Shackled City - Chapter I

Orpheus will follow after Raven and wait just beyond the room with the pleasant outside noises.

The staircase ends at a 40-foot-square room with a 10-foot-high ceiling. A slight draft blows into the room from a 10-foot-wide open passage in the far wall, directly across from the stairs.

Two 4-foot-diameter circular doors are set into the middle of the south wall. Each door is made of wood and framed with a ring of mortared stones. The westernmost door is closed and inscribed with a strange glyph. The easternmost door bears a different glyph but rests half-open. The half-open door reveals an iron rim of gearlike teeth, and dim light spills from the chamber beyond.

Mounted to the walls of the room are twelve tarnished copper masks. The masks are two feet tall and cling four feet above the floor. Each one depicts a smiling gnome's visage. The soft giggling, chirping, and rustling noises seem to pour from the very walls.

Not sensing any need to remain hidden, Orpheus enters the room and stands by Raven. Taking in the seen, he smiles at the obvious gnome-made masterworks. He looks at the glyphs in an attempt to read them.
"How do you feel about this place?" he asks Raven.

(OOC: If they aren't just letters of the Gnome alphabet, or words for that matter, he'll make a bardic knowledge check, and if that doesn't help he'll cast read magic)

The easternmost door bears a "J" letter in Gnome, and the western an "A"

Raven

Raven glances at Orpheous. "'Beware the doors with teeth'".

She thenmoves cautiously into the room and tries to peer into the half open SE door.

ooc:
so from the lines of the oracle, we avoid the door with the gear-like teeth. Those are obviously some sort of porticulus or worse.
so are the two doors side by side or on each side of the other passage way?

OoC: You guys are in the center of the map. By the three flights of steps leading down.

ooc:
did a lil map edit on my own. Majin, does this look right?

IC
Alinis goes to study the other door, watching out for possible traps, a little spooked by the giggling, chirping and generally oddness of the room. "Well, obviously, we can't go through that door," she said, point to the gear-like teeth one. "From the oracle's lines, it's fairly certain that that room contains a trap of some sort," she gestured at the other door. "This one seems to be safe." she added.

"Raven?" she called out softly. "Can you see if this one is trapped?" she asked politely.

OoC: You're correct on the fact that the room you have marked with an E is the entrance area, but you assume a bit too much with the "trap" notation. I think you are a bit confused on the "doors with teeth" part of the riddle though. As you'll find out as soon as you open any of the other doors down there, they all have those gear-like "teeth" around them. It's just a symbol of gnomish architecture is all, and the warning is meant to be in general, as Keygan explained that most of them are trapped if not opened with the correct key first.

As for the map editing I'd actually suggest that everyone bookmark the map on Dhes's webpage, as he'll be updating it frequently to color in rooms you've already explored and marking things like traps and the like, and it is much more convenient for him to simply update it and upload a fresh copy to his server than to get ahold of other's updates first and then make the changes. I also speak to him daily over net-phone, so we're in a much easier situation to converse more effectively about what would be the best way to go about that and all.

Thanks for trying to help though! We've all got it covered.

As Elyas sullenly follows the group down the stairs and joins up with them in the first room, he studies the room and the doors set to the south, making some quick sketches in his book and on the map.
“Dos any one know the meaning of the markings on the door?”

Glancing up from his scribbling at Ravens remark.
“It seems that the riddle is more straightforward then we could hope for.”