One Does Not Simply Walk Into More Doors:Part 2

Log Info

• Title: One Does Not Simply Walk Into More Doors:Part 2
• Emitter: Whirlpool
• Characters: Gaerth, Jinks, Lyme, Lysos, Skielstregar, Vaera
• Place: Forests of Dragonier
• Time: September 15th, 2021, 9:30 PM
• Summary: After a trip by gnomish crewed airship, the adventuring party hired by Griva Brassbringer disembarks from their transportation into the forests of the fallen kingdom of Dragonier, in search of the wizard whos aid they are requesting for the resurrection of Animus. They were provided with a map, and they are thankfully able to read it without too much issue. Though the location where they are lead to isn't a building, but a door and doorframe left in the forest. After deliberation on how to proceed, and precautions made, the door is opened after an attempt to greet the owner, revealing, another door. And behind that, a stone staircase which the group descends. At the end of the stairs, another darker wood door, leading to a stone hallway. Continuing down leads them through several more ornate doors, the group stopping to investigate them, but finding little of concern. Until, while investigating one of the doors, the door attacks Vaera!

Lysos is the last one off of the airship, missing every single bit of discussion regarding party leadership having found a secluded place to seclude herself.. in seclusion. She's a little bit unsteady on her feet after she climbs down from the landed vessel.. definitely due to the transition from air travel to being landbound again. Certainly not because of the now smaller number of beverages skins she keeps stowed in her pack. A walking staff is gripped in one hand, her eyes on the forests beyond. "Well! We're here now! Time for terrible things to happen. Let's go."

GAME: Vaera rolls perception: (1)+8: 9 (EPIC FAIL)

GAME: Skielstregar rolls perception: (18)+6: 24

GAME: Gaerth rolls Perception: (12)+2: 14

GAME: Jinks rolls Perception: (5)+7: 12

GAME: Lysos rolls perception: (1)+6: 7 (EPIC FAIL)

There's a clanging coming from the ship. A wave of some kind of unsettling aura comes. Followed by a tall, armored tarnished bronze scale sith-makar. His head is ducked low, and a halbred is held in hand, used as a walking stick. A half burned poncho barely covers extra weapon on his back, and a hand covers his mouth. "By the Dragonfather, thisss one isss sssorry, sssorry," he mumbles deeply, just as deeply as they were embarrassed. He picks up right at the tail end as the group starts their venture.

Gaerth looks at the bze Sith emerging, but doesn't show more alarm than that. With the party beginning their travel, the Sunblade stays near the front of the group, hand on the hilt of his longswrd, shield attached to his arm, eyes scanning the surroundings for danger as they all move. He doesn't insist on being *the* front of the group, since the more wood-wise members need to be scouting ahead. Still, he's close enough to the front to dash in should trouble arise.

The airship will be waiting in the area for you, it seems, so all you have to do is make it back here when the mission is complete.

The map provided is a good one. Following it is not easy but it's not as difficult as some might fear.

There's a a walk to be had into the edge of a very dead looking forest. Very dead, actually.

Not even the chirp of a single bird.

"Mmmhmmm," Lysos says, suppressing the dread beneath a layer of doom and gloom. "This reminds me of something." Pause. "Oh right. That time the dead tried to eat me." She lets her breath out, hand straing to her pack, temptation urging her to draw out its contents.. but she pulls it away, putting her hand to her forehead and briefly covering her eyes instead. "Well. In my experience, lots of the dead still have to see or hear you... so, best we be quiet."

Vaera seemed rattled to find she had somehow missed someone on the airship. So much so that she misread a splash of ink on the map for an extension of the path they were following at one point. Thankfully, there were others to pick up the slack, while she shook it out of her head, and she moved carefully through the forest, checking her bowstring and keeping it in hand.

Does a sith-makar gulp? Apparently, they do. The bronze scale gulps and holds his weapon with two hands as she scans the dead forest. It would look like he would be a part of it, with his lifeless eyes and tarnished scales. Were it not for the gout of visible, cold air that he exhales.

"Thisss one will try..." he rumbles to Lysos, sticking near Vaera as they go. Armored from chest to tail, certainly he could keep quiet...?

"Little bird, little bird... in the cinnamon tree..." The gnome sings the two lines quielty, pitchy and raw-throated. Looking askance at Lysos as she calls for quiet and smirking faintly. All in the timing. He clears his throat, hums, and then produces a hip flask to help lubricate future notes' passage. It's out of place in the dead quiet but it's remarkably muted for Jinks.

The bard's bejeweled baubles are also far from subtle.

With some of the tallfolk in armor he might not be the only one slowing things down, at least. Little victories.

Sadly for Lysos, the reduction if inter-party banter only makes her more nervous. It isn't long before she's drawing a slender wand from one of her skirt pockets to invoke its minor charm before secretting it away onc emore.

GAME: Lysos used a Wand of Mage Armor.

...it's several hours of walking in these dead land, the sounds of branches crunching under foot from time to time inevitable as you move. And then you find it.

A large door.

It's sitting in its frame here in the middle of nowhere, half tipped against a tree. But that's it.

Just a frame and a door.

Wizards.

Jinks adjusts the dead-god-enthusiast pin on the straight collar of his armor and clears his throat, walking in a semi-circular pattern to look at the side of the door "It's like someone is telling you a joke you know the punchline to, right?" A brief, slurred scale and theatrical game of peek-a-boo has his onyx eyes glowing pink as he regards the portal.

GAME: Jinks casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 5 DC: 15

"A joke? Perhaps you knock, and state your presence as an amusing pun, as the softckins do with their jokes." Vaera suggests, taking a lot at the area around the door.

"Or, perhaps that is just how it will go with the wizard, if they are able to survive in this place, they may be capable of having a free standing door lead to somewhere else."

"We're in the middle of a dead forest, and they're making jokes," Lysos mutters to herself, looking upwards. Or maybe her words are meant for someone higher. Her gaze lowers back down, looking at the door, sighing. "This might take a while." She makes a fist with one hand, then mimes turning a small lever around in circles with the other, while uttering, "Doodledoo."

GAME: Lysos casts Alarm. Caster Level: 7 DC: 17

Gaerth stands nearby the door, off to the side. He doesn't knock,he's not the group representative. He's there as 'compassionate muscle'; to take hits and help defend the party from threats. His shield is still strapped to his orearm, but he's no longer resting his hand on the pommel of his sword.

Skielstregar is also there, on the other side. Absolutely massive and tall and very hittable. But also looks more like a half dead lizard that's a bit too nervous despite all the reassuring weapons on him. A hand covers his fangs while they idly wait, though a chuff comes from him as Vaera makes her comment.

"Well, you might be amazed to find that it's magic." Jinks offers flatly, blinking away the glow from his eyes. "The right kind, too; Conjuration. The wizards that show up uninvited to dinner or always have a half-dozen planetouched critters fighting their battles for them. The good news is that it won't kill you." He makes a sweeping gesture inviting Lysos to knock on the door.

"Oh, well, it might if it opens and sucks you into, say, another plane. One of the inhospitable ones. Not that this one is particularly hospitable at times. (He said, standing in a forest of a fallen kingdom likely surrounded by ravenous, animated corpses.)"

The gnome blinks, shaking away his distraction and gestures Lysos towards the door again. "You were supposed to make friends, remember?"

"There is one way to find out." Vaera says, stepping back herself. "Perhaps one of you with magical abilities could open it at a distance? If traps, or inhospitable places are a concern. Though I would not be surprised if undead attempted to open it before, so a hostile environment spilling out while it is open is unlikely."

"He has a point," Gaerth says to Lysos. "the sooner we speak with the mage, the sooner we can be back on our way home." Vaera voices her idea, and Gaerth nods along with it. "That seems a prudent course of action. Wizardsthat enjoy their privacy to the extent they coose to live in a crsed land tend not to be hospitable."

Lysos grimaces. "Been to one of those. Has anyone mentioned the measure of my luck to any of you, by chance?" But she shrugs. A moment to consider Vaera's warning suggestion... then she shakes her head. "I've nothing of the sort that isn't rather... violent. And if my magic could do anything to this, I don't think whoever's in there would react well. As it is, I fully expect to come out of this with several warts." That said, she squares her shoulders, then steps up and rapps her knuckles on the door, three times. "Hello? Anyone home? We're not wights, I promise. We're not here to tell you any cookies or anything, either. Or religion. Please? We're cold."

"You wouldn't consider recruiting him to resurrect a dead god as 'selling religion?'" Jinks wonders idly of Lysos, a few paces off from the door and behind a small rock he can crouch and grab onto should the door open and try to suck them away to Perilous Adventure. "I'll give you it's a grey area but Animus was a god of twilight. Grey areas were absolutely His thing."

The door opens when it's knocked upon ... mostly because it seems loose and the jostling was enough to do it.

There is another door behind it. This one seems slightly less weathered and made of a darker wood.

"I think I hate this man," Lysos says flatly.

"Maybe he's elderly and bad with his money and has been taken advantage of by a greedy, scoundrel carpenter." Jinks ventures from behind the safety of the rock.

"... maybe thisss sssoftskin jussst likesss doors...?" Skielstregar offers, trying to be reassuring.

"Perhaps they are simply being careful. Do not let your guard down, they may be hiding wards for the doors behind others." Vaera warns, stepping a bit closer to look in. "They do live in a hostile undead infested forest, after all."

Lyme scowls. "I bet the way in isn't here behind the doors."

"Perhaps instead of saying what we aren't here for," Gaerth ventures aloud, "we should simly be upfront and announce what we *are* here for." He coughs to clear his throat, then says in a clear, calm voice. "We have come from Alexandria City, sent by Griva to enlist your aid on a matter of great importance to the City. May we speak with you?"

GAME: Gaerth rolls Diplomacy: (1)+10: 11 (EPIC FAIL)

The door remains closed. There is no response to the introduction. On the plus side, no magical traps explode.

Lysos waggles her fingers a few dozen times, looking at the new door. "No, we're not selling religion. We're here to tell him Griva needs him. She's the one who's going to sell the religion," she says. Splitting hairs, maybe. "Lyme is probably right... " she adds, while Gaerth suggests an idea, tries it. She watches the door, expecting... something? But there is nothing. Lacking any better ideas for the moment, she tries the next door. "Can't experiment with just one attempt... need more information."

The door opens. It reveals a set of stone stairs leading downwards into the darkness.

Jinks is happy behind the safety of the rock for the time being. The tallman is right; he has heard a story about her mistakenly plucking a baby otyugh from a park tree thinking it was a kitten. Her luck is famously bad. Too bad he wasn't there, though, as there was also tale of some fantastic gnomish acrobat (though he apparently couldn't hold his liquor). Then there's stair's leading down. "All's well with a stairwell, eh?"

Lyme sighs. "Alright. Who needs a light?"

"It is not wrong to think things through. I do not know if this wizard is expecting visitors still, so we must be careful. If they are even inside, but I would expect to not leave the door unlocked if that was the case." Vaera notes, peering into the door, and looking around before she steps back. "I will clear the tracks around the area. That way at the very least, undead hopefully do not follow our scent inside."

With the second door opening to a stairwell instead of Immediate And Nasty Death By Magic. Gaerth relaxes a bit. He unslings his pack and prepares one of his torches. "A Light spell would be better, but I have a few necessities."

GAME: Vaera rolls survival: (9)+8: 17

Skielstregar looks between all, then the stairwell. Him trying to make himself smaller, but not getting much. "...This one thinks we will have trouble fitting, redscale," he quietly rumbles to Vaera. But gets ready to move regardless, offering to take a position more to the front. <Draconic>

Jinks whistles four notes into his cupped hands, a soft glow spilling out from between his fingers. He opens his hands to loose a quartet of glowing will-o'-the-wisps; a cornflower blue to Lysos, apricot for Gaerth, and a pair of cavorting pink motes for himself. They bob and spiral lazily through the air, tinkling softly like distant windchimes. He comes out from behind the rock along with the lights, tilting his head to look past the bigger bodies and down the stairwell. "Maybe we leave Griva's name out of it unless we have to bring it up; she'd mentioned they weren't the greatest of friends."

GAME: Jinks casts Dancing Lights. Caster Level: 5 DC: 15

With the question of lighting solved by Jinks' spell, Gaerth stands back up. However, he keeps the unlit torch ready in his shield hand. He walks up to the doorway, peering down the stairs. "Any objections to my taking point? There may still be traps ahead. Ones that I couldsurvive more readily than other members of the party."

Lysos opens her mouth, then shuts it as the small, blue light dances about. She reaches into one of her pockets instead, pulling out a small pebble.. but doing nothing with it aside from palming it. "Looks like we're covered?" she queries... assuming the Sith can see in the dark. Or maybe they can see with their noses. Or something. She does look Lyme's way, holding the pebble up between her fingers as a silent offer. As for taking point, "I very much don't want to go." Pause. "First, I mean. I don't want to go first."

Skielstregar nods to Gaerth. "Thisss one can sssupport you..." he mumbles softly, stepping behind the man.

"It will be alright, you should be able to squeeze in. perhaps if you adjust your weapons some it will be easier." Vaera advises. I will clear any signs of our presence, and if you can get in before me, I should be just fine." She assures while getting most of the signs of footprints out of the area hopefully, before she joins the others at the door. "If that is the case, I will follow at the rear, in case anything tries to take us off guard there."

Lyme nods once, "Here. Stand behind me." He's armoured -- he's kinda like a tunnel-brush -- he'll take out the cobwebs along the way, too.

Gaerth nods to Skielstregar, appreciating the Sith's words. "We'll all support each other," he says with a quiet confidence. He then turns to Lysos, giving her a determined smile. "Worry not. I'll keep my shield between you and harm. My pledge on it." And with that, the young paladin steps forward onto the staircase. After a quick check for traps, of course.

Jinks takes up the penultimate place in the stairwell, glancing back to make sure Vaera has closed the door and is following before padding down behind Lysos and the others beyond. He glances at the walls as they go, the ceiling, and the stairs below them. Wondering where (if anywhere) this space might actually be.

...down the stairs, then, cautiously as you go. It's definitely a thing, traipsing down into a dimly lit stone hallway.

You reach the bottom of the stairs to fiiiiind...

...another door. This one is even darker wood than the last two and seems to have a nice brass handle and is a bit more ornate.

...but yes. It's door number three. Perhaps you are sensing a trend here.

Lysos does her best to peer around the several very large forms between her and the new obstruction. She doesn't need to see it, thought. She's pretty sure she knows what it is. "Another door?" she asks, as if to confirm. "I don't think Griva needs this fellow's help that much. She'd have paid us more. Let's go back and renegotiate."

Jinks can't really see anything with a band of tallmen between him and wherever they're going in this hallway. So when they all stop he just busies himself with another quick drink and a nibble on some sweet rolls from his stylish traveling pack. No, he didn't bring enough to share. Besides, they're tiny and you probably wouldn't enjoy them anyway. "Maybe when he studied Conjuration and they said 'extra-planar' he thought that meant a carpenter's plane." The gnome makes a two-handed shaving motion with the confection as a stand-in for the tool.

GAME: Gaerth rolls perception: (5)+2: 7

Vaera brang up the back of the group with her bow in hand. She kept lookout until the group came to a stop. Thankfully, she was tall enough to make peering over not an issue.

"Well, better to have a wizard have contingencies, than explore with reckless abandon." She says, peering at the structure. "It will be alright, but be careful, lest they try to lull us into complacency with nothing happening with the last doors."

Lyme huhs. "They keep getting darker. Wonder if they'll get so dark they'll turn into the void by the end of it." He looks around. "Everyone happy? I'm going through." And he will, if nobody stops him.

Skielstregar chuffs, a gout of cold air rolling over Gaerth from behind him. He glances behind him to Lysos, then the others. "Are all sssoftskinss trepidatiousss of doorsss?" he quietly hisses out, mostly airing his thoughts.

Gaerthexamines the door for a moment, the stands aside to let Lyme go through. "Looks clear. But I'm not a rogue profieicnt in discerning traps," he cautions

"No rogues here," Jinks agrees from somewhere in the back, "or scoundrels, cads, or ne'er-do-wells." He slaps his palms together to loose any stray crumbs and then has one last, long pull from his flask. "Only upstanding, law-abiding, community-minded folk. Telmentar would be so proud."

...the door opens, to reveal another hallway! Which you can walk down. There is no light but that which you brought, of course. A short trip down a hallway follows and then there's... you guessed it ...

ANOTEHR DOOR. This oine is larger and taller than the last, with a more ornate brass handle and fittings. There's the faint outlines of some kind of carving on it.

Lyme peers at the carving, squinting a little. he tries, at least, then makes way for the others. "Can you see this?" he asks with a gesture.

GAME: Vaera rolls perception: (7)+8: 15

"Only in half dead undead forests, when entering free standing doors in the middle of them, possibly owned by a wizard of questionable helpfulness." Vaera chuffs before she follows the group in through the next door. "Especiially when they have such a fascination with them. Looks like they even decorated this one." She says as she steps to the side of the group, peering around them at the door.

As they find yet another door,this one with carvings, Gaerth shifts to stand to the side to let the more learned members of the party examine the carvings

Skielstregar follows Gaerth's idea, him shifting to the side and going to a knee so the others could see/get closer to inspect.

As Lysos follows, sticking her tongue out briefly at Jinks's puns, she decides to address Skielstregar's question.. whether it was rhetorical or not. "Where do I start? Doors represent moving from one area to another... so they really take well to magic portals. So, there are tales on tales of people opening doors only to get drawn into other worlds. Jinks wasn't really joking earlier," she says. "And then there's the fact that you almost never know what's on the other side of one, so doors in strange places.. well, you might open it up and get charged by a monster! Or maybe take an arrow to your knee! Or maybe someone has a knife, waiting just beside the opening. Maybe it's darker or lighter, and it takes you a moment to adjust... boom! Fireball in the face." Oh yay, she found something to talk about to distract her from her unease.

GAME: Lyme rolls perception: (11)+4: 15

Jinks can be heard humming again from the back and then, for the briefest of moments, the hall plunges into black nothingness. Almost immediately the lights wink back into bobbing existence and their pleasant glow returns. He redistributes the quartet same as before. Any angry glares are met with raised eyebrows and a shrug, "Spell was about to expire."

Lyme huhs, as he keeps squinting. "Looks dragon-y." He then gets on with pushing through the doors. "Let's go."

"I can appreciate their taste in carvings at least, though the rendition leaves a bit to be desired. They could make the shape much more defined on that dragon." Vaera chuffs as she straightens back up, patting the sith in front of her on a shoulder. "And, I guess Lyme is going in. Hopefully it is not some enchantment of dragonfire, in that case."

Finally catching site of the door, Jinks gives a thoughtful nod. "Could be dragonier."

Gaerth pauses to give the orouch time to go through the portal before following him. All they've faced has been a series of doors, so far. And while some find it funny, others find it frustrating, Gaerth just accepts it. Patience was one of the virtues that was emphasized while training as a paladin.

Skielstregar looks back at Lysos as they go off on a rant about doors, him looking down at the floor for a moment before mumbling, "... sssoftskinss can keep their doorsss..." he follows after Gaerth, uncaring that the lights flicker.

As this door opens, there is a series of grinding clanks but no obvious indication what they did. You're able to progress easily enough before moving all the way down another hallway to ...

... ANOTHER door?!

This one, is slightly larger tha nthe rest, it would appear, and the carvings more elaborate. On each panel of the door, there is a carved out dragon, and light runes are etched aloing its frame.

Eldritch, of course,in nature.

Lysos doesn't make any effort to hide her sigh this time. "AND THEN there's that whole thing where doors indicate beginnings and ends, and how people sometimes simply forget what they were doing when they walk through one." Then, maybe, she finally realizes that she was ranting, and remembers that they're in what's not exactly friendly territory, so she closes her mouth. She does her best to crane her neck and peer around people to see the new door.

Lyme looks at Lysos. "Can you read these?" He points at the runes. "Because I sure can't."

Again, Gaerth stands to the side to allow others to investigate the doorframe. He'sstill watchful, warry of any dangers to emerge.

GAME: Lysos casts Read Magic. Caster Level: 7 DC: 16

As soon as a bit of space opens up, Lysos takes Lyme up on his invitation, squeezing by him and the others to look at the runes. Then she fishes a small, clear piece of glass from her pocket, encircles its radius with her thumb and forefinger, then holds it up to her eye as she says, "Cryptic."

Jinks busies himself with an idle dance as the others contemplate doors and how best to break on through to the other side. It's one of those things where his feet and legs move to scuff and grind quietly on the loose dust and scrabble but his hands steady his adventuring gear to minimize the noise of shaking equipment. Seems like the tallmen have things under control for now.

Lysos looks at the runes for a moment, presumably peering through the clear glass in her fingers.. then, slowly and deliberately, she pockets the trinket, rises back up to a standing position... and opens the door. Her face is deliberately, one might even say exceedinly, neutral.

With Lysos indicating that the door is, possibly, safe, Gaerth steps around her, then opens the door, pre[ared to continue onwards.

Skielstregar follows after, glad he was now unsubscribed to door facts.

"It is alright to be wary, but do not let it consume you." Vaera chuffs, following the others through. "Seems they are leaving the more intricate doors further down. I will admit, I am curious to see what comes next. Thankfully they have not been harmful to us as of yet."

Doors are the worst.

This door does open, however, with a looooooud creak, unlike the others that have opened just fine so far.

Another bit of stone, featureless hallway ...

... ANOTHER larger door. This oine has two handles, even more vibrant dragons and runes, and the wood is of the darkest color. The runes are even glowing.

By now, it's outine. When the tanks get tothe next door, Gaerth moves to the side to let the magic and lore members to examine the door. Especially a door with a strong glow on it's own.

GAME: Vaera rolls perception: (12)+8: 20

GAME: Lyme rolls perception: (6)+4: 10

Lyme just looks at the runes.. "Does anyone know what's going on here?"

"I can not tell you, but they seem more complicated as we go. The last door was different to open, too. I do not wish to risk things due to impatience." Vaera responds, crouching down to read the glowing runes. "I will let you know if I see anything of note."

Skielstregar gives a long sigh, filling the space in front of him with a cold cloud of air. He gives a grumble, with was a low growl in his chest that echoed in the hallway, as he steps over to one of the handles. "Thisss one thinksss the wisssard that made thisss, did thisss to weed out the impatient."

Gaerth nods to Skielstregar. "Possibly. But regardless of his intent, the doors are there and we need to go through them. It is prudent toexamine the doors and make sure they are not trapped or otherwise dangerous."

"You know what doors are good at?" Lyme says, annoyed. "Opening." And he pushes the glowing-rune door open too -- that is, if it opens.

Studying the door is a foregone conclusion at this point. While this tunnel may be a passage of increasinmgly ominous doors, so far none of them have tried to hurt you.

.. at least until now. When you lean forward to study it, yes, the door opens its mouth and attempts to swallow Vaera.