Tecklenburg
Explorer
Per Manbearcat
The drawing back of the stone by the earth spirits within it is a rough, meter diameter circle. Inside is pitch black. The lantern lights only the very periphery, but it is plain to see...this is no house.
What lies within is a cold, cramped hollow leading off into inky blackness, looking all the part of a tunnel carved into the black stone of the Feydark.
Your nearness to it fills you with a strange sense of...being drawn into it...
"...what magic is this (?)" escapes from my lips as Rawr and I slowly draw back from it. I look to Otthor.
Being drawn into it? As in enchantment or like gravity?
Per Manbearcat
As in the latter. This is a physical sensation.
I toss the lit lantern through the opening.
Per Manbearcat
While it looks to be a horizontal shaft, the mote of light is accelerated after it crosses the threshold, as if "falling." It winks out of sight several tens of feet down in a flash as a circle of light violently emanates from the point at which the lantern abruptly disappears.
"Quite the contingency," I say aloud.
I'm pretty sure this is trans-dimensional magic. I'm consulting my accumulated knowledge to confirm this and determine if I can be lowered on a rope through barrier like in the movie "Poltergeist."
[sblock]Spout Lore (Int)
1, 6 +3 = 10
The GM will tell you something interesting and useful about the subject relevant to your situation.[/sblock]
Per Manbearcat
What you're seeing resembles the tales of the dimensional magic of Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut. There is definitely "twisted space" directly beyond this stone wall and a dimensional pocket on the other side of the barrier below you. There is obviously no activation ritual so the portal must be permanently open, the barrier between the two places basically being a superficial, rather than physical, one. A rope or a person should be able to exist simultaneously, and intact, on either side.
"This is much more dangerous than I had anticipated. Farmer Barnum is either a powerful acolyte of Baba Yaga or 'he' is an incarnation of the queen crone of witches herself and we are potentially looking upon an entrance to her fabled Dancing Hut."
I look Saerie in the eye and give a verrrrrrrrry subtle smile. "Only one way to know for sure. You guys could lower me through the barrier by rope. I'll tug hard once for 'pull me out' and twice for 'the coast is clear'. Rawr and the wolf would need to stay up here."
FYI - I'll spend 1 AG to avoid DD on this should Saerie want to go with it.