Main Gate

You make your way through the forest. As you journey deeper into the wild, the trees grow larger and larger. Soon you are among towering sequoias with trunks wider than taverns or temples. You scramble around massive roots, some as high as your shoulders. In places, mammoth trees have fallen, or have died where they stand – shelfs of mushrooms and carpets of moss and vines grow over them. You hear birdsong from the limbs high above you and you occasionally spot deer and smaller animals among the trees. You smell damp earth and old fallen leaves. You reach a massive stump standing alone in a clearing. It is the size of a castle, and the bark is deep brown highlighted by copper streaks. There is one branch protruding near the top, and at the base ahead of you is a dark hollow like the entrance. to a cave, partially covered by a hanging curtain of rust-colored moss.

A curtain of rust-colored moss covers most of the entrance to the giant stump, but once you draw close you can see that this is a well-made gateway. A closed, grated black portcullis made of heavy ironwood blocks the entrance. A small, motionless figure is slumped slightly forward against the other side of the grate.

## Description

The main entrance is on the south side and is 10 feet wide and 8 feet tall.

## Location Information

* The bodies. Inspection of the figure slumped against the other side of the portcullis reveals that it is a dead forest gnome. He remains more or less upright because he has a convulsive death grip with both hands on the ironwood bars of the portcullis. An inspection of the body reveals that the limbs are very stiff and the skin has a purplish discoloration. There are two black-fletched crossbow bolts protruding from his back. A successful **DC 12 Wisdom (Medicine)** or **Intelligence** **(Investigation)** check reveals that the gnome was the victim of a paralytic poison, probably delivered via the crossbow bolts. A **DC 18 Intelligence (Nature)** check identifies the poison as Dead Man’s Hand (see Sidebar on page 8). The gnome’s grip on the bars is so inflexible that his fingers must be broken to detach him, or else his hands or the bars must be removed. Looking through the gate, the characters have a partial view of Area 2 in the light of the overhanging phosphorescent globes. A creature who makes a successful **DC 10 Wisdom (Perception)** **check (or has a passive Perception of 10 or higher)** spots the body of a second gnome sprawled on the ground with three blackfletched crossbow bolts in his back and side. One of his arms is outstretched, reaching towards a handle mounted on a freestanding mechanism about 15 feet inside the gate. Heavy ropes trail up from the winch-and-pulley mechanism to something out of sight over the entranceway. The handle is currently in an upright position and looks as if it could be moved backwards and down. Each dead gnome is wearing leather armor and carries a shortsword, shortbow, and a quiver with 20 arrows. On their left breasts are simple wooden badges depicting an image of the Coppercoil stump.
* Heroes who use a speak with dead spell or similar magic can discover that the dead gnomes are sheriff Glim Gimlen and watchgnome Dimble Musgraven. When the attack began, they tried to open the gate so gnomes could escape into the forest, but they were killed by a duergar sniper (now in Area 2).
* The portcullis. Lifting the portcullis requires a successful **DC 20 Strength** **check**, as does ripping out enough bars to allow passage through. The gate can be battered down; it has an effective **AC of 19** **and 27 hp** and is **immune to piercing damage**. Dealing with the gate by any of these forceful means is quite noisy and alerts the duergar in Area 2 and Area 8. The handle, 15 feet inside the gate, can be knocked back into the “down” position through various means – the mage hand spell, a familiar, or even by shooting it with a projectile (it has an **AC of 20**). Moving the handle to the “down” position causes the portcullis to rise (this process takes 1 round). The duergar in Area 2 hear the portcullis going up and are on alert