Astoria ran her fingers across the face of one of the bronze coins that she had taken out of her bag. Three squiggles that depicted a gust of wind were slightly raised against her fingertips.
Just need to grab that one over there and then we can get out of this place I hope. I can’t even tell how much time has passed down here. I hope Jayse and the girl we left with him are okay. Since Dane’s spies had seen us go into the manor, it’s not too hard to believe that he would have knowledge of our fourth companion. Hopefully, he won’t go out searching for her.
Only a few hours had passed as far as they could all guess and Garland hadn’t awoken yet. The health potions had worked miracles on him, but Ladriel had told her that even with the potions, undergoing that kind of healing exhausted the body. Astoria couldn't help but feel lucky that they had survived that fight at all after witnessing what the Gloom had done to a high level warrior like Garland.
Tilly and Ladriel were both sleeping now and Astoria was tired of sitting around. She got up to her feet and paced around the room a bit before moving a little closer to the pedestal at the center of the open area to have a closer look at it. She didn't intend to grab the coin or anything, not until the others were awake, but it wouldn't hurt to have a look, right?
As she approached the solitary pedestal, she couldn't help but have the strong feeling that it was one huge trap. Sure, the place was a boss room, and it could be possible this was just the equivalent of a heart container in a Zelda game after a boss was defeated, but she felt like this place had been too tricky so far to just reach over and grab it.
If I had to guess, I'd bet that when we grab that coin, all those sarcophagi in the entrance to the boss area will fling open and a horde of undead will charge in here.
She stood before the front of the pedestal and leaned forward to have a look while keeping a distance of a few feet, looking for the familiar red glow that signaled a trap, but she didn't see anything. She wondered just how much longer it would be until Garland recovered.
I've had more than enough time down in this hole to want to get outside and feel the sun on my face again. I wonder if it's night or day outside?
When she turned back to the others she saw that Ladriel had begun to stir. She stepped away from the pedestal again and walked towards her friend.
“Up already? It’s okay if you want to sleep a little more. Keeping watch is kind of boring, but at least we don’t seem to be in any imminent danger. In a way, I'm actually kind of happy to be bored."
“I can’t rest peacefully underground like this. Have you examined the pedestal with the coin carefully, yet?”
“I didn't want to get too close to it really, but from what I see, there aren't any traps. I wish that my trap detection skill was higher than it is. I don't trust it to not be trapped.”
Ladriel got up and came over to her. "That makes logical sense. Did you look at it from all angles?"
"No, just from the front, then I saw you woke up. I should at least look at it from every angle."
Tilly's eyes opened up while they were talking and she rubbed them with her hands and then slapped her cheeks a lightly with both hands. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Just waiting like we have been. Nothing has happened, and no signs of any trouble. What else do you have in that bag of yours that we can eat? I’m starving,” Astoria said.
“We have some apples and pears as well as some more dried meat and cheese. The small amount of bread we have left is getting to be as hard as a rock though,” Tilly replied as she rummaged through her pack.
“I’ll take an apple. Ladriel, you hungry?”
“No thank you. I’m still okay and we might need to ration if we can’t get out of here soon. For all we know, this is only the beginning of a vast system of catacombs.”
Already seems pretty damned vast to me. I guess compared to dungeons in most games I've played, though, this one is definitely on the small side.
Astoria took a red apple from Tilly’s outstretched hand and took a big bite out of it. It was perfectly ripe and crisp. Apple juice dripped from her chin and she wiped it away before taking a seat on the ground.
“Here's hoping that once we put all the coins in the pedestals upstairs, that we'll get to leave this place and that it isn't deeper."
She took another bite of the apple and wished once more that they had more health potions. With what they had given Garland, they now were completely out of them. If things got bad, she was the only one who could heal herself. Idly she wondered if the regeneration skill she stole from that goblin could be taught to the others. It was kind of like magic, though, so she doubted it.
She checked Garland’s health from his status page, and saw that it was a lot better than it had been before. He was still quite a ways from being at 100%, but she thought that he should be able to fight when he woke.
A little while after they finished eating, Garland let out a groan in his sleep before rolling over from his back to his side. Astoria and the others rushed over to check on him only to find that his eyes were open and he was staring off to the side blankly.
Oh no! Hopefully the Gloom's Hulk Smash thing didn't brain damage him like the girl who we left at Jayse's farm.
Astoria placed her hand on his shoulder and shook him every so gently, “Garland. Can you hear me? Are you okay? We need you to get up if you can.”
The middle-aged swordsman blinked a few times. “I can't believe that I'm alive. Thankfully those were just nightmares, then.”
Astoria couldn't help but smile when the lord sat up and after running his hand through his hair, began to look around at his surroundings. His gaze stopped for a moment on the charred remains of the dead gloom off in the near distance.
“That thing must have been the reason that we abandoned this old escape route and stopped burying our family down here. I’m still pretty sore, but I can fight if the need arises." Garland got to his feet and wobbled momentarily before righting himself and placing a hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword.
Astoria wasn't so sure how able to fight he really was if he was still that uneasy on his feet, but they had stalled long enough, it was time to take that coin and get the hell out of this place.
"Let's go get the medallion. Everyone stay back a dozen feet or so and I'll examine the pedestal closely from all sides before grabbing it."
They spent a moment to gather up the few things that they had unpacked from their bags and then headed over towards the solitary pedestal. Astoria walked up to it carefully and while remaining a foot or so away from it she leaned in close to it and examined it. The tiles around the base of the pedestal looked ordinary and weren't raised up at all, so she stepped up closer.
The coin, which was just like the others, except that this one had a flame etched into the surface. There was a thick layer of dust atop the flat pedestal and she thought that she saw what looked like a raised surface under part of it. She took a deep breath and blew on it. Dust flew out in front of her in a cloud and she coughed a little as she breathed it in. There was a metal plaque on top of the pedestal with writing on it. Her heart sank as she read it.
Too much and you will die, too little and you will as well,
Lighter than air, tougher than rocks, gentle and calming,
A cycle of three is the life that I lead.
Astoria stared at the words for a few long moments. The answer to that was clearly water, but the medallion set into this pedestal was fire. There was a fourth medallion somewhere. More than ever before, she felt that if she casually removed that coin that it would spell trouble.
The pedestal was an exact duplicate of the ones that had been up in the room above. She looked up towards the ceiling and sure enough, there was a hole there in the shape of the pedestal. She pointed up for the others to see.
"What is that?" Tilly asked.
"There is a fourth riddle! We still have to find one more coin. We need to check everywhere in this room. I don't think it's a good idea to remove this until we have the other one."
Astoria stepped away from the pedestal and then filled the others in on what the fourth riddle was. Everyone agreed that the answer was water.
"What if there is no fourth medallion? Can we go back out through the manor, Garland?"
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"It wouldn't be wise. Dane will have men waiting for us to return there. We should continue forward if we can, and we can do that if it comes down to it."
"We have to be missing something important. Spread out and let’s look around for a clue or something.”
Garland and Tilly went away to the room with all the standing Sarcophagi, while Ladriel and Astoria combed the room they were in for something out of the ordinary. Astoria decided that it would be wise to systematically check all of the large pillars that filled the room. She started at the back of the room and went around each one.
There weren't any traps or buttons sticking out anywhere, but she continued going methodically. When she reached what was the center of the room, the pillar there had something odd about it. There was a crack in it, but it was the shape of a circle. She pulled out one of the coins from her bag and held it up to the spot.
The size matched. She hadn't seen any damage on any of the other pillars in the entire room other than the one that the Gloom had punched, it was too much of a coincidence. She just hoped that luck would be on her side here. She unsheathed one of her daggers and prepared to jam it into the crack. She just had a good feeling about this.
“Did you find something?” Ladriel asked walking up to her when she saw the dagger out.
“I’m not sure. There’s something weird about this crack, come look.”
Ladriel ran over to her side and looked at the pillar. “It’s just a crack in the pillar. What’s odd about that?”
Astoria pulled out the wind medallion and held it up against the crack on the pillar. “See. It's the same size and shape. It's too odd to be a coincidence I think. I just have a feeling…”
Ladriel looked skeptical, but Astoria ignored the look she was receiving and jammed the dagger into the crack as hard as she could and then pried on it with both hands. At first it it didn't move at all, so she yanked it out and stabbed in again at another spot. She gripped the hilt of her dagger with both hands and really put her weight into it this time. The stone finally gave and flew outward while she fell onto her butt.
Astoria got back to her feet and couldn’t stop a satisfied smile from appearing across her face when she saw what she had uncovered. Behind the small section of stone was a fourth medallion set into a recess depicting a drop of water on its face.
I knew it! Suck on that GMs!
She reached into the small recess and pulled out the coin. “Earth, air, fire and water. Each of the four base elements. I should have known it was odd that there were only three of the four in the riddles above. Now to swap them. I just knew there was something too easy about that pedestal just being there in the open.”
“Go get the others, all right?”
“Very well. Don’t try to swap the medallions until we’re all together though, okay?”
“I won’t.”
Once they had all gathered, Astoria walked up to the pedestal once more. Her heart pounded as she prepared to make the switch. She gripped the water coin tightly in one fist while the other hand shook slightly with nervousness.
“I’m going to do it as quickly as I can. You guys ready?”
“Be careful!” Tilly said.
Astoria closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath, before she moved her free hand to the smooth, cold, edges of the bronze fire coin. She just hoped that a boiling vat of water wouldn't dump on her or something when she pulled the coin free. The acid trap hadn’t activated when she was right next to the pedestal putting the medallion inside, so she hoped the same would hold true here. There was no guarantee, however, and she couldn’t completely force down her worries.
Just do it fast. Channel Indiana Jones!
As quickly as she could she yanked the fire medallion free and in a smooth motion slid the water one into the recess in its place. She jumped back a foot or so and waited while her heartbeat sounded in her ears. She must’ve been fast enough because nothing bad happened right away.
A loud click sounded and she jumped back even further as she heard the sound of stone scraping against stone. The pedestal suddenly had a pillar growing up from the ground beneath it, matching the others that filled this room and it shot up into the ceiling where the hole was.
Water began running down the pillar once it was in place and Astoria wondered if anything else was going to happen. She looked around nervously, but heard no zombies rushing out from the other room on their way to murder them. Even so, she didn't want to wait around.
“We have what we need, let’s get out of here.” Astoria said.
“I have never agreed with a statement more than that one.” Ladriel replied.
The four of them ran back towards the small one with the sarcophagi and Astoria sighed in relief when she saw that the door that had fallen when the boss room trap had been triggered had raised back up. Beyond that, her heart pounded anew when she saw that one of the sarcophagi that had been closed before was now flung wide open with its lid laying across the floor.
“That’s weird. It wasn’t open before. In fact we weren’t able to pry any of these open at all.” Tilly unsheathed her sword and approached the thing warily. She stopped and looked inside.
“What’s inside? I’m guessing not a zombie that wants to eat our brains or something.” Astoria said.
Her friend sheathed her sword and reached inside the sarcophagus and pulled out a 5 foot tall staff. The top of the staff bent in a question mark shape and at the center of the circle, floating in mid-air was a large crystal which was a deep blue in color in the shape of a teardrop, just like on the water coin. It glowed ever so slightly with an aqua colored light. Tilly brought the staff over, holding it carefully and Astoria examined it.
Unidentified Staff
• Quality: Unknown
• Damage: Unknown
• Durability: 96/96
Well, that tells me nothing other than the fact that this thing is probably valuable.
Astoria reached out and touched the teardrop on the top of the staff. It felt as cold as ice and she had to yank her hand away. “Can anyone identify this?”
All of her companions shook their heads. Astoria was surprised when they all agreed that she could have it. “I don’t think we ever would have found that fourth medallion if not for you. You deserve this. It can be identified by one of the mage guilds in one of the larger cities. Until then, just carry it on your back,” Garland said.
“Thanks, everyone.” She took the staff reverently and strapped it to her back, handing him her bow and arrows. She wasn't really into being an archer anymore, anyway. Ladriel had that covered, and once she had her first taste of magic, earlier, she knew that she wanted to shift her focus from things like archery to that instead.
Being a stealthy character who could find traps was all good and well, and she enjoyed that as well, so she decided she would try to become some sort of assassin/mage hybrid. Up until now, she had just been working with whatever she had. The game hadn't given her much, but now she had options on how she would grow. There was no rule that said she couldn't be a jack of all trades, was there? If she could learn some spells on top of being a stealthy rogue type of person, she could be unstoppable someday.
They continued up the long passageway and after a short while found themselves back on the main floor of the catacombs.
“So, Garland, I’ve been wondering… did your family actually dig this place out and create it? Or was it here before your family came?”
“No. The catacombs were a ruin that my ancestors found an entrance to when they were building the manor. When they explored it and found an exit they built it into the plans in case of an emergency.”
“So they didn’t make all these traps?”
“I don’t really know. It’s all been lost in history.”
“I see,” she replied.
Another few minutes of walking later and they were back at the room with the pedestals. Just one thing was different, on the side of the room opposite of the fire pedestal was the water pedestal. It had apparently risen through the floor earlier; she could see a floor tile sitting atop it.
“I’ll go place the medallions. Wait here, everyone. She carefully moved along the wall to the second pedestal and placed the fire medallion in the recess. After waiting a moment for the trap to disarm she continued to the final pedestal and placed the wind medallion. “It’s all clear. Let’s go.”
The others began moving and once they were all across, Astoria went over to the pedestal that held the small blue wand she saw earlier. She checked for traps and found that there were none, so she grabbed the wand and tried examining it.
Unidentified Wand
• Quality: Unknown
• Damage: Unknown
• Durability: 96/96
That’s about what I expected.
Astoria handed the wand over to Ladriel who put it into her bag. It was finally time to see what lay beyond the doors in that death trap of a room and Astoria couldn’t wait to hopefully be outside soon. She and the others had to work together to shove on the heavy stone door that blocked their path. It finally gave way and it opened up into a dark set of stairs leading upward into a dead end.
Despair almost took grip on her once more, but then she saw the small lever sticking out at the end of the tunnel as Garland used his light spell once more. There was nothing else in the small room other than the lever.
Seeing that there was no other choice, Astoria walked down the corridor to it and placed her hand atop it, pulling down. A loud sound like rusty gears grinding on one another filled the small corridor and the wall dropped down revealing what looked to be the inside of a mausoleum.
Moments later they were outside and into the open air of a graveyard. The party stepped out into the afternoon sunlight, shielding their eyes as they went. She took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air. It felt like it had been ages since she had breathed in anything but stale air. She turned around and examined the plaque on the mausoleum they had exited from. It was marked with the Garland family crest.
Of course it would lead to a cemetery. I'm so dumb for not having guessed this sooner!
“It feels so good to finally be above ground!” Ladriel exclaimed.
“What do we do next? I don’t know the area. Where are we, Garland?” Astoria said.
“This graveyard is fairly near town. We're close to Dane's estate, we just have to follow the road. We can wait until nightfall and infiltrate the grounds of his manor as we discussed before.”
“Sounds good. Let’s get out of this depressing place and find somewhere better to wait for nightfall.” Tilly suggested.
That idea sounded fantastic to Astoria and the four companions began walking toward the road. After only a couple minutes of winding their way around tombstones, they found themselves at a large dirt road. Garland pointed in the direction they needed to go, and that was when they saw something shocking.
Just down the road, walking towards them in the direction they were going to be heading in, she saw the figure of the girl who had been in a comatose-like state they had left with Jayse. She was walking towards them with determined look on her face and a cloak flying out behind her in the light breeze and Astoria noted the sword that was strapped to her hip. She grinned in excitement, hopefully they would soon have another ally against Dane in the fight ahead.