Session 6: The Testing Chambers

General Summary

In our last session, the party encountered Tallisen Mordren, the smug yet helpful overseer of the Seven Suns. He set a steep price for the rare book, "A History of the Forest Lands" by Vallis Valanthar, a tome containing vital knowledge about the Queen of Thorns and her Harbingers. This ancient Archfey, mother to Titania and Mab (the Queen of Light and the Queen of Air and Darkness), has begun to stir, and her Harbingers are preparing the world for her return.

Tallisen's price was 300 gold pieces or, alternatively, a series of paintings from a deadly chamber. He had already lost men attempting this task and saw the party as either a solution or a disposable resource.

The first room, Logic, required the party to play Chess as the pieces themselves. Ignoring the other pieces, they focused their fire on the King, winning their first painting depicting Melkerech's dark ritual of lichdom.

Next, in a room with a cylindrical stone wall and three spears, they deciphered the inscription "meet me at 555" and positioned the spears as hands of a clock. This revealed a staircase leading to another chamber.

In the chamber of Faith, four bubbling green pools and a 10-second countdown timer greeted them. The inscription "Have Faith" guided their actions. Trusting the words, they let the timer reach zero, enduring the violent bubbling until the door opened.

Finally, in a narrow corridor filled with rocks, they faced a Galeb Duhr, an earth elemental that summoned boulders to attack. Despite Solas being buried under the rocks, the party managed to shatter the elemental, retrieving the final paintings.

With the paintings, essential for a "memory lock" on a vault door, they exited the chambers to a scene of chaos, setting the stage for their next challenge.

Lucky – frustrated at his 'flaccid' performance overground, took a huff in a quiet corner of the warehouse, but it didn't take long for curiosity to get the better of him