Some doors should remain closed. Woe befalls those who do not heed that wisdom. -- Deathshead419
There was a dread portal. It was large, and a very strange shape. Around its frame were images of skulls and bones. Depictions of disease. Predators with snarling mouths and bared fangs. Horrible monsters poised to attack. There was a bar across the door of immensely heavy granite. It was chained into place with D'varuv eternal steel. There was also a massive stele, also of solid granite, with the same message in every language that had a written form.
Do not open this door. Not even to find out why it should never been opened. We mean it.
Just getting to the door meant surpassing every possible trap, puzzle, and obstacle that intelligent life could think up. Combined with the stele, it said a lot about the alleged intelligence of that life.
"Well it's got to be good," argued Gon the Barbarian. "Otherwise why would they put so many things in the way?"
"Maybe," said the Wizard, Ebberhandril the Great, "they were trying to stop fools like us from finding out the hard way."
Lytefut the Rogue was absently playing with her dagger as she contemplated the environment. "I don't know if anyone else noticed, but this ground is carpeted with the bones of intelligent creatures. And they're all... pointed towards the exit like they were trying to run away."
They were trying to run away, said a whisper in the cavern. Some of the motes in the air coalesced into a vague humanoid shape. Forming between the Adventurers and the stele, one blobby suggestion of an arm upraised as if trying to make them stop. Beyond this door is the worst and deepest pit in the Plane of Torment. Many have entered never to return. Few have survived their return if they do. It is my curse to prevent the deaths of others. Please. Heed me. Do not open this door.
"Can you stop us?" asked Zygo the Warlock. He was the one who had urged them all on this journey.
"No. I can only attempt to prevent. My curse ends when no more are compelled to sacrifice themselves to this dread portal." The lump serving the job of a head began to hang. "May Ereshkygal be merciful when you meet her."
"Uhm," said Gon, having a rare moment of clarity. "Maybe we shouldn't open that door."
[Photo by Buddha Elemental 3D on Unsplash]
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