Chapter 2.28: The Enochian Tower

“Please be careful in there”, Oslando says with a worried look. “One step in the wrong direction and you’re in for a world of hurt.”
The puppet smiles back at him. “I’ll be alright. I’m tougher than I look.” He turns his head to Dargothoth. “Don’t forget what you promised”, Mero says with a joyous tone and steps on the enchanted tile in front of the still unopened door. The twinkling blue particles rise up into the air and envelop his tiny body. Within the blink of an eye he’s transported into total darkness.
“I’m new to this, Lyssa”, he says as he looks around. “Can you tell me where I need to go? I wasn’t paying attention when Bruq and Oslando tried.”
She appreciates his honesty. She would have done the same thing if she was in his shoes.
“Right, forward, left, forward, right, forward. If I’m correct you can only feel a wall to your right after following these directions. Can you verify this for me?”
They don’t hear him speak, but his footsteps echoing in het background tell them he’s moving.
“It’s kind of pretty”, he finally says. “I like the contrast of the blackness and the vibrant light, especially with the faint glow of the Enochian Crystal in the back. Too bad it’s supposed to kill us. And you are correct. The only wall I can feel is to my right.”
She moves the piece of gold, now resembling the sorcerer of the group, and places it in front of the “X” she has drawn on the map.
“Move to your left. Don’t go forward, ‘cause that’s how Oslando got teleported back here.” The half-elf’s skin has always been pale, but now it’s a bit more anemic than usual. He has taken place next to Bruq, eating one of the same berries that previously took of the edge of former injuries.
“There’s only a wall to my back. I think I want to go forward. Is that fine with you?” Mero waits for her response, eager to get closer to the crystal, all in the hope that he can get an answer of his draconian friend.
“Yes, but keeping telling me what you feel.”
He takes a step forward and walks to all sides of the tile to see if he can touch something. “I feel good”, he says. “I feel like I can do this. Do you think I can do it? There are walls to my left and right, so there’s one way to go. I’ll keep you posted!”
She moves the coin and draws the thin lines to represent the barriers he mentioned. “Sure”, she says, hoping his enthusiastic mood will not be destroyed as soon as a trap will hit him. “You can walk and I’ll draw.”

(DC 14 versus constitution 22)
“I’ve gone forward and I can only move to my right.” Before she’s finished doing all her work as cartographer, he’s already coming with new information. “So, I’ve gone right and I’m going to go forward now. There are walls to my right and behind me… And now I’ll go right again, it’s the only option.”
Her drawing gets more rushed as she tries to keep up with him.
“Right again, walls to the north and south. Have you drawn a compass already on the map? Isn’t that a thing pirates do? I can only move forward now, so you can move the coin again.”
She’s very busy with processing all the things he’s telling her, so busy that she doesn’t even notice that the priest has walked up to her.
“No way he’s going to succeed in one go”, he whispers to himself, observing the coin moving across the paper.
“Right. Forward. Left. Left. Backward. Left.”
As he starts to speak faster and faster, she has switched her strategy to just drawing dots in the squares he’s moving across instead of drawing the walls. She takes her hands of the paper and stares at it with a smile.
“You’re standing in front of the crystal, aren’t you?”
The shimmering stone is held in its place by a dark red stalagmite and stalactite. The blunt tips of the somewhat strange formations press against the smooth surface and hold it just out of Mero’s reach.
“Yes, I am, but I am not going to take it. That’s Dargothoth’s job after all. I can move to my right, that’s upwards on your map, I guess. I think there will be a trap somewhere around this shrine, so I can get back to you guys and he can start running.”
He jumps on the tile to the north and is caged within the red see-through walls. As the bloodsucking tentacles pierce the straw and patches forming his body, they don’t retrieve any red liquids from his body. A pearly gaseous substance is pulled from him, almost invisible to the naked eye. It doesn’t hurt as much as he expected it to hurt, but it does feel absolutely dreadful, as if a small part of his soul is torn apart. While this happens, he sees the rocky formations that hold the cleric’s crystal in place glow with the same colour, but before he has time to feel if he can detect any form of magic, he is pulled away from the maze and placed back again with his allies.

“My turn.” Dargothoth speaks with a deep voice, sounding like he’s planning something up to no good. “I trust you to give clear directions, Lyssa. I want the crystal and I want my prize.” He walks up to the tile.
“And I want an answer”, the puppet shouts after him, but Dargothoth is already gone.
(Wisdom 15)
He does not fear the dark. He observes the red lights leading up to the gemstone. It’s almost as if the invisible labyrinth notices the presence of the crystal’s rightful owner.
“Dad?” He can hear a female’s voice speak in his head. “Dad, is that you?” The glow of the Enochian jewel intensifies with every spoken word.
“Yes”, Dargothoth says, still in the form of his alter ego. “This is your father.” He holds his sceptre firmly in his right hand, not trusting the whole situation for one bit.
“Daddy, you’re here! Please, daddy, I’m scared. Come rescue me, daddy!” While the stone speaks to him, Lyssa gives the first instruction to go the right.
“No worries, sweet child”, he says as he takes his first steps further into this dark complexity, “I’m coming to save you.”