Chapter 18 - Traps

  5 months two weeks Earlier

  "Found it!” Chell announced and Cal spun to look at her, taking his eyes off the guards and the knight.

  Cal looked over, eager to get a move only to find that Chell was no longer on the floor, but instead sat on the stone bed, reaching down under the lip. As he looked up she grinned “It’s the only cell with a stone bed, the rest have cots.” She noted, “It’s going to be noisy. Get ready.”

  Cal nodded. “Sid, block the way, we just need a few seconds.”

  “Got it.” Sidian said and rushed to the cell bars. He thrust a hand out and nothing seemed to happen. Then there was a grunt down the other end of the hall and the shouting began.

  Chell did something beneath the bed. There was a ‘ker-chunk’. The stone slab of the bed slid backwards and the platform that it was on slid downwards in sections, creating stairs.

  Cal, no longer paying attention to Sidian and the others grinned. “The Tomb.” He said, wonder in his voice.

  They really weren’t criminals.

  Despite all of this. Despite impersonating guards and breaking into a jail. Despite forging documents and bribing a guard. They had no devious intentions.

  No, they weren’t criminals, they were adventurers.

  Some might have considered that worse though.

  They’d found reference to this tomb on a previous job - one of the ones that had gone wrong - and when they’d heard from an actual criminal about their escape from jail they’d put two and two together. They weren’t here to break anyone out of jail, they were there to relieve the ancient tomb, belonging to a long dead noble, of their un-needed personal effects. They just needed to do it before the city found out about it and declared it a national site, at which point it would become a crime.

  “Shall we then?” Chell asked.

  “After you.” Cal replied and she grinned, dropping down into the passageway. Cal turned and grabbed Sidian’s arm and together they rushed after Chell and Leni into the dark.

  It was a passageway with stone walls and empty, unusable braziers at intervals along it. As soon as they were inside Chell pulled a chain on the wall and with another key-chunk and a grinding noise, the passageway closed again, leaving them in darkness. The last glimpse of the jail that Cal had was the sight of three confused guards appearing in front of the cell.

  The four of them remained still in darkness for a long moment, waiting to see if the door would reopen and they would be caught. Silence spread through the area as the guards thudding against the wall on the other side slowly came to a stop and the adventuring party let out a collective relieved breath.

  “All right, Chell you do a quick sweep for traps and I’ll get our equipment out.” Cal said. “I doubt there will be any traps, the criminals that escaped this way would have set them all off, but just in case.”

  “Will do.” Chell said. In the pitch black Cal couldn’t see her go, and with how sneaky she was he couldn’t even hear her footsteps. He simply had to assume that she was gone.

  “Leni can you get us a little light?” Cal asked.

  She didn’t answer, but a few moments later there was a flame lighting the passageway. It was in the shape of her jaws and Cal smiled knowing that when she did that she also couldn’t complain.

  He pulled the void bag from his belt and reached inside. The first thing he grabbed was Leni’s long sword, then her shield. That was all she needed, so it made sense to equip her first.

  As soon as she’d taken that, he found Sidian’s magic wand and his normal clothes. Sidian took them and began stripping out of his guards uniform.

  Finally Cal was able to get his own things. He pulled off his guards boots and grieves, then found his black trousers and pulled them on. He removed the bulky guard helmet and armour, followed by the ugly green undershirt which he replaced with his nicer white shirt and light brown leather chest piece. He then added his leather bracers. The last thing he got for himself from the bag were his magic boots. He had wanted to wear them through the jail, just in case but no normal guard would have been able to afford them and if anyone had noticed it would have been a dead give away.

  After dressing himself, Cal reached into his shirt and pulled out his amulet so that it rested on top. He rubbed it lightly with his thumb for luck like he always did, but then left it alone.

  “Seems clear.” Chell said, returning. He hadn’t heard her and it made him jump. She grinned in the light of Leni’s flaming smile. “Distracted?”

  “A little.” He admitted, reaching into the bag. He pulled out Chell’s daggers, her black and silver leathers and the magical cloak that she liked to wear over it.

  As the Feyling unashamedly stripped down to don her gear Cal turned away, blushing ever so slightly. Despite being unable to speak, Leni laughed deep in her throat to let Cal know she’d seen.

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  Shaking his head, Cal started dumping all of the discarded gear back into the void bag. By the time he was finished, Chell was dressed and they were all ready to go.

  He stood up straight, looked back up at the exit for a moment and then turned to face the passage. He reached his left arm out to one side and summoned his sword, scabbard and belt. They appeared in his grip, teleporting from where he’d left them in the tavern. With deft fingers, he buckled the belt on and drew the sword. Then with a quick whispered “Vosh,” he summoned flame and painted it across the blade lighting up the area with a much brighter magical torch. “Lets go.” He said, holding the sword up for light and motioning for Chell to lead on.

  Unlike the rest of them, Chell was able to see in the dark and the fire coming from Cal’s blade and Leni’s mouth made it harder for her to navigate so she moved ahead, just out of their light. She talked them through what was coming up, and what she was doing, when to stop and when to move. After what felt like ten or more minutes she reappeared, standing at a crossroads.

  “Leni, which way?” Chell asked.

  The Drakokin stepped forward and shut her mouth, extinguishing the flames. She sheathed her sword and hitched her shield onto her back, then knelt down beside the Feyling.

  Though she was mostly a bag of hot air and muscles, Cal had to admit that the woman’s time hunting escaped slaves in Kortia - against her own will - had made her a rather good tracker and survivalist. After only a minute of checking the dirt, feeling the air and taking a step up each passage she motioned for the one on the right. “Left is the way out.” She confirmed. “There's more dirt to the left, and some minor moss growth. The right smells of death and… metal? Oil? I’m not sure.”

  Chell nodded, patting the much larger woman on the thigh and moving ahead again. It wasn’t long before she called back, “Found the death,” and the group moved up to find her.

  They found Chell standing over a skeleton, long since dead with a very old crossbow bold wound in it’s head and cracks along it’s ribs. Its legs had also been crushed though they looked more like they were the result of heavy boots long after death.

  “It was a one shot trap.” Chell said, pointing up at several holes in the wall and then pressing her foot down on a pressure trigger. “Doesn’t work any more.”

  “You think there are more.” Sidian asked.

  “Oh for sure,” Chell responded, nodding vigorously, “some of them will be worse and we’d have to be incredibly lucky for them all to be triggered and one shots.” Sidian paled a little. “But thats why I’m going first.” She assured him, patting him on the hip. “I’ll find them.”

  “We should keep moving.” Cal said after a moment. “Chell, I’ll be right behind you with the light,” He looked back the way they’d come. “Sidian you go in the middle and Leni you take up the rear.”

  “Shouldn’t I be at the back, I’m not as strong as you all.” Sidian asked, clutching his wand close.

  Cal shook his head. “I’m more worried that someone or something will come up behind us. It’s not going to get to Leni without alerting us, but you…” Sidian paled a little more and moved into place.

  They continued down the passage, lit only by Cal’s sword fire. Chell kept a few meters ahead talking back to them as she was before, keeping them all informed what was going on.

  As they moved they came across more bodies. Some that were crushed, others had been skewered on walls of spikes. Most however we’re burned. There were a few that they only knew about because of scorch or acid marks, and the lingering smells.

  It became clear not long into the walk that each body they found was fresher than the last, but that the deaths went back centuries, perhaps longer. When they found one that was still mostly intact, if a bit worse for ware, they knew that they were getting close to the end, or at least close to where the last dead man had managed to reach.

  When Chell finally appeared in Cal’s fire, she looked concerned.

  “What is it?” Cal asked, stepping up beside the Feyling.

  “I found a trap, which I think means that this is as far as anyone else has gotten. From here on we have to be extra careful.”

  Cal nodded. “Understood.” He looked back at the others. “We’ve got traps, you need to be careful.”

  “What is it?” Leni asked, moving up past Sidian and going down to one knee beside them.

  “There’s a pressure plate, but no wall holes. I don’t know what it will do.” Chell admitted. “I can try to unhook the plate, but if I fail and set it off I’ll be right where the attack is most likely to hit.”

  “Can we go around it?” Cal asked.

  Chell looked back at them. “We could step over it.” She admitted. “But I don’t like the idea of accidentally setting it off on the way back. We don’t know if we’ll be running or not.”

  “What if we just set it off now?” Leni asked.

  “What if it’s not as simple as the other traps?” Chell argued back.

  Cal nodded. “Well it’s your call.”

  “I…” Sidian started, then groaned. He shook his head and then looked to Chell, “I could come with you and put up a shield around us.” He offered. “From what we’ve seen it’s just simple traps. It’s probably going to be the same and if you fail to disarm it then it’ll just hit the shield.”

  Cal looked to Chell, who’s brows were raised, considering the idea. “That could work.” She admitted.

  “Damn.” Sidian cursed. “I was hoping you’d say no.”

  Leni laughed, patting the nervous man on the back, and Chell grinned. “You’ll be fine, just follow me.”

  Cal watched the two of them walk off into the dark. He could hear Sidian’s footsteps and Chell gently coaching him on where to walk, then silence. A moment passed and he heard Sidian take in a deep breath before loudly announcing “Alvenash Kailoru”.

  An ambient light in the shape of a dome appeared over both Sidian and Chell, illuminating the area and the two adventurers. Chell knelt down in the middle of the dome leaning over what looked to Cal like a normal piece of cobblestone in the floor, but she had her tools out and was working between the cracks, to break the trap.

  Sidian stood over her, legs apart and standing straight with his hands over his head, clutching his wand, from the tip of which the magic of the dome poured out.

  Leni and Cal watched them work for a few minutes, longer than Cal expected that it would take Chell. He considered their magical friend. He was a mind mage, a mage who had an affinity for psychic magic, but he was extremely good with the core magics as well, the ones that people didn’t have to be affiliated with.

  Cal could technically use force magic as well, but he never practised, so he never grew any stronger. Sidian had once told Cal that he’d trained so long and hard with core magic - hard enough that he was as good at it as he was with his affinity - because in their line of business there were just too many situations where the things he had to deal with didn’t have minds to manipulate. The trap that Chell crouched over now was a prime example.

  Eventually she sat up and dropped backwards, wiping her brow.

  “Is it done?” Leni called out.

  In response Chell reached down and pulled the stone free of the floor, throwing it aside. Nothing happened.

  Cal relaxed and started walking over. Sidian, behind Chell stepped back and started to lower the barrier, but no sooner did he step away did his eyes widen in shock as his foot sunk into the ground. A piece of the ceiling opened and a torrent of heavy flames poured down towards him.

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