"W'at level is this dungeon?" the deep voice of the dwarf asked as his question echoed down the hall they walked.
"Well it's a validation dungeon so it's only a first level dungeon" Aiko's sweet voice answered "at most with a second level boss"
The dwarf nodded in response as the heavy footprints of the armoured dwarf seemed to thunder in the otherwise silent dungeon, the party was suddenly stopped by Daylor with a look of pure glee on his face. He gestured towards what seemed to be an empty room with only a chest inside. The assassin was the first to respond, and she only rolled her eyes as she looked into the empty room.
"Oh come on, Daylor, that's obviously a trap," She said with annoyance clear in her tone. However in response everyone turned to look at her with looks of expectation. "Oh right"
With a mumble of some vague curses she vanished into the shadows and came out of the darkness in the room. Amber checked around the chamber's floor and walls but saw nothing, so she checked the chest itself. Within the lock she found a poison needle trap that would shoot out at someone who tried to open the chest, and with ease she removed the trap and then opened the chest while slotting the disarmed trap into her side pack.
The party upon seeing her open the chest entered the room and all crowded around it. Inside of which there were five throwing axes which went to the half-orc and sixty silver moons which were split evenly among the party. Which considering they had scraped through their last few coppers to buy supplies for this mission made most of the group visibly smile.
"I would say the first round is on me when we get back but the last time I did that the dwarf and orc alone cost me fourty copper crescents." Daylor said with a chuckle.
Inarus and Umla laughed while Khurda grumbled into his beard. Even Aiko broke a half smile as the group went back to exploring the dungeon, After another half an hour and only an encounter with a handful of somehow shocked goblins who were cut down instantly the party finally found another room of interest. They came into a stone carved room full of statues of goblins with skulls covering their faces and bone staff. In the middle end of the room lay a large stone sacrificial altar covered in dried blood.
A few members of the party exchanged worried looks, when they had asked people who had completed this dungeon they had not spoken about a shrine room, no one brought it up however. As soon as Inarus stepped into the room a goblin with a horned skull covering his face appeared behind the altar, A staff of pure bone that emitted a dark energy in its hand. It looked almost identical to the goblins in the statues above, the only difference being it was missing its right index finger.
The goblin lifted the staff high above its head, before it then slammed it into the ground. A wave of sickly green light flowed from the staff down the altar and onto the stone floor, and then only a breath later the stone In front of the altar started to erupt as small skeletons pulled themselves out from the ground and started to rush towards Inarus. The rest of the party rushed into the room to help their plate wearing companion.
Daylor, who was late into the room, stepped behind his companions as his rapier and bolts barely hurt the undead. Inarus fought by hooking his scythes against the neck of the skeletons and pulling to remove the head from the spine, and then stepping on the skulls to crush them. Umla just used pure strength with her axes to cleave the small skeletons in half with a grin on her face, While Khurdas warhammer smashed any bit of bone it collided with leaving nothing but dust.
Due to the lack of room this left Aiko and Amber behind the group as they just spoke to each other out of boredom, their words being drowned out by the sound of combat but the exchange of coins suggested a bet, on what Daylor was unsure. After a quick calculated thought the demon jumped up onto Inarus' shoulder, and with a leap cleared the undead swarm landing in front of the Shaman. During the jump he had drawn his rapier and he now faced the goblin with a cocky grin.
The goblin cursed at him with clicks in a language none of them could understand as he bashed away Daylor's first thrust with his bone staff. It followed that up with an attempted small ball of black energy but Daylor quickly jumped to the side to dodge it, the orb of dark energy exploded on the goblin statue behind him shattering one of its arms.
In response Daylor pulled out his hand crossbow hidden under his dark coat and shot it swiftly, the bolt embedded into the goblin's shoulder. The corrupted shaman cursed out in pain and dropped its staff, which loudly cluttered on the stone ground. With a jab of his golden rapier Daylor cut into the goblin's leg tendon causing it to drop on a knee. His rapier flourished once more as he went for the neck but he was thrown back as the shaman screamed, its scream causing physical force to throw him against the wall.
Daylor coughed and weazed as the wind was smashed out of him with the impact. With a groan he pulled himself back onto his feet, he reloaded his crossbow while the shaman tried to rise, and shot it once more hitting the goblin in the chest this time. This interpreted another spell it had begun preparing and caused it to screech out in fury and pain. But before it could cast again or reach for its staff Daylor rapidly closed the distance and impaled the goblin through the heart. It let out a shocked yelp before the light faded behind its eyes. Amber let out a slight curse as she handed Aiko five moons.
The skeletons crumbled as the team panted slightly, Aiko started to write in the sky before any injured members, light covering them with a warming feeling as their wounds knitted together.
The few who had taken hits or cuts said their thanks before the party started to look around the room for loot. The group each gained 10 gold suns but nothing else was found in the room.
That was until the assassin found a lever hidden built into one of the wall sconces behind the altar, Amber pulled the lever causing a wall between two pillars directly behind the altar to move showing a poorly lit cracked stone corridor carved into the underground. Amber just shrugged and walked through the revealed pathway, with the party following her. There was a short passage before it led into a large open room, with a chasm half way through the room, a rope and wooden plank bridge leading to the other side.
As the rest of the group was discussing what to do next Daylor approached his friend Inarus.
"It's not just me, that last room was really odd right?" Daylor asked, to which his friend just gave a nod. "None of the blueprints I went through had this room, and also that shaman was past first level."
"Humm, from the spells it was throwing around it had to be at least third level, you were lucky it was only a goblin. And that its spell missed otherwise you probably would have died." Inarus said, his mind going back to the destroyed statue arm.
"Have you ever heard of a dungeon changing so drastically?" Daylor questioned while stroking his chin in question, His friend once again answered with a simple shake of the head.
After a bit of discussion they decided to send Amber along first to test the bridge with her ability to jump through shadows. She passed without an issue and gestured for the rest to come along. They followed across one at a time, With Daylor at the end of the group. However when Daylor was halfway along the bridge something rumbled above, A stalagmite came loose and severed the bridge from behind causing it to drop down on the bridge behind him.
Daylor held on for his dear life, waiting for the rumbling to stop as he spread out his wings, however just as he was about to push off there was a ripping noise above. As the rest of the bridge started to collapse, the rope bridge trapped his wings as he yelled out. Falling into the darkness below.
"Well that's shocking, he is meant to be the lucky one" Umla said, breaking the silence of the group as they looked into the abyss with shock. Other than Amber whose eyes showed a glint of annoyance.