When it came to Sofina's orders, Forge certainly dared not neglect them now. Especially with the High Sun Games about to begin, any mishap could disrupt his plans—let alone an annoying Emerald Enclave druid sneaking in!
So, the alarms of Neverwinter Castle rang out immediately. All the guards sprang into action, beginning a thorough search of the castle in an attempt to find Doric.
Doric herself first transformed from a fly into a mouse and squeezed into an empty suit of armor against the wall, hoping to pass as an ordinary guard. Unfortunately, the design of this armor was far too different from what the real guards wore. After only a few steps, she was spotted by a passing guard.
At the last possible moment, before being struck, Doric turned into a small bird and slipped through the bars of the castle dungeon, flying up into the sky.
However, since the bird's body was so tiny, its flight speed was also a problem. Just as Doric was considering transforming again into a larger flying creature, a black-robed witch appeared midair with a puff of black smoke.
Sofina raised her hand and unleashed a barrage of magic missiles. Doric, despairing at the sheer number of these unerring spells, was already contemplating whether to transform into an owlbear midair and take the hits head-on—though she didn't know whether Forge would then catch her and tear her apart, or if she'd just fall to her death.
"Don't panic," a voice suddenly appeared in Doric's mind. "I'll block this round of magic missiles for you. Transform back to your human form right now!"
Doric immediately realized this voice belonged to the female mage Aoko. Although she couldn't see where the mage was, there was no other choice at this point.
With a flash of wild shape magic, Doric returned to her human form midair, spreading her limbs and trying to maintain balance as the magic missiles drew ever closer.
Just as Doric gritted her teeth and closed her eyes to meet the coming death, she suddenly felt her back harness grabbed by something. Then came a string of "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" as the magic missiles hit their target.
"It's you!" Sofina screamed angrily. "Don't interfere, or I'll find you and kill you!"
Doric opened her eyes to see a thin field of force shield surrounding her, no doubt the reason she survived Sofina's missiles.
Just as she was about to transform and fly away again, the scene suddenly blurred before her eyes, and with a thud she landed on the floor of the Emerald Enclave's gathering hall.
"Caw! That scared me to death, scared me to death!" Stark let go of Doric and ran over to Aoko, complaining, "That crazy woman tried to use Finger of Death on a raven!"
"All right, all right," Aoko stroked Stark's feathers and handed it a box of freeze-dried food. "I was with you the whole time—how could I let you be killed by a single Finger of Death?"
The situation had been quite dangerous just now. Even Aoko had secretly wiped some sweat, and Doric herself had seen a crimson ray shoot toward her at the last moment...
Fortunately, Miss Aoko used Stark's teleportation spell to outmaneuver her enemies, and they returned to the Emerald Enclave just before being hit.
"How did it go?" Edgin immediately came over to ask Doric, "Did you see where the treasure vault is? What kind of magical seal is on it?"
"I overheard them," Doric picked herself up from the floor, politely declined Simon's help, then sat down at the round table, poured herself some water, and replied, "Forge and Sofina explained the vault's magical seal to envoys from Neverember and another city."
"That's great!" Edgin punched the air. "So, what exactly is it?"
"It's called something like 'Margenkainen's arcane seal' or something." Doric thought for a moment, then said, "Then I was discovered. Sofina chased me out of the castle and nearly killed me, but Miss Aoko arrived just in time."
"I'm sure now that Sofina has noticed me," Aoko said. "Her last words were 'It's you!'—meaning she'd already been paying attention to me."
"And, Sofina has the symbol of Thay above her head," Doric added. "She's a Red Wizard of Thay."
"Damn it, Forge let my daughter stay with a Red Wizard all this time!" Edgin slammed the table, furious. "He's known all along!"
"No wonder I couldn't counter her Time Stop..." Simon sighed. "But what you're talking about is probably the 'Mordenkainen's arcane seal.' We're screwed."
"How are we screwed? We haven't even tried yet!" Edgin looked at Simon in confusion. "You or Miss Aoko must have a way to break the seal!"
"You're overestimating us," Simon shrugged helplessly. "The Mordenkainen's arcane seal is impenetrable. The space inside it is sealed, even teleportation magic can't get in!"
"I've heard of that sealing magic," Aoko said thoughtfully, watching Stark eat, "There are at least two ways to break it."
"The first is to use the spell invented by the archmage Mordenkainen himself—'Mordenkainen's disjunction'—to shatter the seal," Aoko explained. "The second is to forcibly use an upcast Greater Dispel Magic to disperse the seal."
"That's great, so we do have options! Why the long face, Simon?" Edgin asked.
"That's because the first method, 'Mordenkainen's disjunction', is a 9th-level spell, and I'm one level short," Aoko patiently explained. "And the second method will cause the seal to explode."
"The explosion of the arcane seal will destroy everything inside the protected space," Simon added. "If we do that, there's no point in breaking into Forge's vault."
"So there's no other way?" Holga asked. "Isn't there a magic that can bypass the seal?"
"See, I hate it when people think magic is omnipotent," Simon covered his face. "Miss Aoko is much stronger than me, but even her magic has limits... unless we can get the Helm of Disjunction."
"What's the Helm of Disjunction?" Edgin looked at Aoko, hoping for an explanation.
"Hey, don't look at me," Aoko replied. "That's probably some powerful artifact from Faerûn. I'm not from around here—how would I know?"
"It's a helmet that nullifies all magical effects in its vicinity," Simon explained. "But here's the thing: the Helm of Disjunction was lost a hundred years ago. There's no way we can get it."
"I might know where it is," Holga suddenly said. "My tribe, the Elk Clan, once fought the Cult of the Dragon for it. That war happened in the Evermoors. We could ask them what happened to the helm."