One-Shot: Blue Alley (Part Two)

"'If you see blue tiles, turn around and walk away before it is too late.'"Blue Alley has proven to own up to its reputation. Adventurers find no difficulty when it comes to getting into the dungeon, how difficult it is to escape remains to be seen...

Blue Alley
The adventurers resumed their journey through Blue Alley, this time heading towards the sign that read "SILVER".

Meeting Lelania
While the party planned their next move, a wood elf appeared from behind. She introduced herself as Lelania, she had wandered towards Blue Alley after seeing the tiles.

The adventurers checked the entrance to the dungeon once more but it appeared as though Lelania was trapped inside with the party.

The High Way
The party found a corridor decorated with images of flying creatures.

After Viego activated a pressure plate in the middle of the corridor, everyone in the corridor began to levitate towards rows of metal rods in the ceiling, arcs of electricity sprang from the rods.

Through the combined efforts of the party, Viego was able to use his skills as a Kensei to reach the door at the end of the hallway to deactivate the trap as Thrask, Suthra and Lelania worked together to stop Kados from making contact with the electric rods.

The Silver Door
After emerging from the trapped corridor, the party found a silver door. Viego opened the door with the silver key Kados found, unleashing a flood of steel spheres that rolled over the kensei.

Bear Traps and Bones
Beyond the silver door was a room littered in rubbish, bones, gore, trinkets, equipment and dried bones. It was not long before Kados used his handy fishing pole to discover the room was armed with invisible bear traps. After triggering the first bear trap, a group of animated skeletons appeared from a hidden chamber and attacked the party.

The adventurers were able to defeat the skeletons, although Viego's leg fell prey to the clutches of a bear trap in the process.

Chamber of Shadows
After taking a moment to recuperate, the party approached the hidden chamber that the skeletons emerged from to find an altar made of skulls, a few which had gemstones inserted into their eye sockets. After pulling the gemstones from the skulls, a creature made of shadows crawled from one of the eye sockets and attacked the party.

The adventurers were able to destroy the creature but not before it sapped Thrask's strength away.

Bladed Blitz
Through a door connected to the room filled with bear traps, the party found a blood-and-gore-spattered corridor outfitted with spinning blades and swinging scythes. Viego was able to find out how to deactivate the traps and Kados and Suthra were able to use their magic to communicate with the party as they made their way, two by two, through the deactivated corridor.

The Copper Piece
After making it through the bladed blitz, the adventurers found a marble room with a red pillow on a pedestal, sitting atop the pillow was a copper piece. After inspecting the display, Lelania took the copper piece and a mouth formed on the surface of the pillow, it sarcastically exclaimed "Congratulations!" After seeing the cushion's apparent ability to speak, Thrask took the red pillow.

The coin read:"'Minted in the year 1364 DR, golden anniversary of the reign of Piergeiron the Paladinson.'"

The Golden Doors
Without a clear path, the party returned to the barred window that Tawdry and Eulena found at the end of a hallway on the other side of the dungeon. Without a way to move past the bars the party returned to the wine room to inspect the golden doors inside.

Lelania was able to open the door by inserted the copper coin into the door's keyhole. Beyond the door was a small cavity in the wall, resting in the cavity was a lantern that revealed an invisible smoke that trailed through Blue Alley.

Statue of Keilier
Following the invisible smoke, the party found a hidden door leading to a new section of the dungeon. The smoke eventually led the adventurers to a stone statue of a wizard, a sphere of magical energy surrounded the statue and at its base was the name "KEILIER".

The Coin Vault
The party happened upon a door with words above it reading: "'TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU CAN TRULY AFFORD.'"Inside the room was what was easily thousands of coins in piles as well as a door leading to another room.

The Iron Gates
Ignoring the coins, the party continued into the next room to find a set of iron gates set against a stone wall. Recognizing the iron gates to be the same ones depicted in the glittering gem, Viego attempted to open the gates. As Viego touched the gates he vanished from sight, leaving only the glittering gem dropping to the floor in front of the gate.

The party reclaimed the gem and retraced their steps, Kados took his opportunity to grab two coins from the vault but as he left the room he fell to the ground as the coins became overwhelmingly heavy. At the same time, Viego returned to the group, explaining that the iron gates teleported him outside of the dungeon.

A mouth formed on a wall, directing itself at Kados. It placed a curse on the tiefling for his greed while placing a blessing on the other adventurers.

The Celestite Unicorn
After regrouping and removing the heavy coins from Kados' clothes the adventurers found a room covered in mirrors with a grand statue of a rearing unicorn at the center, a voice rang out as they entered proclaiming "Everything you see is mine." As Kados left the room, all of his possessions — including his clothes — vanished from his person and appeared in the middle of the room near the statue.

Viego quickly deciphered the room's puzzle and closed their eyes as left the mirrored room to avoid "seeing" what belonged to the room. They placed the statue in the room with the iron gates before exploring the other rooms in Blue Alley.

Alchemical Concoctions
After relocating the unicorn, the adventurers discovered a room full of alchemical concoctions. Kados was entrusted by his party members to uncover the properties of the concoctions but the tiefling haphazardly hurled a vial against the walls causing an explosion.

Swinging Peril
After escaping the explosion with only a few injuries the party made their way to the dungeon's final room. Seven circular platforms were hung from great iron chains attached to the ceiling, utter darkness seemed to be the only thing below the platforms. A sheathed sword with a glowing handle rested atop the lowest platform.

Thrask offered to descend the platforms and the party fastened a length of rope to him in case he fell. The lizardfolk ranger made impressive progress as he leapt from each platform. Although, as he descended further he was attacked by creatures leaping out from the darkness.

The party was able to offer Thrask with enough support to ward off his attackers but as he reached the lowest platform, more creatures attacked him. Without any hope, the lizardfolk unfastened the rope around his waist and attached the sword to it.

As the sword flew away from Thrask, the sheath fell away revealing the handle to be without a blade. Thrask fell down into the darkness as the creatures continued to attack him. As Viego hoisted the blade back up, he grasped the handle forcing a beam of bright white light to emerge from the handle. The light washed away the darkness and creatures from the room, revealing the floor below to be only ten feet below the lowest platform.

The party quickly descended into the room to save Thrask.

Conclusion
With the majority of the party injured, the adventurers made their way back to the unicorn statue.

As the party prepared to leave the dungeon, they heard a frail voice in their minds asking for help. The voice begged to be freed, revealing itself as the unicorn in the statue.

The adventurers joined hands as they held onto the unicorn, one of them placed a hand on the iron gates and the party found themselves in the taproom of The Yawning Portal. The proprietor of the inn, Durnan, immediately handed the group a drink and said "It's on the house, because I don't even want to know."

Player Characters

 * Eulena the human fighter
 * Kados the tiefling sorcerer
 * Lelania the elf ranger
 * Suthra the dragonborn bard
 * Tawdry the half-orc bard
 * Thrask the lizardfolk ranger
 * Viego the human kensei