Leaps of Faith

General Summary

Our heroes had just defeated a monstrous water weird and solved the puzzle to unlock the doors in front of them. Entering the hallway, they found another strange message they translated as "THIS IS FUN." Is it really, person who wrote that? The Party moved forward, eventually coming to a room with four suits of armor standing guard around another pool. The armors began speaking warnings to the Party: "You must not open the door. The door is not meant for you." Hobart went into the pool to investigate another suit of armor he saw, but he and the others soon found it impossible to lift from the base of the pool, even with the aid of a grappling hook to the face.
Eventually, Hobart found a secret door, which produced another writing space, an adamantine quill, and a message: "Mystra claims it, but only we seek it." Before they could write an answer, the armors animated, and the fifth set of armor came flying out of the now-roiling pool. They defeated the enemies, but they also concluded they didn't have the ciphers necessary to write their possible answers. They decided to backtrack.
They first came to a bare room. Lyza thought it looked like only half of a complete room because of the wall designs, but no one found anything to back that up. Moving on, the Party walked down a water channel that emptied into a room that was essentially a large pond with a small ziggurat-shaped structure in the far corner. They also saw a platform of white marble on the water's surface, slowly circling at the edges of the pool. Once it came back around, Hobart swam out to the platform so he could help the others. Bartimus had a real time of it, but all heroes made it.
Lucky for them, three smaller-than-normal water elementals emerged from the water to attack. One did its best to drown Emmalyn where she stood, but the Party fought off their attackers. They reached the structure and climbed the ladders to the top. Hobart and Barty found a riddle there: "I have a head. I have a tail. I have no body." They guessed the answer was "a coin," and Hobart asked Axelrod for a copper. Placing it on the dais revealed only a small part of another cipher. As they placed coins of increasing value on the dais, they saw more of the cipher, until a platinum piece revealed the complete symbol.
Returning to the message board, Axelrod wrote the word "knowledge" in the coded language, opening the door. Hobart took the lead, and he saw a long hallway to his right. He also saw another coded message: "Trust the straight and narrow." When he tried to share his translation to the others, he learned that he could no longer communicate with them. Not even written words appeared to the others. Accepting this, he took a step down the hall and suddenly disappeared to the others. Axelrod stepped forward, and so the pattern repeated itself.
Hobart found himself alone in the hallway. A thin water channel ran the length of the floor, and alcoves on either side were spaced evenly down its length. As Hobart stepped forward, he eventually saw spears emerge from the far wall, ready to be launched into his body. Thinking about the message he saw just before entering the hallway, he trusted the straight and narrow path, and the spears harmlessly passed through him. This happened twice more, and both times he trusted his instincts. He reached the end unscathed, at which point he was greeted by a floating eyeball (and its attached nerve) that flew away when it saw him. This is fun.
Axelrod took to the hallway next, disappearing from the others' view and finding himself alone. When he saw the first set of spears, he cast shield to protect himself. While the spears passed through him harmlessly, his unneeded caution was punished with jets of fire from one set of alcoves. As he continued on, he trusted the straight and narrow path, and he suffered no further harm.
Barty followed Axelrod. When he saw the first set of spears, he dove into an alcove. Though the spears passed by him down the hallways, he was greeted by fire in the alcove that seriously injured him. When he moved forward and faced the second set of spears, he chose to dive to the floor instead. The spears flew overhead, but more jets of fire shot at him from both alcoves. He fortunately avoided most of the damage. When the third set of spears appeared, Barty dove forward. The fire tried to punish him for his lack of trust, but he was out of the danger zone and avoided being knocked unconscious. It was almost as if Barty had forgotten the warning he received immediately before entering the hallway.
Lyza came last. She dove into an alcove to avoid the first set of spears and was rewarded with fire. However, she learned to stop worrying and love the spears, and she made it the rest of the way without suffering any more damage. Oh, and Emmalyn also made it through the hallway just fine.
They regrouped and moved forward. They all came to a macabre trophy room filled with the bodies of heroes past, frozen in time. All their equipment looked exceptional. As they entered the room, Hobart spotted a glowing creature that looked like it was sucking on one hero's shield. As combat progressed, they deduced it liked to feed on magic, which complicated their battle tactics. Bartimus tried to get away from it, but he was surprised from behind by a large mass of floating eyeballs that moved to swarm him. The "creature" tried to pull out Barty's eyes, and the gaze of these dislodged organs drove him to confusion.
This pairing of enemies created difficulties for the Party. Axelrod was briefly paralyzed by the oculo swarm's gaze attack, and the arcanaphage forced Hobart to ditch his fancy rapier for his basic shortswords. Lyza eventually struck down the arcanaphage, but its death throes unleashed volatile magic into the area, damaging those nearby and then persisting. This magic eventually smashed a "statue," but it also dealt the final blow to the oculo swarm. The group debated the merits of taking some of the heroes' gear, but they decided against it.
Moving on, the Party came to the end of a hallway that overlooked an endless black void. Another message was carved into the wall in the coded language: "Take the leap of faith." Barty, refusing to ignore another clue, ran to the edge and jumped, disappearing into the void. Soon, the others followed. They seemed to fall forever, and their vision faded. But for each, this darkness slowly transitioned into their own personal visions. Visions of the past, the present, or the future met them. They eventually regained consciousness while floating on the surface of a small pond. Several heroes had new or improved equipment with them, which was good, as they were immediately attacked by creatures resembling enormous jellyfish with emaciated humanoid legs. Gross. It was a weird battle, but the Party won.
Leaving the cavern, they found more of the same white marble as the levels above, but everything was in disrepair. It looked like an explosion had gone off somewhere and demolished large portions of the lair, with time causing further deterioration of the damaged walls and floors. Exploring further, they found a large room with mixed rubble and debris. They concluded this was some sort of large banquet or celebration hall. On the way out, they swiped a healing potion from under an ancient skeleton. Moving on, the passed a small room that had once housed statue resembling the creature Barty saw when he stood on the dais on the floor above. This was disconcerting.
In the next room, the Party found more destruction, as well as a large hole in the floor. Unable to see what was down there, Hobart volunteered to be lowered into the hole to take a closer look. After spending several minutes down there, he urged his friends to pull him out of the hole. He was vague about what happened down there, but he was adamant that they leave as quickly as possible, and not via that hole.
Down the hall and around the corner, the Party found a skeleton that had been badly burned. Around its neck was a large ruby pendant still in immaculate condition. They located a secret door across from the skeleton and disabled a fire trap. Inside, they found a chest loaded with gold. Fun! After taking a brief rest, they identified the pendant as a magical item. Barty and Emmalyn believed the magic used was from the school of transmutation, much like a knock spell. However, this spell was permanent and seemed like it would only work on one specific door.
Where might the party find one door they can't open that might need a magical key? What concerned Hobart so greatly? What caused the destruction on this lower floor? Find out next time...

Report Date

24 Jan 2021

Primary Location

Ancient Morten Prison