jdnd/sections/14-The Castle with the Steel Door - Communicating with Omta.md

## Communicating with Omta


When the PCs first enter the castle, they sense anxiety and dread (via
their telepathic link with Omta). Later, a PC will say something out
loud, and Omta will hear what the PC said and will have an emotional
reaction. For example, if the PC says, “let’s go find the deck,” the PCs
will sense a sudden uptick in the fear and anxiety coming from the
presence in the labyrinth. If the PC says something like, “we’re not
here to hurt you,” the emotion might change from anxiety to cautious
relief.

Initially, that’s the extent of the communication: the PCs say things,
the presence in the labyrinth (Omta) reacts with emotions. The fact that
the emotions make sense - the fact that they’re logical reactions to the
things that the PCs say - that tells the players that the presence in
the labyrinth actually is listening and paying attention.

The players will eventually realize that they can talk directly to Omta,
asking for things out loud. As long as those things aren’t a threat to
Omta, Omta will cooperate. For example, if they say, “we need to find
the cook,” Omta will rearrange the portals so that the PCs soon wander
into the kitchen.

This low-level communication should persist for quite a while. Let the
PCs explore the castle until they’ve accomplished quite a few things.
Make sure they’ve met at least two of the employees, and make sure
they’ve had a few interactions with ants. Ideally, they should have had
an interaction with Borghan and an interaction with Alyssa Varn as well.

After the PCs have been in the castle a while, Omta decides to
communicate with them in a more detailed way. Omta reaches out to the
PCs telepathically, and tries to send them an actual message.

### Failed Telepathic Messages

The PCs experience a strange phenomenon. Say to your players, “you feel
the presence in the labyrinth trying to send a message to you. You
receive the following: surprise, then shock, then fear, then
determination, then more surprise, then a feeling of being trapped.”
Then, a minute later, tell them: “You sense frustration.”

What’s happening here is that Omta is trying to send a message through
the telepathic link, but it’s not working. Omta’s way of reasoning is so
alien that it’s just not coming through: all the PCs are receiving are
the *emotions* associated with the story that Omta is trying to tell,
but they’re not receiving any of the *concrete details*. Omta can tell
that the PCs aren’t getting it, so he’s frustrated that his attempts at
communication aren’t getting through.

Omta will sporadically repeat these attempts, always to no avail. If the
players don’t figure it out, let them roll an insight roll to figure
out: the “presence in the labyrinth” is trying to communicate with you,
but it’s not really working.

Tell them that although they can’t figure out what the presence is
trying to say, they do sense two very clear patterns:

-   The emotions they’re receiving contain an awful lot of fear,
    > anxiety, and dread. Of course, this is because Omta is terrified
    > of Tymora.

-   The sequences of emotions always end in frustration. Of course, this
    > is because Omta is aggravated about his inability to communicate
    > with the PCs.

Make sure that Omta repeats this at least three times.

### Omta Decides to try Writing

After several failed attempts at telepathic communication, Omta comes up
with a new idea: maybe I can talk to them in writing!

This is what the PCs experience: they once again receive a sequence of
emotions, followed once again by frustration… and more frustration… and
then suddenly, inspiration! Insight! Moments later, a piece of parchment
materializes in thin air in front of one of the PCs. The scroll contains
images of cards from the deck.

The fact that the scroll is made up of symbols from the Deck is a dead
giveaway that the PCs are talking to the deck itself. Let’s take a
moment to explain why Omta is communicating using images from the deck.

Tens of thousands of years ago, Omta fled to a far corner of the
multiverse and has been hiding there ever since. He went into hiding
*before* mortals existed, and before mortals invented language. Because
of this, Omta has no idea what a “sentence” is. Back in those days, the
gods communicated with symbols, but those symbols were not arranged into
sentences. Instead, symbols were displayed in groups, associated with
each other but without any subject, verb, object relationship. This is
the only way Omta knows how to talk. He never learned how to speak a
language.

Omta likes to use cards from the deck as his preferred symbols. He
thinks the cards represent all the most important ideas, so in his mind,
they make the perfect communication symbols. Each card has multiple
meanings. For example, the gem card can mean “gems.” But it can also
mean “money”, or “wealth”, or even “precious.” It can also mean
“beautiful”, or even “sparkly.” Earlier in this book, the chapter *Cards
of the Deck* lists the symbolic meanings of the cards.

Any PC who drew a card from the deck knows, instinctively, the symbolic
meanings of that particular card. For example, if one of the PCs drew
the gem card, then that PC will know that the gem card has all the
meanings listed above. Of course, every PC drew three cards, so by
working together and sharing information, the PCs will be able to
decipher many of the symbols used by Omta.

But what about cards that the PCs didn’t draw? Nobody in the party drew
the *Sun* card, for instance. If the PCs want to know what the symbolic
meanings of the *Sun* card are, they will have to ask somebody who drew
the sun card.

### Omta Says: “Ask Me Questions, Mortals.”

The first piece of parchment that Omta gives to the PCs looks like this:

![](media/image7.png){width="5.0in" height="3.2416666666666667in"}

It means: “I want the four of you to ask me questions.”\
\
The cluster on the left represents the PCs: four people who drew the
Donjon card. The cluster on the right represents Omta: it contains his
holy symbol, a pair of dice with a sunburst. The PCs recognize the
symbol of the dice with the sunburst as the symbol that was on the box
of the Deck. The middle symbol is the Vizier card. If the PCs ask Lada
about the Vizier card, she says, “in the past, it used to grant mortals
the ability to ask questions of the gods.” As it turns out, that’s still
what it does.

Omta wants the PCs to ask him questions. He thinks that if the PCs start
by asking the right questions, then communicating with them will be
easier.

When the PCs try to interpret the scroll, they will probably say all
kinds of things that are incorrect. When the PCs say something
incorrect, they sense mild confusion from Omta via the telepathic link.
This is their clue that they’re on the wrong track.

When they say something correct, part of the scroll becomes brighter,
bolder, more colorful. For example, if somebody says, “I think this
cluster on the left represents the four of us,” then the PCs sense
excitement from Omta, and the cluster on the left becomes bolder,
brighter, clearer. This is the PCs clue that they’re on the right track.
But the fact that only the cluster on the left became bolder tells them
that they haven’t deciphered the whole scroll, only the part on the
left.

If the PCs get stuck, which is likely, they may get frustrated. In that
case, Lada says, “I think part of the problem is that we don’t know what
this vizier symbol really means. Do we know anybody who drew the vizier
card? Maybe they would know.” That’s the key to understanding *all* of
Omta’s messages: go find the people who drew the cards.

If you go find the people who drew the cards, in general, those people
will know what the cards mean. However, some of those people are very
difficult to talk to. For example, Borghan is in the form of a bear,
which makes it extremely difficult to get any kind of useful information
out of him.

Fortunately, there is a woman who drew the Vizier card: Brunna the
Antiquarian. She is not hard to talk to, and she is very helpful in
interpreting the messages.

Now that Omta has given the PCs this message, he refuses to help with
navigation any more until the PCs figure out what his message means. He
takes the PCs to the basement landing, and won’t bring them anywhere
else. If the PCs reenter the labyrinth, Omta will just bring them back
to the basement landing.

Of course, if the PCs do figure out that they’re supposed to ask
questions, they’ll probably try asking all sorts of questions. But only
three questions will elicit a response:

-   Why are you afraid?

-   What is your goal?

-   Who are you?

These questions don’t have to be phrased exactly like that. For example,
instead of asking “What is your goal,” the PCs could equivalently ask,
“What are you trying to accomplish,” “Why is the deck here,” or anything
along those lines.

Asking any question other than the three questions above will result in
no reaction. Omta won’t answer arbitrary questions, he has specific
things he wants to convey.

Sometimes, the PCs get focused on their *own* goals, and they start
asking questions like, “how can we get to where the deck is.” Omta
reacts to these questions with annoyance. If the PCs get stuck asking
questions about their own goals, Lada eventually gives them a hint: “We
should ask him about his agenda, not about how he can help us with
ours.”

If one the PCs ask one of the three key questions, Omta conjures another
scroll: the answer to the question. As soon as the PCs ask one of the
three questions, Omta will permit the PCs to traverse the basement
again.

### Asking: “Why are you Afraid?”

Omta conjures this scroll if the PCs ask the question, “Why are you
afraid:”

![](media/image3.png){width="5.0in" height="3.225in"}

The meaning of this scroll is: “I’m afraid because Tymora intends to
kill me!”\
\
The cluster on the left represents Omta. It contains Omta’s holy symbol,
the Sun card, and Euryale. In this context, the Sun card means “god,”
Omta is just letting the PCs know that he’s a god. The Euryale card
means “fear,” it represents the fact that Omta is afraid.

The cluster on the right represents Tymora. Again the Sun card means
“god,” because Tymora is a god. The gem card is there because Tymora’s
holy symbol is a coin, Gem is the closest thing in the deck to “coin.”
The skull card conjures an “avatar of death” that immediately tries to
kill you. In this context, it means “a dangerous killer.”

In reality, Omta is overly fearful. This is because in Omta’s past, his
formative experiences involved another god who was much more aggressive
and dangerous than Tymora. Now he expects all gods to be dangerous and
aggressive. Fear and anxiety are not always rational: Omta is scared.

In fairness, to Omta, Tymora is no murderer, but she is very angry, and
she won’t rule out the possibility of a fight. So Omta really is in some
danger.

### Asking: “What is Your Goal?”

Omta conjures this scroll if the PCs ask the question, “what do you
want,” or equivalently, “why are you here,” or “why is the deck sticking
around:”

![](media/image4.png){width="5.0in" height="3.2333333333333334in"}

The meaning of this scroll is: “I have to save the universe from
Rennick, before he ruins everything!”\
\
In this scroll, the upper-left cluster represents Omta. It contains his
holy symbol, and also the knight card, which means “defender,” in this
case, the defender of the universe.

The cluster on the right represents Rennick. It contains the Vizier
card, meaning (in this case) a seer or a scholar: Rennick is a
researcher. It also contains the Idiot card - Omta thinks that Rennick,
for all his knowledge, is a careless idiot. Finally, it contains the
“ruin” card, meaning that Rennick is going to destroy everything.\
\
The bottom cluster represents the entire universe. Omta frequently uses
the combination “Star-Gem” to represent the universe. Star means
“wondrous thing,” and gem means “beautiful thing.” Omta thinks the
universe is a wonderful, beautiful thing. But identifying that star-gem
is a reference to the universe is quite difficult. However, many of the
scrolls contain the star-gem combo. Other scrolls provide clues that
star-gem might be the universe.

Of course, the ruin card in the bottom cluster means that Omta is afraid
that the universe is going to be ruined.

### Asking: “Who Are You?”

Asking somebody who they are is a very open-ended question. When Omta
gets this question, he decides to tell his whole life story, in the form
of four scrolls. To make this clear to the players, Lada should say this
explicitly: “Four scrolls? Is this his entire life story?”

When you look at the four scrolls, you’ll notice that the scrolls have
page numbers: the comet cards. But the page numbering is backward from
what you might expect. The comet symbol represents time, usually the
past. So one comet means “a long time ago,” but four comets means “a
long, long, long, long time ago.”

Here are the four scrolls, in chronological order:

![](media/image5.png){width="5.0in" height="3.234880796150481in"}

Omta is trying to tell the following story:\
\
“A god created the universe. He was the original bricklayer, he was the
king of the gods. But he was a beast, and he was possessive and
controlling. The universe he created was a wondrous item, it was
beautiful, but it was flawed. It was too predictable, too boring. I was
wise, and I knew how to fix the universe. But I knew the creator was
possessive and wouldn’t want me to touch his creation. So I snuck into
the universe, making sure the creator didn’t see me, and I taught the
universe how to use *randomness*.”

That’s a lot to interpret from just a few symbols! Let me walk you
though how the symbols on the scroll tell that story.\
\
The cluster on the right represents the creator god. It contains the Sun
card, meaning “god.” It contains the bricklayer card, which of course
means creator or builder, but it also implies possessive and
controlling. The throne card means “king,” but it also implies that he
rules by sheer might. The creator is the king of the gods because he is
the most powerful god.

The cluster on the right is the best starting point. Since it contains
the king of the gods, the bricklayer, it strongly suggests that this
story is a creation myth. And if this is a myth about the creation of
the universe, well then it follows that the universe must be here on the
scroll somewhere.

Getting your players to realize this is a creation myth can be tricky,
so be attentive for when somebody says something about creation of the
universe. As soon as they do, give them positive feedback in the form of
the entire scroll getting a little bolder. Letting them know this is a
creation myth is essential to them deciphering this.

The cluster in the center represents the universe. It uses the star-gem
combo, which the Deck frequently uses to indicate the universe. Star
means “wondrous item,” gem means “beautiful item.” This is the best Omta
can do to summarize the universe.

The cluster also contains the cripple card, meaning sick or unhealthy.
But it’s not immediately obvious how the universe was sick or unhealthy
until you think about it logically: this is the Deck we’re talking to.
Its whole agenda is *randomness*. If the deck doesn’t like the universe,
it must be because the universe lacks randomness.

The cluster on the left means Omta. It contains his holy symbol, and the
owl card, meaning “wise.” Omta thinks he’s wise, because he thinks he
knows how to cure the universe. The key card means “teaching a skill.”
Omta is teaching the universe how to be random. The rogue card means,
“being sneaky.” In this case, it represents the fact that Omta knew the
creator wouldn’t want anyone messing with his stuff, so Omta knew he had
to sneak into the universe and not get caught.

You will have to give your players *many* hints. The most valuable hint
they can receive is feedback: if they say something that’s on the wrong
track, they receive annoyance from Omta. If they say something that’s on
the right track, parts of the scroll light up to show what they got
right.

Here is the second part of the story:

![](media/image9.png){width="5.0in" height="3.216266404199475in"}

This part of the story is simple:

“I fled the scene of the crime. I hid in the farthest reaches of the
void! I was terrified.”\
\
Omta knew that the creator god was controlling and possessive, and that
he wouldn’t want anybody messing with his creation. So after altering
the universe, Omta fled the scene of the crime and hid. He was terrified
that the creator would find out what he did, and kill him.

In this scroll, there is one cluster, containing Omta’s holy symbol.
Omta is all alone. The dungeon card here means imprisonment or
isolation, in this case, self-imposed. The void card means literally,
“in the farthest reaches of the void.” The rogue card means, “still
being sneaky.” And the Euryale card means, “terrified.”

Then, this happened:

![](media/image6.png){width="5.0in" height="3.234880796150481in"}

This is the story Omta is trying to tell:\
\
“I was trying to be sneaky, but Selune found me out. She saw what I did,
then she found me in the void. I’m such an idiot! I should have been
more careful! Fortunately, Selune was wise. She agreed to keep silent:
she would not tell anyone what I did, or where I was hiding, or even
that I exist.”\
\
Let’s go over that one symbol at a time. The cluster on the right is
Omta. Rogue means he’s still trying to be sneaky. Euryale means he’s
still terrified of getting caught. But Idiot means he’s failed: he’s
been caught.

The cluster on the left is Selune. Sun-Moon means “goddess of the moon,”
ie, Selune. Owl means “wise.” Void, in this case, means “silent.”\
\
Notice that Omta is calling Selune “wise.” That strongly suggests that
Selune “did the right thing” in the eyes of Omta. And obviously, “doing
the right thing” would be *not* revealing Omta to the creator, not
getting him killed. And obviously, Omta is not dead, so obviously, she
*didn’t* turn him in.

Understanding the void card in Selune’s cluster is difficult. When
somebody lists off the meanings of the void card, one of them is
“Silence.” Try to give them the feedback that silence is the right
interpretation here. But what does that mean, Silence?

To really understand, Lada needs to remind the players of the vision
with Selune. In that vision, Selune said: “A long, long time ago, I
promised to keep a secret.” Selune was specifically referring to the
incident in this scroll! She promised Omta that she would not reveal his
existence to the creator. That’s why, when the PCs talked to Selune in
that vision, she couldn’t say any more - if she revealed Omta’s
existence, that would be breaking the promise. So the void card, in this
context, means “keeping silent - keeping a secret.”

Again, you will need to provide *lots* of hints and feedback.

Here is the final page of the story:

![](media/image8.png){width="5.0in" height="3.234880796150481in"}

### Learning the Meanings of the Cards

In order to decipher Omta’s scrolls, the PCs will need to know the
symbolic meanings of all the cards. Many of the cards have some obvious
meanings, and some non-obvious meanings. For example, the Key card can
literally mean, “A Key.” That’s completely obvious. It can also mean,
“To Lock,” or “To Unlock.” That’s not as obvious, but it’s still pretty
easy to guess. But because the Key card can grant a skill, the Key card
can also mean “A Skill.” That’s non-obvious, and to learn that, you may
have to talk to somebody who drew the Key card. They will know all the
meanings.

Anyone who draws a card from the deck gains a magical awareness of what
that particular card means. Since each PC drew three cards, each PC
knows the exact meanings of three of the cards. By pooling their
knowledge, the PCs can figure out the meanings of quite a few of the
cards. However, there are still quite a few cards that the PCs will not
have drawn. To find out those meanings, the PCs will have to seek out
NPCs who drew those particular cards.

Another thing the PCs can do to learn the meanings of the cards is to
ask Lada. Lada is a researcher into Luck, and the Deck is one of her
most favorite research topics. However, all of her knowledge comes from
historical records. That’s a problem, because Omta constantly changes up
the cards and their meanings. Lada’s knowledge is just plain
out-of-date. If the PCs ask Lada the meaning of a card, you should read
the description of the card from the DM’s guide! If the card isn’t in
the DM’s guide, then Lada says she’s never heard of the card before.

Lada is crystal clear about the fact that her knowledge is not
trustworthy. She explains that her knowledge might be out-of-date, and
she explains that some of the historical records she’s using might be
entirely made up by liars. She says that her information is potentially
useful, but that it should be taken with a big grain of salt. In fact,
the descriptions in the DM’s guide *do* match the ones in this module
for some of the cards, but most cards have at least some differences.

### Help your Players Decipher the Scrolls

You will have to help the PCs decipher the scrolls. You will need to
give them *lots* of hints.

The scrolls contain symbols which have many meanings. Because of this,
interpreting a scroll is an incredibly open-ended puzzle. That’s fun,
but there’s a downside: it means that it’s very easy for the PCs to go
off on a tangents with wild misinterpretations.

The first step to keeping your players on track is to repeatedly remind
them: *talk to the NPCs who drew the cards*. You need to impress this on
your players: it’s fun to try to guess what the cards represent, but
until you talk to the people who drew the cards, you’re just guessing.

For example, some player might convince himself that he just *knows*
that the Sun card must mean fire and flame and destruction. It
absolutely doesn’t mean that at all. If the PCs spend hours trying to
make sense of a scroll, starting with the assumption that “Sun” means
fire and flame and destruction, they’re going to go down a rabbit hole.\
\
When the PCs do this, you can try to bring them back down to earth in
two ways: one, you can have NPCs speak up. Lada might say, “I am not
sure that’s what the Sun card means. That doesn’t seem consistent with
the historic effects of the Sun card, it didn’t burn or destroy
anything. Maybe we should go talk to somebody who drew the Sun card.”

You can also have Omta react, via the telepathic link. When the PC says,
“this card means fire and flame,” have Omta react with mild annoyance.

Another thing you will have to do is provide positive feedback. When the
PCs are talking about the scrolls, they will say lots of things that are
wrong, and occasionally, something that is right. When they say
something right, they should get positive reinforcement. Omta should
react with enthusiasm via the telepathic link, and the relevant portion
of the scroll should become brighter, bolder. Of course, there’s a risk
of giving too much away this way, so use your judgement about how much
you reveal, and how accurate the PCs need to be before they get positive
feedback.

During the deciphering of the scrolls, the PCs are likely to do some
twenty-questions style guessing. For example, when deciphering the
scroll “what are you afraid of,” the PCs might just start listing
everyone they can think of: “Are you afraid of Rennick? Of Green? Of
Beshaba? Of Tymora?” That last one is right, but not because the PCs had
any insight. That’s not really how we want this puzzle to be solved.
It’s up to you how to react to this. If the players do this just a
little, you might have the Tymora section of the scroll light up anyway.
If the players do it too much, Omta gets annoyed and closes the
telepathic connection for an hour or two. The PCs can sense that he’s
not listening right now, and that guessing was just annoying him.

If the PCs do solve a portion of a scroll through a wild guess, have the
relevant section of the scroll become bolder, but only barely. For
example, if somebody makes a wild guess that the cluster on the right of
the “what are you afraid of” scroll represents Tymora, have that cluster
get a little bolder, but the three cards inside do not illuminate.
Explain that to fully illuminate the cluster, the PCs will have to
decipher the specific meanings of each piece of the cluster.

The last thing you can do to help the players is to have NPCs give
hints. You should use your judgement about how many hints you want to
give: enough to get the players to make progress, but not so many that
it feels easy. You will definitely need to give some, though.

There are several NPCs who can provide hints, chief among them: Lada and
Penny. Lada is insightful about the deck because she’s researched it her
whole life. Penny is insightful because she just has a natural affinity
for languages.

You, the DM, can use Penny to give the PCs exactly the amount of hinting
that they need, and no more. When the PCs show the scrolls to Penny,
Penny should stare at them and make some basic observations (like, “So
you guys drew three of these cards, but two of them are unknowns.”)
Then, after a few basic observations, have her say something seriously
insightful.

From that point forward, dish out the insightful observations at a pace
that works for your PCs. If they need more help, give them more
observations. If they seem to be getting it on their own, give them
fewer.

Penny really enjoys studying the scrolls: she really likes foreign
languages! She’s always bright and perky, but when she’s working on the
scrolls she’s especially happy. She says: “This is fun! If you get any
more of these scrolls, please show them to me. Oh, and if you learn the
meanings of any more cards, please let me know.”

Here is a list of things the two NPCs could say:

**Observation**:

How many cards are there in the deck? Roughly 20, we think? Think about
it, if you’re writing in a language that has only 20 words, then every
word is going to have to have lots of meanings.

**Observation:\
**Look, I know a lot about languages, but that doesn’t mean that I can
tell you the meaning of a symbol without any context. Of course, some
meanings are obvious. The gem card can obviously mean, “a gem.” But does
it also mean wealth in general? Can it mean “money?” Probably, but I
won’t know for sure until we talk to somebody who actually knows.

**Observation:**

I hear you guys trying to solve these scrolls, without first leaning the
meaning of the cards. For example, this scroll has a Sun card on it, and
you haven’t spoken to anyone who drew the Sun card. So I think it’s too
early to try to solve the scroll. I wouldn’t try solving a scroll, until
you know the meanings of all the cards on it. You could make yourselves
crazy.

**Observation:\
**Penny: Imagine you’re expressing ideas with drawings. If you wanted to
say “candle,” what would you draw?

PC: A candle.\
Penny: Ok, now let’s say you wanted to say, “candlelight.” What would
you draw?

PC: Uh, I guess a candle with rays of light coming from the flame?

Penny: OK, now let’s say you wanted to say, “wax.” What would you draw?

PC: Uh, I guess a candle with some wax pooling?

Penny: If you looked at somebody else’s drawing of a candle, would you
be entirely sure which concept the artist was trying to communicate? I
guess my point is, if you see a symbol, don’t be so sure that you have
the right meaning. Every image, like candle, could have many possible
meanings.

**Observation:\
**I see that this scroll has a cluster containing “star, gem, ruin.”
That one contains a cluster containing “star, gem, cripple.” That one
contains “star, gem, tiger.” I feel like these all represent the same
thing - in this one, star-gem is sick, in this one, star-gem is healthy,
and in that one, star-gem is in danger of being ruined. So whatever
star-gem is, I bet it’s the same in all these scrolls.

**Observation:**

Using picture-based languages, it’s really hard to express abstract
concepts. If I wanted to express the concept of “love,” I might draw a
puppy, because I really love puppies. But that’s subjective. Somebody
else might use a puppy to represent the idea of “delicious.” I think
that to really fully decipher these scrolls, you’re going to have to get
to know this being a little. You’re going to have to learn what concepts
he associates to what images.

**Observation:\
**The common tongue is written left-to-right, in the order subject,
verb, object. But remember that not all languages use that order. Some
languages don’t have any order. My point is: just because something is
on the left side of the scroll, don’t assume it’s the subject. It might
not be consistent.

**Observation:**

It’s easy to get fixated on a meaning for a card. In this first scroll,
the vizier card means “asking questions.” But I think if we’re not
careful, we’ll assume it means the same thing in the next scroll too. It
might not. Don’t accidentally get locked in to a single meaning just
because it worked for you once.

**Observation:\
**I notice that on this scroll, the Ruin card appears twice. I bet one
of them is for the person who’s doing the ruining, and the other is for
the thing that’s being ruined.

**Observation:**

Never forget about the literal interpretation. In some places, the sun
card might mean, literally, “the sun.” In some places, the vizier card
might mean literally, “a vizier (a seer).” In some places, the gem card
might mean literally, “gems.”

**Observation:\
**The ogre Pig drew the throne card. But if you go ask him what the
throne card means, he probably doesn’t have the necessary intelligence
to verbalize all the possible interpretations. My point is: if you’re
asking somebody about a card, keep in mind who you’re talking to, and
bear in mind that they may not want or be able to tell you everything
there is to know.

**Observation:\
**If I wanted to represent the concept of werewolf, I might choose
“moon” and “beast.” But if you saw “moon” and “beast” together, would
you think of a werewolf? Maybe, but you might think of an owl instead. I
guess what I’m saying is, be open to the possibility that there might be
another interpretation.

### The Steel Barrier Becomes a Steel Door

The lounge area contains the steel barrier that separates the lounge
from the laundry area. Initially, the steel barrier is just a barrier.
But once the PCs receive the scrolls, it physically changes: three
hinges appear, transforming it from a barrier into a door. Six
pigeonholes appear in the surface. A brass plaque appears, bearing the
symbols: *Vizier, Key*.

The meaning of the inscription *Vizier, Key* is: “Knowledge is the Key
to opening this door.” More specifically, Omta won’t let you through the
door until you’ve read all six scrolls. He isn’t going to let the PCs
approach the Deck until they have heard Omta’s side of the story.

It’s completely obvious that to unlock the door, you have to put
something into the holes. The PCs may try jamming random objects into
the holes. If they do, the objects just pop back out. If the PCs keep
that up too long, they start to sense frustration from Omta. However,
nothing bad happens.

If the PCs try inserting a scroll into a pigeonhole, they will notice
that it fits *perfectly*. Unlike other random items inserted into the
pigeonholes, the scrolls slide back out much more slowly, making it
obvious that the players are getting closer. If none of the players
figure it out, Lada will tell them what they have to do: “Maybe we’re
supposed to read the scrolls before inserting them in the door.”

To unlock the door, the PCs must ask all three of the key questions in
order to obtain all six scrolls. Then, they must decipher all six of the
scrolls. Once a scroll is properly deciphered, it can be inserted into
the door, triggering the sound of mechanical tumblers. The scroll will
remain in the pigeonhole. When all six scrolls are deciphered and in
their pigeonholes, the door opens, and the PCs can finally meet and talk
to Omta directly.