"...hopelessly trapped..." he whispers as he pulls the red crystal from his pocket. He's surprised to find the crystal glowing in the same manner as the red stone, and he slams it down on the floor. From that point red veins of power shoot across the floor and down the hallway. As each touches a red stone it flashes brilliantly, as the first had done once Gladiola touched it, and stays glowing with power. Now the way down the hall is lit, dimly but enough. With a clear path the two dust themselves off and renew their trek to the other side. "Hey," Steve! mentions to Gladiola as they head out, "do NOT step on the red stones. Just trust me on this."
As the pair finally reach the other side they find a large wooden door, closed and imposing, with a pile of extinguished torches lying at its base. From the other side of the door they hear... rattling. Perhaps a huge, heavily plated dragon with epilepsy? Perhaps a freezing-cold kitchen worker carrying stacks of metal plates? Definitely rattling. Gladiola taps into her 'detect trap' power (1D20=17) and senses no danger, so they turn the large L-shaped handle and pull the door open. On the other side they come face to face with a huge army of soldiers, dressed head-to-toe in plate armor with swords slung at their hips. The army is 50 men strong -- far more than our heroes can take on. "I thought you detected no trap!" Steve! yells as he draws his bow and lets fly the first arrow at the closest soldier's helm!
"I didn't! I don't understand-" at that moment Steve!'s arrow slams into the soldier's forehead, knocking him completely over with a crash! "What the'...?" Gladiola walks, carefully, over to the prone body and kicks it with her toe. Nothing. She tips up the soldier's visor with her hammer and finds the armor... empty. "It's the storage area for the armor!" she turns to Steve! with a smile.
"Whew!" he replies, letting his bow down. "I was not sure exactly what we were gonna do with this."
It is at that moment that the armor stands back up and falls back into place. By itself.
The second the armor moves Gladiola jumps back instinctively, her hammer at the ready. The armor snaps it's visor back down and falls still. Several minutes go by with heroes at the ready and armor standing, vibrating minutely but otherwise completely motionless in formation. Satisfied that there will be no phantom movement they begin to slide through the empty army towards the back of the room. As they hoped, there is another door there. Gladiola checks for traps (1D20=3) and finds that the energy throughout the room not only causes minor vibrations in the phantom army, but blocks her senses beyond the door. Weapons at the ready they push the door inward and find what looks to be some sort of control room. The room is dominated by a panel with four levers and a large red button. All the levers are able to move up and down and currently are in their central positions. Some seem to have metal plaques beside the various positions while others just have holes where the their plaques seem to no longer be. As the door into the chamber opened, a panel on the wall seems to have started to whir and click. A few small gems embedded in it also start to glow one by one from left to right.
What will you do?
"Damn."
"What?"
"No sammiches..." kicking a small stone at her foot in disappointment, Gladiola enters the room. She moves to the levers, squinting at the scratched, tarnished wall plaques still visible. "This one says "Left A." she reads. Steve! has joined her, peering at another plaque.
"Right L." he reads. "and the button says "Action."
"...what the?" Gladiola scratches her head. This is not her forte. She likes it best when the world asks her to smash things. To mangle with impunity. To provide DESTRUCTION. The puzzles just make her itch under her armor. This is more Steve!'s thing.
Although currently Steve! is itching just as much as he stares and stares at the smattering of information before him. Gladiola imagines that she can hear gears whirring between his ears. He makes his way to the other panel, still whirring and clicking and flashing various colors. "The gems have letters on them." he notes. "A, B, C... all the way up to J."
"Raaauughh!" Gladiola punches an unused portion of wall, leaving a fist-sized crater behind. "All this confusion and yet no sammiches!" she growls. "Not even another way out of the damned room!! I swear, if that little crapweasel Drelftox is playing with us I'm going to break him in two and leave him flopped over in a heap!"
Steve! laughs at the image, but then swings back around to the puzzle pieces again, his face the picture of 'Eureka!'. He steps back enough to see the rows of empty soldiers, counting how many across and how many down, then back to the gems, counting how many across. Then back to the doorway, and then back to the panel of levers. Doorway, levers, back to the gems, and so on and so forth. Gladiola briefly considers asking him what he's doing, but she has a vague feeling that she's seen him in such a frenzy before, and that it's best to wait until the fever passes on its own. Sometimes there are prizes at the end.
At last Steve! strides confidently to the gem wall, waving his hand over the green one labeled 'J'. The flashing of all the gems stops, with only 'J' still lit. He smiles triumphantly, moving to the lever wall and pushing the first one all the way up. Finally he pushes the 'Action' button with the flare of a conquering hero.
All at once the entire row of standing armor in the outer room lifts their left arm above their heads. Gladiola leaps to a defensive position instinctively at the sound of the jangling armor and throws her hammer into the armor standing just outside the door, crumpling it to scrap metal. "Great Gods, Steve!, a little warning if you please???"
"Sorry!" he calls over his shoulder absently as he continues to work through the levers, moving arms and legs in turn. "They're puppets!" he calls finally, having found the rhythm to move them smoothly. "An entire puppet army that can barely be stopped because they're not alive! By my count Malgamamarsh has 100 of these hollow soldiers in that room. That would be quite a challenge for any military!"
Gladiola has fetched her hammer back from the barrack. As she heads back to Steve she notices a wall hanging behind the open door and goes to examine it closer. "Steve!, I think we may have a problem." she finally calls to him. Intrigued he allows her call to drag him away from his fascination in the new toy. On the wall she shows him a map. A red arrow states "You Are Here" in the middle of what looks to be 9 more barracks, complete with army operation suites.
"One Thousand Puppet soldiers." she murmurs, looking over the map. "There is not an army around that could defeat them."
"...then we will have to." Steve! replies.
"Oh, good! Brought your 'destroy 1,000 unstoppable metal death-mongers' bat did you, Steve!? Because I'm afraid I left mine in my other pants!" Gladiola seems to get much taller when angry.
"We don't need to destroy the puppets, Gladiola my old friend," Steve! smiles confidently. "We need only to destroy the puppet master. Once we crush Malgamamarsh there will be no one left to marshal these troops!"
Gladiola smiles her most vicious of grins. "Excellent." she purrs, eager for the smashing.
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK IN CHAPTER ELEVEN!
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