Chapter 26: Forward Again

October 15

The group thinks about what to do next. Kieron is tired, Ertak is tired and in poor condition, Agnarr is unconscious, and Neiia is in fairly good condition. The group is thus not in very good shape, so they conclude that they won’t survive through the “arrow rain” from the goblins if they cross. They decide to instead go rest in these bedrooms. They end up in one of the empty rooms.

Ertak casts a healing sleep on himself and stays in bed to heal (mainly to remove fatigue). The others stay in the room to guard. Orik Vancaskerkin goes to his own room to rest. Kieron rests for about twenty minutes, as does Neiia. After this, Neiia starts casting an analysis spell on one of the silver combs they found from the illusion mage. She detects that it has stored magic energy in it. After that, Neiia rests for a moment.

About an hour after Ertak went to rest, Kieron and Neiia go to examine other rooms. In Tsuto’s room, they find a pile of papers but nothing else. In Lydia’s room, there is nothing special at all, so after that, they return to Ertak’s room. Kieron begins to examine the papers, and Neiia examines magical items and rests.

It’s around six o’clock, and at this point, Kieron and Neiia think that they could now wake Ertak up. Kieron first tries shaking, but Ertak doesn’t wake up. Next, Kieron tries to tickle Ertak awake, but that doesn’t work either. Kieron next tries to practice stealing Ertak’s money pouch. Kieron succeeds, but Ertak doesn’t wake up. Kieron notices that this would probably be somewhat difficult if Ertak were awake because there is a light in that money pouch. They try so that Neiia opens Ertak’s eyes, and Kieron waves the money pouch in front of his eyes, but he still doesn’t wake up.

Next, Kieron switches to slapping Ertak in the face so that he wakes up. Next, Ertak heals himself, and the group stays to wait for Ertak to regain his magic powers, and Neiia examines the next item.

Ten minutes later, a knocking sound is heard from the door. Kieron didn’t notice anything outside, so she jumps up. Next, she hears the next knocking sound from the opposite door. Kieron opens the door slightly and peeks into the corridor. She sees a goblin in the corridor who is just knocking on the next door. Kieron closes the door and stays to wait. She hears the goblin knocking on each door, and after that, she doesn’t hear anything. Kieron stays at the door to guard.

After ten minutes, the door opens, and behind it are two goblins on either side of the door so that neither is directly in front of the door. Kieron draws one weapon and jumps up. Next, Kieron draws the other sword too, steps out, and hits the one behind the door quite well.

Neiia creates a fire portal, while Ertak gets up and also comes to the door. Ertak commands the nearest goblin to attack Kieron without regatd for own safety. The goblin doesn’t hit, but because it no longer dodges, Kieron hits the goblin well enough that it falls dead to the ground. Kieron goes after the next one, but Ertak orders one goblin to come to him, and the goblin runs straight toward Kieron so that Kieron falls. Ertak orders the goblin to go away so that Kieron has space to get up. Kieron jumps up, and at the same time, the two goblins who were fleeing fall unconscious to the ground.

Kieron and Neiia run out to the corridor, but don’t see any more goblins. The group returns and goes to examine the boss’s room, but nothing special is found there. After that, the group takes their belongings and Agnarr with them and continues on their way, that is, they move to the lab to look for a secret door.

Kieron says that the door is clearly here because there are footprints on the ground that go straight toward the wall. She doesn’t find the secret door opening mechanism. Neiia breaks the door open. Behind the door, stairs lead down. The group moves the belongings and Agnarr to the staircase and then comes to the door. The door is at a funny angle so that someone has had to dig a hole in the stone stairs so that the door can be opened. When Kieron opens the door, they see the next room, which is at a 30-degree angle. This end, where the group enters, is higher, and the opposite end is lower.

The group goes to the opposite door, and Kieron opens the door and steps into the corridor. She gets a couple of meters forward, and then bars slam down behind and in front of him, and the statues on the sides start swinging with their halberds. One statue hits its weapon against the wall, and the weapon breaks. The other statue hits with its weapon, but Kieron dodges. At the same moment, a trapdoor in the floor opens, and Kieron falls three meters down, landing softly at the bottom of the pit. Kieron notices that the trapdoor apparently tried to close, but something got jammed, and the trapdoor remained down. It occurs to Kieron that the trap was probably meant to return to its initial state by the trapdoor closing.

Kieron asks Neiia for a levitation spell and tries to move up and close the trapdoor. Kieron notices that the weapon only strikes down to the bottom once, and that strike comes from the middle, so if she goes up from the side, she’ll avoid the weapon. She tries to get the trapdoor moving, but it weighs too much. Next, Neiia tries to help with her spell, but that doesn’t help either. Neiia creates a fire portal and breaks first the weapon and then the bars with a fire sword. During this time, Neiia also hears some loud spellcasting from ahead.