Jinx OOtA - 10 - The Maze Engine

We found the Maze Engine. It was this huge machine far down inside a ravine. I used my broom of flying to fly over to it. It seemed like the machine sort of reacted when I touched it and it made a funny sound but nothing happened. I had hoped that it would reveal something exclusive and important.   Eldredge came over by calling the broom. Then he rode the broom over there too. Then Huldir did the same thing. I heard this strange noise and suddenly I was a flying snake. I looked around and saw that Huldir and Eldredge were too. I watched Huldir lick the Maze engine so I licked Eldredge because he was the closest thing to me. It was weird.   Huldir made a big deal of me licking Eldredge's flying snake but I was actually just copying what he himself had done. Sometimes I think Huldir is jealous if I pay any attention to Eldredge. Which is crazy because Eldredge is a God's son and totally strange. He has a sort of dark side. He wants to find some great discovery. I accused him of wanting to prove his dad wrong. He said very grumpily that he didn't have "daddy issues." Maybe not but it sure seems like he wants to prove him wrong.   It's the only time that Huldir acted like his normal self. I swear, if he doesn't quit giggling and walking around like he's seeing stuff that none of us see, I'm really going to slap him.   It seemed pretty clear that we weren't going to get anything from the Maze engine that Eldredge wanted but I heard this whispering in my ear that told me something I had done when I touched it had moved all the demon lords to the furthest side of the underdark, putting them all in close proximity and far away from the rest of the underdark. I knew this was a good thing but I didn't know how to tell everybody. Eldredge was disappointed when we left.   After fighting the dragon, I forgot to say that we got some loot. I got a ring of invisibility. Thorand got a quarterstaff that was +3, Huldir got a belt buckle of ogre strength, Kromdar got a rod of lordly might and of course Eldredge got the Ioun stone. I don't know why I forgot to mention the other loot we got.   I think we just kept getting more and more loot and I was getting spoiled. But I love the ring of invisibility. I can wear it going into a battle and get sneak attack just like that.   Something mighty strange had happened. There's this famous witch called Tasha and she published a book. Apparently that book changed everything. I no longer had my wizard abilities. I was no longer a swashbuckler which makes it harder to get sneak attack every single time. I was now an arcane trickster. Which means I have some spells of my own but they aren't all that great. I miss having the portent dice. But I got some extra rogue stuff so I'm not upset.   We now had all the ingredients that Virizin had asked for so we started heading back to Araj.