Re: New Friends, Old Horizons
While Tarron, Almareth, Syndra, and Jassin tear into the best meal they've had in tendays, and Kali starts unloading, shifting, and reloading her portable hole (all while muttering under her breath), Corym, Torvek, and Kracker all head to the gold and copper gate. The keystone is inserted at the top of the arch, and for a moment the entire interior surface of the arch shimmers. Then the shimmer disappears, like the popping of a soap bubble.
It takes a bit of investigation, but eventually Corym finds a trio of buttons worked into the metal braid on the left side of the arch. When they're pressed together, the air inside the arch ripples hard, and when it clears you're staring into a dark, unoccupied room.
Torvek conjures a wizard eye and sends it through the gate. His view through it wavers for a moment, but quickly stabilizes. The gate shuts as the eye darts out of the room.
Though the eye doesn't last very long, the spell holds for long enough to get a sense of what's on the other side. It's a hideout, basically. Half a dozen rather small rooms, each stocked with barrels, crates, an racks of weapons. The place is dusty, but the containers all look recent and unspoiled, and the weapons are oiled and hale. There's one exit, covered from this side by what looks to be a grey haze, but when the wizard eye flies through it turns out to be an extremely convincing illusion of collapsed earth.
Beyond is a short, upward-slanting dirt passage that quickly emerges out through a set of screening bushes into a forest floor. There are no obvious landmarks or points of interest, but glancing around Torvek is able to make two conclusions: it's a much younger forest than ancient Cormanthor, and it's far enough west that dawn is only just approaching.