The inner sanctum waited beyond the living dark, quiet as a held breath. The corridor behind them had been all pressure and malice, a darkness with hunger enough to notice song and soften beneath it, but this chamber was different. It did not loom. It gleamed. Its walls were those of a private laboratory, not a storeroom or a garden gone wild, and everything within it had the cold, deliberate order of a workshop where precious things were measured, taken apart, and put to use.

At the center of the room stood a workbench, and above that workbench, beneath a clear glass cloche, hovered the orchid.

For a moment, even the more restless among them quieted.

The flower was magnificent the way holy things are magnificent: sure of itself, and past argument. It hung without soil or water or any visible support, petals cupping the air as though the room had been built to cradle it. Barnaby still felt the hum of magic at the edge of his thoughts, his senses tuned to what ordinary eyes could not see, and the orchid blazed before him. Many threads of enchantment, layered and mingled so densely that the flower seemed less an object than a knot in the weave of the world.

“This is what we need,” he said, though it sounded more like confirmation than discovery.

The others edged in behind him, careful in varying degrees. Thalmiir’s gaze went to the strongbox against the back wall almost at once. Hat’s bright eyes darted from apparatus to apparatus, each new oddity competing for his attention. Bartholomeow, still in the shape of a large tabby cat, continued his lullaby with the serene dedication of one who had discovered that music could soothe horrors and saw no reason to stop testing the theory.

The room was not cluttered like the outer workspaces had been. Here, there were no sprawling heaps of half-finished experiments, no riot of careless alchemy. This was the serious place. A mortar and pestle rested on the bench. Beside it sat an alembic, its curved glass belly and bent neck ready for distillation. A small ornate box, no more than a few inches across, waited nearby. And there were papers.

Barnaby noticed the papers.

He liked papers.

The letter was addressed to Destiny in tones of intimate condescension, all velvet and hidden blade. Whoever had written it had been amused by her audacity, pleased enough by her recent successes to grant her request, and quite clear about the use of the orchid. Fresh pollen was best. If time pressed, the stamen could be ground at some cost to potency. Five grains per dose were to be crushed in the mortar, gathered as paste, folded with tallow, and placed in the alembic, which would “do the lion’s share of the work.” Heat high. Distill carefully. The resulting oil of youth and beauty could be swallowed or applied to the skin. “It’s all the same in the end.”

There was no signature.

Barnaby frowned at that. A postscript without a signature offended some quiet academic corner of him, even under present circumstances. The postscript itself was worse: with the right catalyst, the product could be raised to even higher levels.

The room seemed less a laboratory now than an altar to vanity. The sacred flower of the sprites had been harvested. Reduced to ingredient. Innocence ground down for oil, divinity folded into tallow and heat.

Hat examined the writing with an earnest intensity that rarely lasted long in any one direction. He could tell this was not the same hand that had written the sharp, angular orders they had found among the dead and corrupted things in the swamp. These letters flowed too much, curled too sweetly, as though each stroke admired itself.

“Necromancer versus vampire,” Bartholomeow suggested.

No one knew that, of course. But the difference in style was plain enough.

Meanwhile, practical concerns asserted themselves. Thalmiir and the others were not inclined to leave Destiny’s valuables untouched. The strongbox proved an anticlimax: Hat approached it with tools and caution, tested it for traps, and discovered with great professional gravity that it was not locked. Inside lay gems and coin worth eight hundred gold pieces, which vanished into the party’s keeping with little ceremony and no guilt worth naming.

There were heavier alchemical fixtures in the room as well, but they were too large and inconvenient to steal quickly, even with magical storage. Destiny’s portable treasures were more immediately attractive.

Then Barnaby turned to the small ornate box on the workbench.

It did not radiate magic.

That fact alone made him suspicious.

He opened it only a crack, and magic flooded his senses.

Lead-lined, then. Built to hide what was inside from any spell that came looking. Within lay a smooth gray curved shard, porcelain or pottery, familiar to most of the others and newly troubling to Barnaby. A fragment of the Orbum Vitalis, or so Hat had once identified such pieces, back when memory had been kinder and the shard’s danger less well understood. They had found pieces before. Too many pieces. Enough to suggest that the shattered thing, whatever its original purpose, had not stayed buried in the past where sensible broken artifacts belonged.

Thalmiir remembered touching one and losing something of himself for the privilege. Hat, who collected mysteries as other folk collected lint, was delighted and possessive. The new shard remained in its lead-lined box. That much, at least, everyone could agree upon.

“Does anyone else think it odd that we keep running into these?” Thalmiir asked, eyeing the fragment as though it might wriggle free.

Barnaby did now.

The box was closed again. There were already enough dangerous treasures in Hat’s care to worry any reasonable mind, but reason had long ago learned to walk at a brisk pace behind this company, hoping to catch up when it could.

At last, nothing remained between them and the orchid itself.

Barnaby approached it with unusual care. The flower floated beneath its glass cover like a captive star. He studied the cloche, the bench, the magic around it. He saw nothing to suggest some delicate trap in the act of removal. The arrangement seemed designed for convenience as much as reverence: an alchemist’s prized ingredient preserved, protected, displayed.

But this was Destiny’s sanctum.

Nothing here could be trusted simply because it appeared useful.

Barnaby remembered what he had been told. Hold it gently. Whisper quiet prayers. Offer gratitude for being in its presence. Return it to the sprites as quickly as possible.

He lifted the glass.

“I appreciate you letting me take you back to your family,” he murmured to the orchid, his voice low and solemn.

The torches around the room turned crimson.

The change was instantaneous and absolute. Warm light curdled into red warning. Shadows sharpened. Through the basement echoed Destiny’s unmistakable voice, rich with fury and theatrical disappointment.

“Oh, darling,” she said, “you should not have done that.”

Hat felt the tug at once through the enchanted hairpin he had been using to track her. Destiny, who had been still, was moving quickly now.

They had the flower. That was victory enough to make flight sensible and fear immediate. But the way out led through the rest of Destiny’s hidden works, and there was another matter they had not forgotten: the painting, the mirrors, the strange sympathetic web by which she had exerted influence over the people above.

The dark hallway, previously so menacing, allowed them passage as they hurried back. Bartholomeow’s lullaby had done its work. The living darkness no longer barred them. Behind them, the sanctum’s red light burned like a wound.

The painting waited.

Hat had alchemist’s fire, too long carried and too tempting to remain unused. If subtle sabotage was an option, he showed no affection for it. The vial shattered against the painted surface, and fire blossomed. The wall caught in hungry patches, flames licking through the strange hairs and materials bound to the image. Heat flushed across the room. The others had enough warning to stay clear, though the blaze left the wall dangerous and bright.

Barnaby, meanwhile, turned his attention to the mirrors.

One mirror in particular mattered first: the one marked with the glyph they believed served to keep pixies or sprite-kind at bay. Barnaby raised a hand, spoke the fire into being, and blasted it. The mirror cracked and burst. A pressure in the air—so constant that they had nearly forgotten to feel it—released.

That, at least, had worked.

Hat, inspired by success and affronted by the existence of mirrors that resisted his own attempts, threw himself into destruction with enthusiasm. Spells splashed uselessly against the linked mirrors. Acid followed, hissing across glass and frame without accomplishing much beyond emptying another vial from his cluttered stores. The central mirror and its chained companions remained stubbornly intact, their silver links gleaming in the firelight.

At the elevator, Thalmiir dug his fingers into the doors and wrenched them apart.

The car was not there.

He looked up into the dark shaft and saw its underside descending toward them.

They had moments.

Barnaby did not waste them. He pulled out rope and cast his spell, opening a hidden extradimensional refuge in the air around the corner, away from the elevator’s direct gaze. The rope fell, and the party scrambled upward with more haste than dignity. Thalmiir boosted the smaller bodies after the larger ones. Armor scraped. Claws and hands found purchase. Someone cursed softly. Then the rope snapped up after them, vanishing into the pocket space just as the elevator gave its cheerful little ding and the doors opened below.

They could see through the entrance to their hidden space, but poorly. The angle was bad. They saw a flower below them more clearly than the elevator. They saw shadows cast by the dying and dancing flames. They glimpsed golden armored boots, the movement of guards searching in formation, and little else. Sound did not pass clearly between the spaces, leaving them in a strange, suspended silence while danger moved beneath them.

Destiny had arrived.

They did not see her at first. They saw her servants: masked guards in golden armor, moving through the chamber the way soldiers move when ordered to find something they don’t believe is there. They searched under moss, around flowers, beneath benches, through corners. They were thorough because they had been told to be, not because they expected to find anything.

Time stretched.

The burning wall eventually died down. Destiny came into view near the mirror area, furious and controlled, the kind of fury that liked to think of itself as another form of elegance. She spoke with one of the guards. A peripheral mirror was detached from the chained arrangement and carried away, brought to replace the broken warding mirror. Soon a new glyph marked it, much like the one Barnaby had destroyed.

The pressure they had relieved might not stay relieved long.

Inside the rope trick, unease grew heavier. The refuge would not last forever. When it ended, they would fall back into a room full of enemies who were already searching for them. Waiting might improve nothing. Moving might make everything worse.

Bartholomeow, still invisible, offered the sort of plan that could only come from a cat, a bard, or someone who was both. He would drop down silently, scout the room, and if there was a chance for the others to emerge safely, he would signal by shaking the great flower below.

He slipped through the opening.

Ten feet of air accepted him. He landed without pain and without sound, a shadow’s shadow, so quiet that even the dust seemed reluctant to admit he had touched it. Beneath the hidden refuge, the chamber spread out in full danger. Four guards searched the room. One lingered near the elevator doors. Destiny stood across the space, muttering, inspecting her nails, and snapping orders with increasing irritation.

The guards were searching for invisible intruders. That made Bartholomeow’s task more delicate than invisibility alone could solve.

He padded through the open room unseen, timing his movement between erratic sweeps of armored arms and sudden lunges at empty air. He reached the doorway to the orchid chamber and, with Destiny’s stolen voice carried through the magical fan, called down the hall.

“Why haven’t you searched in here, you fools? Get in here right now!”

For a heartbeat, the deception almost worked.

The guards looked to Destiny. Then toward the orchid room. One began to move.

Destiny saw too much.

She cast a spell.

Bartholomeow did not know its shape in time to name it, only felt the situation turn. Destiny’s attention snapped toward him with awful certainty. Her finger lifted. Her voice cut across the chamber.

“He’s there! He’s there!”

The mask was torn from pretense in more ways than one.

One of the golden guards lunged to the spot she indicated and, in a single fluid motion, ripped away its own mask and gauntlets. Beneath the polished disguise was rot and green corruption: a hideous face half-human, half-plant, with flesh gone wrong and claws too long to belong to anything that had once been a proper guard. Its attack slashed through the air where Bartholomeow had been. It missed, but only just.

Bartholomeow ran for the signal.

Destiny tracked him.

“Now he’s over by the elder chrysanthemum!” she shouted. “The big flower, you goons!”

So much for stealth.

Bartholomeow reached the flower and shook it hard.

Above, the others saw the signal. Whatever careful meaning it had once held — safe to descend, clear to move, all is well — they now read as permission. They had been waiting too long not to.

Then another guard transformed and struck. Its jaws found Bartholomeow despite the invisibility that still clung to him, and only a flash of bardic magic twisted the worst of fate away. The bite still landed, painful and real, tearing through the last of his protective luck and breaking the invisibility from him. The cat was visible now, cornered amid flowers and monsters.

That was enough.

Bhakris fell from the ceiling like judgment in armor.

He dropped directly onto the nearest corrupted guard, sword first, landing hard enough to rattle his bones and driving divine steel through rotten plant-flesh in the same motion. The creature collapsed beneath him, felled in one brutal strike, its disguise and horror ending together on the floor.

Bartholomeow, breathless and bleeding, looked up at the sudden arrival and seized the only reasonable conclusion.

“Look,” he said, “it’s safe!”

Destiny did not share the joke.

Her gaze fixed on Bhakris. She spoke a single word, and the word carried more than sound. It entered him like a hook.

“Betray.”

The command sank into him, not as suggestion but compulsion. Its meaning writhed, waiting to be fulfilled. Betray whom? Betray what? His companions, his purpose, the stolen flower, his oath, himself? The spell did not answer. It did not need to. It demanded action, and the next moment would decide the form of treachery.

Another guard cast aside the last restraint of its false armor and lunged for Bartholomeow, but the bard’s shield and quickness kept him alive. Its bite snapped shut on empty space. Its claws scraped uselessly.

Then Thalmiir came down.

He had seen Bhakris fall like a weapon and refused, on principle, to be outdone. Rage took him before gravity did. He dropped from the hole with spikes and axe and a snarl, a compact storm of old dwarf fury. His landing was ugly, painful, and effective. He struck as he came down, adding the force of his fall to the violence of his blow, and the creature beneath him felt every ounce of it.

Barnaby chose a more civilized descent.

While others hurled themselves from extradimensional space as though floors were optional, he pushed the rope out, climbed down, and set himself where he could see Destiny. The orchid was still in his keeping. The mission still mattered more than the room, more than the gold, more than the strange shard, more than Destiny’s fury. He needed to stop her, or at least slow her, before she could reclaim what she had stolen.

He vanished from one place and appeared in another by the smooth trick of his own magic, positioning himself for a clear line. Then he raised his hand and unleashed a volley of magic missiles toward Destiny.

They should have struck her.

They did not.

As the darts streaked across the chamber, Destiny’s magic twisted the moment. Space buckled. Flesh and fate changed places. A guard stood where she had been, suddenly and unwillingly interposed between his mistress and the attack. The missiles buried themselves in him instead, punching bright force through his body. He staggered, pierced by Barnaby’s spell, still standing but badly hurt.

Destiny remained untouched.

She was not a good mistress. That much was clear.

The battle had broken open. The painting was a black smear on the wall behind them, the warding mirror already replaced, the strongbox emptied, the shard boxed and quiet in Hat’s keeping. Bartholomeow crouched bleeding and visible among the flowers. Bhakris stood with someone else’s word lodged behind his teeth. Thalmiir was somewhere beneath the hole in the air, swinging. And Barnaby, who could feel the orchid through his pack like a small sun, watched Destiny’s magic find someone else to take the hit, and understood that she was not going to let them leave.

And somewhere above, the elevator waited to descend again.

Session Notes

  • The session opened with the party already inside Destiny’s basement, continuing the job originally brought to the group by Barnaby the Prodigious, Emeritus.

    • Their objective remained the recovery of a precious orchid belonging to a community of forest sprites.
    • The party had already passed through Destiny’s basement, interacted with magical objects, and gotten through the living darkness guarding the way to her innermost sanctum.
    • The door or barrier to the sanctum had been opened, revealing a chamber smaller than the previous room.
    • At the center of the chamber stood a workbench.
    • Hovering above the workbench, enclosed beneath a glass dome, was a magnificent orchid.

  • Thalmiir asked whether the orchid was likely the target object.

    • Barnaby said it sounded promising.
    • Bhakris joked or suggested that the party needed sand to balance out the trap.

  • Bartholomeow continued playing a lullaby while the party examined the chamber.

    • He played at a somewhat higher volume.
    • The living darkness seemed satisfied with him at that point.
    • The increased volume did not appear to bother the chamber or the darkness.

  • Barnaby stated that he still had Detect Magic active.

    • From his position, he could tell that the room contained magic.
    • The orchid itself was powerfully magical.
    • The magic around the orchid was not just one kind of magic; it appeared to be a mixture of many different kinds of magic.
    • There were other magical elements in the room, though Barnaby needed to move farther inside to get a clearer sense of them.

  • The party discussed what they knew about the orchid.

    • Bhakris asked whether the group had ever learned more from the people who hired them about what the orchid actually did.
    • Barnaby answered that it was their sacred plant or sacred object.
    • Bhakris asked whether they knew anything more specific, such as whether it granted immortality.
    • Barnaby said they did not.
    • Barnaby knew that the orchid was the most important object the sprites had, but also that they had not wanted to tell outsiders much about it beyond its importance.

  • Barnaby stepped into the sanctum to look around.

    • The room appeared to be a more serious laboratory than the previous chamber.
    • It was not cluttered or overgrown.
    • It looked like a place where important work happened.
    • In the center of the room was the workbench holding the orchid.
    • Other things were arranged around the room.
    • A strongbox was visible against the back wall.
    • The room contained magical foci and apparatus associated with serious alchemy or potion-making.
    • Barnaby had general academic familiarity with alchemy, though he had not specialized in it.
    • From what he could tell, the room was designed for serious alchemical work, though the exact processes being performed there were not immediately obvious to him.

  • Barnaby noticed documents on the workbench and approached to read them.

    • As he drew closer, he got a better look at the orchid.
    • The orchid was suspended in the air beneath the glass dome.
    • It was not resting on anything.
    • The workbench also held a mortar and pestle, an alembic with a heating mechanism beneath it, a small ornate box roughly four or five inches square, and a letter.

  • Barnaby read the letter addressed to Destiny.

    • The letter began, “Destiny, dear.”
    • The writer described the audacity of Destiny’s letter as a risk.
    • The writer said Destiny’s recent success showed that risk suited her well.
    • The writer agreed to grant Destiny’s request, at least out of curiosity and amusement.
    • The letter said the best results came when the pollen was fresh.
    • It warned Destiny not to dally.
    • It said that if the pollen aged too long, it would “lose its innocence” much too fast for their purposes.
    • The writer said that if Destiny was in a hurry, grinding the stamen would suffice, though it would reduce the potency of the final result.
    • For each dose, Destiny was instructed to crush five grains of pollen in a mortar and gather the resulting paste in the writer’s alembic.
    • The alembic would do most of the work and accelerate the process.
    • Destiny was instructed to fold the paste with tallow before distilling it and to keep the heat high.
    • The finished product was described as “oil of youth and beauty.”
    • The oil could be applied to the skin or swallowed while still liquid, with the same ultimate result.
    • The writer looked forward to seeing the results of Destiny’s labor and what she would do with a product of such potency and rarity.
    • The writer also warned Destiny not to forget the favor.
    • A postscript answered another question from Destiny, saying that if she found the right catalyst, she could raise the product to even higher levels.
    • The letter was unsigned.

  • Barnaby noted that the letter had a postscript but no signature.

    • Bartholomeow asked whether the handwriting resembled the writing the party had seen in the zombie swamp.
    • The party remembered that they had previously found written orders associated with the swamp situation.
    • Those orders had essentially instructed someone to stop letting zombies wander onto a farm and cause problems.
    • Hat examined the letter as a document.
    • Hat’s examination was sufficient to determine that this letter was not written by the same hand as the earlier orders.
    • The earlier handwriting had been sharp and angular.
    • The letter to Destiny was written in flowing, ornate characters.

  • The party turned attention to valuables in the room.

    • Thalmiir entered the room and suggested taking anything that looked valuable.
    • Barnaby and Bartholomeow pointed out the lockbox or strongbox.
    • Hat inspected it for traps.
    • Hat found no traps or trap-based mechanisms.
    • During the inspection, Hat determined that the box was not locked.
    • Hat opened it.
    • Inside were gems and money.
    • The contents totaled 800 gold pieces in value.
    • The group recognized that this was more than their monthly obligation to Sterling.
    • Hat began taking the treasure.

  • The party considered other movable valuables.

    • A large contraption or alchemical apparatus in the northwest part of the room was identified as alchemical equipment.
    • It was probably valuable to an alchemist.
    • It was too large and heavy to move conveniently.
    • It resembled something like a stone fountain with ornamentation, likely used as a water source for potion-making.
    • The party considered the Bag of Holding, but the apparatus was likely too heavy or too large to fit through the bag’s opening.

  • Barnaby examined the small ornate box on the workbench.

    • He asked whether the box itself was magical or contained magic.
    • Detect Magic did not initially show evidence of magic from the box.
    • When Barnaby opened the box even slightly, his senses were flooded with powerful magic from inside.
    • The box was lead-lined, which had blocked his magical senses.
    • Barnaby made the requested sleight-of-hand or Dexterity check.
    • He did not roll the result Ben had been looking for as a mishap.
    • Inside the box was a smooth, gray, curved shard of porcelain or pottery.
    • It resembled the shards the party had previously found.

  • The party connected the shard to prior discoveries.

    • Barnaby did not personally know what the shard was.
    • Hat recognized that it looked very much like the shard already in his inventory from the Orb of Vitalis.
    • Hat said he collected shards and magical things.
    • Hat took the box from Barnaby after saying that the shard was magic and important.
    • Barnaby confirmed that it was magical.
    • Hat added the new box and shard to his inventory.
    • Hat remembered that touching the shards was dangerous or “very bad.”
    • Thalmiir remembered that he had accidentally touched a prior shard and that it had damaged his memory.
    • The party discussed keeping the shard safely closed in its lead-lined box.
    • They also noted that they had now encountered multiple shards in different places, which seemed odd.

  • The party discussed what they knew about the Orb of Vitalis.

    • They recalled that earlier in the campaign, they had gone beneath Waterdeep to confirm that the Orb of Vitalis had been destroyed.
    • They had recovered small pieces and one large piece.
    • The large piece had been given to Sterling as proof that the Orb had been destroyed.
    • With the three large shards they had found, they estimated they might have recovered roughly a quarter of a sphere’s worth of the Orb, plus or minus.
    • The shards seemed to damage memory only if touched.
    • The current lead-lined box had floral engravings and was more functional than the earlier spooky box from Sarath.
    • The previous shard box from Sarath had also been lead-lined.
    • The party considered consolidating the shards into the lead-lined boxes, though no final consolidation occurred during the transcript.

  • The party returned attention to the orchid.

    • It was under a glass cloche and levitating, in a way that reminded Barnaby of the flower from Beauty and the Beast.
    • Barnaby asked what removing it would look like and whether doing so would break the magic.
    • Barnaby made an Arcana check.
    • Barnaby determined that the orchid could probably be picked up and moved.
    • The cloche seemed to be for protection and convenience rather than a complicated trap mechanism.
    • The sprites had instructed Barnaby to return the orchid as quickly as possible.
    • They had also said to handle it gently, whisper quiet prayers to it, express gratitude for being in its presence, and hand it to a sprite as soon as possible.
    • Barnaby followed that guidance.
    • He spoke to the orchid, thanked it, and said he appreciated it letting him take it back to its family.

  • Barnaby lifted the cloche.

    • As soon as he lifted it, the magical torches around the room turned crimson.
    • Destiny’s voice echoed throughout the basement and said, “Oh, darling, you should not have done that.”
    • Hat felt a twinge in the magical hairpin he was using to track Destiny.
    • The hairpin indicated that Destiny, who had previously been still, was now moving quickly.
    • Hat warned the others that Destiny was on the move and that they needed to go.
    • Barnaby continued lifting the cloche and took the orchid.

  • The party debated whether to fight Destiny in the sanctum or leave.

    • Barnaby asked whether the room was the place to fight her.
    • Thalmiir pointed out that Destiny seemed to be a magical sort and that the group was in a small, fireball-sized room.
    • Bartholomeow noted that going into the elevator would also put them in a small fireball-sized room.
    • The group decided to leave the sanctum and try to interfere with the painting that appeared connected to Destiny’s control over people in the building.

  • The party exited the sanctum through the darkened hallway.

    • The darkness allowed them to pass.
    • They reached the room with the painting and mirrors.
    • Hat suggested using alchemist’s fire on the painting.
    • Barnaby had also considered removing the hairs from the painting, but alchemist’s fire seemed acceptable.
    • Hat threw alchemist’s fire at the painting.
    • Ben allowed the attack to succeed, since Hat could have walked up and smashed it, and the alchemist’s fire was a more dramatic way to destroy it.
    • Hat was not especially careful about the blast radius, but the others had enough time to move away.
    • The squares along the wall near the painting caught fire.
    • Moving through or ending a turn in those squares would cause 1d4 fire damage.
    • The elevator was not currently in the basement.

  • Barnaby began attacking the mirrors with Fire Bolt.

    • He targeted the mirror with the glyph written in flower-petal mush.
    • The party believed that mirror or glyph had been protecting against pixies.
    • Barnaby’s Fire Bolt destroyed that mirror.
    • When the mirror broke, Barnaby felt a pressure in the air release.
    • Ben told Barnaby to add seven years of bad luck to his inventory.

  • Hat joined Barnaby in trying to destroy the linked magical mirrors.

    • The linked mirrors included a central mirror and several peripheral mirrors connected by silver chains.
    • The party remembered that the mirrors had been used to reveal insecurities of people who had looked into them.
    • The party had previously tested the mirrors on Hat and learned something about his insecurity over not fitting in or not being a real goblin.
    • The party had also previously tried saying Destiny’s name to the mirrors, but it had not produced a result.
    • Hat attacked the linked magical mirrors with magic.
    • The mirrors resisted the magical attacks and were not damaged.
    • Hat then threw an acid vial at the mirrors.
    • The acid vial shattered against them but did not destroy them in any meaningful way.

  • Thalmiir went to the elevator doors.

    • Barnaby asked whether Thalmiir could force the doors open.
    • Thalmiir dug his fingers into the gap and pulled.
    • The check was a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check.
    • Thalmiir succeeded and forced the sliding doors apart.
    • The elevator car itself was not there.
    • Looking upward with darkvision, Thalmiir saw the bottom of the elevator car approaching.

  • The party had only a few moments before the elevator arrived.

    • Barnaby cast Rope Trick around the corner, away from the immediate elevator opening.
    • The rope created an extradimensional hiding space.
    • The party rushed to climb into the Rope Trick space and pull the rope up before the elevator arrived.
    • Ben called for a group Athletics or Acrobatics check with DC 14 because the group was climbing quickly and coordinating under pressure.
    • Bartholomeow succeeded.
    • Bhakris succeeded.
    • Thalmiir succeeded.
    • Waer’dara failed.
    • The group check still succeeded overall.
    • The party climbed into the extradimensional space and retracted the rope just as the elevator arrived with a melodious ding and the doors opened.

  • The party discussed what could be perceived from inside the Rope Trick.

    • The portal in the floor was roughly three feet by five feet.
    • The party could see through it, but the space was treated as a separate plane.
    • Barnaby and Ben agreed that effects limited by distance or plane would not work normally from inside the Rope Trick.
    • Hat’s hairpin would not work while Hat was in the extradimensional space because Destiny was on a different plane from him.
    • Barnaby decided that sound did not pass through in a useful way; if the party could hear out, others might hear in, and they settled on not hearing.
    • Because of Barnaby’s “seven years of bad luck,” the Rope Trick’s opening ended up positioned so the party could not directly see the elevator opening.
    • From inside, they had only limited sightlines into the room.

  • The party observed what they could from the Rope Trick.

    • They saw the orchid near them inside the extradimensional space.
    • They saw shadows cast by the fire.
    • They caught glimpses of golden armored boots belonging to guards.
    • They could not immediately get much more information.
    • They waited to see what would happen.

  • After several minutes, a guard entered the visible area beneath them.

    • The guard searched thoroughly, including checking under matted moss and pushing against walls.
    • The search appeared to be for the party, though the guards did not know where the party was.
    • The flames eventually died out.
    • Destiny appeared in the mirror area.
    • She exchanged words with one of the guards.
    • One guard picked up one of the peripheral mirrors.
    • Destiny released the silver chain from the back of the mirror.
    • The guard carried the mirror northward, toward the location of the mirror Barnaby had destroyed.
    • A new glyph was written upon the replacement mirror.
    • From the party’s limited view, the new glyph appeared to be the same as the old one, or at most only subtly different.

  • The party remained hidden and considered the situation.

    • They could not get an exact count of guards because the guards looked similar and their view was limited.
    • They remembered that the total number of guards had previously been estimated around five or six.
    • After roughly thirty minutes, Bartholomeow noted that his invisibility spell was close to wearing off.
    • He said that if he was going to scout, it needed to happen soon.
    • The group discussed sending the invisible cat down to assess the room.
    • Bartholomeow proposed shaking the flower three times quickly if he found an opportunity for the others to come down.
    • The others agreed to treat that as a signal.
    • The party recognized that Bartholomeow would have to drop about ten feet from the Rope Trick.

  • Bartholomeow jumped down invisibly.

    • He needed to land without hurting himself and without making noise.
    • Ben called for a DC 12 Acrobatics check to avoid injury.
    • Bartholomeow succeeded.
    • Ben then called for a Stealth check.
    • Bartholomeow’s Stealth result was extremely high.
    • He landed without making any noticeable sound.
    • The others could not hear him from inside the Rope Trick.

  • Bartholomeow scouted the room while invisible.

    • Four guards were in the room.
    • Three were moving around and making sudden grabs, swipes, and searches, trying to find something they could not see.
    • One guard stood by the elevator doors.
    • Destiny was across the room, visibly furious.
    • She was near the entrance to the dark, tentacle-like passage.
    • She muttered, paced, inspected her fingernails, and ordered the guards to keep searching.
    • She commanded them to check under flowers and continue looking immediately.
    • The replacement mirror and glyph could be seen near the place where Barnaby had broken the earlier mirror.

  • Bartholomeow moved to attempt a distraction.

    • He sneaked invisibly across the room toward the door to the orchid chamber.
    • Because he was invisible, he had advantage on the Stealth check.
    • The guards were actively searching for unseen intruders, so the movement was still risky.
    • Bartholomeow succeeded and reached the desired position.
    • He used the voice-changing fan to mimic Destiny’s voice.
    • He tried to project the voice down the hallway into the orchid room.
    • In Destiny’s voice, he called, “Why haven’t you searched in here, you fools? Get in here right now!”
    • Ben called for a Performance check.
    • Bartholomeow did not receive advantage because, although he had Destiny’s voice, the real Destiny was nearby and visible.
    • The guards looked between Destiny and the door.
    • One guard began heading toward the orchid room and was about to walk through Bartholomeow’s square.

  • Destiny responded to Bartholomeow’s trick.

    • She began casting a spell.
    • Bartholomeow could tell that she was casting, but did not know what spell it was.
    • The spell included at least verbal and somatic components.
    • The guard paused before entering the hallway.
    • Bartholomeow tried to move back toward the flower.
    • Before he could get far, Destiny pointed directly at him and shouted, “He’s there! He’s there!”
    • Combat began.

  • The first guard attacked Bartholomeow while he was still invisible.

    • The guard tore off its mask and gauntlets in a single motion.
    • Underneath was a hideous, rotten, half-plant, half-human face with long, wicked claws.
    • The guard attacked with claws.
    • Because Bartholomeow was still invisible, the guard attacked at disadvantage.
    • The attack missed Bartholomeow’s AC.

  • On Bartholomeow’s turn, he attempted to reach the flower and give the prearranged signal.

    • He used movement and a dash to get back to the flower.
    • He shook the flower to signal the others.
    • Destiny called out his new position, shouting that he was by the “elder chrysanthemum” and identifying it as the big flower.
    • Bartholomeow laughed in response.
    • The party inside the Rope Trick saw the signal.
    • The group understood that the scouting had not gone as smoothly as hoped.

  • The rest of the party rolled initiative while still inside the Rope Trick.

    • Ben ruled that they were still in the extradimensional space and could jump down on their initiative turns.
    • Waer’dara rolled high, though she did not get to act before the session ended.
    • Hat also remained waiting for his turn at the end of the session.

  • Another guard attacked Bartholomeow.

    • The guard also removed its mask and gloves.
    • It used a bite attack.
    • Because Bartholomeow was invisible at the start of the attack, the guard attacked at disadvantage.
    • The guard rolled a critical hit even with disadvantage.
    • Bartholomeow used Silvery Barbs to force a reroll.
    • The rerolled attack still hit with a 19, but it was no longer a critical hit.
    • Bartholomeow gave the advantage from Silvery Barbs to himself.
    • Casting Silvery Barbs ended Bartholomeow’s invisibility.
    • The bite dealt 8 piercing damage.
    • The damage removed Bartholomeow’s temporary hit points.
    • Bartholomeow succeeded on the DC 10 Constitution saving throw associated with the bite.

  • Bhakris was the first party member from the Rope Trick to enter the fight.

    • He dropped down from the extradimensional space onto the guard threatening Bartholomeow.
    • He attempted to land on the guard with his sword.
    • He made the fall check and took 1d6 falling damage, though the roll was 1.
    • Because the falling damage was so low, half of it applied to the guard was effectively negligible.
    • Bhakris used his action to attack the guard.
    • He also used Vow of Enmity against the guard before attacking.
    • The guard’s golden armor was revealed to be poor protection, with AC 12.
    • Bhakris hit the guard.
    • He used Divine Smite.
    • The guard was not undead or a fiend, despite its rotten plantlike appearance, so the smite dealt normal smite damage rather than extra undead or fiend damage.
    • Bhakris’s attack and smite destroyed the guard in a single blow.
    • He then transferred his Vow of Enmity to Destiny.

  • Destiny acted after Bhakris’s dramatic entrance.

    • She saw Bhakris drop from the ceiling.
    • She cast Command on him.
    • The saving throw DC was 12 at the time.
    • Bhakris failed his Wisdom saving throw.
    • Destiny commanded him with the word “Betray.”
    • The command would take effect on Bhakris’s next turn.
    • The group discussed after the round that the betrayal should be meaningful and in the spirit of the fight.
    • Bhakris’s likely plan was to try to wrest the orchid away from Barnaby and possibly return it or make it easier for Destiny’s side to recover it.

  • Another guard attacked Bartholomeow.

    • This guard cast off the armor pieces that prevented it from using its more monstrous abilities.
    • It attempted to bite Bartholomeow.
    • The attack missed.
    • Bartholomeow’s AC was high because he had medium armor, high Dexterity, a shield, and a feat that allowed the armor setup.

  • Thalmiir entered the fight next.

    • He watched Bhakris dive-bomb a guard and did not want to be outdone.
    • He raged before jumping down.
    • Thalmiir dropped out of the Rope Trick, intending to attack with a spiked or aggressive falling assault.
    • He landed adjacent to Bartholomeow and attacked a nearby guard.
    • He used Reckless Attack to gain advantage.
    • His attack roll hit.
    • He did not need to spend Bardic Inspiration because the known AC was low enough that his attack already succeeded.
    • He dealt a strong hit to the guard.
    • Afterward, Thalmiir rolled to see whether he stayed on his feet after the drop.
    • He used a Strength-based Acrobatics option from Primal Knowledge while raging.
    • He failed the check even after spending Bardic Inspiration.
    • He took 6 falling damage, split with the target so that 3 damage was applied to the guard and Thalmiir took 3 damage.
    • Because he was raging, the final damage to Thalmiir was reduced.

  • Barnaby entered the fight after Thalmiir.

    • Rather than jumping down like the others, he pushed the rope out and climbed down.
    • He used his bonus action to teleport with Benign Transposition, moving up near the fight.
    • Barnaby cast Magic Missile at Destiny using a 2nd-level spell slot.
    • The spell produced four missiles.
    • Each missile dealt 5 damage, for a total of 20 force damage.
    • As the missiles flew toward Destiny, Destiny used some ability to transpose herself with a guard.
    • The Magic Missiles struck the guard instead of Destiny.
    • The guard absorbed the full 20 force damage.
    • The guard was badly injured but remained standing.

  • The round ended before Waer’dara and Hat could act.

    • Waer’dara and Hat remained in the initiative order but did not take turns before the session stopped.
    • The party had recovered the orchid, destroyed the first flower-glyph mirror, set the painting on fire, hidden in Rope Trick, been discovered after Bartholomeow’s scouting attempt, and begun a fight with Destiny and her plantlike guards.
    • At the stopping point, one guard had been slain by Bhakris.
    • Another guard had been heavily damaged by Barnaby’s redirected Magic Missiles.
    • Thalmiir had damaged another guard after dropping from the Rope Trick.
    • Bartholomeow was visible and had taken damage from a bite.
    • Bhakris was under the effect of Destiny’s Command and was compelled to “betray” on his next turn.
    • Barnaby was holding the orchid.
    • Destiny remained active in the fight and had demonstrated both Command and a defensive transposition ability.