—and the steel golem leaps the intervening five feet, lands with a thud that shakes the whole building, and punches him in the head.

Thus ends the mage.

Yyyep.

That. That about wraps it up for this room.

Onward!

The layout is just like Eliana described it, traps and all. The traps don't really do too much to golems.

He's going to be cursing himself later for wearing the golem suit, but Stone, it's so much fun.

The golems encounter two more groups of soldiers, but no more mages.

And what do the mages encounter?

Outside the back door, there is an elf who appears to be sick, coughing and moaning.

"The sentinel," she says, taking out a small knife and cutting the ball of her thumb. "I will co-opt it, one moment."

...all right then.

Eliana kneels down in front of it and presses her thumb to its face. There is a bright flash of light and the body jerks suddenly and goes still. A moment later, it jerks again. When the eyes open, they glow orange. She rises back to her feet, and the elf stands also.

Metella observes this process curiously.

"Sloth demons make good watchers, but rage demons are better at fighting."

"Aha."

Door: open.

Elf-demon puppet thing: sent through first. It survives this experience, so the rest of the group can follow.

The sound of Stalas knocking on the door is exactly as audible as promised! And that must be the sound of him and Hesta and Kador entering the building. Right on time.

"Shall we press straight for Caladrius or attempt to clear out some of the potential reinforcements?"

"Reinforcements, I think," says Metella.

(Clare is untalkative.)

Nod. She directs the elf to turn left and ascend a set of stairs. She has it stop outside a closed door up there.

"Ready?"

Nod.

Nod.

The elf kicks the door open and charges in. Shouts of surprise and alarm from within, the clatter of disrupted cutlery.

Clare follows, staff in hand.

Six soldiers, wearing about three-quarters of a full set of armor between them. Two still have their swords and are attempting to use them to hack the elf apart, with middling success. The others have backed away from that fight, and look up at Clare when she enters.

Clare hits people with her staff.