The Test

The Mage Yanrish has posted a request for keen adventurers to come to his tower to discuss opportunities for gold, fame, connections and other favours. The adventuring party arrive at the door, to be greeted by a small goblin who introduces himself as Gibbons, the assistant to the great Mage Yanrish. The goblin will initially not allow anyone to see the mage without an appointment, but upon hearing that the group wants to meet as a result of the bulletin in the town square, he ushers them in and asks them to follow him. He goes up the stairs, but seems confused as they get to the next floor, and turns around to go back down again. The group follow, only to be surprised as they do not return to the floor where they started, but an entirely new one. They go up again to another new floor, only for Gibbons to again turn around and go downstairs, whereupon the party find themselves at a floor that is part alchemical labaotory, and part sitting room, with a wizened old human male sat in a comfortable chair, reading a book.

The Tower

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Gibbons introduces the party to the mage, only just realising that he never took their names. The mage dismisses Gibbons, asking him to go fetch some refreshments for the group, and bids them all take a seat. He goes around that party asking them to introduce themselves, and describe what it is that they're looking for out of the adventuring lifestyle. He generally nods and smiles, assuring each that what they seek will be attainable with his help. After the introductions, Yanrish introduces himself - though he is sure that he needs no intoduction, he is keen to explain that there are many demands on his skills and abilities, and though powerful, he is only one man and there are some things better done as a group, or even by several groups - and these groups working in concert with him, can achieve great things together. At this point, the mage grows frustrated, and wonders aloud where Gibbons might be. He puts the book down, and tells the party that he's going to go see what's happened to the goblin. He asks if anyone has any special requests to pass on.
The party at this stage are left to their own devices, and may begin talking amongst themselves or investigating. There are several things that they might discover while looking around.

• The book being read is 'integrated turnover vessels' by 'atone oak squib'
(this is an anagram for 'Testing adventurers resolve' by 'A quest in a book')
• There is a table with multiple potions. Successful survival or Arcana checks will reveal them to be potions of healing of varying strengths
• Magical items from the Deck of Things selection
• An amulet consisting of a green gem inlaid within a golden design

As they talk or investigate, the book will make a muffled sound, that appears to be 'Help Me'. If the adventurers ignore it, it's repeated louder, until someone picks up the book, at which point the sound changes to a still muffled 'Yes'. At this point the adventurers should open the book, which triggers the real start of the session as they are all pulled into the book, and awake to find themselves in a very different place. Note that if the adventurers choose not to open the book, potentially and correctly suspecting a trap, the wizard will return, sigh and remark to himself 'That's stage one failed then', before clicking his fingers and causing the book to open and trigger as above.

The Test - Map 1

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On looking around, the party find themselves in an enclosed room, with a solid paper floor. Around the sides are partially ruined walls, and if they look out they will see a maelstrom of fire - no escape that way. The only visible means of egress are four doors along one wall, raised a few feet off the floor by a short stone ramp. Each of the doors has a symbol assigned to it: Claws, Fire, Gate and Eyes.
Forming a circle around where they appeared, a number of stone pillars, and in the corner of the room are a pile of books. On inspecting the books, the same passage will appear on every page:

Choices abound and plans are laid,

Consequences fall as Decisions are made,

Look for warmth to ease the lock,

You’ll need three to fully unblock

The idea here is that a roughly straight line can be drawn from each door, to cross three pillars. As each pillar is touched, it grows warm, and the corresponding door or doors, emits a slight glow. If three pillars in a line from a door are touched by different party members at the same time, then the corresponding door opens. What happens next depends on the door - three of them will release a creature to be fought, aligning thematically with the door. The gate door will allow the party to continue. Some examples of appropriate creatures:

• Claw - a beast such as a large bear
• Fire - a smaller dragon, or a fire elemental
• Eye - A beholder variant, appropriate to the challenge level of the party

On moving to the next chamber, this is similar to the first, but with stone slopes along the left and right walls, until the floor reaches a chasm with swirling blue and green fog obscuring further view.

The Test - Map 2

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Directly in front of the party are three cages, on inspection they show the following inscription at the base:

Build your route with paper and ink,

Then choose carefully how to traverse safely across the bridge

Inside the middle cage, is an ink elemental, and in each of the other two cages is a paper elemental. The party can choose to release all of these together, or one at a time, but they must fight and defeat the creatures all the same. The creatures will not initially respond until either they are attacked, or all three creatures are released. If they try to attempt to cross the chasm beforehand e.g. by jumping or flying, buffeting winds will push them back, and the green fog will cause poison damage, while the blue deals cold damage. As they attack and damage the creatures, pieces will fly off and be drawn towards the chasm - once all the creatures have been defeated, the pieces will coalesce into the form of a paper bridge. The ink will stream onto the bridge and form letters.

The party can now attempt to jump or fly over the bridge, without wind or fog getting in their way. To cross the bridge by foot, they must choose the right sequences of letters. Choosing a letter out of sequence, causes the player's foot to go through, and roll a dexterity saving throw or plunge into the chasm and disappear. Choosing the right sequence allows the player to cross safely, but all the ink from the letters used will disappear and the next player must find a different route. The clue to this puzzle is in the sentence above, and correct routes use the words:

• TRAVERSE
• SAFELY
• ACROSS
• BRIDGE

Once safely across, a device of unknown use is the only visible object on this side of the bridge. On touching it, the party will return to the tower, to await Yanrish's judgement on their performance. Any characters that did not make it successfully to the portal, await safely in the tower.

All maps created using Dungeon Alchemist