The Lost Library of Q'Sh - 15

The Lost Library of Q'Sh - 15

Location 15).

The southern door to this room is locked. It is thick and bound with iron, but the wood is rotted and a good shove will break the entire thing to fragments. The west, east and south walls are lined with benches. There is a metal cage at the center of the room facing a small dais with a large overturned table resting against the secret door.

The cage is large and heavy and bolted to the floor. It has a small door on its south face. The bones of some large creatures are inside scattered about. If they are removed it will be found that they are from several creatures. The bones are polished smooth and the ends are carved and notched. There are a dozen long bones from legs and forearms as well as 2 pairs of hands that have been wired together with silver wire and one huge, jawless skull.

If the bones are examined it will be noticed that they fit easily together and form a kind of arbor such as might be found at the entrance to a garden. To assemble the bones correctly the characters must roll lower than their Wisdom on a d20 with a -6 modifier (a character with 6 Wisdom would have no chance to assemble the bones). It takes 3 turns to assemble and characters can make an attempt once per hour.

Once assembled the skull fits nicely at the top held between the skeletal hands. When it has all been clicked into place it forms a freestanding arch. Between the spaces of the arch the air becomes still and black; the smell of damp earth pervades the room and a slight cold wind comes from the opening.

The assembled bones form a gate and the gate leads to a point 5 miles from the south entrance to the library. The area is in a small ravine cut by a cold river. The river descends from a waterfall 30 yards to the northwest and runs into a 50ft high wall of stone to the south-east. No matter when the gate is entered it exits at midnight of the following day. The gate is one way. Once through there is no return. There is an old narrow path that leads up the high walls of the ravine, but it has not been used in a long, long while.

The gate of bones will fall to pieces 30 minutes after being assembled. They can be gathered and carried by two M sized creatures or 1 L sized especially if they can be lashed together, bagged or boxed. The loose bones are difficult to carry. The gate will always lead to the ravine. Characters who enter the gate on the same day before the stroke of midnight will find themselves appearing one after the other at exactly the coming midnight, but should one character step through the gate 1 minute after the will not appear in the ravine till the midnight of the next day.

The secret door to the north is cracked. The corner of the large table has gouged a mark down the wall and was moved or thrown with such force that it dislodged the door from its frame. To open the door will require it to be removed, broken in or dismantled.