Page 1991

When they reached the main entrance, Garovel just phased through it, and Hector was left standing there. He tried the curved handle, but as expected, the door was locked.

Garovel poked his head back out through the door. 'Sucks being corporeal sometimes, doesn't it?'

'How do I get inside?'

'I mean, you could just break the door down.'

'Garovel.'

'What? Do we have to be law-abiding citizens ALL the time?'

Answering that question seemed like it would open up a can of worms, so Hector decided to ignore it and look around the front of the building another time. There were several windows, but they were all boarded up. He supposed there might be a chimney to he could go through somewhere.

'Can't you just do something clever with materialization?' said Garovel.

'Hmm. Like what?'

'Like make a key for yourself.'

'How would I--?' As he thought about it, though, he wondered if that might actually be possible.

He hunched forward a little and found the keyhole in the evening darkness. Relying on the Scarf of Amordiin, he focused on the air flowing through it, trying to get an image in his mind of what the space inside the lock was like.

Not knowing much about how locks actually worked, Hector wasn't sure if this would be as simple of a task as it seemed. He gave it a shot, though.

He pressed his gloved right hand against the keyhole and filled it with iron. He made a flat protrusion for himself to grab onto, and then tried turning it.

It resisted, but it turned, and Hector heard a low shunk.

He pulled his materialized "key" back out and stared at it, a little surprised with himself.

'There you go,' said Garovel. 'Easy, right?'

Hector was somewhat disconcerted by this revelation, however. 'Garovel, if all materialization users can pick locks like this, then this is a serious design flaw.'