Thäoran gave a short and quiet sigh as the others agreed with Hornet's suggestion of venturing down the carved tunnel. Thinking this was a mistake because of the enemies that could lurk within, the elf set his jaw in a grim frown and adjusted the grip on the hilt of his falchion, preparing himself for whatever unpleasant surprises he was sure would inevitably be coming his way in the gloom of the tunnel depths.

'I say this is a mistake,' he spoke up, giving voice to his concerns. 'The tunnel is narrow, thus allowing us very little room in which to maneuver. We may find ourselves in a dire situation with little chance of escape. But,' he continued, sighing once again, 'it seems I have been outvoted, so I shall venture onto the path you chose. Let us be off.'

The group decided to take the path more travelled – the path of worked stone.  Not everyone thought the decision wise, but all went along with it.  The tunnel went only about 50’ to the right (East) be3fore it widened into a small chamber that was really just a slightly wide fork in the road.  One path went straight North and the other continued on Eastward.  A glance down the Northern passage showed that it was only worked stone for a few yards before it turned into another natural passage like you had previously passed by.  The passage to the East continued to be worked. 

               Following the same logic, the group continued on – but only for about 20’ when they came to a T intersection.  The Northern route again was natural stone.  But the Southern passage was worked.  Continuing down the worked paths the group quickly (30’ onward) entered a larger chamber – it was diamond shaped – and you were entering the northern point of the diamond.  The room was 50’x50’, square or diamond, depending on your perspective.  The floor of the room was reddish marble and the walls a solid black slate.  Two things immediately drew your attention. 

               The first was that a large stone dais was in the center of the room.  Manacles and chains were attached to it as if to hold a prisoner in position on top.  All around its base the dais appeared to be embossed with glyphs and carvings of various creatures. 

               The second notable thing about the room was the stench.  The place smelled rancid and the smell was almost acidic to the nose.  The source of the smell was obvious – there were rotted and decayed corpses, even skeletons heaped along the walls.  From the entrance it appears that there are humans, animals, goblins and other things mixed in – some quite old and some newer.  But all were dead and all stunk. 

               Incongruously, the opening to the room you stand by has a cool, moist and fresh breeze coming into that feels almost refreshing.  You had not noticed the breeze in the hallway.  There are no other entrances or exits.

 

Overview

This is the end of the worked passages as there are no other exits from this room.  I will get a map soon, but you do not need to wait for it to post about what you will do in this room or if you backtrack somewhere.  You have passed 3 side tunnels that were natural in appearance – the one just past the pool, the one at the fork in the tunnel, and the T intersection. All go mostly North deeper under the Ridge. Feel free to post about doing more in this room and/or moving on elsewhere.  

Hmmm interesting that Fenris could now feel a cool moist breeze on his face standing in the doorway to this area for really the first time since entering the cave. Wanting nothing to do with the heap of dead and clearly half-eaten refuse, the Half-Elf Rogue/Wizard decided to find the source of the breeze.  (Using my Investagation and Perception Skills)

Hornet will AID Fenris in looking for the source of the breeze

A cool, moist and fresh breeze blows into the ruoom from the tunnel.  Hornet and Fenris both look for the source of the breeze.  There doesn't seem to be one.  Going out into the tunnel, the breeze simply disappears.  There is no breeze there.  But enter the room and the breeze pleasantly blows.  It seems to simply start right at the entrance.  Both look for any opening or gap that might account for the airflow, but there was nothing but solid rock.  The breeze simply started at the entrance.  Looking around, and even more smelling around, it was easy to know why the breeze was wanted.  But where it came from?  It was impossible to tell.  

(FYI - Soledad's detect magic spell would have lasted 10 minutes.  It would not have still been active when she arrived at this chamber.)

"Well the worked stone has brought us to a dead end, and quite a nasty one at that. Anything in there that I'm not seeing?", Gerdar looked at the investigators, gripping his greataxe in preparation for an unexpected twist should one appear.

With the search for the source of the fresh air having come up empty, Fenris cast Detect Magic to try and find the source of the air. There was some indication of a magical source aroudn the doorway - in essence the entire outline of the door glowed.  There wasn't much to tell except that it was an old and subtle magic.  Apparently some ancient spell was the source of the fresh air.  

**I have offered a few quick post answers to some of the things that have been asked and examined.  The idea is to keep things moving since these things did not seem to need to wait on everyone - and indeed having the answers might help others know what to do.

'The spell seems harmless,' Thäoran said. 'Just a means to acquire fresh air in a place when otherwise there would be none. I am more interested about what this place is used for. An execution chamber, perhaps? If so, why execute animals? What crimes have they commited? No. I think this is more of a ritualistic sacrifice chamber for practitioners of dark magic.' A frown creased his smooth brow. 'Though for what end I know not. This may warrent further, but careful, examination. If left unchecked, it may threaten many creatures.'

Having used a spell to gather that an older magic was the cause of the breeze, Fenris now turned to the matter of the room's contents. Regardless of why the remains were as they were, they needed to be dealt with.

"Well no matter of the magic, the main concern now is that these remains must be destroyed before we move on."

Uthal will take a closer look around this 'ritual room'. He will start traversing the perimeter of the room carefully checking the walls and floor for any secret doors, traps, anything out of the ordinary, before moving to the stone dias in the centre of the room for a closer look.
Ooc:How tall is it? Can he climb up to investigate the chains? Just having a good look around the room before helping Fenris 'deal' with the remains. What's the plan here. Burn, bury? Any wolf remains?

The remains vary greatly in age.  Some are animals and there is one that might once have been a wolf, but it is quite old seems to have almost gelled with other nearby corpses.  (Nothing specfici here - just corpses that have been piled and rotting a long time.)  To be sure you would have to seperate several of them out and clean off some of the hide, mold, slime, gunk, ooze and maggots that seem to be covering them.  It is not a nice room.

You can easily approach the dais - it is basically a platform about 3' tall in the center of the room.  Manacles and chain ares still attached as if to hold a person or creature in place.  There are signs of blood on the surface.  Around the base of the dais are glyphs in a language you can not identify and images of many creatures - some animals (including a wolf) you recognize and some not.  A cloer look in the room allows you to notice that the walls seem to have images of demons carved into them.  The carvings are oild enough and grimy enough you didn't notice them when you first entered but once noticed they are hard to ignore.  They are all over the walls.  

You do not detect any secret doors - the room appears to be a dead end in more ways than one.

Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment, Gerdar focused the will of his revered ancestors into the room in hopes that they'd see something that the living eye could not.

 

(I would like to Divine Sense this chamber.)

Gerdar takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, hoping to be able to sense if any fiend, undead or celestials (seems unlikely) are in the area.  With eyes closed and calling on his ancestors he pun lowly in a circle to try and get the best sense of everything that he could.  After finishing he opened his eyes with a sigh, both satisfied and frustrated at the same time.  He found . . . nothing.  The room still smelled horribly, images of demons still leered from the walls and everything gave an impression of evil.  But no fiend had appeared to his senses.  Looking around it wasn't hard to imagine that such had been here previously, but they were not here now.

"I'm somewhat sure that whatever evil once was here is indeed now gone", the dwarf informed the group, "My palading sense picke dup absolutely nothing. No horrors hidden in plain sight here, and knowing that I wouldn't mind seeing the other tunnels."