Isa was too far back to know for certain what Mery was doing when she halted their movement periodically, but she assumed that Mery was trying to find and disarm traps. Soon enough they’d resume their slow march down the wide, black passage. That was a small comfort: she and Alice could walk side by side. They crept down the hallway, and Isa sometimes felt sharp bits of rock under her boot. Once the floor seemed sunken as though a large rock had cratered the floor, but where that rock might now be was a mystery.

Whispering floated back to them, and Alice said quietly, “Dulrak, Mery says don’t move.”

Isa glanced over her shoulder and in the dim light she saw Dulrak nod and tighten his mouth. She pivoted her hips so that she was looking at Dulrak and back the way they’d come. “What do you think’s going on?” she asked him. He shrugged in response. “Can’t see a thing around yon big fella.”

“Lund? Yeah, he’s a solid guy.” Isa leaned forward to see if she could spy Mery, but the gloom had swallowed her up.

Silence grew until Isa thought her head might explode from sensory deprivation. Then she heard Lund say something, but before she could comprehend his words, Isa felt herself sliding forward.

It all happened so fast. Isa’s feet came out from under her, and she started sliding down toward where Mery and Lund should be. Dulrak bumped against her, bounced against the wall and hung there as Isa slid away from him, his form seeming to recede in the darkness. She didn’t have time to try to slow her fall or wonder what had happened before she landed with a thump on a bundle of something squishy.

Lights rose up, 4 balls of white light, and Isa saw that she was sitting on Alice. She scrambled free and helped Alice to her feet. “I’m so sorry, babe. Are you OK?”

Lund stood up and said, “Mery, what’s that?” He pointed up at the steep ramp that had once been the floor of the hallway. Mery sent one of the light balls upward to reveal Dulrak slowly climbing down the side of the wall. “Thank you for the light,” he said. “Dwarfish vision is good and all, but I’d rather not fall.”

In a minute he had joined them in the new hallway 20 feet below where they’d started. In the bright light of Mery’s 4 lights Isa saw that Alice was uninjured. She felt Alice’s arms and looked into her eyes. “You sure you feel alright?”

“Isa, I’m fine. I feel fine. Even you using me as a landing pad was OK.”

Mery laughed. “Preston’s own luck it is. Me, I slid face first down that ramp, wondering if I was going to drop into a pit of snakes or stakes or boiling oil. But look at us. We’re fine. That one didn’t even fall!”

“I did get a nasty bruise, I think.” Dulrak rubbed his elbow.

Lund said, “How do we get back up?”

“Not sure we do, man.” Mery put her hands on her hips and looked up at the far ceiling.

“Someone made this trap so there has to be a way out,” said Alice.

“Alice is an architect, so she knows what she’s talking about,” Isa told the others.

“Landscape architecture,” said Alice. “But it just stands to reason. This didn’t just happen. Someone designed and built it.”

“Do traps ever have trap?” Isa asked suddenly.

Mery looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“I mean is a big rock going to come rolling down that ramp now? Or will this floor give way?”

Mery laughed. “Gods, I hope not. But who knows what the good king has planned for us? Alice, why don’t you help me find a way out of here?” Mery locked arms with Alice and sent the dancing lights in a low sweep of the passage. Isa trailed behind them with her staff in hand. She’d activated her special spell so the weapon was giving off its own faint silver-green glow.

At almost the same moment Alice and Mery said, “Ah!” Alice reached out her hand and pressed a decorative square set into wall. It was just one square among many, but almost immediately Isa saw the difference. The decorative fronds of this square were less pronounced. Their feathery edges seemed blurred, perhaps worn away with use.

The square sunk into the wall, and a grinding noise reverberated through the passage. A panel opened beside the square revealing a black rectangle about 3 feet wide and 5 feet high. Before anyone could speak, a dark mass spewed from the darkness - hundreds of tiny black spiders poured from the opening. All three women recoiled at the sight, but Alice was the first of them to step forward again, ready to engage the swarm. The swarm had its own plans because the teeming spiders ran right for Dulrak. He sidestepped them neatly as if it had all been choreographed ahead of time. Lund swung his greatsword down on them, while asking Dulrak, “Do you have a spare hammer? If we’re going to fight creeping things I need something that will kill them quickly.”

“Poison’s the thing,” said Dulrak. “Too fast to smash.” He and Alice both sprayed mist from their index fingers. A fog covered the swarm, and a few seconds later, when it cleared, Isa saw that the swarm was over half dead. Beads of dead spiders, their legs curled tight, covered the floor.

She tried to pound them with the end of her staff, and Lund joined in, slashing at the few remaining spiders. The surviving spiders - perhaps a dozen in all - scurried away into the shadows of the passage way.

“Now then,” Dulrak used his boot to sweep the dead spiders from the threshold of the now-revealed passage way, “the way out.”

Mery nodded and called forth her 4 dancing lights. She aligned them to look a bit like legs and a torso and sent it walking down the low passage. Dulrak leaned against the doorframe, resting his head on his arm. Mery squatted, arms on her thighs, watching the light figure walk down the passage. “So far, so good,” she muttered. “Aye,” Dulrak said without lifting his head. “What is that, 50 feet? 60 feet it’s gone now?”

“Yeah, about that why?”

Dulrak looked at the group. “I think it’s time we got out of this little hole.”

Current Hit Points:

Alice HP = 37 (used temp HP in the fall into trap)

Dulrak HP = 59 (no temp HP)

Isa HP = 28 +10 temp HP = 38

Lund HP = 33 +5 temp HP (used 5 in the fall) = 38

Mery HP = 37 (used temp HP in the fall into trap)