AD&D Session 86 - The Vault
22nd of Duscar, 835 PD
With their route south estimated at roughly half a week’s travel to Blooming Grove, the party judged they still had time—if only just—to press their exploration of Molaesmyr. Before descending once more into the maze beneath Caes Mosor, they devoted several hours to searching for any intact permanent teleportation circles within the city. Of three suspected locations, only one appeared even potentially functional, and that assessment remained uncertain at best. The discovery offered little immediate leverage, but it confirmed that parts of the old arcane infrastructure might yet survive beneath the ruin.
They then returned to the labyrinth below Caes Mosor, beginning with the final unexplored branch near the original entrance. The first chamber they entered proved deceptively simple: a solitary door set into stone. When Whisper attempted to open it, the door revealed its true nature, sprouting a maw and lashing out with a long tongue. The mimic was dispatched without lasting injury, though not without reinforcing the lesson that nothing in this vault could be taken at face value.
Beyond it lay a chamber lit by a single brazier whose flickering fire cast long, distorted shadows across the walls. As the party passed through, the flame abruptly guttered out. When Marcus conjured Dancing Lights to compensate, several of those shadows detached from the stone and began to move of their own accord. The resulting fight was brief but sharp, the animated forms dissolving once struck down, leaving only the cold stone and the extinguished brazier behind.
Pressing on, the group reached another chamber occupied by a minotaur. Fortunately, this passage merely looped back toward the previously encountered room of explosive, bouncing spheres. Recognising the connection, they chose not to engage and instead retraced their steps to a different fork.
This new route opened into a room paved with stone plates etched in arcane runes. Experimentation quickly revealed the mechanism: the plates responded to the correct elemental input, shifting position when properly activated, while incorrect triggers unleashed traps. Through cautious trial and error, the party established a viable path across the chamber using water and sand to satisfy the runic requirements, avoiding the more destructive consequences of missteps.
A short corridor beyond led to yet another riddle chamber. This puzzle proved less resistant than the others; with accumulated experience from prior mechanisms, the group solved it efficiently. The final door swung open to reveal what appeared unmistakably to be a genuine treasury—an intact vault within the depths of Molaesmyr, preserved beneath centuries of ruin and fire.