Zephirah lets her hand fall from the carvings, brushing grit from her fingertips. “If this is all the desert managed to slip through, the whole structure must have slept under a hard-packed shroud,” she muses, voice low enough to stay within their circle of torch‑glow. “Yet now it yawns at the sun as though some buried tale finally insisted on being heard. Songs don’t like to stay entombed forever.”

With no turns or side passages to tempt them, she falls into step behind Satina, bowing her head beneath each beam of slanted light until the faint outline of a stone barrier resolves in the gloom ahead. “Well—only one way left to press the rhyme,” she says, tightening her grip on the viol strap as soon as they start to trudge toward the silent door.

Satina notes the wall ahead as she continues cautiously moving forward.  "Keep going until we get closer to that wall? Once there we'll have to figure out how to pass." She doesn't wait though for a response. (Perception: 23)

Ophelia follows closely behind Satina, gazing around, mouth half-open in thought, sensing within thirty feet around her to detect magic.

Her spectral mage hand precedes her, also thirty feet ahead until blocked by the wall.

 As the vague outline of the barrier grows clearer, Zahara slows slightly, studying the transition of air, shadow, and silence that gathers near the wall.

“We should treat that threshold as we did the pressure plate,” she says, projecting just enough to reach the group ahead. “A seal like this may be more than just stone, it could be a ward."

Zahara kneels just shy of where Ophelia’s spectral hand hovers near the barrier. She presses her palm lightly to the ground, then reaches for her staff and begins quietly weaving the gestures of Druidcraft once more.

This time, she doesn’t ask about wind or weather. She focuses on change, movement in the stone, hidden blooms in forgotten cracks, the hush before something ancient stirs awake. Her brow furrows in concentration.

Investigation of Barrier: 16

Nephthys cautiously follows along, taking a closer look at the barrier and it's surroundings.

Investigation: 20 + Guidance: 2
(Casting light when needed, using mage hand rather than touching things when possible)

Satina, Zahara, and Nephthys spot a fine trip wire, about 1 foot off of the floor, approximately forty feet away from the barrier. The group is able to carefully step over the trip wire.

Upon closer inspection, you can see that the barrier is in fact a giant boulder, likely rigged to fall and roll over anyone caught in the chamber.
There is just enough room on each side of the boulder for a small or medium creature to squeeze through.

The causeway continues, for a total of about 750 feet, opening into a sand-filled courtyard (Area 4) between the pyramid and the low wall encircling it. A sandstone wall surrounds the space, protecting it from the disorder of the world outside. The wall is 30 feet high.

History DC 12:

Ahead, A pair of heavy stone doors carved with images of rampant sphinxes stand at the terminus of the long causeway.

Roll20 updated. Actions?

Zephirah slips sideways past the looming boulder, shoulders brushing sandstone as she edges through the cramped gap. Once clear, she paces forward until she’s about twenty feet from the massive doors. Her gaze roams over the carved sphinxes—arched wings, poised claws, regal profiles rendered in deep relief. Squinting in the half‑light, she tilts her head this way and that, noting patterns in the chisel‑marks and any weathering that might conceal hinges, seams, or hidden sigils, while keeping a respectful distance from whatever mechanism lies within the stone.

(Perception 5)

In her half-oblivious meandering forward gait, Ophelia comes perilously close to triggering the tripwire even after it is pointed out to her, only saved by her subconscious elven grace.  Sliding through the gap between the boulder and the sandstone wall, she gazes around, eyes wide, hoping to be educated by those (such as Thoth) who may understand what this place signifies at the level of studied lore.  (She defers her History check).

Still concentrating on her thirty foot aura of detect magic, she looks around for lurking enemies or hazards before approaching the northern doors.

And there shall be, rising softly, softly from the shadows, a grace and a mercy from which shall blossom the dark flower of revelation...

Ophelia's Perception:  18

Satina too moves cautiously, avoiding the trip wire and slipping past the boulder. She eyes the heavy stone doors in front of them, coming up alongside Ophelia to inspect them. (Perception: 23) "I hope there is some way to open those things. Should take care for traps here as well."  She also thinks to take a look at the larger pyramid, wondering if there could be any other way inside. 

"Impressive thing this, have heard of these kind of traps but never seen them myself, until now." The young dark-haired woman says to no one in particular as the team passes the giant boulder, seeming more impressed with the pyramid's traps than it's history, to her mentor's chagrin. As she joins the others by heavy stone doors she too starts to carefully examine the area in front of them for signs of more traps.

Investigation: 10 + Guidance: 1

"This sand-filled courtyard, known as a Temenos, was designated as sacred ground to both the pharaoh and the gods." The tiny blue sphinx meanwhile points out as if the information was vital to the missions success, continuing to speak about how pyramids were traditionally planned and built during this particular period of ancient Osirion.

History: 16

Zephirah flicks Thoth an appreciative—yet slightly wry—smile. “Sacred ground, you say? Then let’s keep our footprints light and our curiosity lighter. Best we leave it be and remain on the path that's made for mortals.” She loosens her grip on the viol, careful to plant each step on the center path rather than walking to the side.

"Well, personally I believe it to be sacred to be curious and collect old lore for future generations of mortals to better understand their past. That being said, treading carefully to not set off any traps is probably an excellent idea." Thoth says with a small feline smile.

Satina doesn’t observe any other entrance to the pyramid. Ophelia’s detect magic spell fades without revealing the presence of magical auras (the causeway was 125 meters, so I would estimate 10 minutes have passed since your casting). The party does not identify any suspicious, trap-type mechanisms here. Only the heavy stone doors lay ahead, their facade depicting sphinxes with wings flourished.

Actions?

Zahara slips through the narrow space beside the massive boulder. Once clear, she exhales quietly, and steps beside Satina and Zephirah before the sphinx-guarded doors.

As Satina voices her concern, Zahara nods once. With deliberance, she plants her staff on the ground beside her and bows her head. Her fingers tighten gently around the smooth wood, and she murmurs a few soft words in Sylvan, the language of root and branch. A faint glimmer of verdant light pulses along the etched grooves of her staff as she invokes Guidance upon herself.

She moves methodically, crouching low to inspect the base of the door first, then running careful fingers just above the sand, along the seam, searching for grooves, glyphs, or faint mechanical devices, anything to suggest how the doors open.. As she works, she speaks quietly, more to the stone than her companions.

Rising again, she presses both palms lightly against the central seam of the door and closes her eyes briefly, focusing, not to force it open, but to feel for give, pressure, or resistance.

 Investigation: 17+3 Guidance

Startled by the dissipation of her magical awareness (not really having known exactly how long it would last anyway!), Ophelia immediately begins the Detect Magic ritual once more while her companions explore the Temenos and examine the stone doors ahead.

(Unless otherwise interrupted... if the others begin to move on before she is finished, she will interrupt the ritual to follow behind them.)

... writhe for the impatience of the few who never saw what could have been ...

Zephirah settles cross-legged near the courtyard’s edge, letting the desert hush settle over her before she raises the viol to her chin. She coaxes a slow, reverent progression—open fifths that bloom into minor suspensions, then resolve with a hush—echoing temple chants she’s heard in distant caravansaries. Each note is allowed to float up into the sunlit void above the pyramid, a quiet offering to whatever powers still linger over this sacred ground, while she waits for her companions to unravel the stone doors’ secrets.

Zahara gently presses against the door, finding it stuck. Ophelia expands her magical awareness, but continues to detect nothing unusual.

Actions?

"There must be some mechanism to open the doors," Satina muses.  She's kind of out her depth here though, not really sure where such a thing might be. The best she can come up with is just to look over the door for any hand-holds of any sort. "Not sure I'm much help here," she says to the others. "Unless there is something you want me to push or pull." 

(Perception if needed: 16) 

Zephirah tilts her head at the immovable seam. “If the boulder was only meant to crush intruders, the earlier plate could not have been its trigger, it felt oddly placed. What if that plate back there clamped these doors shut instead?” She rises, crossing to the carved panels, and runs her fingertips lightly along the raised wings and fluted manes of the sphinx reliefs. With slow, deliberate pressure she probes hollows between feathers, traces the crook of a stone forepaw, and taps at the pupils of each stylized eye—searching for any shallow recess, pivot pin, or uneven give that might reveal a concealed latch or hidden release. (Investigation 18)

Nephthys too steps closer to the door, her curious eyes wandering over them to find clues to how they open.

Investigation: 21 + Guidance: 2

Meanwhile Thoth too studies the doors but from a more scholarly perspective, this time clearly misinterpreting what he sees.

History: 5