Some things have sentimental value.

Like this odd little thing, prominent among the "Miscellaneous" quivers. (Mostly they're Bane against things that aren't too likely to come up - reptilian humanoids, oozes, gnomes specifically...) This is a single arrow, a glossy and ominous-looking obsidian barb wire-bound to a splint of bone-white wood. It's fletched indifferently, but... there's something about it...

Ooh, yes please. She bets it's some kind of super-rare magic item.

Against this hypothesis, when she grabs it the whole assemblage falls apart like a cheap piece of shit.

For this hypothesis, as the arrowhead falls it nicks her hand, and then –

it feels like waking up. The same feeling that oh, you never even were where you were. That nothing is real again yet. Despite the arrowhead falling to the floor and cutting her open a moment ago, she's now holding it in her left hand, firmly but gently.

She's not in Old Blind Pete's storeroom. She's probably nowhere in Greysky. She's in some kind of grand temple, forged from the same shimmering obsidian and lit by ghost-pale flame. She stands on a raised pentagonal dais; a few yards ahead, there's a free-standing doorway; at the end of the room, there's another door, shrouded in mist.

She's not alone on the dais.

"Greetings, Sojourner."

If this statement had a speech bubble, a great deal of thought would have to be put into its design. The... being... is rather vague. Its body plan is humanoid; its face mostly isn't anything; it has wings, but they seem sort of an afterthought.

Oh god damn it.

"Hi, sorry for activating your cursed item," like an idiot, "I'm guessing you probably want it back?"

She holds it out.

The being shakes its head. "It was never mine... I am its tool, as it is yours. And while it is yours, I am your tool as well."

What.

How in heck did Pete get his hands on this without Bozzok catching wind of it. Unless…

"So is this because I picked it up, or… I dunno, some sort of it can only be me thing."

She kinda thought that was Roy's department.

The being's hand rises, and it makes the sign of the scales. "You are not the only one who could have mastered the Relic. But it would not awaken without something you have, which few mortals possess... and fewer immortals."

"What's that? And if I've already mastered it, what's it do?"

Please be something useful and cool, please be something useful and cool…

"The quality to which I refer is difficult to summarize in your language, or by using concepts you have," the being apologizes. "We might say it is that you are... shiny."

"As to the Relic's powers, they are much easier to summarize. You will no longer die unless you wish to do so."

Blink.

"Huh, cool! What happens if I hit 0 hit points, then? Or, uh, bleed out into the negatives."

"You come here. I send you back, healthy and restored, to the moment after you 'died,' so to speak."

Useful and cool! Sweet!

wait she should probably make sure this guy is telling the truth

She scrutinizes its… unface… and body language.

The Reaper would like to note that use of the word "bluff" in the next paragraph does not imply that it is deliberately peddling falsehood, or that it could, strictly speaking, do anything other than this. That said:

Sometimes it is said that an entity's rank in some stat, or score, or level, is "Yes." The Reaper's Bluff is not "Yes." It is "No."

All of which is to say keep guessing, rogue girl.

Yeah, she's got nothing on this guy. Which is honestly more reassuring than having a sense that it's telling the truth. If she came out confident that it wasn't lying that would probably be the result of mind control or something.

She decides that until she knows what it would get out of lying to her that it couldn't get from doing literally anything else, she might as well make choices as though it was telling the truth. Which means:

Oh hell yes!

"That's a pretty sweet deal. I can't wait to see the look on Crystal's face!"

"Immortality does often have an amusing effect on one's foes. Shall I explain the respective purposes of the three doors in this chamber?"

"Yeah, sure!"

It's probably some symbolic thing, since that seems… kind of how this place works. Like dream logic.

"The door set in the back wall -" (wing-gesture) "- I am not permitted to explain, except to say that it does not concern you, and will not until and unless your time comes.

"The central door leads... somewhere. Wherever you are needed. In extreme cases, whenever. Its operation is intuitive, but the grounding principles are practically unknowable, except that it will take you somewhere you will make a difference.

"And behind you is Death's Door. It will take you to the last place you died, or had your death averted by my intervention."

"… okay, I think that makes sense. I know you just said you can't explain the first door, but does if my time comes mean if I choose to die? And I'm guessing that Death's Door won't do anything if I try going through now, since I haven't died yet. Unless the arrowhead was technically deadly poison or something."

Which leaves her with Door #2.

"There are probably lots of places I could make a difference. Do I get to pick, with the intuitive operation?"

"I cannot explain the first door," it repeats, with a certain what do you expect quality. "And, no. The intuitive operation to which I refer is the doorknob."

"… So it's basically a blind jump. Okay."

It's not like she has any other options, if she wants to get out of here. Unless…

She turns away from the figure and paces around the edges of the room. She's not really expecting this search to be fruitful, but she'd kick herself pretty hard later on if she didn't even try to find another way out.

She can Detect no Secret Doors.

"My powers in their current state are better at summoning mortals to my realm than at sending them wherever they please," the being notes. "I am called the Reaper – not the Repotter."

"And I'm guessing a game of chess wouldn't change that."

Even if it did, it probably wouldn't matter; Haley's better at poker than at chess.

"I have learned the game, but I confess no particular liking for it," the Reaper confirms. "Not that fondness would bend the chains that have been locked around the core of my being nearly since my inception."

Yeah.

"Yeah. Worth a shot, though."

She shrugs.

"Hopefully I won't be seeing you again for, like, a while. Ugh, I hope that I land near someone who can cast Sending. And…"

Something occurs to her.

"… I've been assuming that here I'm just, like, a spirit. If I walk through and get sent not back where I was, will it teleport my body? And my gear?"

"Yes. Whatever world you arrive in, it will receive you, body and soul. And if some personal effects are not currently on your person, you may look through the Well of Lost Things for them. I cannot guarantee it will contain any particular item, but it can contain many things you would otherwise never see again. With a slight bias towards childhood toys, due to the unavoidable conditions of humanoid psychological development."

Okay, wow, apparently Haley was making a lot of unfounded assumptions. She turns back around.

"Wait, wait, whatever world? I was thinking it might drop me, I dunno, in some village in Anywhere that needed someone to do the 'steal from the rich, give 40% to the poor' thing. Okay, wow, glad I asked. Um."

She takes a deep breath.

"… It was one thing to come to terms with accidentally getting separated from my boyfriend when he was only an ocean away. I don't think I can just walk into a whole different world like that. Is there any way to take him along or at least—I dunno, send him a note?"

"With the understanding that he will be equally incapable of returning under his own power? Yes, I can produce him immediately."

Oh, right, she'd basically be kidnapping him. And while she's fairly sure that he wouldn't mind, it'd probably freak out V and Durkon. If they're even still alive out there. And then the Order would consist of those two and Belkar, who might decide once he's over whatever disease he got that he'd rather try his luck with Roy's body not counting as Roy for the purposes of his Mark of Justice…

"There's kind of this whole… quest to save the world… that we're on."

And she knows Elan would be bothered if she ruined that.

"I'd already accepted that I won't be able to go back¹, but it'd be unfair to pull the plug on it for everyone. Then again, with me gone it's probably already pretty much impossible for Durkon to find Roy's body."

She already knows that she won't be able to talk herself out of asking for Elan back, no matter how much it would be better if she did.

¹This is a lie. What she actually did was put off thinking about it for later.

"I did not say you could not go back. I said that I cannot send you back, and that you cannot return under your own power, not being a magic-user."

"Oh. Cool."

Yeah, temporary kidnappings are a lot easier to get over.

"Yeah, you should bring him in then."

And there he is. It doesn't even take the Reaper six seconds.

Bwuh?

"Haley!!"

It's been months.

Eventually:

"What's going on? That guy seems pretty Death-y. Did I randomly get killed? Did you? Are we gonna have to play chess?"

"I already asked. Apparently it wouldn't help. But listen, I found this weird arrowhead thing—"

She shows him.

"—that apparently thinks I'm… 'shiny'? Which according to this guy means that I can't die unless I choose to, and if I would have been killed I just pop back up. But the only way out of here, since I haven't died before, is through that door, which will send me somewhere that I have no control over and might not even be in the same world that we're from. But if we find someone who can cast Plane Shift, that should do the trick."

That's a lot to take in!

"Wow. It's too bad Roy didn't find that before he died. Hey, do you think we could get Roy the same way you got me? How did you get me? Am I dead?"

She shakes her head.

"I asked. For you, I mean. You shouldn't be dead, though. I thought about Roy, but… I figured that he'd probably be annoyed about the Gates thing being delayed even more than it already was, right?"

This is even true!

"…but really, I just wanted you more."

Squeeze.

"Hey, death guy. Can we get our friend Roy?"

The Reaper's head inclines fractionally.

"...his body is animated, without his spirit inside," it rules. "This complicates the matter, introducing an unacceptable possibility of errors including but not limited to instantiating his soul and body separately, instantiating his soul bound within the abomination formed of his body, or instantiating his soul in a spontaneous newborn infant."

"Oh my god, would that last one be baby Roy? Would he still act like grownup Roy? Oh, he'd totally hate it but it'd be so cute!"

The rest of what the Reaper said catches up with him.

"… why is Roy undead now?"

Haley rolls her eyes.

"He's not undead. Technically. His bones got made into a golem, because—oh, jeez, it's a whole mess. See, I got hit with a lightning attack in Azure City that broke this talisman that Celia apparently gave Roy, and that summoned her. So we left Azure City with Roy's body and went to see the Oracle, but he wasn't home, so we decided to go to Cliffport to find a cleric. Except Celia really wanted to go to Greysky City, even though I kept telling her it was bad news, and she got impatient and left with his body in the middle of the night. And brought him to a golem maker. Because she thought he was a cleric, I guess."

She sighs.

"I like Celia, I really do, but these past couple weeks she has been making it really hard to keep doing that."

"That sounds like a lot. Okay, I guess we shouldn't get Roy, if he might be a bone golem. It probably wouldn't be super bad, since I don't have any rings for him to go crazy over—"

"Sweetie, a golem is a magical servant made from an elemental. But you're right, I think Grubwiggler enchants the golems so they attack anyone who doesn't work for him if the commissioner falls behind on their payment plan."

"Oh!"

Elan pauses.

"Did you leave Belkar behind in Azure City or something?"

"Oh, no, he got sick while we were in the Sunken Valley. Right now he's in Greysky with Celia. Which—I've got some things to tell you, I guess. About how I grew up. Later. But long story short, we're hiding from the Thieves' Guild in an old family friend's basement while he convinces a cleric he knows to help us. I don't know what's going to happen to them, now."

Elan squeezes her hand.

"I've got some things to tell you, too. Later. Everything kinda went nuts a couple days ago."

He takes a deep breath and looks at the Reaper again.

"Sorry about ignoring you! Is there anything we can do to help our friends from here? Or would it be better to work on finding a spellcaster?"

"It would be difficult to help them," the Reaper apologizes, "without re-synchronizing their time stream with the one on which you will be operating until and unless you find true death or a way to return to them under your own power. Currently they are... paused."

"Aww, man! You're telling me that they won't be able to make any progress until we get back?"

"Honey, that's a good thing."

"Oh, right! Because they won't have to do it without our help!"

"Exactly!"

She takes a deep breath and once again includes the Reaper in the conversation.

"Okay. I feel like I should probably have more questions, since I keep making assumptions that are totally off base. I guess I can start by saying them out loud, and if anything sounds insane then you can go whoa, that's insane or whatever. So what I'm thinking is… we're gonna go through that door, and it'll spit us out someplace where a mid-level rogue and bard could make a difference. We help out whoever needs to be helped out until we find someone who can cast Plane Shift to send us back home. If I get killed, no I don't. What happens if Elan gets killed? Is he also shiny? Or is the obsidian relic mastery thing one per customer?"

"You could indelibly bind him to your soul," the Reaper suggests. "If he is metaphysically your property, he will emerge from the Well of Lost Things if slain."

Beat.

"Alternately, a previous wielder of some significant power enchanted the Relic with the power to cast Resurrection once per day."

"Ooh! If you do that first thing, he can't leave you! Ever!"

"Yeah, let's do the second thing. Hopefully we won't need it until we come back home and—I can still use the Relic back home, right?"

"I have no reason to believe otherwise."

"Cool! Then when we're ready to come back, we can go shopping for something that'll help us destroy the bone golem and bring Roy back!"

Hooray!

"Hey, I've got a question. What's the Well of Lost Things?"

"Well, based on the name, I'm guessing it's a well. And he already said that it has, well, lost things in it, mostly toys, that I wouldn't have… ever…"

"Haley?"

"He said that nothing is guaranteed, but you know what I bet qualifies as something I wouldn't have ever seen again? That dragon hoard! Hey, reaper guy, which way to the Well?"

Point. It's between the central and inexplicable doors, a literal well with extensive stone detailing and a faint haze of mist boiling over its lip.

Cool, Haley can march right up to it.

Apparently childhood mementos are more likely. But the dragon's hoard could qualify as a geographical feature on its own. She decides to interpret this as meaning that Statistics are on her side.

This thought in mind, she reaches in.

She pulls out a sizable chest. The top is small, sort of flimsy, and difficult to remove without assistance.

Inside, thoroughly supported and cushioned by padding, are two round, flawless gemstones. They're surprisingly heavy, but undeniably gorgeous. 

"No."

"What's the matter?" Elan asks as she sets the chest down on the floor.

Haley sighs.

"Would you," another sigh, "help me get this top off?"

Elan helps!

"Ooh, pretty! Are those crystal balls?"

Haley lifts one out of its protective padding.

"I mean, they're balls made of crystal, and V says they do something magic. Do you remember that inn we stayed at, right after you blew up the Gate?"

"You mean when your room was next door to ours and you had this whole conversation that sounded like you were showing V your—"

"Yeah. Anyway, we were actually talking about these. My mom used to have them… Daddy says she was a sorcerer, so I guess that tracks. I got them when I was twelve. From her brother, because she died when I was a little kid. I must have lost track of them when the inn blew up, or when we got dragged to Azure City."

Elan would squeeze her hands, but they're full right now.

"Well, they are really pretty."

Smile.

"You can hold them, if you want. Just be careful, okay?"

Elan is careful!

Eventually, once the orbs are back in their case:

"I wonder if this just works for stuff that I've lost. Do you wanna check and see if you get anything of yours?"

"Sure!"

He stands up and peers into the misty depths.

He sees...

a wooden lute. It's nothing extraordinary. Competently whittled, by someone with a blueprint and an eye for detail but no personal knowledge of how the shape of an instrument affects its sound. Strung with "whiskers," because Elan's mother knew her son and knew the word "catgut" would make him cry.

He takes it eagerly and shows it to Haley.

"Look! It's a present from my mom! It's the very first lute I ever played! Wow, it's so much smaller than I remembered…"

He thumbs the strings absentmindedly, forming chords. A couple times, his fingers reach a little farther than necessary and he has to adjust. But it's familiar in his grip nonetheless.

he is so cute

"Whatcha thinking about?"

"I think it'd be nice to meet her. Once we're done saving the world and everything."

"Yeah, that sounds fun! We could go to her restaurant and have lots of this really nice pot roast that she makes, and…"

Elan starts rambling about the fun things he liked to do in his hometown.

Haley fishes through the well for a while. She finds an occasional coin, but it becomes clear that she'd have to sit there trying for like 50 subjective years to get enough money to buy herself a bow that's on par with her current one. And she does not, in fact, have that kind of patience.

"… I guess I already accepted that the gold was gone anyway. Still, it would have been nice to get it back… or at least one of those cool magic items we never got around to assessing…"

"You do have a way cooler magic item!"

"Haha, yeah, that's true!"

She stands up and cracks her joints. And has a thought.

"Hey, Reaper. I think we're pretty much ready to go, except… we've got some things to catch up on, and we might as well do it before we have anything urgent to do. I don't get the impression that you can leave this place, but, uh… if we sat in a corner or something, would that be relatively private?"

"I can create a room where you will not be able to see me. And offer my reassurances that the mating behaviors of mortals interest me no more than any other thing that is not on the single-digit list of things I care about."

She refuses to be embarrassed about this!

"Rrright. Sounds like one of those seen-it-all immortal things. Anyway, thanks, we'd like that a lot."

There are now four doors. This latest has a hotel-style card hanging from its handle saying it is UNOCCUPIED.

And now it is OCCUPIED!

Haley and Elan "catch up."

And then they catch up.

The hotel door opens.

"All right, I think we're ready!"

"Thanks, reaper guy! You weren't scary at all!"

The Reaper nods solemnly. "Verses have been written to this effect."

Elan likes this guy!

Haley does too! For a value of not wanting to see it again for a long time.

"All right, here goes nothing."

She opens the mystery door.

They emerge...

into the office of a woman, probably a few years younger than Haley, who looks like the last time she slept properly was when she was much younger than Haley. The reddish hair pinned behind her pointed ears has the dull and ragged look of crabgrass, and she's clearly lost weight she couldn't afford, leaving her absolutely bewildering armor loose. An impressive bastard sword rests by her feet; she looks up from a stack of parchment and squeaks in alarm, standing and grabbing the hilt but keeping it pointed, for now, towards the floor.

"How did you get into my office?" she demands.

Elan's last job consisted of answering questions like this! Well, the questions were usually more like who are you and what are you doing than how did you get here, but Elan thinks it's close enough.

"We went through a magic door in the reaper temple! He told us that it would go to a place where we could make a difference."

Pause.

"A good difference!"

Meanwhile, Haley is scanning the office and forming impressions, mostly of the elven woman.

(A different kind of elf? Which would make sense, since it's a different plane. Or maybe it's just the thing where Outsider ethnicities are a little to the left of the ones she's used to, the way Celia is.)

The aesthetic of her armor seems to suggest dark-and-edgy, but mostly in the way that the black sorceress dress Nale got her did. She's probably not actually Evil, especially given the way she's holding that sword.

She's also obviously extremely busy with something stressful. Which… makes sense, given the stipulations of how the door works. If they'd been dropped in an ice cream shop, that'd be outrageously suspicious.

(Should she add anything to what Elan just said? She could show the arrowhead as proof. Except Haley didn't recognize the arrowhead. And it'd be just her luck if the woman recognized the arrowhead because there was some local superstition about it being cursed and evil.)

She can at least back him up.

"Yeah, basically. We're here to help, we just don't actually know what needs helping yet."

She lets the sword fall to her side. "Here to help. Grand. What are your names, and will you come with me to the main temple area to state your intentions under Tyr's Truth?"

"Haley Starshine. Is that one of those truth spells that makes you say a bunch of sensitive personal information, one that makes it impossible to lie, other…?"

"And I'm Elan! I've never been under a truth spell before, but it sounds fun!"

"You won't be made to say anything; the spell only tells us if you lie. ...I do feel it's disingenuous to say 'you don't have to,' when in fact I will very much clap you in irons if you refuse to confirm you weren't sent to assassinate or spy on me. But the magic won't make you."

It's probably completely unreasonable to be annoyed about being told that she'll be arrested for conspicuously refusing to confirm something that's completely true. Especially since it seems like Elf Lady is trying to do them a favor. Regardless, Haley feels like she should really get some appreciation for not being a bitch about it.

"Yeah, that's fair enough. I think we can go now, then."

(Elan nods.)

The elf(ish) lady can lead them from a generic administrative wing into a proper white-marble temple, with altars to several gods but most centrally a large bronze statue of a one-handed warrior whom Bardic Knowledge or the ability to pick up on context clues will reveal to be Tyr, Thor's less notable brother.

"Oleff?" their escort calls. "I have... a situation."

     There is the distinctive sound of an elderly man doing his best to break the sound barrier; the sacristy door opens to emit just such an elderly man, hobbling towards them at speed. "Milady Aribeth, where is the body? I may be able to –"

"Not that kind of situation, Father."

     Father Oleff's eyebrows ascend, and he hobbles more normally the rest of the way. "Oh. What do you need?"

"Tyr's Truth, on the gentleman and lady here. Then you can go back to your research."

     "Any acolyte can do that!" he grumbles, passing his holy symbol over Haley and Elan.

"Yes, but it's your job."

     Further grumbling follows him back to the sacristy.

Aribeth turns back to her ?⁠⁠guests⁠⁠?. "Did either of you come here intending harm to me, Lord Nasher, or any other citizen of the city of Neverwinter? If the latter, specify."

Haley keeps an eye on her surroundings as Aribeth leads them through the temple. She faintly recognizes the iconography, but it's context clues that tell her that the one-handed god is Tyr. She grew up mainly exposed to Thor's more notable brother.

The old cleric is charming, and so is the interaction with Aribeth. It is, admittedly, pretty funny that she went to the high-ranking old guy (probably not Tyr's high priest, although who knows) for something a first-level cleric could do.

"No, to all of those."

Elan recognizes Tyr! He was in the secret god meeting that Elan doesn't know about because it hasn't happened yet!

"No… oh, unless it turns out that one of the citizens is a bad guy who wants to assassinate Lord Nasher or something like that. Then we'll probably have to kick their butts or at least help you guys capture them. But we don't want to hurt any of your nice citizens, or your citizens who aren't nice but also aren't doing super evil stuff."

"Yes, we have many non-nice citizens whom you still shouldn't... kick." Though she'd pay to watch. "Second question – are you gathering information for, or do you intend to give or sell confidential information about Neverwinter to, any foreign power?"

"We don't want to give or sell information about Neverwinter to a foreign power! I guess technically we’re—"

Haley puts a hand on Elan's shoulder.

"What my boyfriend means to say is that we've been on a job for the better part of a year as a favor to a foreign power," that might not technically exist anymore on account of being conquered by goblins, "but its scope doesn't involve Neverwinter and we've been asked to keep it secret."

"Oh yeah! Yeah, all of that stuff is true."

"...will it compel you to act against Neverwinter or her allies? For example, if we choose to interfere with it, you might need to oppose us; how likely is that to come up, in your estimation?"

Haley thinks for a moment.

"… It shouldn't. I've been told that we're currently on a completely different plane than the one we came from and that time there will be paused until we find a way to return. I don't have any way to, like, fact check that, but I mostly trust the person who told me."

Largely because she doesn't have any choice in the matter, but still.

"If you've got a wizard or whatever who can scry on our home plane to confirm, I'd like that. And if you still want more details, we can probably elaborate a little… I just think it'd be a bad idea if it spread really far."

"Hm. I'll accept that, and I can arrange for scrying. Final question: are you, actually, here to help us with our troubles?"

Another pause to think, this one shorter.

"The same person who told me about the time stop effect said that we were going to arrive someplace that we, personally, would make a difference. I don't have any information about Neverwinter beyond that and what I've been able to observe in the past ten or so minutes since we got here. Like Elan said, if it turns out that there's some super-Evil stuff going on behind the scenes, we would oppose that."

"We'd oppose the heck out of that!"

"… Right. But other than that, yes, I really do want to help."

That gets a small but genuine smile. "I'm happy to hear that you're neither ill-intentioned nor stupid. If you each tell a deliberate lie, the spell will break and we can discuss ways you can help."

"Ummmm… I'm an only child."

Oh, that's a good one.

"And I'm not!"

"You mentioned that you do not know of our troubles, that you are here only because something is here you can help with. I have my own theory as to what that might be. But I should introduce myself first, and explain the context. I am Lady Aribeth de Tylmarande, paladin of Tyr and Seneschal to Lord Nasher, who governs the city-state of Neverwinter. Due to some ancient enchantment, the city's climate remains temperate even when the sea for miles around freezes; thus, under normal circumstances, we are the only year-round warm-water port for leagues north or south, leaving us in a position to be not just a trading hub but the trading hub for the region."

"But the circumstances are not normal. A plague struck, five weeks ago, now called the Wailing Death. Victims take on sores and a persistent cough; then, they become almost catatonically weak; then, they die. Through the process, they suffer full-body wracking pains, escalating from a bone-deep ache to an agony so terrible that I have seen grown men beg to be killed.

"The Wailing does not behave like a normal disease. It jumps from victim to victim in the normal fashion, but it also strikes those who have had no contact with the outside world in weeks. It seems sometimes as if the fear of the plague alone can spread it, but if that were the case even more would be dead than already are. When the death toll rose from terrible to alarming, there was an effort among the holy orders of the city to cleanse as many victims of their illness as possible by magic. This caused their symptoms to recede entirely, and then return within the week. Subsequent attempts halved the length of this reprieve. That was when alarm turned to blind panic.

"Paladins and monks who have attained the blessing of purity are immune. No one else is safe - not even those who have contrived an enchantment to make them immune to disease. Our suspicion is that the gods can protect their own through the channels already available to them, but mortal magic, even god-granted, cannot.

"Most alarming of all, the plague is... centered. Within the city. It is only within city limits that men fall ill from nowhere. Visitors to the city are just as vulnerable to infection, but do not suffer the same consequences. And anyone who leaves city limits falls ill immediately - at first it was one in ten, then one in five, and now everyone. We have closed the gates and harbor, of course, but cannot tell the people why. It would finally make it obvious that this is enemy action, and many would suspect a traitor within our walls. There would be lynch mobs and worse."

Haley whistles.

"Sheesh, that is pretty bad."

And she wonders: why us? The Relic will help, obviously, although if resurrecting Elan functions the same way as casting Remove Disease then she might have to leave him dead until they figure out how to fix it. Unless he's… okay with dying in horrible pain on the regular. Still, she doesn't think she's okay with that.

But the thought remains: why, of all the possible places, is this the best place to dump them? Her first assumption is that there is a traitor within the walls and they have to root them out through intrigue. Or maybe somebody wants to conquer Neverwinter and decided the easiest way to do that was to use disease to kill off 99% of the people who could oppose them.

Well, it was probably never the case that she'd figure out the solution within an hour of arriving.

"Has anyone who's died so far been able to afford to get raised?"

"A body dead to the plague cannot be raised with the simplest resurrection spells. Oleff can manage, with the Resurrection spell proper, but as you can imagine, that's not a long-term solution... and his test subject re-contracted the plague suspiciously soon."

She sighs. "The thing that makes me... anxious... is that you look like adventurers. And we do not currently have problems best solved by adventurers. Unless something suddenly goes wrong."

Uh-oh.

Yeah, that's not the best news they could have gotten. On the bright side, Elan won't have to be a guinea pig.

Also, Aribeth said basically what Haley was thinking, slightly to the left.

"Yeah, I was thinking that. I'm a rogue and he's a bard, and our Constitution is… well, we're not wizards, at least."

Ha ha.

"Is there anything you think we could do, off the top of your head? Besides wait until we know more, anyway."

     A halfling in a white robe runs up. "Milady Aribeth! There's –"

"Trouble at the Academy," she says, her voice fast but deceptively calm. "Yes?"

     "Y... yes?" he says, now sounding almost uncertain. "Goblins and masked magic-users teleported in – we just got a Sending from Instructor Jaroo –"

Aribeth turns to Haley and Elan. "You want to help? Good." She grabs their respective wrists and clicks her Boots of Teleportation together, and suddenly, they're standing in a grand entry-hall for what was presumably an Academy of some sort before somebody set it on fire and killed a bunch of people.

Ugh, talk about tempting fate.

She's surprised by how quickly Aribeth acts, but she knows how to get her bearings when surprised. Once they land, she readies her bow and arrows.

And Elan draws his sword!

"Go to the stables on the opposite end of the building," Aribeth orders, in the same rapid-fire tone. "There are four creatures there: a dryad, a y – a serpent-woman, a cockatrice, and a brain with legs. They must not come to harm, or be allowed to escape. Do not distract yourselves rescuing the injured or the dying. They would all die willingly for this. Go."

Haley goes where directed, although while running:

"Gotta say it itches to help keep people imprisoned."

"Yeah," says Elan as he follows. "Maybe when everything calms down we can talk to them? Also I think it feels better that she doesn't want them to be hurt."

There are, in fact, a large number of injured and dying along their route. Also, goblins – though they're Small, for some reason – and a handful of skeletons.

There's also this little mouse-man, approximately one and one-third Belkars in height, who doesn't seem to be either of those, and is instead running in the same direction they are but getting more distracted by the injured and dying than they have been instructed to do. Mostly he's just pouring healing potions on them while he passes by, but that still takes a move action or so.

Oh no Elan just remembered that he could totally help with a Mass Cure Light Wounds or something but that counts as getting distracted. Why does he have to do hard things like "not getting distracted;" that doesn't seem very fair. Especially when it's "don't get distracted helping people!"

… Maybe he can switch his sword for his lute and play an encouraging song, since they're not running flat-out.

Haley keeps running, though she does smile when she hears Elan start singing.

She's obviously going to defend him (and herself) if anyone attacks them, of course.

The encouraging song should help people not die!

It also makes the mouse-person startle and look back at them, then as they don't slow down, start chasing after them.

"Are you going to the stables?" he asks a bit squeakily.

"Yeah, that's where Aribeth sent us."

"There's a wizard at the entrance! I don't know how powerful he is but he's killed a lot of my friends! I would like to help kill him!"

(He sounds sort of breathless, but less in an out-of-breath way and more like that's just how he talks.)

Yeah, it sounds mousefolky.

"Thanks for the heads-up."

Ugh, she wishes that she'd been able to steal take with permission more enchanted arrows from Pete. Hopefully the Wailing Death hasn't wrecked Neverwinter's economy to the point that all the magic shops are closed.

They near the aforementioned entrance to the stables, but the architecture of the antechamber shields them from wizardly view.

Then the mouseperson puts on a burst of speed and comes into the wizardly line-of-effect.

The wizard promptly flings a Lightning Bolt at his face.

Hopefully he's distracting the wizard on purpose!

Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot the evil wizard!

Wizards are notably squishy. It's phrasal, even. They make excellent pincushions. This one turns to raise his lightning wand in Haley's direction.

The mouse is on the ground, after the lightning, lying very still. Very picturesque, really, except for how his snowy white fur has gone hugely static-fluffy.

Then the wizard turns, and the mouse is no longer on the ground. Instead, the heel of his foot is whipping at the wizard's head at terminal velocity.

Crack goes the skull. Flumph goes the wizard.

"Nice distraction."

Any other obstacles to the stables?

Nope!

Great!

Keeping in mind the trusted wisdom of just because there aren't any traps you can detect does not necessarily mean there are no traps, Haley enters.

There are five entities in this room.

One is a green woman with live flowers woven through her hair. She is so angry that, were she not actively casting spells, she could easily be mistaken for a barbarian.

One is a green-scaled cockatrice, twining around her ankles and hissing aggressively.

One is a brain on legs, which is trotting around and gently headbutting random objects with its squishy surface, and seems greatly amused to be doing so.

One is a snake-woman, who is cackling and shrieking about "the coming of the Eye".

One is a black-masked man in heavy red plate armor, who is using a morningstar to smash a large crystal set into the mechanism currently keeping the snake-woman in a bubble, as it appears he has already done for the brain and cockatrice. The crystal explodes, and he turns to take his implement of destruction to the furious dryad in turn.

… Ugh, stopping the mask guy is probably gonna make Diplomacy checks with the prisoners a whole lot harder. And she's probably gonna have to babysit the brain.

"Hey!" Elan says to mask guy. "What are you doing?"

"Removing impediments to my aims," he says, the mask's mouth moving with his own and making him sound rather inhuman.

     "A mission of mercy!" crows the snake-lady. "Setting us free, that I may drag this city into the muck and mire as it richly deserves!"

          "Trying to kill us so Aribeth can't cure the fucking plague," the dryad grunts, hitting mask guy with a Glitterdust. "Care to make him stop that? Or are you here to gawk?"

     "He won't kill me," snakelady purrs.

          "Gods above how I wish you were wrong."

(Elan shoots Haley a glance. He'd like to help out, and is already coming up with puns, but he knows she hates firing into melee.)

(Small headshake.)

Okay, so the snakelady is on mask guy's side, but she's also apparently insane. And the dryad seems to be the opposite of that. She goes ahead and fires at mask guy, hoping that if Mouse Monk wants to dart in he can avoid being friendly fired.

He seems to have that in hand; he gets mask guy's body between him and the arrows in short order, and then starts wailing on said body with his tiny but powerful fists.

Mask guy tries to fight him off, but it turns out that without facing in Haley's direction, he's subject to Sneak Attacks. And Haley can make a lot of those in a combat round. He starts to slump to the ground – then, there's a flash of purple light, and he's gone. Jojo's attempted circle-kick lands on air, and he corrects his own balance belatedly.

"Is that all?" he asks, confused.

Ugh, Contingency spells are so annoying.

"Well, assuming that mask dude doesn't come back with half a dozen friends, we gotta keep these guys from escaping."

She's most concerned about snakelady. And the brain thing. At least the dryad seems to… mostly be reasonable.

Elan seems to have come to the same conclusion, because now that the combat is over he's approached her!

"Hi there! Aribeth told us to protect you guys and keep you here. Can you tell us more about what's going on?"

The presumable dryad wipes some sap from her brow and takes some deep breaths. "Plague sucks. Neverwinter wants me to help, stay here for a week then cut some of my hair. I say cool, sounds good. They're rooming me with this yuan-ti, who would really prefer to be anywhere else including Hell, but they need a vial of her blood same way they need my hair. Great, I love rooming with insane witches who want to kill everyone. Also the cockatrice and the brain thing, the cockatrice is chill and I hate the brain but at least it doesn't shriek at me. Six days in, wow, who'd have guessed, there's some kind of spy who told the baddies if they kill me the plague keeps going. Enter you guys." Huff. "Thanks for that, by the way."

"I'm just glad that we could help! I'm Elan, by the way, what's your name?"

Haley's mostly keeping an eye on any sudden moves the guys who were on Mask Guy's side might make, but she can spare an:

"And I'm Haley. It sounds like you and the cockatrice are here voluntarily, but what about the others?"

Slightly tense smile for Elan. "I'm Desyyra. The cockatrice is basically just a fancy magic chicken, doesn't have much of an opinion if you feed it enough rocks. The brain... gives me the absolute willies and I can't tell what it wants, but it hasn't tried to leave. Unlike her."

And they're supposed to be keeping those three from leaving. It's a shame that all the bubble crystals have been broken.

"Okay, snake lady. Is there anything we can do to convince you to not try to leave this place and trash the city?"

She doesn't really expect an honest answer, but if she can't stall long enough for someone who actually works here to show up, she can at least team up with the monk to knock her out. Probably Aribeth will be annoyed about that, but as far as Haley can tell it's better than her escaping.