Igmar shoved the door open with more power that was necessarily needed and stepped into the room with bold determination followed by the rest of them, all prepared to face whatever horrors lay in wait for them. This new chamber of the crypt though seemed to mock their hardened resolve by being entirely devoid of any monsters, threats or horrors, however. Instead, there were pillars.

This room was around the same size as the last one but all on the same level and had the same stink of damp mould and rot that was in the last chamber. The only distinct trait this one had was that it was filled with large stone pillars that made the room difficult to properly examine. There were perhaps twenty or so pillars and all were around four feet in diameter. They were rounded with no ornamentation, although Delde could see that the mural seemed to carry on throughout this chamber as well. Did it cover all the walls in this crypt?

There was no sign of the source of the wailing turned sobbing in this room either. It looked like there was a door on the right of the room that the sound seemed to be coming from, but between the pillars and the shadows cast by them it was difficult to make anything out in detail. The only other things of interest were a pile of saddlebags and three brooms to the left of the door they entered through. Dal though pointed at the pillar closest to them to bring everyone’s attention to it.

‘There’s something on that one, looks like some parchment or something’s been stuck on it’.

Adriana brought the glowing stone over to it to give everyone a better view of it while looking about to make sure it wasn’t some trap. As she approached Delde identified it immediately as Holgast’s handywork, it was the same thing he had done to leave her a message on his door the morning they left to go on the “quest for the everflame”. That seemed so long ago now. She walked over and read what it had to say.

‘Flip the three switches to open the door

But be wary of dangers on the floor

Work as a team in this pillared room

Or else embrace your certain doom’

She sighed to herself after reading it aloud.

‘That’s definitely Holgast’s work, he has a bad habit of making warnings into terriable rhymes.’

‘Wait, does that mean that he was here when… you know… all of this… happened?’

Dal looked uncomfortable at having asked the question, but Delde wasn’t bothered by it.

‘I highly doubt that. He has a whole stack of parchments that he’s enchanted to stick onto a surface with a basic cantrip. I imagine that he wrote out the warnings in his tower and gave the townspeople who came here some of them to leave for us. If Holgast was here, he could have easily delt with the undead at the entrance; he even has some spells that could have messaged back to town to warn everyone. No, unfortunately we won’t be able to call on him for help here’.

‘Oh, I just thought you might be worried about him being here in case he… you know, didn’t make it’.

Delde blinked her eyes and realised she had misunderstood what Dal was trying to say. She thought that he was hoping that her mentor would be nearby and able to help them, not that he was concerned about her being afraid of him being dead. Now she felt that she seemed rather heartless.

‘I-it’s not that I wouldn’t be worried about him if he was here, but Holgast rarely leaves his tower, let alone the town. The chances of him ever coming out here are negligible at best’.

‘Onyways’ Igmar said drawing everyone’s attention back to the parchment. ‘Whit dae yie’s make o that? Whit sort o dangers an doom are we dealin’ wae here?’

‘It’s probably one of the traps that we’re meant to overcome before we get the Everflame…’ Dal sighed and gave a wistful look to the door they came through. ‘It’s funny… I was so excited coming over here, but when we all saw what had happened, I completely forgot why we were here in the first place’. He shook his head. ‘Anyway, there’s likely some traps on the floor that we’ll need to look out for. I can’t see any of the switches that the note mentioned but we’ll just have to find them, their probably hidden behind some pillars or in somewhere out of the way’.

‘So how should we navigate the room then? Should we all split up and search for the switches whilst paying close attention to the ground?’

Adriana seemed eager to progress through this room and head towards what was hopefully a survivor. Igmar and Baye though seemed more reserved, however. Delde also wasn’t enthusiastic about rushing through a trap filled room, especially as in the room they had come from the undead hadn’t animated until they were well within it. Dal hadn’t even looked up at Adriana when she spoke, he was too preoccupied examining the chambers floor with a determination and focus that she hadn’t seen in him before.

‘Hmm, I don’t think we should split up, at least not until we know what kind of traps have been set up. No, I think you should all follow me carefully and I’ll lead us through this room, at least until I can see some clear sign for where the traps are to show you lot what to avoid’.

‘You’re sure that you can spot any traps on the ground?’

Baye didn’t sound too incredulous or accusatory in her inquiry. It seemed to Delde that she just wanted Dal to confirm that he was sure about his ability, and this wasn’t a show of bravado on his part.

‘Did I ever doubt your ability to lead us through the Fangwoods over the last couple of days?’

‘Yes. A few times in fact’.

That was more accusatory. Delde could see Igmar and Adriana preparing to step between the siblings. She herself was prepared to just step back and let everyone else sort it out; this was why she preferred to be by herself, well herself and Onyx.

‘Yeah… well… sigh, look I’m sorry. You’re a good ranger and I’m sorry for doubting you. But you’ve got to trust me here. I can get us through this room unharmed, if there’s one thing that I can do it’s this I swear. You’ve all just got to trust me and do what I say’.

There was a moment of silence as Dal’s apology and plea echoed slightly in the room.

‘Well, since you asked so nice. Sure, I’ll follow your advice in here’.

Dal smiled at Baye.

‘But I’m gonna tell mum about how you said I was such a good ranger when we get back’.

‘Ugg, then I’m going to get an earful when we get home from her. Well-’ he clapped his hands to ensure everyone’s attention was on him, even though it already was. ‘-then. You heard her, everyone follow me, try to avoid stepping on any stones that I haven’t stepped on already and don’t touch the pillars either. Ah ha!’ He picked up one of the abandoned brooms that were lying next to the door they had come through and spun it in his hands a little. ‘This’ll help too! The good thing is that the note only says that the floor’s trapped, so I’ve got an idea on where to keep an eye on. But like I said try not to touch anything you don’t need to, don’t know if somebody forgot to add another note beneath it or something’.

Dal appeared brighter and more animated than Delde had seen him since the start of their excursion. Being put in a situation where his specific skill set was vital for success had given him a newfound drive, Delde understood and appreciated what it meant to feel needed. She personally hoped that she would have a similar sort of opportunity before this was all over.

‘So, I’m thinking that we head to whereabouts I think I can just make out the door’ He pointed to the far right of the room. ‘And see if the door is actually locked. After all, if the townsfolk who were setting all of this up were… you know… interrupted… then I mean there’s a chance that they didn’t have time to lock the door. I’d feel pretty dumb if I went all around here dealing with all the traps and switches only to find out that I didn’t need to!’.

He gave the rest of them a grin and began to head to the right of the room, towards the sobbing. Using the broom to test the floor before him, Dal progressed through the chamber very slowly, very carefully, followed closely by the rest of the group. Nobody said anything as he prodded the floor before making a step, everyone hoping that any potential trap would have some sort of sound that would warn them before it went off. It was slow going, but with each step they made closer to the door Delde became more hopeful that perhaps whatever trap that was meant to be in this chamber hadn’t been activated.

Dal paused and turned to his right.

‘Welp, that looks like a switch to me’.

He pointed out a switch on the righthand of the wall, a plain unremarkable thing, easy to not notice as it was hidden in the shadow of two pillars. The mural of the last battle of Kassen didn’t touch it, leaving the switch conspicuously isolated in the battlefield.

Dal sauntered over to it after checking the floor beneath it and pulled it. A loud CLUNK sounded, and Delde thought she heard a clicking sound further ahead where they expected the door to be.

‘Well, that’s one down, two to go. Let’s see if that’s done anything to the door’.

Just as Dal was about to test the floor he paused and stared at it. He looked about, but for what Delde didn’t know, she was about to ask him if he wanted some help when he took the broom and sharply prodded the floor he had been examining.

THUD!

A gout of stale air and dust erupted from the floor before Dal as it gave way. Fortunately, he was still a couple of feet behind the hidden pit trap, and the other behind him.

‘Ha! Told you! Told you I’d be able to handle any traps in here! Though I’ve got to hand it to whoever made this, it’s really well hidden. I thought that flooring there looked a bit different but not by much, if I hadn’t been warned about it, I might’ve fallen for it. In both ways! Ha ha’.

‘If yie thought that the fluir was odd why’d yie set it off! Almost gave me a bloody heart attack!’.

‘Phff, calm down.’ Dal waved his hand dismissively at Igmar. ‘I wanted to see what the trap was and how bad it was going to be if it went off, that all. I mean there’s a big difference between a pitfall trap and an arrow trap, honestly, I thought that it was going to be the arrow trap, what with all the blunted arrows we’ve found’.

He looked down into the open pit, whatever mechanism that it operated by didn’t appear to include an automatic reset, now revealed it showed no sign of returning to its previous hidden state. Delde supposed this would make it easier to keep track of where to avoid when they inevitably left the crypt.

‘Kind of deep, around eight feet, would be tricky to get out of there. Oh look! So that’s what they were for! They filled the bottom of the pits with pillo- oh. Oh, that might be a problem’.

‘Pill-oh, I see’.

Delde had been a fraction of a second slower than Dal in recognising the problem but seeing the pillows at the bottom of the pit made her realise the issue.

‘Pillows? Whit aboot the pillows? Whit are yie aw goin’ on aboot?’

‘I am afraid I don’t quite see what the issue is either. Surely having all of the pits filled with large cushions can only be a good thing for us. It means that if we did happen to fall victim to one of the traps, we would not be injured in the process’.

Igmar and Adriana seemed confused by her and Dal’s assessment. Baye didn’t appear to fully understand it either but was waiting silently for an explanation. Dal glanced over at Delde with a questioning look, asking she assumed, which of them would explain it to the rest of the group. She gestured with her hands for him to go forward, she didn’t especially enjoy being the centre of attention and in this case, she felt that Dall’s own expertise in these matters exceeded her own.

‘So, you all know how we’ve been finding some of the stuff that the townspeople brought over for the whole setup of this place. like the blunt arrows we found?’

He looked at Igmar, Baye and Adriana, waiting to see if his statement would lead them to the same conclusion that he and Delde had reached. However, they simply nodded in agreement leading him to carry on in his explanation.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

‘Well, we’ve found a few pillows as well, haven’t we? So, what would that tell you?’

The others just shrugged with Igmar saying.

‘That they were usin’ the pillows fer the traps? We can awready see that wie that pit there, just get tae the point will yie Dal, we’ve no got aw day’

Dal gave an exasperated sigh and Delde found herself somewhat amused to be on the outside looking in at this interaction. Normally, on the rare occasions when she tried to explain some of the higher workings and theory behind magic to someone else, she would be the one in Dal’s position, growing gradually exasperated at the lack of understanding of the other party even with her practically leading them by hand to the proper conclusion. She decided to step in to tell the others what they had realised, letting it carry on any longer would only result in Dal and the others becoming more frustrated at each other. She knew that from hard earned experience with her siblings. Ignorant fools that they were. Her siblings, not the group.

‘What Dal is getting at is we’ve found those pillows in their bags, which means they probably didn’t get round to finishing setting up all the traps before they were attacked. And that means that there are good chances that some of these pits don’t have any cushioning at the bottom of them’.

‘Ah, aye that’d be a problem fer us.’

‘It’s more than that though’ Dal added, grateful that the others had finally understood the problem they were faced with. ‘I mean, if they were using traps that were already in the crypt and making them safer than there could be a lot of stuff here that’s really dangerous. I was hoping when I saw the arrows that they hadn’t had time to set anything up and we wouldn’t have to worry about traps at all. And if they did then I figured that we’d only need to look out for tripwires and buckets of water over doorways, but that’. He pointed to the deep pit before them. ‘I mean that was probably designed with the intent to really hurt someone, maybe even kill them.’

‘You still sure that you can get us through here?’

Baye asked him in a forthright tone.

‘Yes, absolutely. It’s maybe a little more hard-core than I was expecting but I still know the signs of what to look out for. Like I said before if you all follow me and don’t run off on your own then you’ll be fine’.

‘Alright then. Lead on’.

‘Welp, let’s try going around this one then’.

Dal turned to the left of the pit, to another path between two pillars. He tested the floor again and-

THUD!

Another gout of stale air and dust, still surprising, but Delde didn’t feel as caught off guard as she did with the first one. Dal didn’t appear concerned more than he was frustrated at the second pitfall trap.

‘Oh come on! Two right next to each other! That’s just excessive! Sigh. Ok, we’ll loop around back to the entrance and try going down the lefthand side of this row of pillars’.

They all headed back slightly faster than they had walked down the path, comfortable in the knowledge that the floor wouldn’t give out from under them for this part of the chamber at least. But just as they got to the door, they entered the chamber they heard an audible ‘click’ towards where they thought the other exit to the room was and a ‘thunk!’ where they knew the switch to be.

‘Ugh, seriously!? The damn switches are on a timer!?’ He gave out an exasperated sigh. ‘I suppose this is what the note meant when it said that we had to work as a team. We’ll need to have a person at each of the switches and then have everyone throw them at the same time. Plus, we’ll have to have somebody at the door itself to open it and keep it open. Ugh, I hope that the switches don’t activate any extra traps or anything, that’s the last thing that we need right now’.

‘Dae yie think we should keep together noo or have someone stay at each switch as we pass it?’

‘Hmm, I think we’ll stick together for now and try the door. If it turns out it is locked then we’ll have to do things that way, I’d rather stay together for as long as we can though. I’d be just our luck for us to get ambushed right after we split up’.

Dal gave a relaxed smile at his last statement, but Delde couldn’t tell if he was just trying to make light of the situation or if he was that calm. Personally, she agreed with him about staying in a group for as much as possible, she gripped her staff tightly at the thought of having to fight the undead in this chamber by herself. The number of large pillars throughout the room made getting help from ranged attacks like Bayes unlikely and she didn’t have a good enough understanding about how divine magic worked to know if it would be inhibited by so many obstructions. Delde didn’t want to find out first hand in the heat of battle.

She also took a moment to peek into her backpack to check that Onyx was still safely stowed inside. To her relief he was, she didn’t want him wandering around such a dangerous place on his own.

They walked down the path between the pillars, Dal continuing to check the floor with the old broom in his hands. They seemed to be going quicker now, which Delde hoped was because of Dal now knowing exactly what he had to look out for and not because he was becoming overconfident. Turning to their right they could now all see the door at least, made of dark heavy wood with dull metal studs embedded in it the door looked very durable. The metal handle on the door didn’t seem to have any keyhole next to it either so if the door was locked it would only be opened by pulling the switches.

‘Ok, let’s try this again’.

Dal tested the floor for hidden pits once more.

THUD!

‘Oh, come on! Sigh, alright fine, that means that we need to keep going to the other side of the room and approach the door on the right. Let’s keep going’.

He was clearly frustrated over the sheer number of traps they were encountering but to his credit nobody had fallen victim to one of them yet. When they finally reached the door Dal was the one to check the handle. Locked.

‘Ah, I figured that it was wishful thinking on my part but at least now we know. Ok, so my plan is that one of us goes back to the switch we’ve already found, and I lead the rest of us through this pillar maze and find the others. When we get to them someone stays with it and then I come back here to the door with someone, preferably Igmar, and he opens the door and keeps it from shutting. Then I help lead everyone at the switches back to the door just in case opening the door resets the traps or activates new ones, sound good to everyone?’

‘If I may ask, why do you prefer to have Igmar open the door specifically? Surely it is a task that any of us would be capable of carrying out?’.

Adriana didn’t sound like she was being especially argumentative in her questioning, more that she wanted to get a better understanding behind Dal’s reasoning for his choices.

‘We because I don’t know what’s behind that door. I can still hear the weeping behind it, but I’ll be honest I’m still not sure if it’ll turn out to be a survivor, a trap by the townspeople or some sick undead trick. In any case I’d rather have someone who can handle themselves in a fight opening the door rather than do it myself. And if the door starts to shut automatically then it’d probably be better for Igmar to be here as he’s probably the strongest one out of all of us. He’ll have the best chance of keeping it open’.

‘If you would prefer, I would be willing to stay here and open the door. Out of all of us I am the most able in harming them and I would rather risk myself before asking another to risk their life for me’.

‘Eh, to be honest I’d rather it be Igmar, no offence or anything. It’s just you’re our best healer, if Igmar or any of us get badly hurt we can count on you to patch us up, but if you’re badly hurt then we’re in a lot bigger trouble. If you want, you can be at the switch closest to the door so you can rush in if some undead do start to come through’.

‘I wou- ‘

‘Actually’ Igmar interjected ‘Ah think it’d be better if Baye was the one at the switch closest tae the door’.

Dal looked slightly puzzled and Adriana somewhat annoyed, but both permitted him to continue.

‘Thing is, onything that comes oot that door is gonnie be boxed in by these pits’, he gestured to the pits to the north and west of them. ‘Adriana dis have the power tae attack frae over a distance, but only so many times, once yer oot o spells yie need tae be up close and we’ll no hav’ that much time fer yie to get intae position. Baye can be next tae that switch though an fire off her blunt arrows at ony skeletons that come oot fer as long as she’s got arrows though, an if we’re lucky and the skeletons are daft enough might even trick them intae fallin’ in the pits. Just my two copper onyway’.

‘That does sound like a better plan to me. Baye are you alright with it?’

‘Fine by me’.

‘Adriana, you ok with being further back?’.

‘Sigh, the logic behind the plan is sound by my reasoning, I will stay further back’.

Adriana seemed slightly downbeat but at least she seemed to understand that her being in the rear was for the best in this specific scenario. Delde couldn’t quite understand why she would be so upset over not being in danger, she was personally happy to stay back and let others deal with any undead that might try to ambush them. Perhaps she felt that she was better suited to more melee encounters and didn’t like to be out of her element, Delde could appreciate that, she preferred to be in a position where she was most useful as well.

With the general positioning of most of the group now established Dal and the rest of the group headed back to the switch they had found and left Baye there. She seemed a little annoyed at being led there by everyone over just walking over to it herself, but she said nothing against it. She did however notch an arrow in her bow as the rest of the group made their way through the chamber, her eyes glued to the spot where the door was, presumably waiting for any undead to attempt to come through.

After what felt to Delde like an hour of careful testing the floor and several pitfall traps being set off Dal found the other two switches. She didn’t know if Dal had set off every pitfall trap in the chamber, but it felt like it to her, but no one had fallen into any of them, so they were doing well. They had also found a couple that had no pillows in them at all and would have probably left them very injured if they had fallen into those pits. As for the switches there was one on the north, east and south wall of the chamber. She stood at the northern switch and Adriana at the eastern one. Dal and Igmar swiftly made their way back to the door, the gnome guiding the dwarf with ease now that most if not all the traps were revealed.

‘Alright that’s us all in position, can everybody hear me!’ Dal called out.

Adriana, Baye and herself all called out in confirmation.

‘Good! Now on the count of three flip the switches but don’t leave where you’re standing! Igmar will brace the door open, and I’ll come and lead you all through the maze! Welp, fingers crossed this doesn’t arm more traps or bring more monsters down on us! One! Two! Three!’

Delde flipped the switch she was next to and heard the distinct “clunk” of Adriana and Baye doing the same. She could also faintly hear the sound of what she assumed was the door unlocking and being swung open, but from where she was her view was blocked by the many pillars in the chamber. Then there was a moment of silence, one that began to draw on too long for her liking.

‘Is everything alright at the door, did it work!?’

‘Aye, the doors opened noo! Leads tae a corridor goin’ left tae right, an ah can hear the wailin’ comin’ frae the left-hand side! Nae monsters or other beasties either, looks like we’re safe fer noo!’

Delde was quietly relieved that none of the sprung pitfall traps had reset with the opening of the doors, and that for all the noise they had made there were no other undead approaching them. It did puzzle her though, the lack of undead that they had encountered since entering the crypt. The shear amount of necromantic magic that she had witnessed emanating from this place was unlike anything she had ever seen before, but outside of the six skeletons that they had fought in the entrance chamber she hadn’t encountered anything that would have suggested its presence. Even the bodies of the two townspeople were undisturbed when by all accounts they should have been reanimated as zombies or the like. To be fair they were only in the second chamber of the crypt, but that it and the adjoining corridor were empty of undead was very strange to Delde. She had the distinct impression that she was missing some crucial piece of information that would explain this anomaly to her. She deeply anticipated learning this secret regardless of whether it would help her develop more magical power, in her mind knowledge was its own reward. Of course, if she did somehow develop some magical understanding from it that would put her above her siblings in spellcasting potential then she wouldn’t be upset at that.

She was so immersed in her thoughts that when Dal arrived before her with Baye and Adriana in tow it caught her off guard for a second. If he or the others noticed though they didn’t let it show, Dal seemed to be focused on finding any more pitfall traps that had been activated by the opening of the door with Adriana and Baye looking for any surprise attacks from hidden undead. They all progressed swiftly though the pillar filled room with Dal finding no new traps and the sprung ones easy to see.

‘All that effort in case of extra traps and there’s none. I mean really, the pitfall traps and the door locked with switches were alright, but whoever designed this place could have put a bit more effort into the traps. Seriously, the first thing I thought when I realized that there were switches that had to be thrown to unlock the door was that unlocking the door would either reset the traps or activate new ones and force me to search for them all. Or maybe they should have had a switch inside on of the pits and then force whoever was going through to set off all the traps to find it, then have to find a way of getting in and out of the pit without hurting yourself. Or maybe- ‘

‘You’re complaining it was too easy?’

Baye asked Dal in an incredulous tone.

‘Well once you know how it’s done it’s not that hard to get through here. I was just hoping for more of a challenge is all’.

‘While I am no trapsmith myself I would suspect that this room would have been more difficult to navigate had it not been for the note warning us about the trapped floor and the need to find the three switches. Otherwise, I imagine that we would have fallen victim to the first pitfall trap and have possibly wasted a great deal of time working out where the switches were and what they were for’.

‘Hmm’

Dal pondered over Adriana’s words for a minute or so as he led them onwards.

‘I suppose, that and the fact that we’ve got five people with us, six if you include Onyx’ Delde’s familiar meowed in acknowledgment to his name from within her backpack. ‘made it a lot easier. If we didn’t have enough people, we’d have needed everyone to head over to the door by themselves and possibly trigger a trap they didn’t notice, or maybe even have someone rush from their switch to the door to keep it open. Speaking of which anything to report door guard Igmar?’

‘Naw, nothin’ comin’ or goin’ through the corridor. That said the sobbin’s turned back tae wailin’ noo’.

After taking a second to analyse the sound coming from the corridor Delde had to agree, it seemed that whatever was the source of the sound had returned to the louder wailing from before they had their battle with the skeletons. What this actually meant she couldn’t say though.

‘So, we aw ready to move out?’

Everyone gave a nod of confirmation.

‘Good. Right, I reckon that Dal should head oot first, followed by me an Adriana, then Baye an Delde at the back’.

‘Wait, why am I all of a sudden the canary for the group!? Shouldn’t you be the one to head out first in case something jumps out to attack us?’

‘Because if there’s ony traps or the like you’re more likely to spot them. Plus, yer quieter than the rest o us, so if there’s ony undead ahead yie should spot them afore they spot you. If yie dae then hurry back an warn the rest o us as quiet as yie can’.

Dal sighed melodramatically but had his trademark grin of his face and gave a theatrical flick of his cloak as if to remove what little dust it had accrued that the last chambers traps had kicked up.

‘I suppose I’ll need to keep you all safe then. Keep well back and try to keep your noise down. Oh, and if I suddenly rush back screaming at the top of my lungs, waving my hands in the air, with tears running down my face, that means I might have been spotted and we might have a fight on our hands’.

With that he turned on his heels and headed off to the left of the corridor following it when it shortly turned to the south and left their sight. After a couple of seconds passed Igmar gestured for the rest of them to follow and they all went after Dal in as quiet a manner as they could. This wasn’t difficult for Baye and Delde, but Igmar and Adriana both made much more noise with their scale mail armour rattling as they walked down the darkened passageway.