Stepping through the portal, you are confronted by a stone path, its flagstones well worn with use. A dark forest flanks either side of the road, and mist curls along the pathway, although never touching the road itself. No sound flows from the shadows on either side, but you feel that there is something in those woods. A large stone arch straddles the road, its surface etched with a single message, "Know ye that ye enter the realm of Zaxares and Stylph, the red dragons. Come ye in peace, and the path lies open. Come ye with other intentions, the way behind is always there. Leave not the road, for to do so shall bring upon ye the wrath of the Guardians." Before long, you reach the end of the road, the flagstones giving way to a single slab of statuary marble, its pristine white surface seeming to collect and reflect the light into the heavens.
A tall mountain rises before you, its rough surface mottled with strips of grey and black. Clouds caress the peak, obscuring any view you might have had of the mountaintop. A large stairway is carved into the rock surface, smoothened and polished to a sheen by the elements. Although the main flight of stairs in the middle is clearly designed for dragons, twin flights of stairs more suited to the shorter legs of humans’ flank the main stair. Small figurines carved from granite decorate the stairway at regular intervals, each depicting either a creature in some heroic pose, whether human, dragon, or otherwise.
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