The Path of Chaos - The Red Gate

[Gnomeo]

Nelio hears nothing, but he spots a coiled snake in a nearby corner of the room.  It looks just like the ones you encountered earlier, but roughly half the size.  It appears to be aware of you, but making no movement.

[crazy_sherm]

Nelio whispers to Caerus, "There is another snake in the next room, in the near corner. Have an arrow ready. As soon as I open the door, eliminate the snake before it can hurt anyone else in the party."

Nelio places his hand on the door handle and gathers a good grip with his gauntlet. With a mighty tug, he attempts to swing the door open to reveal what lies within the next room.

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Rolled 1d20+3 : 4 + 3, total 7

[NasT]

Nelio whispers to Caerus, "There is another snake in the next room, in the near corner. Have an arrow ready. As soon as I open the door, eliminate the snake before it can hurt anyone else in the party."

Nelio places his hand on the door handle and gathers a good grip with his gauntlet. With a mighty tug, he attempts to swing the door open to reveal what lies within the next room.

Caerus, skeptically pulls an arrow from his quiver and lays it on the bow.  He holds the arrow between the grip and his forefinger, but doesn't bother to nock it.

Why wouldn't it just attack with the others?

[Gnomeo]

Nelio braces himself and throws his weight into the wooden door.  Unfortunately, the door is stuck fast and Nelio only succeeded to make a crashing sound with his armor.  Out of the corner of his eye, the snake Nelio saw inside the room slithers deeper in and out of sight.

[crazy_sherm]

Nelio braces himself and throws his weight into the wooden door.  Unfortunately, the door is stuck fast and Nelio only succeeded to make a crashing sound with his armor.  Out of the corner of his eye, the snake Nelio saw inside the room slithers deeper in and out of sight.

Nelio steps back from the door, somewhat surprised that it didn't just burst open.

The obvious answer must be that something is pushing back on the opposite side of the door. We'll just need to push even harder.

"Korgan, please attempt to open the door. Flip and I will assist."

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Rolled 1d20+3 : 20 + 3, total 23

[Kazgaroth]

Nelio steps back from the door, somewhat surprised that it didn't just burst open.

The obvious answer must be that something is pushing back on the opposite side of the door. We'll just need to push even harder.

"Korgan, please attempt to open the door. Flip and I will assist."

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This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+3 : 20 + 3, total 23

Absolutely useless!  Make all that noise and can't even open the door.

Korgan steps forward and shoves the door open...

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Rolled 1d20+4 : 5 + 4, total 9

[Gnomeo]

In unison, Korgan, Nelio, and Flip put their shoulders into the door and force it back.  The door opens into a long room, stretching forward to the limit of your torchlight.  The door you forced open is in a corner of the room, and the far wall lies roughly 20 feet to your right.  The walls of the room are interrupted every 10 feet or so by large statues of humanoid figures with the heads of animals.  The snake is nowhere in sight.

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"S" is for statue, not snake

[crazy_sherm]

Nelio scans the room, taking note of the statues.

A stone menagerie of abberrations against nature...

He steps forward into the room and stops in front of the closet statue to take a closer look.

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Rolled 1d20+1 : 6 + 1, total 7

[Gnomeo]

The first statue features a man with the head and wings of an eagle.  He looks to his left (further into the room) while holding a longsword and sickle.  Aside from the fact that it appears to be made from blue marble, you see nothing out of the ordinary in the construction.

[crazy_sherm]

Nelio waves the party over to follow him into the room.

"Everyone stay close and be ready."

Nelio starts moving further into the room, along the path in between the statues. Scanning the room for anything out of the ordinary and also taking note of the different statues. (How do the other statues look?)

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Rolled 1d20+1 : 14 + 1, total 15

[Gnomeo]

As Nelio passes over the mossy cobblestone floor, his attention shifts between the statues overhead and darkened spaces below, created from the light of his torch.  Moving shadows recede to reveal more detail on the statues themselves, each carved from the same smooth, blue marble.

The statues are as follows from Nelio's point of view: On his immediate left is the eagle-man, followed by a dragon-woman holding a pair of scales, and a bear-man holding a massive two-headed axe.  To Nelio's immediate right is a wolf-woman with claws open, followed by a snake-man with a large tome, and a Rat-woman wielding a bow.  The eagle-man and bear-man are facing the dragon-woman.  The rat-woman, dragon-man, and wolf-woman are facing the snake-man.  The snake-man's long neck is coiled, but appears to be facing behind itself.

[crazy_sherm]

Nelio continues further into the room, past the last set of statues to see how big the room is and if there are any signs of the snake from earlier.

[Gnomeo]

Nelio determines the statues to be roughly three square meters each and four meters tall.  There is a three meter space between each statue, including the pathway between the two rows.  That places the room at roughly 21 meters long by 9 meters wide.  Nelio sees no sign of the snake he saw earlier.  Either it has a good hiding spot, or it is smart enough to use the statues as cover.

[crazy_sherm]

"It appears that the coast is clear, no signs of the snake or other inhabitants in this room. Everyone, let's spread out and search to room for any secret doors or hidden compartments. Perhaps there is a clue of what these heathenous statues represent."

Nelio begins his search at the dragon woman statue.

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Rolled 1d20+1 : 11 + 1, total 12

[Kazgaroth]

Korgan moves slowly and carefully clockwise around the room.  With axe and shield in hand, he looks for signs of where the snake might have slithered off to.

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Rolled 1d20+2 : 19 + 2, total 21

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Rolled 1d20+2 : 16 + 2, total 18

[Gnomeo]

Nelio sees nothing out of the ordinary in the dragon-woman statue.  His studies in religion tell him she is a patron of law and architecture in some areas.

As Kazgaroth rounds the room, he makes use of a space behind each statue just wide enough to fit a man abreast.  As he is slightly wider than that, Kazgaroth is forced to walk sideways behind each statue.  He passes the first three statues uneventfully, but as he rounds the corner before the fourth statue, he notices a quick movement behind the fifth statue; the one depicting a snake-man.  Further inspection of the area reveals a crack in the wall behind the statue, ending in a small opening just large enough to fit a tiny creature.

[NasT]

As Korgan makes his way around, Caerus slides the arrow back into his quiver, slings his bow over his shoulder, and switches to his melee weapons.  He grasps his new dagger in one hand and the old rapier in the other.

It's pretty narrow...  I guess the bow won't be of much use in here.

[crazy_sherm]

As Kazgaroth and Caerus are busy with the crack, Nelio continues his search of each statue. He moves on first to the bear man, then to the rat woman, snake man, and finally the wolf woman.

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bear man

Rolled 1d20+1 : 11 + 1, total 12

rat woman

Rolled 1d20+1 : 19 + 1, total 20

snake man

Rolled 1d20+1 : 7 + 1, total 8

wolf woman

Rolled 1d20+1 : 15 + 1, total 16

[Gnomeo]

Each of these figures is a minor deity to some pagan or another.  Law, war, knowledge, stealth, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to their placement.  It is unusual that these deities would be found together, they're not typically associated with each other.

Each statue is made of the same blue marble.  Not much else is noted, except that as you look in the direction of the crack in the wall you notice that the statues are either facing the center of the room (the four outside statues), or the crack in the wall (the two central statues).

[crazy_sherm]

I wonder if there are any other exits to this room? Otherwise the snake must have gone through the crack.

Nelio turns to the sorcerer for assistance with the crack exploration.

"Flap, please cast a light spell into the crack so Caerus and Kazgoroth can get a good look inside the crack."

In the meantime, Nelio tries to figure out what the meaning of the statues may be. He walks to the center of the room and tries to position himself equidistant from the four center facing statues, contemplating what this might all mean.

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This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+1 : 20 + 1, total 21

I honestly did not tamper with this roll, was just editing some spelling/grammar errors.