Journal #35: Fey Friends.

Fey are tricky, and my companions are rather stupid. Hells, the fey we encounter we’re just nice. I’m getting ahead of myself, I would rather not start this journal entry with a two paragraph long rant about the problems of deals and listening to people you can trust.
 
Once given the quest to traverse the Ivory Labyrinth of Baphomet to recover a single item, A ruby necklaces. This maze, how I at least interpreted is only a fraction of the true maze which lies on the Abyssal realm. Since while walking throughout the maze I could not believe that we had so easily entered the realm of demons. Tenaerul seems to have other planes leaking into this sealed dome. The labyrinth itself might have only been able to manifest a fraction of its full size. This is just a idea floating in my head, the laws of this corrupted land must be rather loose and flexible with all the dangerous beings waltzing around.
 
After my rather personal conversation with Celuriel, I chose to only relay the important information that could affect them. That being that if we followed this path to breathing life backing to the Vampire, we would have a Lich hunting us. Celuriel had been slightly hesitant to throw us into danger with her revival. Adamantly convinced that her older sister would effortlessly slaughter us. I have voiced my concerned to her, and to her, they will stay for now. Those thoughts are not meant for these pages, not yet anyway. The Lost Ones without a seconds hesitation agreed to help her. Then Ashlyn, the ever embodiment of sunshine and goodness she is. Gifted the vampire with a dagger, a wrist sheathe to keep it hidden. I believe there were a couple of other items, but I am not sure. She was rather quite if I recall, I think she was a bit taken aback at the willingness of people to help her with the issue of Ludrissiel.
 
It seems that within the domed walls of Tenaerul, if you are seeking a destination, then the path before you will lead you to that location. Like I said previously the rules of Tenaerul are very loose here. Reality clearly is not the same within the dome. Before we fell asleep we had a guest drop in from the sky, Cyne was now trapped within this cursed land with us. I believe a mix up was made when transporting something through our special books that allow for long distance communication. Taking Cyne with it and appearing next to casks of Ale. Which the party decided to drink, for an hour. It was rather vexing to watch. Through some complex series of events regarding the ale, unknown magics, and our party. Whisperbreath became a mother, claiming this black egg as her own.
 
I am concerned about this child's future.
 
Especially since Whisperbreath is the self-proclaimed mother.
 
Traveling to the Labyrinth was far quicker than I thought it would take. However, we were meet with a red-haired woman. Notably, she wore a three-pointed knot necklace, a simple design and a symbol for the Fey Eldest Magdh. She had a rather elegant green dress and seemed to be expecting us and seemly knew why we were here within a few questions. A never a good sign. With attention unknown, she gave us a way to get travel through the maze of the demon lord. A cyan string ball, magical in nature I have to question if a former myth from Aletheia’s past had something similar. Since my quest was currently the reason why we are seeking to explore this maze, I thought it was important to be the one to hold this magical cyan ball of string.
 
Entering into the maze simple and to simplify the description of its, everything is made of Ivory. Walls to the floor and the ceiling up above, in the white material. However on the wall of the first room after the door were shut behind us was an inscription.
 
A snake of a maze before you may lie.
Truth in these words is that which will guide.
To seek treasure within, a key must be found.
Sapphire to four, but heed not their call.
Emerald to eight, but ware of its theft.
Ruby to twelve, but break not its chains.
Witness the three and make them to one, and the final of four shall be found within ebony.

The first floor of the maze was the most trying. Not because of some battle or some complex puzzle that our group was utterly lost. It’s the fact we stopped twice to rest, though one of those rest were unavoidable. We were given three gems that matched the ones in the riddle. Emerald was given to Ashlyn, Sapphire to Celuriel and Kraia held the ruby. Each took a color jewel because of the lines in which we thought it was most likely be safe. A Theft would not be able to steal something from out fearless paladin, Artemis and Kraia, in general, are monsters. Celuriel had taken the Sapphire because of her abilities. Enter the first room we had locked the sapphire into a door and saw a room where the floor was a pool. A dark shadow swam through it and a single lady.
 
A sirens song mere seconds long.
 
I will not lie at my faults, I found the song entrancing. I almost followed its command to go to the water, if Celuriel hadn’t slammed me into a wall. She had obviously had figured out what had happened. I followed any instructions she had given, and the sirens tempting words left my mind. The Aboleth in the room was a whole other problem because of the effect on the water which some of us had to get into. See when an Aboleth is in water, it infects it with its slime that its body naturally creates. A person and or creature that breaths with a set of lungs that touch this infected water grows gills and is forced to stay in the water. A handful of infected had to stay in the water once the duo of aquatic monsters had been slain. The monsters dissipated into the maze. Once that happened, the sapphire began to glow, and we then began to see how this would play out. The Sapphire also has tiny words inscribed on them “Y T I.” At first, it made no sense, but we poked them and decided to find more rooms before pondering on this more. We spent a whole night sleeping and talking waiting for the infection for certain people to wear off.
 
While walking around the maze, we found a hall with several doors, two which contended gem slots and one with a message carved into the door with three gem slots. This three slot door had “Ntbkeeqz gl i xiihpc” written across from it. Great, I had thought Ciphers, at least I had been practicing.
 
Find the door for the Emerald was next and a gross mossy monster which had large, for lack of a better term, tentacles which caused some problems but not as much as the siren or the aboleth. It was concerning as to what this thief was going to do, although this creature’s minions concerned me since they did not seem to be thieves of any kind. The encounter was done faster than I clear to recount, and Ashlyn avoided being swallowed whole by the malicious moss. The Jewel glowing it’s gem’s color and revealed those letters to us “C A R.”
 
The room across from was the ruby room, this was interesting since there was an untold story here at one point about a trumpet archon Oriatar. This archon was bound in changes and requested a dual, a singular one which Ashlyn has begrudging volunteered for. Keeping a fair fight with our feathery friend over in the ruby room, I have noticed that lirien was about the cast a spell. Currently, my level of trust in the half-drow is at an all-time low, though I have already voiced my concerns in the entry before this one. Casting one of the few nature spells that could blind her, Dazzling lights which interrupted her. We eventual caved in and began to empower Ashlyn with our spell and tricks. The fight was quickly over, but Ashlyn had been terribly damaged. Nothing she could not recover from, but we’ve barely ever seen her like this. This was probably due to her strange logic of pulling her punches at this angel when he clearly was not. I swear I will never truly understand this paladin. Waiting for the angel to be brought back from the dead. We rested in the room and learned the angel's name, Oriatar. Once again the Ruby started glowing we were given the last code “O V.”
 
Deciphering the code using the three gems, ‘Ntbkeeqz gl i xiihpc’ turned out the be ‘Pactience is a virtue.’
 
After our rest, we placed the gems indoor and waited for about 30 minutes before trying the door. It opened.
 
24-2-13-22 19-26-23 14-22-13-7-18-12-13-22-23 8-12-14-22-7-19-18-13-20 26-25-12-6-7 7-19-22 5-12-18-24-22 19-26-5-18-13-20 26 24-19-26-14-11-18-12-13 26-13-23 8-22-13-23-18-13-20 18-7 7-12 21-18-13-23 6-8 8-15-18-20-19-7-15-2 24-12-13-24-22-9-13-18-13-20 8-18-13-24-22 7-19-18-8 5-12-18-24-22 18-8 5-22-9-2 14-6-24-19 8-22-13-23-18-13-20 14-18-3 14-22-8-8-26-20-22-8
 
The second floor was more maze-like, and we were divided into two main groups. Male and Female, by magic barriers. Exploring to the end of the maze I found an adventurer who did not make it, or at least his journal and body.
 
To those who come next,
This is where our journey ended.
Rulark and Shadara couldn't stand against the plant monstrosity some rooms ago, and we didn't have the remedies to fix Akutol, not after that door's trap. Glessa and Beornil are going to try going forward. Beornil's in better shape than I am, and this place isn't going to let me through alone.
If only we could go back. If only we'd listened to the whispered warnings. We thought we could handle it, and now I don't even have a name with which to sign this.
[The earlier pages seem to contain notes on Tenaerul's wildlife, though large sections have been stained black. The later pages are covered by increasingly illegible scribbles.]
 
Eventually, we meet up with the lady of the party, which is almost all of them. Cid, Cyne and I are really outnumbered. Another boring ivory room but this time with a statue and with around half sphere implanted into the ground on the other side of that singular statue. The Statue ‘spoke’ about only two who could bear life could pass. There was a basin that we had to slit our hand and drip blood into the bowl connecting. Now that leads to some problems, Ashlyn and I paired off and were relocated to a specific spot in the ivory room. Cid and Kraia next, followed by Cyne and Lirien leaving one pair. Whisperbreath and Celuriel, gods help her. Although I do not clearly remember Whisperbreath was screwing around with the basin and other things despite being told how to do things. Wizards.
 
SURPRISINGLY our group's obsession with adult product shops saves us from screwing up the mechanics of this room. Whisperbreath had an amulet what changes one's gender. She almost removed that amulet to see what would happen but thought better of it. The change physically speak was not much at all. Same old Whisperbreath same old problems. Each of the pair to placed into a spot facing our partner we poured blood into, and the Statue was no longer there revealing a door. Going through the door.
 
Magically I was alone with Ashlyn in an ivory room, with a half sphere. With some small amount of convincing, we touched the orb and were teleported. We found what we believed to be a central nexus a small part of the maze. A large room with a smaller room with a teleporting half sphere in each individual room. Exploring each part of the maze became a bit of systematic approach to this maze. I was rather appreciative of Ashlyn helping with the approach to going through the Ivory Maze. Ashlyn marked each teleport half sphere with a number matching number as I rolled the Cyan string behind us. I believe there were about 5 or 6 different half spheres before running into Whisperbreath and Celuriel. I was rather happy to be reunited with her and even more happy to find she had some level of control when it came to not harming Whisperbreath. Celu whisper to me that the rat had taken food from fey here, taking that information in I felt it wasn’t the correct time chastise the rat. Also in this is when we have introduced the color sphere to the mix. Ashlyn and I volunteered to touch and had a crimson red bracelet on our wrist. The red spheres inner darkness seem desperate and become dull. Linking Ashlyn and me together, we disappeared shortly after into a teleporting half sphere after heard what we thought was large steps echoing through the maze. Lacking in numbers we ran. Quickly finding Cid and Kraia and other colorful spheres. We were meet with the large figure that had been slacking us throughout the maze. A minotaur, a rather easy fight on our part, was depicted with brutal effectiveness. The minotaur then becomes apart of maze phasing into the ground, which we concluded that the minotaur was probably bound to the labyrinth and unable to die.

Traveling throughout the labyrinth we heard Cyne and Lirien, breaking through a wall that Whisperbreath had made early. Ashlyn and Cid destroyed the creature behind the wall. Following the half spheres, while running away from another minotaur, we reunited with the rest of the group and attempted to find the last colored sphere. Finding it, Cyne and Lirien become very difficult to deal with. Turns out while running from the minotaur, Cyne and Lirien had been replaced with the fey doppelganger. Not the fey that Whisperbreath dealt with since they made mention to this. They had knocked out the originals, so we did the same to them, but we took it a step further and killed them. Ashlyn decapitated the fey-Cyne, and I plunged my sword into fey-Liriens heart.
 
Stopping for a split second to rest, I had noticed my gender, as well as my race, has changed. A female elf, pale skin yet I found it strange that the color of my hair and eyes remained the same. This new form of mine appearing was rather attractive since our druid Kraia wanted to ‘talk’ after. Celuriel said, and I quote ‘I will cut you’ then brandished a dagger at Kraia.
 
I have never been so proud.
 
However, the Vampire decided to poke me in rather new places. This caused my rather pale face to flush red, the feeling just the same but the looks different. Asking if I prefer these, and why they were bigger than hers. Well, I would prefer my own body, but I had to deal with the new changes. I would rather not stay an elf, my pride would not allow it. She gave me a mirror so I could examine myself.

Soon after I felt a tug on the string. Not one that was rough, but gentle. On a hunch, I followed the string all the way to the person that was moving the string to grab my attention. Rounding a corner to a rather familiar aasimar, or it would be more accurate to say a former Half Elf.
 
Licia Galewin had returned.
 
Now she’s all bright and less elf, A full aasimar with a cloud of night and stars around her. The former Half-Elf trained in her goddess domain and seems to be the first of us to show the side effects of becoming a champion. Yet Licia all the same. Licia had healed the missing two Lirien and Cyne. We dragged them back to the green orb room and when they awoke from being knocked out from the doppelganger. They soon were bound together by a green bracelet.
 
We then place the four color bracelets together, and a large spark of magic flew to a half sphere. Following these sparks, we ended up walking through the maze to find a chamber with four postulates that we stood on. We felt reinvigorated, and the last teleporting half sphere was open to us. Entering the last door the room held a large set of double doors to our left and a smaller door in front of us. Ashlyn opens the door.
 
A large red pentagram was drawn onto the floor portraying the labyrinths true master took up the large ivory room. Statues littered the room. Gargoyles both large and small, abound angel in chains and being held back by other statues, a twisted combination of a Demon and an Angel was to our right. Oh and statues of ladies. A strange sight indeed. Two large platforms which look to hold about four to five people comfortably. We divided up into groups, by colored bands since that seemed like the smart thing to do. Cyne Celu Kraia and I in one group, Ashlyn, Whisperbreath, Lirien, and Cid comprised the other with Licia kinda in the middle.
 
As we thought when the eight of us stepped onto the plates, the statues gargoyles sprung to animated life. The Ladies states crumbled to reveal themselves as Succubus. Artemis was quickly released and knowing Artemis and Kraia made short work of anything that touched them. Which included a single succubus and two statues. The duo is an absolute monster in they own regard. Ashyln, Whisperbreath, Licia, and Cid had placed them new the demonic angel. They had to deal with there own set of Gargoyles but to a lesser extent. Their true enemy was the winged one. The Succubi made their move. Never did I think I would be happy that I currently was a female. The Succubus tried to entrance the males of our party. It failed, but Pin quickly took off the amulet to avoid that in the future.
While spells were being flung and whips shattering statues the bound angel was released and walked to the center of the pentagram. This was a mistake to let it glide peacefully to a crux of power for them. Destroy as many of the statues of we could before something truly terrible appeared. Five or six statues were left as well as a single succubus as the ivory room glowed red as the bound angel state disappeared.
 
In its place was an ivory demon. This demon seemed to be formed from the labyrinth itself. It’s body matched the color of the room around it. Covering its body with demonic red runes and symbols that emanated with a strange power. Without a mouth, it still creepily could display a mixture of emotions. Whether it was, it’s creepy glowing yellow eyes or the shifting ivory face. It was a towering figure, and that was not even including it’s curled horns.
 
Intimidating does not begin to describe this demon.
 
It began its assault on Licia who had attempted to heal the party only second before. They had quickly dealt with the statues but had not dealt with the demonic angel hybrid. The Ivory Demon must have thought it could hand it, and probably knew it would have a better chance somewhere else with Ashlyn around. Quickly getting bored with that group, having trouble hitting the paladin, it glowing demonic yellow eyes to us. Teleporting it changed its plan of attack to us.

While it began attacking the group I had started dealing with the leftover statues. I had turned at the wrong second. The Ivory Demon had brought Celuriel down. Something akin to wraith simmered under my skin. The split second of angry had surpassed any level of hatred I had toward anything in my life. I released a disintegrate spell at the demon which it blocks with ease. I screamed with frustration turning to a statue that had made it the center of the pentagram and was powered up glowing red. I flung another spell of disintegrate turning the empowered statue into ash. Venting my anger, I remembered Celuriel was extremely hard to kill. It only slightly lessened the feeling enough to focus on a goal. I was not having any luck with The Ivory Demon, so I had to turn my attention to other matter. While the others dealt it, I cleaned up the Statues, yet was overcome with a tremendous urge to go pick up Celuriel.
 
Walking back to the group, the yellow-eyed demon was gone, but I had come to my senses. As if an alien will was removed from my thought which urged me to go to her side. I would not put it past the demon to have placed me under a Dominate person spell. No Celuriel was fine, she was safer there she was, than if I had picked her up and made the both of us a target. With the Statue still cleaned up, that left the Succubus who was pouting over on the other side of the room, bored since we barely would give her the time of day. Whisperbreath took pity on the poor demon, creating physical images of five men with cat ears. Leave it to the ratfolk to do something in a time of serious combat. Ignoring the cat boys and the succubus having a bit of ‘fun’ a new wall appeared as we ready out weapons as the Paladin tore through the wall with her adamantine scythe. Delivering the final blows to the Winged demon and the yellowed eyed one. It was done, Artemis and Kraia death the decisive blow to the ivory demon.
 
The Pentagram glowed red, and then tentacles appearing from the pentagram dragged the Succubus back, she was rather happy about that, and then a voice spoke. “Go take your treasures, you have provided a small amount of entertainment. I will deal with you at a later date.”
 
I went to go collect Celuriel and carried her on my back as we went to the treasure room. The Treasure room was filled with many things, basins with water and stone heart like stuck. A statue with a weeping demon who was missing a heart. These statues had the necklace we sought, as well as braces and a crown. I placed Celuriel in a chair grabbed the necklace from the Statue and found a pink and purple egg. I place the egg in my lap as I sat next to the chair. Watching my companions go around seeking their treasure as I waited for her to wake up. While I waited, they placed the black stone heart into the statue which released a man. A normal human man, from before worldrend. Draconic, although still a different version than we speak, was the only real means of communication with this man displaced in time. His wrists were clear of any Champion mark, so the question still remains why was he stuck here? He knew of Arcane Magic and was a caster of said magic. We clearly do not have enough information or was a way to communicate clearly to make a current guess as to his imprisonment here in a demon lords maze.
 
Now let’s speak quickly about fey since now we have two people who have consumed food from the fey. Whisperbreath might be in a bit of tight spot soon with having to pay the Fey back for the food. I fear for that child that she might be raising, it that egg is something other than a chicken or small animal. God help that child if it’s a Pseudodragon or something similar. It might just be another creature we well have to take care of, but if the fey gets a hold of it who knows what the outcome may be. A table with tea and pie was placed within the treasure room with a note meant for Whisperbreath. Of course, once the Ratfolk tried to eat it, we protested not to eat it. Licia seems to have some level of senses which good to know. The Paladin exclaimed that the food was not even evil so it must be good to eat. Meaning she ate the fey food. I cannot wait to see this backfire straight into their face. I might start having to warn them less about events to come and just start keeping secrets to myself. Have them learn the hard way.
 
Finally choosing to leave, I placed the necklace around her neck and was blinded. Celuriel said it was taken care of, I trust her explicitly when she said that. She screamed which caused me to worry but appears it was all going according to the plan. The Necklaces had place Celuriel into a golden cocoon of sorts which Ashlyn and carefully slung over her shoulder. Coming back to life this way might be harmful. The Magical Cyan string teleportation quickly out of the maze. Yet there was more than that. We were empowered, similar in scope to champion powers but different. These powers seemed to come from ourselves, and not some god that gifted them to us. Once making it outside we were meet with the red-haired women I cannot recall exactly what was said, but Celuriel has been broken out of the Cocoon and was alive but marked.
 
Celuriel had joined the ranks of the Champions of the Divine under the Eldest Magdh.
 
A green three-pointed knot was now tattooed on her wrist, at least that is what I have been told. Being blind had some problems, though this is only temporary at the moment, I am not gonna screw up this chance up for Celuriel.
 
Cyne summoned some winged chariot to ferry us to the pond, but choose to rest before handing the necklaces to The Beauty.