"They keep saying they want to test our wit, and we keep having to fight things," complains Yrja as she reaches out for the chalice.
The witch keeps trying to puzzle out the answer as she takes a sip.
"We fight things to have access to the answer our wits deduced; you grabbed the tusks without any fanfare ... but also without imagining how many before you dissolved into the ground in the years they tried to guess the clue. I believe the Old Mother wants us to back up our wits also."
Dez throws up his hands, "More riddles! Apparently wit and knowledge are not the same thing, and I'm only of use with the latter."
What does Dez know of Iobaria, in general and with respect to dragons?
When the group is ready, Dez will open the next door, after listening and checking for traps.
Dragons are found in Iobaria, but you suspect this means that someone has left something draconic in a place where 'time catches up with us all'...a grave? A genealogy?
The next door is untrapped and swings open easily.
You enter a grotto that smells of dampness and earth, and sounds of dripping water. Hundreds of tangled roots dangle from the raw earthen ceiling of this rough-hewn, circular grotto, which is filled with dark, placid water. A narrow stone walkway leads to a circular platform in the center of the room upon which rests a stone table set with five silver chalices. About the perimeter of the grotto, a few feet above the waterline, five deep alcoves have been dug into the grotto walls. Though shadowed by darkness, a faint glitter sparkles from deep within each alcove.
Elbrynn looks at 'Star with unbridled love, "Friend, can you see further into those alcoves? You are much better at spotty shiny things than I."
Yrja begins to search for magic, carefully sweeping over each alcove as well as the table and the chalices.
Yrja and Elbrynn and Star work together and discover the following:
The alcoves do have something shining within them, probably magically. However, it is faint--enough for Star to detect that something is in each alcove, but each alcove is also cloaked with Darkness, at the highest level.
If one touches the chalice, the object is revealed for a few seconds. The alcoves contain the following:
A mirror
An apple
An hourglass
An athame (also known as a "witch's knife"; used to channel ethereal fire and never really used as a weapon.)
A key
None of these objects appear to be more magical than the rest--just a light spell or the equivalent.
Each chalice has dark red wine within it, and are marked with runes that you are fairly certain correspond to the objects within each of the alcoves--a mirror rune phrase for the mirror alcove, and so on. The chalices have an aura of transmutation upon each of them. Clearly you are to drink from a chalice to bring an object to you, somehow...but which chalice?
"Does the riddle contain the clue to which chalice to select? The raven said:
'I mark night’s coming,
I will mark your end.
I run not in fear,
I have not a friend.'
If that's a reference to one of the items, it isn't obvious to me... The hourglass seems closest, since it marks time. But my mind does not really poetic language well."
Just in case there are any clues from Dez's vast store of knowledge:
"Yes, the riddle is a metaphor, almost surely for Time. I will drink from its chalice if we are in agreement."
"I think you are both right. The mention of night could be intended to mislead, but I think the hourglass is our answer," Yrja offers, peering at the wine in the chalices. Surely there was some negative effect to guessing wrong, but what was it?
Elbrynn drinks from the chalice and notices that the chalice immediately refills with wine back to the same level. The wine is rich and dark, and doesn't taste poisoned or anything.
A slight bubbling in the dark waters reveals stepping stones rising up unevenly from the depths like so much flotsam, leading to the hourglass alcove. Within moments they are dry and stable as if they had been there the entire time.
Dez is confident that this is the correct decision...'run' must refer to the running of the sand in the glass.
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Dez watches in fascination as the stepping stones appear. Watching out for traps and other notable details, he ascends the stepping stones and, if no hazards are apparent, he claims the hourglass and returns to the group.
Orik readies his bow in case something lurking in the dark seeks to ambush them when they are distracted.
Yrja breathes in relief as Dez manages to retrieve the hourglass without being blasted, or swallowed by the intense darkness forever.
"Now we return to Rozum. I truly hope there are no more trials after this."
As Dez trots lightly across the stones, he realizes that the water has been enchanted to make anyone who falls in suffer magical suffocation effects! He is quick and sure in his steps, however.
A half minute after he returns with with the chalice, the stepping stones silently slide under the water.
You return to the Chamber of Night and Rozum nods at Dez. The snow-white corvid takes the chalice from the tiefling gently, and looks at the group.
"You have succeeded in all of the challenges, and now you may speak to the one who guards the exit to the Hut. Look for the control room opposite the room you first left from and speak to Ratibor, the one who is bound there."
He shakes his feathers, and his amulet appears in Anyanka's hand. It hums with magic.
"You have taken upon yourself a great burden," intones the raven, “for that which you desire, the changeling holds. Know this as well—you will find the Crone only when the moon wanes.”
Anyanka sees that this amulet also has an Iobarian rune upon it.
"Now we may speak..." Yrja's eyes widen hugely as the witch takes a very large breath and holds it for a few moments before blowing it out in an exasperated sigh.
"How many more hurdles do we need to jump through? Or was that 'jump over'? Wait... what do you mean, 'bound'?"
She looks at Dez and Orik. "The room where we first left from, do you remember which one that is?"
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As you talk amongst yourselves, Rozum's feathers turn from white to grey, then from grey to black, and the room gradually turns pitch black. You are gently ushered out by the nudging of your geas. Needless to say, Yrja's final questions remain unanswered. Such is the way of Grandmother.
Dez, not able to rationally think through all these strange happenings, tries to just concentrate on the pull of the geas and follows it to wherever in the hut it leads.
Orik looks at Yrja and says plainly, ”Yrja, I am going to be honest with you - I’m hanging on by a thread here mentally. I know places like this exist, rationally, but it’s not right - and it’s gnawing at my mind. Sort of. Let’s get back into the hall, first. Once there, we can get settled.”
With the help of the ravens' amulets, you easily find the hidden door to the 'control room'. One of the amulets chimes a ringing musical note, and the door swings open without a squeak.
The door opens to a shallow foyer with...two more doors. These are double doors, which are carved to resemble an oversized gate guarded by a scrawny dog. You can see iron bells affixed to each side of the doors--evidently it's not meant to be a 'secret' set of doors.
"So, do we ring the bells to speak to this Ratibor?"
The doors do not offer any reply.
"Let us try that. I'll take the left side."
Yrja moves to ring the left-hand bell while Dez rings the other.
And if there is no response at either, Dez will listen at both and search both for traps.
If, after that, he has no reason to choose one over the other, he will open the left door when the party is ready.
Dez, as you check the door for traps (there are none), you hear, behind the door, someone speaking in Iobarian.
"Grandmother, is that you? Do you need assistance with the door?"
After what seems like an eternity, the doors swing open of their own accord.
A tall warrior stands before you, wearing frost blue chainmail over furs, with red gloves and elaborate metal greaves over more furs on his legs. He has the brown beard and hair of someone past his youth, but not the grey of more advanced age. He speaks the language of Iobaria to you, in firm, but cautious tones.
"I am sworn to defend this room from outside intruders. Where is Baba Yaga? Identify yourselves."
His hand reaches for a large battleaxe at his side.
Yrja doesn't speak Iobarian, but Baba Yaga's name on the warrior's lips snags her attention. She tries, in Skald, to communicate the gist of their situation in simple terms.
"We work for Baba Yaga. Will you allow me to cast a spell so that I can understand you?"
She repeats the same in Hallit and Common.
The warrior looks tense, but nods.
Yrja casts the spell that allows her to comprehend any language for a brief time, then gestures at herself and her companions, introducing each by name, and repeating "Baba Yaga." Then she gestures at the warrior to speak.
It would have been better if the spell worked the other way around, but that was the best she could do for the moment. She hopes that the Iobarian can ask questions that they can then answer with affirmative/negative.
"I am sworn to defend this room," says the warrior gruffly, "from outside intruders. Um...but you are on the inside. Who sent you? What is your purpose?"
This conundrum is clearly just above the summit of the man's brainmeats.
"Baba Yaga sent us. To help free her."
Yrja replies in Taldane, but she does her best to mime the context to her answers. First she pretends to ride a horse, sweeping her cloak behind her, then points to herself and her companions, then pretends to be an old woman in shackles.
"Baba Yaga," she says again, then points past the warrior towards the (hopefully) exit of the hut.
"The Black Rider?" says the warrior, beginning to understand and calm down slightly.
"You may pass. But if you exit the Hut...I am sworn to fight you, as then you will be coming from the outside. It is my bound duty." He looks as stern and as intellectual as he can be, explaining to you what is clearly a geas placed on him, but he doesn't come across as that smart, to be honest.
He scratches his neck, just a little proud of himself for thinking that through, and perhaps feeling a twinge of the geas.
you're fairly certain there's a way to break his geas. It wasn't sealed in blood the way yours was, and you know that some people have come and gone from the Hut in other configurations. If this is the configuration is guarded, there must be a failsafe.
As much as she feels like this should be familiar to her, Anyanka can't get it.
Yrja smiles and nods at the warrior, explaining his words to the others, then adding in a lowered voice.
"I'm sure the rules can be... adjusted a little. He seems to be under a geas, but I think it can be broken, as it hasn't been sealed in blood. Besides, we entered the Hut before, so he must only guard this specific configuration."
Dez is relieved for Yrja's casting ability. He thought the language must be Iobarian, based on its general sound and the prior references to Iobaria, but he was unable to make any sense of the words.
Dez responds to Yrja with a similarly lowered voice, continuing to make friendly glances at the warrior. "It is to my embarrassment that I continue to be confused as to what is happening. This fellow must be Ratibor, 'who guards the exit to the hut.' Are we now exiting the hut? Are we in Iobaria? Are you saying we can just exit the hut now but when we come back, which I guess we will need to do, we need to somehow break Ratibor's geas?"
Orik looks on, concerned, "maybe we should try to find this loophole before we leave?"
"Yrja, are you able to detect a magical aura around him that might give some idea of the nature of the compulsion he is under and how we can relieve him of it? By the way, if I haven't mentioned it before, I am so impressed by the abilities you have developed and your good judgment, and you are so valuable to this mission. Not to diminish anyone else's contributions, but I don't know what we would do without you."
Dez will also look around the room to see if there is anything that might point to a loophole that will allow the group to return to the hut without fighting Ratibor.
"So then if we were never to exit, you would have no reason to fight us. If we were simply gone, that would not contitute exiting in a manner which you would need to enforce. Similarly, if we were simply to return, without ever appearing outside you would not need to confront us, as your charge would remain unchallenged."
Elbrynn smiles for the first time
"So it would seem that we should make a deal with the Hut itself, to transport us beyond its walls ... and to listen for our call when it is time to return."
"or ... present a conundrum to the smarty-pants here, built on what I just posited: that if we were to let him kill us, we would, and I know this factually, be reincarnated, which would put us beyond the Hut, and would inherently cause his failure, as he will have 'allowed' us to exit."
Yrja's cheeks turn bright purple at Dez's compliment, and the young witch stammers through her incantation to detect magical auras.
The blushing tiefling is a little too distracted to figure out the details of Ratibor's geas...most work similarly, don't they? Mahb...a crow...goodness, Mahb never gave out compliments...anyhow, this sort of geas should be reversed with a ritual, and you're almost completely certain that Baba Yaga would not keep the ritual information in the Hut. As Ratibor is tied to Iobaria and this location, it stands to reason it might be out yonder in Artrosa.
"I think we are safe to leave, for now. I'm not exactly sure how to reverse the geas, yet, but I am hoping that the answers we seek are out there," Yrja offers, wincing like a student who hadn't done their homework.
"Ok. I am confident of your judgment on the matter. It does seem clear that we are meant to leave the hut now and do... something... in Iobaria, so I guess we should do that.
I am also open to Elbrynn's suggestion to make a deal with the hut to teleport us in an out, if such a thing is possible. I would not have thought so, but you are some kind of servant of Baba Yaga, right Elbrynn? Are you able to make a deal with the hut? We have not been able to communicate with it."
"If I was able to make the hut do as I wished, it would take us straight to Baba Yaga. I am as unable to communicate with it as you are."
"Then I guess the only way out is on foot." Dez crosses the room to the exit door, acknowledging the warrior as he does, commenting, "I certainly hope there will be no need for us to fight when we return."
Dez listens at the door out. If he hears nothing, he will open it slowly and quietly and peek out.
There are windows. Dez can see out into a woody clearing with heaps of snow, although it looks like some of it has melted a bit (it is summer, even though this is clearly Iobaria).
The perspicacious tiefling can see a tall blue humanoid, wearing boots made of animal hide, facing away from the Hut. The humanoid is too tall to see entirely through the window as it is rather near the door, but must be about fifteen feet tall. With a helmet and with the Hut seated, it could almost brush against the beaked eave of the building. The creature is thick-set and broad, like a dwarf made gigantic. It rests an enormous double bladed axe on its right side. It isn't making any noise, just standing there. You can hear birdsong and various light snow-wilderness noises.
(actually one higher for arcana, nature, or religion)
Does it look like it is guarding the hut? Does Dez know what it is?
It's a frost giant. Resistant to cold, grumpy, vulnerable to fire, and most certainly guarding the Hut Oh, and they love taking thralls. To summarize: angry frost jerks.
Does Dezső think it would be likely to attack folks coming OUT of the hut?
For sure. These giants are extremely hostile.
Dez returns to the group. "Bad news. There's a frost giant right outside the hut, and those creatures are MEAN. Unless we have some way of sneaking by, or unless we can convince the giant we too are working for Baba Yaga, we need to be prepared to fight it. Baba Yaga certainly doesn't make it easy to help her!"
"Yrja, do you think you could point to the frost giant outside and see if Ratibor has any help to offer?"