The new room they had entered was pitch black darkness, even more, if possible, than the last corridors. As they walked in, the soft light emanating from the foggy room faded away...the darkness seemed almost solid. It seemed more so, once Andy, who had picked up the pace slammed head first into, well, something.

The other two, after picking the dazed fox up, started surrounding the structure un the room, then it hit Sofia that she could just turn on the lights. As a flame materialized once again, the first sight made her shiver. It was some sort or statue of a monster god, with protuding fangs and blood shot eyes.

"I found something else!" Meku shouted from some unknown point in the dark room, as they started to approach it, the darkness seemed surreal, almost as if it was stronger than the little light they had, thankfully some antique torches still hanged on the walls. Once they were lit, the group finally saw the whole of the room: It had that strange sculpture, now seen to be holding a skull and a crown, with a sore belly and goat legs. It was set on some particulary eerie looking steps. Sofia looked around, only to face a strangely not rusty ceremonial dagger few inches from her face being held by the goose.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME MAN?!" she shrieked at him, she looked down, a plethora of harmful objects laid scattered on the floor. They had reached a sacrificial chamber. It felt as if the spirits that died refused to let them go on.

"You're such a scaredy cat Drago Nerd, you are a dragon after all...Hey why don't you turn into one and blasts us out of here?" Meku said with bitterness

"It's far more complicated than that, my body is not made of steel you know? It's not like in the movies where the dragon just growns enourmous proportions and destroys everything! In fact-" she couldn't continue, for a shaking fox was holding tight against her. He stuttered:

"B-blood...soaked in blood" he showed his hands and pointed at the steps in front of the statue. A feeling of dread caught them all...they had to get out of that room fast, there was a very bad feeling in the air...

Running to get back to the foggy room away from the chamber, hoping that nothing bad would happen. Before they knew it, the three suddenly fell down a trap door on the floor!

"Ahhh!!" Cried the three as they fell hit the floor below the floor. After they fell, the trap door above closed shut, leaving them in an even darker room. The three got up seeing pure darkness. Sofia used her flames for a little bit of light again, from what they see, it was more of a concealed box of eternal darkness. Touching the walls all over, nothing happened. It looked like they were trapped completely. Even trying to destroy the walls was useless, they were hard as steel. Sofia was getting scared by the second.

"Ah-ah! I can't find anything!" She said still searching the walls, "Where's a switch!? Andy!"
"I can't find anything in here!" He said being scared too, "Meku? Where are you?"
"Relax," he said, "I've seen darker places in a book store." He was searching for a way out too, after a while, he suddenly touched something huge, he thought it was a switch. "Hey guys! I found something!" But unfortunately, it was just Sofia's scaly tail.

*Slap*!
She slapped him away from her in a violent way.
"DON'T TOUCH ME YOU CREEP!!!" Se yelled forming an echo throughout the room. The yell was so loud, the room started to rumble like an earthquake, and before they knew it, the room summoned a bright purple light around the whole room. They could see completely again. The light then conjured a dark smog from the cracks and the earthquake stopped. The three were worried the smog was poison, but it was just ordinary smoke. When the smoke covered the floors, a dark figure started to form in the middle of the room, and it was the ghost of the statue they have seen in the chamber. It's whole body was the same flow of the smog, but it's red eyes stood out. "RRRRAAAAHHHH!!!!" It roared.

"Ahhh!!" Screamed the three, Meku stood behind Sofia like a coward because, he had an overwhelming fear of ghosts. The huge, smoky figure looked at them and slowly moved towards them.

"Sofia!" Said Meku in fear, " Use your, science or something!"
"It won't help here bird brain!" She said trying to shake the goose off, "It's body is probably made of psychoplasm, it's form may be more-"
"SILENCE!" The ghost roared in a deep voice, "THIS GROUND IS SACRED, NONE ARE ALLOWED HERE."
"W-well...," mumbled Andy, "If you just let us go, we won't disturb your res-"

"SILENCE!!!!" It roared again, THIS LAND IS THE HOLY GROUNDS OF THE ILLUSION KING AND HIS HOME. THIS WAS A SANCTUARY FOR ALL WHO PRAISED THE KING'S RULES AND WISHES. ALL WHO DEFIED HIS RULES PAID WITH THEIR BLOOD."

"Um, we didn't come to defy him," Meku said, "Not at all, we came for...the treasure."
"MEKU!" Yelled Andy and Sofia as they smacked him on the head.
"SILENCE!!!!" He roared again, " CREATURES FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD ARN'T PERMITTED HERE, THIEVES OR NOT." Then at that moment, the ghost summoned an army of skeleton soldiers from the ground. Their ancient armor and spears was enough to make Andy get behind Sofia as well. "THIS WAS ALL MADE UNDER THE ILLUSION KING TO KEEP TRESPASSERS OUT AND SO IT SHALL BE AGAIN! AND IT SHALL CONTINUE UNTIL THIS WHOLE TEMPLE IS RID OF YOUR HORRIBLE STENCH!"

As the ghost vanished from the room, the soldiers charged at the three with their spears. Thinking fast, Andy pushed his two mates out of harm's way, even himself. The skeletons were furious and were going to attack them again. To the three, they weren't going to get out just by standing around, they had to fight...

Meanwhile, whilst the first team tried to fight off the first of their Temple Traps...

"Well, this seems like an improvement" Cactus said cheerily as he, Miki and Shax wandered into a large chamber. It was well lit with many lanterns embedded in the wall. The walls and floor was of a clear yellow stone and was strangely devoid of dust or plant growths at any point. In front of the trio was a large door coloured a deep azure, blocking the exit out of the room. Cactus observed the room, before saying "Least it can't get any worse"

The blue doors soon became the only possible way out of the room as the entry doors swung shut with a snap, trapping the travellers in this single room.

"You had to say it, didn't you" Shax sighed in desperation "Now what?"

"Beats me" Cactus shrugged. The three adventurers looked around the room they were trapped in. In front of them; in the middle of the room lay a large stone slab with the letters "CD-XX" engraved upon it. Various large stones were dotted around the room too, causing Miki to inspect them in turn

"Hmm...176...22...77...183...95...45...2...399...516...39" she read out "I wonder what they mean..."

"Perhaps..." Cactus thought aloud "Perhaps it's a puzzle, meant to test us to see if we were worthy of continuing onwards"

"Great" Shax sighed "Looks like Chaz won't be of use here...So what do we do exactly?"

"I dunno, but I have an inkling it has something to do with those stones..."

(Okay guys, this is a Puzzle Room. You have to crack the puzzle presented to you in order to progress. You might need to think outside the box to solve these puzzles, but all the information you require can be found either in this post or in the RP part of the forum (the whole section, not just this RP).

Simply state what you think the solution to the problem is, and I'll reply saying if it's correct or not. If it is, the story continues for you lot. If not; try again. There's no penalty for failing to solve it first time.

Sofia's Team: You cannot interfere with this puzzle. The same goes for Cactus' Team when that team has a puzzle to solve.

Help will be available if you're stuck. If you have any queries, don't hesitate to PM me about it.

Good luck!)

"I've got it!" Cactus said, bolting up right and surprising Miki, who was in the process of poking him. He'd been sleeping on the problem. That is to say, he'd been sleeping on the stone slab, sprawled awkwardly across it, feet hanging off the end.

"Awesome! How do we get out of this room then?" Shax asked, stepping out of his pacing line (which had cleared away a nice column of dust on the floor by this time).

"O.K, these letters here," the cat began, stepping off of the slab and gesturing to the cryptic text, "are Roman Numerals. CD stands for 400. The XX stands for 20."

"O.K, but how do we get out of the room?" the hedgefox pressed.

"So, 420 is written on the slab then," Miki deduced, eying the stone plate with scrutiny.

"Right right, 420, whatever, how do we get out?"

"Good question," Cactus stated obliviously.

Shax would have beat his head against a wall, had it been in closer proximity. The trainer took a deep breath. "O.K," he began again, exhaling, "420 written on the slab. There are those rocks over there with numbers all over them. That's only slightly coherent, if even that," he sighed, plopping down next to Cactus on the stone slab. The plate gave way somewhat, then returned to it's regular position.

"Guys," Miki said, stepping onto the stone platform as well, "I think we're standing on a spring loaded switch. Maybe this is a weight challenge. But I think 420 has something to do with it, like a limit or something...."

"Hmm.... I'll think on it a little more," Cactus said, stretching his arms and leaning back. Shax grabbed under the cat's arm and pulled him upright again. "O.K, fine, I'll stay awake and think."

Meanwhile, Sofia, Andy and the goose had bitten more than they could chew as the surprisingly dexterous decrepit antique skelettons closed in on them, the obsidian on their spears not seemed to be any less sharp than it was 3000 or so years ago. They thrusted in, cutting her on the side, she let out a roar of rage as a large jet of fire came out of her mouth, carbonizing a few of the un-dead soldiers.

"STOP!" Andy yelled, holding Sofia back "If you use your fire attacks too much, you'll consume all the oxygen in this room we're trapped in...and" Meku held his neck and pretended (much to the dragon girl's dismay) that he was gasping for air: that of course meant asfixiation. However there wasn't much more time to think as a few other warriors lunged at them, Sofia flinched, but then...

"TAKE THIS YOU UNDEAD FREAKS!" Meku snapped, a bolt of lightning cracking the skeletton's skulls cleanly in half, before they shattered to the ground "You'll thank me later" he mocked at Sofia.Andy however, was delivering swift kicks at the warrior's chest, crack their ribs easely, causing them to tumble down in one big mess of bones. The team had gained an upper hand, but it seemed as if the skelettons wouldn't stop coming from the darkness, while the room around them began to rumble..

Still more skeleton warriors where moving foward to the three adventurers and where ready to attack again, as Meku and Sofia were ready to blast the skeletons, Andy felt something on his head "uh whats that?" he woundered, when looking up to the ceiling he could see a large crack with light coming out of it, then he had a idea "THATS IT!" he said.

"What?" Meku said sounding very confused "what's it?", "look up" said Andy so Sofia and Meku looked up "I can't see anything" Meku said "look harder" Andy said "I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING!" Meku shouted, "I see it" Sofia said "it's that crack on the ceiling", "yes" Andy said "if you two can blast the celling it should be weak enough to collapse", "WHAT?!?!" Meku shouted sounding like this was a bad idea "IF WE DO THAT WE GONNA GET SQUASHED!!!".

"Well its are only chance of getting out of this place theres no other way to go" Sofia said sounding very confident about the plan, "oh great" Meku said nervously "ok lets do it", suddenly Sofia let out a big blast of fire hitting the weakened ceiling, Meku then fowllowed suit letting out an awesome lightning beam which also hit the weakned ceiling, it was working the crack started to get bigger and weaker it only needed one more hit and it would break.

Andy then jumped as high as he could then when he reached the top PUNCH, SMASH, he gave it a almighty punch, suddenly it started collapsing "QUICK MOVE!!!" Andy shouted "YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME TWICE!!!!" Meku shouted, Sofia and Meku got out of the way just in time when the ceiling collapsed, when the dust setteled Andy was no where to be seen, "ANDY!!!" Sofia and Meku shouted, "you....you don't think?" Meku said "no.....no i'm sure he's alright...." Sofia said then they shouted one last time "ANDY!!!!" and then silence.

"SOMEONE CALLING MY NAME!" Andy shouted, the two looked up and saw Andy out of the room and smiling, "WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU WE GOT WORRIED!" Meku shouted in anger, "eh sorry" Andy said with a grin on his face, Sofia then grabed Meku and flew out of the room, they had escaped one trap for now.

"OW!" Sofia said as she went on her knees, "whats up?" Andy said "it...it's nothing" Sofia said in pain Andy got worried when he moved Sofia's hand he could see a really bad cut on her side "that doesn't look good" Andy said, he then got his back pack and got out his first-aid kit "I knew this would come in handy" he said with a smile once he opened it up he took out some bandages and a healing lotion.

"Now this might hurt a bit" Andy said while putting the lotion on the injury "AGHHHH!!!" Sofia screamed in pain "oh come on dragon nerd stop being such a wimp" Meku said "WATCH IT BIRD BRAIN OR YOUR GONNA GET ROASTED!!!" Sofia said in anger, Andy then put the bandages on Sofia's injury "there all done" Andy said "give it some time to heal and you should be good as new" "thank you Andy" said Sofia "thank you so much", "aw it's ok i'm just happy to help" Andy said with a smile. "Ok" said Meku "now that everything is under control can we please get moving I can't stand another minute in this place" and so are three adventures have made it out of the trap and are continuing on the journey, but what dangers still await them only time will tell.

Later, as the three moved further into the temple, the Sofia, Andy, and Meku thought they were getting pretty lost. The torches on the walls and size of everything seemed to get too familiar. After figuring out the scenery, Sofia was able to guide the team out of the confusing rooms. Walking even more than before, the team was getting pretty hungry. Knew that this would happen, Andy got out his bag of food! But, he forgot he dropped all the food....in the sacrificial chamber where they were attacked.

"NERDS!" Yelled Meku, "If I don't get something to eat, I'm going to go crazy!"
"And if you don't shut up, we won't get out of here any time soon bird brain!" Yelled Sofia, "....True adventurers travel on their stomachs."
"And in your case your mouth," the goose said, but the dragon decided to ignore him and kept walking. Walking through a wide path of vines and cracked bricks, made them think of home and food. Every step they took made them feel weak, so they really needed something to eat.

Minutes later, before they wanted to stop and rest, Andy found a door at the end of the hallway and was overjoyed.
"Hey guys look! A door!" Andy said running towards it. The door was so huge that it was twice the size of a normal door, wider than a bus, and it appeared to have a mural carved in it.
"Wooww, a doorrr," Meku said in a sarcastic voice ignoring the size of the door, "Amazingg, does it have a knob too?"
"Um, no," Andy said searching the big, dusty, stone door, "...there's nothing on here, just this picture."

Sofia took a closer look at it and was fascinated with the illustration that she had to get a closer look. She saw a picture like that in a book she read a long time ago about the Illusion King.
"Guys," she said, "This mural, it's some, scripture of the Illusion King. I think I can read it.......Oh, it says, 'From the 6th day of rebirth, the lord and saviour, Illusion King, was finally confined in this temple, sealing away his destruction of the world. Years passed, he and his followers lived peacefully in this temple, not knowing that the world around them was aiming for his death. War, liberation, betrayal, and extinction. These words covered the face of the earth as the Illusion King's rule started to fall. In time, the King used every inch of his powers to-"

*Ka-Boom*!!
Meku blasted the wall to smithereens by throwing a huge ice ball he formed while Sofia was reading. Seeing the wall collapse made her stand still in shock. Who knew that learning history would be stopped by one goose.
"....MEKU!! YOU IDIOT!!" She yelled, "I was so close to figuring out the mystery of the Illusion King!!" Meku sighed as he walked through the smoky entrance he made.
"I am not an idiot, so listen here Drago nerd," he said with his hands in his pockets, "We're not going to get anywhere by doing the old 'reading dust off a wall' junk. The last time I checked we were looking for, i don't know, treasure."

"But what's the point if we can't learn a bit?" Andy said as he followed, "I like to adventure but, come on!" As the two disappeared through the smoke, Sofia was left speechless as she picked up a shattered piece of the wall.
"Sofia! You coming or what??" Yelled the goose in the distance, that set a fire in Sofia's belly; she was so angry, so furious, that she formed her right hand into a flame ball and rushed towards him.

"MEKUUU!!" Sofia yelled as she punched Meku in the back and sent him flying through the smokey path. The screams of him rolling around along the path suddenly turned into an echo as he fell down a seemingly big hole, she didn't mean to blast him into a hole. So Andy and Sofia rushed towards the screams and as they ran, the smoke started to clear and both of them stopped. When the screams disappeared, they saw it was something bigger than a hole, they found themselves inside a humongous clock tower that could cover a village.
"It's-It's-"
"Amazing," Sofia finished for Andy seeing the thousand of still gears all over the place, "We're in an ancient clock tower!"
"But what happened to Meku?" Andy said, but then Sofia grabbed his hand firmly.
"Forget him, we have to find that treasure!" She said as she tugged him through the gears of the clock.

"What are you doing?" Shax asked, looking up from the rut he'd been gradually digging with his pacing, the floor below him now quite smooth.

Miki looked up from where she was sitting on the pressure plate with just enough time to roll out of the way of Cactus, who had decided to drop one of the heavier stones on the pressure plate, which bobbed up and down for a moment before returning to it's original position, only slightly more depressed.

"Hey, watch it," the demon said scornfully, rubbing the hip she'd landed on in her evasion.

"Sorry," the anthro said, helping Miki back onto her feet. "It's just... these stones are heavy, and I was holding my breath so I could keep it aloft, and-"

"Wait, so those things are weighted?" Shax said, a spark of an epiphany flickering to life within his mind.

"Yeah. Heck, I can't even lift that 176 one, much less the-"

"We can use those rocks to weight down the slab and open the door!" Shax blazed, cutting the cat off mid sentence.

"That's what I was going to-"

"Come on, let's put this 183 one on the plate," the trainer interrupted, stepping out of his path once again and getting set up next to the appropriately labeled rock.

"I'm not sure if-" Miki began.

"Come on, we're almost out of this darned room," the hedgefox pressed, causing both Cactus and Miki to slap their foreheads in an dramatic fashion. The two stepped over to the boulder and took a side.

"On the count of three," Shax instructed. "One... two...."

Miki and Cactus shared an impish glance.

"Th-!"

"POTATO!"
"VIOLIN!" the two yelled (which together sounded like "POTALIN"), quite loudly over Shax, who nearly dropped his side of the rock.

"Uh, guys, I don't think we can even get the number 420 with the numbers on these weigths," Miki said, setting the 22 weight she'd been carrying on the ground and hopping up onto the much larger 399 rock the three had dragged over to the pressure pad.

"Why not? We just need to get the right combination of rocks, right?" Cactus said through a slightly strained voice as he and Strata moved the 176 stone closer to the slab.

"I've running the numbers in my head... none of these things even get close to 420. 399 and 22 produce 421, and that's as close as we can get," the demon sighed, leaning on her knees.

"So, what, we're trapped in here?" Shax asked, throwing up his hands, though, not before letting go of the weight, which fell anticlimactically on Cactus's toes. The cat yelped in pain, running the word ow into one long and repetitive sentence. Strata lifted the edge of the weight just enough for the sand brown to yank his foot away. "So, there's no way to escape this room then?" Shax questioned, a very subtle hint of anger present within his words.

Miku scanned the room quietly for a moment, snickering quietly at the site of a certain cat rocking back and forth on the pressure plate, grasping his foot tightly and rocking back and forth lightly. "We need something else to put on the pad," she said finally, satisfied that there was no loose bricks or flooring to suggest a concealed object.

"Well, I don't see anything else in here but these stinking weights.... Maybe we can shave a pound off of the 399," Shax suggested, eyeing the weight carefully.

"Despite the age of this room," Cactus noted aloud," everything here seems rather precise. I think we'd best not try that, lest we want to stay here for a very, very long time. Did I mention ow, by the way?"

"So then what do you propose, flat foot?" Shax asked, causing Miku to let out a small giggle.

"Well.... We're something in the room.... And last I checked, I weigh... weight," the cat said, setting his foot on the floor and attempting to stand. "Ow."

[Been a little over a week, so I think it's about time to solve so we can move on. That, and school has been kicking my can, otherwise I'd have posted sooner.]

"There," Cactus said, placing the 22 weight next to the 95 on the stone slab. "Now all we need is the 176 weight," he added, taking a deep breath. He turned to others, who were rolling the oblong stone across the floor.

"It would be nice if you would help," Miki said, grunting as she rolled the weight onto it's next side. Shax counted off three, and the two pushed again, straining to push the 176 over the pressure plate's lip. The rock cleared the ledge, releasing all it's pressure and causing the two to fall forward onto the stone, which, coincidentally, was a mere inch or so from Cactus's foot. He pulled away quickly, jumping off the pad as he did so.

"So, now what?" Shax asked, breathing a sigh of relief and straitening up from the rock.

"Well, both of you step back," the cat said, pausing for a moment, "... and prepare to be amazed." He waited patiently as Miki and Shax gave the pressure pad a wide clearance in preparation of what was to happen next. The sand brown feline took a step back, bent low, and took a step forward, leaping on top of the 176 rock as he did so. Nothing happened at first.

Well, that was amazing thought Miki, sighing as she sat down on the smooth floor.

"Well that was odd, it was supposed to wo-OH CRUD!" Within an instant the platform had given way, dropping flush with the floor, and dropping the figure standing on it onto the 45 weight also located on the pad. Something locked below the plate, and a low rumble crossed away from the platform and to the door.

"Yes! Freedom!" Shax said, pumping his fist in the air as the door slowly opened. The roar of the grinding stones hidden from sight drowned out the hedgefox for a moment, and then, as the door reached the fully opened position, it stopped. The room was dead silent for a moment. Another crash bellowed from beneather the plate as it locked into place below Cactus.

"That took a little longer that it should have, but hey, we're outa here," the Cat said smiling. His ears were ringing slightly, but on the bright side, the door was open. He stood up rubbing his back side and stepped off the pad.

"So, it took the 45, 95, 22, 176, and Cactus to reach 420," Miki said, slowly rising to her feet. "That'd mean Cactus is 82 pounds, right?"

The three were now before the door, staring as far into the abyss as the light of the room would allow. There was a slight, cool breeze coming from the dank darkness that lay ahead.

"So... who's first this time?" Cactus asked, his gaze not wavering from the shadows. "I went first last time," he added quickly, stepping back slightly.