The party continues their trek through the famed Blue Alley.
After a short rest, the group moves on. As Shining Brow is a bit indecisive, Shazuu takes the lead and moves off down the north hallway. After a few moments, Tang Wu pipes up with a discovery… behind a concealed door is what appears to be a hidden wine cellar. Inside, they find dozens of shelves with hundreds of bottles of wine. Unfortunately, most of them are shattered and broken. Tang Wu does manage to dig up a few intact bottles of brandy. On the wall in the same large runes is the phrase “STRENGTH CANNOT” In the room is also a small door, which is locked. The door has an unusual keyhole, and resists Shining Brow’s attempts to pick it.
Moving down the hall, they find their way blocked by bars of steel. The large room beyond is filled with smoke, and wooden platforms hang precariously from the ceiling. It looks like a difficult physical challenge. At the end of the pathway is a glittering longsword, also chained to the cealing. With no way to proceed, the group backtracks and takes the stairs.
After moving down a hall, they find a room with a glittering gem on a pedestal. Upon grabbing the gem they’re attacked by a disembodied sword, but easily beat it away. Tang Wu examines the gem to find reflected back from each of it’s facets is the image of an iron gate. They find several hidden rooms, and avoid a few more traps, but find no more treasure other than more of the strange phrases…. “CAN DO”, “WHAT MIGHT AND” and “A SOFT TOUCH”.
They backtrack again, and head down the silver labeled hall. Two doors present themselves, but Ty’s keen eye spots a secret door behind a fresco. They ignore the obvious exists, and take the secret door, which leads them into a reception room, of sorts. They hear a muffled noise from one door, and open it to find a statue with piercing blue eyes. “Well, do you have a riddle for me?” the statue asks. Shazuu consults his notes, and intones: “What might and strength cannot get through, this tool with a soft touch can do.” The status sighs, and answers “That’s an easy one… the answer is, of course, a KEY.”. With a click, a wand falls from the statue’s base and lands at Shazuu’s feet. Inscribed along the edge, in a mix of abyssal and draconic, is the phrase: “All that is yours is mine, and what is mine cannot be hidden.”
The group continues on, and opens a door into a room heaping with gold. Distrusting the obvious treasure, they move through the room, not touching anything. In the next room they find a set of iron gates fastened to the far wall. A voice booms loudly as he enters: “Beyond these gates lies paradise. Enter them as you entered life, and you may yet find it; grasp the jewel and grasp the iron, then be whisked away to the truest of rewards.” The gate on the wall reminds Tang Wu of the gem, which he produces from a pocket. Tang Wu interprets the riddle to mean that he must enter the gate as he was born… naked. He strips down and, holding the gem in one hand, grasps the gate with the other.
With a loud ‘POP!’, Tang Wu disappears, and the gem clatters to the floor.
Assuming that Tang Wu must have made a mistake, is elsewhere in the dungeon, or is simply gone, they gather the gem and backtrack. Entering the next room, they find an elaborate maze of yellow and black tiles. They follow the maze to a far door, and open it to find mirrored walls and floors reflecting a hundred images of a unicorn statue, which lays on a pedestal in the center of the room. A voice intones: “Everything you see is mine”.
Ty moves into the room, collects the statue, and walks out. Upon crossing the threshold he feels a pull, and as he leaves the room he finds himself naked, and empty handed. All of his belongings are piled around the statue in the center of the room. After some quick thinking, Shazuu casts darkness in the room, and instructs Ty to try again, with Shazuu coaching him from the door. Ty blindly enters the room, collects his gear and the statue, and exits. The trick works! Since he couldn’t see anything, he was able to remove the items!
They exit, and move further down the hall, discovering some other rooms with little consequence, until they find the other end of the big smokey room. Ty, seeing no alternative, plans on using his wings to fly to the other end of the room…