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The group of soldiers and the Dark One waited while the little Rogue slowly made her way down the steps until she spotted the trip line and spring loaded trap around the corner. I guess she thought it just had to be more complex than that as she spent several more minutes checking around it before attaching a clip to the trip line so that when she cut it, nothing happened.

“It’s kind of like a giant vertical mousetrap Sir, as long as no one messes with it we can walk right past it.”

Their Captain turned and gave their Porter a long look. The Porter refused to meet his eyes.

The group made their way down the steps and around the corner, giving the flat boards screwed onto the metal frame mounted to the giant springs a wide berth.

Then they saw the nature of the next challenge.

The reach of the dungeon limited the room at this level to be a forty foot across area, but with good drainage tunnels the maze that made up the room was able to go up to twenty feet further out in some spots. All of it was earthen walled tunnels winding their way around into loops and deep ends.

All of them no more than three feet tall.

The big man looked particularly unhappy about that.

Their Rogue found all the covered pits, but they learned pretty quickly to check the wall as well after a squad of spiked kobolds with knives came in on them from both sides. The walls crumbled in and let two of the burly lizard guys come in on each side of the Captain.

Their leader had returned his shield and saber to the Porter's white room and instead had a long three sided blade in its place which he put two good work wrestling with one of the spikers while the big man twisted around to go at them with his knife and hatchet.

The Dark One just reached out to brush her fingertip along the spine of one of my lizard guys, whispered “Die” and it went limp.

Despite putting up a good fight, Addams took several severe stabs from the spiked kobolds, only to pull out a steel tube with a screw top that make a cracking sound when twisted. After drinking it, his wounds healed up.

...well I suppose it’s a good thing this world’s military has someone who can make healing potions, and that explains why he didn’t take a healer in with his team of five.

The rat horde was a bit more effective.

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They were able to hear the squeaking and the Rogue guessed what was coming for them. “Sir! Rats, lots of them!”

Addams cursed too softly for me to hear his exact words. “Zucker, open the portal.”

The Porter and his Captain made it inside, then the leader pulled in the Rogue just as the first rats began to leap into the white space in a furry wave.

Most of the fight happened inside the white space where the group could use their guns again, which proved to be not all that much more effective than the big man's knife and hatchet which he used on the rats that ran under the portal to the white space.

Too many, too fast, too small of a target, and once they got on you, shooting something on your leg wasn’t the best idea. Not that stabbing them with a knife and missing to inflict a wounds on yourself was all that much better. Perhaps their Porter should pack some tennis rackets as well next time.

Interestingly enough. My creatures did not fade away in the white room as they did when taken out of the dungeon. I have no clue what it means, but it's still interesting.

Maybe Alelan would explain it to me, she did read the entire dungeon guide after all.

The last bit of fun was the water trap, five hundred gallons dumped down the last bit of the tunnel as it rose up a decent slope. It took the little Rouge right off her feet while her Captain just braced his feet and dug his knife into the earthen wall of the tunnel. His efforts kept him stable enough that he was able to grab the Rogue with his free hand.

The big man helped the Porter to keep him on his feet, while the Dark One dug her claws into the walls and held herself in place as the water washed pass her.

So in the end, the worst thing I was able to do to them was to make them bit damp and make them walk through some mud.

The last staircase had nothing written on it at all. But the door that was out of sight around the corner was airtight, and something called carbon dioxide gas filling the bottom of the steps that would only seriously affect someone if they spend too much time working their way down the steps. The lack of breathable air slowly made it harder and harder to realize that they were getting groggy and starting to make bad decisions.

The Rogue worked her way down and then kept going around the corner to the rest of the stairs going down without a word.

“Swiftwater, report. Kirby, what are you doing, why aren't you reporting!”

The sleepy looking Rogue came back around the corner to give her Captain a confused look, then passed out on the floor.

It was more than I had expected. Molly had mentioned the possibility of bad air with so much of the place underground and no sign of any ventilation. But the most I was expecting was for the trap to make Iris and her group a little slower and prone to making bad decisions in the last room. Not knocking someone out to slowly die from bad air.

“Reese.” One word from Addams and the big man raced down the steps grab the little Rouge one handed and heaved her up over his shoulder before jogging back up the stairs.

The group retreated to the white room where the big man examined the Rogue and then sent the Porter off to bring back a bag with a red plus symbol on a white square on it.

A mask attached to a metal cylinder was placed over the now somewhat awake Rogue and she was forced to breathe something that was released from the cylinder despite her protests. Healing gas maybe?

On her second trip down she worked faster and brought the mask with her. After checking the door she forced it open, breaking the seal, and called the rest of the group down.

The lowest floor was only twenty feet around, with a five foot around central column in the middle of it with the trap filled spiraling slide that led up two stories to where my core was sitting in the little fort.

Around it were four dry patches of ground separated by four shallow pools of salted water. Perfect for a boss fight with Kelvin and his copper wrapped stick.

But that wasn’t who was waiting for the soldiers of course.

Iris walked out from behind the central column.

"I’m not sure if I should feel guilty about being surprised that Tark is Asian. I mean, all I had to go on was his handwriting, but I just assumed he would be a white guy.”

“But I guess what we need to talk about is that thing riding around in the smug girl’s body. Yeah, that's right Red, I can see you, and why the hell aren't you wearing any clothes? Who are you trying to impress?”

The Dark One leaned in close behind Addams and ran her finger down his spine.

“Kill her.”