Bryon stood there dumbly as he watched John die just as he passed through the portal. The men surrounding him came to and looked at Bryon as they reached for their swords. After witnessing one man turn on him Bryon was far more alert for potential treachery.
Sensing the change in the atmosphere he decided it was best to act early before anyone got any smart ideas. Bryon took a deep breath and loudly announced "since you can't even do this right then I'll have to do it myself. Anyone who wants money for the brothels after this mission follows me, Anyone who is scared of a door can stay behind and make sure the door stays open". While he spoke he was thinking that all those who followed him would be the loyal ones, while the ones who stayed behind were about to stab him in the back, so he would take note of those men and make sure to give them what they deserve once back at camp.
Once the two groups split up and Bryon got to the door he picked up a fallen spear and began to poke through the portal, in each and every direction and seemingly thinking hard after every impact.
After a few minutes, both groups began to grow impatient. The ones behind with gloating looks on their faces seemingly saying "see you don't dare to enter either". Bryon felt the changes in the expression of his men and decided that spending any more time testing would be detrimental to his survival, so he tested with his spear one last time before sliding his foot through the portal and slowly stepping through while crouched.
Bryon's face came to the other side of the portal and he paused because he was stunned by what was in front of him. The floor was entirely made of pressure plates with only small gaps between them. There were traps everywhere most of which Bryon could tell immediately would not work at all. Not because they had been disarmed but because they were not even installed correctly.
A few steps ahead of him there was a simple swinging log trap next to the wall but, instead of the log hanging high up, it was sitting low on the pendulum next to the wall, so even if it dropped it would only swing a foot or so.
The five men that chose to follow Bryon started to enter the portal after him and soon stopped in stunned silence just as Bryon did earlier. When they used their spears to check the pressure plates before they stepped onto them, They found that the pressure plates wouldn't depress at all with the weight of the tips of the spears no matter how much they pushed. Now having to resort to slamming the spear buts down on the ground like a walking stick they slowly continued forward.
Bryon saw his followers going ahead with so much concentration that they didn't notice that he was not moving, After watching them move further without him he decided to just let them be the canaries for him.
It was not long before the frontrunner made it to the log trap, he sneered at it and stepped right past it, thinking that even if it activated he would be fine, But once he stepped onto the pressure plate the log moved horizontally smashing right into him, then pushing him further until the log reached the wall with the man still in between. A sickeningly loud crack was heard as the man was squished between the two surfaces.
Ignoring the paling faces of his subordinates Bryon followed the safe route his subordinates used, Now with closer inspection, he found that the log trap had a piston behind it closest to the wall and when activated it drove the man and log into the opposite wall. A cold chill went down Bryon's back when he realized that not only were the traps uncommon types but some were traps within traps.
Now with only four more men, Bryon ordered them to be more careful and not to take anything for granted. They slowly made progress forward sometimes stepping on pressure plates that did nothing, sometimes stepping on others that would not depress at all.
When they encountered anything suspicious they stopped and discussed how to proceed, using such a cautious approach they managed to make it past several traps.
The front runner stepped off a solid plate and onto another plate and it depressed with a click then he continued on, then the man behind him stepped on the same plate the man stepped on the same solid plate. Instead of the plate not moving like before it clicked too.
He did not even have time to take his weight off the plate before it suddenly sprung up, the resulting force snapped his leg and flung him across the hallway.
Everyone watched as he sailed through the air then landed onto several pressure plates at once, Then spikes protruded out of the wall and impaled him, quickly draining him of his lifeblood.
This scene scared the group silly, Someone said "didn't we already check that plate how come it tripped then" only for his question to be met with silence.
Now even more paranoid the group checked everything several times before trusting it, even things that had already been checked before. This slowed down the group considerably.
The man in front at this point was tired and wound up, ready to explode at any moment. Soon enough he became careless, when he stepped onto a new pressure plate he had tested, his spear got caught on something that quickly gave way.
Several clicks were heard then the grating of sound, the people remaining were holding their breath, waiting for what was to come next.
The grating stones were the walls, which opened to reveal skeletons with short daggers that gleamed an odd light from the unknown material both the daggers and the skeletons were made from.
After the skeletons appeared the group tried to put down their spears somewhere it wouldn't set something off and draw their swords. When they finished fumbling with their equipment they found the skeletons approaching them, they half expected them to be killed by the dungeons own traps, but they were disappointed because the skeletons did not weigh enough to set off the traps.
During the fight, the men were having difficulty killing the skeletons because of the material they were made from, they were made from a translucent green jade that made it impossible to destroy the skeletons with swords.
After a short scuffle, all of Bryon's subordinates had been ripped apart by the skeletons leaving him alone. Now with no options left Bryon started to pump mana into his legs and backtrack towards the gate.
Seeing him running a skeleton hit a panel of the wall and it pushed in. After the panel was pushed the floor several meters to the portal dropped slightly then slid under a wall revealing a long drop with spikes underneath.
Bryon stopped when the floor to the exit vanished and looked into the new pit, he saw mostly darkness below with only the glint of sharp spikes on the bottom. Now with his only escape cut off his eyes became bloodshot, he grabbed a potion from his pocket and downed it in one go.
Immediately after drinking the position his muscles bulged and veins began to show, he then grew several inches taller. Now with drool falling from his mouth he gave a guttural roar and sprinted past the skeletons.
The skeletons only managed to score small cuts on him with his huge muscles blocking most of the damage. He tried to take strides that were as long as possible while running, to attempt to reduce the number of traps he might set off.
Bryon made nearly halfway across the hallway when he felt a sudden hotness in his midsection. He looked down and felt blood on his chest. Blood was coming from a line that went all the way around his chest. After looking back and sing a steel wire he collapsed into two halves with a sickening slosh and died.