After only one more attempt to break his shins, Winifred helped move the weapons rack over to the wall with the written passage. Skrakch scurried up the rack and regard the engraving once more, running his paw over the words.

Show me only Wealth…

“Ha! I knew it,” He muttered to himself before turning to his companions. “Alright, are we already ready to get out of this room? I figured out the puzzle and hopefully, it’s going to lead us to the next part of the Dungeon,” He said proudly as he expertly balanced on the rack. “Winifred, pass me one of those paintings!”

Skrakch pointed a paw in the direction of a stack of fine-looking paintings in gilt frames. Winifred rolled her eyes but didn’t argue. She grabbed the nearest one and passed it up to him.

Skrakch took a moment to admire the painting. It depicted a large sailing vessel that was being chased down by a large sea monster. The colors and brush strokes used were beautiful. The Ratling was pretty sure that he recognized it from a book on fine art that he’d read.

“Oi! Would ye get a move on ye furry bastard!” Winifred called out.

Zacharias grinned as he hefted a bag filled to the brim with various pieces of jewelry and gems onto his shoulder.

“And let’s hope once we get out of this place we get to keep all this loot! Fuck dealing Dragon’s Blood! I got enough swag stuffed in here that I never have to work again! I’ll be hob-nobbing with the Richies,” He added with a chuckle.

Scoffing at his two companions, Skrakch lifted the painting in the air. Maneuvering the artwork just so, he managed to hold it over half of the engraved passage, leaving just the word ‘Wealth’ on display.

“The fuck are ya doing Squeakers?” Zacharias demanded, finally distracted from the loot. He looked up at Skrakch with a raised eyebrow.

“Solving the puzzle obviously,” Skrakch replied through gritted teeth. At least, he was confident that he’d found the correct solution. The winking face was perfectly lined up so that the open eye was staring directly at the word ‘Wealth’. Now that he’d used the painting to cover the rest of the words, he was sure that he was ‘showing only Wealth’.

As he teetered precariously for a long moment, he was starting to think that he’d gotten it wrong. Thankfully, a few seconds later, there was a large rumbling noise as the entire cavern began to shake and shudder.

On the far side of the cavern, part of the wall collapsed away, revealing a small passage with a now familiar-looking Demon Door.

“Haha, I told you I’d solved it. Truly, the lot of you would be lost with-“ Skrakch crowed, clearly pleased with himself until a piece of debris fell down directly onto his head.

Looking above them, Skrakch was treated with the sight of the roof above beginning to crumble apart, larger and larger chunks of rocks raining down around them.

Hopping off the weapon rack with rodent-like grace, it was with swift feet that Skrakch led the party of rogues as they made their way to the door. Barely slowing as they escaped the cavern’s collapse, Winifred slammed into the Demon Door with her full weight, wrenching it open just in time to avoid getting overrun by Ornn.

Stumbling through as he was pelted by small stone pellets, Skrakch collapsed in a huff as he scanned the new room for any overt dangers. Dusty, dank, and dark, it only took him a moment to recognize the long passage they ended up in, as the tunnel leading down from the mausoleum. But if they were back at the entrance of the Dungeon… Spinning in place, he was shocked to see the Demonic Door they’d entered had vanished, leaving behind a smooth cavern wall.

“Well, looks like we’ve survived the Dungeon. Honestly, I was expecting more danger… though I’d rather avoid ever seeing another giant bone snake. And from the looks on your faces… did the gold disappear?” Skrakch said, his whiskers twitching in amusement.

“Listen here Squeakers, you don’t need to gloat,” Zacharias grumbled. “Though I did know it would be too good to be true.” He added peevishly as he dumped his now empty sack on the ground and kicked it aside with a disgusted face. “And is that it? For all the shite I’ve heard about Dungeons, that was crap…”

“Aye and we’re right back where we started an’ all,” Winifred grumbled.

Holding back his urge to mock his companions, Skrakch amused himself by watching Zacharias and Winifred pat down their emptied coin purses. Winifred in particular seemed annoyed, grumbling to herself about losing “a surprisingly good looking set of armor.”

“Well, this was certainly a unique experience, but we’re not exactly safe yet. Let’s get back to the city before we lose the cover of darkness.” Zacharias cautioned, waving a hand in front of his face. “Winnie, my dear, if you could grab some light?

As Winifred blindly rummaged through her packs looking for another torch, Meekknuckle piped up suddenly. “Um, but what that on ground? Look like magic, no?”

Peering deeper into the tunnel, Skrakch could make out a small shimmering rune in the dirt. Creeping closer, the Ratling began to hum softly to himself. The runework looked familiar, but it wasn’t something he’d used before. “I can’t be sure, but it looks like a fairly simple alarm engraving. If we pass it, someone is going to get alerted that we’re here.”

Stroking his chin, Zach had a thoughtful look in his eyes as Winifred finally pulled out a torch and lit it. “Well, that all but confirms it. Sykes set us up. I couldn’t imagine it being anyone else, plus he’s rather well known for being a decent enough mage. A small alarm spell would be in his repertoire. Unlike our Squeakers, Sykes knows a lot more than a few party tricks so we’d best be careful.”

Cracking her knuckles and ignoring Skrakch’s indignant hiss, Winifred let out a small laugh. “Aye, so the bastard knows we’re down here. Does nae change anything. How about we just march up there, and demand to be let past? I doubt he brought enough firepower to stop us.” She clenches her fists. “Besides, If anyone is gonna have some Dragon Blood on him, it’d be him. Now that’s a corpse that’d be worth looting,” She added, licking her lips in anticipation.

Ambling a bit closer to the rune, Skrakch could make out its shape, the Core of the spell resembling a small star. Eager to prove his Arcane mastery, the ratling began injecting his Mana into the rune.

“I’m pretty sure I can get it to avoid triggering. So we might be able to get out of here silently.” Skrakch muttered, focusing most of his attention on his task.

“Meek prefer quiet way. We not know how many people with bad man.” The Goblin mentioned, looking over Skrakch’s shoulder.

“Alright Squeaks, do it,” Zach announced, puffing up his chest. “Follow my lead lads, and this will all work out. Worse comes to worst, Sykes is a reasonable man.”

“Didn’t he tar and feather that one guy for selling on his street?” Winifred asked. “Or what about the guy he fed to some Ghouls, one piece at a time?”

“Oh, what about the time his brother tried to escape the family business, and he hung him in front of the orphanage they grew up in.” Skrakch supplied, shuddering slightly. “But yeah, I’m sure he’ll be fucking reasonable.”

While Skrakch wouldn’t say it to Zach’s face, he was pretty sure Sykes was a much more effective crime boss than the ginger Halfling prick would ever be.

Still, that hardly mattered at the moment. Injecting the last drop of Mana into the alarm rune and watching the spell overload and crumble into a disorganized heap, Skrakch clamored back to his feet and nodded to his companions.

Zacharias just laughed, heading up the passage. “Don’t worry guys, we have a rapport. It won’t be that bad. Plus, he doesn’t know I was planning to screw him. It’ll be fine!”

“Ah! The most comforting words you can hear,” Skrakch spat sarcastically. “Zach saying everything’s fine!”

“Aye, that’ll be on his gravestone it will,” Winifred added with a nod.