Despite Eleeza's attempts to the contrary, the ravished guard remained limp and comatose with no response to the barbarian's attempts to rouse her. Although it did expose an insignia on the metal pauldron, like the other one, an "X" in a pentagonal shield.<br/><br/>As for the ruby, it clearly radiated an aura of transmutation magic. After a few seconds of inspection in Sika's fingers, it began to glow ever so faintly. A soft-spoken but monotonic feminine voice emanated from the jewel: "No extraplanars detected. Activating personnel entrance."<br/><br/>The ground rumbled as it shifted as flowing clay and remade itself into a spiraling flight of stairs snaking downwards into the depths of the earth, just wide enough for two to walk abreast, right at Sika's feet. The way down was unlit by any artificial means and there was no central column around which the spiraling stairs wrapped, so that it was possible to peer down and see the bottom, at least the height of a three-storied building below the surface, with a single lonely ray of sunlight illuminating the patch of floor below.