She woke in the dank, cold chamber in what Delde assumed was the morning, the absence of both windows and timekeeping devices making it imposable to know the actual time. Everyone else was either up or in the process of getting up so Delde gathered her things and made use of a small casting of her prestidigitation cantrip to remove some of the dirt and grime from herself. It wasn’t as good as an actual bath, but it was as good as she was going to get. She then settled in and began her morning ritual of preparing her spells for the day, something that would have been easier if she knew what the group planned to do. That said she had no interest in triggering another debate and so made the decision on her own.
The task took most of her attention, but she could vaguely make out what all the others were doing as well. Dal appeared well enough to make breakfast for everyone, which looked to be a porridge mixed with some berries that they had harvested the day before. Adriana was performing her supplications to Sarenrae, requesting her patron for spells for the day in an act mirroring her own. The process seemed to be slightly delayed though as she kept looking over at Roldare, who was sitting listlessly on a crate staring at the door. He wasn’t wailing or crying anymore at least but he still seemed unsettled, like he was waiting for death to burst through the door for him. Igmar was also looking at the door, but only intermittently, he was for the most part consumed by his focus on maintaining his weapons and armour. He was presently sharpening his longsword to a razor’s edge and his scale mail gleamed in the light of the small cooking fire that Dal had made. Baye was the one who was most at a loss for things to do, she was regularly checking her own equipment and weapons, but for the most part she was examining the room and the rest of the group. At one-point Delde and Baye’s eyes met, but Delde turned away, wanting to focus on ensuring her spells would be ready for the day.
One her preparations were ready Delde went over to the rest of the group who were sitting down for breakfast. The mood seemed better now than it was the previous evening, but they still ate in silence for the most part, Adriana was even able to get Roldare to eat some porridge, although it was only a little. Eventually once they were done and they cleaned up after themselves they all realised that they would need to finally discuss the looming issue.
‘Aw right, whit are we gonnie dae t’day then. Are we leavin’, carryin’ on, or splittin’ up?’
There was a silence that stretched out for an awkward length of time. Just as it looked like Adriana and Baye were both about to re-state their cases Igmar cut them both off.
‘Ah think yie both made yer points clear yesterday, so let’s say that’s a vote fer stayin’ an another fer goin’. Noo, whit aboot the rest o us?’
Silence again, but now Delde felt motivated to speak up. She hated being stared at and felt that her own judgement might be in question after what happened with the room with the Shadow, but she couldn’t just stand there, she wanted to contribute, to help.
‘For what it’s worth I think we should stick to the original plan. I don’t think anything has happened that makes it any less of the best way to go forward’.
‘You forget about the shadow monster that almost killed Dal?’
‘No. But I don’t think that changes our original plan. Remember, we came in here to find survivors and get them out. We went into that room and found nothing alive in there. What’s more, we didn’t find any other exits to the room, so it looks like that way is a literal dead end. And though the smoke was thick in there, I couldn’t see any levers or switches that we’d need to pull, so as far as I can tell we have absolutely no reason to go back to that room. From what I’ve marked own on the map here ‘.
Delde brough out the parchment that she’d mapped out all the rooms and showed them what she was talking about.
‘We have three other possible routes to take. The other door leading off from the entrance chamber, the other branch of the corridor after the pitfall room, and the stairs down in the room that had the giant insect. Any of those ways could lead to other survivors. I think we should do as we were and carefully explore all these other passages before we leave. If we find more Shadows, we fall back; so far all the undead have stuck to the rooms we’ve found them in so we should be alright if we’re quick enough’.
‘That’s a big should’. Baye voiced.
‘True. But we know what to look out for now. If we see anything that looks like it might overwhelm us, we can leave. And for what it’s worth I think if we find that there are a lot of Shadows in this crypt we should get out. At our best we would struggle against one, if there was a group of them, we wouldn’t survive’.
‘And if it turns out that the only way for us to progress is to fight a Shadow? Then what?’
Baye didn’t sound overly aggressive, but she wasn’t backing down either.
‘Then we decide at the time. I don’t think there’s much point in making such a decision now when there’s every chance that we won’t need to make it at all. For all we know that is the only Shadow in the entire crypt, we can’t presume anything about the undead in this crypt. When I first saw the skeletons in the entrance chamber, I thought that they would be the only form of undead that we’d need to worry about. I was wrong. If we do go deeper into the crypt, I’ll do my best to ensure that you’re all aware of what you’re going up against, and if I think that we can’t win then I’ll tell you I promise. But I do think we should press on. We’ve come this far already, and we know of at least one other person who we might be able to save. However, if the rest of the group wants to leave, I’ll go along with you all, I think splitting up would be the worst thing we could do. I don’t believe we could have gotten this far without everyone contributing’.
‘Aye, ah’ll be honest ah think that splittin’ intae two groups will only leave both worse off an aw. Ah think that nae matter whit we dae we’ll need tae dae it together’.
Everyone seemed to agree with Igmar’s statement, or if they held any doubts, they kept them to themselves. He carried on speaking regardless.
‘Ah think that we should take a vote over whether we should keep rummagin’ through this crypt or if we should head back tae Kassen. Fer ma part I’d say we stay here. Delde’s right aboot things, we’ve still plenty o places we’ve no properly searched an so long as we’re carful we should be aw right’.
Dal spoke up next.
‘I feel the same way as Igmar and Delde. Don’t get me wrong I don’t like the idea of walking into another ambush or trying to fight against a Shadow, but so long as we have a clear idea of where the exit is and don’t get trapped, I’m alright with searching further in this place’.
With essentially four votes to Bayes one it was clear that the group would be staying, all eyes then turned to Baye to see if she would be staying with the group. She looked them all in the eyes with a flat expression.
‘If that’s what everyone else wants, I’ll stay. But if we’re doin’ this, we need to be smart. That means conservin’ as many resources as we can. That Includes your healin’ magic’. She pointed at Adriana. ‘If one of us gets hurt we should try and get by on normal medicine for as long as we can. If we do end up fightin’ a Shadow, I’d be better to have somethin’ we know can hurt it. And if a fight looks like it’ll be too difficult, and we can avoid it we should. No point on makin’ things harder than they need to be. Everyone alright with that?’
Everyone agreed with Baye stipulations and the tension that had been present ever since their failed encounter with the Shadow evaporated like morning mist in the midday sun. They decided as a group to examine the other door that was present in the entrance chamber. It seemed as good a place to start as any and Delde mentally noted it was also close to the exit to the crypt as well. She hoped that they wouldn’t be driven to run so soon after regaining their motivation.
As they walked Dal nonchalantly chatted away as he was want to do, as he casually checked the path ahead of them for any traps or ambushes.
‘Hey Delde, I’ve got a question for you’.
‘Yes? What is it?’
‘Well, it’s about that shadow monster that attacked me, what’s it called?’
‘A… Shadow. At least that’s what it’s referred to in all the texts that I’ve read about them. Do you know if they have a different name in religious texts Adriana?’
‘No, the undead such as we faced yesterday are referred to Shadows in everything that I have read as well. I believe Father Prasst once spoke of them as well and called them Shadows, so I don’t think they have any other names amongst different faiths’.
‘Well that’s a dumb name’.
‘What? Why? It’s accurate as to their appearance’.
‘Yeah, but shadows are already a thing. I mean if I point to that’. He gestured to a shadow cast on the mural clad wall. ‘And say “Oh look a shadow”, nobodies thinking that I’m talking about a monster’.
‘You got a better name in mind?’ Baye chimed in.
‘How about “Dire Shadow”?’.
‘Meh’, Baye shrugged. ‘You get dire beasts in places. Their just bigger and badder versions of animals’.
‘And that doesn’t suit that thing!? I got up real close with it, it was plenty bad enough for me’.
‘True, but as Baye pointed out there, animals given the title of “dire” are more advanced versions of living beasts. The Shadow is an undead spirit that only shares a superficial physical appearance to actual shadows, it is quite different to them in reality’.
‘Sigh. Fine, how about “Grave-Shadow” then, because its undead? Does that work better?’.
‘From what I’ve read on them Shadows aren’t bound to the site of their graves. Once they come into being they’re free to wander. I’d venture that the current behaviour of the undead here is more due to the nature of whatever created such a surge in necromantic magic rather than their own desires. So, it might be better to avoid having people think that an absence of graves equals an absence of Shadows’.
‘Ugh, fine! How about “Death-Shadows” then? They’re shadowy and they kill people! At least they try to. Isn’t that a better name?’.
‘Ack, “Death-Shadows” soonds like yer tryin’ tae hard. Soonds like whit a bunch o half-drunk bandits wid call themselves tae scare folk. The “Death-Shadows”.” Onybody hearin’ that will either think their overblown or they’ll think their goin’ up against death itself’.
‘Ahh! Fine! We’ll keep calling them Shadows then, but I maintain that it’s a dumb name and when I come up with something better that’s all I’ll call them’.
‘Your certainly welcome to do that, but good luck trying to get everyone else to call them that’.
Delde wasn’t used to this sort of good-natured ribbing but as they all laughed, even Dal in all his mock outrage, she felt strangely content. As though they had all been friends for many years. It felt awkward to assume that they felt the same as her though, so Delde made an effort to regain her composure and comport herself in a more professional manner.
Just as she did so she realised that they were now standing in front of the door they were headed for, their discussion having apparently distracted her from her surroundings. She was frustrated that even though they had all agreed that they were in a dangerous situation, she had allowed herself to become distracted. It was a dangerous mistake that could have fatal consequences.
The group all watched Dal examine the door for any potential traps or some indication that there were monsters on the other side of it. He turned to them all and gave one of his patented flippant grins.
‘Welp, seems clear. No traps or anything that I can see that would be a problem, unless they’ve got a bucket of flour or water perched over it, I can’t really tell from this side of the door. I can’t hear anything moving through there either. Which admittedly doesn’t mean much as the skeletons here weren’t moving when we came through here the first time and if the last one we came across is any indication Shadows don’t make too much noise. The only thing that I think I can hear is running water but I’m not sure, it’s pretty faint’.
‘Aw right then, Ah’ll open the door first then an see if it’s safe. But ah swear if ah open the door an a bucket lands on ma heed ah’ll be chuckin’ it at yours next’.
‘Phff, like you could hit me’.
Delde rolled her eyes at their back and forth and waited, spell primmed in her mind as Igmar opened the door. She was ready for any monsters that were lying in wait for them, undead or not. She was almost disappointed to see that the chamber appeared to be completely devoid of inhabitants.
The chamber was a large square around thirty feet each side, with two exits outside of the one that they had opened, both sturdy wooden doors on the southernmost wall. There were also four pillars in the room, narrower than the ones in the pitfall room, closer to about a foot in width and unadorned with any decoration. The four pillars enclosed the rooms most significant feature, that being a large pool of what looked to be clear, fresh water that was fed from a stone fountain on the northern wall. The fountain was carved from the same grey stone as the rest of the crypt and of remarkable quality. It consisted of a weeping maiden, her hands covering her eyes which seemed to be the source of water, and a male warrior lying dead at her feet that she seemed to be mourning. The figures were both carved with intricate detail that Delde could only assume was the handiwork of a master craftsman. The folds in the maiden’s dress, small scratches in the warrior’s armour, woman’s locks of hair falling past her face. Delde had never seen such a piece of artwork like the fountain, not even in her father’s mansion. The fountain and pool were in excellent condition as well and were spotlessly clean in contrast to the rest of the crypt. The only noticeable flaw in it was that the head of the male figure was missing, broken off by the looks of things. The mural in this chamber was more water damaged than the rest of the crypt, its figures blurred, its colours faded but the room looked to be safe to enter.
Igmar looked at the rest of the group questioningly, asking with his eyes if they could see some reason or danger that would make entering foolish. With no response he took a step inside.
‘MAGIC IS THE KEY’.
A voice from the darkness boomed out as soon as the dwarf took his first step in the chamber. He immediately leaped back and had his sword drawn, as did everyone else.
‘What was that? Was that what Roldare heard? The voice of death?’.
Baye asked as she scanned the room for targets. Everyone was on edge. Save for Delde who felt only frustration and annoyance at herself. The volume was much louder than she was used to, but once she processed that and got over the initial shock, she realised she knew exactly whose voice that was. She sighed and rolled her eyes at her foolish reaction as her grip on her staff lessened.
‘It’s not an undead, I know that voice. It’s Holgasts, I imagine that it’s a magic mouth spell’.
Blank stares were the mute response to her explanation.
‘It’s a sort of… pre-recorded auditory illusion. One that typically is activated by a specifically designated action, in this case entering this room. It’s probably a clue for whatever kind of “trial” we’re meant to undergo here, I’ve no idea why he wouldn’t just write down another note for it though. And I’ll need to tell him when we get back that he misjudged how loud to make it’.
She stepped through into the room to prove that it was safe to enter, at which point the rest of the group followed her in and spread out. There were no obvious clues or challenges to overcome, and Dal reported no traps about.
Baye carefully went up to the pool and investigated it, going so far as to dip one of her arrows in it and then sniff the water. Satisfied with the results she looked at Delde.
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‘Looks like you were right. The water here’s good for drinkin’. We can fill our waterskins here now. Saves us havin’ to worry about headin’ back to the Grey Lake for water’.
Although it wasn’t much as far as praise went Delde still found herself basking in the warm feeling of satisfaction. Knowing that she was correct was one thing but being proven correct was far more important to Delde. She fought against showing her feeling on her face, she knew that pride was an ugly sin and one that typically came before a fall from grace, something that she had no intention of undergoing.
‘So, uh, Delde? If the clue is “Magic is the Key” and your mentor is the one who set the clue out, do you think you can work out what it is we’re meant to be doing in here? Because you’re basically our magic person’.
While she was enjoying being needed for the group’s success Delde focused on the task at hand. She could afford to feel proud of herself once she had sone something worth being proud over. On first examination of the room there wasn’t anything overtly magical in it. The fountain might have been judging on how it was perfectly clean, but it was just as likely that the townspeople had washed it as one of their first jobs in setting up the crypt for them before they were attacked. Delde decided she would need to perform a more thorough investigation of the chamber. She calmed her mind and performed the detect magic cantrip to properly allow herself to find any sources of magic in the chamber. Fortunately, she had braced herself for the sheer scale of the necromantic magic, so she was not overwhelmed by its presence. Unfortunately, she couldn’t detect anything except necromancy either. If there was another source of magic in the room, it would probably be fairly weak which would explain why she was having so much trouble detecting it. Delde went over to the fountain to examine it closer, hoping that something would reveal itself.
She was about to admit defeat when she sensed something. It was faint, even without the overwhelming presence of the necromantic magics of the crypt she would have been hard pressed to detect it. Down in the bottom of the pool, which was far deeper than Delde had expected there was something magical that she could detect. She couldn’t even tell what magic it resonated most with, only that it was there. Physically looking in the pool did nothing as although the waters were clean, they were still grew too dark to make out the bottom.
‘Adriana, could you enchant a stone or the like with a light cantrip and drop it into the pool? I think there’s something down there, but I can’t see down far enough’.
‘But of course’.
She replied with a beneficent smile and found a small stone which lit up with a whispered prayer from her. The cleric of Sarenrae dropped it into the pool with a plop and watched it descend along with everyone else. Further and further it went, Delde estimated that it was around the thirty foot mark that it finally found the bottom of the pool, although the water made it difficult to be sure.
It took a moment for everyone to work out what it was at the bottom of the pool with it being so far away and still dark, even with a light source. The base seemed ruff and unworked in contrast to the smooth carved sides, and it appeared to be made of a strange multi-coloured material. Delde focused more on the floor, trying to pick out details and then the truth dawned on her. What she had assumed was the base of the pool was in fact just a thick covering that hid it. The bottom of the pool was covered in hundreds, of different keys of various designs, possibly thousands, but only one of them she realised was magical. The problem was that at this distance she couldn’t quite determine which one it was. Delde was going to need to get much closer. She groaned at the realisation of what she was going to have to do. Nobody else had the ability to detect magic, and she couldn’t cast the cantrip on others, so she was going to have to be the one to dive into the pool. Delde swore to herself that when she got back to Kassen she was going to have a talk with Holgast over this, it seemed vastly unfair to her that he had created a task that only she would be able to complete, and in a manner that was going to leave her soaking wet and freezing cold. She made a mental note to later have a discussion with Dal over pranks and how to properly pull them off.
‘Well, it seems that one of the keys down there is magical from what I can make out. I’m presuming it opens one or both of these doors’. She gestured to the heavy wooden doors at the southern wall.
‘So which key is it then?’.
‘Sigh… I can’t tell from this distance. I’m going to have to get closer… much closer unfortunately’.
‘Before we you do that perhaps we should try the doors themselves. Perhaps one of them does not require a key and we can progress that way?’.
Delde was appreciative of Adriana trying to find a way forward without having to dive down almost thirty feet of cold water, but she didn’t think it would work out that way. But she was willing to put off having to do it for a moment more, so she shrugged and responded.
‘We may as well try’.
Dal went over to the westernmost door and gave it a quick check over.
‘Huh. Well Adriana might be onto something here. This door doesn’t have any keyhole or lock from what I can tell’.
Judging it safe he tried the handle and to the great surprise of Delde it opened with no problems. For a brief shining moment, she believed that she wasn’t going to have to get drenched in the name of some stupid tradition. Then the light shown through, and she decided that the pool would be the safer option.
The door led to a long corridor lined with identical large stone statues of human men, perhaps Kassen himself. They all were armed with two handed swords that they held above their head, poised to swing them down and strike a non-existent enemy. The statues closest to their end of the corridor all had their sword wrapped up in a thick leather binding, but further down it seemed that the blades were not as adorned, and the blades seemed unnaturally sharp for being made of stone.
‘Well, even I can see that this is clearly a trap’.
Adriana said aloud, breaking the silence. She was of course obviously correct in her assessment. The fact that the townspeople had been in the process of covering the swords up to make them less lethal made it blatantly clear what would happen if they tried to walk through there. Delde turned back to the pool and shivered slightly. The entire crypt was cold, save for the room with the blazing inferno which was chilling for an entirely different set of reasons, but the pool seemed especially frigid to her. She wondered how Holgast had looked when he came up with this test for her, she wondered how best to get her own back on him for subjecting her to this.
‘Suppose that leave me back to diving into the pool then’. Delde said with resignation in her voice.
‘I mean, I could probably work out what triggers the trap and try to disarm it. If we’re lucky it’ll only be one trigger for all of them and not a separate one for each individual statue. And if not, I can dodge one of those swords no problem I bet, whoever designed them didn’t have gnomes in mind when they were making them… probably’.
‘No, its fine. There’s no point in you risking yourself when we presumably have a safe passage through this other door’. She gestured to the door’s brother. ‘It’s not like I can’t swim. I just don’t particularly like it, especially when it’s in a dark and freezing cold pool in an undead infested crypt. I’m the only one who’ll be able to tell which key it is that we need to collect so I’ll just need to get on with it’.
Delde took off her backpack and laid her staff next to it. Onyx poked his head out to see what was happening but other than that he remained in his safe mobile haven.
‘Oot o curiosity, hoo gid o a swimmer are yie? Mare specifically, hoo gid o a diver are yie?’.
‘I’m… capable of it… but I admit I’ve never tried to go as deep as this before. Regardless, there aren’t any other options. I have to do this’.
‘I’ll help you. I’ll dive down as well. Make sure you get down and up alright. You just need to focus on finding the key’.
Baye was already taking off her backpack and boots as she was saying this, while Dal was also rummaging through his own for something.
‘Here it is! Told you all we’d need this! Hey, you can take one end of the rope down with you as well. Me, Igmar, and Adriana will keep a hold of the end with the grappling hook and can pull you both up when you get the key. Just tug on it twice to let us know to start pulling. This way it’ll be quicker and safer; you can just let us know and we’ll drag you out of the water like a fish on a line if you get into trouble’.
Everyone was onboard with the plan and Delde had to admit she did feel better about her swim to the bottom of the pool now that she had some help to rely on. She took off her shoes and anything else that she felt might fall off in the water; Delde had no intention of making a repeat journey for anything. With everything next to her backpack, she walked to the edge of the pool where Baye was already waiting for her, one end of the rope in her hand.
‘Alright. I’ll hold the rope and help lead you down to the bottom. You use your magic to pick the right key up, then grab hold of me. I’ll tug the rope and we’ll both be pulled up. Oh, and if you can’t work out which key it is, just grab a handful. We can always dive back for more’.
Delde wasn’t sure as Baye turned quickly towards the pool, but she was sure that she caught a slight smirk as she said that. Well, at least somebody was enjoying themselves with this.
She took a deep breath. Then another. And another. Delde wasn’t scared of the water and could swim but she had only done so a few times before in her life. Less than a handful in fact. But she could do it, and more importantly she would do it. Just as soon as she worked up the nerve.
‘…Do you want to do it on the count of three?’
I’d rather not do it at all, Delde thought to herself.
‘Yes. That might be better’.
‘One’.
Maybe she should have tested the water with her foot to properly brace herself for the cold?
‘Two’.
Or perhaps she should have just slid into the pool rather than diving into it from the edge?
‘Three!’
Delde forced her body to move to get it over with as soon as possible and performed an extremely inelegant dive as a result. It was more accurate to call it an aimed fall rather than a dive she through to herself as she hit the water. The icy cold ripped through her whole body and striped her of what little warmth she had been able to maintain in the crypt. It felt as though she was being stabbed by thousands of tiny needles, an experience made worse by the fact that as she fell into the water Delde quickly lost all semblance of direction and orientation. There was no up or down, only cold and painful numbness spreading throughout her extremities. Instinct overrode intellect and she began to desperately flail about. It was more due to shock paralysing her than a conscious effort that she was able to keep holding her breath.
Then she felt something warm, something strong. It was a pair of hands gripping her tightly. Delde opened her eyes that she only just now realising were firmly shut and saw Baye holding her, helping to properly orientate her, making sure she was alright. Baye looked questioningly at the rope. Delde shook her head and pointed down to where she could see the light from Adriana’s enchanted pebble. She had already come this far she just wanted to be done with this as soon as she could. Baye nodded and held her hand as she dove deeper into the pool, closer to the faint, but growing magical aura that had first driven her to this point.
The further down they went the greater the pressure grew around Delde, reaching the point that it felt like she was slowly being crushed by a giant. Or perhaps a titan. Giants whilst large as a rule generally were too small to enclose a human like herself in a single or even two hands. Titans from what she understood were beings from outside the material plane and stood at around seventy feet tall. They –
Delde shook her head and redoubled her focus. She couldn’t afford to get distracted now. She didn’t know how long she could hold her breath, it had never been something she was interested in knowing, but she doubted she had long. Delde knew that she had to work out what key was the magical one before they reached the bottom of the pool to grab it as soon as she could. Technically she could always try again, there was no real rush for her to do it immediately outside of her desire to be out of the water. But that desire was intense.
She honed her sense of magic and began to narrow in on the location, indicating to Baye where to swim towards with a pointed finger. Delde was swimming along as well, but she was under no illusions as to who was the primary reason they were reaching the base of the pool so quickly. She might have felt somewhat foolish in different circumstances, being essentially carried along by a woman the same age as her but not even half her hight. But she had already seen the competency of Baye in the Fangwoods and she was not too proud to accept assistance in more physical challenges that she knew she had little hope of overcoming on her own. Still, she imagined that the sight of the halfling swimming down dragging a human with her must have looked rather odd to the rest of the group up on the surface. The warm, dry surface.
Even closer now. Delde was certain that she had narrowed it down to one of the keys in a small square foot radius. Her lungs were burning now though, and her muscles ached. She needed to get out, to breathe again. But she was so close now. She stretched out her hand but felt herself being held back. Delde looked at Baye and discovered the problem. The rope that she was holding onto was short about five meters of the bottom of the pool. For all the strain that she was suffering through Baye appeared untroubled by the dive that had almost shattered Delde. But she did look concerned. Delde understood why, Baye had accompanied her down to help pull her up if she got into trouble, but if she let go of the rope, even for a short while it would begin to move in the water. The others might be able to see the issue, but despite the light it remained difficult to see precisely what was happening in the depths of the pool. It was possible that they would think something had gone wrong and they might try and make the dive themselves to assist, or if something did go wrong Baye might waste precious seconds trying to recapture the rope.
The halfling looked questioningly at Delde then at the rope, it looked to Delde that she was suggesting that they resurface and try again. She shook her head firmly in the negative. She had already come too far to go back, what’s more she doubted she could endure a second descent. If she was going to get the key, she had to do it now.
Delde gently, but firmly pushed away from Baye and clumsily swam towards where she could tell the key was. She was much slower than Baye was, agonisingly slower. But every second she got closer to the key. She could see it clearly now, a small, tarnished brass thing, unadorned of ornamentation save for faded ivy engraved on it. Delde could see spots beginning to form in the corner of her eyes now. Every instinct she had was yelling at her to swim up with everything she had but she pushed them down. She stretched forth her hand and grasped the key as tightly as she could with her numbed fingers. Delde turned and began swimming back to Baye and the promise of a quick escape from the crushing and cold water.
Tiny bubbles were streaming from her nose now. The dark spots in the corner of her eyes were growing larger. And she was getting slower. Her limbs burned and screamed but refused to follow the instructions from her mind. Delde tightened her grip on the key, she was not going to drop it now.
Baye seemed worried and was stretching over towards her as best she could but while the halflings tenacity was great her reach was not. Delde’s legs kicked and bucked like a young foals and was about as effective at moving her. But she did move, if only a little. Closer and closer she came to the outstretched hand of Baye before she felt the sensation of something tickling her face. It was bubbles streaming from her mouth. They were small but proof that she couldn’t last much longer. Her sight darkened even further and she could hear the blood pounding in her ears. Just a little further.
A grasp like iron took hold of her hand and Delde felt herself rocketing upwards out of the dreadful freezing water. The air from her lungs burst more from her lips now leading to a torrent of bubbles flowing from her mouth. She didn’t care. She had the key in her hand, and she would be able to breath soon. Fire coursed through her numb form as she waited for the glorious moment she could breathe again.
Then it came. Baye forced her head out of the water and Delde took the sweetest breath of air she had ever taken. With that one breath she felt her pounding heart begin to calm and the dark spots in her eyes started to fade. Before anything else Delde made her way back to the edge of the pool and thrust the key in her hand to Dal. That single act took most of her remaining strength, as she felt herself begin to sing back into the dark water. She felt herself being dragged out of the pool, by whom she didn’t know or care really. She was just elated that she could now do something so simple as breathe and not need to constantly feel the crushing pressure of cold water around her.
She could hear the others fussing over her, although she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying exhausted as she was. It felt nice to be the centre of attention she mused to herself. She never had that as a young child, nor as she got older. She had convinced herself that isolation wasn’t simply something that she was trapped in but a necessary state of being in order to truly excel at something. But now, feeling so many peoples concern for her well being felt… good.
She took a moment to recover from her exertion but once she had she forced herself to sit upright. Delde was not a child anymore, she had a job to do and she was going to see it through. She was just happy that she had proved to everyone, including herself that her resolve was the equal of anyone else’s.
‘Ah dinnie ken if yie should be movin’ just noo. Mebbie take a wee while tae get yer bearin’s’.
‘I’m fine… I’ll be fine. I just need a second to catch my breath. I haven’t… I’m not used to diving like that’.
‘I’ll bet’.
Baye said as she wiped herself dry as best she could. Delde forced herself to stand up seeing that, the room only slightly spinning as she did so as she walked over to her. She focused her mind and channelled the arcane magics she had at her disposal to perform a minor act of prestidigitation, specifically she made all of the cold-water soaking Baye fall to the stone floor in a puddle as if she had been standing there for hours. Then she repeated the same thing on herself. Neither of them were bone dry, both were still a little damp, but they were in a far better place than they were. Diving into the pool was bad enough, Delde had no intention of getting pneumonia on top of it.
‘Thanks. You alright? You’re lookin’ a bit wobbly’.
‘I’ll be fine, I just need to catch my breath. And I think I owe you more of a thanks than you owe me. I doubt I could have made that dive without your help’.
‘Probably not. But I couldn’t have found that key by myself, so I’d say we’re even... And for what it’s worth, you did pretty good for someone who doesn’t swim’.
Baye and Delde shared a smile with each other. While they were both different people with differing interests, they were still professionals and could respect each other as such. Adriana however remained concerned over Delde’s wellbeing.
‘Please Delde, sit for a while and rest. You have just gone through something very difficult, you should take the proper time to recover from it’.
She then turned and looked at Baye.
‘As should you Baye, that dive seemed very arduous for Delde, I imagine it was similarly difficult for you as well. You both shouldn’t try to push yourselves too far out of pride. You don’t have anything to prove to anyone’.
‘I – I appreciate your concern, I really do but I promise you I’m not pushing myself any further than I can go, and neither is Baye. We’re both just motivated to see this through to the end… Although I’ll admit that I’d rather we avoid any more deep diving excursions. I’ve rather had my fill of them’.
Everyone had a light chuckle and they all gathered around the locked door. Dal offered Delde the key.
‘Do you want to do the honours?’
‘Honestly, I just want to get out of this room and away from that pool. You can go ahead and open the door; you’re probably better equipped to spot any traps or the like anyway’.
Dal shrugged in an animated fashion.
‘Welp, let’s see what’s behind door number two then!’.
He put the key into the lock and… nothing. The door remained shut. Dal jiggled the key in the lock, but it refused to turn. He turned back to look at Delde.
‘Eh… this is kind of awkward… the key isn’t… eh, are you sure that you – ‘
‘– THAT IS THE CORRECT KEY!’.
Delde pointed accusingly at the item in question as Dal shrunk back from her.
‘I DID NOT PICK UP THE WRONG ONE! GET OUT OF MY WAY!’
She charged at the door and began wrestling with the key in the lock, trying to force it to move, to stop it from making a mockery of all her hard work. It remained infuriatingly uncooperative however as it refused to move.
Delde was breathing harder now, exhaustion fading away in the face of true anger. She was not wrong she knew this, she was certain. But as Delde examined the key and lock more carefully, hoping for some clue to make the key work she noticed some discrepancies between the two. The lock was of dark iron, the same metal that made the hinges and studs throughout the door, but the key was made of brass. She could see that the keyhole was also larger than it would need to be to fit the key.
‘NOOOO!’.