The party reached an open antechamber. The exit at the other side of the vestibule was blocked by an ornate metal door adorned by intricate engravings. Curiously, the gate had no handles.
Unlike the previous rooms, this one had decorations that survived the passage of time. A dilapidated red carpet covered the floor. Frames hung on the walls, the pigment in their paintings long eroded. Stone chairs were arranged around a crystal ball floating in the middle of the room.
"What is that floating thing?"
"The most obvious trap on the planet," Celeria commented. "No one touch it. Let´s go around it and try to open the door."
The softness of the carpet was a welcome change compared to the hard cobblestone that preceded it. The air was considerably more humid and warm than all the previous rooms, sans the garden, that the party had visited. At Celeria's command, everyone ignored the floating orb and went straight for the gate, which was predictably locked.
The door proved remarkably resilient to brute force and magic, resisting the party´s attempts to pry it open. Min, Liana, and Celeria grew frustrated at their failures and stood back. Peonie kept trying to tackle her way into the other room.
"Any ideas?" Liana asked.
"Well, in my experience, these sort of doors usually have a trick to open. We probably have to solve a puzzle or something," Min said.
"That´s stupid. Why would you lock the door behind a brain teaser when a simple key would work?" Liana retorted. "The only thing that could keep away is an animal."
"Well, a simple lock wouldn't have stopped us," Celeria said.
"Maybe it´s like a fantasy CAPTCHA sort of test to ensure that only sentient beings can pass?"
"What in the Sisters´ name is a Cacha?"
Min stared at Liana, putting her left hand above the redhead´s shoulder. "Do you honestly care for the explanation, or are you going to cut me off as soon as I start-"
"No, you are right. I don´t care."
Min sighed. Why did she even open her mouth?
"Well, in any case, I hope Min is right." Celeria interrupted. "I rather solve a little brain teaser than spend the rest of the afternoon going back around the dungeon to see if we missed the key somewhere."
"Yeah, backtracking is the worst," Min said. "Ok, gang. Let´s look for clues on how to open this thing. Maybe we have to hang the paintings in a specific order or sit on the right chairs?"
"Clues, huh? Like these?" Liana pointed at the engravings on the door. On closer examination, they looked like hieroglyphics. "This is ancient elvish. What does it say?"
"How should I know?" replied Celeria.
"You are an elf, are you not?"
"And you are a human, but I don't see you deciphering the ancient scroll of Thenia."
"Come on, you have to recognize at least some words, right?"
"Nope. This might as well be gibberish to me."
"I understand." Min interrupted.
"What? How could you possibly know ancient elvish?"
"Would you believe it´s a gift from a spirit that lives beyond this world?"
"No. I believe you are making stuff up to appear more useful to the party than you actually are."
"Shush, Liana. Let Min prove herself. Well then, go ahead. What does this say?"
Min approached the engravings, squinting as her brain somehow deciphered the ancient words. Peonie, meanwhile, had gotten tired of charging at the door and went to sit in one of the stone chairs around the orb.
"Hmmm, the writing is a bit faded, and some parts are missing, but this here reads: …all envoys must sit on the thrones of judgment... No true elf shall pass wearing the tools of our enemy... Else they will pay the tax of iron. What does that mean?"
"Beats me."
"See? Told you she was making stuff up. That was completely usele-"
The walls of the room rumbled. The orb began glowing with a strong blue light. The party looked back at Peonie, whose face screamed "oops".
"So, now that Peonie sat down on the throne, what exactly is the iron tax? Ack!"
Like a water balloon, the orb shattered into a million tiny droplets that flew across the room and coated everything and everyone in a transparent liquid. A blue light shone where the crystal ball once was. The practically naked adventurers shivered at the cold but didn´t have time to linger at the sensation.
Peonie felt something more worrying, her cuirass was tugging her towards the light with considerable force. She planted her feet on the floor and held onto the chair's armrest. Min´s dagger flew from her hand towards the light, where it crumpled into a tiny metal ball.
"Aww, come on! That dagger was more expensive than my former shoes!"
Realizing what would happen to her if she let go and the light folded her armor with her still in it, Peonie´s eyes shot open. She turned around to hug the stone chair with every ounce of strength in her arms.
Celeria could see that the brunette's grip on the chair was slipping. She released an arrow at the light, but the arrowhead got crushed when it got close to the luminous core. Celeria glanced left and noticed that her mage companion was casting a spell, but she didn't know if she would finish it in time to save Peonie.
There was no time to lose. Celeria sprinted next to Peonie and tackled her to the ground.
"W-what are you doing?" Peonie cried out, the magnetic force still trying to pull her chest toward the light. Luckily, the elf sitting on her stomach did a good job of pinning her in place. For the time being, at least.
"Saving your life! Now stop squirming and hold your arms up!"
Celeria used her arrows to cut the straps that held the cuirass over Peonie´s shoulders. She then promptly grabbed the armor and pulled it over Peonie´s head, tossing it aside.
Like a barrel floating in the air around a tornado, the cuirass got sucked into the light. It made a horrible metallic screech as it was crushed into a tiny ball.
Peonie exhaustedly sank onto the floor, no longer feeling anything pulling her body. She had not a shred of metal left in her, nor any other clothes for that matter. Well, except for her leather gauntlets.
With the danger gone, she timidly crossed her legs and tightly hugged her round breasts. "Thank you," she meekly told Celeria, with a face burning red. "But, can you please stand up now? This is a bit awkward."
"Sorry, my bad. I guess I should at least invite you to dinner before taking off your clothes, huh?"
"W-well, after tossing away my armor, the least you can do is invite me a drink."
A thunderous lightning bolt came from Liana's staff and pierced the luminous core, apparently to no effect.
"Damn, we can´t brute force our way out of this one."
The blue light started to shine more and more brightly, it almost seemed like the room was under direct sunlight.
Shortly after, a loud rumble began. Random bits and pieces of junk from the floor flew to the light, orbiting around it like the planets to the sun. Celeria´s arrows flew right out of her quiver, and the metal gate began to shake. The door was ripped off its hinges and flew to join the other pieces of scrap floating around the light.
The party took cover behind the stone chairs. They could only hear in horror as the metal scrapped against itself while being violently squashed together into a shiny orb that surrounded the blue light. The rumbling stopped, and the metal turned crystal, encasing the light in a crystal ball once more.
"W-well, d-door´s open" Min said, poking her out from behind the chair. "Good job, Peonie, I guess? That takes care of the puzzle..."
"Good job? That almost gave me a heart attack!"
"Well, how was she supposed to know that sitting on a chair would activate the mother of all magnets? Who even knows how magnets work, huh?"
"M-my armor," Peonie replied, aghast. The reality of her situation began to dawn in. "I lost it all. I´m naked now!"
"Welcome to the club."
"What´s done is done," Celeria tried to cut the conversation short. "I think we are near the source of the magic, let´s just get this over with before we accidentally activate any more traps."
"Easy for you to say, you are the only one still wearing undergarments," Min replied. "How about we take a break to compose ourselves before moving on? Let´s just not sit on any of the chairs."
"Hey! I´m still wearing my chemise," Liana pointed out.
"Yeah, but that barely counts. I can see your breasts as if you weren´t wearing anything at all."
Liana opened her mouth to retort but realized that she could still see her nipples poking across her translucent chemise. She shyly brought her oak staff closer to her body to try and cover up a bit. The fairies hiding in the ceiling giggled, which prompted the mage to blush harder.
"Wait," Peonie replied, pushing her legs together and folding her arm around her exposed chest. "Yes, Celeria still has clothes… M-maybe we don´t all have to go naked! We can share!"
Celeria scoffed. "Now's not the time for jokes. Let's go."
"I'm serious! I hate to use rank but, as the funder of the expedition and the second daughter of Duke Vineisse the IV, I …I demand you to give me your undergarments!"
"Y-yeah, we can take turns wearing them!" Min said, backing Peonie up. " Come on Celeria, sharing is caring. I can wear your loincloth and Peonie your chest wrappings…"
"First of all, eww." Celeria began stepping back, two of her former teammates approaching mischievously. "Second of all, w-why would I strip myself to spare you the indignity?"
"It´s only fair, I´ve been naked practically the whole dungeon!" Min retorted.
"And I´m a noble, I can´t be seen naked by commoners!" Peonie explained. "Forget about the drink, this is how we get even!"
"L-liana, a bit of help here?"
"Hey, leave me out of this. I´m just happy the nude sisters don´t want my chemise."
"Why are you so embarrassed, Celeria? It´s only us-"
"Yeah girl, it's only us. Let those juicy grapefruits bounce free!" interrupted one of the fairies, causing all four women to stare at them uncomfortably.
"Oh right, we have a peanut gallery." Min stopped. "… kind of feels bad to strip our companion in front of a crowd. Not very heroine-like."
"Yeah, not a very noble thing to do either. Sorry, Celeria, I guess we got carried away. This streaking nonsense gets on your nerves." Peonie said with a half-apologetic smile.
The human noble tried to make the best out of the situation by brushing her long hair in front of her exposed chest to at least cover her nipples and have a small modicum of decency.
"Come on Peonie, I´m sure we´ll find something better to wear in the final room. That´s got to be where the good loot is!"
"Hmmph, and if we do, we won´t share!" Celeria watched the behinds of half her party walk shoulder to shoulder across the busted door.
"Since when have those two become best friends?"
"Jealous?" Liana teased.
"N-no, but-"
"Then let´s go and finally put this stupid quest behind us."