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Dear Mom - Mishap Adventures of a Mommy's Elf
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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5834103" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p>The two elves had made their way back to the anteroom and followed the other corridor to the first pit trap they had encountered. They went left and came into an open room that looked like a child's play room. There were toys everywhere, dolls, stuffed animals, wooden horses and carriages. There was also a box with what looked like candy beans. </p><p></p><p>Orlath pointed to them and snickered. "As if anyone would fall for that trick." </p><p></p><p>Nev, still sore, checked over the beans and shook his head. "Indeed, I get strong transmutation magic from those."</p><p></p><p>"Maybe we should take them along and find out what exactly they do, later," Orlath suggested. </p><p></p><p>"Yup," Nev agreed and started shovelling them into a pouch in his backpack. "Never know what we are missing if we don't."</p><p></p><p>There was no other exit, so after packing most of the toys – they might have collector value after all – they went back to the pit trap, jumped in and out again and took right. </p><p></p><p>They had to turn left and faced yet another door. It was definitely locked, judging by the elaborate lock mechanism. "Hmm... wish we had Flip here," Orlath admitted. "Maybe I can use the orcish unlocking method." The prince unsheathed his sword and hacked at the lock, just to test it.</p><p></p><p>Nev was about to object, considering the other traps they had already seen, but it was too late. No sooner rang the CLANG from the sword through the corridor than they were teleported elsewhere. It took a moment to notice they were in a room now, although if it was the room they had been trying to get into was hard to tell. A bronze statue in the middle of the room began to move slowly, lifting a large sword. </p><p></p><p>"Oh, crap," Nev winced. He drew his sword, but even holding it up hurt with his damaged ribs, especially considering he had not trained much lately and there was a definite lack of muscles. He swore to himself he would remedy that once they made it out of here. Which would hopefully happen. </p><p></p><p>"I'm not fighting that thing," Orlath complained, sword still in hand. His other hand, which had been holding the glowrod they had been using since entering the sewers, twitched in the sort of nervous tick he always got when a plan they had developed went awry. </p><p></p><p>The statue slowly advanced, picking up speed. "Doesn't really look like we have a choice in that matter," the other elf pointed out. </p><p></p><p>Orlath's eyes searched the room, and he came to the conclusion they were not in the room they had tried to get into. There was no door. "We got teleported in some place without a door? Quick, check for a secret door so we can run!" </p><p></p><p>"And how, exactly?" Nev asked, engaging the statue with all the skill and strength he could muster, which wasn't that much. He barely blocked the first attack, and only because the sword of the attacker was bronze did he cause any damage at all.</p><p></p><p>"Well, I don't know. Lean against the walls again? It worked before." Coming to the aid of his friend, the prince racked his mind for a spell he could use to stop the statue while not damaging themselves. </p><p></p><p>Weakened as he was, nev stumbled back and knocked his sword elbow against the back wall. He head a click as his elbow connected with something round, and a door swung open, causing him to stumble backward. He found himself in another, h shaped room.</p><p></p><p>Orlath was following him quickly, "See, it works! You are a natural and finding doors. Let's hope this thing won't leave its room."</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, it did leave the room. And it seemed to be getting more furious as it had to follow them, if that was even possible with an animated object. "Quick," Orlath pointed at a door at the end of another arm of the h shaped room. "Let's just go on until we can pit trap that thing somewhere."</p><p></p><p>Not having much strength left but not about to argue either, Nev followed the prince. The door opened easily but revealed blank stone behind. "What...?" Orlath growled. The statue was closing in. At the same time, there was a rumbling sound from somewhere. </p><p></p><p>"Away!" Nev cried and grabbed the prince by the shoulder. Before he knew it, he had completed the spell and the two of them were standing back in the corner opposite from where they had entered the room. A thundering noise echoed around them, and in the dust they could make out a large part of the ceiling which had come down and buried the statue under it, just where they had been standing a moment ago. "A fake door trap," Nev gasped. "We read about those, remember?"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah." Orlath was visibly shaking. "but at least you got rid of that thing." Then he focused his cousin. "Hey, when did you learn how to dimension door?"</p><p></p><p>"Yesterday," Nev grinned sheepishly. "I wanted to make it a funny surprise to show you." </p><p></p><p>"Funny it was not, but a surprise, definitely. Saved our lives, you did." For the first time, Orlath seemed to get that this place was not just for fun, but could end up a death trap. </p><p></p><p>After a bit of search, they found a sliding door and exited into (and out of) the pit trap in the second corridor. They had not been able to get through from the other side before and had thus ignored it. Once more, they went back to the starting intersection. </p><p></p><p>"I hate to ask," Nev groaned. "But could you heal me up?"The jumping in and out of the trap just now seemed to have taken his last reserves. Without thinking, he leaned against the wall without doors and closed his eyes to calm his breathing. Once more he felt his back connecting with something and heard a familiar clicking sound. </p><p></p><p>This time he managed to jump away from the wall as the secret door opened. He noticed Orlath staring at him gaping. "Wow, that is so cool. Flip will be so jealous if I tell him you are much better at finding hidden entrances than he is."</p><p></p><p>With a snort, Nev checked the door and surroundings and found the pressure plates he had activated easily, now that he knew what and where to look. Orlath already moved through the door. "Corridor ending in a dead end? Now we know to look for a door though."</p><p></p><p>The same type of semi-hidden activators opened this end of the corridor, and they entered a small room. The only other way out was a barely knee height tunnel to their right. They had to look twice to find it. The table in the middle of the room was, of course, way more interesting, as it held another riddle. </p><p></p><p>In front of a gatehouse model with 3 portcullises stood 4 tiny models of ogres in different colors – green, pink, white and yellow. As they approached the table, the models began to speak in squeaky little voices making Orlath giggle like s little child. </p><p></p><p>"Listen carefully," the green ogre started. "The white one is not first."</p><p></p><p>"And more," the pink one added, "the green stands between pink and yellow."</p><p></p><p>The white one chimed in. "The pink goes between green and white."</p><p></p><p>And the yellow added "Tell our order quick and you avoid a fight."</p><p></p><p>"The riddles are getting easier," Nev spoke up without giving the prince a chance. "It is white, pink, green and yellow, of course."</p><p></p><p>The gatehouse model clicked open and revealed a key made from a blueish medal. Orlath added it to his collection. "Ho many more are they? Probably a green somewhere, too." </p><p></p><p>"Or not, as those are the base colors," Nev observed. "Let's go back where it teleported us from, but please don't sword knock the door again, I was about to suggest a dimensional door us through, as I detected a magical lock, when you did that."</p><p></p><p>"Sure thing. Do you still want me to heal you up? I may need my spells later and you know..."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, I know. Never mind, actually." The arcane heal spells had a significant downside to divine healing. While it fixed you all up, the pains and feeling of illness stayed for as long as it would normally take to heal or cure. A good option to save lives, but vastly inferior to what the divine healers could achieve. Despite all research, the Realm's archmages had not found a way to fix that yet. </p><p></p><p>Back where they had been teleported from, Nev dimensional doored them through the locked portal and they came out in a hexagonal chamber which was empty. Its white walls reflected the light of the bright glowrod in a way that was hurtful to elf eyes, and the two squinted. 3 doors led from here in different walls in front of them. Their footsteps echoed as they made their way towards the exits. They found each of them locked. "I am not risking another trap," the prince said. "How many more spells can you do?" </p><p></p><p>Nev signed. "My mana reservoir is good for a few more spells but, as the dimensional doors still take up a lot of reserves being brand new to me, I would prefer not to have to use that to go through those doors as well."</p><p></p><p>"A simple knock spell would probably do," Orlath nodded. He tried with the left door. It swung open as ordered. The prince beamed. "There. Maybe it will get easier from now."</p><p></p><p>"Probably." After all, they had 3 keys and likely passed all the tests. Nev pointed at the corridor that opened up for them. "After you, my prince," he mocked. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"Well, hello there. I do not get visitors too often." The thin man in the black robes looked over black framed glasses and smiled at Uthas in a friendly manner, showing a healthy set of vampire fangs. In his right hand was a tray with several phials of blood: it looked like he was ready to have dinner. "Let me take a guess, you are after that wormwraith I just killed in the tunnels to the other catacombs?"</p><p></p><p>Uthas' heart jumped, and he felt the cold sweat on the palm of his hands. He had had very bad experiences with vampires back in the orclands. And from what he knew, 90% or more of them were simply evil bloodsuckers. This one appeared to be different, but then, he had that blood right there... </p><p></p><p>The half-orc blinked and concentrated on the question he had been asked. "Y...yes, kind of," he replied, not wanting to admit he had rather been, kind of, trying to avoid that creature. </p><p></p><p>"Sorry, then." The vampire sounded sincerely apologetic. "It was about to destroy my blood bank, and I would have hated to go hungry tonight. And asides, those things are evil. Just say you killed it, no doubt you would have. Not many people dare to confront such a monster alone."</p><p></p><p>Uthas forced a grin. "Thanks, sounds like a good deal. After all I, err, won't have to hunt it down anymore. A half-orc needs his beauty sleep, after all." What was he talking? His hands were still sweaty and he wiped them at his pants. "Blood bank?" he added. </p><p></p><p>"Yes, the priests of the God of Moons kindly developed a spell to keep the blood fresh their volunteers give me. You don't really think most of us run around to bite and infect people at night, do you? Well, at least not in Freeport, it is so outdated to do that. Unless someone wants to be infected, of course. Oh how rude of me. I didn't even introduce myself." He bowed slightly. "Yeston, Darian Yeston, professor of necromancy and arcane comparative studies"</p><p></p><p>Uthas blinked again. "Uthas," he replied automatically. "Hero of Freeport and bodyguard to the prince of the Realms, Orthas of the South Forests."</p><p>"Ah yes, yes, I have heard of you. The mages have told me a lot about what was going on recently. I was on a vacation, you know, only returned 2 days ago. Cultists, really..." He shook his head. </p><p></p><p>"Vacation? You mean you still teach? Are you the necromancer the retrievers talked of? I thought they meant the wormwraith." A lot of words for him, but Uthas' nervousness rather grew than subsided. </p><p></p><p>"Vacation to the Northlands, yes. I still teach, of course, who better than an undead to teach about necromancy, huh?" Yaston chuckled. "And yeah, I met the retrievers before, in fact, they helped me retrieve an old heirloom. Would you like to come to my living room? I could offer a few refreshments..."</p><p></p><p>"Err, no, thanks, I don't like blood, really, and I am not good around coffins," Uthas declined, remembering the coffin he had seen earlier.</p><p></p><p>The professor chuckled again. "Oh, the crypt, that's just my token coffin. You know, tradition and all. I really live in one of the rooms that used to be abandoned when the priests of the Warrior God left. Coffin is so old school, I prefer the modern styles."</p><p></p><p>"I see," Uthas claimed, though he did not. "Are the ghouls yours? How an I get my axe back from the statue?" The questions that had been pushed to the back of his mind surfaced; it was a bit embarrassing but as long as he talked his nervousness was somewhat under control. </p><p></p><p>"I like inquisitive people. Know what, just come with me and we'll talk a while after we get your axe back. You know, I might have a job for a hero of Freeport, too...."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>After walking down the corridor, the two wizards came upon a bright red door. "Time for the keys," Orlath grinned and removed the one with the fitting color from his belt pouch. He managed to open the door without a sound. The room they found themselves in was irregularly shaped, looking a bit like a flash or tilted stairs. At the far wall was an altar with statues of the God of Warriors, the God of Thieves and the God of Deception. In front of each statue was a ceramic bowl in red color. </p><p></p><p>"Make an offer, receive a gift!" a voice they were now familiar with boomed from somewhere.</p><p></p><p>"What does that mean, exactly?" Orlath wondered. </p><p></p><p>"I guess... place something in the bowl of the god you want a gift from?" Nev limped closer. "I'm sure I don't want any gift of his evilness," he snorted and made a movement with his head to indicate the God of Deception. </p><p></p><p>"I thought that was a pretty much neutral god just overly venerated by the evil cults?" Orlath mused. "Anyway, yeah, not my thing either."</p><p></p><p>"We are not exactly thieves either but... maybe making a donation would help with getting through doors without spells next time." </p><p></p><p>"But we could have also used more strength to deal with that statue," Orlath thought. "What would we donate, though?"</p><p></p><p>"What about the gold coins from the puzzle? Not like you can do much with them save admire them." </p><p></p><p>"I wanted to get a necklace made from them!" Orath protested. </p><p></p><p>"Necklace? Oh dear Gods of Style, you have no fashion sense whatsoever, even worse than your sister. Not even in the last century would such thing have been considered cool and..."</p><p></p><p>"Alright alright, I get it." With a grumpy look, Orlath took the coins out of his pouch and handed half to his friend. "How much do we have to put in anyway?"</p><p></p><p>"We'll see." Nev went to the God of Thieves statue and put in a coin. Nothing happened. Only when he had put in all his coins did the statue emit a red glow that surrounded him while the coins vanished. "I don't feel any different," he admitted. "But I read that is often the case with such gifts."</p><p>Orlath nodded, not really having heard what Nev was on about. He placed his share of coins into the bowl of the God of Strength right away. He, too, was surrounded by a blue glow. Unlike his friend, he immediately felt different, stronger, though to what extend he could not say. It was something that would please his mother, he knew, who was always insisting he'd hone his physical strength as well. "Great, now let's go through the other doors. This is better than any treasure."</p><p></p><p>The middle door led them through the next corridor to a diamond shaped chamber which was one large pool of crystal clear water. On top of a single step on the other side was the yellow door. The prince removed the key from the pouch and set out through the water before Nev could do any detects. Nothing happened. Except that when he was almost at the other side, the glowrod winked out. </p><p></p><p>Now elves are among the fortunate races who possess the ability to see in the dark. Light was, of course, always better as darkvision only provided a black and white view. But the lack of light should not have bothered them much. But to both their astonishment, it was pitch black for them. "Nev?" the almost panicked voice from the prince was heard. "I can't see!"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah me neither. Wait.." Nev mumbled the words for a light spell and touched his sword, which started glowing like a torch a moment later. "Here, problem fixed." Splashing in after his friend, he tried to detect anything evil or magic, but there was just the resonance from the whole building. "Maybe the whole complex is like that so that people with darkvision would not accidentally mess up the door colors."</p><p></p><p>The yellow door opened for the two half-wet elves into yet another corridor leading to the right. "Shehhs, they could have saved some on building costs wouldn't they have created so much unused space," the prince shook his head. "Would have saved us some walking, too." </p><p></p><p>The door they eventually arrived at was locked. "What now?" Orlath growled after his knock spell had no effect but release a laughing voice effect. </p><p></p><p>His cousin had a closer look at the lock mechanism. "Actually, I have some idea what to do..."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 5834103, member: 53286"] The two elves had made their way back to the anteroom and followed the other corridor to the first pit trap they had encountered. They went left and came into an open room that looked like a child's play room. There were toys everywhere, dolls, stuffed animals, wooden horses and carriages. There was also a box with what looked like candy beans. Orlath pointed to them and snickered. "As if anyone would fall for that trick." Nev, still sore, checked over the beans and shook his head. "Indeed, I get strong transmutation magic from those." "Maybe we should take them along and find out what exactly they do, later," Orlath suggested. "Yup," Nev agreed and started shovelling them into a pouch in his backpack. "Never know what we are missing if we don't." There was no other exit, so after packing most of the toys – they might have collector value after all – they went back to the pit trap, jumped in and out again and took right. They had to turn left and faced yet another door. It was definitely locked, judging by the elaborate lock mechanism. "Hmm... wish we had Flip here," Orlath admitted. "Maybe I can use the orcish unlocking method." The prince unsheathed his sword and hacked at the lock, just to test it. Nev was about to object, considering the other traps they had already seen, but it was too late. No sooner rang the CLANG from the sword through the corridor than they were teleported elsewhere. It took a moment to notice they were in a room now, although if it was the room they had been trying to get into was hard to tell. A bronze statue in the middle of the room began to move slowly, lifting a large sword. "Oh, crap," Nev winced. He drew his sword, but even holding it up hurt with his damaged ribs, especially considering he had not trained much lately and there was a definite lack of muscles. He swore to himself he would remedy that once they made it out of here. Which would hopefully happen. "I'm not fighting that thing," Orlath complained, sword still in hand. His other hand, which had been holding the glowrod they had been using since entering the sewers, twitched in the sort of nervous tick he always got when a plan they had developed went awry. The statue slowly advanced, picking up speed. "Doesn't really look like we have a choice in that matter," the other elf pointed out. Orlath's eyes searched the room, and he came to the conclusion they were not in the room they had tried to get into. There was no door. "We got teleported in some place without a door? Quick, check for a secret door so we can run!" "And how, exactly?" Nev asked, engaging the statue with all the skill and strength he could muster, which wasn't that much. He barely blocked the first attack, and only because the sword of the attacker was bronze did he cause any damage at all. "Well, I don't know. Lean against the walls again? It worked before." Coming to the aid of his friend, the prince racked his mind for a spell he could use to stop the statue while not damaging themselves. Weakened as he was, nev stumbled back and knocked his sword elbow against the back wall. He head a click as his elbow connected with something round, and a door swung open, causing him to stumble backward. He found himself in another, h shaped room. Orlath was following him quickly, "See, it works! You are a natural and finding doors. Let's hope this thing won't leave its room." Unfortunately, it did leave the room. And it seemed to be getting more furious as it had to follow them, if that was even possible with an animated object. "Quick," Orlath pointed at a door at the end of another arm of the h shaped room. "Let's just go on until we can pit trap that thing somewhere." Not having much strength left but not about to argue either, Nev followed the prince. The door opened easily but revealed blank stone behind. "What...?" Orlath growled. The statue was closing in. At the same time, there was a rumbling sound from somewhere. "Away!" Nev cried and grabbed the prince by the shoulder. Before he knew it, he had completed the spell and the two of them were standing back in the corner opposite from where they had entered the room. A thundering noise echoed around them, and in the dust they could make out a large part of the ceiling which had come down and buried the statue under it, just where they had been standing a moment ago. "A fake door trap," Nev gasped. "We read about those, remember?" "Yeah." Orlath was visibly shaking. "but at least you got rid of that thing." Then he focused his cousin. "Hey, when did you learn how to dimension door?" "Yesterday," Nev grinned sheepishly. "I wanted to make it a funny surprise to show you." "Funny it was not, but a surprise, definitely. Saved our lives, you did." For the first time, Orlath seemed to get that this place was not just for fun, but could end up a death trap. After a bit of search, they found a sliding door and exited into (and out of) the pit trap in the second corridor. They had not been able to get through from the other side before and had thus ignored it. Once more, they went back to the starting intersection. "I hate to ask," Nev groaned. "But could you heal me up?"The jumping in and out of the trap just now seemed to have taken his last reserves. Without thinking, he leaned against the wall without doors and closed his eyes to calm his breathing. Once more he felt his back connecting with something and heard a familiar clicking sound. This time he managed to jump away from the wall as the secret door opened. He noticed Orlath staring at him gaping. "Wow, that is so cool. Flip will be so jealous if I tell him you are much better at finding hidden entrances than he is." With a snort, Nev checked the door and surroundings and found the pressure plates he had activated easily, now that he knew what and where to look. Orlath already moved through the door. "Corridor ending in a dead end? Now we know to look for a door though." The same type of semi-hidden activators opened this end of the corridor, and they entered a small room. The only other way out was a barely knee height tunnel to their right. They had to look twice to find it. The table in the middle of the room was, of course, way more interesting, as it held another riddle. In front of a gatehouse model with 3 portcullises stood 4 tiny models of ogres in different colors – green, pink, white and yellow. As they approached the table, the models began to speak in squeaky little voices making Orlath giggle like s little child. "Listen carefully," the green ogre started. "The white one is not first." "And more," the pink one added, "the green stands between pink and yellow." The white one chimed in. "The pink goes between green and white." And the yellow added "Tell our order quick and you avoid a fight." "The riddles are getting easier," Nev spoke up without giving the prince a chance. "It is white, pink, green and yellow, of course." The gatehouse model clicked open and revealed a key made from a blueish medal. Orlath added it to his collection. "Ho many more are they? Probably a green somewhere, too." "Or not, as those are the base colors," Nev observed. "Let's go back where it teleported us from, but please don't sword knock the door again, I was about to suggest a dimensional door us through, as I detected a magical lock, when you did that." "Sure thing. Do you still want me to heal you up? I may need my spells later and you know..." "Yeah, I know. Never mind, actually." The arcane heal spells had a significant downside to divine healing. While it fixed you all up, the pains and feeling of illness stayed for as long as it would normally take to heal or cure. A good option to save lives, but vastly inferior to what the divine healers could achieve. Despite all research, the Realm's archmages had not found a way to fix that yet. Back where they had been teleported from, Nev dimensional doored them through the locked portal and they came out in a hexagonal chamber which was empty. Its white walls reflected the light of the bright glowrod in a way that was hurtful to elf eyes, and the two squinted. 3 doors led from here in different walls in front of them. Their footsteps echoed as they made their way towards the exits. They found each of them locked. "I am not risking another trap," the prince said. "How many more spells can you do?" Nev signed. "My mana reservoir is good for a few more spells but, as the dimensional doors still take up a lot of reserves being brand new to me, I would prefer not to have to use that to go through those doors as well." "A simple knock spell would probably do," Orlath nodded. He tried with the left door. It swung open as ordered. The prince beamed. "There. Maybe it will get easier from now." "Probably." After all, they had 3 keys and likely passed all the tests. Nev pointed at the corridor that opened up for them. "After you, my prince," he mocked. "Well, hello there. I do not get visitors too often." The thin man in the black robes looked over black framed glasses and smiled at Uthas in a friendly manner, showing a healthy set of vampire fangs. In his right hand was a tray with several phials of blood: it looked like he was ready to have dinner. "Let me take a guess, you are after that wormwraith I just killed in the tunnels to the other catacombs?" Uthas' heart jumped, and he felt the cold sweat on the palm of his hands. He had had very bad experiences with vampires back in the orclands. And from what he knew, 90% or more of them were simply evil bloodsuckers. This one appeared to be different, but then, he had that blood right there... The half-orc blinked and concentrated on the question he had been asked. "Y...yes, kind of," he replied, not wanting to admit he had rather been, kind of, trying to avoid that creature. "Sorry, then." The vampire sounded sincerely apologetic. "It was about to destroy my blood bank, and I would have hated to go hungry tonight. And asides, those things are evil. Just say you killed it, no doubt you would have. Not many people dare to confront such a monster alone." Uthas forced a grin. "Thanks, sounds like a good deal. After all I, err, won't have to hunt it down anymore. A half-orc needs his beauty sleep, after all." What was he talking? His hands were still sweaty and he wiped them at his pants. "Blood bank?" he added. "Yes, the priests of the God of Moons kindly developed a spell to keep the blood fresh their volunteers give me. You don't really think most of us run around to bite and infect people at night, do you? Well, at least not in Freeport, it is so outdated to do that. Unless someone wants to be infected, of course. Oh how rude of me. I didn't even introduce myself." He bowed slightly. "Yeston, Darian Yeston, professor of necromancy and arcane comparative studies" Uthas blinked again. "Uthas," he replied automatically. "Hero of Freeport and bodyguard to the prince of the Realms, Orthas of the South Forests." "Ah yes, yes, I have heard of you. The mages have told me a lot about what was going on recently. I was on a vacation, you know, only returned 2 days ago. Cultists, really..." He shook his head. "Vacation? You mean you still teach? Are you the necromancer the retrievers talked of? I thought they meant the wormwraith." A lot of words for him, but Uthas' nervousness rather grew than subsided. "Vacation to the Northlands, yes. I still teach, of course, who better than an undead to teach about necromancy, huh?" Yaston chuckled. "And yeah, I met the retrievers before, in fact, they helped me retrieve an old heirloom. Would you like to come to my living room? I could offer a few refreshments..." "Err, no, thanks, I don't like blood, really, and I am not good around coffins," Uthas declined, remembering the coffin he had seen earlier. The professor chuckled again. "Oh, the crypt, that's just my token coffin. You know, tradition and all. I really live in one of the rooms that used to be abandoned when the priests of the Warrior God left. Coffin is so old school, I prefer the modern styles." "I see," Uthas claimed, though he did not. "Are the ghouls yours? How an I get my axe back from the statue?" The questions that had been pushed to the back of his mind surfaced; it was a bit embarrassing but as long as he talked his nervousness was somewhat under control. "I like inquisitive people. Know what, just come with me and we'll talk a while after we get your axe back. You know, I might have a job for a hero of Freeport, too...." After walking down the corridor, the two wizards came upon a bright red door. "Time for the keys," Orlath grinned and removed the one with the fitting color from his belt pouch. He managed to open the door without a sound. The room they found themselves in was irregularly shaped, looking a bit like a flash or tilted stairs. At the far wall was an altar with statues of the God of Warriors, the God of Thieves and the God of Deception. In front of each statue was a ceramic bowl in red color. "Make an offer, receive a gift!" a voice they were now familiar with boomed from somewhere. "What does that mean, exactly?" Orlath wondered. "I guess... place something in the bowl of the god you want a gift from?" Nev limped closer. "I'm sure I don't want any gift of his evilness," he snorted and made a movement with his head to indicate the God of Deception. "I thought that was a pretty much neutral god just overly venerated by the evil cults?" Orlath mused. "Anyway, yeah, not my thing either." "We are not exactly thieves either but... maybe making a donation would help with getting through doors without spells next time." "But we could have also used more strength to deal with that statue," Orlath thought. "What would we donate, though?" "What about the gold coins from the puzzle? Not like you can do much with them save admire them." "I wanted to get a necklace made from them!" Orath protested. "Necklace? Oh dear Gods of Style, you have no fashion sense whatsoever, even worse than your sister. Not even in the last century would such thing have been considered cool and..." "Alright alright, I get it." With a grumpy look, Orlath took the coins out of his pouch and handed half to his friend. "How much do we have to put in anyway?" "We'll see." Nev went to the God of Thieves statue and put in a coin. Nothing happened. Only when he had put in all his coins did the statue emit a red glow that surrounded him while the coins vanished. "I don't feel any different," he admitted. "But I read that is often the case with such gifts." Orlath nodded, not really having heard what Nev was on about. He placed his share of coins into the bowl of the God of Strength right away. He, too, was surrounded by a blue glow. Unlike his friend, he immediately felt different, stronger, though to what extend he could not say. It was something that would please his mother, he knew, who was always insisting he'd hone his physical strength as well. "Great, now let's go through the other doors. This is better than any treasure." The middle door led them through the next corridor to a diamond shaped chamber which was one large pool of crystal clear water. On top of a single step on the other side was the yellow door. The prince removed the key from the pouch and set out through the water before Nev could do any detects. Nothing happened. Except that when he was almost at the other side, the glowrod winked out. Now elves are among the fortunate races who possess the ability to see in the dark. Light was, of course, always better as darkvision only provided a black and white view. But the lack of light should not have bothered them much. But to both their astonishment, it was pitch black for them. "Nev?" the almost panicked voice from the prince was heard. "I can't see!" "Yeah me neither. Wait.." Nev mumbled the words for a light spell and touched his sword, which started glowing like a torch a moment later. "Here, problem fixed." Splashing in after his friend, he tried to detect anything evil or magic, but there was just the resonance from the whole building. "Maybe the whole complex is like that so that people with darkvision would not accidentally mess up the door colors." The yellow door opened for the two half-wet elves into yet another corridor leading to the right. "Shehhs, they could have saved some on building costs wouldn't they have created so much unused space," the prince shook his head. "Would have saved us some walking, too." The door they eventually arrived at was locked. "What now?" Orlath growled after his knock spell had no effect but release a laughing voice effect. His cousin had a closer look at the lock mechanism. "Actually, I have some idea what to do..." [/QUOTE]
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