It's dark and cold. I can barely see the walls. It's as if I was surrounded by a mist, slightly distorting everything I see. My skin tenses, hair stands on end. I feel a presence, as though I were being observed, but I can't see who or what is there. I touch the floor. It's bare, unfinished, rough wood. I can feel sharp splinters brush against my hand. I'm sitting on some sort of cot.
The forest is chokingly thick in places, sparse in others. The trees appear blackened and charred. I can still smell the smoke. On the forest floor, rats (the size of wharf rats) scurry back and forth across the trail, occasionally fighting, shitting, fucking... doing what rats do.
All I can see of the path is a sign that says "forest path" at the beginning of the forest. I pick my way among the rats, only stepping on them occasionally. Eventually, my path is blocked by a massive ash tree that seems to have been there since the beginning of time. I am forced to spend days hacking through it, being attacked and bitten by the rats all the time.
There's a massive, still, dammed lake. It is completely dead and lifeless looking, as though it had been salted and poisoned. Nothing grows in it, and the sun reflects the sky's color, intensifying the blue to an unnatural level. The only part that actually moves is the section in the middle, where a single floodgate has been opened. Water rushes through this place, emptying into a vast, foamy, fast moving river. The river rocks sparkle like crystals. Again, though, any fish or algae that may have existed in the river have been washed away by its rage.
It is a silver chalice, like a Grail. It is painfully beautiful in the simplicity of its curves and design, though it's undecorated.
The key is platinum. Instead of teeth, irregular wires protrude from the end, like a comb. It is intricately decorated, and I see the image of a tower on it. It probably unlocks a tall, isolated, monolithic tower filled with books and poison and music.