The Drowned Palace Group 10

MOD POST - GROUP 10

The room was lit up in light. Two separate lights, an unnecessarily large amount of light for the small room they were all crammed into. One light would have done just fine. Nonetheless, @Draven Mirador would find his wand lighting up brightly, and @Mylo Atkins' wand would do the same. This allowed them to see the door that they had entered through, faded and hidden in the wall. The door was not locked - there was no door. None of the crew would be leaving for the dungeons, nor would they be leaving whatsoever, it was an escape room, after all.

While the light enlightened them to the door, the algae seemed to shrink from it, sliding back and blending into the foliage of the wall. The words, barely visible before, were now altogether unnoticeable. No, this algae thrived in darkness.

Before the lights had gone out, however, a certain Blindvisioned @Cade Darkbound, with his knack for viewing things in the absence of light, had gotten a straight glimpse of the words. He could make out most- but not all of them- but the light shone through much too brightly, and not even Cade could make out the words with so much light in his retinas.

and xxxxxxxxxxxxx search, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx through xxxxxx is xxxxxxxxxxx so
your xxxxxxxxx treasure xxx Fail xxxxxxxxxxxx stays xxxxxx do xxxxxxx the xxxxxxxxxx The

@Fire Davies decided to take an altogether different approach - recline in whatever furniture was available in the room. His "chair", although comfortable looking, turned out to be a sponge. A wet sponge. Fire would find himself slipping halfway to the floor, with a wet bottom. Besides the...moistness...however, it was quite a comfortable sponge, evidently, as Draven Mirador also chose to sit down, first dragging his giant wet sponge over to a wall. He seemed to have declared himself the altogether unhelpful light source.

The algae continued to give off the same eerie light, and the song kept on playing, on repeat, as if tempting them to find a way to either continue this "riddle" and figure out the next steps, or plainly taunting them to make it stop at some point, since it was getting quite draining to hear it over and over again.


Rolls (Note: Casting a spell is considered your action. This is a moderated event, please do not assume your succes, no matter how likely it is)
Please do tell me if I messed up. Moderating is hard.

(223)

"Oh, for fuck's sake-" Draven hissed, pushing himself up like he'd been burned. His entire rear end was soaked, looking very much like an accident in the bathroom. His knees gave a loud protest at the sudden movement, cracking like a fireplace. To no avail, he tried to pat himself down, wand slipped between his teeth to prevent any more uncouth language. The light flickered and went out, leaving them with just Mylo as a lantern. He did know the reveal spell. But so did everyone else with half a brain cell, so he supposed they could figure it out without his help.

Crossing the room to where Fish Head was sat, Draven racked his brain for a spell. His wand was between his fingers once more. "Stand up," he told Nemo, one hand against the wall for balance. Though the room was fairly steady, his legs felt like seaweed. The image of his foot slipping on the slickened stones and his head cracking on the floor hadn't left his brain. "I'll dry us off," he said, blinking to clear his head. Blood soaking the floor was replaced by Fish Head's creepy grin.

The air jinx was simple, though he couldn't remember the last time he'd used it. Pushing his hair out of his eyes, Draven flicked his wand. "Aer Calidus," he commanded. casting with Spell Spread to get Fire as well if he agrees to be dried off.

October 2025 | Requesting darkness
@Draven Mirador, @Mylo Atkins, @Fire Davies, @Avis Greymond, @Aodhan Shaw

The words-- he'd seen them, just before the light of their wands slammed through his vision. Not exactly written, but grown out of the algae. But the moment they were illuminated, they'd vanished. Shriveled into the wall like ink on fire. Cade blinked, forgetting all about the silly scrawl of his notebook, he'd will the burn from his retinas. He saw the shapes of the words. But it was fleeting.

... and... search... through... is... so... your... treasure... Fail... stays... do... the... The..."

It was useless. He was clearly missing something. Cade would sigh a resigned kind of sound, the way one does when a riddle has been made unnecessarily theatrical.

Across the room, Fish Head sank dramatically into what he thought was an armchair, only to discover it was a wet sponge. Cade raised an eyebrow but said nothing. The squelch had been its own reward. Draven, perhaps took that as a cue, and sunk into his own sponge throne, bathed in a self-declared halo of his wandlight. Typical... Draven usually slept through their charms lectures, head down, eyes closed. He always looked like he was asleep, but then Professor Fresnel would ask a question no one else dared to answer and Draven would mutter the correct answer without so much as lifting his head. As if the act of learning had been absorbed through osmosis... Or perhaps, through Deimos. Cade didn't mind him, in fact, he'd grown oddly used to the rhythmic twitch of spider legs over his desk.

Now, in the dim of the escape room, Cade could hear him shifting around like a disgruntled cat. Still not helpful, but then again, maybe being half asleep all the time was how Draven processed stress. Cade couldn't fault him for that.

Cade stood in the middle of the room, turning once, slowly. There was no door. The way they came in had faded into the stone, either erased or hidden. Cade narrowed his eyes at the pale patches where the words had once been visible. Nothing now. As if they were never there. He cleared his throat gently, just enough to be heard over the repeating strains of the haunting song."Turn the lights out... I saw something. Writing. It's gone now, the light burned it out."

He could feel their hesitation. Typical. Light was safe. Light was familiar. But light also lied. He gestured again, more insistently. "Trust me, I can still see."

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mentioning: @Draven Mirador | @Mylo Atkins | @Fire Davies | @Aodhan Shaw | date: 04-10-2025 | fit: x | action: observing and remaining confused | note: i used the term "boys" to refer to everyone but mylo. lmk if you'd rather me not use that term for your character and i can change it! | inventory: fire-breathing potion, antidote to uncommon poisons

The door was gone. Draven and Fish-Head's arses were suddenly soaking wet. Cade was squinting determinedly at a dark wall. And suddenly, Aodhan was babbling on about a... shark-elf?

Boys.

Avis sighed, rolling her eyes and leaning against the damp algae to observe the chaos around her. Half of her attention was on Cade's focused riddle-figuring and the other half had her desperately trying to decipher what in the HELL those two were arguing over... although Wakanda sounded vaguely familiar. Perhaps from one of the Muggle superhero movies Avis had slowly been gathering interest in? She shook her head, making a half-hearted attempt at clearing it.

Regardless, the only person who seemed reasonable around here remained to be Mylo, which made perfect sense somehow. So Avis walked over, sidling up to her friend and crossed her arms, her eyes on Cade again.

"What do you suppose he's gonna see in the dark?" Avis said in hushed tones. She was skeptical, yes, but definitely open to a solution if the boy provided it. He seemed confident enough that he would, that was at least for certain, although his confidence wouldn't exactly provide the complete trust he was asking for.

MOD POST - GROUP 10

@Draven Mirador's light would go out as he cast a new spell - the boy had bigger problems now than lack of light. Namely, his sopping wet behind. Being a true gentleman, he cast a quick and effective spell that split, and both he and Fire would find themselves quite a bit drier and presumably quite a bit more comfortable.

Although @Mylo Atkin's light would remain, enough light had been removed from the room for @Cade Darkbound to readjust, and he was able to make out the last of the words.

your xxxxxxxxx treasure xxx Fail xxxxxxxxxxxx stays xxxxxx do xxxxxxx the xxxxxxxxxx The and xxxxxxxxxxxxx search, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx through xxxxxx is xxxxxxxxxxx so xxx timexxx you

The words were scrambled; they needed to be rearranged, though that was a much easier task now that he could actually see them properly. Maybe with a bit of teamwork, it was going to be quite easy to decipher what the message meant now.

Then again, teamwork seemed not to be nearly within this group's skill set. @Fire Davies and @Aodhan Shaw were of the opinion that now was the best time to air out their grievances; they were both being rather loud and useless.

@Avis Greymond, whose parents were clearly very smart when they named her, gravitated toward her friend. All in all, Cade was trying rather hard to decipher the escape room, and the rest of the lot only served to get in his way.

Rolls

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Dad

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Pa

Andrea

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Interacting with @Avis Greymond | @Draven Mirador @Cade Darkbound | @Fire Davies @Aodhan Shaw	Date - 04/10/25
WC 299/200	Color Legend - Mylo | BSL | Thoughts

Light was safe, it allowed you to see what you couldn't without it and it removed the ability for your brain to trick you into seeing things that weren't there. At least that was what Mylo's first instinct was. But it seemed like safe was the opposite of what they needed in this moment.

Avis seemed to be slightly sceptical about the fact that they needed less light and not more, as she came up to Mylo. "I think the algae is being outshined by ours, we could see slightly without the light but we could always turn it back on." Mylo mentioned, getting ready to remove the light from his wand.

Although it seemed like Draven's light went out first and that that was enough to let the algae shine and show the missing words. As they could now actually see all the words Mylo decided that having some light would still be nice, although they wouldn't be getting to close to the algae as they would likely dim again. "Let me know if I need to turn of my light, I'll stay a bit further away just so it doesn't dim again but I think it'll be nice to have at least a bit of light."

Taking a closer look at the words though Mylo realised that they would have to put them in the right order, something that shouldn't be too difficult.

"Okay, it seems like we need to scramble these words to try and make a sentence. What about something along these lines; ..... Fail and the treasure stays, and so do you. That seems like a standard warning and riddle? I'm not sure how to put the other words together though." Mylo stated, hoping that someone else could decipher what was meant to be said.

ABILITIES | STATS | ACTIONS

Reducio

Abilities: Perfectionist | Wandmaker [Dragonheart, Elm wood] | Calming presence
Stats: sta • 8 | eva • 7 | str • 5 | wis • 10 | arc • 7 | acc • 8
Inventory: Burn healing paste, Bruise healing paste, wand
Actions: Trying to decipher the words on the wall

OUTFIT

Reducio

Code by Ara Villa

October 2025 | Puzzling out words again
@Draven Mirador, @Mylo Atkins, @Fire Davies, @Avis Greymond, @Aodhan Shaw

The glow had returned. Draven had thankfully dimmed his, and Cade had ignored Mylo's refusal to fully extinguish his own (perhaps he was averse to the dark), but from the algae itself, now reclaiming the walls like ink spreading through paper. The faint green shimmer curled around the letters, coaxing them back into form. Cade leaned in, eyes narrowed. The words were clearer now.

Beside him, Mylo piped up, voice hesitant, and as he spoke Cade tilted his head slightly. Not bad. A bit theatrical. But Mylo was thinking in the right direction. He traced the nearest word-- search-- with a fingertip, careful not to disturb the algae's shape. "You're close," he said quietly, as if speaking too loud would frighten the words into hiding again. "But I think there's more to it. Look at the capitalization. Only Fail and The are capitalized, that can't be a coincidence. Two warnings, I reckon."

Cade stepped back from the wall, pondering. "How about: Fail, and the treasure stays. So do you. The time is through, your search is through? No... that won't work. Through doesn't appear twice, does it?" Cade chews his lip, considering. This shouldn't be difficult to do. He wished more of his team would pay attention to the task at hand. Perhaps they'd have input he didn't see.

mentioning: @Draven Mirador | @Mylo Atkins | @Fire Davies | @Aodhan Shaw | date: 04-10-2025 | fit: x | action: too curious to stand by | inventory: fire-breathing potion, antidote to uncommon poisons

Avis perked up at Cade's specific notice of capitalization. "Well, we can definitely put those at the beginning of two lines then. That's further than we've been before!" she said hopefully, stepping closer to the words in the algae.

She listened to Mylo and Cade's suggestions intently, suddenly too curious to refuse to help. As the voice chimed in eerily once again, she realized a pattern about the words in the verses and Mylo's suggestion of 'The treasure stays. So do you.' made something click in her brain.

"The lines rhyme in a pattern!" she said, pointing out the ending word of each line. "Glow and below. Calls and halls. Inside, died. We just need to look for words that rhyme within this jumble and match them up," the Ravenclaw continued, her thoughts racing. "'Fail' and 'The' are at the beginning, because they're capitalized like you said so we can count them out," she mentioned, nodding at Cade as she studied the words. Avis squinted through the dim light. "Through, do and... you. We just have to figure out which two are at the end...two lines left, I assume...and piece together the rest, no?" she finished, glancing around with an excited look. The puzzle was finally pulling itself together a bit and Cade's previous hard work seemed to be helping immensely.