Chapter 12 Looting the Hoard 03/11/24

 
With the 2 red gems in hand Lucky and the others returned to the Dragon statue and placed them in the eye sockets. With another mechanical crunch the room swivelled again this time showing a red path leading to a golden door. On each side of the door was a floating coloured haze with a lock inside.
 
Bob decided it would be a good idea to check the door out, only to find himself blasted back the full length of the corridor and just missing Lucky and Solas in the process.
 
Eventually realising that the locks may be connected to the gems the party let Lucky try a blue and a red gem in the eyes of the dragon. As he put them in place the purple haze vanished. He tried red and yellow to no avail but when he placed blue and yellow in the sockets the green haze vanished and a mechanism in the door was heard to click.
 
Bob again volunteered to check out the door. This time it opened easily to reveal a small room.
 
In the room were several shelves and a small mountain of gold coins. Some of the shelves contained small tickets, obviously memories from the past. The other shelves, Solas discovered with a Detect Magic spell, were items of some power. Shoving the gold and the magic items into Shadow's bag of holding the party moved the room again with the gems to view a long corridor. Heading down the corridor they discovered a spiral staircase leading upward halfway along the corridor. Solas detected a slight breeze coming from the end of the passage and Bob offered to check it out, his Dwarven stone cunning coming in handy. Unfortunately, he decided to jump up and down at the end of the corridor and the passage collapsed under his weight sending him plummeting down a slide and then out into a chasm and a river below it, knocking himself unconscious in the process.
 
Lucky dived into the unknown after the Dwarven barbarian and used his scroll of Misty Step at the last moment to transport himself into the narrow shore close to the submerged body of Bob. Shadow used the same trick and Solas used his celestial wings to fly down and locate Bob, moments from death.
 
Lucky swam out and grabbed the soggy dwarf and was helped when Solas cast Healing Word on him bringing him back to consciousness and able to make it to the shore.
 
Now, howver, there was the matter of a 200 foot climb up the side of the chasm.
 
All made it to the top and they found themselves once again at the bridge they had crossed the day before.
 
Now that the Dungeon had been cleared it was easy enough to walk back through. The party spoke again with the 3 manifestations of Melkerech and decided to leave them in their Crystal cages, even tho Lucky felt bad about it as Bob had given his word.
 
As they left the Dungeon, via the spiral staircase, they found themselves in a narrow valley. From the top of the valley came a voice and an offer of some tea. The party pulled themselves up to find a small house in the middle of a field close by Minroe. Outside of the house is an old lady with a tray full of cups of tea who introduces herself as Aunty Mora.
 
For a change Lucky is the suspicious one, stating that since they arrived in Minroe almost everyone has turned out to be an utter shit to the party.
 
The others talk with Aunty Mora and get some information from her. Lucky asks if she knows the arcane phrase needed to break the seal in Destruction’s Lair and the suspected Hag demands to speak with his sword in order to hear the words.
 
Lucky gives her Thornbrand, the other sword that was found in Melkerech's treasure room. Aunty Mora isn't happy with this and sees it as a duplicity so Lucky begrudgingly hands over his scimitar. Mora appears to speak to the sword momentarily before handing it back and telling Lucky the incantation needed to break the seal.