Philip Ancalagon, Mercutio Routledge, Jacques Bonnet, Remy Hernandez, Samuel Linkletter & Josephine Baxter-Smith (Secret Door in woods [near #19])
Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2: Shift 2: Hour 6:00 [Hamlet of Gwynedd: 45N,25W]
The group stood before the mysterious door and watched Remy eagerly insert the strange brass key into the hole. Turning it resulted in a series of clicks, like a clockwork set in motion and the door slid back into the wall about an eighth of an inch. Remy pushed and the door slowly swung back to the right. From its motion, the door must have weighed thousands of pounds, but it must also have been counterbalanced to pivot so easily. It was no small feat of engineering.
The door stopped leaving a 3-foot-deep alcove with a 2-foot diameter perfect cylinder hole in the floor. Looking down the hole, its walls were smooth except for hand and foot holes carefully cut into the rock to form a sort of ladder. Approximately 100 feet below, a tunnel continued Southeast from the vertical shaft. A close examination revealed grinding marks where the cylinder had been mechanically bored out of the rock.
[assuming the group enters, which sort of seemed the point … pick a marching order because the tunnel is single file and state any actions. For the sake of argument assume you have 200 feet of half-inch rope with you at the moment.]
Using the Carbide Lamp to light the way, the group descended the stone ladder and discovered a keyhole inside the shaft at the top of the ladder.
If you use the key:
At the bottom of the shaft, a more conventional tunnel sloped downward. The passage was only three feet wide and five feet tall, requiring the party to stoop over as you made your way along. Approximately every 5 feet, the tunnel was reinforced with heavy timber posts and a lintel. After traveling roughly 150 feet down the passage, you arrived at water’s edge. The passage continued but the floor was covered with water beyond this point. You stopped to evaluate your options.
Back the way you came was dry. An examination of the walls revealed a stain mark 3 feet above the current floor which suggested that the flooding was variable and might be tidally influenced. If it was tidal, the water would only rise each day you waited and it would be many weeks before the next low tide. Scanning ahead, the passage continued another 30 feet and opened into a larger chamber.
With some concern, you decided to travel at least the 30 feet to look in the larger chamber. The man-made tunnel led to the north wall of a natural cavern. The chamber was 12 feet north to south by 20 feet east to west. The ceiling was 35 feet above you and had a small natural hole in the center that appeared to open to another chamber above it. The floor varied from 4 to 15 feet below you, but you were currently standing in 10-inch-deep, crystal clear, ice cold water where the tunnel entered the chamber. There were multiple passages leading out of this chamber:
NE: A 1-foot ledge submerged just below the water surface led along the north and eastern wall of the chamber. Ten feet to the east and 30 feet above you, a low, wide passage led Northeast.
SE: Following the 1-foot ledge east and south led to a pair of passages heading Southeast. The lower passage was completely submerged. The main passage sloped upward to the Southeast and was dry.
SW: In the Southwest corner, across the lake, an alcove to a vertical shaft led up.
W: A large completely submerged passage led due west from the bottom of the lake. A large dry passage led due west from the chamber 20 feet above the surface of the lake.
NW: Following the 1-foot submerged ledge to the west along the north wall, led to a partially submerged passage on approximately the same elevation as your current passage.
Now you have some options!
