We entered the
castle in one of the lower levels, its wall having been cracked by some
great earthquake or lave flow, I could only suppose. I was practically
melting here, my vision blurry from dehydration. Maybe that's why I had
a vision. A multi-hued column of light, glimmering and shining in its
glory, beaconing me to step inside. It was so vivid and sharp that I
didn't see the wall I ran into, bringing me back to reality.
We were in a stone corridor, wide and long, with massive stone doors on
either end. A faint groove ran straight down the mirror. Well, not
really a groove, more like a repeatedly polished strip of flooring.
Very mysterious and it left us stumped. After a few minutes, Nakaro
declared that it was obviously the smooth path that a tiny god had left
as it traveled down the corridor. For what purpose though... it was not
for us mortals to know.
Going down the hallway one way, we spotted a trap door, cunningly laid
out to match perfectly with the floor. Or so it must have been however
long ago it had been installed. This one was one of the inimical traps,
since it spanned most of the width of the hall, a clear invitation for
the unwary to stumble into it. We opened the door because we just had
to know what was down the hole. A deep pit, with sheer walls, ending
abruptly at the bottom with shiny spiky things ready to impale the
unfortunate victim. I think I saw a bit of long-dried blood on the
spikes.
Farther on past the pit, we found some dried blood. Or perhaps a weird
tomato stain. It was splattered in a circle, as if the tomato had sat
on the floor and randomly exploded, as tomatos are wont to do. Perhaps
there is some sort of death ray there, so Nakaro stood there and willed
something to happen. Nothing did, leaving another unsolved puzzle in
this strange place, though we would soon know the answer to our
questions.
At least we reached the first massive portal. It practically filled the
whole entrance. We pulled and pulled and nothing happened, then we
pushed and pushed and the door slowly swung open, revealing a short
alcove with an identical door on the other side. We pushed and pushed
on the door at the other end of the alcove, figuring that it also
opened away from the alcove. When that didn't work we tried pulling and
pulling until I strained a muscle. Hmm, this was going to be harder
than we thought.
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We tried the
other end of the corridor and once again there was a pit,
though no corresponding tomato stain. Another door, this one swinging
inward into an alcove. But once again we couldn't move the opposite
side. Great, already stuck in the first room. At this point we had been
here for hours and we were tired so we made camp and went to sleep. The
next day still proved fruitless. Since there was only a one hour gap in
the day to get in and out of the island, we took the next gap and left,
to meet up with Tev and Reg.
Disappointed we were, but not Tev who hadn't even seen the place. He
wanted to go back and retrieve the sword of light, as if he could even
use it. But we had come so close and turning away now would make all
our comrades' sacrifices be in vain. What the heck are you talking
about, dog? I'm going in he yelled and loped off. We of course had to
go after him or he'd get himself killed.
So it was that very next day that we found ourselves back on the
island. Tev didn't like the invisible bridge. "If I can't trust my eyes
then what can I trust?" But it was his idea to come back so we'd be
damned if we let him stay behind again. Once back inside the corridor
Tev marveled at the ancient architecture and fiendish traps. "The pit
is deeper than I can blink! Thus proving that Lapadors were a fearsome
danger back in olden days."
But, at least he had a cunning dog mind to go with his incessant
chatter. "I've heard of construction like this. Patterned after a dog
lock. Since we can blink past any door, it takes too doors with a space
in between to make sure Lapadors don't blink in. But you can only open
one door at a time." Sure enough, once we had the first door closed,
the other portal was not too difficult to open. And so we had made it
to the second room... |