Chapter 20 - Memories

  "So be it then. Your trial has begun. For your own sake, I hope you do not succeed."

  The ominous warning was followed by an unsettling silence as Robert and the rest of the party scanned the metal tomb, searching for an exit.

  “Um, Master Great Forge, did you forget to mention what the trial was?” Oswin said timidly, but the deep guttural voice from nowhere did not respond.

  “Maybe you’ll get your wish after all, Oswin,” Robert said as he knelt down beside one of the metal square plates that made up the floor like a grid. He grasped the corner brass handle and pulled upward. The panel rotated up and over, as if on a wagon’s wheel axle, reversing itself until it clicked back into place, flush with the rest of the floor. What had once been hidden beneath was now revealed.

  What is that, Robert thought as he looked in confusion at the reversed face of the metallic plate. On this side, the rivets found on the opposite face, as well as the brass handle, were gone. There was only a smooth steel surface with a crude shape engraved at its center.

  "Is that a scorpion?" Alice asked, curious.

  “I suppose so,” Robert said, not completely sure. Across the room to Robert’s left, Varg began to rotate one of the other floor plates nearest to the northern wall. With a loud click, the panel he turned snapped into place.

  "It’s an engraving of a star," Varg said as his powerful voice echoed across the small chamber.

  Another sudden snap rang out, startling Robert, as the two flipped plates violently swung back around, reverting to their previous positions with a loud clank followed by a barely audible hum.

  "What in the gods’ name was that?" Varg shouted.

  It can’t be, Robert thought.

  "A simple child’s game?" he said aloud to no one in particular.

  “No, it can’t be that simple,” Alice said with realization in her voice as she knelt down behind Robert toward the southern end of the chamber. She rotated a plate just in front of her, revealing what looked to Robert to be an engraving of an ox as the heavy piece of metal clicked into place.

  “Let me try next,” Oswin said excitedly beside Alice, flipping the plate as the ranger crouched beside him, watching the enchanter through her steel helm.

  “It’s a star,” he exclaimed, a glint of joy flashing in his eyes as the two revealed plates snapped rapidly back to their starting positions. “Varg, flip yours again,” he added.

  The warrior obliged from across the room, turning his plate back over with a click. Oswin flipped his once more, and both plates revealed the same crude engraving of a star, etched so clumsily it looked as though a child had drawn it.

  A loud clank rang out as if some locking mechanism had engaged beneath them, and the two star engraved panels held in their flipped positions.

  "We did it, Varg!" Oswin said as he stood up beside Alice, when the subtle but familiar sound of rotating gears began to emanate above them.

  Robert peered upward toward the steel ceiling. At first, he could not make out the subtle movement until he looked toward the ceiling’s edges and realized the walls around them were shrinking ever so slightly.

  "Is this part of your child’s game?" Brukk growled as he looked up at the sinking ceiling beside Robert.

  “Not exactly,” Robert replied. “I think this puzzle means to crush us, it seems. We best start hurrying,” he said grimly as he quickly bent down to flip over a new plate. He had just turned the metallic panel over, revealing a strange engraving of some sort of mask, when a loud zapping sound filled the chamber.

  "Oswin!" he heard Alice cry out as Robert turned to find the enchanter shaking violently over the plate Alice had originally flipped. It pulsed with a blue, electrical light that rippled up Oswin’s legs as the smell of burnt skin and flesh began to fill the chamber.

  “Cursed enchanter,” Varg roared from the opposite end of the chamber, heavy footsteps clanging against the metal floor as the warrior sprinted across the room toward Oswin before another sharp zap echoed through the chamber. Blue arcs of electricity shot out in front of Robert as he fell backward onto his backside.

  In front of him, Varg was frozen in place above the scorpion plate Robert had first turned over. He could see his friend’s gritted teeth clattering in a tight grimace as Varg towered over him, gurgling out unintelligible sounds while the electricity surging up from the floor held him fast.

  In a moment of sheer panic, Robert glanced toward Alice and Brukk, unsure what to do. Then, without further thought, he jumped upward and thrust his staff toward Varg’s shoulder in a desperate attempt to knock him free of the electric trap. Robert’s vision went white as he felt his feet lift from the floor and he flew backward through the air, followed by a loud crack as his head struck the steel of the southern wall and he crumpled to the floor.

  Stunned, Robert fought off unconsciousness as his vision slowly returned to the sight of an orange blur and the sensation of heat. His staff was on fire, he realized, and the radiant heat was now burning through one of his linen leggings.

  "Robert!" Alice cried as she rushed to him, smothering the small fire with her gloved hands. He cast a heal on himself as Brukk strode up beside Varg.

  With a roar, the large orc drew his handless arm across his chest and, in a backhanded arc, struck the warrior across the torso. The momentum of the blow broke Varg free from the trap’s grasp and sent him flying across the room before he crashed into the eastern wall.

  Moving quickly and ignoring the pain from the electrical shock still reverberating through his bones, Robert cast a heal on Varg, whose face looked as though it had been slightly blackened by burns. In another split second decision, he then thrust his staff to his right toward the still trapped Oswin, summoning his levitation spell and pulling the enchanter off his feet and toward them as he crashed face forward back onto safer ground.

  [Skill Leveled Up: Levitation (Level 6)]

  Still shaken by his recent electrocution, Robert began to rise while casting another heal on Varg, then another on Oswin, whom Alice was trying to help back to his feet.

  "Are you all right, Oswin?" Robert called.

  “I’m well, Priest. Thank you for asking,” Varg mumbled as he also began to rise to his feet.

  “I think so as well, Robert,” Oswin said with a shaking voice.

  "Everyone," Alice cried out as she steadied a wobbling Oswin. "I’m guessing the plates we fail become electrified."

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  Well, that’s not good, Robert thought as he pushed through the fading pain lingering in his body and walked toward the two plates he had turned over. The one with the mask was still flipped, as no one else had revealed another yet, while the first plate he had originally turned over lay reset to its original position just beside it. It looked completely harmless, but Robert knew better from the blinding power of his recent electric shock than to touch it.

  But what of the handle, Robert thought. It appeared to be of a different type of metal than the rest of the plate. He bent low, wanting to test a theory.

  "Careful, Robert!" Alice shouted as he reached out toward the brass colored handle.

  “The trial wouldn’t make an impossible dungeon,” he replied, sounding more sure than he actually was. Despite the unimaginable destruction the sight had unleashed on the world, Robert had the unmistakable feeling that it served some sort of purpose, that it wanted them to ultimately succeed. Or perhaps he was just delusional, trying to find some semblance of good in something meant to destroy them all.

  With a gentle tap, he touched the brass handle, feeling no shock, only the cold metal. “The handles are inert,” he called out with a sigh of relief, looking up to find the ceiling still sinking.

  "All right then. The room appears to be ten panels in width and ten in height, giving us one hundred total panels. Everyone spread out and take a separate quarter of the room. Mind which panels you turn over. We’ll take turns flipping to minimize the number of traps we create in a single quarter."

  "What?" Oswin said, confused.

  "Just flip the cursed floor panels when Alice tells you to, chanter," Varg rumbled.

  They spread out across the room and began flipping plates two at a time, trying to remember which symbols were where while keeping track of which panels had become electrified. Robert started along the wall, working his way inward as they called out symbols from opposite ends of the chamber.

  "Uh… it’s a duck… no, maybe a wolf," Oswin called out as Robert tried to recall the engravings on the first few plates he had already turned over.

  "Cursed hell, which is it!" Varg roared.

  “How many times do I have to tell you humans, I know not all your words,” Brukk growled. “What’s a duck?”

  "Wait, I think I know what he’s talking about," Robert said as he moved quickly leaping onto a previously matched plate engraved with what he assumed was a tree. He bent low and flipped the electrified plate beside it, carefully minding his footing among the other trapped panels already set. Nearly half the room was now either electrified or matched, forming a dangerous maze of footing they had to navigate.

  "That’s it, Robert. The plate locked!" Oswin said.

  “We’re not going to make it,” Alice cut in, dampening Oswin’s brief excitement. “We’re taking too long. The ceiling is sinking too quickly. We’ve only completed forty percent of the puzzle.”

  Robert looked upward to check. The ceiling, once ten meters high, had collapsed, shrinking the rooms height to no more than twice his own. Cursed hell, he thought.

  “Bah,” Brukk roared. “Cover my sector, humans.”

  They all watched in confusion as the orc’s dull red eyes began to glow brighter and brighter, as Brukk’s frame began to grow, just as Robert had once seen it do briefly back at the Blood Baron’s manor.

  “What in the gods’ name is he doing?” Varg said as they all watched the orc’s transformation from opposite sections of the chamber.

  Brukk’s gray muscles bulged grotesquely beneath the dim torchlight. He let out a deafening roar within the cramped chamber as his remaining hand reached upward, bracing against the ceiling as if to push it back. Robert could hear the gears behind the tomb groan and strain as the ceiling’s descent began to slow.

  "I think I’m going to be sick," Varg said in disgust.

  "Varg!" Alice replied.

  "Finish… your bloody… child’s game!" Brukk roared through gritted teeth as his impossible height braced against the ceiling, his massive legs, now thick as tree trunks, acting as pillars against the trial’s deadly contraption.

  “Oswin, take Brukk’s sector. You’re the most agile of us all." Robert said with urgency. "Let’s not waste any more time. Alice, whose turn is it?”

  They worked with efficient urgency, turning plate after plate, gradually gaining the upper hand as each successful match locked into place, giving them more room to maneuver around the remaining electrified panels. As time went on and the three of them worked as quickly as they could to complete the trial’s puzzle, Brukk stood tall in the chamber's center, fighting against the crushing ceiling when the dungeon’s voice called out to them.

  “This isn’t how this game is supposed to be played. Cheaters shall be punished...”

  Robert gritted his teeth at the sound of the overpowering voice, then replied. “We are no cheaters. Explain yourself.”

  But no reply came, just the unmistakable feeling that the room had grown slightly hotter.

  “Grrrrr,” Brukk growled as Robert looked up to find the ceiling glowing a faint red, as if it had just been pulled from a blacksmith’s fiery forge.

  “I can’t hold it,” Brukk roared as his clawed hand, still in contact with the ceiling, burst into flames, causing Robert to recoil in shock, almost losing his footing onto one of the electrified plates.

  “Heal him, Robert,” Oswin cried.

  “I’m not able to heal orcs,” Robert replied in dismay as the flames started to work their way down Brukk’s gray arm.

  “Keep… going…” Brukk roared as the orc valiantly continued to hold his stance in defiance of the dungeon’s deadly games.

  While Brukk, immolated in flame, toward the center of the chamber, the rest of the party scrambled about the room as they worked quickly to complete the booby trapped memory puzzle until the orc’s mighty power began to fade. Whether it was from the fire consuming the upper portion of his torso or simply the limits of his class, Robert wasn’t sure, but to his dismay the orc’s height began to shrink. The bright red glow in his eyes dimmed, and the last of the orc’s great strength gave way as he collapsed to one knee, unleashing the now scorching hot ceiling back on its downward trajectory.

  "Is that all you have in you, orc?" Varg barked at the sizzling orc as he locked another panel into place.

  Across the room, Oswin clicked his own plate into place before the familiar sound of the locking mechanism rang out from below, indicating another successful match.

  “Not now, Varg,” Robert said as he ducked low while the ceiling’s red hot grip began to tighten. The claustrophobia of the shrinking room began to cause a subtle panic to build within him, but he forced it down and continued on with the puzzle.

  “Almost there,” Robert shouted, sliding past one of the last two plates remaining to be turned. We did it, he thought with relief as he gripped the brass handle.

  A click rang out near Alice opposite him as she called out.

  “That’s it. That’s all of them. Turn it, Robert.”

  With a grunt, Robert pulled the heavy metal plate over, revealing the crude image of the mask he had seen near the beginning of the challenge. A loud clank rang out through the room as the ceiling’s descent suddenly stopped a meter from crushing them all, the hidden gears that had propelled it downward ceasing to turn.

  “Is that it? Did we win?” Oswin asked as an eerie silence, other than the sizzling of Brukk’s recently burned flesh, filled the room.

  “I’m not sure, Oswin,” Robert said, holding a hand up toward the ceiling. His fingertips recoiled, sensing the lingering heat, despite its red glow having returned toward its original metallic gray hue.

  “There’s still no exit,” he added as he began to crawl toward Brukk, who was still in a crouched position at the center of the room. The charred burns on his skin were already peeling and flaking away as his supernatural healing began to take hold. He had just reached his side when the rattling of gears began once more.

  “Now… what…” Brukk rasped.

  Robert looked upward to the ceiling as it began to move away from them, slow at first, then faster and faster as the chamber stretched from twenty to thirty, then one hundred yards tall until Robert could no longer see the top of the tower growing impossibly high above them.

  “What is happening?” Oswin cried as everyone stood staring upward at the torch crown that once illuminated the room, now a shrinking dot far above them, leaving the chamber in an ever deepening darkness.

  Then Robert felt the floor begin to move beneath them. At first it was a subtle tilt, but then, all at once, his boots lost traction.

  “Hold on, the chamber is rotating,” Alice cried as they all started sliding downward across the slick metallic floor, crashing into the eastern wall as the room continued to turn. The walls that had once risen upward tilted to horizontal, then beyond, becoming a steep downward angle that sent them sliding faster and faster, chasing after the disappearing torch crown.

  The group screamed as they slid into the unknown darkness.