The next morning the real Durkik Forgeheart once again thanked the heroes for rescuing him the day before (but they really did kinda kill him) and took them to the Stone Anvil to a secret area deep within the temple. He showed them the door to the Sepulcher and told them that he could go no further.
The heroes entered the area and saw the stone door at the far end of the enormous room. It was, however, behind a wall of filigree. An image of Moradin emerged from the barrier and challenged the heroes”
“Think you carefully on Moradin’s precepts, his teachings, his actions, and his favored disciples. Then speak unto me a parable, a tale of Moradin, not that you have learned from his texts, but that you have created yourself. Let it show your understanding of his words and his ways, and you may pass.”
Despite having a follower of Moradin, the group utterly failed this skill challenge (one success and four failures. The once success was “if the party contains a divine character who worships Moradin, they gain 1 success automatically”).
The party could still bash their way through the filigree but they had to deal with five guardian writhing chains first.
Once they were dealt with, along with the filigree, the party was able to go through the stone door and into Mountainroot Temple.
You feel no magic – no tingling or shimmering. It occurs between steps; one instant, you’re in the sepulcher, and the next you’re…not. You are in a great, stone-walled chamber. Numerous doorways – many of which are contained within deep stone arches, almost like artificial caves - provide egress. A platform with multiple stairs stands near the chamber’s center, presumably for a ceremonial purpose long since forgotten. The eastern portion of the room appears to have been largely damaged in an ancient cave-in, marring one of two great reliefs that adorn the far wall.
Perched on one of the archways and atop the undamaged relief, a pair of foul females with ragged hair and the claws and wings of vultures turn piercing eyes in your direction, letting loose with a terrible, predatory cry. Only a few yards from you, what appears to be a scruffy, abnormally short dwarf peers at you between slitted lids.
The Temple Between pt 1
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8367897The Temple Between pt 2
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8371257The Temple Between pt 3
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8374317