The Riddle

• We head down into the Valley of Lost Honor.
• We were given a riddle about the location of Shar’s temple: Seek a place of rest, where the serpent’s head calls to shadow.
• Dendar was sealed within these mountains by Ubtao, and Cover of Clouds points out a cleft where there is always more darkness.
• Acid rain begins in the valley so we hunker down for the night.
• On our way to the crescent-shaped cleft the next day, the ground begins to shake, and lava erupts from the ground.
• We all get off the ground one way or another to avoid further lava and race across the open field. Except Shohei who just runs.
• When we enter the cresent at midday, we all take to the air again as a Lava Worm emerges.
• I banish it for a minute as we race away, avoiding what would have been a massive amount of burnt flesh.
• From our high vantage point in this escape, we notice the shape of a serpent’s head in the mountains and land at the place of our riddle.
• We find an open basin area where darkness clings.
• In the darkness of night, we see the shape of the Temple to Shar emerge – an obelisk in shape, with no entryway.

The Temple of Entrance

• The Shar symbol is clear, but the sides are all smooth.
• There are divination, illusion, and enchantment effects present.
• Even Mr. Darkfoot cannot see inside.
• I remember an old Ritual of Admittance for Shar clerics – requiring an awful act to seal a secret with Shar.
• I commune with Oghma to see if there is another way inside than murder.
• He says we can all get inside without having to each perform the ritual, one of us could and get us all in, but even that is not necessary.
• Ms. Lendiel tries to dig around the structure.
• Mr. Trisfir bleeds on it a little.
• Ms. Lendiel suggests sharing our secrets and Mr. Trisfir tries telling of the deaths of his parents.
• Mr. Darkfoot asks Ms. Lendiel to bring out the Manifold of Mask that we stole out of the library for just this purpose.
• Once activated, purple-green smoke pours forth, filling the area.
• Ms. Lendiel can now see a doorway and calls us all over.
• Shohei and Mr. Darkfoot find and disarm traps, allowing us entry into a very long stairwell.

Into the Depths

• Going down the stairs takes quite a long time.
• The coolness is a nice relief from the heat of the jungle and volcanic plain outside.
• They foyer of the temple is full of skeletal corpses – killed with fists and teeth and rocks.
• We push further into the temple through doors and hallways.
• To a room with broken bookshelves and glass shards – which form into golems, whom we smash back to bits.
• Moving on, we find a hall of mosaics of battles between the gods, which RoK and I dutifully record.
• The door at the end of this hall leads into a sanctuary with similar decorations and a 20 foot globe of darkness in the center.
• The rest of the room is full of skeletal bodies, some armed and armored as Knights of Shar.

Globe of Darkness

• The darkness emits illusion, enchantment, and abjuration auras to my Sight.
• Tuppance flies in, but is immediately bitten by whatever resides within.
• Ms. Lendiel says the dead here did not just fight each other.
• As we study it more, it appears to have been created through divine intervention.
• A force cage and darkness spell of incredible power to trap something.
• We decide to leave it alone for now, but only find a barracks and kitchen area in the other direction.
• It is decided to use the Manifold in the morning on the globe of darkness.
• After resting, we return and the revealing smoke of the Manifold eats away both the darkness and the force cage.
• Revealing coiled white serpents seemingly made up of thousands of worms, including skulls for hands dripping even more worms.
• After a terrible fight, we put down these abominations.

Mask’s Secret

• Ms. Lendiel looks around with the lingering smoke after the fight, but no vault or entrance to one appears.
• Mr. Darkfoot inspects the murals here and in the hall.
• Questdrone looks for logical inconsistencies and finds instead a section about hearth and home being a place of security.
• We return to the hearth in the kitchen area of the barracks.
• There is a still-warm flue in the cooking hearth, but we will need the Manifold to access it, so must wait another day.
• RoK and I record as much information as we can.
• The rogue crew gets us through a door in the hearth the next morning.

Mask’s Trials

• We head down a hallway to a a larger corridor with a Sphinx above the entryway, who invites us to Mask’s Trials.
• The first trial is to answer riddles correctly.
  • We do not do well on this trial, debating two answers which could both be true and inevitably choosing the wrong one twice of three riddles.
  • But we are given fights to make up for our lack of luck: three gorgons the first time, and two iron golems on the third riddle.
• The second trial involved a golden goat statue that sets off a blast of energy and move ten feet when approached.
  • They all investigate it and the door at the end of the hall.
  • Mr. Darkfoot finding the most important part of this puzzle, an arrow inside the goat that he can turn with his mage hand.
  • Shohei is then able to follow it at a safe-ish distance, causing it to shove itself right up to the door.
  • But he moves it too far, and there’s no pressure plates between it and the door to set it off again.
  • Mr. Trisfir manages to slam a sword down between the goat and the door enough to trigger another blast, destroying the door and moving the goat out of our way.
• The third trial is a room full of rugs, many nailed to the floor.
  • Mr. Darkfoot sends Tuppance to investigate, and he is immediately wrapped up and crushed by a rug.
  • Shohei sends a Mage Hand floating in, but the rugs do not react.
  • We quickly discuss fire, flying, pointy sticks, and Eldritch Blast.
  • Mr. Darkfoot settles on blasting all the rugs and we find a path across.
  • Tuppance and Mr. Darkfoot go first, then Ms Lendiel – and they open the far door together.
  • The rest of us follow with no incidents.
• The fourth trial is a room with steel cubes on pedestals and an eye shining down blue light from above of each one.
  • Ms. Lendiel sticks an elbow into the nearest blue light and her arm withers in a green flash.
  • Shoehei turns a Mage Hand invisible and sends it in to touch the box with no resulting flash, but only for a moment, for a white flash sends lightning shooting out in the next.
  • Mr. Darkfoot uses his special sight to look inside the boxes and finds one with a key inside.
  • Shohei tries to use a Mage Hand to unlock the box, but it takes a couple tries and the key is no longer inside by the time he opens it.
  • Mr. Darkfoot shrinks down and misty steps into the box that now holds the key, then resumes normal form, exploding out of the box head first.
  • This causes the eyes to all blink, the ceiling to shift, and all the eyes to refocus upon the door at the far end.
  • After some attempts with Tuppance and Mage Hand, rogue crew eventually gets the far door unlocked.
  • But how to get through is discussed, because the eyes are still open and deadly.
  • I try a Tiny Hut but it is immediately dispelled.
  • Shohei tries to cover an eye with a cloth, but it is incinerated, she he attacks, but nothing happens.
  • I cast another Tiny Hut, and it works for the moment, so we all rush through.
• To be greeted by the fifth trial – a nice friendly tavern with five patrons and a barkeep.
  • We all stare awkwardly for a few minutes while we are ignored by everyone here.
  • Until Ms. Lendiel notices they are discussing a key – perhaps for the very large lock to what would normally be a kitchen door.
  • It seems we must talk to each of these folks to solve the puzzle of who has the key, but may only ask once about it.
  • I leave this discussion to the rogue for whom it was designed, and go have a nice drink and dinner with Mr. Trisfir.
  • Eventually Mr. Darkfoot steals the key off of a man named Davies, and Shoehei unlocks the door, dispelling the tavern and the slight buzz I had managed to achieve.
• The sixth trial is a dragon on a golden horde. Mr. Trisfir believes it is an aspect of Bahamut himself, though why that would be true I cannot fathom.
  • There are several paths here, but fortunately, we decide to sneak past the dragon, though Yorgen needs a bit of convincing from Mr. Mandamus.
• The final trial is the Vault itself.
  • We emerge from the dragon’s lair onto a glass staircase surrounded by darkness, above a massive vault which we can see into from above.
  • Axel falls out of his book in this room and everyone can see both my and his secret books.
  • No one asks too many questions though.
  • They are too distracted by Mask addressing us, I think, congratulating us and saying he is proud of how we meet and passed each challenge. Saying that nothing is out of our grasp now, and that he wishes to meet us, though not really in person per se.
  • He speaks in our minds then, asking me what I want most, and gets offended when I compare him to Mystra, eventually asking for power.
  • He asks me to keep the group from taking more than one thing each and he will provide.
  • I do my best, but someone gets greedy – I knew they would – am surprised it was only one.
  • Mask scolds that a good rogue knows restraint and wishes us luck as the floor opens up and everything begins to collapse.
  • We run and manage to escape the temple somehow, before it all explodes, showering the area with gold.
• Done with this place, I teleport us all back to Candlekeep, the others will just have to find a way back where they want to go.