The Wandering Inn_Volume 1

by Pirateaba

Shrug.

  “Recent events have given me cause to…regret the ending. That is all.”

  “Yeah. Yeah. Neither of us are exactly earning Wistram rates, are we?”

  “No. But I was astounded to receive a message from you. I didn’t even know you were still on the same continent. What made you decide to come here?”

  “I came to Izril to earn money. To become a better adventurer, since I couldn’t stay in Wistram.”

  “Why not Baleros or Chandrar?”

  “Too far and too violent. For both, really. I didn’t want to join a Company; I wanted to make my own choices.”

  “Hmm.”

  Ceria looked sideways at Pisces.

  “What about you? Why did you decide to become an adventurer? Didn’t you swear to me you’d pursue your own path?”

  “I…need to be a higher level. That’s all.”

  “Really? But you won’t level up that much from just casting mage spells.”

  “True. But…well, perhaps I’m also looking for something else.”

  “What?”

  “One last chance.”

  “For what?”

  He hesitated. Pisces stared at the ground, as the cold wind blew his robes around him.

  “To—”

  Below them in the ditch they’d hollowed out, one of the skeletons raised its shovel and brought it down on a section of ground. The earth around it collapsed, and the undead disappeared.

  The earth rumbled as dirt and stone shifted. Instantly, Ceria and Pisces stepped back, feeling the ground under their feet shift slightly.

  “Collapse! Get clear!”

  Ceria shouted to Yvlon and Ksmvr as the tremors grew. She stumbled back, looking for safe ground, grabbing Pisces as he tripped after her.

  Collapses were a big danger in older dungeons and in places like this. It was all too possible to be swallowed by the earth. Ceria saw Yvlon and Ksmvr running to a large section of stone, hoping to find a safe place on the solid rock. She tried to run after them.

  And then, as soon as the horrible rumbling had started, it stopped. Ceria turned shakily and found Pisces getting to his feet. He brushed dirt off of his robes and then turned to stare as well.

  “Tree rot. Look at that.”

  A huge gaping sinkhole had opened up where the skeletons had been. Ceria could spot two climbing up, but not the other four.

  “Trap spell! Get down!”

  Pisces shouted it and Ceria immediately dove back into the soil. She saw Yvlon and Ksmvr who’d been running over to them do the same. She turned to look and saw what had alarmed Pisces.

  Giant ribbons of flame that writhed and twisted around like snakes were burning around the fallen dirt and stone. The flames weren’t red and orange; these were blue, and already they were melting stone and turning the dirt into smoke that began to billow up from the hole.

  “Pisces. Is it aimed at—?”

  “No. Let me see.”

  The other mage raised his face out of the dirt and focused. Two of his skeletons approached the pit.

  “I’ve lost three of my skeletons. Two were incinerated; the other crushed. Last one’s trapped under some dirt. The other two aren’t being targeted—looks like we set off an area trap.”

  “Thank flowers for that.”

  Ceria sighed and let some of the tension ease out of her body. She’d hoped for something to happen, but she hadn’t expected that.

  “We just dug straight into that secret corridor, didn’t we? And by the looks of it, it leads to a [Mage]’s quarters.”

  “Looks like it.”

  For a second the two mages stared down at the dancing flames. Ceria was already trying to analyze the spell; the amount of mana she could sense in the flames and the way they were instantly burning through the huge amount of stone and dirt in the way told her that it was a seriously powerful spell they’d tripped down there. What Tier? Tier 5? 6?

  “Ceria! Pisces! Are you two alright?”

  Yvlon’s voice echoed and Ceria realized she and Ksmvr probably couldn’t see what she did. She scrambled to her feet and waved her hand at the two prone forms that were slowly crawling towards them.

  “It’s fine! The skeletons broke through the roof of a new area! The falling stones must have set off some of the magical protections. Stay clear, everyone!”

  Yvlon and Ksmvr got to their feet. They made their way over to Pisces and Ceria as the two tried to dust themselves off.

  “We just heard the rumbling when the earth began to collapse. Good thing we weren’t standing closer.”

  “Indeed. That would have most likely resulted in our painful immolation.”

  Both humans and the half-Elf fell silent as they stared at Ksmvr. He stared back.

  “Unless Pisces or Ceria know powerful anti-flame spells?”

  “No.”

  “Nope.”

  “You’re probably right, Ksmvr. Thank you for sharing that.”

  All four adventurers turned their attention back to the pit. Yvlon whistled.

  “Those flames are still going? That must be some trap spell. Who were they expecting to kill? Named Adventurers?”

  “Ah. It—”

  “It’s probably—”

  Ceria and Pisces broke off. Both of them had spoken at once. They shared a look and then Ceria explained.

  “We hit the binding matrix of the spell. That’s why it’s still going. All the mana is being depleted and it’s not going to recharge after it’s over.”

  “Oh. I see.”

  Ksmvr looked down into the pit.

  “May I ask what the nature of this spell is? It appears to be mainly aimed at close-range magic. Is there any unusual component to it?”

  That was what Ceria had been trying to figure out. She rubbed at her chin.

  “I’m not sure. That’s some kind of pyromancy trap for sure. But blue flames? It looks like a variation of that [Flame Snake] spell we read about, remember?”

  Pisces nodded absently.

  “An upgraded version. Clearly evident from the blue flames and extreme heat.”

  “Clearly. Probably be practically impossible to block if it suddenly came at us.”

  “Indeed. The walls were probably reinforced to avoid sudden escape. Would a trap wall have blocked any retreat?”

  “Maybe…”

  Yvlon looked at the two mages.

  “What’s the verdict?”

  Ceria nodded.

  “Good. That’s a powerful spell. And it was fresh. No one’s triggered it before or we’d see the scorch marks. There’s a good chance no one’s explored this place before. And best yet—”

  “What they’re guarding could be just as valuable.”

  Pisces smiled, and so did Yvlon. Ksmvr just moved his jaws slightly.

  “This is good, correct? Should we descend once the flames have ceased?”

  “Definitely. Get ready everyone! We’re going in!”

  Suddenly energized, Ceria began calling more mana into her skeletal hand as she reviewed spells. Yvlon put on a helmet and began swinging her sword lightly. Ksmvr armed himself with the shortsword and knife for close-quarters combat. Pisces recalled his two skeletons.

  The mood of the group had completely changed in a few seconds. The pressure of imminent death—but more importantly, the thought that they might have found something truly important—had given them the same burning hope they’d had at the beginning. Ceria could barely contain her eagerness as they waited for the spell to end.

  “Don’t go in for at least thirty minutes after the fires have stopped. The heat down there is intense.”

  Indeed, the smoking stones were radiating an intense heat that completely ignored the cold air. Ceria was already starting to warm up even far as she was from the sinkhole. Pisces stared down at the entrance to the tunnel, barely able to conceal his excitement.

  “I could cast [Frozen Wind] to expedite the cooling process.”

  “Save your mana. We don’t know what’s down
there. In fact—let’s get started on the trap dummy. I was going to use the mud ball method, but why not one of your skeletons.”

  “Right. Let’s.”

  Even Yvlon didn’t object as Ceria and Pisces got to work on one of the skeletons. Only Ksmvr was confused. He stared at the two mages as they started handing the skeleton items and muttering about enchantments.

  “Excuse me. What is happening?”

  Ceria paused as she handed the skeleton a hefty rock to hold. Pisces was busy with a torch he was trying to light.

  “Oh. You’ve never seen adventurers entering a trapped dungeon, have you, Ksmvr?”

  “No. What is the purpose of equipping the skeleton thusly?”

  This time it was Yvlon who explained. She gestured at the skeleton as Ceria cast an enchantment over it. A ball of light hovered around the skeleton’s head, radiating light that added to the flame of the torch in its other hand.

  “When we go into dungeons, we’re always wary of traps. They claim more lives than monsters most of the time. If we had a [Rogue] or [Scout] we could rely on their trap-sensing Skills but we don’t have one. And even then, it’s extremely risky for anyone who goes in first. Most of the adventurers who take point—don’t survive.”

  Ceria nodded grimly. She’d buried more friends than she cared to remember who’d gone in and received the business end of a trap or monster’s claw. Yvlon had the same expression as she continued.

  “So. We find ways to trigger traps beforehand. One common way is to shoot an arrow at an obvious tripwire or pressure plate, but a lot of traps are magical. So adventurers will roll something down a suspicious corridor—we use mud balls if we can’t use anything else. But a lot of traps have more sophisticated sensors.”

  “Hence using the undead. They might not trip detection for living beings, but by giving them a heat source and the weight of a normal adventurer, this one will probably trigger most traps. And the magical enchantment also activates a lot of sensors.”

  Pisces explained as he made the skeleton walk towards the edge of the unearthed corridor. Ceria nodded.

  “Hopefully we’re not dealing with an experienced trap maker. If this is a mage’s personal quarters—well, they’re pretty bad at differentiating the activation mechanism for spells. We might get all the traps this way.”

  “Excuse me. I am confused once again. I thought this was a dungeon. What was this about a personal mage’s quarters?”

  “It’s…hard to explain, Ksmvr. We say ‘dungeon’, but that doesn’t mean this place was originally built underground. I think Albez was actually a city that sunk into the ground over thousands of years.”

  “Oh. I see.”

  The Antinium considered this.

  “So we are, in fact, likely breaking into a deceased individual’s personal quarters?”

  Ceria, Pisces, and Yvlon looked at each other.

  “Pretty much.”

  “Hopefully.”

  “Or a treasury owned by a guild or rich person. Those are always nice.”

  “Then why all the traps? The spell we just witnessed seemed excessive?”

  Ceria shrugged.

  “Paranoia. It’s usually because people have something important they don’t want stolen. And a powerful mage around Level 50? They’d have a lot of enemies, a lot of artifacts and valuables over the years. Their homes tend to turn into miniature gauntlets by the time they die.”

  Yvlon nodded.

  “In some cases, the protections are justified. Consider what powerful items a mage might own? On the other hand, artificial dungeons—ones that people make for the exclusive purpose of guarding something really rare—are the worst. This is more like a few private wards on a home. But dungeons designed to kill a huge number of invaders? Those are real deathtraps.”

  “Indeed? How so?”

  Ksmvr barely had to get the others started. Even Pisces had stories of the horrors adventurers had found in ruins.

  “I heard in one dungeon the creators placed an invisible poison mist trap at the entrance. So while the adventurers were clearing the dungeon they were slowly dying. Hundreds of teams would go in without problems, but none ever came out.”

  “What about the acid showers? Did you hear about that? It triggered five hundred meters in and flooded each corridor. If it didn’t have such a long reset time it would have wiped every team that went in there.”

  “I heard of one mage who just teleported the people in the trap into a pit in the middle of bedrock. They had no way out and they’d just starve to death.”

  “I heard of that one too! The [Miners] who eventually located the trap—didn’t they find some adventurers still alive in there? They’d eaten all their friends and were living off their boots.”

  “That’s just a myth. No one would have the air to survive down there.”

  “I heard they had a charm.”

  “True, but even so—”

  Bemused, Ksmvr glanced around at the others.

  “You seem unusually upbeat for such a dire circumstance we might be facing ourselves.”

  “That’s part of what being an adventurer is, Ksmvr. We risk everything, so we might as well chuckle a bit in case the worst does come true.”

  Ceria laughed. Even Yvlon grinned at the Antinium.

  “We’re building morale before we enter. Don’t worry—we’re all nervous. But it’s better to tell jokes than to wait in silence.”

  Ksmvr considered this, and then nodded.

  “I shall learn from this experience. Thank you for explaining it to me.”

  That was weird, but it just made the others laugh harder. Because it was weird and they were about to enter a place where they might die. Soon, Ceria judged the hole to be cool enough to enter, and after sending the skeleton in first, the others slid down the melted rock and entered the abandoned tunnel.

  —-

  “Okay, that was a nasty arrow trap. Pisces, you’re walking in front from now on.”

  Ceria eyed the deadly poison-tipped bolt that had neatly passed through the skeleton’s ribs and shattered on the far wall. She didn’t even want to touch the arrow in case all of it was toxic.

  Pisces shook his head. He pointed and the skeleton obediently trotted forwards again.

  “I will stay behind the two warriors, thank you. They have armor. I do not.”

  “You have that ring. It probably would have saved your life.”

  Ceria watched as the skeleton advanced fifteen more paces into the darkness and rounded a bend. The tunnel they’d found was long and winding and this was the second trap they’d run into. The first one had been an easily-triggered trap that had unleashed the dreaded spray of acid when Ksmvr had fired an arrow at it. The second the skeleton had triggered and Ceria was only concerned there might be more.

  Several hours had passed since the Horns of Hammerad had entered the tunnel. Despite that, they’d gone less than eighty paces. This was due to the excruciating care all four were taking to check for traps every inch of the way.

  All of them had long sticks they used to poke at the wall, ceiling, and floor, and Pisces regularly sent his other two skeletons ahead to stomp or bang on walls in hopes of triggering something. Even when they thought it was safe, the Horns of Hammerad went in line, one at a time, letting Ksmvr or Yvlon go forwards a good ways before the others cautiously caught up.

  “The tunnel can’t be that much longer. The map shows it leading to a good-sized space ahead, right?”

  Ceria didn’t even have to look at the map in her pack. She nodded.

  “That’s right. Hopefully we get there by tonight. Otherwise…we could set up camp there.”

  Again, it was Yvlon who had the calm acceptance of this fact; she’d probably expected that to begin with, and Ksmvr who deferred instantly to her leadership. But Pisces scoweled.

  “Camp here? But this corridor is wide open! We should endeavor to get to the end before nightfall—I don’t want a monster cornering us in here.”
<
br />   “Better that than rushing, Pisces.”

  The scowl Ceria gave Pisces was returned with equal value. She hated how he balked at every decision she made. She knew he was eager—she remembered the same feeling and even the same conversation. But she’d seen what happened when they rushed.

  Pisces clicked his teeth together as Ceria replied.

  “We don’t risk anything. Even if it means two days—even if we had to leave this place and come back with supplies rather than risk going in without moving safely, I’d do it. As it is, we’re still way too close to the trap radius if we hit something large. We’re risking a lot as it is, Pisces. I won’t just walk us into death.”

  He clicked his teeth together a few more times, clearly upset. But then Pisces sighed.

  “Very well. I defer to your experience.”

  That surprised Ceria; she’d been sure he would have fought her more on this.

  “Really? Good.”

  “Yes, well—”

  Pisces paused and clicked his teeth again. This time Yvlon scowled at him.

  “Would you stop doing that? It’s distracting?”

  “Me? I’m not doing that. I thought Ksmvr—”

  They all looked at the Antinium. He whirled. His mandibles opened as the clicking suddenly grew louder and they all realized it wasn’t coming from them.

  “Attack!”

  Something hurtled out of the darkness and knocked the trap-finding skeleton to the ground. Ceria caught a glimpse of whirling scythe-like legs, biting mandibles and pinchers, as she pointed.

  “[Ice Spike]!”

  She fired the spell at the same time Pisces threw a ball of fire. The spells did not comedically connect and miss—first Ceria’s ice spike blasted into the creature, hurling it backwards, and then Pisces’ flaming ball of magic struck the skeleton. The splatter of flames didn’t touch the creature, but it did illuminate it.

  Ceria saw long, almost spider-like legs coated in armor, and a squat, elongated form. But this was no shield-spider. It had too many legs, and barbs on those legs. And it was…dripping. The red and purple carapace and exposed internal organs shifted as the creature opened a maw with rows of circular teeth. It crunched the piece of skeleton it had bit off as more emerged from the darkness.

  “Aw hell! Crelers!”