NPX: Gates of the Shadowkeep

[Nahal]

We'll deal with that if it becomes an issue, Davek replies to Kazz. Though if Callos is correct (which I'm guessing he is) the two of them (gesturing to Fizahn and Callos) should be able to command any security measures to let the rest of us through. Unless, of course, they're more inclined to let us wait out the night with the roaring bonfire we have going here, he adds with no small amount of sarcasm. I'm also rather curious as to what's behind those central doors, if the twin keeps are through the ones with statues.

[Koji]

Kazz

She gives the indicated pair an appraising look, and sighs. "Those two are neither wide nor tall enough to get between us and whatever's opposite those doors. Wouldn't it be smarter to head for the village and come back in the morning? No offense, gentlemen, but I am in no way convinced that any of this belongs to either of you."

[Naleh]

Retay

"No," replies Retay suddenly, "it wouldn't. It's a long way down to that village. Terrain like that, in the dark, is too dangerous. And there's the weather - cold, wet - and with a bit of bad luck, fatal.

"We can go further inside, or we can stay here," he concludes with a definite tone. "But we can't risk leaving."

[Nahal]

Davek nods. I agree. No offense m'lady, but that's definitely not the kind of storm you venture out into with nothing but a cloak and a smile to keep the cold off. This room isn't much better either. In my opinion our question is which of the doors we're going through, or whether we're splitting up.

[Knubs]

Kavri

"One door or the other, it really doesn't matter to me. Probably the one the gnome claimed would be more fun to trespass on. Time to get out of the cold though. That's for certain." Kavri walks towards the keeps stopping behind Callos and Fizahn, waiting for them to make some sort of decision.

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

"Splitting up tends to be more trouble than it's worth. Especially now that the majority of us are unarmed and unfamiliar to this place, its best if we all stay together. Who knows. The deck of cards may have swanked out both of your respective towers...." Aeroz states impatiently.

[Dr._Bob]

Fizahn quickly strides from doorway to doorway. None of the three pairs of doors appear to be locked or trapped. But as he runs his hands over the seams of the doors, he does note subtle differences.

Cold air leaks through the cracks between the "hippogriff" doors.

A very faint hint of light, perceptible to Fizahn's keen eyes, but likely not visible to any of his human companions, outlines the pair of central, unadorned, doors.

When he places one ear (which he notes seem to be slightly more pointed than it ought to be) against the "minotaur" doors, he can hear a very faint rumbling, low and almost inaudible.

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan

Elthan stands back, correcting his simple black hair with one hand as he waits. "If you're really all that eager to explore, just remember it's your place, so we'll be going gnome and necromancer first into any danger that might be around."

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Tiriel follows the group numbly into the chamber. Since Fizahn, no one has said a word to her and she keeps her silence. As Elthan starts to light a fire Tiriel realizes that she's cold. Not just a little cold either, but really cold. Which is very odd. She'd gone through all of the northern mountains feeling fine and now after just standing in the rain for a few moments she's freezing.
I can't fly and now I can't even keep warm, she thinks bitterly to herself, I don't know what happened, I guess I should be glad that I'm alive but... Who, and what, am I now?

Instinctively Tiriel mores closer to the feeble fire but she soon finds her attention drawn toward one of the large doors across the room. To see Elthan, Fizahn and Callos all doing something by the door makes her uneasy, and despite the cold she walks toward them.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn steps back and looks at the three doors together. I don't think we want it to get colder. Rumbling's usually a sound of running water. If there's better light, it might mean a fire. "No traps on any of them. The best ones to go through would be the central doors, in my opinion. If anyone wants to argue with me, go right ahead." Fizahn waits for anyone else to offer an opinion before going and opening the unadorned central doors.

[Rodrick_the_Red]

Patash; Dragonborn Cleric

Patash gathers with the others at the door. "Fizahn, I am in no mood to argue with anyone. The center doors are a good way to start." he replies.

Patash positions himself to support who ever opens the door.

[Zid]

Mazom

Coming in from the cold snow-mixed rain, Mazom hold up the sunrod high, obviously impressed with the surroundings.

"This place is definately well built." Turning to Fizhan, he makes an inviting gesture. "By all means, open the doors. As I understand it, you are the owner anyway. I´m just lucky that I´m not still a garden ornament."

[Nahal]

Davek

I'll second that! Anything else we need to do before moving on? Davek moves towards the central door but doesn't go through, instead waiting for the rest of the group (or at least Callos and/or Fizahn).

[Tanaar]

Darros

Darros moves cautiously in through the open doors, keeping to the wall. Calling Light to his orb, he holds it high, shedding illumination as far as he can, a spell ready on his lips.

[Koji]

Kazz

Kazz runs a hand through her hair and discovers for the first time that there are more feathers in it. She gives one an experimental tug and it comes free. She winces, and stares at it with disbelief, completely unused to the idea of feathers actually growing from her head.

She wonders briefly what she looks like, suddenly coming to the uncomfortable realization that she has never seen herself in a mirror.

[Dr._Bob]

The doors open into a long room, 120' long and roughly 40' wide. The ceiling here is probably 10' high, but compared to the airy entrance hall, the room seems much more intimate.

A table stands next to the doors, its surface covered with dozens of small votive candles. The candles flicker randomly, but do not seem to be affected by the stirring of the air caused by the opening of the doors. When you place your hand above the candles, you find that the candles produce no heat.

Fourteen alcoves, seven to the right and seven to the left, line the walls of the chamber. Set into each alcove is a rough hewn block of stone. Each block has a different engraving.

Along the left wall, the blocks are engraved with (from the front of the room to the back) a sun, a sword with its point upraised, a diamond-shaped shield, a star, a castle, a tree, and the skull of a bird.

Along the right wall, the blocks are engraved with (from the front of the room to the back) a moon, a sword with its point downward, a dragon skull, a spider, a fist, a serpent, and a shattered skull.

At the far end of the gallery is another set of double doors.

[Tanaar]

Darros

Walking forward slowly, Darros examines the first pair of blocks, gazing at them with eyes enhanced by his arcane sight.

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Arcana checks for Detect Magic: (d20+11)[15] (d20+11)[13]

[Awesomologist]

Addis Qatur

Addis follows the others through the doorway. Seeing the symbols above the doors the elf takes a moment to look them over carefully.

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Checking to see if any of the symbols may be affiliated with gods or holy symbols. And perception check to make sure we're not missing anything. If any one else wants to do a perception don't forget elves grant others in their party a +1.
Religion Check - (1d20+4)[3](7)
Perception Check - (1d20+6)[6](12)
Edit: Hmmm... Can we take 10? 20?

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn gives a cursory glance at the blocks, and decides to ignore them. He walks over to the table and frowns at it. "And here I expected them to have dinner all set out for us. What a shame." He then walks to the next set of double doors and begins inspecting them for traps.

OOC: Perception: - (1d20+5)[21]

[Rodrick_the_Red]

Patash; Dragonborn Cleric

Patash attempts to take one of the candles and examines each of the alcoves, paying particular attention to the block with the dragon skull. Could this be a symbol of Bahamut? he thinks to himself.

After inspecting each of the alcoves, Patash asks "Does anyone recognize any of these symbols?"

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Patash searches each alcove and attempts to determine if the symbols represent holy symbols of a diety.

Perception Check (1d20+3)[20]
Religion Check (1d20+5)[16]

[Zid]

Mazom

Mazom inspects the different symbols, scratching his head.

"I wonder what the different symbols could mean. The holy symbol of Pelor is a sun, and the moon is obviously the opposite or counterpart of the sun. Could it be the representation of several different gods and the evil dieties that oppose them? Corellon, Lolth, the Raven Queen, Tiamat?"

The paladin snaps open the buckle that holds his sword thightly fastened in his scabbard with one hand.

[Nahal]

Davek

Following the group into the gallery, Davek is perplexed by the symbols at first, attempting to recall their significance until Mazom points it out for him.

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Untrained Religion check to recognize the symbols: (1d20+4)[13]

These do seem like holy symbols, though I couldn't tell you much about the pattern. Could be that they're set up in opposition pairs as you guessed, he says to Mazom, But you may know more about this sort of thing than I. I've only managed to pick up snatches here and there. If you're correct and there are symbols of both good and evil deities here, I might take that sword of yours all the way out of its scabbard. Could mean nothing, but I'm not sure how comfortable I am when whoever built this place felt they could insult these gods by putting their symbols so near those of their sworn enemies.

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan

Elthan swipes up a candle and takes it with him, still thinking in terms that his could 'use up' his store of light generating magic. At the very least, it was more dignified then carrying around a glowing rock. He wanders aimlessly down the hall, simply taking in the simple rather than identifying them. "Careful not to touch; You might end up on a different continent.", he remarks, not quite believing that such would happen, but keeping it within a realm of possibility. After a moment of silence, he adds, "So who's this Pelor? I've never heard of him. And to whom does the title 'Raven Queen' belong to?"

[Koji]

Kazz

Religion of any sort is a mystery to her, so Kazz does not venture far past the doors for fear of doing anything unwise.

She catches sight of Tiriel, recognizing faintly the woman's face, and her mind struggles through stress and confusion to get any more information than that. What she knows feels detached and unreal, as though she had read about these people in a book long ago.

"Nice to see someone else feeling as uneasy as I am," says Kazz, "Are you alright?"

[Cejer]

Atoly Magivol

Stepping into the gallery, Atoly makes his way down the left wall. He stops for a brief moment before the upturned sword and the diamond shaped shield. He then continues on to the castle and examining it more closely.

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How detailed is the castle carving? Does it look like it might be an actual castle somewhere?

[Zid]

Mazom

Mazom stares at Elthan, as if Elthan just had asked wheater horses have hooves.

"You truly are from far away. Pelor is worshipped as the God of Sun, mostly by peasants and farmers. Truly dull by any standards, if you ask me. Hard work, toil and so on. The Raven Queen is the queen of death. Her priests are even more depressing than the Pelorites. I have never talked to a one of them for longer than a minute before they bring up death. 'Do you know of the inevitability of death', they ask. Well, we all know that, but there is no need in thinking of it all the time, every hour and minute."

Mazom straightens his back. "Myself, I follow Avandra. Now there´s a God for you. She doesn´t really bother herself with what you do or eat as all the other Gods do. She only wants you to push your borders a bit, take your destiny in your own hands, you know? But when you need Her, She´s always there to help out. Remind me to tell you the story of the Baron of Forskyls stolen horse when we have the time."

Mazom takes up a symbol hanging from around his neck. It displays three waves above each other. "This is the symbol of Avandra. Sadly, I don´t see it here anyway. Maybe my hunch is wrong. On the other hands, you won´t find many Avandrite temples no matter how hard you look."

Mazom then studies the symbols more closely.

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[roll0]
[roll1]

[Naleh]

Retay

The barbarian snorts. "I've only met one queen in my life, and she certainly was a queen of death -- the death of her own servants. She was rather more interested in snakes than ravens, though."

He stalks forward, glancing between the symbols with no understanding, to join Fizahn at the next door. He keeps reaching over his shoulder for the handle of his axe, which, of course, is not there.

[shaddy_24]

Evendur

The paladin looks up from his prayers, confusion on his face. He still felt some power deep within, but no connection to Sune.

Seeing the others moving through the doors, he jumps to his feet, hurrying after them. He catches Mazom's talk on gods and turns to him quickly. "I have never heard of those gods. I am a paladin of Sune, though I cannot feel her presence." He glances around the room uncomfortably. "I'm not sure, but I think I can still feel some remenent of her power."

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Religion - (1d20+5)[24]
Perception - (1d20+1)[7]

[Awesomologist]

Addis Qatur

Addis chuckles to himself as Mazom describes the servants of Pelor. However when he continues on about the Raven Queen Addis stops and observes the Avandrite.
Addis looks at Elthan, wishing to correct whatever forming thoughts he may have about the Queen of the Dead, "Perhaps if you wanted to know more about the Raven Queen, it would be best to ask one of her servants." Addis gently taps the jet black feather on his chest.
"Regardless of what god or goddess you serve, we must all hold court in Letherna and be judged by the Raven Queen before our spirits move on." Addis looks around the room at the various doors continuing to speak, "We who follow the Raven Queen do concern ourselves with matters of death, but we are also redeemers of life. It is all part of the cycle. We are also commanded to seek out restless spirits that cling to world of the living and send them to Letherna, as well as putting an end to the abomination that is undeath and those who practice the necromantic arts."
Addis points to the symbol of the broken skull, "While these may not be symbols of the gods, the cracked skull is often used by servants of Vecna, one of my goddess' enemies, and therefore one of mine."

[Naleh]

Retay

The barbarian looks up at the end of Addis' explanation, respect gradually forming in his mind.

Then he turns his quiet gaze on Elthan and Callos, to see how they respond.