The Path of Ages
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Cartography: The room is 90 feet from east to west and 10 feet north to south. Along the south wall, there are three semi-circular alcoves, each 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep, spaced 10 feet apart. The west wall is open, leading to a steep stairwell angled at 45-degrees that continues 100 feet to the surface, and the east wall terminates at a door. |
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Room Details: The ceiling in this room is 10 feet high. The air quality is nominal. The volume of this room is 13,710 cubic feet. The elevation of the room is -100 feet. This room is included in Dungeon Zone 1. |
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Landmarks: A locked door on the east wall, three statues in the alcoves from west to east: a statue of a maiden, a statue of a mother holding an infant, a statue of an old crone. |
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The air here hangs heavy with an age-old stillness, dense with the weight of centuries gone by. The walls, made of dark marble, form a narrow corridor, its surface streaked with faint veins of silver that run like forgotten rivers through the stone. Along the southern wall, three alcoves stand in quiet symmetry, each holding a statue of undeniable presence. The first, a maiden, stands with an air of grace, her features soft and untouched by time. Beside her, a mother holds her infant to breast with tender care, the weight of protection and love carved into every line of her form. The final alcove holds a depiction of an old crone, her face weathered with the years, hands clutching a staff worn smooth from use, her expression one of quiet contemplation, as though guarding the wisdom of ages. A gilded iron door on the eastern wall depicts a scene of the maiden and the mother with a younger girl standing beside her; they look down with reverence upon what appears to be a headstone. |
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The lock on the door in the eastern wall is difficult to bypass, but it can be opened by correctly manipulating the statues in the room. Each statue is double-sided, with a different depiction on the reverse, and each pivot easily in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions. The maiden statue, when rotated, reveals a depiction of the same girl, older and less petite. The mother statue, when turned, shows the woman aged with a young girl beside her. The crone statue’s reverse displays a skeletal figure wrapped in funerary shrouds. To unlock the door, the statues must be rotated clockwise in the following specific order: maiden, mother, and crone. Upon completion the statues will slowly continue to rotate clockwise until each returns to its original position, unlocking the door. |
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