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OOTS1039
The exterior of Kraagor's Tomb
Kraagor's Gate

Kraagor's Gate, also known as Kraagor's Tomb, Serini's Gate and Monster Hollow[1], is the fifth of the gates sealing the rifts of the Snarl. Located near the North Pole[2], it is built over the area where the dwarven Barbarian Kraagor was killed trying to hold off the Snarl while his companions, Dorukan and Lirian, were sealing it. Built by Serini Toormuck in his honor, it contains some of the strongest monsters in the world, reflecting his belief in the power of physical might. [3]

It is the last gate left standing, after the destruction of Lirian's Gate by Redcloak, Dorukan's Gate by Elan, Soon's Gate by Miko Miyazaki, and Girard's Gate by Roy Greenhilt.

It's believed to be hidden in a massive complex which consists of hundreds of separate "tombs" filled with extremely powerful monsters. The complex itself is built with multidimensional stone, which apparently prevents anyone from passing through the walls, so the only way to reach the gate is to fight through the small army of monsters and clear the tomb in the hopes that the Gate lies somewhere within.[4]

Or so it seems. It's eventually revealed that, unsurprisingly for an edifice constructed by a rogue, none of the doorways actually lead to the Gate, each of them covertly teleporting intruders off into a tunnel located at some unknown location. (This explains how there can be so many doors crammed together each with a tunnel complex.) Bypassing this covert teleport mechanism permits access to the personal quarters of Serini Toormuck herself, who still lives in the area and maintains the tomb network.

However, this, too is a subtle misdirection. The gate is not in Toormuck's quarters - every single one of tombs accessed by the doors must be cleared in order to reach it; it is not a shell game but a gauntlet.[5] The specific mechanism is that a trap is armed when an entity enters the last room of a dungeon. After the entity leaves, the trap activates and inscribes a small, invisible tattoo on the rectum of the entity. If the entity does not have a rectum, then the tattoo is inscribed in the next funniest location.

Team Evil arrive at the Gate well in advance of the Order of the Stick, and have been systematically clearing each tomb to search for the Gate with the help of Oona and the local population of Bugbears. They mark the door of each cleared tomb with an 'X' in red paint. However, the Monster in the Darkness is secretly working to foil their search, by marking doors to tombs that they have not in fact cleared yet.[6]

O-Chul and Lien arrive at the gate sometime after Team Evil, sent by Lord Hinjo on a reconnaissance mission. After an inconclusive skirmish with Oona and Lancer,[7] they hole up in the mountains overlooking the entrance to the tombs observing Team Evil and becoming aware of MitD's activities.[8] They are kidnapped[9] by Serini and her Beholder "child"/minion Sunny in order to wipe their memories, though the audience doesn't learn who the attackers are until much later. Serini has her headquarters somewhere nearby, a workshop/warehouse that can only be reached via teleportation.

Roy, Haley, Elan, Vaarsuvius, and Belkar find the ledge the paladins were on. Durkon separates from the group to approach Redcloak. That conversation goes badly, leading to the Order fleeing Team Evil, hiding in one of the tunnels and sort-of successfully covering their tracks. In the process of this, they discover the aforementioned teleportation trick, and manage to get into the real tunnel complex behind the doors. This leads to a battle between them and Serini and Sunny.


References[]

  1. Comic #1039, "Multiple Choice"
  2. Comic #331, "For the Future"
  3. Comic #277, "The Crayons of Time: Breaking Up is Hard to Do"
  4. Comic #1040, "It Probably Would've Taken 30 Pages"
  5. Comic #1277, "ETA"
  6. Comic #1041, "Value of an Independent Variable"
  7. Comic #1033, "Sound Reasoning"
  8. Comic #1042, "Wait Watchers"
  9. Comic #1089, "Wait and See"
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