Evy releases hold on the basket of laundry statue, and ... nothing happens. The cousins release their held breath, and then the voice calls through the door once again, "Congratulations. You have solved my second riddle. You are very clever. Now I must warn you that the Cursed Labyrinth is not in our world. It was built in a demiplane. The thessalhydra you seek has found a way to push through it to a place called the 'Upside Down'. I can give you passage into the strange place, but I must warn you that you can only enter through this doorway. You must find a different way home." The doorway opens, and a blast of cold air immediately pushes against the cousins. Through the open doorway before them, they see a dark forest similar to the one outside the cave they entered, but sinister.

“I don’t know, Val, this has taken the fight out of me,” Evy says. “Is this when we should use a potion?” She pulls out the vial of red liquid, the healing potion she has been carrying. 

"Who are you?" Val screams back at the armor set. "Who built this demiplane?"

Turning back to Evy, the male tiefling says: "I can give you a small health boost too but, much like that potion, these might be more effective in the heat of battle."

He turns back to the armor: "Can we safely camp in this chamber, before taking your offer of going into this "Upside Down"? Just an hour would be good but more would be preferred."

Evy hops up to sit on the table with the statues, definitely looking like she’s not going anywhere.

OOC: To clarify, Val is not asking for permission, he is asking if it is possible to safely remain in this room for at least an hour if not more. Who knows if this demiplane collapses after the puzzle is solved...

Val's words reverberate a bit in the space, but as his yell dies away, there is no response.

“You know what?” Evy asks. “If this godlet wants us to work over their little mistake, or pet, or whatever it is, they can wait until we’re in condition to do it.” 

With that, she sweeps the figures off the table and lays down on it. “I just need a short rest.”

Val knew not to contradict his cousin when she had that fervor in her eyes. "Alright, we wait for an hour and patch our wounds."

-> Perception: to keep watch: 19 

For an hour, the two cousins rest in the strange chamber. Val's eyes and Evy's ears are tuned on/to the doorway. A constant cold wind pushes through the opening, and as it moves through the dark and ominous trees beyond the doorway, it whistles and howls. Occasionally, Val glances toward Evy's prone form, and as soon as he does, his peripheral vision catches movement through the doorway, but as soon as his eyes snap back, he sees nothing. Mentally, the hour is not very restful, but physically it is.

You may roll hit dice.

OOC > to save us from manipulated dice results, I’m going to roll all four of her hit dice, with the expectation that I will only take the first three, and the fourth if the first three rolls are crappy. Is that acceptable? If not, I am cool with rolling the fourth in a separate post.)

Evy’s hit dice (1d6+0)

3
6
6
…
2

I gotcha. That's cool.

Val is rolling 2 Hit Dice for now. I may roll a third if needed and, if so, I'll write the initial two rolls in parentheses.

2*(1d12+3): 18

Val spends some time picking fuzz out of his clothes. He hasn't been able to wash them since departing town and it has accumulated some visible debris by now. By the time he feels he has done as much as he can, he turn to his cousin: "Ready, Evy? That door doesn't look too inviting but it is where our quarry lies if the speaking armor is to be trusted."

“Whu? Snrrrk!!” Evy startles out of sleep. After a minute to compose herself, and a glare at Val to never speak of her snoring, she gets up and dusts herself off.

”I’m feeling hellishly heroic. Let’s do this.” She will still let Val lead, however.

Val steps through the doorway and into the dark, cold forest. After only a couple of steps, he looks back and is only slightly surprised to see that the doorway appears as a rectangular portal in open space within the forest behind him. He furrows his brow and turns to continue forward, Evy following behind. After a couple of steps, she also turns to look behind her. However, she sees no opening. Behind them is just more dark, foreboding trees.

It isn't long before Val calls out that he sees tracks in the forest floor. He leads the pair in that direction, but then stops after a little while because the tracks have disappeared. Twice, the barbarian feels like something is following them, but when he turns to look, he sees nothing.

Along the way, Evy has realized there are no normal forest sounds. Beside the rustle of the leaves in response to the constant cold wind, she has heard no bird calls, no insects, and no scurry of critters. Also, though she has only experienced snow once since heading north from Calimshan, the air around her is reminiscent of how the air felt that night when the locals were declaring that snow was on its way.

Val finds another set of tracks. He thinks these are more like what the thessalhydra would leave. However, after another short distance, he once again loses the trail.

Wandering a little further, the pair spots what appears to be a structure in the darkness ahead. They approach, feeling more and more a sense of deja vu. Almost upon it, they are sure this derelict and rundown dwelling is the spitting image of the home of the halfling widower, Panfer Swiftfound, they met earlier who swore his wife had been taken by the owlbear, though the home is not surrounded by helmthorn bushes — only more dark, mostly dead-looking trees. They look in one broken window, and the entire inside is mostly empty, except for what appears to be more forest floor and perhaps what might be broken furniture.

Val leads his cousin around the unfortunate cabin, but halts suddenly as his eyes catch sight of a humanoid female standing a short distance away on a small rise. She is dressed in what appears to be finery, but also bits of armor to protect her most vital parts. A simple, yet regal crown sits upon her brow, and her right hand grips the handle of a longsword, which she has angled across the front of her legs. She stands still, looking down at the tieflings as if waiting for something.

As they approach the building, Evy says quietly, "What is with us and nightmare worlds?"

Evy's eyes narrow when she sees the figure, then widen slightly as she gets a better look. "I think this place is not subtle," she says to Val, striding ahead of him. She watches the woman carefully for a reaction as she marches up to her, unconsciously leaving a trail of ruby sparkles behind her, and tucking her long red hair out of her face as she gets close.

Val whispers in reponse to his cousin's nudge: "Wasn't the lady supposed to be holding a pot of honey? Wasn't the crown supposed to be on the head of a lord? Was she also the sword-wielding soldier that never made it into the riddle? IS she all three?!" Val is pretty sure the lady they have encountered here has little to do with the riddle they had to solve but, just in case, he starts wondering if this means the lady killed the lord...

For now, however, the male tiefling will let his cousin initiate the conversation as she deems right. Val was never the most charismatic of the duo, despite forgetting many times in the past that his cousin should generally speak first.

As Evy approaches, the woman lets her sword fall to her side. She plants the tip in the dirt, rests her hand upon the pommel, and gives a nod of greeting. "I see someone else has stumbled upon the Upside Down," she says not unkindly. "Unfortunate. It would be wise of you to seek an exit as soon as possible."

Evy smiles charmingly. “We’ll, we’ve never been accused of being wise. We’re here for the beast, the thessalhydra. My name is Evy, and this is Val. And you are?”

She looks Evy up and down and then over Evy's shoulder at Val. It's clear she thinks herself above the tieflings. "I suppose that exit's as good as any," she admits. "The thessalhydra exits near a cave that way," she says, lifting her sword and pointing. "A special plant grows there — a plant whose flowers bloom in both worlds. These flowers can be used to cross between worlds if you perform a certain ritual. A key component of this ritual is the blood of a monster. That's how the thessalhydra escapes — it uses its own blood to open a gateway. As you are not monsters, you will need to gather some blood from a monster to use. Unfortunately," she sighs, seeming almost bored with having to relay this information, "I know of one that has been stalking around the Upside Down lately. A demogorgon."