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Along with the copper coins, scales, furs, and claws, there was also a small throwing spear with a wooden handle and a scalpel like blade attached by a green plastic mount, and a silver ring with a loop of blue gem like material looped around the outside.

Iris shook her head in irritation. “Great, what’s Tark going to ask for to tell us about this stuff.”

The cardboard box I had prepared for them this time only held more aides for gators in all their colors sitting in a mound of melting chips of ice.

Along with a full bottle of Tequila. Molly took a long look at it as she held it up. "Iris, I am spending some of Tark's reward money on some of the good stuff if he's going to be passing out bottles. No offense but this brand is nasty."

The old woman shrugged. “It’s strong and cheap, just like me.”

After Molly healed the old woman's leg they sat in the sitting room for a time while Molly recovered some of her magic before they descended the steps to the next floor to find the room Ernesto had seen when he fell down the pit earlier.

As he had seen before, a twelve foot long metal beam covered a ten foot gap. The first five feet of it was above a ten foot drop down to five feet of water. While the last five feet of the beam was above a steep ramp that would dump anyone landing on it down into the water.

What he had not seen was a small two foot tall alcove at the bottom of the wall opposite the stairs on the landing which they had learned was a summoning room from which creatures would appear.

I hadn’t figured out how to conceal them, and I wanted them to fall into the trap of expecting creatures to only appear from them. So that I could spring a surprise on them later. Iris would complain, but they would learn.

Molly got down to her knees and looked inside the hole, "Maybe if we shoved that box from upstairs inside it we can stop anything from appearing?"

Iris headed up the stairs. I had not expected that. Oh well, the healer was clever and it would in fact stop the spike kobold that was supposed to appear and start smacking the side of the unsecured metal beam with a hammer when the last person was trying to cross. I would just have to raise the top of the little summoning room higher up inside the wall and put the summoning area deeper in to let the kobold drop down to the opening next time.

With the cardboard box in place, the boy started walking carefully across. Only to have a kobold appear from a summoning room on the far side that the group had been unable to see due to the angle.

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I had considered giving it a squeeze bottle of dish soap to spray out on the beam as someone tried to cross, but it seemed a bit too much for them to deal with. And it would end up in the water down below requiring me to absorb the entire pool and replace it with clean water. A pool covered in bubbles could make an adventurer get too distracted worrying about what could be hiding in it.

Instead, the deep red copper three ranked spiked kobold had the thicker portion of a two section pool cue that was meant to screw together in its hand. And it began swinging it wildly back and forth at the boy's lower legs while it had firm footing and the Survivor was trying to balance on a six inch wide metal beam. A beam which had unexpectedly buckled slightly under his feet as he crossed and had begun to bounce up and down as the boy tried to swing his club at the kobold.

Meanwhile, three smaller copper one ranked kobolds emerged on a wide area to the side of the pit dragging a plastic bucket full of tiny potatoes with them. Which they began to eagerly pelt the boy who was already having trouble keeping his balance.

Molly was trying to get herself in the right spot to throw a brick while Iris yelled at the boy. “Jump on him!”

Then she pulled out her gun.

Evidently, she felt this level of the dungeon was deep enough to shoot without any risk of being heard upstairs. I think she forgot the part that Molly had been concerned about involving shooting the weapon in a small enclosed area.

Ernesto jump and flatted the spike kobold under his weight. While Iris leveled her weapon at a potato clutching kobold and pulled the trigger with a deafening explosion of noise.

She missed the little guy by nearly two feet.

The boy flinched as he tried to get to his feet while keeping the spike kobold pinned down. The other two lizard people clutched their hands to the side of their heads as they shook in place at the pain from the sound of the gun. Molly yelled in shock as she apparently hadn't seen the old woman get the gun out.

Even Iris winced at the sound even as she fired again. This time only missing by a foot before she took a potato to the face in an incredibly lucky throw which cause the kobold responsible to freeze in surprise itself before the other one raise its hand out flat to receive an open handed slap from the thrower.

Buttercup took this chance to get out on the balance beam, tense, and leap the five feet over to pounce on the nearer hand slapping kobold.

Ernesto managed to get to his feet and just shoved the spiked kobold over the edge to slide down and drop into the pit before the boy steadied himself enough to stomp over and begin swinging at the tuber tossers.

Iris crossed the bridge and Molly leaned out to nail the kobold not being mauled by a cat with a half brick.

After they finished off the last two and I dismissed the drowning one below. Ernesto wordlessly gather their coins and kobold spikes and stood around as their hearing recovered.

Molly tapped Iris on the shoulder. "Can you hear me now?" Iris nodded and had to step back a bit as the Healer tried to kick her in the shin. "I'm going to have to heal all of our ears just to be safe after that. We didn't need to use your gun for that, it wasn't an emergency."

Iris gave her an irritated look and Molly just glared at her until the older woman finally took a deep breath and apologized to both of the others. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to get into the fight and it felt like we were stuck. I'll ask if anyone else feels like the gun would be a good idea next time." Then she got a firm look on her face. "Unless I think one of our lives are in danger, then I will shoot without letting anyone die instead of asking for permission."

After a moment, Molly nodded in reluctant agreement.

Ernesto, who had wisely kept out of it, pointed over to the far end of the room. "I think we can continue that way.

With him in the lead, they went around the corner to find a twenty foot square room filled end to end with a field of shining white powdered crystal. All of it covered in a swirling pattern of three parallel lines of painstakingly made with a three ponged hand cultivator

Iris stared at it with a baffled expression on her face. “Is that salt? What the heck are you up to now Tark?”