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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6143615" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>I was still in the middle of the room but Longhelim had stormed onto the balcony. I just about glimpsed one of those horrible orc skeletons; there was also another group: these were wearing breastplates and wielding two short swords. This was a new type but they were still haloed by coruscating fire like all the others we had seen so far. I only had a chance to glimpse them as Felix brandished his holy symbol and two of these new skeletons immediately burst into shards. Almost immediately after, Drudge ran past everyone and jumped off the balcony; it was truly spectacular as he shot two arrows from his bow at the same time; one of them even struck its target.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim was shouting: “At least two more orc skeletons here.”</p><p> </p><p>Victor was still in the doorway and preparing to go out to the balcony when a new and far more sinister foe made an appearance. A shrouded, horrible figure drifted through the wall. It was large and superficially resembled a brutish ogre but its tattered clothing, incorporeal nature and red, malevolent eyes betrayed its true nature.</p><p> </p><p>Felix shouted: “That’s a wraith….an ogre wraith?” he sounded disbelieving and then groaned as the wraith tapped him lightly; judging by the priest’s reaction, he may as well have pole axed him. Felix staggered backwards, desperately trying to get away. Then events became even more unfortunate as John, also scrambling away from it in any manner he could, was clobbered by another light brush from the creature’s arm and lost most of his vitality; I could see it in his movements, which became very sluggish. The wraith just stood there, floating. It didn’t quite grin but it may as well have.</p><p> </p><p>Then, just to make things even better, a wall of flame appeared across the doorway, blocking our view onto the balcony and to both Longhelim and Drudge. It also caused several of us to burn as we had not cast our spell for fire protection yet; no one more so than Victor, who grimaced in pain but kept stoically silent. </p><p> </p><p>Despite the vicinity of the flame wall, the warrior moved up to the wraith, hoping to take it by some surprise but the creature reached out again and hit the warrior; fortunately, Victor was made of sterner stuff and managed to get a swipe at the creature. The Living Blade swept through the wraith and seemed to catch in its body, eliciting the first reaction from it, a slight recoiling.</p><p> </p><p>I tried throwing a few spells at it but to no avail. It was a formidable opponent; why it had chosen to make its appearance now was a mystery but we could have really done with the help of the gnomes at this moment.</p><p> </p><p>There were still sounds of combat from the outside but it was not possible to see how Drudge or Longhelim were doing; we, on the other hand, were doing quite badly. I cast my spell of force missiles into it and they obviously hurt it but it was concentrating its blows on Victor. The warrior was standing up against it but he wouldn’t last long; the wraith was only brushing him lightly but it was having the effect of making the warrior more listless, sluggish and desperate. His swings were becoming wilder and more erratic.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, Longhelim emerged through the wall of flame; he was burned quite badly as he did so but managed to join Victor on the front, swinging wildly and scoring a hit on the creature. This was fortunate as the paladin was obviously using his holy power boost his combat ability against this formidable enemy. Although it recoiled from the paladin, it continued to tap Victor and at that point the warrior collapsed, bursting into flames. I blanched; that meant Victor must have been in a very bad state. Thankfully, as he was toppling over, Felix, who had moved just behind him, managed to catch his body and infuse it with the magic he had been holding on his hand. This healed the warrior who gamely swiped at the wraith three times in quick succession from the floor; unfortunately, the falchion passed through the ogre’s form harmlessly each time.</p><p> </p><p>During all this time, the wall of flame was still burning us; John had managed to get out of harm’s way; we couldn’t tell what was happening to Drudge.</p><p> </p><p>Then Longhelim shouted, desperately: “Faden, do something, anything!”</p><p> </p><p>I shouted back:” I can hit him with lightning, but it’ll get you as well!”</p><p> </p><p>“Do it!”</p><p> </p><p>Speed was the key here so I stepped up and gritting my teeth against the pain of the heat from the wall, I cast my bolt of lightning through Longhelim and into the wraith; it burst into a cloud of foul smelling dust and disappeared. Longhelim was almost fully caught in its path but managed to dodge out of the way just at the last moment. He was still hurt but finally the wraith was gone and not a moment too soon as one of the orc skeletons came through the wall of flame; Longhelim confronted it but in our weakened state, it could be very dangerous.</p><p> </p><p>A moment later, Drudge came hurtling through the wall, also badly burned and hurt; at that moment, I cast my invisible wall across the doorway. This served a two-fold purpose: it would shield us from the heat and it would give us time to cast some much needed defensive spells, chief amongst them being our protections against fire.</p><p> </p><p>We were able to do this, and cast various other spells which would help us against the remaining skeletons. Once ready, I negated the spell and the single skeleton lasted briefly against Longhelim, whose weapon had been made truly destructive to undead, courtesy of Felix. Then, we waited for the other skeletons to return and thankfully we were able to deal with them quite swiftly.</p><p> </p><p>Cautiously we approached the entrance and Drudge began looking at the floor. He was gone for a few moments and then returned:</p><p> </p><p>“From the tracks I’ve seen, that group came from outside; I have no idea where the wraith came from but the skeletons left a trail through the main doorway in the bear’s maw.”</p><p> </p><p>John said: “We should seal that somehow. Felix, do you still have your spell which produces a wall made of stone?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes; where do you want me to put it?”</p><p> </p><p>“Behind the adamantine door; I’ll lock it and then you can put your wall across it.”</p><p> </p><p>So, that was what happened and then we retired to the chapel again. John then sent one of his magical messenger tokens to Jorine, to explain what had happened to us and why we were not exploring the rest of the castle. Then, Felix decided to accelerate his prayers; it would exhaust him but John, Victor and he actually needed his spells desperately; they had all been very badly affected by the deadly powers of the wraith.</p><p> </p><p>Thankfully, nothing happened during that period. I managed to divine the command word of one of the rods and Felix sprinkled a small pinch of diamond of dust over the three affected group members while chanting softly. Thank all the gods, Felix’s powerful prayers managed to counter the evil malady which was affecting them and they were able to shake off their listlessness and lethargy; if the magic had not worked, it would have made the exploration of the castle almost impossible.</p><p> </p><p>Thus strengthened, we began to talk about out next course of action. Jorine and her clan were working in the pump room and at some point, we had to go and break a dam. This obstruction was in the area which they described as a riding track; from what they described, the river ran through there and they had told us that that was the location of the dam. Before this though, we decided to explore further into the complex.</p><p> </p><p>We decided to enter through the double doors at ground level in the main entrance chamber. These opened into a very memorable space; marble statues lined the walls and a worn carpet lay on the floor; originally, it must have been some grand reception area. There was also a pair of doors on the wall to the south, or our right and another door to our left, or the north. A last pair of double doors were situated opposite our entrance way but these were raised to another level; a set of curved steps led up to them. Beyond was the as-yet unknown room mentioned by the gnomes as emitting the noise of merrymaking and where I had speculated that vampires were celebrating our arrival.</p><p> </p><p>First, we rolled up the carpet, just to make sure there were no nasty surprises or openings underneath; then, we decided to leave the doors with the noise for the time being and explore the area to the south.</p><p> </p><p>John approached the first door, which opened into another corridor, stretching to our left; another door was immediately in front of us, on the other side of the corridor. We opened it and it led into yet another corridor, this time with three doors. John again went inside and examined each door. He did not hear anything behind two of them but there was the sound of buzzing behind third. We were not sure just what that meant.</p><p> </p><p>“An undead swarm?” I mused.</p><p> </p><p>Felix shook his head: “I’ve never heard of such a thing; but who can tell in this place.”</p><p> </p><p>So, we decided to leave that door initially and to open the first door we could see geographically, as it was opposite the door we had just opened; or at least, try to open it; unfortunately, it was locked. First John and then Drudge tried to pick it open but the lock defeated them, so Victor had to go forward with his hammer. It only took two or three blows with it and the door was shattered; then the creature in the room struck.</p><p> </p><p>It was impossible for me to see exactly what happened but one moment Victor was there and the next moment he collapsed. Then the enemy emerged from the doorway and it was truly horrible; a hairless, humanoid creature with tentacles coming out of its sides. It also had protruding ribs which seemed to accentuate a cavity where its stomach should have been; the most awful thing was that that cavity now held a miniature version of Victor, screaming silently within this unearthly prison. Somehow, this thing had imprisoned part of Victor within itself.</p><p> </p><p>As it stepped out, it immediately lashed out with a wave of black miasma, inimical to all life, hurting all of us. It was the same power the skeletons had used against us but far more intense and on a much greater scale and range. Longhelim stepped forward and slashed it with his sword; Drudge began his usual barrage and Felix attempted to send it back to its pit. That failed miserably; both the warriors hit it and it did recoil a little, but then leapt forward to attack once more; I stepped forward and cast a black ray out of my hand which struck it squarely in its chest; the ray almost bounced off but then sank into its torso. The creature sagged visibly and flinched; then it retreated back into the room. Thank the gods that worked! It should have been badly weakened!</p><p> </p><p>The enemy was followed up ruthlessly by Longhelim and Drudge, both of whom struck it again; but it wasn’t finished either and cast a spell; it was the same spell as I had cast at it but this time it was aimed at Drudge; the ranger dodged skillfully and then used his uncanny acrobatics to move into its lair. Of course, being Drudge, he also shot it as he was doing a summersault through the air. Longhelim, in a more orthodox style, followed up and hit it with his sword; it retaliated by casting the same spell again, the weakening ray and this time it hit Longhelim who suddenly began to find it difficult to lift his sword, never mind actually harming this creature. As the paladin swung, his sword barely penetrated its unnaturally hard skin; he was just slapping it.</p><p> </p><p>I had moved to the door and as I was watching the fight, I could see Victor’s miniature face contorting inside this thing; a thought struck me:</p><p> </p><p>“Longhelim, we have no idea what will happen to Victor if this creature is slain now!”</p><p> </p><p>John shouted back: “We can’t worry about now.”</p><p> </p><p>Yet another black ray shot out of its hand and this time it struck Drudge, who promptly collapsed, finding his equipment too heavy to support. He promptly began squirming on the floor, loosening the straps of his backpack and quiver to divest himself of what he could; gamely, he tried to get ready to shoot from the floor. It was noticeable that the creature was not attacking anyone with its claws as it must have also been enfeebled. Thankfully, both Drudge and Longhelim had already hurt it badly. As Longhelim continued to slap it feebly with his sword, Drudge was doing more good with his cold infused arrows. Then disaster struck and Longhelim collapsed fell at its feet, exhausted and unable to carry on the fight; he was too weak and his equipment was too heavy for his magically induced weakness.</p><p> </p><p>The situation was dire: our two remaining warriors were crawling at the feet of this thing while the last of our warriors was in miniature form, trapped in its chest. I had one spell of force missiles left; quickly, I cast it and again this creature proved highly resistant to my magic; but, I managed to force it through and finally it collapsed, a viscous black drool oozing out of its mouth.</p><p> </p><p>As it did, Victor’s body shuddered and began to breathe. Then his eyes fluttered open and he groaned. Felix began to move to everyone and checked them thoroughly.</p><p> </p><p>“Longhelim and Drudge should be all right in a little while. It’s that spell you use so often, Faden. It’s very effective but the weakness doesn’t last long.”</p><p> </p><p>Then he moved to Victor. He poked and prodded and asked several questions. Victor didn’t say much but as he rose he did speak:</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t feel right; whatever that thing did, I feel weaker; as if part of me is still in it or somewhere.”</p><p> </p><p>Felix frowned: “I may be able to help you but after I have prayed for my next set of spells.”</p><p> </p><p>Victor looked at him: “This feels wrong; the creatures here are very powerful and we are just about scraping through them; Felix, are you sure you’ll be able to do something about this later?”</p><p> </p><p>The priest examined him again and said: “Part of your essence, your very being, has not been returned to you. That thing, whatever it was, took it and possessed it for a time but it doesn’t have it now, so I can use my prayers and magic to return it to you. There is a miracle which will do this and I promise that I will ask for it as soon as I can.”</p><p> </p><p>Victor sighed and nodded.</p><p> </p><p>While the others were still incapacitated by their weakness, John and I were examining the room we had entered; it contained a platform with chains in each corner that led upwards into a shaft; recessed into the lift platform was also a set of gears which were worked by a handle which could be placed in various positions. There was also what looked like some sort of little lid or covering to a container inside the platform.</p><p> </p><p>Then I slapped myself mentally on the head as I remembered Jorine telling us that they had found the lift to the upper floor but that it was broken; I also remembered them saying that there was something very nasty in the lift room and they had closed and locked the door behind them. We should have remembered; as this was coming back to me, I also remembered the gnomes saying something about buzzing behind a door although I couldn’t remember the specifics.</p><p> </p><p>John was still examining the gears and then said in an awed voice:</p><p> </p><p>“This is one big castle!”</p><p> </p><p>I looked down and saw what he meant. Apart from the position where it was now, the lever had eight other positions where it could be anchored; these were labeled A-H; both John and I immediately realised what that meant: eight more floors! And we hadn’t even explored this one fully! And we had roughly a week to do it? Yes, we had really set ourselves an ambitious timetable!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6143615, member: 6692807"] I was still in the middle of the room but Longhelim had stormed onto the balcony. I just about glimpsed one of those horrible orc skeletons; there was also another group: these were wearing breastplates and wielding two short swords. This was a new type but they were still haloed by coruscating fire like all the others we had seen so far. I only had a chance to glimpse them as Felix brandished his holy symbol and two of these new skeletons immediately burst into shards. Almost immediately after, Drudge ran past everyone and jumped off the balcony; it was truly spectacular as he shot two arrows from his bow at the same time; one of them even struck its target. Longhelim was shouting: “At least two more orc skeletons here.” Victor was still in the doorway and preparing to go out to the balcony when a new and far more sinister foe made an appearance. A shrouded, horrible figure drifted through the wall. It was large and superficially resembled a brutish ogre but its tattered clothing, incorporeal nature and red, malevolent eyes betrayed its true nature. Felix shouted: “That’s a wraith….an ogre wraith?” he sounded disbelieving and then groaned as the wraith tapped him lightly; judging by the priest’s reaction, he may as well have pole axed him. Felix staggered backwards, desperately trying to get away. Then events became even more unfortunate as John, also scrambling away from it in any manner he could, was clobbered by another light brush from the creature’s arm and lost most of his vitality; I could see it in his movements, which became very sluggish. The wraith just stood there, floating. It didn’t quite grin but it may as well have. Then, just to make things even better, a wall of flame appeared across the doorway, blocking our view onto the balcony and to both Longhelim and Drudge. It also caused several of us to burn as we had not cast our spell for fire protection yet; no one more so than Victor, who grimaced in pain but kept stoically silent. Despite the vicinity of the flame wall, the warrior moved up to the wraith, hoping to take it by some surprise but the creature reached out again and hit the warrior; fortunately, Victor was made of sterner stuff and managed to get a swipe at the creature. The Living Blade swept through the wraith and seemed to catch in its body, eliciting the first reaction from it, a slight recoiling. I tried throwing a few spells at it but to no avail. It was a formidable opponent; why it had chosen to make its appearance now was a mystery but we could have really done with the help of the gnomes at this moment. There were still sounds of combat from the outside but it was not possible to see how Drudge or Longhelim were doing; we, on the other hand, were doing quite badly. I cast my spell of force missiles into it and they obviously hurt it but it was concentrating its blows on Victor. The warrior was standing up against it but he wouldn’t last long; the wraith was only brushing him lightly but it was having the effect of making the warrior more listless, sluggish and desperate. His swings were becoming wilder and more erratic. Suddenly, Longhelim emerged through the wall of flame; he was burned quite badly as he did so but managed to join Victor on the front, swinging wildly and scoring a hit on the creature. This was fortunate as the paladin was obviously using his holy power boost his combat ability against this formidable enemy. Although it recoiled from the paladin, it continued to tap Victor and at that point the warrior collapsed, bursting into flames. I blanched; that meant Victor must have been in a very bad state. Thankfully, as he was toppling over, Felix, who had moved just behind him, managed to catch his body and infuse it with the magic he had been holding on his hand. This healed the warrior who gamely swiped at the wraith three times in quick succession from the floor; unfortunately, the falchion passed through the ogre’s form harmlessly each time. During all this time, the wall of flame was still burning us; John had managed to get out of harm’s way; we couldn’t tell what was happening to Drudge. Then Longhelim shouted, desperately: “Faden, do something, anything!” I shouted back:” I can hit him with lightning, but it’ll get you as well!” “Do it!” Speed was the key here so I stepped up and gritting my teeth against the pain of the heat from the wall, I cast my bolt of lightning through Longhelim and into the wraith; it burst into a cloud of foul smelling dust and disappeared. Longhelim was almost fully caught in its path but managed to dodge out of the way just at the last moment. He was still hurt but finally the wraith was gone and not a moment too soon as one of the orc skeletons came through the wall of flame; Longhelim confronted it but in our weakened state, it could be very dangerous. A moment later, Drudge came hurtling through the wall, also badly burned and hurt; at that moment, I cast my invisible wall across the doorway. This served a two-fold purpose: it would shield us from the heat and it would give us time to cast some much needed defensive spells, chief amongst them being our protections against fire. We were able to do this, and cast various other spells which would help us against the remaining skeletons. Once ready, I negated the spell and the single skeleton lasted briefly against Longhelim, whose weapon had been made truly destructive to undead, courtesy of Felix. Then, we waited for the other skeletons to return and thankfully we were able to deal with them quite swiftly. Cautiously we approached the entrance and Drudge began looking at the floor. He was gone for a few moments and then returned: “From the tracks I’ve seen, that group came from outside; I have no idea where the wraith came from but the skeletons left a trail through the main doorway in the bear’s maw.” John said: “We should seal that somehow. Felix, do you still have your spell which produces a wall made of stone?” “Yes; where do you want me to put it?” “Behind the adamantine door; I’ll lock it and then you can put your wall across it.” So, that was what happened and then we retired to the chapel again. John then sent one of his magical messenger tokens to Jorine, to explain what had happened to us and why we were not exploring the rest of the castle. Then, Felix decided to accelerate his prayers; it would exhaust him but John, Victor and he actually needed his spells desperately; they had all been very badly affected by the deadly powers of the wraith. Thankfully, nothing happened during that period. I managed to divine the command word of one of the rods and Felix sprinkled a small pinch of diamond of dust over the three affected group members while chanting softly. Thank all the gods, Felix’s powerful prayers managed to counter the evil malady which was affecting them and they were able to shake off their listlessness and lethargy; if the magic had not worked, it would have made the exploration of the castle almost impossible. Thus strengthened, we began to talk about out next course of action. Jorine and her clan were working in the pump room and at some point, we had to go and break a dam. This obstruction was in the area which they described as a riding track; from what they described, the river ran through there and they had told us that that was the location of the dam. Before this though, we decided to explore further into the complex. We decided to enter through the double doors at ground level in the main entrance chamber. These opened into a very memorable space; marble statues lined the walls and a worn carpet lay on the floor; originally, it must have been some grand reception area. There was also a pair of doors on the wall to the south, or our right and another door to our left, or the north. A last pair of double doors were situated opposite our entrance way but these were raised to another level; a set of curved steps led up to them. Beyond was the as-yet unknown room mentioned by the gnomes as emitting the noise of merrymaking and where I had speculated that vampires were celebrating our arrival. First, we rolled up the carpet, just to make sure there were no nasty surprises or openings underneath; then, we decided to leave the doors with the noise for the time being and explore the area to the south. John approached the first door, which opened into another corridor, stretching to our left; another door was immediately in front of us, on the other side of the corridor. We opened it and it led into yet another corridor, this time with three doors. John again went inside and examined each door. He did not hear anything behind two of them but there was the sound of buzzing behind third. We were not sure just what that meant. “An undead swarm?” I mused. Felix shook his head: “I’ve never heard of such a thing; but who can tell in this place.” So, we decided to leave that door initially and to open the first door we could see geographically, as it was opposite the door we had just opened; or at least, try to open it; unfortunately, it was locked. First John and then Drudge tried to pick it open but the lock defeated them, so Victor had to go forward with his hammer. It only took two or three blows with it and the door was shattered; then the creature in the room struck. It was impossible for me to see exactly what happened but one moment Victor was there and the next moment he collapsed. Then the enemy emerged from the doorway and it was truly horrible; a hairless, humanoid creature with tentacles coming out of its sides. It also had protruding ribs which seemed to accentuate a cavity where its stomach should have been; the most awful thing was that that cavity now held a miniature version of Victor, screaming silently within this unearthly prison. Somehow, this thing had imprisoned part of Victor within itself. As it stepped out, it immediately lashed out with a wave of black miasma, inimical to all life, hurting all of us. It was the same power the skeletons had used against us but far more intense and on a much greater scale and range. Longhelim stepped forward and slashed it with his sword; Drudge began his usual barrage and Felix attempted to send it back to its pit. That failed miserably; both the warriors hit it and it did recoil a little, but then leapt forward to attack once more; I stepped forward and cast a black ray out of my hand which struck it squarely in its chest; the ray almost bounced off but then sank into its torso. The creature sagged visibly and flinched; then it retreated back into the room. Thank the gods that worked! It should have been badly weakened! The enemy was followed up ruthlessly by Longhelim and Drudge, both of whom struck it again; but it wasn’t finished either and cast a spell; it was the same spell as I had cast at it but this time it was aimed at Drudge; the ranger dodged skillfully and then used his uncanny acrobatics to move into its lair. Of course, being Drudge, he also shot it as he was doing a summersault through the air. Longhelim, in a more orthodox style, followed up and hit it with his sword; it retaliated by casting the same spell again, the weakening ray and this time it hit Longhelim who suddenly began to find it difficult to lift his sword, never mind actually harming this creature. As the paladin swung, his sword barely penetrated its unnaturally hard skin; he was just slapping it. I had moved to the door and as I was watching the fight, I could see Victor’s miniature face contorting inside this thing; a thought struck me: “Longhelim, we have no idea what will happen to Victor if this creature is slain now!” John shouted back: “We can’t worry about now.” Yet another black ray shot out of its hand and this time it struck Drudge, who promptly collapsed, finding his equipment too heavy to support. He promptly began squirming on the floor, loosening the straps of his backpack and quiver to divest himself of what he could; gamely, he tried to get ready to shoot from the floor. It was noticeable that the creature was not attacking anyone with its claws as it must have also been enfeebled. Thankfully, both Drudge and Longhelim had already hurt it badly. As Longhelim continued to slap it feebly with his sword, Drudge was doing more good with his cold infused arrows. Then disaster struck and Longhelim collapsed fell at its feet, exhausted and unable to carry on the fight; he was too weak and his equipment was too heavy for his magically induced weakness. The situation was dire: our two remaining warriors were crawling at the feet of this thing while the last of our warriors was in miniature form, trapped in its chest. I had one spell of force missiles left; quickly, I cast it and again this creature proved highly resistant to my magic; but, I managed to force it through and finally it collapsed, a viscous black drool oozing out of its mouth. As it did, Victor’s body shuddered and began to breathe. Then his eyes fluttered open and he groaned. Felix began to move to everyone and checked them thoroughly. “Longhelim and Drudge should be all right in a little while. It’s that spell you use so often, Faden. It’s very effective but the weakness doesn’t last long.” Then he moved to Victor. He poked and prodded and asked several questions. Victor didn’t say much but as he rose he did speak: “I don’t feel right; whatever that thing did, I feel weaker; as if part of me is still in it or somewhere.” Felix frowned: “I may be able to help you but after I have prayed for my next set of spells.” Victor looked at him: “This feels wrong; the creatures here are very powerful and we are just about scraping through them; Felix, are you sure you’ll be able to do something about this later?” The priest examined him again and said: “Part of your essence, your very being, has not been returned to you. That thing, whatever it was, took it and possessed it for a time but it doesn’t have it now, so I can use my prayers and magic to return it to you. There is a miracle which will do this and I promise that I will ask for it as soon as I can.” Victor sighed and nodded. While the others were still incapacitated by their weakness, John and I were examining the room we had entered; it contained a platform with chains in each corner that led upwards into a shaft; recessed into the lift platform was also a set of gears which were worked by a handle which could be placed in various positions. There was also what looked like some sort of little lid or covering to a container inside the platform. Then I slapped myself mentally on the head as I remembered Jorine telling us that they had found the lift to the upper floor but that it was broken; I also remembered them saying that there was something very nasty in the lift room and they had closed and locked the door behind them. We should have remembered; as this was coming back to me, I also remembered the gnomes saying something about buzzing behind a door although I couldn’t remember the specifics. John was still examining the gears and then said in an awed voice: “This is one big castle!” I looked down and saw what he meant. Apart from the position where it was now, the lever had eight other positions where it could be anchored; these were labeled A-H; both John and I immediately realised what that meant: eight more floors! And we hadn’t even explored this one fully! And we had roughly a week to do it? Yes, we had really set ourselves an ambitious timetable! [/QUOTE]
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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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