With the help of Scorna’s ice magic, the Rectifiers made their way across the precarious chamber of Doom magma. Once they reached the far side, another metal door automatically slid open upon their approach.
In the following chamber, the group found two large gears atop more metal rods. The floor held more of these notched, rotating metal pieces that would seem to connect to the larger ones if they were to be lowered. One of the large gears was lowered by climbing atop and rotating it down the rod. The other was being magically rusted from a tube of steam. Gale decided to hold the steam at bay the best she could with her wind magic while Maron and Duma Van gathered a slick black liquid from a pool to allow the gear to rotate down. Once both gears had been lowered, all the metal pieces in the floor began to spin as a system, opening the next door. Beyond it was another catwalk above a large chasm of the same magma. It seemed to lead to the final door to the Candidate.
Sarin Kor was able to re-materialize, congratulating the Rectifiers for making it through the realm. He informed them only a few minutes had passed in the outside world, so they were making good time. The double-door that stood between them and their target seemed to have complex mechanisms keeping it locked. Sarin Kor offered to use what magic he could to open it, but that would conclude his involvement in this realm. The Rectifiers decided that was a worthwhile trade, so Sarin Kor used an incantation to open the door. In the Candidate’s lair, the Rectifiers were met with an unexpected sight.
The heart of this realm was a metal and wooden chamber with six metal hatches in the floor. Next to each hatch was a button of matching size. There were three sizes of button and hatch. In the center of the far wall was a large green conjuration of an old man’s head. It sparked with electricity. His eyes were bleeding Doom Magic. Whenever he tried to speak, electric spasms were the only sound that bounced through the room. On each side of him were compartments in the wall with more spinning metal pieces. Each compartment was missing pieces, but the left side had a purple rune and the right side had a golden rune. It appeared that the left side under the purple rune needed fewer pieces to fix, but the Rectifiers decided they probably wanted to fix the side under the golden rune.
As they pressed each button, it would call forth metal warriors from the hatches. The small buttons brought small crab-like creatures, the middle blade-handed metal knights, and the large giant metal titans with hammers attached to their arms. Each permutation of metal minion dropped a matching size metal piece that fit into the compartments in the back of the room. Once the Rectifiers had enough pieces to fix the right side, they slotted each piece. The pieces began to spin and whir, and the conjured head exploded with sparks of green electricity…