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Date Posted: 19:23:55 03/20/02 Wed
Author: Erlic Eastlore
Subject: Tiny dangers
In reply to: Isobel 's message, "What a doll" on 16:57:00 03/20/02 Wed

The entrance into the temple was quite unusual, especially with the large statue that housed two rubies for its eyes. Erlic had to wonder if others had come across this temple, and if so, why hadn’t they removed the gems? Either no one came here, or the Sharm got to them first, or something else got to them during their attempt to remove the rubies.

Since the Sheikh was in a rush, Erlic managed to find a trap door, and was quickly led down by Ardesmar, who possessed a bit of magic, and was able to employ it with the use of a light spell. At first everything seemed ordinary with the exception of the figurines that lined the wall. Who, and why, would anyone carve such figures in such a place. The scenery, and painted cutouts seemed so out of place especially in a lower level of a temple.

Ravin suddenly had gone into motion, and Erlic quickly looked around as the figures came to life, attacking the group. One of its darts penetrated his skin, and he wondered about the nature of their weapons. Jade quickly asked everyone to move toward the wall, as she cast a fireball destroying a good majority of the figurines.

During this brief interlude, Erlic was able to use his chi, and found out he had been hit with something that contained a sleeping poison, nothing serious but enough to pose a threat. Since he still felt rather well, he proceeded to fight the surviving creatures, destroying as many as possible. Valhorek, also managed to find himself in the attack, and somehow managed to kill off the surviving creatures.

Once everything had returned to a calmer situation, Val quickly went to survey those that had gotten hit. Sure enough, the weapons had been tainted with a form of sleeping powder, nothing very dangerous, but if one passed out down here alone, there was no telling what might happen to them. He removed several vials, and passed them out to the people that needed it. Erlic took a drink from one of the vials, as did Ravin.

Erlic was still wondering about the creatures when Val was inspecting Jade’s leg. Fortunately, the damage done to her leg was minimal, but required the healer to apply a salve since whatever it had used had also infected Jade’s leg. “You’ll be all right,” Val stated. “Whatever these things are, they seem to possess some nasty weapons.

Knowing that Jade was safe, Erlic began to investigate the rest of the room. From outward appearances there was nothing unusual, except the hairline crack in one of the painted cutouts. He quickly pulled his gloves over his hand, carefully examining the hairline crack. He froze momentarily as his hand nearly pulled the thin, and almost invisible string.

Whoever it was knew his business. It took Erlic a bit longer than usual to disarm the trap, especially since it was hooked up to another trap as well. Ravin was at his side watching the maneuver, also wondering what on earth was so important as to maintain its secrecy.

The guild master did another sweep of the crack, and content that he had removed all the traps, tried to push open what appeared to be a secret door. Oddly enough, the room was bathed in a soft light. Upon entering the room, Erlic took it to be 30 x 30 feet with a bed in one corner, a desk in another corner, and another pile of puppet like creatures. The oddest manifestation was the rather large puppet, almost human size that stood in one of the other corners complete with two swords, and with the strings attached to its body as if someone meant to control it, but the question was how, and why?

Suddenly its eyes opened, and one of its arms moved up as if being orchestrated by another individual, yet after observation of the ceiling, Erlic couldn’t understand how this could be. The strings of the puppet led straight up to the wooden ceiling, and that’s where they stopped, almost as if they were impervious to the sold structure. So how could anyone be commandeering this creature?

The creature attacked, and attacked hard, and Erlic just had time to put up his weapon, parrying the blow. He moved back cautiously studying the un-alive creature, as it moved forward, its legs taking on a strange pose as if it was still being directed via its strings. Perhaps that was the clue, severe the strings, and you destroy the puppet.

Suddenly two doors opened up from within the room, and two more of the human shaped puppets strode out, weapons ready, being directed by the strings that were attached to the body. Erlic had tried a few times to stab at the creature but to no avail. It seemed its body was impervious to damage, and seemed to have been made of wood. Finally it dawned on him that if the creature was indeed being directed via the strings, that would be his only solution. He dodged out of the way of one of the blows, and quickly went for one of the strings controlling the legs, swinging the sword, and severing them. The creature immediately fell to its knees, but continued to fight.

This had to be the strangest occurrence the guild master had ever witnessed in his travels. Unusual, and very strange. Because the creature was able to defend itself, Erlic had a difficult time trying to penetrate its defenses, but finally found his opening, and sliced at the strings controlling all the leg movements. Once it was down, the guild master took the opportunity to slice at the remaining strings governing the entire body, until it fell to the floor with a thud. What was even more unusual was that the head snapped off of the body, leaving a pool of blood in its wake, and that made the guild master wonder even more.

He quickly looked around to see how the others were faring.

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