[Diary Entry To Be Added]

An hour later and with five more holes ripped in the stonework, the group finally found themselves at the other side of the weird zigzag hallway. Another wooden door greeted them past the final bend, behind them a trail of limp bodies had been left in Morvar’s wake.

Wary of another ranged trap the party lined themselves up alongside the wall nearest to the door, before Morvar tossed it open and ducked back. After a minute of silence Lem crept forward to quickly glance through the doorway, hoping her smaller body would be a harder target if there was something in the next room. But all she saw was a bare, single file corridor.

Fist and sword at the ready Morvar and Arahn took the lead with the twins behind them. They egded slowly up the hall with Calan’dal and Cathran once more taking up the rear. About halfway up Cathran dropped back, then stopped completely, staring down at her feet with a puzzled expression.

“Something wrong?” Calan’dal asked, glancing back when he realised the girl was no longer behind him.

“I can,” she hesitated uncertainly. “I can feel a draft, my ankles are cold.”

“A draft?” repeated Calan’dal raising his voice slightly to catch the attention of the others.

The twins doubled back, immediately excited about the prospect of secrets. They scampered around Cathran’s ankles tapping around on the floor and walls. By the time Arahn joined them, Morvar clomping along behind him, Lem had discovered a thin gap under the left wall about two feet long.

“Hidden door?” Morvar grunted. “Want me to take care of it?”

“Actually,” said Calan’dal thoughtfully examining the stretch of stone. “That may not be necessary.”

The others watched as the older man ran his hands over the bricks, nudging them carefully before finally pushing one in a few inches. There was a sound of old rope running through some creaking pulleys before a 1ft high by 2ft wide section of the wall slid away as though a large hinge at the top had pulled it up into the ceiling.

“Oh yeah, we can definitely fit through there,” Cathran said sarcastically, leaning down to try and see through the hole, while the twins grinned at each other.

Evan mimed snapping some suspenders before walking forward. “Step aside milady,” he said sounding extremely pleased with himself. “I believe my sister and I can take things from here.”

“Be careful,” Arahn warned as the two goblins crawled through the hole, their small forms making a task that would have been impossible for any of the others look easy.

On the other side of the hole was a short passage only a few feet in length with a low ceiling. Sitting innocently at the end was a large wooden chest, with a rusting iron lock keeping the latch closed.

“Oooh!” exclaimed Evan excitedly. “This looks like a job for…” He pulled the lockpick set out of his bag. “Some thieves!”

“What are you doing in there?” asked Cathran practically getting down on all four as she tried to see what was going on.

“Lockpicking!”

“Don’t worry about him,” said Calan’dal with a laugh. “Goblin’s get excited about this kind of thing.”

While Evan unpacked the lockpicks, Lem checked around the chest for traps. Treasure-loving though she was, a big chest like this being left out in the open, secret door notwithstanding, didn’t sit right with her. A short length of rope had been threaded through a hole in the floor and into the side of the chest. Looking closely at the angle of the rope, she could only assume that it was connected to the inside of the lid, so that the rope would be pulled when the lid was lifted.

She held out a hand to pause Evan’s enthusiastic approach while unsheathing her dagger. Standing back far enough that she and her brother could dash back out the hole should something go wrong Lem sliced through the rope with the tip of the dagger. Breath caught and expecting the rope to be yanked away and for a trap to spring, it was almost a disappointment when it dropped limply to the floor. After a moment’s silence just to be sure, she dropped her hand and nodded to Evan who strode forward confidently miming rolling up his sleeves.

Lockpick in hand Evan knelt down before the lock and began to ply his trade. The outside of the device had rusted quite badly but luckily the inner mechanism seemed to be turning well enough if given a little bit of encouragement. Evan took his time with the tumblers as, unlike his usual jobs there wasn’t the time constraint of knowing the house owner would soon be returning, but even so it was only a few minutes later that there was the encouraging click of the lock opening.

Evan stood and dusted off his knees as his sister moved forward to give him a hand with the heavy lid, the sound of creaking hinges carrying out into the hallway.

“What have you found?” Calan’dal called through the hole.

“Do you need some help?” added Arahn.

“It’s treasure!” Evan called back with an enthusiastic squeak in his voice.

The chest was a great deal shallower than its size might have suggested. Lem at first thought it might have a fake bottom but a few gentle knocks revealed the wood to be solid. There was however several things stored inside. There was a small velvet bag that rattled when Evan picked it up and when he tipped it up into his hand a set of beautifully carved tigers-eye dice rolled out. Next to the bag was a satin lined wooden box which contained a set of four crystal flasks in different shapes, cuboid, cylindrical, triangular and spherical. Lem held one up carefully and the crystal glass was so finely blown that it seemed to sparkle. Terrified of breaking it she returned it to its box and closed the lid. Alongside these was a stack of three yellow candles bound with string, some blank parchment scrolls and a small coin purse that barely jingled when shook.

Treasures carefully in hand the twins moved back out into the passage to show the others.

“Alchemical flasks,” said Calan’dal peering into the box when it was handed to him. “And by the looks of the craftsmanship they’d be worth a pretty crown.”

“I thought dice were square,” commented Evan as Morvar rolled the small collection of dice around his large palm.

“Six sided dice are square,” said Arahn helping Cathran to store the wooden box carefully in her bag. “But sometimes you need more sides. They’re a really nice set though.”

“Was there anything else in there?” Cathran asked curious.

“Just these,” said Lem holding up the candles and paper. “I grabbed everything but, I dunno if we really need these.”

“I’ll take them,” said Calan’dal, holding one of his pounces open for the goblin girl to drop them inside. “You never know with these things after all.”

Morvar handed the dice back to Cathran, just as Evan finished counting the coins in the purse.

“We have a total of three silver crowns and eight copper crowns,” he announced tilting his hand to let them fall back into the bag with a jangling sound.

“Not much, about enough for lunch,” Cathran noted. “Are we splitting it?”

“Leave it together for now,” said Calan’dal. “If we fine more it’ll be good to keep it all in the one place.”

“Either way, when the jobs over, drinks on the house!” cheered Evan.

“Yeah, I can get behind that,” said Morvar his tone a little softer than usual, to which both twins grinned broadly.

With everything the goblins had found split between their magically lightened bags the party returned to their path, taking the length of the corridor slowly and carefully now that the idea of hidden rooms and secrets was firmly in their minds.

Soon enough the small passage widened into a corridor fit for at least four or five to walk comfortably abreast. Another wide hall split off at a 90o degree angle to the left. The walls here were neatly arranged cobbles as opposed to the bricks of previous rooms, though the floor was paved with large light and dark grey square slabs, arranged in an alternating checkerboard pattern.

Straight ahead of them they could see the opposite cobbled wall disappearing around a left hand turn and looking down the left hall, showed a turn to the right. If one leant sideways a little, while looking up the hall straight ahead, they could see where the far wall broke into another thinner corridor.

“Looks like this room is a hollow square,” Calan’dal noted after looking up and down each hall a couple of times. “These two passages turn towards each other, so I assume they must meet in the opposite corner.”

“So regardless of which way we go we’ll end up at the same place?” asked Arahn stepping into the room. “So let’s just take the one straight ahead then, we can see the exit from here.”

Feeling confident Arahn walked forwards but as his foot stepped down into the space beyond where the halls first met, the paver depressed slightly under his weight, a whirling clicking sound of gears rising from beneath the floor. Morvar’s hand lashed out, grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling him backwards. The square he’d been standing on erupted with long spikes, the tips of which just barely caught the hem of his pants, ripping through the cloth with ease.

Arahn landed with a thump at Morvar’s feet staring wide-eyed as the spikes slowly retracted back underground, an ominous clunk indicating that the trap has been reset.

“Not that way then,” Cathran commented as Arahn pulled himself to his feet.

“There must be a safe path,” Calan’dal mused looking up and down the corridor again. “OK, we’re standing here, so the space just inside the door is safe. The trap didn’t trigger until you stepped on a square passed the corner, right?”

“Yeah, around there,” Arahn pointed to the row of stone tiles level with the square room’s central pillar.

“So there’s a few possibilities here if you’ll let me bounce my noggin off the wall for a bit?”

“Sure, why not?” said Morvar, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the wall. “We’ve got nowhere to be.”

“Possibility one,” said Clana’dal, clearly unconcerned by Morvar sarcasm. “Not all the plates on the floor are trapped and there’s some pattern to passing safely through the corridor. Two: All the plates are trapped in the hallway straight ahead in order to encourage us to take the other hallway. Three: The entire room is trapped and we’re just expected to figure out a way through regardless. Perhaps someone fast enough could get through, or maybe there’s some mechanism we missed that will turn it off, etc.”

“Which one’s most likely?” asked Arahn.

“Hmm,” mused Calan’dal rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Either option one or two I would say. It doesn’t seem like it would be that entertaining watching someone faff around trying to find a button they missed somewhere, unless they were hoping we’d just give up and leave. Which, again, doesn’t seem like it would be very satisfying to the puzzle maker.”

“Are we running on the assumption now that there is someone out there controlling all this?” asked Cathran.

“I think it’s a good idea to go in assuming there is,” said Calan’dal. “I find it almost impossible to believe that what we’ve seen so far is the result of random chance. Even if magic is involved and I think it’s safe to say it is, wild magic could never organise itself in such a way.”

“So this is all a game to someone then?” asked Arahn. “Design a space full of monsters and puzzles, and then watch and see how people make it through?”

Calan’dal nodded. “Yes and reward then when they succeed, if the chest the little ones found is anything to go by.”

“Fine, so we try the long way around and see if there’s more traps then?” asked Morvar.

“Very carefully,” said Calan’dal.

After an awkward pause of silence Morvar clomped forward and knelt down next to the first row of pavers in the other hall, using his hand to gently push on each one, one at a time. The troll went slowly row by row, shuffling along the floor until about halfway there he stood satisfied that the hall was safe enough and walked the rest of the way. Encouraged by this the twins scampered boldly after him eventually followed by the others. When they turned the corner however, they came face to face with a bare stretch of wall, blocking their path.

“Ah,” noted Calan’dal.

“Secret door, secret door!” the twins chanted excitedly bounding around and pushing at the walls.

“Do you think there will be one?” asked Cathran.

“I think it’s probably worth looking,” replied the elf honestly.

The old man first examined the wall that blocked their way, then the walls on either side, slowly moving back up the corridor. It did not take him long to find what they were looking for. A gentle push on a suspiciously even group of cobbles caused a thin panel to depress into the wall and then slide away to the side, revealing a wooden lever and a strange shaped hole. The hole was rounded but had eight crooked spikes coming off the centre.

“It looks a bit like a sun,” Cathran commented when Calan’dal moved out of the way to show them. “Do you think it’s a key hole?”

“I wouldn’t put it passed it,” said Calan’dal, though he placed a calming hand out at Evan’s excited intake of breath, “Though I get a feeling this one won’t react as well to standard lock picking.”

“Should we try the lever anyway?” Arahn asked. “Or do you think it will trigger another trap?”

“I’ll pull it,” Morvar grunted not really enjoying all the secret passages and traps that seemed to have materialised recently. Monsters he could deal with. Monsters could be punched. Puzzles weren’t really his thing. “You get back down the hall.”

“What if something goes wrong?” Cathran asked concern in her tone. “What if without the key it does trigger some kind of trap?”

“Then it will happen to me and not you,” replied Morvar with a growl, folding his arms over his chest to show he wasn’t budging.

The elf laid a hand on Cathran’s arm and started tugging her back down the corridor. “No arguing with a troll,” he said. “Let’s leave it up to him.”

Once the rest of the party were safely back in the other hall, Morvar flipped the lever. There was a loud grinding sound as the stone that had blocked their way slid slowly aside into the wall. The troll waited a moment to be sure nothing else was going to happen before stepping through the space into the passage ahead. He was able to safely cross the hall and move around the corner to the exit they had glimpsed previously. Satisfied, he called back to the rest of the group.

“The wall opened, it’s safe.”

Elated whooping accompanied the pattering feet of the twins as they barrelled down the hall and passed Morvar, the other three following behind at a more restrained pace. Together they moved into the final hallway, which was long and once again made of stone bricks. Ahead of them at the very end of the corridor was a tall double width archway through which a soft light was shining. If you listened hard enough the soft calls of song birds could be heard. The attractiveness of this scene was somewhat taken away by a large hole in the left side wall. Several bricks had been taken from the wall near the floor and a dark winding passage had been dug out of the earth behind it.

“I vote we go the way with the light and pretty sounding birds,” said Evan without hesitation.

“Yeah, I’m not for crawling through a muddy tunnel, thanks,” said Cathran.

“Didn’t the kobold we talked to earlier say that his Mistress had a garden somewhere on this floor?” piped up Arahn.

“That he did,” said Calan’dal. “I’m curious to see if this Mistress exists and if she does, what she has to say.”

“You think she’ll be able to give us information about the Abyss?” Arahn asked hopefully.

“That’s the plan,” said Calan’dal.

And so, decision made, the party continued down the corridor, putting the roughly dug hole in the wall into the backs of their minds.