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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FitzTheRuke" data-source="post: 8165949" data-attributes="member: 59816">TommiShalendra, Titus, and Tommi headed down the grand spiral staircase to the manor's lowest level. Here Tommi marvelled for a moment as he peered down a long hall toward the kitchen. He had intended to thank the cook for the fine meal, but there was only one servant remaining (the rest had turned in), a young man a few years shy of Tommi. What had caught Tommi's attention, the domestic noises, was the washing up. The plates, platters, goblets, and tankard were being cleaned by elemental creatures about the size of a halfling. One made of water would scrub the dish, and then pass it off to one of swirling air to dry. The human youth was ignoring them entirely as he finished packing away leftovers.Across the kitchen (which was on the ground floor and faced the estate garden), three elf guards stood at their posts, peering out into the night through arrow loops. It was sobering to remember the horde of orcs that were out there in the dark."Come along." Shalendra barked at Tommi impatiently, "You wanted to see the gateways."Titus chuckled as Tommi caught up to them, and Shalendra led them away from the kitchen, past pantries and storage rooms, into a long corridor that was dug deep under the waterfall, that Tommi could just hear above them, as if far away. There was a guard barracks, with four resting human soldiers and two of the elf guards who had accompanied them earlier. The elves were out of their armour, and their shields were hanging on the wall. They appeared to be in a trance, but they quietly nodded to Tommi as he passed by, to a small, unremarkable door in the guard-room's back wall.Shalendra opened the door, saying quietly (so as not to wake the sleeping human guards - the first time Tommi had ever seen her to be polite), "As you see, the gateways are guarded by the nature of their location (and their secrecy). You are not needed here, but as you are eager to see them, I will show them to you."She led the way down yet another long corridor to another door, behind which was a circular room lined with fine slabs of white marble and engraved with glowing organic designs, including most prominently, the crescent moon. In the middle of the room, on a low pedestal, stood a statue of an elf in elegant warrior’s robes and chain mail, leaning on the pommel of a magnificent longsword. Behind the statue was another door. Shalendra opened it, and led the way down yet another long corridor deep underground; at the end was another door. Shalendra waved her hand and spoke elvish words of magic, and the door slid open, revealing a broad, circular chamber. The walls seemed to flicker or shift, but Tommi couldn't quite make out what he was looking at.Shalendra took him by the shoulders and moved him to the centre of the room. She told him to close his eyes for a moment, relaxe, and then open them. He did and he saw that the walls shifted to show vistas that could only belong to other places: On one side was a hall where stone trees (pillars perhaps) wove together to form an arching canopy; on the other side, a field of fire and a river of lava; Ahead were the gates of a ruined castle, built on a lonely hill. The outer wall was almost entirely ruined, but the inner walls and towers stood, though battered by many wars and years of neglect."Now you have seen it." Shalendra said sternly, "You may stay at the guard room if you wish to sleep, or you can stand watch at Corellon's statue."</blockquote>

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