SND-02: DOME OF INTERROGATION

The following is intended for the play-by-post delve of SND-02: Fane of the Heresiarch.

Vitals + Rumors + Crusaders + Score

A few candles scattered across the floor are the only illumination in this room. The space itself is a large circular room topped with a low-hanging dome. The dungeoneers are appear instantly here, in the center of the chamber.

An enormous stone face 8 ft. in diameter is set into one curved stone wall. It has been hewn into the likeness of three conjoined tiefling skulls, its disfigured, fanged mouth wide open. There is only blank stone wall in the gap between its crooked teeth.

Twelve smaller faces, each appearing as an emaciated crowned man, ring the dome at regular intervals. They are fixed into the wall at shoulder height, their mouths opened far too wide, like that of a serpent. These stone faces are 3 ft. in diameter.

Seen through the glass eyes of the twelve stone faces are tiny porcelain dioramas, each depicting a different scene:

1. A family painting eggs in a newly-bloomed field of tulips.
2. Youth with trident tattoos on their foreheads swimming in a pond beneath a bright midday sun.
3. Several women picking apples in an orchard of trees whose leaves have turned.
4. A congregation bowing in prayer inside a church with grotesque stained-glass windows. Thick frost clings to the glass, and a fireplace roars near the lectern.
5. A tribe of primal elves stalking bison through a windswept prairie.
6. Men in thick leather coveralls harvesting corn and other crops beneath a twilit sky.
7. A single widow mourning at a grave covered in snow.
8. Ten maidens with black flowers in their hair dancing around a maypole. A cluster of adolescent boys are standing nearby, waiting to be asked to dance.
9. A man shrouded in robes struggling to climb a snow drift toward a home with a single lit candle in each window.
10. A feasting crowd watching a joust. Several are fanning themselves in the heat. In the distance, a troupe of halflings is fleeing from a fireworks display gone awry.
11. Knights walking through a city square dripping with ice melted by the morning sun. Tiny green sprouts poke through the cobblestone street.
12. Hooded figures walk through a pumpkin patch, scythes and baskets in their hands.

Kaddim places his head inside the mouth of one of the stone kings and is asked, "What was nailed to the archway atop the watchtower?" He responds with a muffled cry. The jaws of the stone king's face crunch shut, decapitating Kaddim in a fountain of blood. Forevermore, Kaddim's spirit will haunt this chamber, whispering from beyond.

The Guardian's questions are answered and the Dome of Interrogation is defeated. A swirling crimson portal appears in the place of Cerebus. The final confrontation with the Heresiarch is at hand!

Tordek burns the Veil of Scrying, gaining portents about what lies ahead.

• The ceiling of this vast chapel has fallen away, revealing a city-sized glass dome above. Monstrous iron bands reinforce the dome, each straining to hold back an endless ocean of churning black water.
• A pair of ruddy moons float in the water, moving in and out of view and casting long shadows that drip into the recesses of the grotesque idols that stand along the walls.
• A brimstone tier rises in the center of the chapel (Squares I9-J12; blocking terrain), atop which stands a vertical mass grave enclosed by a wall of force. It looms nearly three stories above the bloodstained floor.
• An altar in the south wall is barred by a portcullis constructed from petrified vipers.