As the group walks along, everyone quickly realizes Nassrin couldn't sneak up on a corpse. Her plate armor alone makes plenty of noise. So does her mail. The combination is that much worse. But she can keep pace pretty well even though she's carrying probably over a hundred pounds of equipment, either on her backpack or worn as armor.

After seeing the site she says, "Why would anyone take the time to clean up around here? Maybe they were searching for something? Still, it seems odd. At very least, it means others have been here recently so we should not assume we're alone."

Olven eyes the doorway in askance. Armored in a combination of mail and leather, with an axe hanging from a sheath, a knife strapped to his leg, and a spear and shield in his hands, the former mercenary is ready for battle, but he wasn't expecting to find someone here already.

"Remember the draconions at the Lyceum," he says. "Not to mention the dragon and the dragon lord. Be ready for anything." He steps forward and pushes one of the bronze gates open to look inside.

D'aden nods, pulls out his bow and nocks an arrow. "Considering our goal, if it has scales shouldn't we attempt to reason with it, first? If only to discover whether or not it knows the whereabouts of our target?"

As Olven pushed one of the doors, it didn't move. Apparently it was locked.

Nassrin draws her swords to be ready. When the doors don't budge she says, "I have no skill at picking locks, and it could be barred from the other side. I might consider trying to break down a door, but these are metal doors."

"Hnh. Curious." Olven Wolf had not expected the gates to be locked. "Well, we can try scaling the walls, I suppose," he says, taking a step back and sizing up the walls."Or, as you said, D'aden, we can just knock. And yes, we should try diplomacy first."

With this, Olven raps on the gates with the hilt of his spear.

OOC: Knock on the door. If there's no answer, look for a place to climb over the walls.

Nothing happened when Olven knocked on the door. Checking around the ruins, whatever room this door led to was small enough to fit inside this ruined wall. It was two yards thick, a little over five yards tall, and about seven yards wide. There was no other way inside than through the door.

"Can any of you pick locks? If not, let's find something we can use as a battering ram."

”We could use D’aden’s head, perhaps,” Olven Wolf muses. ”It’s certainly hard enough.” Leaning on his staff, Olven looks for any weaknesses in the wall, but it seems to be impregnable. He also looks for a place to secure a rope to scale the wall.

Looking over to Roisin, Wolf says, ”What do you think, Roisin? Do you have any magic that could get us through this?”

Roisin cast a spell and the lock was unlocked.

Inside, you could see a broad spiral staircase descending into darkness.

After a quick look through the door, D'aden begins to search the area for something to burn. "You know, for years I've been carrying a lantern from just such an occasion."
"It's in my saddlebags, on my horse. Could someone run and fetch it? No?"
"Guess we'll have to make do."
As he strips the extra bark from a handy branch, he sings, repeatedly,
"Searching through an old mine,
Turning down, down,
Searching through an old mine,
Don't nobody slip, now."

Olven Wolf shakes his head in wonder at Roisin's magical display. "You never cease to amaze me with what you can accomplish," he says.

Looking at D'aden's improvised torch, Olven raises an eyebrow. "I have a few torches in my backpack, too. Thanks for being the torchbearer."

He steps forward to peer into the darkness. "I'll take point," he says, and prepares to advance forward.

"Looks like Roisin's head works a lot better than D'aden's. Glad to have someone with those talents here."

Once the door is open Nassrin looks inside while remaining outside with the others, just keeping an eye out. When Olven mentions point she says, "If you'd like, I can take point, I can see in the darkness quite well."

In reply to Olven Wolf (msg # 219):

D'aden steps to Olven, and shakes his head, "you shouldn't. I may make light of your title, but title it is. Presumably, there are people you've never met whose lives wax and wane with your success or failure. When I was a lad, if the sheriff went on an extended hunt, everyone was nervous till he returned. If he hadn't returned, things would have been worse."
"I know you're used to being the vanguard, but you will need to show at least enough restraint to not be alone on point, from now on."

Olven Wolf almost angrily retorts when D’aden reminds him of his responsibilities, but his friend’s words calm him to a great extent. ”The king could have easily given the title to you or Roisin,” he says quietly. ”I only have it because the two of you recommended it. And we’re all coming back from this expedition. I’ll not leave any of you behind.”

To the dwarf, he says, ”Very well, Nassrin. Lead the way, and I’ll be right behind you.”

D'aden nods to Olven, then smiles, "besides, that way you might not kill whatever's out there before I get to put a shaft in it. I wouldn't want to lose my edge, you know."
D'aden holds his bow in his left hand, and his makeshift torch in his right, as he follows behind Nassrin and Olven.

You headed downwards with Nassrin at point, followed by Olven, D'aden, the elves, and Roisin in the back.

The staircase was very long. It took you a couple of minutes to circle all the way down to the bottom. There were no light sources and obviously no windows. The flagstone walls were all different, but also all the same.

The room at the bottom of the stairs was large. The ceiling so far away it was obstructed by darkness. As you looked around, you discovered three bronze doors in one of the walls of the same size as the one above that had let you inside.

"This is a big chamber. I wonder if that is because of the dragons, but I doubt dragons would have used an entrance of the sort we took." Nassrin doesn't bother to talk quietly. Her armor has either scared off whatever would have been scared away or alerted anyone else nearby, so speaking quietly seems wasteful.

"Those doors certainly aren't big enough for dragons, that's for sure," Olven says, looking around the room. He notes the ceiling, far above the range of D'aden's makeshift torch, and the three doors. He examines each closely. "Let's see what's behind door number one," he says at last.

OOC: Check each door for anything unusual, and then, if the first door looks okay, open the right-most door.

There seemed to be nothing wrong with the doors and you opened the rightmost door. You stepped out into an even larger room where the walls and the ceiling were hidden beyond darkness. The floor was made of glazed tiles in shades of red and orange. And to your left, you could see the other two doors entering this room too.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:46, Sat 16 Nov 2019.

D'aden nods, "unless the dragons were brought in as eggs, and raised in captivity to be displayed to curious onlookers. If that were done here, I bet you could charge a pretty penny for admission."
He looks around, and whistles as he watches the surfaces he can see. Then he busies himself scanning the floor.

OOC: looking for bats and wondering how often animals trek through the region

15:41, Today: D'aden Tor VIII rolled 6,15 using 3d6,3d6.  Observation -13.

00:31, Fri 01 Nov: D'aden Tor VIII rolled 13 using 3d6.  tracking -13.

Nassrin looks into the new room, hoping her eyesight will help her see further than the torches allow.

GM passing a message

Nassrin turns to her companions. "Now this might be a room a dragon would have used. All those doors to the left and right are far, far bigger than a person could ever need. I wonder what the tile pattern is indicative of. Blue and green tiles, wave-like shapes. I don't know. It's just decorated much more, and sometimes decorations have meanings. From a defensive perspective, so many doors into this one room makes it hard to watch our backs."

"Blue and green, you say? And red and orange on the floor. Very decorative." Olven scans the room. "Such a giant room. Where are the doors, Nassrin? Feel free to pick a door for us to check out."

OOC: Do we have someone making a map? If not, could we have someone start mapping this place?