Kassadi and Madrona glanced at each other, they didn’t know what to say. They wanted to provide some comfort, reach out to Maryl and show her their sympathy, but could they? It was only a handful of days ago that it was both of them that slew the goblins. Could they truly reach out to Maryl despite being guilty of the same slight? Eventually Kassadi walked to the goblin woman and kneeled down, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“I’m sorry.” Kassadi said. Maryl stared at the Wizard for a
long moment.
“You’re going after her, you’re gonna kill her?” She asked,
looking between then both.
“She’ll likely give us no other option.” Madrona stated.
“Then save your sorrys, bring me with you. Let me put a
blade in that horrid monster!” She gritted her teeth. Kassadi looked back at
Madrona, who just shrugged.
“Okay.” Kassadi said. “But all the traps are back up and it
has the monsters are agitated.”
“Traps aren’t a problem for me.” The goblin assured, “You
won’t need to avoid the mechanical ones anymore, I can disable them. Spent
enough time down here that I learned how they work.”
Maryl got
up from where she was, glancing once more over the dead bodies she let the pain
rush through her one last time. Then she took a calming breath and steeled
herself. She moved away from the two tall-folk, to one of the make shift huts
they had in the encampment. When she returned she looked ready for war. Wearing
a thick leather jacket that had been shorn to fit a goblin’s stature and the breast
of the coat had sheaths for thin stiletto daggers stitched into the material,
four daggers on each side. At one side of her hip was a two-foot-long short
sword and a hand axe at the other, wrapped around her chest was a bandolier of
crossbow bolts, the crossbow they would be fired from her back. And of course, slung
from her shoulder, was the bag of wands that Kassadi and Madrona had procured
for her. She pulled a pair of goggles over her eyes, flashed a sinister grin,
and walked past her two new companions. Kassadi glanced at Madrona with brow
raised.
“Well, she’s on our side this time, so that’s good.” She whispered.
“She’s on her own side, Kassadi.” Madrona said in response,
moving to follow behind the goblin.
Maryl
did turn out to be invaluable and was not lying about her skills in regard to
the traps. Just as Madrona was about top step on a pressure plate that to the
naked eye seemed completely flush to the other stones around it Maryl barked a
command to stop. The goblin glanced at the floor of the hallway, and pointed
out half a dozen more of the plates. Normally at this point Kassadi and Madrona
would have turned and attempted to find another path to loop around the trap.
It was time consuming as the very nature of a maze meant there was no simple
path. Now with Maryl they needn’t bother. The goblin quickly found a particular
odd stone out along the wall and produced from her jacket a hand dril, placing
the bit against the stone she cranked until the drill was firmly lodged in
place. With a simple chisel and mallet against the gap in the stone she was
able to loosen it enough to come free, exposing the mechanism of levers that
connected to the pressure plates. When any of the plates on the floor sank,
this lever would lift and release the trap’s payload. She took the chisel she
had just used to remove the stone and crammed it tightly into the lever,
locking it into place. Kassadi watched all of this go on with rapt fascination,
gasping and hissing with each move. Eventually Maryl had to tell the wizard to
get the hells away from her while she worked. Madrona tentatively tested the
pressure plate on Mary’s request and sure enough as the plate sank the lever
attempted to shift, but ran against the chisel with a hard clunk and was unable
to move. The three continue on.
The
next trap was a little simpler. Upon discovering a room with a series of trip wires,
Maryl ushered the group away and around the previous corner. Instead of
carefully stepping over each wire in sequence and hoping no one tripped, Maryl
tied a simple string to the first wire and walked back to Kassadi and Madrona. Once
all three were safely behind the corner, Maryl yanked the string taught and the
trip wire pulled free of it’s tension lock. There was the sound of sliding
stone followed by a thundering boom accompanied by a cloud of dust and wind
that rolled down the hall towards them. Glancing around the corner they saw the
entire ceiling for a stretch of thirty yards had come free and crashed into the
ground. Once the dust had settled it was simply a matter of stepping up onto the
stone slab that had once been the ceiling and walking over it.
The
group was making fast progress now, with Maryl’s aide in the traps. Deeper they
moved into the labyrinth, though never losing their sense of caution. They knew
that as they moved further towards the throne room they would find themselves
in only greater dangers. They each creeped forward, keeping perceptive of everything
that was before them, and always with a glance over their shoulder to check the
rear. They saw nothing, and honestly that seemed to bother Maryl something fierce.
After about an hours’ time from the last trap she suddenly stopped and sniffed
the air.
“Shit!” She called out.
“What is it?” Madrona asked.
“They’re behind us, shit I should have noticed them before
this! Always stink to high heaven, I was too distracted, too focused on the traps!”
“What are you talking about?” Kassadi said, turning around. “There’s
nothing behind us.”
“They’re invisible!” Maryl hissed. “Natural ability the shit-heads
have.”
Kassadi
frowned and reached into her satchel. Pulling from it a vial she poured a bit
of powdered talc into her hand again and began her incantation. With a clap the
powder exploded from her palms and her eyes began to glow. She gasped. With her
magical sight she could now see the what had been stalking behind the group,
she wondered how long they had been there. They were lizard like creatures and
they were large, slightly larger than an average human. They crawled along the
walls with large, segmented limbs that each ended with three fingers containing
a claw four inches in length. Their eyes swiveled in chameleon like stalks and
their scales were mottled brown and red. A long ridge trailed down their back
with a frill of spines extending from it. Lolling tongues extended from wide
maws which were lined with jagged and serrated teeth. There were three of them
and they seemed to notice they had been spotted, they increased their speed,
closing the distance.
“I can see them.” Kassadi said.
“Well that’s lucky for you.” Maryl said. “We can’t, so I
would suggest we not fight them!”
“Yeah I think they noticed I can see them, they’re speeding
up.” Kassadi took a step back.
“Great, that’s just great!” Maryl said, letting out a curse
in the goblin tongue.
“Will you two stop bickering?” Madrona said sharply. “Both
of you! Run!”
They
began to sprint away, Kassadi noticed that as they did the lizard creatures also
leapt into a dash. Whipping down the halls now with abandoned the three women
tried to take hard corners at random to attempt to lose their pursuers, but
every time the Wizard glanced back her magically augmented sight spotted the invisible
creatures just barely keeping up. Barely. If they kept this up they could lose
them, They just needed to press a little harder! Kassadi turned to let the
others know they had almost lost them but before she could get the words out
she found herself skidding to a stop, Madrona and Maryl had halted while
Kassadi wasn’t looking. Confused, the Wizard looked up ahead and her heart
sank, them at the end of the hall… was one of the constructs. There was no
point in trying to hide from it, the wood and metal creature had clearly
already spotted them. It began to stomp forward towards the three with purpose,
that purpose being to kill the intruders. The construct blocked their path
forward and from behind, the clattering of lizard folk claws against the
stonework of the walls became louder and louder.
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