They descended into the dark. There were no torches here. There were no doorways, no windows, no portals, only stone, mortar, and dark. As she had followed the other two through the broken wall, she had noticed that no other door or hallway connected the room, but now as the stairwell descended into nothingness, she began to suspect why. This was a left over set piece from the last time Severin had re-arranged the dungeon. Which meant that more than likely, their escape had been made possible when Severin had shifted everything in order to funnel the spider-golem from the bottom floor to the library.
They were at least one story down now and the light from the library was only faint overhead. Then Lefty nearly tripped over something and they all had to stop. So, Calista lit her pen light and stepped around the other two to take the lead.
“What if they see the light?” Narene asked as she stood.
“I don’t think it matters much now as I think they’re close behind us whether we have light or not,” Calista replied. “We either reach the bottom of this stairwell and there’s a door, or we’re trapped against a dead end and we fight until we all die.”
A shadow fell over the goblin woman’s face and Calista thought she saw Narene give her a dark look. However, before she could ask the little goblin why she was upset, a shout came from above them and they took off, jogging down the steps.
A few flights later, the stairwell took a final turn to reveal a thick wooden door. Reinforced by iron bands and secured with a heavy lock that was built into the handle, it was a formidable barrier. However, as Calista handed her light to Lefty, and rolled back her sleeves and took a good look.
After a few seconds of sizing up the lock, she pulled out her toolkit, “Looks like a standard door. This shouldn’t take long.”
Lefty looked up the stairwell as boot steps began to echo, “That’s good because I don’t think we have that long.”
In real life, she had no idea how to pick locks, but here in Sable Unlimited, Calista had a skill of [lockpicking: 34] to go with a set of enchanted lock picks which added [+11 to lockpicking] for a total of [lockpicking: 45] which was one of the highest bonuses in all of Wraath. So as the boot steps echoed down the stairs, she set her first pick into the lock just as she sent a prayer up to Yanar. By the Red Goddess, just concentrate, you got this.
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An icy blast echoed against the stone and she looked back to see a troll, frozen blue with frostbite, roll down the steps to land at Lefty’s feet. Narene then stepped forward and stabbed the corpse through its throat and a gasp of steam left the wound.
“I think it was already dead,” Lefty said.
“Better safe than sorry,” Narene replied.
Calista adjusted her picks, feeling for the position where the lock might let her turn a tumbler, “I didn’t figure you for a frost mage.”
Lefty stole another glance up the stairs, “I’m not. It’s just that low level frost spells don’t cost a lot of mana, so they’re cheap damage.”
Calista breathed a sigh of relief as she felt the first tumbler turn, “So that means you have a few spells left for the final battle then, right?”
“Well …” Lefty paused to send a blast of ice up the stairs and then nodded as cries of alarm echoed in return. “… I might have enough to put up a fight. I really only have one more mana potion left.”
Calista felt a second tumbler fall into place. “Well, I don’t know where this door is going to lead us, but I think we need to consider conserving your magic from here until we face Severin.”
“Agreed,” Lefty said.
Narene looked annoyed as she watched Calista. “Shouldn’t you be concentrating? These trolls could be on top of us at any minute.”
Another blast of frost shot out from Lefty’s fingers and up the stairs. A moment later, the frozen corpse of another troll clattered down the steps.
“Can we just stop arguing and get out of here?” Lefty asked.
“Almost there,” Calista said as she felt the third tumbler set. There, that’s all of them. She then took the picks in her hand and turned them all like a key as the lock opened with a ‘click.’ With a wink and a smile to Narene, she pulled the door open. “Relax, I’m a professional. Remember?”
Narene stepped forward and looked into the doorway. “Well, does Miss ‘I’m A Professional’ have a rope? Because it’s a long way down.”
Holding the door open, Calista peered down to see a great cavern laid out before her. She could see torches lit along the far wall and for some reason the place looked familiar. Is that where I think it is? Her eyes searched the stone walls and the rocky spines that decorated the cavern’s floor. It is. This is the dragon’s lair where Vevic nearly fried me. By the Goddess, could this have linked to a worse room?
“Yeah, I can get us down there. Just hold on to the door for me.” She took the rope out of her inventory and fastened tightly to the inside door handle. Then she tossed the free end over the edge where it twirled in the air until it landed on the stone with a ‘whap.’ Let’s hope the dragon didn’t hear that. That was clumsy, but they would be making plenty of noise shortly anyhow, so it was little matter.
She gestured to Narene, “You first, little lady.”
In one motion, the little goblin grabbed the rope, turned onto her belly, and slipped over the side. Calista braced her foot against the door to hold it steady as the rope pulled against its handle. When Narene was halfway down, she waved to Lefty. “Quickly, so I can shut the door and you can cast that spell thingy on it.”
The mage slid over to her and they held fast on the rocky ledge as Calista slid the door shut. Lefty then cast his trap spell as Calista turned the lock. Finally, she let Lefty begin his descent before she followed him down the rope.
As she rappelled down the cliff face, she kept an eye out toward the cavern. If the dragon is here, we’re in a lot of trouble. The place had a very specific silence that she couldn’t quite put her foot on until she finally reached the floor.
“Where’s Narene?” Lefty whispered.
Calista cursed herself for letting Narene go down the rope first. I knew that little whore was going to betray us. Now we’re stuck between a bunch of very angry trolls and a room that might contain a dragon.
Beside her, she could see Lefty muttering the words to what she could only assume was another invisibility spell, but then a blast of blue flame lit up the air in front of them and suddenly they were face to face with a set of four golden eyes glowing in the dark.
Casually leaning against the dragon’s front leg was Narene, still in her goblin form with her arms crossed as she smiled at Lefty, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”