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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7084616" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 21They followed the passage that led out from the demon room for about twenty feet before it split, with a side-fork leading off to the left.  Quellan chose that direction without discussion, and they made their way down another twenty-foot segment of corridor before it came to an end in front of an imposing-looking stone door.Glori and the torch were back behind Quellan’s considerable bulk, so the cleric raised his hand and unleashed another beam of light to illuminate the portal.  It looked to be a single massive slab of granite, attached to its threshold on giant stone pins rather than hinges.  The cleric squeezed to the side so the others could see.“That doesn’t look very promising,” Glori said.  “Should we try the other way?”“Might as well see if it’s locked while we’re here,” Kosk said.  He finished his inspection and then smacked his hands together before positioning himself so his back was at the door and he could push off the threshold and the adjacent wall.  “Maybe you’d better give me a hand, boy,” he said.“I have a name,” Bredan muttered, but he came forward to assist the dwarf.  With their disparity in size they were both able to apply their strength to the door.“On three, now,” Kosk said.  After a glance back to make sure Quellan and Glori were ready he said, “One, two, threeee!”The last word trailed out to a grunt of effort as both men put the full effort of their muscles into moving the door.  For a moment it looked as though it was secured somehow, but then with a loud scrape of stone on stone it swung incrementally inward.  With that proof that it could be opened they redoubled their efforts.  The door seemed to actively resist them until it finally gave way enough to clear the thick threshold.  Once it was at that point it was just a matter of time, as they could reach into the gap and use that leverage to pry the door open the rest of the way.  It still took the better part of another minute to widen the opening enough to slip through.Breathing heavily, Kosk and Bredan stumbled forward into the room behind the door.  Glori was right behind them, her torch held up to illuminate the chamber.  Quellan brought up the rear, grunting as he squeezed sideways to slide his large frame through the narrow gap.At first they could not see much.  The room was roughly fifteen feet wide and twenty feet long.  There were no furnishings or other features of note, but as the light of the torch reached the far wall it glinted off of something metallic.  A lot of somethings, in fact.“What’s that?” Bredan asked.  He started to take a step in that direction, but Glori stopped him with a warning.  “Wait,” she said.  She took out her pick and strummed a few notes on her lyre.  The song was basic, just the beginnings of a melody, but the lyre began to glow.  That glow was answered by an echoing radiance that formed around her, dividing into several motes of soft light that drifted forward as she continued to play.“Woah,” Bredan said as the dancing lights slipped past him.The lyre’s spell revealed that the far wall of the room was covered with iron spikes embedded into the stone.  The spikes were evenly spaced a few feet apart, and covered the entire wall except for a small space in the center.  Resting in that gap was a compact box that also appeared to be embedded in or attached to the wall.“How much you want to bet that what we’re looking for, or something we need to get to it, is in that box?” Glori asked.  She looked at the others, but it was clear that none were going to take that wager.“There’s no sign that the wall moves,” Bredan said.  “There would be scrape marks on the floor if there was some kind of mechanism.”Kosk shot him a dubious look, but finally said, “You’re not as dim as you seem, boy.”“He’s actually pretty clever sometimes,” Glori said.  “I mean, not about books or stuff like that, but other things.”“Gee, thanks,” Bredan said dryly.“I’ll check it out,” Quellan said.  But as the half-orc started forward Kosk interrupted him with a raised hand.  “Better let me,” the dwarf said.  “I’m better at evading if those spikes start shooting across the room or something.”“Do you want my shield?” the cleric asked.“I prefer not to get hit at all,” the dwarf replied.  “Better get back out of the way, just in case.”The others withdrew back almost to the door.  Glori maintained her spell, keeping the dancing lights in the corners so they clearly illuminated the far wall without obstructing Kosk’s view.  The dwarf went forward carefully, alert to whatever trap the Eth’barat might have set here.But when he finally triggered the trap, it caught him completely by surprise.  He was roughly in the middle of the room when from one step to the next the orientation of the room seemed to shift suddenly.  Clearly whatever it was wasn’t just in his mind, for as ahead became down he found himself falling.Straight toward the spikes that marched across the wall—now the floor—ahead of him.</blockquote>

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