32 KiB
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:
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The emotions they’re receiving contain an awful lot of fear,
anxiety, and dread. Of course, this is because Omta is terrified of Tymora.
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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:
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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:
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Why are you afraid?
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What is your goal?
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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:”
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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:”
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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:
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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:
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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:
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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:
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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.