Bayt al-Sham

[Nigel Thornheart]

“Sound tactics and peerless skill win the day yet again,” Nigel remarked as the party made short work of the fiends. “Huzzah!”

He pressed onward, still leading the formation with the cannon in case more foes awaited them on the other side of the bridge.

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

Juliette stretched long and luxuriously like a cat as she felt Justine’s wounds closing. It hadn’t been the challenge she had looked for, but she could take far more damage now, which she heartily looked forward to.

She skipped forward, humming and whistling another of her macabre tunes. “That was far too easy. I heard blade demons were much more fearsome than that,” she said to nobody in particular.

[Geoffrey Ravenhurst]

Herneiros was simply disappointed. Blade demons sounded far more intimidating when Nigel and the Professor spoke of them. They must have low standards for monsters in Innuria.

[Kjell Ó Raghallaigh]

Kjell was not impressed by people being unimpressed. “Try fighting them up close in thick Mist without a small army,” she said in response to Juliette.

[Ceutinde]

Ceutinde nodded at Kjell's words. "Clearly our employers knew what they were doing when they put the team together. I was expecting at least a few amputations over the course of the adventure." She reached into her bag and knocked on the wooden handle of her bonesaw so as not to tempt fate.

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

“It would be my pleasure. That is why I am here, after all. Not that I am ungrateful to have you blowing holes in things.” She patted Kjell’s arm almost consolingly.

The moment Ceutinde mentioned amputations, Juliette’s eyes gleamed. “As you are Justine’s dearest friend I do hope you will allow me to assist with any amputations or surgeries...required or not.”

[Kjell Ó Raghallaigh]

Kjell gave Juliette a strange glance and began walking a little faster.

[Ceutinde]

"I don't tend to lop off limbs when it isn't required, dear." She replied with just a hint of disdain, before sighing and continuing, "But an assistant would be helpful, should it come to that. Just don't go carving letters into anyone in the process."

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

Juliette giggled merrily. “Oh, that’s only for the ones I intend to keep,” she said, as though that would be comforting to the elf healer. “You can absolutely trust me with a knife.”

[The Forgotten God]

“I’ll stick with the small army,” Elise muttered as Juliette complained about the lack of friendly bloodshed. The adventurers approached the gigantic temple door, which had a few faded words followed by “Emirates” on it, then looked about. Time had not had much impact on the grand structure, and even as the earth shook the House of the Sun seemed unfazed. The door is eight meters tall and has no visible handle or knobs to use.

Damien and Kjell can see off to the left is a slightly damaged trellis on the minaret that they could possibly scale.

[Ceutinde]

Ceutinde forced a smile, saying, "I've no doubt." When in fact she could think of no one else on this expedition that she would trust less.

She stared up at the door once they neared, clearly impressed.

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

Juliette tilted her head as she looked up at the great stone door. “Probably opens with some kind of incantation like ‘Open Sesame’ or ‘Mellon’ or something.” She looked around at everyone else. “Ideas?”

[Damien Chevalier]

Comte-in-Exile Damien Chevalier walked up beside everyone else. He started to whistle as he closely studied the door. "We could try to have Nigel slam his face against it a few times. That might work. At very least it will remove one option from the list." He looked at Justine, "People who instill doors like this generally choose phrases that are a little less common. The last talking door I sweet talked into opening only opened to the phrase, 'I never wanted to fuck that goat, but she begged me.'" He then walked up to the door to inspect it closely.

[Geoffrey Ravenhurst]

Herneiros also inspects the door from an enchanter's point of view.

(Enchantment 60)

[The Forgotten God]

Damien recognizes the door as a pressure activated system. It may need to be opened from inside. Herneiros doesn’t detect magic on the door itself but there’s a nearly blinding amount of power inside. Individual detection spells will be useless inside.