Sure enough that the door will hold, at least temporarily, they look to their new path as they are committed to it. It is a well-lit hallway with a store of multi-colored stones, mostly grey but with some a vibrant red. Steve! pulls himself up, dusts off his clothing and they have just started down the hall when they hear a disembodied maniacal laugh booming off the walls and crashing through their minds. The laugh drips with evil, and as it crashes through their mental defenses, knocking them to the ground, it flies down the hall, gathering up each torch as it goes by and carrying them away into the darkness. When the pair has pushed the laugh and it's coating of evil out of their heads they look up and see the way is now black. Pitch black.
"You know if this were my castle, this would be a great place for a..."
"Don't say it Steve!. I mean it, don't say anything."
"What? I'm just saying a trap door would...." The floor beneath them seems to shift, although in the blackness they can't be certain. Sensations of movement to the side are quickly replaced by the all too familiar feeling of plummeting...quickly.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"
"Quick Steve! do something!"
"Like what? Aren't you the one with the detect trap power! Don't you think maybe that would have been useful!"
"Shut up! We're both going to die if you don't do something!"
Desperately trying to summon his powers, his mind reeling from the continuing drop, Steve! reaches into his mind and pulls out the first thing he can grab. From out of the darkness, falling right along beside them, dozens of boglings appear. Each one screaming as they rocket towards their doom.
"How is that helpful Steve!?"
"I don't know. It was all I could think of! I can't believe I'm going to kill even more followers!"
Confident that she can do better, Gladiola summons her power, and releases. The air whooshing past is suddenly thicker as they are surrounded by an odd smelling fog. doom doom di da duh doom doom doom doom... Despite their apparent demise, the boglings seem suddenly more relaxed. Pleased almost that their end will be soon... in a gadda da vida honey... Some stretch out their arms and legs, using them to spin and tumble as they fall. "Wheeee! Thank you master! We're flying like birds!"
"Good one"
"Well they're not screaming anymore are they."
Steve! tries again to focus his mind and taps another power. Streaking across their path come green strands. Thwapping at the adventurers as they pass, their descent is noticeably slowed. The vines numbers begin to increase and some are able to grab hold of Steve! and Gladiola. The boglings prove to be too small and slip through the network of ropes. Although the vines are easily within reach, the boglings just seem to tumble past them, giggling as they go. The silence is broken only by the sound of happy boglings dropping further into the darkness, followed quickly by a chorus of splats.
What will you do?
"...ummmm... now what?" asks Steve!, dangling by his left ankle amidst the pitch black. He asks the general area that he BELIEVES contains Gladiola, but so thick is the black he can barely make out any shapes. Occasionally he giggles as a vine reaches out and inadvertently tickles him.
From the ink comes, at last, a rather annoyed reply. "We climb." And climb they do. Have you ever tried to climb one of those rope ladders, or the big hanging ladder-bridge challenge thing at the renaissance fairs? You know how those are really difficult? Well, imagine if instead of ropes you have vines. And imagine if the vines are VERY MUCH alive and moving around. And a little slick. And sometimes they latch on to you, but sometimes they let you go. This climb? It was like that. After about a dozen feet they came to the point at which Steve! had initially called for viney assistance, above which the walls are only rock and dirt. Holding on to a vine with one hand, his feet held by others, he calls forth more vines and they make their way back up to the corridor in this fashion. Very slowly.
Periodically Steve! tries to chat up his partner. "Tough climb, eh?" He asks. He can hear her grunts and panting in the darkness, and occasionally sees movement, but she refuses to answer. "So, you're still mad at me?"
Silence.
"I didn't know that the trap door would happen just because I thought it would be a good place for one-OAH!." he tries again, his arms missing a grip and his entire body flipping top to bottom, held tight by those wrapped around his knees. They continue to climb and he continues to offer olive branches, but Gladiola's impressive anger will NOT be cracked.
At LAST they reach the top of the hole and climb, sweaty and sore, out through the trap door. Steve! holds up his now-free hand, filling it with a fireball, the light from which he hopes to see Gladiola's face. "Are you done being mad at me now?" he asks. He sees her prone form lying on the floor across the trap door, her chest heaving from exhaustion, and for several minutes she says nothing. At last she sits up on her elbows to look over at him. She gives him a wry grin.
"Aye, I'm done. But next time? Let's keep our brilliant evil mind to ourselves, shall we?"
After a well-deserved rest they climb back to their feet and begin to make their careful way down the hall. Steve! produces fireballs as he can for temporary light, but knows it is folly to waste the energy required for that power on a flashlight. Part-way down the hall Gladiola's heavy foot steps down onto one of the red floor tiles, and the second she does her entire body glows strong and red. She sags dramatically for a moment, then rises to full size, but something about her demeanor has... changed. "Are you alright?" Steve! asks, reaching out a hand to touch her arm, but when he makes contact she spins to face him, drawing her weapon as she does. She is armed and ready for battle!
Steve! takes a step back and then another, careful to avoid any other red stones (and grateful at least for the light now glowing from the one on which Gladiola had stepped.) "What are you doing?" he asks her.
In the hallway the booming voice returns. "She is following her NEW master!" it laughs, crashing through Steve's mind like an elephant crushing cockroaches. "What better way to eliminate you pesky interlopers than by letting one dispatch the other?" As the laugh roars loud and strong again, eventually fading into the distance, Gladiola's hammer flies past Steve!'s nose, far too close for comfort!
"This can't be happening. Get a hold of yourself Steve!. Focus. You've got to have some sort of power that can help you here. Think. OK... Mind Control, that will totally work! Wait... no... that's Gladiola's power... damn. What about a Pleasing Mist? Maybe that would calm her aggression? No... also Gladiola's... son of a..."
Gladiola rushes at Steve!, her eyes burning with fury. His nimble ranger instincts kick in as he darts towards the stone wall and then rebounds off it, narrowly avoiding her tackle. As he spins to keep her in his sight, as if by reflex he releases a burst of electrical energy. Gladiola's body convulses as it is surrounded by the storm of lightening. As the shocks subside, she falls to the floor and cries out, "Steve!, why would you do that? I thought that we were friends?"
"Gladiola... I'm sorry... you were possessed or something." Steve! approaches and lays a hand on her shoulder, still hot with ripples of smoke coming off of it.
Her face turns as her hand grabs his, "Fooled you!" Pivoting off her foot and with great force, she hurls Steve! into the wall. The concussion makes his head ring and he can barely make out his bow lying before him. He quickly reaches for it, leaps to his feet and tries to get a target. Seeing Gladiola standing boldly before him, he hesitates.
"Give me your best shot loser."
Steve! draws the string taut and lets fly with the arrow. As it streaks toward Gladiola, she leans back, bending like a reed in the wind. The fletching grazes her cheek as it shoots by, tickling her viciously.
"Not good enough ranger boy."
"Don't be so sure."
The arrow continues down the corridor before striking a torch holder and glancing off. Just then a lone guard comes around the corner. "It's them! I've found..." The arrow catches his shield and forces it into the wall. The blow causes the soldier to lose his balance, as his sword hand instinctively goes down to try and catch his fall. The blade sticks in his gut and drives through his torso as his body falls to the floor. The arrow now almost reversed, loses a single fletching, causing its flight path to arc. The journey ends as it catches Gladiola square in the back of her neck. The tip jabbing perfectly between the vertebrae as one lonesome remaining spark travels along it directly into her spine. Her body jolts for an instant, and then is calm.
"Steve!? What happened? Where are we?"
"Gladiola, are you OK?"
"Yeah, I guess so. What's going on?"
"You were mind controlled for a while there, but it looks like you got out of it."
"Oh man, I feel really weird. Oh my God, is this an arrow stuck in my neck? How the hell did that happen?"
"I don't know, weird huh. A lot of crazy things happen in forbidden fortresses. Hey let's see if we can find some sandwiches..."
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK IN CHAPTER TEN!
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