[[ OOC: Well, since from the OOC comments it seems that not many are leaning towards a rest and that the only one who proposed it IC subsequently patted Khessa's shoulder to let her lead the way.... ]]

Khessa advances cautiously, but determinedly, along the new corridor. She keeps the senses alert and the Greatsword ready for action.

Erven walks beside Khessa, scouting ahead if she wishes.  He moves slowly, looking for any movement and listening for any sounds of cultists.  His spirits are buoyed by their progress thus far, he seems to be in a little better mood now that the zombies are vanquished and the pathway is clear.  

Khessa lets Erven scout ahead, aware of the value of the element of surprise... She, as before, keeps a little behind the elf, so as not to give him away, but to be able to run to his aid if there were problems.

Erven stealth : 11.  If there are shadows / dim light present, he sticks to it, remaining unseen in the dark.

Kit keeps close behind Khessa, her hand loosely on the hilt of her sheathed longsword. From time to time she glances back at Jack, Ketangu, and Tabby to check on them.

The party edges down the corridor, ready for battle once again. After numerous run-ins with dangerous creatures, they won't let their guard down. Their feet echo as their path leads down the tunnel, which stretches before you before turning northwards, and from beyond the corner you hear the familiar sounds of the ooze room.

As you walk down the hallway, you come upon something strange: a large set of double doors set into the south wall. They are gilded with gold, their actual substance unknown. A face is carved into the door, the visage of a dark undead, withered and old, with a cackling smile.

Facing the door on the northern wall is a carving of a grinning skull, with two indentations for eyes. One is filled with a roving emerald eyeball, which stares at you balefully, while the other indentation is empty

The eye in Tabitha's pocket, begins to twitch uncontrollably. Moving around with frantic energy.

"A cult as rich as it is dangerous, one would say..." Khessa raises a perplexed eyebrow, once she comes to see the double doors gilded with gold and the emerald in the carving's 'eye'. "Whoever flaunts so much wealth either really doesn't lack means... or sets a trap for potential thieves or intruders".

The blonde arcane warrior tries to examine closely (but only with her gaze, without touching) both the double doors and the carving, attentive to any traces or discrepancies potentially left in the dust by the users' fingers (to try to understand if those who use that access usually touches the door or carving and where).

'Unless the Cult does dust regularly, at least a little dust should be present' the tall adventurers thinks to herself - she remembers it well, from when she helped her mother clean the house... 'and therefore the users' fingers should keep(at least a little) more free  of dust the areas they usually touch to access'.

The door is covered in dust, but there are no apparent marks that would indicate the door being touched. Strange.

Quote from Raccoon_Master >>

The door is covered in dust, but there are no apparent marks that would indicate the door being touched. Strange.

Khessa shares with her fellow adventurers what she noticed and adds: "So, perhaps the correct (or safe) opening mechanism does not involve touching the door..."

[[ OOC: @DM: And the carving on the opposite wall? Khessa intended to examine that in the same way... Is there any point there that seems less dusty than the others? ]]

"Hm, something seems to be missing there, I wonder..." The young dark-haired man says curiously as he studies the grinning skull with the empty socket, then glancing over at feline artificer...

Kit looks from Jack to Tabby. Clearly there's something going on but she hasn't the slightest clue as to what.

"You think someone tried to rob the place," she asks Jack before turning her attention to Kevori, "Is that why the cult killed your brother?"

"Rob the place? Oh no, Kevori's brother was here to investigate it, and he brought back with him an eye that has led us here, maybe it has found it's way back home again." He says with a small smile, then looking back at the empty socket again.

Erven walks over to inspect the door, looks at the open socket where the eye would go and waits.  “Looks like we should pop it in.  It should open.”  He turns to Jack, saying “Want to be a cultist?  A “new recruit”?  Or should we just sneak in there…”. He nods toward the door. 

"An...eye?"

She casts a glance at the carved skull, but it's the zombies that occupy her mind.

"You mean the other emerald," she says with a quiver of trepidation, "right?"

"No, Kit" Khessa explains. "Jack thinks that the magical eye with which Tabitha guided us here can be inserted in the place of the missing eye and be the trigger to open the door".

The blonde arcane warrior shrugs: "It's as good an idea as any... considering that those who use this door avoid touching it directly. Maybe it actually opens by inserting the missing eye. It's not clear to me why the present one should be an emerald while the missing should be a magical object, but maybe it is something related to the entity this Cult reveres... It is certainly an attempt that can be made, anyway. Especially because of how the magical eye is reacting to this place right now".

"And if we decide to try it," the tall adventuress concludes "I can summon a... kind of small telekinetic force... to insert the eye for us. So we can stand at a distance and see what happens. It might be less dangerous than if one of us inserted it - and it turns out it wasn't the right thing to do".

"Okay...a magical eye though. Like made out of metal or crystal or something. Not like a," she taps the corner of her own eye.

(OOC Reminder that Kit separated from the group before their run in with the cultist and returned after you'd already found and opened the entrance. The character literally has no idea that the eye even exists.)

Mud raises an eyebrow at the elaborate door set into the wall. “Looks like they sure know how to be subtle.”

As the group waits for Tabitha to insert the eye into the door’s socket, Mud backtracks a few step back into the tunnel just in case the door had some sort of defenses that weren’t too friendly towards non-cultists. As he does, he takes a moment to focus on his wound from the zombie fight. He had a pretty nasty bruise where he was struck, but nothing seemed to be broken. Taking a calming breath, he focusses his magic on his tender side, and he lets out a sigh of relief as he feels his bruise fade away. Once again, he finds himself grudgingly grateful that Bahumat had a fondness of him for whatever reason.

((Using Gift of the Chromatic Dragon to cast Cure Wounds for 5))

Tabitha finally finishes her sketch of the glowing altar, wanting to get it all down before the image faded from her memory so she has been oblivious to all the conversations going on around her. As she looks up, she feels something moving in her pocket and tries to swat it. "Ahh! Get out! What are you!" and then she makes contact with the eyeball realising that it is trying to get somewhere. Looking around she suddenly sees the door for the first time. "That is an interesting door, I bet that is where the cultists go. And it looks like it needs this eye pla..." She trails off, looking at everyone's faces and realising they are all aware of this and must have been discussing it while she wasn't paying attention. "Nevermind, lets continue," and she places (or allows it to place itself if that is how it works) the eye in the socket (unless Khessa stops her to do it with mage hand, but Tabitha wasn't paying attention when that was discussed).

"No, neither to be honest, I'd prefer to be someone who helps cleaning this less than cosy place up." The dark-haired young man answers the scarred wood elf. "Sneaking up on them sounds like an excellent plan." He adds with a friendly smile.

"Well, see for yourself." He says to the half-elf, motioning over to the feline artificer picking up the evil eye from her pocket.

 

At first Kit recoils in disgust but curiosity quickly gets the better of her. Leaning in, she examines the orb closely...

[[Using Divine Sense on the eye: Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead)... Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell.]]