Enola Yarn – blogpost 5

It worked! Valentine took my arm and pulled me with her through the dimension door, and now we find ourselves inside the treasure room behind the thick black doors. I feel an enormous pressure in this room: there is really powerful magic at play here. To our surprise, the room is empty, except for a tapestry and a mirror to the east. There is mithril in the walls, but no coins, gems, or other valuable stuff. I walk up to the mirror, but place myself not directly in front of it and inspect it. In common, an inscription is written on the frame: ‘the gate cannot hide from those it cannot see’. I leave the mirror and walk up to the tapestry. Together with Valentine, I inspect it as well. It is very old and pretty; the embroidery looks like Undermountain. The magic in this room feels more and more tangible; I feel I can attune with it. Valentine and I take a rest for me to do so.

In the meantime: Farryn and Aiden (and Smoke) traveled back to the tomb of the king to explore it further. They think the body we took the bones from is not the king but someone else - otherwise the door would've opened. They find a secret door inside the tomb that leads to the REAL tomb of the king. Unfortunately, A couple of demons block their way: they are embodied in statues and ask the party to release them in exchange for the way to the real tomb. They know they cannot win this fight alone and want our help, so they turn back. 

As I’m attuned with the treasury, I feel connected to the mountain and Undermountain and feel I need to ask questions to it. I know someone will answer. We ask for the shortest route to the wizard academy. I hear a voice: at the place where two portals on the north and south meet. I think we know that place! The next question: can we open the door safely? The answer: safety can be interpreted from different perspectives. Can we find treasures nearby? Answer: everywhere, treasure can be found, but your crewmate – the artificer – has many magical items in his bag of holding. Who are our greatest enemies? Answer: the tapestry is really pretty. What can we do with this mirror? Answer: it reflects light and you can see yourself. I get quite annoyed with the reducing quality of the answers we’re getting from the room. It seems like the more questions we ask, the less accurate the answers are. We stop asking questions and I walk to the mirror and tapestry one last time to inspect them. The mirror has little eyes engraved on it and I can now identify it as a portal. Would it activate when I cast darkness? We choose to open the doors to let our party in, but a whole bunch of Duergarr enter first. We don’t want that, because we want to discuss the things we’ve seen with our party first.

Valentine tries to keep them out, but one Duergarr says in response: ‘It is what happens when I do not enter that scares me.’ That intrigues me SO MUCH that I try to detect his thoughts: the Duergarr is thinking about Skella killing Duergarr that don’t want to enter the room protected by the Helmed Horrors to get to the hand of the king. I am utterly shocked. I don’t know this Skella, but my party told me about her, and I would not have predicted she would kill her own crew. As I’m thinking about this, I hear ripping sounds: the Duergarr are ripping the tapestry apart. Valentine shouts that Skella said to leave this room alone, but they don’t believe us and continue. I am mad they are ruining a historical artifact and cast darkness to get them to stop. Only Valentine can see things now, and the Xorns – because of their tremor sense. The Duergarr step back, scared of the magic in the room.

The tapestry is completely ruined. We were too late to save it. We stand in the darkness and think about the options we still have. In this time alone with my sister, I thank her for her genius action with the dimension door and give her Tearulai. I think she would like the sword and the sword will appreciate her more than me.

Then, we hear familiar voices at the door: Farryn, Aiden, and Smoke have returned. Aiden closes the door so we are alone in the room – with the Xorns. We exchange stories after I lift the darkness and battle the Xorns. However, I am knocked out by one of them, and when I wake up, my arcane focus is gone. I cannot do anything magical, because my arcane focus crystal makes up for missing components I need to cast my spells. Aiden helps me and we eventually kill the Xorn that ate my crystal. I dissect it to retrieve the crystal, but it is reduced to dust. Luckily, we confront Farryn about his bag of holding and he admits he has an arcane focus and gives it to me. It belonged to Ladrengielle. Inside the treasury, I create a tiny hut so we can take a well-deserved long rest.