“What’s that thing?” Ceria said once they were back into the tunnel again.
“I’m not sure.” Alerio said, holding up the medallion for the party to examine. “Some kind of loot? Though it might not be since it isn’t recognized as an Item by the System.” He paused. “Maybe it’s more of a decoration or aesthetic piece?” He said hesitantly.
Uh-oh. Would they not even get that it was a Story connection at all? Sure I could understand it was hard to make any accurate connection with only one data point, but surely they could intuit something was special about it, going of where they found it if nothing else?
“It’s got a cool symbol on it. Maybe that’s important?” Athilana said.
Yeah, go Athilana! I thought.
Alerio squinted at it. “It definitely looks like it was designed on purpose, though I don’t recognize it from anywhere. But considering it was made by the Dungeon it isn’t that much of a surprise that it doesn’t look like a symbol from outside.”
“That’s a good point; how would the Dungeon have learned symbols from beyond its borders when it’s so young.” Noracin said. “Especially since this isn’t an actual Item, so it probably isn’t from the System…”
“Maybe it’s the symbol of the Dungeon itself?” The Ranger, Aira, suggested. “Like a signature or something?”
“Could be…” Alerio said hesitantly. “But then why put it here, hidden away in a random cave? No, something tells me there’s something else going on here.”
“Maybe it’s a clue to a future puzzle?” Ceria suggested.
“That… Yeah that might be it… Good thought Ceria. A puzzle, or a secret like a hidden door or something. Considering how different the Floor is from last time I wouldn’t put it past the Dungeon to have put in something like that.” Alerio said thoughtfully. He put the medallion in his pocket, then let out a short laugh. “I’m a bit embarrassed I didn’t think of that myself actually.”
“Let’s keep an eye out for other places in here with the same symbol. It could be the key to some extra loot or future Quest.” Noracin said.
The rest of the party nodded, then headed back out into the main tunnel of the alternate path. They quickly made it to the second cavern, where I’d carved a gargoyle with vampire fangs on the cavern wall. There wasn’t an obvious connection to the medallion, but I hoped they would connect them once they found the rest of the pieces from the main path. And just like the medallion, the carving also led to a rather spirited discussion from the party.
“It’s clearly more significant than a simple piece of decorative artwork.” Athilana said. “Otherwise why put it here, alone in an empty cave.”
“I’m not disagreeing with you.” Alerio said. “But I’m just saying we can’t know for sure how, and more importantly when, it will be relevant. It could be a hint of a future boss. It could be a clue to a riddle. And though the chances are low it could just be a cool carving made to be interesting, but one the Dungeon hasn’t found a purpose for yet.”
Noracin clapped his hands together to signal for silence. “Let’s leave the speculation until we’re done with the investigation. We have a job to do, and we don’t have all day.”
I was a little bit frustrated that they weren’t going to theorize and discuss properly. Maybe they even planned to wait until they were outside, where I couldn’t hear them, to do it. That would be so annoying, since I wouldn’t know if they got the stuff right or not. But it wasn’t as if I didn’t see Noracin’s point. Even though this wasn’t an official Challenge, there were still monsters and traps around. And if I’d been feeling angry I could have sent some in to attack whenever I wanted.
A Dungeon simply wasn’t the best place to just sit down and have a discussion about narrative implications when the creatures in there could hurt you.
…I might want to look into that in the future. Make a safe room or something, so I could at least listen in on some of the discussions that would happen regarding my Stories.
More things I would need to redo once they left... At least I wouldn’t run out of things to do anytime soon, even if I didn’t have a new Floor to work on.
The party continued through the tunnel without issue, and soon reached the sixth trap. This was the final section of the alternate path; a very narrow tunnel you could only pass through one at a time. And the trap wasn’t a simple pitfall this time. No, this time it was a complicated deadfall. Noracin crept forward in the front, hunched over and moving carefully, with Alerio and Ceria following behind. Something about this place seemed to have put them on edge, because the Mage was constantly flaring his [Detect Magic]. It wouldn’t do them any good though. This was a totally mundane trap, triggered by nothing more than a tripwire.
I had Morrígan’s advice to thank for that. Noracin walked slowly, feeling the ground with his foot before putting his full weight on it with each step. It was an admirable effort, and understandable considering his earlier fall, but it wouldn’t do him any good here. The tripwire wasn’t by his feet.
It wasn’t even triggered by them at all, in fact.
Above the tunnel, hidden in a small side passage only reachable from Stalker’s cave by a Bat, a singular winged creature hung from the ceiling. Normally it would be a part of the final fight together with my Guardian, but until then it had the important job of being the manual trigger for this trap.
Unlike my skeletons which could learn simple commands after an admittedly annoying and lengthy process, the Bats weren’t smart enough to learn anything even that complicated. But they did know how to attack something. And they listened to Stalker, who was smart enough to plan and strategize.
Now. I sent, and Stalker let out a shrill and musical shriek that echoed through the first Floor. It passed over the party like a wave, to which they all flinched and froze where they stood. Just as planned.
“What was that!?” Aira asked, holding her bow tight to her chest.
“The Guardian, I think…” Noracin said, peering ahead into the darkness of the tunnel with a frown.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“...The one we can talk to, you mean? That made a sound like that?” Athilana asked, but a sudden loud snap followed by the clattering of stone against stone caused them all to look up instead of replying. Above them the trap had activated perfectly, sending a larger rock rolling down a hidden slope into a similar sheet of thin stone that had been used for the pitfall. Only this sheet was high up on the side wall of the tunnel instead of on the ground. Beyond the range of Alerio’s [Detect Magic]. It shattered upon impact, sending the rock as well as dozens of shards of stone shrapnel tumbling down towards the party. For a frozen moment the cacophony of stone hitting stone was all that could be heard, before Noracin started yelling.
“GET AWAY!” He yelled. At nearly the same instant the rest of the party had the same idea, because they too turned and started shuffling back as fast as they possibly could in the cramped tunnel. Watching from everywhere I could see they wouldn’t make it. Athilana and Aira who were the furthest back might be safe, but there was no way the rest of them could escape from the affected area in time to avoid at least some of the small stone shards. The only question was if they could manage to avoid the larger rock or not. That was the lethal part of this trap. The stone shards were dangerous and would deal damage, sure, but they were light enough that you could shield yourself from lethal damage and not get crushed. The rock, not so much. It was rounded, but heavy, and larger than a man’s head. Having that fall on you from eight meters up was not going to feel nice, even if it didn’t end up crushing you.
The rock bounced as it fell, making the trajectory and final impact point unpredictable in the carnage. Aira and Athilana left the affected area just as the first shards started to rain down atop the remaining three. Ceria held her shield up to cover Alerio as best she could while they both dashed through the tunnel as fast as their feet could carry them in this cramped space. Noracin looked up just as the rock had a bad bounce right towards him, which was the luckiest thing that could have happened to him. He threw himself forwards, diving down through the falling shards with a scream as they rained down atop him relentlessly. But he managed to avoid the rock, which hit the stone floor with a thundering crash. Then the cave fell completely silent.
“Noracin!” Ceria yelled, and started rushing back through the rubble. The Cleric stirred and groaned. His health had dropped below 50 from the many stone shards that had landed on top of him, but he was alive and conscious, if extremely disoriented.
He managed to groan in response to Ceria’s exclamation, but wasn’t able to form any coherent words. He tried to push himself up but his arms wouldn’t obey him, or they weren’t strong enough, because he simply fell back down onto the tunnel floor after each attempt. After the second try he gave up, and simply rolled over to lay on his back instead. Ceria arrived and bent down to check on the man, with Alerio following after with a health potion already pulled out of his satchel. Ceria took the bottle from the Mage and uncorked it, then poured the potion into Noracin’s mouth. He spluttered, but managed to swallow enough to recover back up to 150 Health. He let out a relieved sigh as dozens of cuts all across his body stitched themselves shut, before shaking his head as alertness returned.
“Thanks.” He coughed and tried to sit.
“Don’t move or speak yet.” Ceria said, pushing the man back down. “You’ve still lost a lot of Health, and you need to recover in more ways than just healing.”
Noracin nodded weakly, and shut his eyes and focused on his breathing while casting the occasional [Healing Touch] on himself. Ceria rose and turned to the rest of the party. Now her eyes were decidedly less kind.
“What in damnation just happened?” She glared at Alerio. “I thought you said you could detect these traps…”
“I never said I could detect them all perfectly.” Alerio said defensively, putting up his hands. He frowned. “And I’m not sure this one was magical at all. Or if it was, the Dungeon has found a way to completely hide all traces of it from [Detect Magic]. I didn’t feel anything.”
He looked up towards the ceiling, then a light flashed in his eyes as he realized what had happened. He groaned.
“What?” Ceria asked.
“It’s too high up.” Alerio said. “Even if the trap is magical, which it for the record might not be, I can’t sense something that high up on the wall.”
He pointed to the side of the cavern wall, where a faint hole could now be seen some eight meters above the ground.
“[Detect Magic] is primarily a short range Skill. It’s at its best at detecting things within five meters of you, at least while you’re Tier 1. It can work at a longer range depending on the strength of the magic you’re detecting, and your own level of course, but something designed to be subtle like a trap…” Alerio shrugged. “It just isn’t strong enough to detect it that far away.”
Ceria swore. “Something you could have mentioned a bit earlier.”
Alerio frowned angrily. “I have mentioned it. Several times. Remember the Quest a few months ago where Emmalia wanted me to find the trail of the missing Mages? I told you all how the Skill worked then.”
Noracin coughing caused them all to turn to face him as he tried to sit up.
“No fighting.” He said firmly. “It’s a trap in a Dungeon. We triggered it. It happens. We’re all alive. Focus on that.”
“Yes boss.” Ceria said curtly. Alerio still seemed upset, but he nodded just the same.
“Is anyone else hurt apart from me?” Noracin asked. He looked between Ceria and Alerio.
“Ceria should have lost a bit of Health. I’m alright though, her shield covered me.”
“It’s not that bad.” Ceria said. “I only lost about 50 Health from a few glancing blows before we made it out. It can wait until you’re feeling better.”
Noracin nodded. “Alright, then let’s take a break. Then we need to talk about how to avoid this sort of thing happening again.”
The break was longer this time than it had been after the first trap, even though Noracin was the only one that had been injured. It seemed that quickly taking damage and being healed over and over again took some sort of toll on the body beyond what the System mentioned. Something about the body needing time to adapt to its own state, or remembering damage that wasn’t there anymore, according to my instincts. It seemed strange to me, but then again I didn’t have any Health, so how was I supposed to know what it felt like? The discussion and planning was a bit different this time, with Noracin taking a lesser role due to his injury and Alerio and Ceria leading the conversation. Eventually they managed to come to the conclusion that both magical and non-magical trap detection was necessary at all times. They also correctly concluded that this trap wasn’t triggered by them, but rather by Stalker’s scream, and surmised that they should tell people to make a hasty retreat whenever a similar thing happened in the future. I made a note of that as well, so that I could come up with an alternative triggering signal for future activations. I also realized I had a fake trap trigger I could use for this Floor, though I wasn’t entirely sure how to best utilize it yet.
After about forty minutes the party continued on with the investigation. Unfortunately their newfound alertness meant they found and managed to avoid the seventh trap, and they were able to handle the final pack of Bats at the chamber where the two paths met, even with Noracin still being sluggish and being relegated to healing duty. They still didn’t have any means of reliably dealing with the Manta’s, so they just fought the Bats in as good a cover as they could get, and then quickly hurried on through the cave to take as little damage as possible. It wasn’t an ideal strategy, for either me or them, as it both made them take more damage than they would have liked while at the same time making the encounter easier than it should be.
I would have to do some serious thinking on the Manta’s. Without a way to force the Challengers to remain in the same room as the pool of water, there seemed to be a fatal weakness to the creatures in that people could just leave their line of sight really easily. Maybe I could do some custom creature tinkering once the party left, try and make the Manta’s able to leave the water for a bit… Something to consider at least.
After the party fled from the path-joining chamber they quickly arrived at the entrance to the final one. Stalker stood in the center, her red eyes glaring a question at the investigators, but they didn’t enter. Instead they decided to wait and tackle the final chamber at the end, once they had finished the investigation of the rest of the Floor. Which was good, because I wanted to see what questions they’d have at the end, once they had found all my narrative connections.