Wynlynn’s Reflections 4

After the group got up for the morning and prepared for the day, Teal, concerned about the disasters that befell us the day before, asked that we discuss some ideas for how to prevent this kind of thing in the future. His first thought is a leader for the group. To work as a cohesive unit in battle under a leader such as I imagine he is talking about would take a lot of training. Not only can I not imagine Agenar taking place in such exercises, but I can only imagine that Travis and Val would grow and tired and frustrated by the repetition involved. I asked the group if they would follow a leader, and, as I predicted, Agenar scoffs and says no immediately. After a bit more discussion we all agree to discuss plans and allow for input before taking individual actions that would affect the whole group. Well, most of us agree, since Agenar wandered off without telling anyone or getting any input, as usual. One of these days his wandering off is going to cause the group to have to make a difficult decision. (And, yes I know the irony of my judgment after my own actions yesterday, which in some ways were worse than his since I put us in more danger before we had even recovered from our last battle.)

Travis was determined to go back down the stairs to see for himself the place that he came from. The group was very wary after the peril we faced only yesterday in that place but down we went. We decided to head to green room first, because we knew that the skeleton Bob would at least talk to us. Maybe we could get some more information to help us figure this place out, and hopefully get each of the colored liquids so I could complete the task given to me yesterday by the voice in the red room. As we headed up the short green hallway and into the room at the end, the skeleton Bob greeted Travis, saying how long it has been since last they had seen each other. Travis asked about this place and his role there. He was starting to get some of the answers he is looking for as they went back and forth. After a while Travis finally asked the question I was interested in, which is whether he was allowed to take the green liquid. Bob, despite being informed of Travis’s loss of memory, seemed puzzled by the question assuring Travis that of course he could take the liquid, as if it was a ridiculous question to ask. True to his word, Bob did not stop Travis as he retrieved a vial of the green liquid, or stop us as we left the room heading back to the center room. Pouring it into the strange apparatus at the center of the room, the liquid went down the pipes and more then Travis could possibly have had in that vial filled up a portion of the center of the device. 

We then headed to the red room, which, as yesterday, didn’t seem to have any guards. The voice spoke to me as it had yesterday, pleased that I had returned to finish the task assigned to me. With our success in the green room with Bob, I felt that perhaps this time I may actually succeed. 

In the blue room, though, things were not so easy. A water and fire elemental guarded the liquid in this room. The water elemental did not seem to be a big fan of Travis. Instead of allowing him to get the liquid as Bob had, they attacked. As I moved forward to slice through the water elemental with my blades, I feared that such an attack would have no effect on a being made out of water, but as I sliced threw, I felt the water give way and the element lurch as if hurt. We worked as a group, fighting the guards, slowly wearing them down. Teal, who is always resourceful in battle, used his affinity for water to do massive damage to the water elemental, making large volumes of its body disperse. Agenar shouted to retreat a few times, and while the battle was tough, we were holding our own. Seeing that the party was not responding to his calls for withdraw, he joined in the attack and finished off the water elemental with an Eldrich Blast, water bursting out and putting out the fire that was starting to consume Travis whom the fire elemental had turned his attention to, stepping into the wood man and setting him ablaze. With one enemy down and one to go the entire party turned their focus to defeating the fire elemental and made short work of what was left of him. We gathered the blue liquid as our victory prize, though we were feeling more on guard knowing that not all this place’s guards were so willing to help Travis.

After resting for a bit after our difficult battle, we ventured to the last two rooms, more cautious than before. Our concerns were unfounded, though, because, much like Bob, the other guards greeted Travis as an old friend and showed no interest in stopping him from obtaining the last of the colored liquids. Travis talked to each one and asked more questions, slowly putting together more of the pieces about this place, though each answer seemed to lead to more and more questions. These beings must be very old indeed and continually referred to all of us except Travis as slaves. Everytime they used the word I felt Val tense up beside me. I put my hand on her shoulder and squeezed to reassure and relax her before her temper could get the better of her, but I didn’t need to worry, she kept her thoughts to herself. 

With all of the colored liquids obtained and put in the colored apparatus, a tunnel of light leading downward opened up as was described by guards. There was one thing I had to do before going down. I head to red room to contact the voice once more (first informing the party of my intentions as we agreed to do). I let the voice know that the task had been completed and asked if there was more I must do. With a pain so deep, far beyond anything I could imagine, the kind of pain that can only come from imprisonment so long that one no longer remembers what came before, the voice asks me to bring this house of cards down. I want so much to help, to release those trapped here so long, but when I asked how the voice did not know. The only thing we could do was go down the tunnel of light and see for ourselves.