Doors unlimited. Unlimited doors.

Session 43

Greensong asks the house in High Arcanum what its owner's true name is, (while Prophet simultaneously casts Tongues) and she gets a reply. Cass hears it too, since they also speak the language. Maltheo's insight reveals that Prophet's mouth drops open at the last word. Secretly, Cass then tells Maltheo in his mind what was spoken.

Greensong watches Prophet. He feels an invasion into his mind, but is able to resist with a high wisdom saving throw. "I think I have gotten more than I've bargained for… Here, a housewarming gift." (She hands over the Stone Fish Key)

Maltheo: "Are you afraid of something?"

"No, I don't think I am. Have a good day," And she leaves the house.

Maltheo to Prophet: "Are you worried about this?"

Prophet was speechless, and says, "Why house, why?"

House: "That is your name. Your first name. Your true name."

Yahnist thinks talking to a house is stupid. "Who talks to a house, anyway?"

Prophet gives the house permission to speak to all of us. It will be known as The Library, and he starts cleaning it with magic. He also learns that the defenses have been disabled; the house will cast Alarm on itself at dusk. He asks it if we can reactivate the outdoor fence but the house intimates it will take 50gp of materials to do so.

We all go down to the basement, where the doors have been automatically opened by Prophet's questions. Each of five pedestals has a small vial, behind us. Smells of bone dust and acrid iron from blood. We can see down to the other end of the room where blood has collected into a gigantic pool. Prophet begins to prestidigitate and asks the house if there's any living creatures down here. Unfortunately, it can't answer because neither the house nor the chandelier work down here.

Yahnist looks for signs of creatures but finds only a tiny spider.

Cass tries to detect magic, and exposes a giant aura of divination magic coming from the center of the room and matching magic from the 5 vials on the wall behind us. There is some latent abjuration magic too.

Yahnist talks to the spider to try and get some information. It seems that people have come from the blood pool, the doors, and other places. The last time was two moons ago, when someone with long, long ears and pretty hair (that was soaked in blood). No one went back into the pool, and only Lorna has talked to the cauldron. Sometimes it even talks back.

Closer inspection of the little bottles show that they are tinted glass, and each is filled with an eyeball; each of those is different from the others.

Cass notes that the arcane inscriptions around the cauldron give off a divination aura, the same as a few hours before when we touched the scrying cauldron upstairs. This one, however, is the "real deal" versus the little one. Complicated and intricate patterns in this big one that obviously do much more than its smaller counterpart. It's full of a non-magical dark oil that is like a spell goo.

The spider says that the small-doored chamber we can see is a waste-door for the human remains that Lorna eats. Sometimes the spider gets some of the leftovers. It gets scared when other people come because they're not nice and they don't leave scraps. There's one other person who comes and Lorna is scared of her. "She's red, my legs start shaking; it's very super scary. And then she goes back into the pool."

Prophet uses his bedtime magic to open the door. And there we see the "magic" resting in the statue of a stone crow. We've found another of the missing stone keys. Kra'naelen puts it into the bag of holding.

Yahnist's scouting doesn't reveal any traps in the remainder of the chamber. This place seems to have been left unprotected thanks to the door having been trapped so powerfully. The pool of blood doesn't seem to be poisonous or acidic; it doesn't even seem to move much. Cass via detect magic realizes that coming from the pool itself is a stronger and strange sort of conjuration magic. Yahnist kicks a bone into the pool and nothing happens.

Cass uses divination at the cauldron and sees lots of possible futures. The red woman appears in a few of them, but we don't see any danger at all happening to us in the next while, by staying here. We also learn that using the vials shouldn't put us in danger.

Checking the vials even more closely this time, we see that three of them contain humanoid eyes; one is a lizard-like eye; one is a cow eye.

Maltheo disguises himself via an infernal ability to look like Lorna and places the lizard-eye vial into the cauldron. After some coalescing in the liquid, visions of what seems to be some sort of classroom or lecture hall appear. A window with a bright, sunny sky outside. Sometimes the vision moves; we even see what seem to be blinks. We are truly viewing the world through someone's eyes. The lecturer is a young-ish looking Elven man, wearing a white and silver tunic with white and silvery hair. The topic is about some sort of magical archaeology accompanied by a corresponding crude drawing of the Menagerie Coast's sites. Through the window, we are able to recognize tall spikes out in the distance. The eight Spires of Rexxentrum. A silvery-blue scaled hand grabs a quill and starts writing after being asked "Any news for me?"

"Nothing yet… When can I leave? ☹️"

Maltheo as Lorna whispers back, "Soon my pet but not yet."

We try the cow's eye next. And this time it's easy to recognize that we're viewing someone in Rosohna who stands a full head above everyone else. This time we observe in total silence. The more we look, the more we realize they're moving toward Den Beltune; a giant furry hand knocks on a door which then opens to Prophet's younger sister Zilgara who greets Sunbreaker Olomon happily and warmly. She leads him into the room for tea and conversation: They're speaking of their wedding preparations.

Now the hazel humanoid eye. We're viewing the inside of a tavern with stone walls all around. The multi-story building is more of a large sort of square with an inner courtyard supported by stone pillars. The subject is just sitting quietly at a table, with a gloved hand drinking mug of ale. Maltheo has been there before but before he was an adventurer, and recognizes the place as the Bloated Bounty in Nogvurot.

Next is the blue humanoid eye. We're in a group of people; a party of rangers and hunters. Just generally outdoorsy people. It's the end of day wherever they are, and the group of travelers are winding down for the day. There's a campfire for cooking. The subject is sitting on the slope of a hill where it gives a good view of the landscape that we remember and recognize as the Xhorhasian barbed fields. There's a giant tree about half a day's travel away. Most of the group appear humanoid and half-Elven. We recognize one of them as Cayd (equipped with one gold, one silver weapon), who is a bloodhunter we helped in the past.

Finally, the green humanoid eye. There's a large room with stained glass on the windows. Music fills the air and fancy decor and draperies are on the walls. Someone shakes our subject's hand and we see it's a man's hand. Walking around the room until finally reaching the end of a large hall, he takes a seat, and then looks up at a face: the King of the Dwendalian Empire.

Maltheo's hands grasp the edge of the cauldron in some sort of focused rage. The King appears bored. He's old, gaunt, and stern looking, but still has an air of being regal, though tired. The day's work is done; this feels like a leisure moment. We can't really discern any details about the man. Maltheo looks for any details but there just aren't any… he's obviously struggling, but puts back the vial and says we can go rest now.

The group discusses the war and all five of these "spies" for Lorna. They're all city related and war-related. Kra'naelen mentions that even though Lorna seems in charge of all these, and this chamber, the spider mentioned she was afraid of the red woman. We must be dealing with something super powerful and scary.

And just then, a voice creeps into Kra'naelen's mind: "Why be afraid? You know, no one was forced to do anything. It's quite a big puzzle, isn't it? So many threads to follow and pull on. You seem promising… Would you like to pull those threads?"

Kra'naelen sees a cloak floating in the pool flipping and flapping in the wind. The sound is in his mind only. No one else can see or hear it.

"I like you. You seem very curious about these threads." (Shows him the astral plane threads again, that he saw when accidentally transported there during battle earlier)

"Who are you; why are you speaking to me directly?"

"I am… offering you what your party wants. You want to be able to use this (points at cauldron) don't you? How convenient would it be? I can give this gift to you; you've been touched by the fey. It's a simple power that I offer."

"I know I've been fey-touched. But this isn't just normal fey business. Lorna has obviously involved others and was pulling their strings. What are yours?"

"Funny you should mention her. I'm out of a lieutenant; who will take care of my children? They are not "here" with us; but they could be".

"Does that mean without care harm will come to them?"

"To them; to others. What's a devout, without guidance?"

"Harm to coerced… but if they're your children, maybe they weren't so coerced. No, I won't pull your red strings today."

She shows immediate disappointment and turns to Prophet, revealing herself and her speech to all: "What about you?"

Prophet replies that the gift he wants is love from friendship instead of traveling the astral plane.

"Well, isn't that what we all want? Love? Companionship?"

"Sounds like you're not going to give it to me."

"Unfortunately for all of us, love is one magic that cannot be manufactured. But, acts of service for your friends is a good start."

Prophet starts feeling a red brand starting to etch itself on his neck. She's gone by the time the effect subsides. (Essentially Prophet has learned two blood magic spells; an attack cantrip called Control Blood and a travel spell called Open the Nether)

Yahnist thinks about everything he's just seen… not a single monster comes to mind that is able to show up so easily and manipulate sound and space this way. But the general aesthetic points toward the side of devils and demons.

We leave and go to inspect the black orb on the 4th floor. We discover that anyone who has their hand on the orb can look upon and see anywhere in Molaesmyr.

After thinking more and comparing all our notes, it seems that actually the red lady is most likely a warlock patron. Due to most of the knowledge we've encountered, Cass thinks this person was interested in Fey magic, so is most likely a fiend of archfey.

Maltheo tells Prophet that his secret (his name) is his to keep. Prophet laments the love gambit didn't work. But also rhetorically asks how would we love him if we found out the truth?

Maltheo replies, "If you want us to trust and love you, that might be a first good step. If you help me with my goals, I'll help you with yours. No matter what you did, we all have secrets, Joriel. Good night."

Prophet, "I mean, he mispronounced it, but still…."