Our new seer friend asked us to choose someone from the party to receive a vision, and so, after a short discussion, we decided that the most magical of us should receive the vision. Inrah bravely agreed, and asked, "Where is the person responsible for the undead attacks in Phandalin?"
The witch blew a pink powder on her face, and after several moments, Inrah broke from a trance and toppled over as if stunned! We tried to wake her, and eventually, after the effects wore off, she came to her senses and let us know the vision she had received.
In her vision, Inrah flew above the Neverwinter forest and then drifted down into a hidden basement in the chapel in Phandalin. There she saw a bald Thay wizard in a red cloak, tattoos adorning his head. The wizard had a pile of corpses there he was stitching together and performing the vilest of rituals to bring them to life. Inrah then rose in the air facing toward Neverwinter and saw day become night and night become day seven times before descending back into the Neverwinter forest, near a river, into a clearing to the Northeast.
The witch escorted us out of her hut and pointed us in the direction of Neverwinter, then disappeared with a cackle. Before she left, however, Inrah and Sai both noticed something that the rest of us did not. As she raised her cloak over her head, a half mask appeared over her face.
Zax quickly turned about and headed back in pursuit to where the witch's hut was, and Inrah and I followed. Sai on the other hand, unbeknownst to us, headed in the direction of Neverwinter.
Arriving at the witch's hut, everything was empty. The only thing that remained was the seer's rocking chair that was still rocking slowly back and forth. A note was on the hut's front door that read in draconic, If you want help, bring the daughter to us. The note sent Zax into a fury and she burned the hut to the ground. As it burned, it seemed to burn ominously in the colors of the Chromatic dragons.
It was at this moment that we noticed Sai was missing from our party! Inrah flew up into the sky and looked for Sai and could not see him, but what she did see was that it was suddenly nighttime. The forest's magic had seemed to pass time more quickly for us inside.
Unable to search for Sai in the darkness of the woods, we decided to set up camp and trade watches. As I kept first watch, I was holding the necklace of fireballs close in case there was an attack. Strangely, there was no attack, but when my watch was done the necklace seemed to contain seven beads now instead of six! Magic was all around us. Thankfully this time, it worked to our advantage.
When we awoke, I noticed a strange shuffling in the bushes nearby when suddenly I was pounced upon by a large panther who simply said, "Gotcha!" It was Sai! Come to find out, Sai had been wandering in the woods for 18 hours looking for us. I was so happy to see him again. I really don't like splitting the party like that . . . at all!
Now that the daytime had arrived, we headed as a group out of the woods and back to the road between Neverwinter and Phandalin. We were pushing it, figuring Inrah's vision gave us about a week before evil would descend on Neverwinter Woods.
On our path, we met a wandering Artificer Merchant named Salazar. He was interested in trading with us, so since none of us were particularly interested in the magical billowing cloak, I traded with him for a potion of gaseous form. Inrah also bought a magical endless journal and inkwell. She said she was inspired by my own journaling and would like to sketch our adventures.
After two exhausting day's journey, we arrived in Phandalin and promptly made our way to the chapel and opened the doors. It was abandoned, but we noticed the construction materials had all been used to patch up the place. Everything also appeared magically clean as if it had almost a permanent aura of prestidigitation!
We were on the hunt for this basement that had alluded us before, which Inrah saw in her vision. Sai was using his elementalism to spray the floor with water looking for areas that showed signs of seeping through. Eventually he found a small 3-foot by 3-foot square that seemed to seep through. Pushing it did nothing, so we searched for some kind of mechanism or trick to opening it.
Zax pushed the top off of the alter and what was left was a stone statue of the symbol of Shar. We turned the stone and noticed a grinding sound beneath the floor, yet nothing seemed to open . . . that's when I remembered the new potion of gaseous form I had purchased from Salazar! I drank the potion and became a cloud. Such an interesting feeling to be free in this form. It allowed me to slip through the cracks of the basement door, where I noticed, the stone had been attached to a steel bar that held the door shut, by turning it, we had unlocked the bar. Unfortunately, I realized I had pretty much just wasted this potion . . . all we needed to do was push on the door to open it now that we had unlocked it.
After regaining my form, we did just that. The basement, however, was empty. No Thay. No bodies. Nothing. It was all empty. Certainly, the Thay wizard would be headed back into the forest to the clearing Inrah had seen in her vision.
Two days of our week had been taken. We'd need to hurry back to the forest as fast as possible!
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