The party formed up just as Lillia had instructed and we made our way directly for the main gate of the crumbling ruin. Our speed slowed a little as we approached the doorway. Just as we reached the threshold Altria briefly halted. There was a twang of her of her bow, followed by the sound of an unseen enemy crashing to the ground from high up inside the fort’s walls.
The rest of the party had stopped when they saw Altria fire the shot, but she gave a hand signal to say the coast was clear and we continued. Even after what Lillia had told me earlier, I was still a little surprised that we had only encountered one guard at the entrance.
Altria and Siofra were the first to head inside, while the rest of us waited for a moment.
“All clear come in.” Altria called from inside.
Lillia was the next to step inside, then Serin and I followed behind. I wasn’t expecting much from the rundown appearance from outside, but we stepped into a large hall, it even had an intact ceiling. It was dimly lit inside, but there were flaming torches on the walls adding to the little light that made its way in from outside. It was the first sign that this place was occupied, well apart from the guard that Altria took down.
Apart from the torches, the room was bare, there was little else to distinguish it from the ruined appearance it had on the outside. There was nothing on the walls, not even plaster covered the bare stone. There were three doors that led off from the room, none of them were where we were heading. I already knew we would be taking the stairs that led below the place.
“Come on this way.” Soifra said striding towards them.
She took two paces, before there was a loud slamming noise from behind us. All our eyes were drawn back to the door we had stepped through only moments before. It was now closed shut.
“Well, that’s new.” Siofra said scratching her head with a slightly awkward grin.
As she stood there the room was filled with what sounded like a rattling noise and small columns of smoke started to rise up from several spots around the room. Within seconds it was apparent what was going on, as skeleton warriors started to step out of the columns of smoke. Without instruction everyone sprang into action.
I stepped forward and swung my blade through the first warrior to step out of the column of smoke nearest to me. They seemed weak enough, the blade went straight through the things body leaving just a pile of bones on the floor. The thing that took me by surprise, was that the bones started reassembling themselves from the instant they hit the ground.
“I can’t kill it!” I yelled out.
“You've got to smash the core.” Siofra shouted back from across the room.
She then smashed in half a skeleton near her, before bringing her heavy axe down on a small gem like looking thing that was in the pile of bones left behind. It was just as she said, after she had done so the creature stopped reassembling itself.
I cut in half the almost reassembled skeleton warrior and as it became a pile of bone again, drove the tip of my sword through the small core. It stayed as a pile of bones. I felt a momentary sense of achievement until another skeleton warrior stepped out of the column of smoke.
They were easy enough to kill, but they just seemed to keep coming. Everyone was tied up fighting the things. We repeated the same thing over and over. Slash and smash again and again. I was just about thinking that they would never stop, but then as quickly as they came the columns of smoke disappeared. After we dealt with the remaining skeleton warriors in the room it was over.
“Come on, before the room resets.” Siofra called out heading once again for the stairs that led underground.
The rest of us followed behind her, quickly leaving the room, but slowing considerably as we reached the staircase. Siofra knew the way, but things had changed since she was last here, the defences had been updated. To prevent a repeat of what happened in the room upstairs we came to a halt as we reached the bottom of the stairs.
Altria and Siofra were thoroughly checking the entrance to the first underground room, for anything that could trigger the next trap before we entered. A minute passed before they stepped inside and repeated the process around the doorway on the inside, finally they were happy enough to let the rest of the party follow them.
“Come through, just keep the area around the door.” Altria instructed from just inside the room.
The rest of the party piled into the room, all of us bunched up into the area immediately around the doorway. The room was much smaller than the one above ground was, there were three doorways leading out of the room. One straight ahead and one on each side of the room.
“Which way now?” Asked Lillia.
“Straight ahead, the side passages both lead to dead ends.”
“Lead the way then.”
“Hold up, we need to check for trap triggers first.”
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“I understand your concern Siofra, but if it takes us this long to cross each room, we’re going to run out of food before we reach the bottom of the dungeon. What was in here the last time you came?”
“This room had the skeleton warriors we faced upstairs.”
“What triggered the trap?”
“Stepping on the wrong tile… It’s almost impossible to spot the right tile until you’re on top of it.”
“Then we’re just going to have to push on. We’re going to set off traps along the way, we’ll just have to move as carefully as we can while still making progress.”
“Lillia’s right, we’ll never make it down otherwise.” Atria added agreeing with Lillia.
“Okay, then follow us, carefully.” Siofra finally agreed.
We moved forward slowly as a party, trying our best to follow in the footsteps of those in front of us. We made it as far as the centre of the room before the doors came crashing down, all of them. There was no longer a way out of the room.
“Damn it… I swear it wasn’t that colour before!” It was Siofra that had stood on the wrong tile.
The entire party looked at her, but no one said anything. We could all tell she was already embarrassed enough. As we did the room’s trap sprung around us. There was the familiar rattling noise from the room above and then several columns of smoke appeared around the room.
“It’s the same trap as before, I knew it.”
“Come on then everyone, we know how to deal with these. Let’s make quick work of them and move on.” Lillia said as the first skeleton warrior stepped out of a column of smoke.
We didn’t need any further instruction. Altria loosed of two arrows, hitting two skeleton warriors at the far end of the room and reducing them to a pile of bones. Serin shot forward, her rapier entering the ribcage of the closest skeleton and piercing its core in one hit. In one big swing Siofra took down two of the monsters, before crushing their cores under her foot.
Ten minutes had passed before the skeleton warriors finished coming and the columns of smoke disappeared. The monsters were weak, we easily killed them, but they weren’t set there to kill us. They were clearly meant to slow us and wear us down, so we would only grow more tired as we travelled deeper into the dungeon. It was working, everyone was breathing heavily after ten minutes of hacking and slashing. Only Lillia wasn’t, she had been saving her mana until we faced a serious threat.
Once the smoke columns had fully cleared, the room started to reset itself. There was a rumbling noise and the stone doorways rolled open.
“Let’s move.” Lillia shouted.
“No one step here.” Siofra said pointing out the trigger tile.
Altria and Siofra were the first out of the room, closely followed by Lillia, then Serin and I followed. We had cleared the first room of the dungeon. We now found ourselves in a long corridor, it was dimly lit by torchlight. This place was nothing like the hastily dug goblin cave, even this corridor was lined with dark stone. I had to wonder if this belonged to the crumbling fort up above ground or was added by the one that we were after.
“Are we safe here?” Lillia asked.
“There were no traps last time, but let’s tread carefully and take our time.”
“Okay, Altria you take the lead.” Lillia instructed.
“Right.” Altria replied while stepping to the front of the party.
It made sense, Altria was definitely the most talented scout and this corridor only led forward. We slowly headed further in the corridor. There was an incline, as we moved forward, we headed further down at the same time. We walked for a couple of minutes before the end came in sight. The next room was much more brightly lit than the corridor and the light from the room spilled into the dimly lit hallway.
As we reached the end we came to a complete stop, as Altria checked the entrance for traps. Once she was satisfied it was clear, she cautiously stepped into the next room.