Zuriel exchanges looks with Lyriel, then makes ready to advance.

Boreas looks back to the others.

Like the voice said, swiftly now.

He opens it and steps through with the others.

In reply to Boreas Highwind (msg # 29):

The scene that awaits you beyond the door seems impossible, but every sense registers it as a startling reality.

The door opens to reveal a steep chasm that falls straight down into a black abyss.  A natural bridge that seems to be an extension of the cavern itself extends straight across the pit, exactly as wide as the doorway and perhaps half as thick.

Though they are difficult to make out in the gloom, dead leaves flutter across the bridge at random intervals -- indicating the presence of somewhat turbulent winds.  The leathery flapping of wings echoes above, below, and all around you, though neither walls, ceiling, nor ground can be seen.

The bridge extends directly across, supported by nothing that you can see, until it vanishes from your field of vision.

[Crossroads]

If you're sprinting across, I need a Reflex check.  If you are not sprinting across, let me know and I'll handle that separately.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:30, Tue 10 Dec 2013.

Zuriel eyes the bridge, and decides to play it safe and take the voice's advice literally. He walks quickly across the bridge, not stopping, and not looking back, but short of a full-out run.

It said walk, not run...

Boreas, following Zuriel's lead, sets off across the bridge at a brisk walking pace, not stopping or looking back.

Her companions setting the pace, Maeve follows at a brisk walk.

In reply to Maeve (msg # 33):

Keef follows, keeping up the pace the the much larger warriors as well as he can.

Lyriel follows the others, trying not to look down.

ihateheightsihateheightsihateheightsihateheights

In reply to Lyriel Vesper (msg # 35):

Chubbs croaks sarcastically.

exactly... it's the sudden stop at the end

Boreas snickers at Chubbs' joke.

Not...helping...Chubbs, she says with a strained voice.

Can everyone talk to the toad now except for me?

"If it makes you feel any better," Zuriel calls behind him, "I can't either. As I'm sure is a relief to you all..." he adds, self deprecatingly.

In reply to Zuriel Silendril (msg # 40):

The bridge on which you are walking grows increasingly narrow, until it is barely wide enough to walk on without putting on foot in front of the other like a balance beam.

The darkness continues unabated, but the gusts of wind intensify.  Leathery flapping continues to echo from the cavernous abyss around you, but nothing can be seen beyond the gloom to explain the sound.

The ledge reaches its most narrow point after what seems like an eternity, at which point a gap appears in the bridge.  Looking forward, you can see several more gaps at haphazard intervals, none greater than two or three feet wide. The path physically ends at each gap, the bottomless void beckoning any foolish enough to enter it.

These gaps create the sense of a series of floating platforms interspersed within the bridge itself, and you feel confident that to mis-time your jump from one to the next would spell certain doom.

[Crossroads]

Boreas shouts over the din, '... 'til the passage ends in rock.'  This doesn't look like rock.  Do you see anything, Lyriel?

[OOC]Boreas says this while walking.[/OOC]
This message was last edited by the player at 15:25, Wed 11 Dec 2013.

...Other than the back of your head? she asks?

donotlookdowndonotlookdowndonotlookdown

Well, we can't stop moving for long, if at all.  Is it possible that these platforms enchanted to appear as gaps?

Or are we going to have to jump?

Boreas takes a tentative step, probing the gap to see if our theory about invisible platforms is true.  He tenses his muscles, ready to kick his foot back and jump if it proves false.

The wind never blows between the gaps, only on solid ground...

[Perception 29]

His foot stops in the air as if it hit the ground.

The strangest feeling, like walking on air...

Boreas continues walking across the bridge.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:34, Wed 11 Dec 2013.

In reply to Boreas Highwind (msg # 45):

Chubbs gurgles.

No... more like dedication and confidence than faith and blind obedience...

Keef keeps his pace.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:45, Wed 11 Dec 2013.

In reply to Boreas Highwind (msg # 45):

(OOC: I will be treating these as Crossroads Lite™ moments; when everyone is clearly going to follow suit with what one character has managed to do, I'll move us along)

The P.A.R.T.Y. continues to walk swiftly down the path, trying very hard not to look down or even think much about their current situation.

The narrow path transitions to a series of gaps, over which you are able to walk unimpeded.  Eventually, the path widens once more to the width of a doorway and ends, abruptly, at a stone facade that looks for all the world like a dead end.

An alcove has been carved into the wall here, in which a pair of statues have been chiseled from the stone itself.  The figures have been crafted in the likeness of a squat humanoid figure, each of which has its hands raised as if to carry a heavy burden.

Set between the two figures is a tall pedestal, upon which rests an orb of polished stone.  Upon the wall, three runes have been carved in an ancient language.

[Private to Boreas Highwind: Above the left-hand statue: Wisdom
Above the right-hand statue: Bravery
Above the Pedestal: Strength]

The figures are identical, each standing about three feet tall, and the pedestal is about seven feet fall -- placing the orb quite out of comfortable reach.  The orb itself is twice the size of a healthy pumpkin, though its weight is impossible to fathom from its current position.

The orb does, in fact, look as though it would fit nicely into the hands of either statue -- provided it can be moved.

[Crossroads]

Boreas regards the odd tableau.

The left statue says 'wisdom;' the right, 'bravery.'  The rune for 'strength' is on the pedestal.  What do you suggest?

"Any suggestions?" Zuriel asks the illusionists, but turns around to find them not present.

In reply to Zuriel Silendril (msg # 49):

Shaw, Quinn, and Charles are, indeed, no longer with you.  Reaching back in your mind to recap the events of the last few minutes, none of you seem to recall seeing them enter the doorway -- though, since you've been traveling single-file, it is difficult to determine whether they lined up with you at all, or did and have failed to make it this far.

Cowards. Maeve sniffs.  Well, there's no turning back for them now.

"Move the boulder". . . .that was the next line of the riddle.  I think that I could manage to do that.

Regardless,  I'll need your help.  I think that Zuriel and I together could shift it provided that we can get to it and provided that it hasn't been enchanted to remain immobile.  She looks expectantly at the more magical members of the P.A.R.T.Y as she says the last bit.

In reply to Maeve (msg # 51):

A closer inspection of the area reveals a variety of things to the P.A.R.T.Y.

[Private to Maeve: Polished orbs like this one are popular among the Gaelian elite in works of art.  You've moved an orb that looks a little bit like this one before, and it was much heavier than it looked.]

[Private to Boreas Highwind; Keef; Lyriel Vesper: The statues and pedestal look magical, but the orb does not.  The schools of magic involved are a mishmash, including enchantment, conjuration, transmutation, and abjuration.  Necromancy, however, is conspicuously absent.]

[Private to Zuriel Silendril: There is nothing evil about this place, from what you can tell.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:03, Wed 11 Dec 2013.