L2-11-Entry. Hall of Pillars - The Truss Gate
The corridor lowers into a short hall of squat stone pillars. Each pillar’s base is banded in bronze and pricked with six tiny studs. The low hall settles into stillness. Pillars banded in bronze show six thumb-studs at their bases. To left and right, open corridors run between stacked alcoves of the dead. In the center bay, a solemn metal door waits—its face cut with a mountain peak, a smith’s hammer, and a small ruby sigil like a watchful eye. Before it, three brass floor plates are set in the flagstones, each etched with one of the same emblems. Wall-niches for the dead run in tidy banks—two and three high—Suel priests laid on their backs, arms crossed, names on bronze plates. On the floor, pale flags show faint tool marks leading to round plates set before each arch.
Cold air threads the alcoves. Somewhere in the stone, a soft tick keeps time.
What this room is
A structural truss gate: the ancient masons designed this bay so routes open only when the pillars are properly braced. It sets the Wing of Stone’s tone—weight, leverage, alignment—and lets the party choose their direction north → L2-11a/11b, west → Door 'The Seal of Stone and Ruby Law', or south → L2-11e/11f.
No monsters by default. If the party treats the room with decorum (soft voices, six-count pace), Ruby undead will not interfere here.
The door
A solemn metal door waits in the center bay, cut with a mountain, a smith’s hammer, and a small ruby sigil like a watchful eye. Three brass plates—each etched with one of the same emblems—are set before it. The side halls left and right run on between stacked niches of the dead as a soft six-beat tick moves through the stone.
How to open a direction
The Seal of Stone and Ruby Law by 3orcs
(player-led, no checks required)
Chiseled in Old Suloise along the lintel (with a neat Common gloss in smaller letters):
“Stone holds, hand heeds; law witnesses. Pay the weight; keep the six. (weight → studs → witness)”
Center Door: Triune Seal of Stone (run in 3 steps; no checks)
- Pay the Weight (Jascar/Fortubo).
Slide the nearby stone sled (or 400+ lb load) onto one outer plate (peak or hammer). Keep a soft six-count to avoid noise. - Brace the Gate (two pillars).
While the weight sits, two creatures stand by the two nearest pillars. On each beat of a slow six-count, they press one stud each, moving clockwise; after six beats all studs are pressed. - Law Witnesses (Wee Jas).
On the sixth beat, a third creature touches the center ruby plate and quietly speaks a short funerary line (any respectful phrase or the ward-line). The bar lattice withdraws and the door glides open. (There is no keyhole; the mechanism is internal.)
If they go off-script
- No weight on an outer plate: nothing moves; forcing the door lashes a Stone Bite across the sill (DEX 13, 2d6 slashing) and adds +1 Attention.
- Out of cadence: a hard click, plates lock for 1 minute; a tiny ruby spark on the center plate hints at the need for the witness step.
- Three failed tries in a scene: a bass note carries; a Ruby Custodian & 2 ghouls arrive in 1d4 rounds to investigate (use your attention clock). (Cadence/noise guidance was already established in your DM notes.)
Clues to nudge them
- Any Suel Religion Lore or time reading the lintel gloss points out Jascar (guardian) is brother/ally to Fortubo (craft)—they work together; Wee Jas oversees funerary law, so she witnesses, not pushes.
- A margin verse scratched by a long-gone mason on the left pillar base: “Hammer to peak, law to rest.”
Living with the alcoves (player options)
- Cover: a prone creature in a lower alcove has three-quarters cover; crouched = half cover.
- Climb: to a second/third tier is Athletics DC 10 (rungs grant advantage). A fall from the top = 1d6 bludgeoning.
- Quiet search: one minute per niche; break a ruby dot here and you may wake 1d2 Ruby Zombies from this bank (only once per 30-ft stretch).
Side halls
- Left and right corridors are open lanes deeper into the Wing of Stone. No puzzle required here.
- North arch (serpent plate): to L2-11a → 11b (upper family lines, bends back to mid-spine).
- West Door 'The Seal of Stone and Ruby Law' (ruby skull/glyph-star plate): to the pillar mid-spine and L2-11c/11d; a service notch beyond trends toward Beltar Pit.
- South arch (boar plate): to L2-11e (collapsed crypt) and 11f, with a cramped dogleg bypass that can sneak back to the hub if you keep a six-count whisper.
Suel Crypts - Hall of Pillars “The Truss Gate” by 3orcs
Features
- Six-stud pillars (all around): each squat pillar has a ring of six thumb-studs at the base.
- Floor plates: a round plate before each arch engraved with a beast knot (boar = south, eagle = west, serpent = north—Suel totems reinterpreted).
- Alcove banks: 8 ft × 4 ft × 5 ft niches, two and three high, with bronze name-plates and ruby wax dots at the brow; a few are empty.
- One stone-sled (freestanding lid): on skids near the room’s center, sized as a convenient counter-mass.
- The left and right side passages remain open lanes deeper into the maze.
- Only the center crypt door is sealed by a mechanical-theologic riddle.
Wall reliefs and floor plates are Suel god sigils
- Jascar (mountains, guardianship) — snow-capped peak/anvil sigil.
- Fortubo (stone, metals, craft) — hammer of Golbi.
- Wee Jas (law of death & magic) — ruby skull/glyph-star (arbiter of funerary seals).
Type
Great hall
Parent Location
Owning Organization
DM Notes (quick)
- Cadence matters: sliding the sled off-beat makes a brief squeal (Attention +1) but still moves. The studs won’t accept inputs unless a plate is weighted.
- Player agency: this room lets them pick a route. Opening a second direction costs time and effort—useful if they need a retreat lane.
- Fail-forward: If they brute-force repeatedly, drop a Ruby Ghoul Patrol at the next junction (they come to investigate squeals).
- Aid & treasure: a mason’s square and 2 oath-nails sit in a shallow niche behind a loose name-plate (passive 14 or any careful search finds it). A hidden stud order (alternating 1–3–5–2–4–6) on the center pillar pops a tiny reliquary drawer with a Stonebond token (advantage vs. forced movement in L2-11 for 24 hours).
- Map cue: etch a faint lane diagram in the dust—boot scuffs from ghouls show their usual west→north route.
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