Elise enters the puzzle door.

Elise steps through the door, intrigued by the prospect of puzzles. She loves puzzles, though she's not always very good at them. And maybe they'll take her mind off the loss of her clothes. It slams shut behind her, locking automatically, as she takes stock of her next challenge.

In the room's centre is a huge brass birdcage, sitting on a pedestal. Inside the cage is a golden key, sitting on the floor inside some kind of brass puzzle box. In the side of the birdcage is a hatch just big enough to admit the head, shoulders and upper body of a woman. On the other side of the room is another golden-padlocked door. Easy enough to work out what she's supposed to do.

The hatch springs open at a touch. She has to bend over to get her whole upper body into the birdcage, her breasts resting on the floor, the puzzle box in her hands with the key trapped in the centre. She begins to fiddle with it, frowning.

It'll take her a while to figure this one out, but she's sure she'll get it eventually. What she doesn't understand is, why did they have to put it in the birdcage? It's almost like the dungeon designers were trying to get her to bend over for some reason, and present her panty-clad bottom to the air...

She's just beginning to put two and two together when she feels the bars of the cage squeeze together, trapping her, so she can't wriggle back out. And on the other side of the birdcage, she sees an imp pop out of another bubbling fumarole. She recognise its pointed nose. It's the very same imp that ate her breeches before, and it's looking right at her.

"Hi," it says.

"What? Wait, you can talk?"

"Of course we can! We're imps, not idiots!"

"But... wait, so you've all been..."

"We've been looking at you in your underwear, silly! It's very funny!"

Elise's face goes very red, and she tries to wriggle free of the cage, but she can't move. She's trapped, bent over the pedestal as if caught in the stocks, her derriere wiggling freely in the open air. The imp pokes out its tongue at her. "Now, now. You can't escape until you've solved the puzzle."

"Let me go this instant! Don't you know I'm a paladin of Etherial?"

"Paladin of panties right now."

"Shut up!"

"Anyway, let me explain how this works. You have to solve the puzzle box and get the key out. You don't get out of the cage until you solve the puzzle box. Until you get out of the cage, all us imps get to do whatever we want with you."

"What do you mean, all us imps?"

The first imp clicks its forked tongue, and another three jump out of the fumarole behind it. "There's just so many of us! And we're not very happy with you, because you killed all our friends with your big shiny sword. They respawned instantly, of course, but that's not the point. Do you know what fire imps like to do with pretty little paladins who kill all our friends?"

"Um..." says Elise nervously, hearing the chitter of more imps creep up behind her. The room is gradually filling with them. "Give them treats and let them go?"

From behind his back, the first imp pulls out a huge wooden paddle. She has no idea where he could possibly have been keeping it.

"So here's the deal," he says cheerfully. "After ten minutes, your panties get pulled down. After twenty minutes, your panties come off and you never see them again. After thirty minutes, you lose the game and we get to keep you as our little spanky paladin pet forever and ever and ever. Did I mention it's a really hard puzzle box?"

"Uh..."

"Okay, boys, let's go!"

Elise's protests are cut short by a gasp of surprise as the first paddle stings her posterior, protected only by a very thin layer of silk. She grits her teeth and does her very best to focus on the puzzle. Unluckily for her, it's not very easy to solve puzzles when a horde of giggling imps are spanking your bottom.