by Justin "Grarr" Balanca-Hawkes
Hello everyone! My name is Grarr and I’m here to tell you all about the events that transpired earlier this week! So, get your cleaning supplies, it’s going to get moldy!
The day started seeing everyone in high spirits, ready to confront any challenges that came our way be it mold, Red, or anything in between. It was an interesting feeling in the room getting ready. For some this was the closing of the story that brought us to the Realms years ago, for others it was an opportunity to spend the day questing. Regardless of the reasons for everyone being there, our day was about to get started and it wasn’t going to be gentle about it.
The day started out with a puzzle being solved in front of a set of Doors, followed by a phone call telling us to “Light the beacon and I’ll find you” and the Doors swinging open. We funneled into the room to find it full of molds of all different colors and abilities as well as some Red. The fight had begun. I found myself on the left side of the room fighting with green clockwork mold while white mold came from the right side of the room and killed us faster than the healers could get us up, all while yellow mold flew above us and rained down spores on us. All of this was just the start to our troubles though. Anyone killed by the mold immediately started to be rendered soulless as mold began to cover their body. Eventually almost all of us had been killed and rendered soulless and things were looking grim. It took the intervention of our previous ally, Olivia Bishop, to bring us back and for us to start clearing the way to the Source Well. Once the Source Well was secured we needed to tether it to us so that we could draw on the power of Source as we pushed deeper into the Fortress of Doors and purge it of mold and Red. The ritual needed us to connect the Well to a set of 4 pillars spread out within the room with strands of Source all while avoiding being killed by the various kinds of mold that were still attacking us. Once the pillars were connected and the ritual was completed we were able to return to our preparation room and have a precious moment of rest.
Our rest ended when Olivia came to tell us that she had found the Door that the Red were coming from and that we needed to close the door or Red would continue to spill into the Fortress. With that we gathered our things and went again into the many rooms of the Fortress of Doors. Luckily the room we entered wasn't immediately hostile to us, but was instead full of puzzles and challenges on one side and an ominous Door spilling out Red light and being guarded by a pair of Red soldiers. There were four puzzles in total, one for each pillar that needed to be brought to the Source Well in the center of the room. There were six statues surrounding one of the pillars that would mimic the movements of anyone who picked up a ball of their color and would kill them if they moved in an incorrect way to solve the puzzle, a floor of glass that would shatter if you didn’t step on the correct piece of glass, a room of golems that would freeze you if you entered their line of sight, and what I’ve been told to call “Mastermind Bowling” which is exactly what it sounds like. The statues were the first to be solved, followed quickly by the glass floor and Mastermind Bowling. The freeze golems proved to give us a fair bit of trouble though, resulting in myself and three others being frozen before the pillar was retrieved. I was later told that it took a combination of Styx and Bogen using their Source Powers that they were granted to get the pillar back. It apparently also had the unfortunate side effect of dropping the pillar on Styx’s head, squashing them under its weight. With the fourth pillar retrieved and positioned and those of us that had been frozen being released the fight against the Red picked up anew, as they had been gathering their forces while we were solving puzzles.
The objective was simply to close the door and keep it shut. Luckily for us I had been entrusted with TOOP, a magic item that could keep any Door open or closed as long as it was in place. So with our objective known and the tools to complete it ready we dove into the fight. We fought tooth and nail against the Red while Bogen and N, both being incorporeal, looked for ways to push forward. Eventually I decided that it was time to call in a favor I was owed from several years ago. I was given the ability to throw lightning bolts and was given a single Cry of Life! I was knocked down again shortly after calling in my favor and woke up to see Alias frantically giving Seeds of Life to the dead around himself, myself previously being among them. Once I got to my feet I saw a lot of us were down and we were being pushed back from the Door by the Red. I used my Cry of Life, and we surged forward again, our numbers replenished and ready to fight again. The next few moments were a blur of people calling in favors, phoning friends, and using their Source powers. The last thing I remember is Fern calling Mage, everything freezing, and when things started moving again the Door had been shut and TOOP had been placed to keep it shut. The Red wouldn’t be getting any more reinforcements and we pressed into them, clearing them out before having to leave back to our preparation room again.
We had another opportunity to rest for a moment, and most of us took the chance without hesitation. Griffin had other plans though. He sat down, put his feet up on the desk and decided to make a call to the Board of the Fortress of Doors requesting more resources before we went any further in. And it WORKED! All of the casters had a surge of power as all of their spells were reset and refreshed. Our rest didn’t last too long though, as Olivia found the path to the Core of the Fortress and we were off again.
The path to the Core was filled with sticky black mold that we needed to move through the shifting walls of mold while avoiding getting stuck to it. It took 8 hands to move one of them and they were again scattered around the room and needed to be retrieved before we could move on to the next room. Once we gathered all of the pillars we could go into the next room, which was full of a combination of Red and mold pairs that were immune unless they were close to one of the pillars. The pairs were difficult, but ultimately were dealt with and we were able to keep advancing.
Through the final door something truly horrid could be heard… Conga music! All of us that were from the original group that ventured into the Fortress of Doors years back felt a shiver of pure dread run through us. We knew what the final confrontation was going to be before we even stepped into the room. There, congaing around the room with malicious intent was our last challenge: LOOP. We proceeded to break off sections of LOOP to weaken it until we were able to overload the Source Well and restart the Core, killing all of us. We all managed to escape with our lives thanks to Ryu and Bogen using their Source Powers together to give us all a Second Chance. Once the dust settled we got to talk with Olivia one last time through a phone and we found out that we were successful in our efforts and were thanked for our services. And with that our quest came to a close and we all went our separate ways.
Thank you all for listening and I hope you enjoyed reading along!