I nearly did a double take, and I had to stop myself from looking obvious. Lin was much better at playing it off, and I tried to copy her calm composure. She leaned against the rocky wall and clapped her hands. The sound echoed down the tube, and made everyone jump.

“Neat, so who is going to lead the way to the clearly trapped exit?” Lin asked.

There were murmurs and shuffling feet. No one wanted to take the plunge first, and fingers were cast around the group. I stayed out of it, and in the end it was down to Lex and Lin.

“Ladies first,” Lex said, swinging his arm in a wide circle, ending with him pointing at the darkness. “Your senses are better as a beast-kin and I think I might have pulled a muscle during my morning jog. So since you ate our food, slept in and are the new addition-”

Lin’s lip trembled, and tears formed at the corners of her eyes. She leaned into my shoulder and started to bawl. “J-Josh he's bullying me.”

I patted her back and felt Lin put her face beside my ear. I had to strain to listen to her voice that was so quiet my heartbeat almost drowned it out.

Perception : Success!

+1 XP gained.

“Call him out and say men are supposed to protect cute girls,” Lin giggled.

“Wow Lex, pulling the race card already?” I asked, sucking in air between my teeth. “Not a good look dude. Also side note, girls like guys who are brave and try to protect them, even if they look like a fool.”

Persuasion check : Success!

+3 XP gained.

Cidean and Grannul gave Lex a harsh look and the human thief threw up his hands. He lit a lantern and swore under his breath. The only thing I heard was him complaining about people being pushovers for feminine wit. Lin stood up straight beside me and I felt her tail wag, smacking me in the back of my legs. She had to fight with herself to keep herself from cackling as Lex nervously approached the hidden way in.

“Hey Lex,” Lin said, pointing a nail straight ahead. “About your eye level there's a tripwire connected to a dart tarp. Also two pressure plates three steps ahead which probably leads to a pit trap and I think that cobweb on the ceiling is a magical illusion so it's probably a net trap if you jump over the pit trap. Just to name a few.”

A thin outline appeared around the wire crossing the opening, and as I narrowed my vision I felt my eyes get drawn to the traps Lin had pointed out.

Ally has detected a trap!

+1 XP to the party.

Ally has detected a trap!

+1 XP to the party.

…

Everyone looked at Lex and then at the dark entryway. Lex held up the lit lantern and sighed as he took out a set of picks, metal spikes and a screwdriver. He set to work carefully disabling the traps, jamming them and slapped at the net trap to set it off safely. In total there were no less than seven traps to guard this entrance, and even then Lin still had to point out Lex was about to step on one he missed. She didn’t exactly explain where it was however.

“Last one was a test,” Lin whispered to Lex’s party. “There's nothing there. You guys need to invest in a better party rogue.”

We all shared a light laugh as Lex panicked searching for a trap that wasn’t actually there. He spun around to see us smiling and he let out a deep sigh, as if he had endured this many times.

“Come on you children, can we find a Stone of Malax now?” Lex asked.

“Damn it boy!” Grannul shouted, the metal tube amplified his voice, shaking the ground. “Now they know what we are here for.”

Knowledge Arcane : Success!

Stones of Malax are condensed elemental magic orbs that have the ability to be used as a refined material for weapons, armour or on mortal bodies. It can be used to improve the natural body, restoring youth, and enhancing one physical stat of the user. Excessive use can lead to illness, and even death.

+2 XP gained.

“Neat,” I said, showing Lin. “I take it, these are rare?”

“Aye,” Grannul said, rolling his head back and tugging on his beard. He looked to be fighting with himself and gave up, shrugging his shoulders. “The art to make them has been lost making them expensive. We have a benefactor wanting his prize gladiator to have an edge in the ring. Let us have the stone and I’ll give you two ten gold each.”

Lin and I nodded in unison. “Deal.”

Ten gold was nothing to snuff at, and if it was the quest item they came here for I wasn’t going to put up a fight to let them walk home with it anyways. The added gold could be used to improve the dungeon, or more importantly spent on a quick trip to Wyrmbreath. I was told Heinekia’s winter festival had a traditional gift exchange, and with it being Lin’s birthday too I wanted to get her a special gift.

As if reading my mind Lin gave me a playful kiss on my cheek and said. “My thieves' tools are kind of worn out, I wouldn’t mind a magical set.”

“W-what?” I said, nervously looking around. “Where did that come from?”

“Oh, nothing,” Lin whistled, turning on the spot and heading for Snowflake’s side. “So you will protect Joshie and I right?”

Snowflake raised her weapon and cried. “I swear to stand by your side and see you safely through this evil dungeon!”

It was a heroic pose, an announcement to the world and most of all inspiring. However I felt like something was lacking, a dramatic touch that could have been added to make it incredible. Where was Rolada with a well timed pink explosion when you needed it?

“Come on, stupid thing,” Snowflake said, shaking her mace. She smacked it off the wall a few times, knocking down fist sized chunks of rock. The mace then lit up, glowing like a bright lantern and the ram girl paladin raised it again. “Safely through this evil dungeon!”

Lin and I clapped, delighted at her little show. Her party members joined in and gave a few supporting comments to Snowflake. They followed her example and started to get out their own light sources. Lin had her lantern, Grannul pulled a strap onto his head with a glowing gemstone and Cidean made the tip of one of his wands glow.

I took out my flashlight and clicked the button. The light flicked on and off rapidly until it went out for good. I gave it a good smack into the palm of my hand, but I was out of luck, my batteries were dead.

“Here Josh, this should recharge your item,” Cidean said, tapping my flashlight with a grey metal wand. “Try it now.”

My flashlight turned on like it was brand new, and I looked at the wand Cidean held. Whatever it was, I wanted it.

Knowledge Arcane : Failure!

“It’s a recharger wand, useful to fix spell lines and magic items out of charge. It can only work up to rare items, tier three at the most. I have a few spares so why don’t you take this one?” Cidean tossed the wand to me and I caught it.

Recharger Wand

Charges 2 out of 3 remaining

I was taken aback by the sudden generosity. Not wanting to look ungrateful I dug around my bandolier and held up a healing potion and Go Berry. Cidean looked at the potion, reading Burn’s handwriting and then looked at the berry with some interest.

“Thanks a ton, here take one of these,” I said.

“Go Berries, these are illegal back home,” Cidean said, happily taking the squishy grey berry on offer.

“Whoa we're trading drugs?” Lex asked, rushing over, and kicking up snow. “Hey, I’ll trade three hits of pipeweed for one.”

He held out a burlap bag the size of my fist, and from it came a familiar scent from my college years. Lin plucked a Go Berry out of my pouch, and before I could blink she swapped for the drug bag. Grannul came over and held out a hand sized sealed container he cracked open, and inside were white sticks, the kind I saw Yara bite into all the time.

“How much?” I asked.

“One healing potion, I have a contract to get Fairy Sticks pretty cheap,” Grannul said, reaching for my potion. He held it up and inspected it in the light. “Your alchemist is skilled, this is a pretty pure blend.”

Knowledge World : Failure!

I looked at Lin, and she nodded in approval. I still didn’t know what they did, but I could ask Yara to explain later. Besides, it could be a good gift for her. After swapping for the white sticks I closed the package and handed it to Lin so she could put it in her jacket for safe keeping.

There was the sound of stomping coming from the dungeon and Snowflake appeared, having gone in without us. She looked at us handling contraband and we quickly hid it in our pockets, smiling like nothing was off.

“Are you guys coming?” Snowflake asked, chuckling to herself. “Don’t worry, if you get scared you can hold my hand.”

“Oh, me me me!” Lin shouted, running ahead to take Snowflake up on her offer.

With Lin being the distraction the guys were able to put their new found items in more secure pockets and we jogged to catch up to the girls. The massive metal tube went pretty deep into the mountain, overshooting the tower and fort above. The material of the tube transitioned after a hundred feet into hardened clay, and here we saw broken chunks of it littering the ground.

Lin kept a keen eye out for traps, but found it was safe to forge ahead here. I picked up a clay chunk and turned it over in my hand. It had the same consistency and texture as the clay pipes back in the dungeon, and I narrowed my eyes at it.

No pop up appeared, no dungeon lines in the ground or anything to indicate minions had made it. I just had a gut feeling, and I tossed the piece back to the ground, shifting the pile and making a horrible racket.

“Oi, can you try to be a bit more careful princess twinkle toes,” Grannul said.

“Sorry,” I said, and I jogged up to Lin. “See anything fun?”

“Nope, not even a way in. I saw a few fist sized vents to drain water, but that's it. We might have to back track-” Lin stopped in her tracks and focused on the nearby wall. “Hey Snowflake, hit the wall right by that grey stain.”

The smooth clay wall had some clinging moss on its sides and amidst one patch was a dead, dried out clump. Snowflake gleefully ran up to the wall and swung her mace, striking the wall with thunderous force. She reared back and swung again, blasting open the wall to reveal a hidden set of stairs.

The attack knocked down more moss and hidden below it was a lever to open the hidden door. Lin’s method was more fun and we checked out the stairs. Lex held his lantern low to the ground and pulled the top of the bottom step off. It was a fake step that led to a box full of jagged nails to tear up the foot of anyone who would have set their weight on it.

“Oh, that’s evil,” Lex recoiled. “Hope you guys have enchanted foot wear if they got shit like this.”

Lin shuffled behind me and smiled, giving me a gentle push. Snowflake offered to go first, but Cidean mentioned something about her heavy armour being a detriment if rapid action was needed. I had to agree too, my shoes could give me added jump height if I had to dodge, or if there was a fall I should be pretty safe if it wasn’t too much of a drop.

I went up the stairs, flashlight in one hand, sword in the other. The comfortable weight of a weapon in my hand filled me with confidence and I was beginning to get used to the longer reach of the blade too. I tapped each stair with it, finding every fourth stair to have a false top. They were soft and made of some kind of papery material, which was easy to cut to let people know which were dangerous.

I made it to the top without much issue and the rest followed after me. The top of the stairs led to a torn paper sheet with a small workroom behind it. It had flaking plaster walls, a broken set of hammers, chisels and saws on top of a few tables, and the strong scent of linseed oil, or whatever equivalent was here. It was definitely a carpenter room, and one made for minions. What was strange was the four tapestries at the back of the room on the walls. The fabric was scorched, torn and faded, but it looked like four distinct coats of arms.

Lin found the exit behind a set of empty chests used to blockade the door, and Grannul shouldered them out of the way. The door behind it was locked and our rogues started to shake their hands at each other. It looked like some kind of rock paper scissors.

“Ha!” Lin shouted. She did a happy dance and pointed to the door while tipping her head back, flashing a pearly white smile. “The extra experience is all for you my good friend.”

“Bitch,” Lex said under his breath. He checked out the lock and poked at the lock with his tools. “So, no traps-”

A puff of greasy black soot puffed out and covered his face. We all tensed up, ready to roll out of the way, but nothing else happened. Lex let out a cough that turned into a fit as he spat thick black gunk onto the ground.

Snowflake patted his back and used a spell on him. Lex was instantly better and he spat one last glob onto the ground. The thief rose back to his feet and took a small towel offered by Snowflake, made of her woolly hair.

“Thanks Snowflake, I owe you one…why is this so soft?” he asked, sinking his fingers into the towel. He wiped off his face and opened the door. “Ladies first?”

“Only because I’m our tank.” Snowflake chuckled and readied her shield. “Wish me luck.”

She went ahead and we shuffled in with Lin taking up the rear to watch our backs. We entered a massive underground room, the size of an underground rail station. More than that, like most underground railways the place was littered with trash. Chunks of stones were piled up all over the floor making it a tripping hazard.

As we got near the shattered rock formations our lights revealed that they resembled people. Cidean was the first to point it out, and the rock mounds started to instead look like mounds of corpses. I crouched down next to one of the small piles and I started to see shapes.

The deceased creature would have been no taller than my knees, had four arms, a wide head and a tail. I realized they were minions, or some kind of copy. While mine were fuzzy and the other minions I had seen where more insect-like like these looked rocky, and crude. As if someone had read what minions were liked but never set eyes on one, and tried moulding one out of clay while high or drunk.

A fine layer of grit blanketed everything, and some of the corpses, if they could be called that. There was also a lot of soot. Broken weapons covered the ground between the mounds, from spears and axes to more exotic looking poleaxes, scythes and curved swords. It looked like the leftovers of a full on war down here.

“What the hell happened here?” I asked.

“I see four different styles of weapons, armour and clan markings on these,” Grannul said. “These ones here have dwarven style equipment, and those on the far side are elven.”

I started to see the different styles of equipment and after a brief inspection we could see four distinct groups or war bands. No one knew what to really call them, except a problem if more were around. They were clearly quite confrontational.

I walked ahead and found more scorch marks on the ground, a sign of fire magic being used without care. Along with the scent of soot and burnt wood was a more vaporous gasoline smell, but it was faint and I couldn’t place it. Lin called my attention and pointed out thick shards of glass embedded in the wall like it had been shot out of a cannon. Lex warned us about the smell of acrid, corrosive smoke hovering in the air, and to look out for traps. In the middle of the huge room was a basin, a keeper pool, one that had been drained dry, and at the bottom of the basin was an opening. A bottomless pit with no end in sight.

Cidean tossed down a piece of glass, and we heard it bounce off the walls of the pit. It continued for some time until we had to look at Cidean and Lin gauge their reactions. Lin’s white cat ears bobbed on the top of her head, honing in on noise until she shook her head. Cidean gave up a heartbeat later and we all looked at the dark pit.

Just how far down did it go? Curiosity won me over.

“I’m going to do something dumb,” I said, summoning an orb of fire in my hand. “Down we go!”

I heard cries of alarm as I sent the little ball of fire down. It lit up the dark pit, showing jagged rock going all the way down. The light became smaller, and smaller but never vanished from sight. It continued to fly down for several long seconds until the light was about to wink out, then it got brighter and bigger. A low hissing noise followed and something dawned on me as the ground around us started to gently tremble.

“She’s gonna blow!” I shouted over the rumbling, grabbing Lin’s hand. “Everyone, get some cover!”

Lin, Snowflake and I ran for the workroom as the other three dove behind a pile of rocks and broken equipment. The keeper pool rose out of the ground by a few feet before erupting into a fountain of flames spitting out waves of fire towards the ceiling, blasting apart the plaster on it and melting through the rock. I had never been close to any massive firework displays, but I imagined it to be something like this.

We made it to the workroom and rounded the corner, flattening our backs to the wall as fire erupted into the room, blasting the door off its hinges. Once the fireworks died down I looked back into the other room and saw our allies were miraculously still alive, under a protective dome of shimmering amber energy. Raining chunks of plaster crashed down around them and smoke billowed out of the enlarged hole covering the ceiling. Luckily it was not enough to fill the room so we avoided suffocation by smoke.

“Aye,” Grannul grumbled, wiping soot out of his now charcoal black beard. “That was indeed dumb.”

Cideian ended his spell, wiping his brow, more so from worry than exhaustion. Rock pieces fell down into the hole in the keeper's pool, and the sound of scraping could be heard as the pieces clattered down into the darkness. Then the sound got louder, and closer. We looked at each other wondering what that was all about, and our curiosity was sated as slightly charred, angry creatures crawled out of the pit.

“H-hey there little guys, are you friendly?” Lin asked.

The sound of swords and daggers being drawn answered the question for us.