.

The next steel door opened to reveal a 20x20ft room with a 10x10ft pool in the middle. Nyx investigated the room and a voice echoed through the room: “ONE." Rosie went in to help Nyx and the voice continued, “TWO." The voice kept counting and Owen rushed the group in, thinking that they had a time limit to be inside the room.

The voice counted to “TEN” and then two of the walls pushed people into the pool. Nathan and Nyx both fell into the pool slightly and took acid damage. The voice kept counting so Nyx and Saxi left the room while the others kept investigating. Owen found a loose brick in the wall that opened a secret door. Everyone rushed through the door and a series of hallways was revealed.

The hallways had many turns. At one point, everyone but Rosie got trapped in a dead end that started filling with water. Nathan used Shatter  in an attempt to break the barrier that had the group trapped. The spell went perfectly, but the barrier was resistant and the walls took the damage instead. The holes in the walls got bigger and the water rushed in faster. Then Nathan used his wand of secrets and found a loose brick that opened the door. Rosie had been looking for the lever on her side as well.

The group continued down the hallway and got to another door. This one had a handle and a lock, unlike the others. Nyx checked the lock,  unlocked it, and the group went through the easily opened door.

There was a large room with a pedestal holding a basin. Saxi realized the basin was filled with holy water. Nathan took a vial of the water and Owen filled a waterskin, before the group left the room. The end of the room opened up into a natural cavern that sloped down.

The path kept winding down and leading the group deeper beneath the city. As they went further, the group started to become unnaturally fatigued. Saxi suggested drinking the holy water or having her anoint everyone with it. She realized that it might have been present in the basin to help combat the fatigue. She anointed everyone, or they took a sip of the water, and they all immediately started to feel better.

The group got to the beginning of a large canyon and found a portal between two pillars. There was a slight breeze pulling air toward the portal. Nathan tossed some of the animal blood, which he had gotten earlier, toward the portal to see how it would react. Nothing happened.

Suddenly, the group heard an animal or beast that sounded large and dangerous. It began roaring and continued to get louder. The group ran up the slope they had come down as fast as they could. When they stopped, so did the sound that had been chasing them.They continued to walk back out of the caverns and headed home.