Eberron PbP Story Hour – Chapter 8: The Door and the Darkness
“Unless we figure out how to get that door open, our journey will be short,” muttered Rathan as he stared at the door.
“I’ll look at it,” Lealani stepped forward and concentrated on detecting magic on the hatch. A few moments passed as she studied the door.
“It’s not trapped, however, there is a magical aura of some sort. I don’t think anyone here is powerful enough to dispel it though. It may just be…,” she paused for a moment, tapping her lips as she pondered. “Let’s find out.” She touched the door.
As she did. the door glowed for a split second and, suddenly, three orbs materialized out of thin air and shot towards her. All three hit and sizzled on her skin causing major damage and knocking her down. The door stopped glowing. “Ouch,” she said feebly.
Rathan leaned over to give Lealani a hand up, “Are you hurt?”
She took his hand and let him pull her up. “Owww, yes. Very. That probably wasn’t smart but I thought I would be fast enough to get out of the way. At any rate, I need some time to catch my breath before we go on.”
“You are injured, milady. If I may?” Jebber cast cure light wounds on Lealani and her wounds disappeared.
“Does anyone have another idea to get past the door? Is there something in Master Geldam’s journal about it?” Rathan asked the group.
“If the ward is discharged, perhaps we open the door by conventional means?” Jebber attempted to open the door in the most obvious way.
As soon as Jebber laid a finger on the door, it quickly glowed bright and three balls of acid shot at him. One of them missed and sizzled on the ground. The other two hit solidly. The door stopped glowing.
“It seems it was not in fact discharged,” Jebber observed.
“Thank you for the healing, Jebber. And no, I don’t think the door is discharged. I would suggest not touching it again.” Lealani said, stating the obvious to everyone. “There must be something in the book, maybe a password of sorts. Let’s take a look before more of us get fried. Maybe we need to hold the book up to the door and it’s a key or some sort?”
“The book responded to a Cannith signet, no? Do we have a sign or sigil of that House?”
“Let’s see what the map and the book can tell us,” Kolthak said as he looked at the map. It gave no indication on how to open the door.
“Well the map was no help.” Kolthak rolled up the map and put it away before turning to Ilyra. “Lemme see the journal for a moment, would you? He flipped through it looking for information about wards. Seeing no writing on the pages, he held the book in front of him and closer to the door. Nothing happened.
“Well…here goes nothing…” he said as he, very hesitantly, touched the Cannith sigil on the book to the one on the door.
The moment the book touched the hatch, the sigils on the hatch glowed brightly. They saw the bars that were holding the hatch closed move out of the way and the door slowly opened outward. A blast of warm air came from within. Inside, it was pitch black. They saw a small room with a hole in the floor. Looking through the hole, they saw a shaft that descended downwards into darkness.
Kolthak breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank the Host, I was afraid that wouldn’t work. Well my friends, let’s get through this door before it shuts.”
“Excellent work,” Lealani smiled as she squeezed Kolthak’s arm. “Looks like we’re going down,” she said, stepping through the doorway.
Peering down into the hole, Rathan said, “Could be a long way down. I’ll dig out my rope.”
Kolthak spoke. “Perhaps we should see about taking a bit of a rest before venturing further as most of us are wounded, and given our current experiences, are likely to encounter several more hostile warforged…”
“That IS a good idea, I am not feeling my best myself,” said Lealani.
“Perhaps a rest would be good. Can we shut this door so we aren’t surprised from more than one direction?” Rathan asked. After studying it for a few moments, they decided the door was easily closable. Jebber lit his lantern.
“A watch order then? So the sleeping can rest comfortably?” suggested Lealani.
Kolthak replied, “If I remember correctly, the warforged don’t sleep so he may be able to keep watch for everyone.”
Lealani quirked an eyebrow and looked him in the eye. “Is it wise to leave the malfunctioning and obviously… unfeeling towards us fleshy peoples in charge of all of us while we rest?”
“Perhaps you’re right,” said Kolthak. “However, you and Jebber are the most in need of rest as you are the worst injured and have both spent of your magical energies today.”
Lea nodded then slid down against the wall. “I should watch first so I can reverie uninterrupted after that. I hope I can sleep, this isn’t very comfortable,” she complained.
“I can take the first watch with Shrapnel and Lealani,” offered Rathan.
“Clearly they trust me… perhaps too much. What would they think if I perchance pondered the perilous pontification of performing a pitiful parlance with the praetorean positables? Or worse? What if I really was just another agent like the other sixteen warforged that have attacked so-far? Hah! That would be quite funny, I think,” Shrapnel “thought” to himself.
“You can’t be another agent, my pondering companion,” said Rathan. “Why would they try to kill you first if that were the case? Furthermore, Master Geldam placed his trust in you, which is good enough for my trust.”
“What is that idiot talking about? I didn’t say anything to him,” said Shrapnel.
“Have we discussed getting him fixed?” Lealani nodded towards the warforged. “He’s a good ally in this fight, if ally is what he is, but this inner talking thing could use some…work.”
Jebber, who had been busy healing the group, spoke last before they rested. “There, that’s the last of my readied Orisons. I’ll take watch with anyone.”
Luckily for them, the rest of the night passed uneventfully.
Once everyone was awake, Rathan offered the use of his rope. “Shall we pack it up and head down the shaft? I can secure a rope to make the climb easier.”
“Ready when you are,” answered Jebber. “With a rope this won’t be much harder than rappelling through the stacks back in Korranberg, though it was less slimy there.”
Rathan secured the rope to a piton in the wall and then tossed it down the shaft. He lit a torch and said, “Ready?”
“I’ll go first, I have a feeling I’m the most dexterous of this bunch,” Lealani said with a grin. “It’ll help if someone else holds the light though, in case of trouble.”
The vertical shaft was a mix of crumbling earth and ancient stone, and centipedes and other insects covered the walls like living decorations. The long descent took them deeper into the bowels of Dorasharn Tower. Soon, the shaft began to angle, and by bracing themselves they could actually walk along one of the surfaces. Farther still and the shaft became a tunnel and the footing was no longer difficult to maintain or treacherous.
The tunnel eventually opened onto a vast chamber, though it emerged about six feet above the floor. No one could see the distant walls in the darkness, and the ruins of nearby walls and building appeared as deep shadows in the eternal tower night, but they could feel the change in air currents and pressure that indicated a large open space ahead of them.
“This looks very interesting, sorta like back home. Let’s see where we need to go after we get on the ground,” Kolthak looked at the map to determine their present position and where to go next.
It showed the House Cannith foundry as being in the northwestern corner of this chamber, roughly 1500 feet from where they were standing.
“Well group, according to this our destination is about 500 yards that way,” Kolthak pointed towards the northwest corner of the cavern. “Shall we go do and get what we came for?”
“Absolutely, let’s go,” Lealani answered.
Jebber poured a pint of oil into his lantern and lit it. “Let’s go.”
Lealani took the lead, walking towards the large chamber that lay before the party.
“Be careful, my Lady,” cautioned Rathan as they made their way into the darkness.
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