DnD campaign

As you pass beneath the massive stone gateway, you feel small drops of water, red with rust, plip onto your armor and face. Looking up into the darkness of the archway high above, you can see the shining eyes of dozens of bats staring at you out of the gloom. They seem unnaturally quiet and focused. A cold wind blows up behind you, flowing through the open gates and chilling you through you armor. Ahead, the wooded trail continues, and the twisted trees crouched by the side of the road seem to beckon you as they squirm in the wind.

Somewhere, in the very roots of your mind, something wriggles, filling you with an impulse to go forward, to greet the dark powers which await.

Darien, overhearing Lucien's prayer, says, "All right chums up, let's get a move on already! Whatever it's for, these dark foes will wish they hadn't opened for me to get in."
Darien walks forwards through the open gate.

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Arscene frowns at the resolution of the situation with Lady Gwyn. "Why do the nobility always claim such tomes as their own. If only they would provide the College of Theoretical Multiverse Studies with more funds then maybe we'd be able to uncover all of these secrets through simulations rather than having to go diving through funken temples."

For another portion of the coach ride Arscene pulls out a set of worn parchment, which he carefully unfolds. The parchment is aged and hardly holds its shape.

'Arscene, my friend,
    I write to you now with a heavy heart. We will be unable to see one another for quite some time. You see, my research has lead me to the point where I must leave the Mortal Realms in pursuit of the truest of truths. I believe I have discovered the origin of Magick - the plane of pure energy from which all magical forces flow. To study it further I must journey there.

We have spent so many years at the College in search of the origins of the Multiverse. If all of our existence stems from the Magick then perhaps here I will meet whatever force controls our being. I simply cannot pass up this opportunity! If the Grand Archivist should discover my plans surely he would forbid it, calling me reckless. Therefore I ask you to deliver the message - as a reward you may use my spectrometer, telescope, and alchemy sets in my absence.

Look for my paper,

Francois'

Arscene contemplates the meaning once more - should he have stopped his friend? Surely Francois will return with something that will shatter our current understanding of Magic's roll in the Multiverse. After all Arscene has his own research to do - and he must prove to the Grand Archivist that he is worthy of the University's post. Changing the satchel's shoulder Arscene feels the weight of the books he "indefinitely borrowed". A few of which are rather mundane or of hobbyist level interests - coffee and teas, alchemy, or basic survival techniques. The remainder are technical journals or overviews of techniques often employed in the study of the Multiverse: mathematics, geometry, measurements of the Weave, as well as magical theory and spellcraft. The last two books are Arscene's spellbook, leather bound with some gold tracings along the spine and a book which remains mostly closed. Those not rifling through Arscene's belongings would never notice this book titled "A Subculture on Magical Dominance" - a particular book Arscene was entrusted to keep safe. Considering how he may be in the minority regarding his views on magic in society, Arscene never chooses to pursue this topic with the group, for now.

Arscene roused from his brief "sleep" as the carriage pulls up to the gate says to Darien, "the true question is whether this gate was designed to keep something out or in".

"I choose ignorance to influence,  I just want to be.
I've never heard a god's word nor has one heard me.

Step by step I move my two feet
walking the path to my own righteous beat.

Though I'm good at heart and kind in soul.
am I supposed to fear the angels toll?

Who made these sins they sound like life
are we puppets for hell, what is this strife?

A fool to believe the lies of a book
so literally influenced, you took the hook.

To enter these gates you must yield perfection
now time for reflection let's start the election.

Now you fear, afraid to live
as if good is something hard to give.

You can't be yourself you struggle to please
now drop for forgiveness and beg on your knees. 

I walk my own path I choose my own fate
if the gods are so judging then damn his high gate." Darien recites to himself... "This is nothing I know, but gates are made as passages to enclosures. By the signs, we are on the good side of this gate now."

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Do we know where we are? Like on a map, if not

Lucien opens up a Telepathic link with Darien, Ask them where we are now. This place seems suspicions."