We bicker for a bit about the mechanism of this magical wall in front of us, and Tittlin suggests shooting himself with the gun rather than participating in a duel. Momen inspects the pistol and checks the barrel. There doesn’t seem to be an actual round in the chamber, indicating that it’s magical and essentially fires a small magic missile. Tittlin seems quite eager to test this theory, but Momen insists on trying out the button in the first room given how unusual these puzzles seem to be and how he can’t figure out how Folduin would get through them. Momen hits the button and we hear the crunching of flesh and blood pooling out from the pillars… the door leading to the next room (that I already punched a hole through) also attempts to open and close in quick succession. Nothing seems to have changed in the duel room, however.
We then theorize that the duel should proceed as planned up until firing the shot - instead of firing, Tittlin plans to simply walk through the barrier. The buzzer never goes off, so Tittlin moves into firing position and then dodges the shot fired by his doppelganger. The barrier then stays down, and Tittlin waltzes across the far line. Upon crossing the line, the clones evaporate and we press on.
Rounding the corner, we see a kobold carrying a large sack, out of which gold coins begin to fall out as he runs away. The path behind us is blocked off all of a sudden, and we follow the kobold only to find that we’re apparently stuck in a loop similar to the one we experienced in the pyramid. No matter where we go, the kobold always appears to be just out of reach and rounding the next corner. Given that the puzzles thus far have essentially been solved by ignoring an activity that appears to be bait, I keep my eye on the kobold and begin walking backwards around the loop. As I round the corners, the kobold appears to be following me in a way, and I notice a couple corridors that branch off from the previously closed loop.
I make my way a few steps into the corridor to the northeast, and Tittlin shouts at me to stop because of a tripwire that I’ve almost stepped on. I glance around but can’t see anything, so I freeze in place while he runs off to check on Momen. Momen comes waltzing up beside me, backwards, of course, and walks right into the tripwire that has now been illuminated. A massive shield falls from the ceiling, sending Momen to the ground underneath it as Tittlin and I jump out of the way. I pry it off of him using the crowbar as he dusts himself off and rubs his back.
Momen notes that the shield is made of unusual metal, something particularly acid resistant. We also notice some puddles of green liquid on the floor and corresponding nozzles on the ceiling. Tittlin eyes a number of pressure plates on the floor, climbing across the ceiling using his Mark of the Spider and marking each of them using pieces of bird food. Momen and I avoid the marked tiles and make it to the end of the corridor without issue.
We enter a fairly large room - in the center is a large statue of a man in a loin cloth holding up the ceiling, and the ceiling is covered in intricate carvings of the sun, moon, stars, and clouds. There are several piles and chests of gold in several of the corners. Surprisingly, Momen is the first one to go fishing through the gold and platinum, and after picking up some of the money the ceiling comes jutting down towards him. He braces under the weight, and the statue in the middle has sunk into the ground and is no longer supporting the ceiling. I run over to him and try emptying some of the money from his pockets, but then the ceiling follows suit on top of my head. Both Momen and I are now stuck holding up our portions of the ceiling while Tittlin wanders around and thinks. Tittlin takes out the immovable rod from my bag of holding and uses it to prop up the ceiling above my head. I empty my pockets back into the chest, and the ceiling above where I was retracts off of the immovable rod. We then use the same mechanism to release Momen, and try to figure out a way to keep the money on us. We devise a plan sequentially using Mould Earth and the immovable rod to siphon the rest of the loot out of the room, and hurry into the next corridor as the ceiling comes crashing completely down.
We finally come across something seemingly normal - a door with a handle. As I walk up to the door, it magically shrinks to half its size. I step back and it returns to its original size. I once again approach and open the door - I’m able to see through it, but upon attempting to crouch and step through it, it shrinks once again to half my size. I step back out and glare at it. Momen does a few experiments, and notices that the door seems to respond to inanimate objects as well as us. Tittlin first pulls out his ladder, and then instead tries the two-person tent. He sets it up in front of the door, and we each crawl through with room to spare. Momen proceeds ahead of us and yanks on a lever, getting blasted by a horn from a strange clown statue. He shakes his head and massages his ears, and then opens the door past past it. We come into a creepy room filled with dolls and a magical barrier dividing the room in half. The other half appears to be an exact copy of this side, but the table on our half of the room has cookies and flasks on it with notes saying “eat me!” and “drink me!“. I begin drinking from the flask and begin to shrink, drinking more and becoming tiny. I wander around inside the small dollhouse, looking for a way to get to the other side. Tittlin then points out that the dolls don’t exactly match in size between the two sides. I consume the rest of the cookie to return to original size and try feeding flasks and cookies to the dolls on our side, unfortunately to no effect.
Tittlin then goes ahead and walks straight through the barrier, and all of a sudden becomes larger. He walks back and forth a couple times, alternating between large, small, tiny, and medium. A lightbulb clearly goes off, and he takes a few sips of the flask until he becomes tiny, and then walks through the barrier to become normal on the other side. Momen and I follow suit.
A booming voice seated at the end of a throne room that we enter congratulates us for making it through the trials of “Archmage Ivisorin”, although he seems extremely confused moments after when Momen shuts off the drift globe. He can’t see us because we’re all still invisible, and Tittlin climbs around to the other side of the room behind him. His cat, “Snookie”, walks over and stares right at me. He then approaches and is about to cast a firebolt at me when I tackle him to the ground. We bicker for a bit and he claims to have no idea who Folduin Waesvaris is. I pick up Snookie and tell the archmage not to shoot. We continue to bicker while I hold the cat. Ivisorin claims that the illusion of Folduin in the manor upstairs is somewhat of a “default illusion” that is standard and well known, and that it’s not surprising that we’ve seen the illusion in many places.
I see Tittlin come up with his bow behind Ivisorin, but he doesn’t take a shot. Momen appears to have frozen up behind me, and suddenly a mage hand is yanking Snookie out from my grasp. Ivisorin misty steps to the other side of the chamber and tries to diffuse the situation, but I charge him, frustrated that he continues to put up this front of not knowing who Folduin is. Tittlin takes a shot at him and approaches even closer.
Badly injured, the archmage yells “TIMESTOP!” and we hear the ticking of a clock slow down.
In the blink of an eye, we’re enveloped with a torrent of rushing water. I struggle against the current, failing to make any progress, but spin around and fire off two meteors at the archmage, one of which connects. Tittlin and Momen fire off volleys of various kinds at Ivisorin, and Momen misty steps out of the tsunami. The wave rushes forward, slamming me into the wall, and ivisorin yells at me “GO TO HELL”… everything is REALLY FUCKING HOT for just a moment before I pop back into the room, slightly singed. Momen apparently managed to deal with the archmage who has now been turned into a zombie. I use a healing potion to recover Tittlin and we attempt to sort out how the hell to find Folduin.