The Ophidian Door is a great portal set within a stone chamber fallen partly to ruin. It is wrought with intricate designs — an image of Aphrodite worked at its crown, and two handles shaped as serpents, their eyes set with jewels. The door stands as a barrier of no ordinary sort, frozen within a ward that holds fast whoever looks upon it, as Frank and Heinrich learned, being found entranced before it. Its serpent motifs seem to reach toward the old myths, and above all toward the tale of Heracles.
In the exploration of the chamber, Frank and Heinrich were discovered within a luminous ward scribed in the soil, standing motionless before the Ophidian Door. As movement returned to them, Heinrich declared a wish to try the door once more, holding that it opened upon ancient Troy; and he would press on despite warning of a serpent lurking in the neighbouring chamber. The ward was at length broken when Jean-Zera Mongé kicked dust across the glowing sigil, which freed the others to sketch the door and the room against future need.