"From outside, the area looks like a bank of impenetrable black fog"
1) But... what about "from inside"? Characters or NPCs INSIDE the area CAN see and hear the exterior normally?
2) all 100-foot area is "impenetrable black fog"? I mean, it's like a... Darkness? just for enemies? for everyone, including spellcaster and allies? or when you cross through the "barrier" of the area, you are inside and you can see and hear normally this area?
very confusing spell to me :_)
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From outside, the area looks like a bank of impenetrable black fog. Sensory stimuli (such as sounds, smells, and light) don't pass from inside the area to outside the area.
Anyone (caster, allies, or enemies) outside the area cannot see or hear anything from inside the area. The spell text says that it looks like black fog, but players can reflavor that to their liking. Maybe pink fog, or a solid wall of darkness.
The spell does not say that people inside the area are not able to see or hear from the outside. In fact it deliberately avoids saying that. So I would rule that RAI it doesn't. Anyone inside the area can see and hear anything outside the area just fine. Again players can flavor it to have some sort of haze or distortion effect if they like. I wouldn't impose any penalties to their perception checks though.
Another thing that the spell does not say: It does not prevent anyone from physically entering the area. You will have to rely on walls and doors, or other spells to prevent physical entry. So once an enemy has entered the area, they are inside the area and can see and hear anything in the area just fine.
Scrying spells can't perceive any stimuli from the area,
A remote spellcaster cannot thwart the sanctum area by sending a scrying sensor into the area. The scrying spell still cannot see or hear anything.
and mind-reading effects don't work in the area.
This actually seems to work for all of the people inside the area no matter where the person trying to do the mind reading is at. So a spellcaster outside the area trying to cast Mind Reading on a person inside the area would get no results. But even if that spellcaster came in to the area, the Mind Reading spell would still fail to detect anything.