The Death Chamber

[grumpy cat]

You involuntarily shiver as you enter the Death Chamber - and not just because it’s noticeably colder here than it was in the Entrance Chamber. You’ve had numerous encounters with Death over the course of your journey tonight, but never before has his presence felt quite so tangible.

You’ve got an eerie feeling that no one survives in this room for very long.

The room looks a little like the Ministry courtrooms, only stripped of any small comforts. The grey stone benches look cold and unforgiving - and it’s just as well, because you can’t imagine anyone would want to sit in here for any period of time.

In the center of the room is the item you’ve only heard rumours about: a tall stone archway with a tattered black curtain in the middle. Legend has it that, should you stand close enough, you can hear the voices of the dead.

A subliminal voice draws you closer to the veil - you know from legend that walking across the threshold will trap you forever in the land of the dead, but getting close without crossing over will allow you to hear from them.

Maybe they know things about this room that you don’t.

You walk across the room and up onto the dais where the archway resides, moving slowly and keeping your distance. You’ve already been sucked into a prophecy once tonight, you don’t want to test out if the Veil has the same magnetic powers.

As you approach, you start to hear voices, distant and jumbled. You listen closer - it sounds like the dead are saying letters aloud, but they don’t seem to spell anything that you recognise. Grabbing a quill and a piece of paper, you start to write all of them down.

eanbtbesro dsoigd b ikhiahio slb n arsair piseyllp etneala

After the last letter is spoken, one voice on the other side of the Veil begins to drown out the others. “The divisions are [seven and nine], [six and five], [eight and five], and [two, three, and five]. Each spells a way that someone met their end - tell us what those four have in common, and the secrets of the dead shall be revealed to you.”

You start getting to work on solving the puzzle that the dead voices have created for you, but are temporarily thrown off course by what sounds like a large piece of stone falling to the ground. You jump at the sound, and turn to find your companions gathered around one of the stone benches.

“One of the stones was a different colour than the rest,” someone explains. “So I pushed it aside, and…”

They hold out a stack of cards, all with names on them. You do a quick count, and it looks like there are sixteen of them. Coincidentally, it’s just the number of seats in the jury box. Scanning those seats, it’s evident that there are spots for these namecards - but you’ve got the feeling there will be dire consequences for placing them in the wrong spots.

BEGIN THE PLACEMENT TEST HERE

Once you place the final card, the judge’s bench lights up with its own placecard. You say it aloud.