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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1497902" data-attributes="member: 9626">A fall avoided, and a fall unavoidableThe elevator did have a few new options, sort of.  The “B3” button was lit, and on the second basement, the hallway extended far past the light-generating room, and went down a ramp to reach the third basement’s depth as well.  It appeared that this floor was made out of a kind of gem that is worthless to sell, but nonetheless very strong.  However, both routes ended in dead ends, and as far as the party could tell, the hallway from basement two and the hallway that the elevator opened into from basement three were right next to each other when they ended.  Fortunately, there was one clue at the end of the hallways.  There were tiny holes at the far wall of both hallways, and the party could peek into the next room from there.  It looked huge, and dark, but since none of them had darkvision, they couldn’t make out much for than that.  However, there was some writing on the floor, in some sort of glowing substance.  It looked like the fifth clue.The next traitor tried to avoid combat entirely.    He waited away from the battle, but a strange light in the ceiling caught his eye.He looked up, and as the light caught his eye, it proved to be the perfect target for One of the invaders’ arrows.  “I bet that light generator has something to do with this!”  Tsine pondered.  “And the mirror room as well.  But none of the holes seemed to get especially close to one of the armors.”“Well, maybe we’re missing something,” Raz suggested.  “What about that new path on the fourth floor?  Let’s check it out before we try to figure this out.”A few minutes later, the party was about to travel down the new path behind this passageway, which turned left and started climbing almost immediately, bringing the party level to the fifth floor and then higher still.  Their journey was only interrupted once, when a horrendous wailing came from out of nowhere.  “It’s some sort of magical trap!”  Flix yelled at the top of his lungs!  “But I don’t know if I can disable it now that it started!”“Let me handle it!”  Quercus replied, and he willed himself to ignore the pain he was feeling long enough to cast a spell.  Suddenly, the hallway was enveloped in total silence.  Flix tried to thank him, only to realize he couldn’t talk either.  The group had a silent laugh about it, and then climbed to the top of the path.  They appeared to be over the entire library again, and possibly very near the pump release room.  There were some holes in the floor, which corresponded to dark spots in the mural below.  There was also another mirror, a lever on the wall, and what was very obviously a trap door right below the lever.  Raz pondered this, and quickly said to the party, “Wait here, I want to check something out.”  He dashed out of the room, and a minute later returned.  “As I expected,” he said.  “That trap door is right above the central support of the library.  If this trap door opens above a hollow spot inside it, who knows how far down it goes?”“Let me check it out, “ Tal said, and used magic to pull the lever from a distance.  The trapdoor opened, as expected, and Rudyard and Flix leaned over it to get a better look.  Wisely, neither of them actually stuck their heads into the hole, since the trap door slammed shut moments later.“I couldn’t see a bottom,” Rudyard told the others.  “And there is some sort of goo on the walls.  I wouldn’t recommend climbing or flying down.  You could get stuck in the goo, Quercus, and then fall and hit the bottom before you would free your wings.”“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway.  This mirror should give us our answer.  I’ll adjust it.  Quercus, you can get to the light room fastest, so you go down there to turn it on.  Drop Flix off on the way, and he can take the elevator to the mirror room.  Everyone else, go into the main library, and let me know if you see anything.”  Tsine finished explaining his plan, and everyone left to get ready for their tasks.A few minutes later, a light shone into the new room out of one of the holes.  Tsine sprung into action, and started adjusting the mirror to shine in each of the other holes in the floor.  He stopped when he heard Dane shout, “I think I found it!”  The party converged on him, and he was pointing to a suit of armor.  “The light shone right where the visor is pointing, and there’s a large gash in the visor where the eyes would be.  It has to be this one.”  When Dane finished his story, Tal took the fifth sword and plunged it into the armor, causing two more passages to open on the first floor.  Excited, the party went down to investigate, only to stop in horror as they got close, for out of the passages, another two of the stone dragons appeared!  Quickly, the party prepared for another fight.  Remembering well the dragons’ unusual breath weapons, they elected to spread out a bit this time.  Raz held back, and began shooting at one of the monsters, while Quercus flew in, sword in hand, but the dragon he attacked was prepared for him, and bit him in the leg as he flew in.  He returned the favor, though, with interest.  Meanwhile, Flix tumbled in between the dragons, and took advantage of the first dragon’s momentary distraction to drive his sword into the creature’s neck.  Of course, as a statue, the monster had no real need for an uninjured neck, but the hunk of rock he took off slowed it down regardless.  Rudyard drew his sword and charged the second dragon, narrowly evading being damaged himself as he leapt at the dragon, slicing at its rock hide with his sword.  Tal chose to stay in back, and launched a magic missile at the second dragon to help Rudyard out, while Tsine launched a bolt of electricity at the first dragon.  However, it was their turn to respond now.  One book wyrm breathed on Tal and a slow-to-react Dane, while the other breathed on Rudyard.  In addition, books surrounded both of them, with numbers materializing out of the second dragon’s book, and a warrior out of the first.  The armored fighter swung a sword at Flix, catching him with a minor but painful gash to the foot. Meanwhile, Rudyard suddenly began to stumble around, suddenly confused, while Tal felt something strip away his magical powers, but fortunately he didn’t have anything up and running at the time.  Finally, Dane was ready to get revenge.  He began to charge the first dragon, while shouting, “Prepare to diiiiieeeeeaaaaugh!”  The last party was actually a terrified scream, for as soon as he took one step, he literally pushed himself off the ground, as if gravity itself lost interest in him!  He was send wailing towards the ceiling as the fight continued.Raz was lucky enough to avoid being caught by either breath, and continued pelting the first dragon with arrows, and Quercus attacked the same foe.  Between their attacks and an acidic arrow from Tsine, the first of the dragons fell, but the other was barely injured still.  Flix slashed at it and Tal fired more magical orbs at it, but Rudyard did little but stumbled around, confused.  The second dragon focused all of its attacks on Flix, leaving the unfortunately little halfling in bad shape.  It appeared that the dragon was suddenly faster and more powerful since the numbers started appearing around it.  Dane could do little but bounce around the ceiling and yell a lot, but Raz was able to focus his fire on the remaining dragon, just as Quercus flew in to block the dragon, keeping Flix safe. The dragon bit into him as he flew in, but Quercus struck back, and Tal finished the creature off with one more volley of orbs.  Rudyard and Dane were both still in trouble, however, at least at first.  However, the party was able to deal with Rudyard just by getting out of his way until the confusion wore off.  Dane’s problem had a similar solution, but it was hardly a pleasant one for him, as he fell screaming to the ground, landing with a sickening thud.  It was time, once again, for Quercus and Tal to perform some healing.After destroying the dragons, the party investigated both the passages that they came from, but could find nothing.  A rudimentary search of the rest of the library revealed nothing either.  “Well, let’s try another sweep.  I’m sure we can find something this time,” Tsine suggested.However, Quercus stood up with a disgusted look on his face.  “No, I’m getting sick of playing games with whatever joker made this place.  I vote we carve out our own solution this time.  You with me, Dane?”“You know it.  That last plummet was enough to convince me.”  The two fighters began striding purposefully towards the elevator, leaving the rest of the group to catch up.OOC Notes:  I anticipate it being two more updates before I finish this story.  With luck, I’ll be done with both by the weekend.  Next time, watch as our heroes find an alternate solution to one of the last puzzles!</blockquote>

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