Recognising that the foundrymen are dominated ordinary men the party don’t want to fight back with lethal force, so they are grappling back in turn. Taran is in difficulty each time he is grappled, although if he slips free he is tremendous at knocking out others who were in the process of dragging along stunned victims. Trajan is dogpiled by half a dozen strong men who are gradually inching him towards a furnace door despite his fighting back powerfully.
One of the Order of Glass has already been killed by the furnace and Tania is on the brink of being thrust into a furnace herself when suddenly, unaccountably, the foundreymen all stop their fighting and go back to their tasks. Gideon laughs from up above and goes into his office on the top balcony.
Those stunned by the devastating mental blast, and they want their piece of the action. Anne-Marie moves like lightning, zips up the ladder and charges round the first balcony to the next ladder – unfortunately tripping a trap which showers her with molten metal from one of the crucibles. Badly wounded, she returns to Trajan to seek healing from him.
While Trajan lays hands on her in Asura’s name, they hear someone knocking feebly on the locked door of the office on this balcony. Taran picks the lock and they release a wild-haired woman with mad eyes. She clings to Trajan who is tempted to cut her down as a dangerously insane threat; Taran votes for it too, but Anne-Marie feels sympathy for her, and thinks she may be an ill-treated prisoner. While Trajan and Taran decide (reluctantly) to make some sense out of her ramblings about crystal walls and the growing mind.
Tania uses magic to float up through the centre of the hall while Anne-Marie makes her way up to and around the top balcony to the office. Outside the door she focuses her mind in the way she has recently been taught in Cadlan and she can detect magery (psionics) inside. She gestures to Tania who readies a spell. Anne-Marie hauls the door open, Tania launches a fireball into the room and Anne-Marie flips the door shut again. There is a boom and light flashes from under the door and out of the window, shattering the glass.
Anne-Marie can still detect magery so she kicks the door open and leaps in, slashing all around in a devastating whirlwind attack which shatters the remaining magical glasses and items which had survived the fireball. The small 10ft x 20ft office is otherwise empty apart from the desk with burning papers, the shelves with shattered glass paraphernalia and a couple of full sacks.
A search reveals no secret passages, no trapdoors, no other way out. Puzzled they return down to Trajan and the others, and thence down to the ground floor of the foundry hall. Annia they want to take out to Zherinda for long term care. The Order of Glass are likewise not sure exactly where he can be.
As they make for the exit Gideon’s voice shouts out from above once more
“You losers! You fools! What chance do I have of finding worthy foes to match wits with when I’m faced with this kind of paltry idiocy?”
The party snarls, but Gideon just gestures
“Why don’t you play with my furnace for a little while? He could do with stretching himself a little. I free him from his bindings!
With a roaring sound all of the furnace flames go out momentarily, then fire gushes out and forms itself into a towering pillar between them and the exit. Forty foot tall, it’s top is brushing the roof of the hall.
“Slay all who attempt to leave” Gideon commands, before going back into his office.
Anne-Marie attempts to attack the elemental and is struck badly by it as she closes, her rapier strike is almost completely ineffective, and after being struck twice by it and brought near to death she decides to retreat away from it, tumbling out the other side and into the outside world.
The elemental makes no move to directly attack the others, so the party and the order of glass together decide to return to the office and investigate it more thoroughly. Once again the room appears to be completely empty apart from the desk with it’s contents (mostly papers and accounts), assorted glass rubbish and two sacks which contain – granulated sugar?
Anne-Marie manages to find Zherinda outside and is healed back to full health again. Zherinda is appraised of the situation but there is little she can do at this point.
As they discuss the significance of the sugar, they find a few grains scattered around the back wall of the office; not melted so it must have landed there after the fireball was sent in. Why would there be sugar here? Taran picks up a handful and looks at it closely. Fine, white. No, look closer. Tiny crystalline grains, firelight flickering dimly from its facets. Crystals have an important place in magery… thoughtfully, Taran throws his handful of sugar against the back wall and there is flash and a kaleidoscopic crystalline vortex springs into being on the wall.
“For Asura” yells Trajan, and he leaps through, the portal closing directly after him.
Taran throws another handful of sugar against the wall and leaps through himself, wondering what on earth he’s doing; the Order of Glass file into the room, each of them casting sugar at the wall and jumping into the kaleidoscope. “Death to Gideon” they whisper menacingly.
Then Tania is alone in the room. She looks at the blank wall. She looks at the sack of sugar. Back at the wall. Icy fear crawls down her spine and she can’t bring herself to follow her companions into mystery.
They are all in there and Tania looks on.
Alone.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
