“If I couldn’t close off my stomach entirely, I would be sharing it with you right now.” Dovhran, who had become quite green in the face despite his best efforts to hid the sickly tinge, had finally made his way back around the twelve iterations of the column room.

“That’s disgusting.” Selian leaned away from the approaching changeling as she stood.

“Is it disgusting that he can seal his internal organs, or is it disgusting that he is ill?” Flip continued to twirl his beard in his hand, still sitting beside the door in the column. “Or are you disgusted by our mercenary in general?”

“You know what I mean.” The elf retorted.

Flip did not understand what she meant. But he nodded as though he did. It didn’t quite matter to him if he did actually understand what Selian meant, but she seemed to think it was common sense and for some reason he felt compelled to agree with her. Perhaps it was because he was tired. Probably too tired to walk much further through a treacherous dungeon safely. But the short rest he had gotten waiting for Dovhran had been somewhat refreshing… at least refreshing enough to keep him going.

“I need a minute to recover before we take a look further down.” Dovhran leaned against the column and let out a wheeze. “Whoever built this place is a genius. If he was still alive, I’d want to kill him.”

“If I rest much longer, I will fall asleep.” Flip stood suddenly and began to inspect the door in the column more closely.

“Maybe we should rest, then?” Selian gave Flip a nod to place the hatch and take a break.

“No. No…” Dovhran muttered amid his deep breathing. “I want to see what lies beyond that door first. If it’s an ordeal like this room was, we can take a break.”

Without waiting for the general consensus of his companions, Flip turned the handle on the door and pulled the heavy wooden barrier out into the room. With a shudder and creaking sound like bending fresh growth wood, the room seemed to shift. And then, with all the suddenness of hitting the ground after a hundred foot fall, the world seemed to fly upwards. Nothing moved of course, but the feeling of the enchantment on the room collapsing on itself was further nauseating than slogging through it had been. Dovhran clutched his stomach as he felt the world shift around him and doubled over, dry heaving, and had he been capable of throwing up he would have been. Selian, who seemed to react the least of the three, was more startled that Flip had opened the door.

“I believe the room is no longer enchanted.” Flip turned casually to his companions, a little green in the face, and tilted his head in an attempt to appear casual.

“I wish… that that didn’t happen.” Dovhran wheezed.

Selian, who was watching her companions become more and more uncomfortable by the second, was torn between expressing concern and encouraging them to stay in place but unsure if there were further risks to stay in place.

“Is there more than that that could happen here?” The elf asked. “Is there any possible way that the enchantment could come back? Or worse, go back and forth while we’re in here?”

“I haven’t a clue about that… I can’t see any of the spell markings that allow this room to operate.” Flip responded through his physical discomfort. “Though you may be right in worrying.”

Without a word, Dovhran took fast and deliberate steps into the doorway. He was uncertain of his footing at first, and he was definitely conflicted about leaving what was more or less safe ground and stepping into the unknown. But nothing happened. And that seemed to be a pattern, one that Dovhran was beginning to notice. The things he expected to be unsafe were generally quite safe, and the places he expected to be able to traverse easily were much more dangerous than they appeared. But then that gave way to more complex thinking. The mercenary had to assume that there was some sort awareness of any sort of pattern in the tomb architects planning; he might have wagered someone would see the pattern thus far and change it not long after. The conclusion Dovhran reached, however, rather than confusion and second guessing his instincts, was that each part of this tomb was likely equally dangerous. The only caveat to that being the first chamber of the tomb, which the architect had stated was safe, and any other room which the architect left some form of notice of safety on. If the changeling sensed anything for certain about the man who built the tomb, it was that he was honest.

“Are there any traps there on the stairs?” Flip tilted his head to the side as he asked the changeling. “You seemed quite eager to enter the stairway, but I did not want to assume you had made any precautions.”

“And why would you not want to assume that?” Dovhran asked somewhat flustered but slowly regaining his composure.

“It would be rude to assume you’d done anything.” Was the simple response.

“Fair enough. Wouldn’t want to make any assumptions about safety in this incredibly dangerous and magically fortified tomb.” The changeling’s sarcasm registered for Selian, but not for Flip who nodded in oblivious agreement. “We should still move on. As usual, watch your footing and if anything moves or reacts to you… don’t stay quiet.”

There was a nod in response, and then they began to descend the stairs slowly. But as Dovhran had expected, nothing happened. Nothing noteworthy at least. There was still a great deal of heavy breathing and echoing footfalls as they progressed into what seemed to be ever so incrementally brighter territory. In fact, by the time the bottom of the stairs was reached they felt as though they were in daylight. The torches that had illuminated the spaces of the tomb before did not change, but they seemed to shed more and brighter light. The entire descent went for roughly a hundred and twenty feet.

At the bottom of the stairs was a small landing about fifteen feet wide and fifteen feet long. It was walled only on the sides, as the back was open to the stairway and the front was open to a larger room that was reached by descending three short steps. Beyond the steps, the stone floor changed. The plain gray flagstones were replaced with more ornate looking smooth black granite, each section of granite was inlaid with a golden metal trim that gave the impression of great wealth. And the walls in the room beyond were also different, a paler white stone cut in very careful bricks that reminded Flip of the stonework he had seen in the town of Norwen. The pale brickwork in the tomb, however, was also inlaid with a silver metallic trim make the entire room gleam in a subtle way against the brilliant flickering torch light.

Beyond the room at the bottom of the landing, was an open wide doorway that led into another room on the same level. The construction of the room beyond mirrored that of the one before it. The light was slightly more dim, but nothing else seemed to be different between the two spaces.

“I could wager that the rooms before here were as well, but this style reeks of dwarven masonry.” Dovhran hissed out in a level breath. “Not to disparage the dwarves, of course. It’s beautiful. But it makes me worry about the purpose behind it.”

“I’m of a like mind with you for once.” Selian muttered as she leaned close to the edge of the landing. “If I could see past these walls without stepping down I’d be more comfortable, seeing how much the room opens up past it at least.”

Flip took a close look around the room as well, mirroring the methods of his companions. The vaulted ceiling beyond the landing had escaped his initial notice, and it seemed, as he hugged one wall in the landing, that the opposite wall hid additional space beyond it that he could not see. The walls and floor, though, those concerned him the most. The metal inlay seemed to indicate a spellwork upon the whole place that he would have to get closer to to identify. Metals were often used in that, to hold on to magic and spells cast upon them. It was a something that Flip had thought about not long ago while constructing his bracer of focus to disguise the bracelet of departure. Magical items reflect much of their construction in their effect and stability. This lattice of connecting metal could have meant a spell that encased the whole room, spells upon each brick or slab, or nothing at all. That was a trouble when dealing with wealthy arcane practitioners, sometimes they did things simply to display their wealth or power.

“What do you think, Faengil?” Dovhran turned to the wizard, seeing that he had frozen in his observation of the room.

”I think this may be the most dangerous room we have yet to come across.” Flip muttered. “If I could get a closer look at the metal to check for any sort of spellwork… I could say more certainly whether or not we will be likely to die instantly when we set foot in that space.”

“You think there are spells that do that?” Dovhran leaned back nervously. Apparently the thought of a spell which could instantly kill a creature never crossed his mind.

“Certainly. Many spells can cause instant and irreversible death.” Flip hummed as he lowered himself down on his stomach and crawled closer to the edge of the landing. “I myself can cast three. One of which you saw me level against our vampire friend… didn’t take though. I can also disintegrate matter into dust, which is a fairly easy spell but simple enough to avoid if you see it coming…”

Flip’s mumbling, which only alarmed his companions more and more as he went on, was quickly cut off as he neared the edge and his hat was inexplicably struck off his head. And as he shouted after it and reached past the edge of the landing fire shot out from both sides of the room to incinerate his arm. And while his arm didn’t burn, his hat and sleeve were reduced to cinders in an instant as roughly fifty small burst of flame shot out from a point beyond sight and engulfed the space he had reached into.

“My hat…” Flip’s sad voice was pathetic and did not match the shock and horror of his companions.

What Flip did not immediately recognize, however, was that the flames had destroyed something else as well. His bracer of focus had been badly charred and when he recoiled from the space and sat up in the safety of the landing it crumbled from off his wrist and the bracelet of departure was fully revealed on his unsleeved arm.

“What on earth is that…” Selian’s brow furrowed in wonder and confusion as she caught sight of the gold and crystalline ornament on the wizard’s wrist.

Flip recoiled immediately as soon as he realized what had been revealed and cursed. “Blast… mud and ichor in the wind… fell piss and maggots.”

“That’s… okay.” Selian did not know how to respond to the wizard’s outburst.

“It’s… complicated.” Dovhran sighed, partly understanding and partly disturbed by what he thought was an overreaction.

“It is.” Flip growled, not at either of his companions, but at the empty room before him. “There’s no magic about the floor or walls. At least I’d wager not for the walls, but certainly not the floor. But there’s something hidden behind these walls in that room, just out of sight of this landing, some kind of array or item that casts a very simple and basic spell very quickly.”

“What spell?” Dovhran, now curious again despite the now clear danger, leaned closer to the open space of the room beyond.

“It is a basic evocation of flames.” Flip let out a deep breath and leaned back against the wall by the stairway door “Relatively simple to avoid if you know it’s being cast, not too deadly either. But there are two sources, and they can likely each cast it hundreds of times a minute. My hat and hand were only visible in the room for a matter of moments and I was struck with nearly thirty… blast.”

Selian, for once understanding how dangerous the magic they faced was, pulled Dovhran back and away from the room. “How do we cross then? You’re fireproof, Faengil, but I don’t think I’d last long in there… and I don’t know anything about this spell. For all I know it could still strike me at the opposite end of the far end of the room through that open doorway.”

“If the source is positioned correctly, it may well be able to hit you.” Flip nodded. “Not even I could step foot in there. The flames would brush off my body like a lady’s powder, but my clothes would burn and I would be buffeted about by the hundreds of light impacts like a flower in the wind.”

There was a shift in the mood of the group. There was a mild disgust at the thought of Flip being buffeted around the room with his clothes incinerated. But more than that, there was fear that this room would be impassable. Up to that point, each challenge placed before them by the designer of the tomb had seemed fair. To an extent at least. It had felt clear that the tomb was designed to be possible to traverse at least, for an occasion just such as theirs. But this room did not feel that way.

“So, we don’t have a way to get through here?” Dovhran asked. His attitude was quickly becoming depressed.

“Oh, no.” Flip scoffed. “There are several ways we could pass through, and I’m sure there is an intended way to do so. I’m capable of one spell which could shield us… never tested it against magic, but it might do.”

“Well, lets do it then.” Dovhran’s attitude changed back to positive just as quickly, the emotional roller coaster leaving little weariness on him.

“How quickly you forget your own words…” Flip groaned. “I would like to rest. Magic takes time and energy… and I have cast many spells today.”

“That… I did say we would see what awaited us and then we would rest.” Dovhran stammered through his words. “We should rest.”

Flip gave a humph that was nearly laughter, but was more rooted in his delirium. The wizard’s mind was not faring well. His weariness was catching up with him, his magical and physical senses were growing numb from excessive spellcraft. And though there had been something invigorating about the flames striking his body, it had already faded and he has finding it difficult to move around with any real effort.

And, without waiting for either of his companions to comment—lest they should interrupt or suggest he do otherwise—Flip placed the hatch down in the center of the landing and began his process of activating it. And when he opened it… there was nothing. Nothing but flat gray stone.