After spending the evening at a local inn, we set out in the morning to stock up on some much-needed healing potions. Fefifo, the halfling who thinks he's a giant, also picked up a couple of growth potions, understandably. Right as we were wrapping up our business, a small boy tugged on Vax's armor and said his master would like to speak with us.
Following the boy outside of the gates of Neverwinter, we found ourselves inside a strange hut that was much larger on the inside that it appeared on the outside. Within, an old woman sat stirring a large cauldron. Without stopping her stir, she explained she had scryed that we needed her help with a scrying of our own. The problem was that she was missing the literal keys to her power. Someone, or something, had hidden her power away in the form of keys. If we retrieved her keys, she would scry the information we were seeking and make it worth our while.
The group pulled together and noted our mistrust of anyone whose power was hidden away like this and decided to head to the mage's guild in search of more information. We quickly came up with an excuse and dismissed ourselves saying we'd be back after running an errand we were already committed to, but we assured her we'd be back.
We quickly returned to Neverwinter and straight to the Mage's Guild to see what we could find out before committing to a dangerous and almost certainly magical task. What we found there was a librarian and a lot of books that would take days to digest, not hours. Using his mask of disguise, Fefifo transformed himself into the old woman and asked the librarian if she had seen her before. She had not. The librarian did dig up a book that might have more information on the famous magic users of Neverwinter. I asked her to hold it for us and we'd return.
Without much additional information about curses, keys that lock away magic, or strange old women outside the walls of Neverwinter offering quests, we returned again to the old woman's hovel and relented to her request to find her keys . . . we had no idea what we were in for.
Instantly she transported our party to a magical cave where we found a table filled with six magical bottles, one for each of us to use on our journey. They were labeled Speed, Power, Space, Foresight, Nature, and Duplication. We each chose a potion from the table as the voice of the old woman filled our minds, "You may each have one bottle to help you find the keys, it will give you a boon that will help you . . . but each also comes with a downside."
I gulped down my bottle of foresight and suddenly I had truesight and saw with perfect clarity but could see nothing beyond 40 feet ahead. Lefty drank the bottle of Space and became incorporeal and phased between dimensions, but his speech was muddy and hard to understand. Shadow drank the bottle of power and became stronger and quicker than normal but seemed to lose just as much intelligence. Vax drank the bottle of speed and gained the ability to move quickly and jump long distances, but went completely blind. Inrah drank the nature bottle, and became jelly like with tentacles, but maintained their wings (who thought an octopus could fly?). Fefifo drank the duplication bottle and split into 6 colored illusions, but his real body petrified into a platinum statue. With that, the trial of the magic keys began!
Shadow opened the door with a powerful, but unneeded, shove. What we found beyond was a maze of pillars with a sea of lava below. My senses exploded, and I could sense a large entity inside the lava below. Not to worry, Inrah attached her tentacles to Vax's back and said she would guide her jumps and be her eyes. It was risky, but after the first jump, it looked like this could actually work! Inrah guided Vax through six jumps (a few shaky ones, but Vax held fast) and on to the other side where one of the keys was waiting. As soon as Vax grabbed the key, we were all magically transported back to the cave entrance. one trial down, two to go.
I sensed through the second door, an area teaming with life. Again, without much thought from our powerful dunce, Shadow opened the door. We all followed. On the opposite side was an ocean reef with (as my companions explained to me) a sunken ship on the far end where the magical keys certainly sat hidden. Inrah attached herself to Shadow, who dove in, sinking 80 feet to the ocean floor and began pushing through the water.
As he did this, I sensed a shark magically appear. I alerted the party to the shark and used my speed to swim as fast as possible in what I believed was the direction of the ship. What followed was a race and a battle for the keys. Inrah released her grasp on Shadow and began slithering her octopus body from reef to reef. Shadow grappled the shark while Fefifo's duplicates and Lefty shot arrows through the water at the shark in shadow's grasp.
Unfortunately, defeating the shark just spawned a larger and faster shark in its stead. Unfortunately, defeating the larger and faster shark just spawned a gigantic sea serpent. While Lefty, Fefifo's army of duplicates, and Shadow were valiant (and definitely slowed down the enemy while Inrah and myself made our way to the ship), eventually the sea serpent downed Shadow with a vicious bite, knocking him unconscious.
Inrah grabbed a key in the depths of the ship, and I grabbed another from behind the sunken captain's wheel, right as the sea serpent was speeding towards me. Again, as soon as I touched the final key, we were all magically transported back to the cave entrance. The second key trial was a success!
Behind the third and final door appeared a maze. Lefty used his incorporeal form to phase through the walls and guide us on our journey. I used my magical foresight to discover our way through illusionary walls. My gloves of thievery came in handy as well as the maze was riddled with traps, and I was able to successfully disarm them. As it turns out, the maze was also riddled with chests full of magical items! Not only did we find the keys, but we found boots, bags, cloaks, pearls, amulets, and more!
When the last key was found, we were all again magically transported . . . but not back to the cave. This time we were transported back to the old woman's hut, where she gladly pocketed the keys and offered us two more magic items from a choice of four.
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