Four creatures stood at the end of the passageway, the hall opening up into a room beyond. Squat, with grey, wrinkled skin, long ears, and a small horn, the thimps were by no means attractive, and the cries they made as they saw the party coming was even less so, resounding off the walls as it passed.

Wincing at the piercing reverberations, Rowan drew his sword, ready to fight if the situation called for it. He hoped it would not, but he would not lose his life due to misplaced hopes.

As the thimps approached, Dillo met the first with his shield, the tiny creature bouncing off to the side with a meaty thud. Before it could reorient itself, Jaro buried his axe into its neck, the thimp’s head rolling away as its body collapsed.

Up front, Dillo skewered another thimp with his sword, his shield pinning a third to the wall. Seeing its opportunity, the fourth thimp leapt forward, but a bolt of magical energy slammed into its chest, the thimp crying out in pain as it flew backwards, leaving behind a scent of sizzling flesh.

Pointing towards the creature once more, Fiin loosed another spell at it, the indigo bolt streaking through the air and piercing straight through its skull.

With that, the fight was over. Keeping his sword drawn, Dillo looked at Rowan and pointed towards the bodies. “Process those and we’ll keep going. Should be plenty more where they came from.”

Jaro and Patri grinned at this, hefting their axes in anticipation as Rowan stared at the thimp corpses in confusion. “Process them?”

“Oh right.” Dillo facepalmed. “Sorry, forgot this was your first time. Porters are responsible for processing kills as well. Basically, you check them for anything valuable, then cut off a part of them that we can give in to the academy later for rewards. For thimps, that part is their horn. Just saw that off and toss it in your sack.”

“Right,” Rowan replied, moving forward to begin the grisly work. He had performed similar tasks before back in Taureen, though usually the targets had only been passed out from too much alcohol or sudden onset club syndrome. Usually.

The thimps’ bodies contained nothing of value, and their horns turned out to be surprisingly easy to separate from their skulls, with a small saw that Fiin provided that was. Rowan had been ready to use his sword, but the older girl had quickly stopped him, handing him the saw before he wrecked the blade on his own weapon.

Horns going in the sack, Rowan rose and the party set off, heading into the first chamber as they left the dead thimps behind. Circular in shape, with rough-hewn stone walls that curved into a vaulted ceiling overhead, the room was sparsely furnished, the remnants of a fire smoldering in a corner where the thimps had been sitting until a moment ago.

Fanning out, the party checked the room, searching for… something. Lacking the knowledge to properly figure out what it was they were looking for, Rowan simply tailed Dillo, figuring that the vanguard was probably the safest one to stick to.

“Chest!” Stenne’s triumphant cry rang out, causing the rest of the group to scurry over in a hurry. Brows knitting together, Rowan failed to see what Stenne had found that warranted his cry. The wall in front of them looked exactly the same as the rest of the room: craggy stone extending in both directions with a single crystal sconce above it, but the rest of the group seemed excited.

“Fiin, you’re up,” Dillo instructed, Fiin happily complying as Stenne moved aside for her.

Raising her hand, Fiin ran it over the wall, her fingers trailing down the stone. Withdrawing her hand, she pulled a small hammer from a pouch at her waist, the same pouch she had taken the saw Rowan had borrowed from.

A dull pinging sound rang out as Fiin tapped the hammer against the wall. Frowning, she repositioned it, tapping the stone once more. This time the sound was sharper, more of a ting that elicited a smile from Fiin. The hammer disappeared inside the pouch, and Fiin placed her hand over the small mark on the wall left by her strike.

“Stand back,” Fiin warned.

As the others took a few steps backwards, Rowan following suit as he got behind Dillo, the ring on Fiin’s middle finger began to glow. Mouth agog, Rowan watched as the stone in front of her seemed to liquidate, allowing her hand to pass straight through. A moment later, she withdrew it, a small box clutched in her grip.

“Success!”

Cheers met this declaration, the rest of the party swarming Fiin with gleeful expressions. Flipping open the clasp, Fiin revealed the contents of the box: a handful of silver coins, an old brass brooch, and a plain gold ring.

“Not bad,” Dillo said approvingly as he checked out the items. “Great work, Fiin. And good find, Stenne.”

“Thanks!”

“Don’t mention it.”

“Let’s move on,” Dillo continued, addressing the entire party this time. “This is only the first room, so that’s probably all we’re going to find here. The real stuff should be further in.”

As the party got back into formation, Fiin handed the box over to Rowan, motioning for him to toss it inside his sack alongside the thimp horns. Doing so, Rowan marvelled at what he had just witnessed. Although Fiin had helped out with the thimps earlier, her true value had definitely been demonstrated here.

Had it been Rowan casing the joint, or dungeon in this case, he would have been stumped by the presence of the box in the wall.

Without specialized tools, there would have been no way for him to extricate the treasure, and that was without even getting into how Stenne had managed to sniff out the presence of the box in the first place.

His thoughts awhirl, Rowan followed the party as they departed the first chamber, delving deeper within the dungeon in search of further loot.

Several more groups of thimps fell beneath the Frost Blades’ blades as they advanced, the groups growing larger the further inside they went. Twice, Stenne was forced to take action, healing Patri when a thimp’s claws found the gap in his armour, and tending to Fiin when a pair of thimps attacked them from behind.

Rowan acquitted himself well in the second encounter, using his sword to fend off the second thimp long enough for Jaro to turn and brutally savage the two thimps attacking his backline. Rowan slightly regretted not having killed the thimp he had engaged afterwards when he was forced to go through the bits and pieces of scattered thimp meat for anything valuable. Jaro, it seemed, had not appreciated monsters attacking Fiin.

The next few chambers they entered did not contain any valuables, at least none that the party found. It didn’t take them more than an hour to locate the stairs leading to the second floor, a circular hole with steps cut into the stone that spiralled downwards into the darkness.

“We’ll take a short break,” Dillo told them, producing a small cloth packet from his gear which he opened to reveal strips of jerky. Handing two pieces to each member of the party, he shoved the last two strips into his mouth as he put the now empty cloth back inside his pouch.

Tearing a strip off, Rowan chewed on the tough jerky, happy to have received free food. Around him, the Frost Blades were in high spirits. Jaro was busy talking with Fiin, doing his best to impress the blonde archaeologist, as Patri looked on in amusement. Stenne meanwhile was fiddling with his ring, no doubt thinking about some aspect of healing magic that he might need below.

As the rest of the party ate, Dillo wolfed down his own jerky, clearing his throat to get the others’ attention. “Excellent job so far everyone,” he began, eliciting smiles from the other Frost Blades. “The last time we were here, it took us nearly an hour and a half to get to the second floor, and I’m pleased to announce that we’ve beat that time by nearly half an hour this time, thanks largely to Jaro and Patri’s speed in clearing out the monsters.”

“Don’t say it like it was just us.”

“Yeah, you helped a lot, boss!”

Despite their complaints, both Jaro and Patri wore large grins, which Dillo mirrored as he motioned for them to hush. “Stenne’s healing has also improved a lot. We haven’t had to stop to let him heal us, which has saved quite a bit of time.” Stenne accepted this compliment with a nod. “And let us not forget Fiin getting us our only bit of treasure so far,” Dillo concluded, a cheer going up among the party as they looked at Fiin who blushed slightly at the praise.

“Now then, everyone ready to head down to the real dungeon?”

Wolfing down the rest of their jerky, the party jumped to their feet, all in high spirits after Dillo’s motivational speech. As Rowan made to follow, Dillo glanced at him.

“You’re doing well so far. Thanks for keeping Fiin safe back there.”

“Of course,” Rowan replied, happy to have his efforts noticed.

“Keep it up down below, and there might be a small bonus in it for you,” Dillo promised. Leaving Rowan, he donned his shield, placing it in front of him as he led the way down the spiral staircase.