Vardrin finishes his examination and shakes his head.
"Nothing more than we already knew: Netherese. The question is, what do we do now? We know there are more orcs somewhere, and there are several gates to explore, apparently. Perhaps we can determine where it was going to go and scout ahead somehow?"
"I admit my military knowledge is limited, but I am certain that the other Orc is not sitting on the other side sipping green tea." Nira motions towards the portal.
"We need to move quickly or we will for sure loose whatever element of surprise we once had."
"Hey Thodan I am no history buff but don't this hunk of rock look familiar? I have seen it some place before," Jack lifts his finger in the air,
"Yes the last time we were slaughtering Orcs we found one of these...the keep! That is the place. Now we are getting somewhere, though it is a circle we are getting somewhere."
"Yes let us go visit the great and powerful Oz," Jack sees that no one gets it,
"Let us just go get us some new Orc tuxedos!"
"Tuxedos?" Glandred asks scratching at her head
"What are they and why would I want one from an Orc?". While the gate is being examined she cleans and sharpens her axes, all the time grumbling about how much she hates orcs.
"Yes, this does seem to resemble the portal we found in the mines. Quite interesting. Perhaps the orcs we fought at Brightstone are part of this same clan, and used the portal to reach the keep." Thodan pauses and thinks for a moment.
"If that be the case, the pose a danger not only to this region, but to us as well. We should move through this portal and see what we might discover."
“We should probably find a way to block the passage through these portals. The one in the mines at the very least.”
"Aside from collapsing this room, I do not think we are capable of permanently destroying this artifact. Though, if we do so, that only eliminates this one gateway---there were several others in the destination room. Thus, we will likely have to destroy the orcs first, then disable the portals if need be."
"Let us proceed then." The cleric reaches out and touches the portal, and utters the command word.
"Part the Veil of the Universe for me."
~~~~
Placing his hand upon the portal and speaking the command phrase causes the grey rock at the back of the portal to begin to emit a soft purplish light, after a few seconds the back of the portal seems to disappear.
Looking thru the portal you can see a room approx 70' square which contains over a dozen similar portals, the room is filthy with debris and old stains, there are signs that the room once contained a roof, which judging by the remaining burnt spars, fell victim to a fire in previous centuries.
The room also possesses a faint musky smell as if the room has been used as a lair for some sort of animal.
~~~~
Stepping thru the portal you enter the room and gaze around, above each portal a number has been written in white paint, looking back at your portal and see the number 1 painted above it on the wall.
OOC: The Orcs that are in the stonelands bear the markings of a tribe from the Thunderpeaks which is different from the Orc markings at Brightstone Keep, also the Orc that Leonara killed is in front of your portal, which is a change from my previous post, previously I had stated that Leonara killed the Orc when it was about to activate another portal, since I did this without consulting the maps I didn't realise that the portal wasn't visible from your portal.
