1-46 Trapped

Evalynn and Roric walked side by side with spears jutting out as they passed down a damp tunnel. The sewers were like what you would expect from a fantasy world. Far larger than they needed to be and made of cut stone bricks gone green as if from years of being below ground. They were wide enough for three people to walk side by side with a shallow trench in the middle flowing with water.

The air smelled of dampness and mold, punctuated by the occasional fresh draft of air from a sewer grate. Motes of dust floated in the currents, illuminated by light that filtered through the grates from the street above. The magic torches near Rajeen's entrance ended at the first intersection, leaving them with only Roric's magic spear for most of their light.

Thus far, all they had found were a few giant rats and a centipede as long as a man was tall. None of these beasts were a significant threat and subsequently not worth much in experience. Roric was searching for one of the four ways down to the lower dungeon, following the instructions the harem girls had given.

“We made the two left turns and crossed the well room,” Evalynn said as she peered down a tunnel to their right.

“Then the ledge and ladder should be here,” Roric said as he looked to the left, holding his spear out for more visibility. “But we are at an intersection instead.”

“We must have gone wrong someplace,” Chandice said as she looked back. “But the room behind us fits the well rooms description perfectly.”

“You don’t think they would have lied to us?” Gisley asked as she nervously took Jaina’s hand, her antenna unfurling in alarm.

“Relax, sweetheart,” Jaina replied and leaned in to kiss one of the antennae causing Gisley to giggle. “Rajeen's girls wouldn't give us bad information.”

“I don’t believe they would either, but we are clearly in the wrong place,” Roric stated.

“No, you’re in the right place,” a voice called from the darkness. “You’re exactly where I wanted you.”

Roric’s lips curled into a snarl as a form moved in the tunnel before him. A woman with long blue hair, wearing belts of daggers and spikes, stepped into the edge of his light.

“You!” Jaina said in shock. “I knew you were going to be trouble.”

“I did give it away,” the woman said with a shake of her head. “Normally, I can spot a mark and walk right by without so much as a twitch, but the price on your heads was too high to waste time.”

“So there is a bounty on us,” Roric sighed and pointed his spear at the woman. “And you think you can collect it?”

“I would brag about my skills, but even I don't fancy a fight with so many,” the woman said. “I just wanted to lure you out of that fortress to where you were more manageable.”

“But how?” Chandice balked. “We learned of this place from a harem girl. So how on earth did you know we were coming here?”

“Sorry, trade secret,” the woman replied with a smirk.

“Well, perhaps you will be willing to share it with us after we punch a few holes in your hide,” Roric snarled.

The woman shook her head as the ground started to vibrate. There was a distant rumbling sound as the blue-haired woman began to ripple like water and then collapsed into a wave that vanished into the darkness.

“I hope you can swim,” she called from the distance as Chandice cried that something was coming from behind them.

Roric turned as the rumbling got louder, and darkness came rushing down the tunnel. A flood of water filled the tunnel, leaving them trapped at the intersection.

“Run!” Roric called and pointed down the left tunnel. It was a wasted effort as the water was on them in seconds, sweeping them from their feet and, to everyone's surprise, through the tunnel wall. They came through the illusion into the room they were originally looking for. Unfortunately, this one ended at a thirty-foot drop to a lower chamber. Jaina and Chandice cried out in alarm as the group was washed over the side, tumbling to the pool below. They crashed into the water and were thrown about in the turbulence created by the waterfall.

Roric did his best to grab who he could, tossing Chandice onto a stone ledge as she coughed and gagged. He got hold of Gisley next, dragging her to the side and propping her up. Jaina made it to the edge herself, but there was no sign of Evalynn.

“Where is Evalynn?” Roric shouted over the roar of the water.

“I don’t know!” Jaina shouted back. “She must be under the water.”

“Her armor!” Chandice shouted. “I bet she went to the bottom like an anchor.”

Roric dived below the surface and used his spear to light the gloom. Swimming in the twisting water was difficult, but he eventually saw her floundering at the bottom. He swam to her arm and tugged, trying desperately to pull her toward the side. Her eyes looked panicked as she did her best to kick and swim, but her motions were frantic. They gained little ground, the effort going too slowly, when suddenly she glowed briefly and lifted up, breaking the surface with a deep inhale. Roric swam to the surface and saw Gisley using her levitation to hold Evalynn over the water.

“I can't pull her to us,” Gisley shouted. “We need to drag her in some other way.”

Roric swam to the side and braced himself so he could fish a rope out of his pack. He then tossed the end to the coughing Evalynn, who caught it and held on. Jaina and Chandice helped him reel the stricken woman in, who cast off her helmet to breathe once she was safely out of the water.

“We were set up,” Chandice panted as she slumped against the wall.

“But how?” Jaina asked as she knelt beside Evalynn, who was on all fours coughing up water.

“One of the harem girls must be working with her,” Gisley suggested.

“No,” Roric said as he too slumped against the wall, his muscles exhausted. Though his ringmail was lighter than Evalynn’s plate, it was extremely tiring to swim in. He took a moment to gather his thoughts and explained how that woman must have overheard the conversation somehow. She would have known exactly where they were going and then just had to wait.

“Some kind of remote listening spell,” Jaina suggested.

“She turned into water,” Gisley said. “And then the tunnel flooded.”

“A tunnel that was an illusion masking the actual room we were looking for,” Chandice reminded. “She must have help. An illusionist, and maybe an elemental priest.”

Roric nodded in agreement and looked up to see the passage back was blocked by water. The ladder was under the falls and would be impossible to use. Gisley could fly up and levitate them, but the tunnel beyond would still be flooded. They couldn't go back this way, which meant they had to go forward and look for one of the other ways up.

“We need to get moving,” Roric wheezed as he got up. “She must have known we would survive that, which means she has something more in store for us.”

“But what does she want?” Jaina asked as she tried to help Evalynn get up.

Roric could only assume her comment about getting out of the fortress where they would be more manageable meant she planned to wear them down. Hopefully, they would drop one by one until they were too weak to face her. Then she would make her move and finish them off to collect the bounty. But killing them would accomplish little since they would respawn, so maybe she had something more in mind.

“My guess is she is after Jaina,” Roric replied. “Her reaction in the inn and the mention of the bounty makes me suspect this is another kidnapping attempt.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jaina groaned. “Even if they could drag me back to Alexandria, I would never cooperate with her.”

“That does seem pointless,” Chandice agreed as she looked around for her imps to discover they were gone. “How would she get any of us to do what she wanted?”

Roric had an answer to that as well, but he shuddered to consider the possibility. Alexandria was a deceiver, a class based on deception and manipulation. Did she have a skill to weaken one's resolve and convince them they wanted to work for her? If so, did that mean that some of her existing girls were prostitutes against their will? It certainly explained why she was so close to spawn, where she could prey on women who had almost no resistance to her power.

“You look very troubled,” Jaina said as she studied his expression.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Roric replied and went to Evalynn. “Are you alright?”

“I'm fine,” she replied in an unusually dark voice. “I just panicked when I couldn't breathe.”

Roric wrapped her in a hug and cradled her head with a hand. Of course, she was rattled by nearly drowning. It didn't matter that they could respawn; it still felt like dying and feeling so helpless had taken some of her spirit away. He held a few moments to reassure her she was loved and then stepped back.

“I’m sorry I lost my head,” Evalynn said with a sniff.

“Don't be sorry. I would have panicked too,” he replied and stared into her eyes. “Any of us would have to be in that terrible situation. That you were calm enough to swim with me showed you were still fighting to the end.”

“Thankfully, your spear lit up the pool so I could see her,” Gisley added. “Or I wouldn't have been able to levitate her.”

“Speaking of spears,” Roric said and looked to the pool. “You dropped your weapon. I assume you can summon it?”

“Yes,” Evalynn replied and held out a hand as a white light formed and stretched out to form into her weapon in a matter of seconds. “And you are right; we can't stay here. For all we know, that woman is here mingled with the water and listening to everything we say.”

“Right, because she can become water,” Jaina replied while looking at the pool and water channels leading down the two tunnels. She could be anywhere in that inky blackness, swimming alongside them as they travel from one danger to the next.

Roric noted the worry in her voice and agreed that their mysterious adversary could be right next to them. He decided the best thing they could do was find the deeper dungeon where the sewer's water didn't reach. He quickly studied the two passages, both resembling the sewer tunnels from above. These tunnels had a deeper channel in the middle, flowing fast with the surplus water from the falls. Occasional wooden planks or metal grates bridged the gap, but walking in the middle was no longer safe. Neither tunnel appeared more interesting than the other, so he chose one randomly and led the way.

Roric took the lead, trying to sniff out any danger as they progressed. Evalynn followed close behind, with her weapon tight in hand, still rattled from her near-drowning. Gisley was in the center with Jaina close behind while Chandice brought up the rear. She changed her summon to her rogue demon, ordering the creature to watch the rear and deal with threats.

The tunnel came to a round chamber with a circular pool of sloshing water in the middle. The water then flowed down a passage to the right, but there was a second tunnel to the left that was dry. The sound of the sloshing water echoed from the walls as they crept along the ledge, looking all around for dangers. Roric was particularly worried that there might be more illusions, hiding important passages or dangers. For this reason, he kept tapping the wall and floor with his spear, hoping to reveal any fake surfaces.

“If we go left, we get away from the water and the noise,” Chandice suggested.

“But will she have assumed we would do that?” Roric asked as he peered down the left tunnel.

The others were quiet for a moment as they considered the idea, but then Jaina spoke up.

“I don't think she had enough time to prepare the dungeon full of surprises,” she said. “From the time we learned about the place to coming here, she had roughly two hours. Yes, she managed a flood and an illusion, but how many things could she have done in that amount of time?”

“This is a good point,” Roric agreed and stepped into the dry tunnel. “We go this way then,” he said as Evalynn moved up to stand by his side. They passed down a long damp tunnel that sloped ever so slightly toward the chamber they left. Roric assumed it was so water would flow to the drainage channels, but he couldn't be sure. After several minutes the tunnel made a sharp turn to the right and passed a wooden door.

“Let me have the demon check that,” Chandice suggested and ordered her pet to check it for traps. The demon crouched at the door and felt along the edges, even using a dagger to test the gap. Since there was no lock on the door, there was nothing to pick, so he stood up and announced he had found nothing.

Roric used his spear to push the door open, swinging it inward to reveal a dusty room with what appeared to be the remains of a few smashed barrels. Some red cloth shreds were scattered about the floor, but there didn't seem to be anything else of value.

“This room has been looted,” Evalynn said as she used her weapon to push some of the wooden debris aside. “I would say fairly recently.”

“Recently enough that it hasn't respawned,” Roric agreed but knew the time to respawn could be hours to weeks depending on who created the dungeon.

“The girl did say the city's rogues were hidden down here someplace,” Jaina reminded them. “And I am sure adventurers come down here often.”

Roric knew this had to be true, but he took a moment to pick up a shred of cloth and give it a sniff. There was something familiar about the scent, a soft hint of incense and citrus, almost like a perfume. He cast it aside and took them back into the hall, going down the corridor as it turned sharply again. This time there were two doors directly across from one another, and the one on the right was already open.

“I can hear something,” Gisley whispered as her antenna twitched. “Something is moving inside the room with the open door.”

Roric called for silence and lifted his ears, using his canine line senses to listen for even the faintest sound. Sure enough, he heard a clicking, almost like stones being dropped on the ground. He used hand gestures to tell Evalynn to follow him as they inched toward the door, then carefully leaned around the frame to look inside.

The noise became a laughing wail as the skeletons inside noticed him immediately. They came running for the open door as Roric jumped back, leveling his spear as the undead came rushing out. He was forced to swing his weapon like a club as stabbing with the point was having little effect on bone. Evalynn's ax-like glaive was doing more damage, chopping at the beasts as five of them crowded into the hallway.

The monsters had only rusty swords or wooden clubs, and they swung these with little skill. Still, they pressed the attack mindlessly, heedless of the danger and willing to take a hit to strike back. Chandice loosed shadow bolts as Gisley fired one made of glitter. The spells had a modest effect, shattering bones and adding to the damage. In less than a minute, they reduced the skeletons to two, and with a few final blows, these fell to the floor as broken fragments.

“That wasn't so hard,” Jaina said as Roric made a clattering noise while moving through the bones. He peeked through the open door and waved for the others to come up. Inside was a single rotting table, an old wicker basket, and a stack of three skulls, one of which was painted red.

“This looks odd,” Chandice said as she examined the skulls. She used her detect magic to make the red skull glow and decided to use her power to identify the magic type. She determined it was summoning magic and suggested that this effigy would summon more skeletons after an unknown amount of time.

“So it’s a spawner of sorts,” Evalynn added as she used her weapon to lift the lid on the wicker basket to discover it was empty.

“It appears to be, but why make it so obvious?” Chandice replied. “We could just destroy this to stop the process.”

“Maybe that’s what they want,” Jaina suggested. “Destroy the spawner to trigger something bigger.”

Roric had to agree that Jaina's theory made sense. Why make the spawner obvious? So you could trick somebody into attacking it and triggering a trap. He decided to leave it where it was and suggested they check the other door. This one was checked for traps and then carefully opened to reveal another storeroom, but this one still had whole boxes. It also had the body of a shireling, leaning against the wall with several nasty wounds on his body. He clutched a silver tube in one hand and a short sword in the other, his dying words written in blood on the floor.

“I am coming back for this, don’t take it,” Roric said with a slight laugh.

“Those wounds are probably from the skeleton's weapons,” Evalynn said as she looked over the body. “He must have gone in their room, triggered them, and then fled to lock himself in here.”

“The door wasn’t locked,” Jaina pointed out as she dared to lift the lid to a box. “And this box is full of candles.”

Roric knelt to pry the silver tube from the shireling's hand and then stood back to examine it as Gisley leaned over.

“It’s a container,” Gisley remarked and pointed to the cap on one end.

“It’s a scroll tube,” Roric explained and twisted the end to remove it and reveal he rolled up paper inside. “But why is it protected in so expensive a case?”

“Careful with that,” Chandice cautioned and moved closer. “Some scrolls are cursed.”

“How would we know if it was?” Jaina asked.

“You open it and look at the writing,” Chandice replied.

“So the only way to know if it’s cursed is to trigger it?” Jaina asked.

“I can detect curses at a higher level,” Chandice replied. “And eventually remove them.”

Roric considered the paper inside and decided that such a low-level dungeon wouldn't likely have a deadly cursed item. So he carefully withdrew the paper and unrolled it to reveal a pattern of sharps and a paragraph of text he couldn't read.

“And it tells us nothing,” Roric said and held up the scroll.

“It's a spell scroll,” Chandice said as she studied the paper. “It looks like a summon spell. The shapes are as summoning circles written into the paper, and the text is the actual words of the spell.”

“So what does it summon?” Jaina asked.

“I have no idea,” Chandice replied. “It doesn’t say anywhere what it is.”

“But you can read it?” Roric asked as he let her look at it a little longer.

“I can. It's the default magical script,” Chandice admitted. “Spell scrolls are one of the ways a magic class can cast spells they don't normally have access to. This is probably a summoner spell.”

“Then you take it,” Roric suggested and rolled the paper back up. “Since you can read it and none of us can.”

Chandice happily took the paper and tucked it into her pouch while Roric considered the silver tube. It would be worth a fair bit of gold on the surface, and it seemed a shame to leave it here. He tucked it away and led them back into the hall, taking them down the dusty corridor. It branched about fifty steps down, and he led them straight ahead as the tunnel opened into an odd chamber.

It was a vaulted room with pillars down one wall and a small stone table at the far end. There were doors to either side of the table, and an old metal chandelier hung over it. What was odd about the location was the fine silvery thread that clung to everything. It was as if a hundred little spiders had labored for weeks to carpet the place.

Roric tested the webs to ensure they weren't sticky, and when they failed to hold, he stepped into the carpet, causing a slight shimmer. The light of his spear danced across the carpet as he crossed the room, heading for the strange table. They were halfway across when something screeched, and a dark shape appeared around a pillar. It had the shape of a man but grotesquely had four arms and four legs. Its skin was pale white, and its mouth gaped with pincer-like tusks at the sides. It had four dark eyes across its head that resembled black gems. Like a creature born of nightmares, it scurried up the pillar, reaching the ceiling with ease.

“It’s like a spider,” Jaina said in horror as the creature hissed at them and then came racing across the ceiling to get above them.

“Don’t let it get above us,” Roric shouted as he jumped back and activated first strike.

[lvl 12 Conqueror skill: First strike] When using a melee weapon you fire a bolt of red light from your weapon, striking a nearby target for half the weapons damage. If your weapon is two-handed, the damage is full.

The red ray struck the horrid creature, causing it to wail and scurry for cover behind a pillar. From here, it dared to look out and opened its mouth wide to spew forth a stream of small black spiders.

“Ahhhgh!” Jaina cried and fled the spray, horrified at being covered in spiders. Gisley ran as well, nearly tripping in her panic to get away.

Roric was covered in the terrible things that began to bite, delivering tiny doses of spider venom. Evalynn was protected by her armor, and she quickly used shockwave, creating a crescent of red energy that blasted the little spiders back.

[lvl 22 Glaive knight skill: Shockwave] A powerful sweeping attack that creates a wave of concussive force that throws targets back up to ten meters.

The attack took care of most of the pests, and Evalynn immediately followed the attack with spectral shot.

[lvl 30 Glaive Knight Skill: Spectral shot] Creates a magical copy of your weapon that launches like a spear to strike a target up to ten meters away. This attack never misses unless magical defenses are used to block it. 20 second cool down.

The monster hissed as a transparent blue spear struck it, even though it was mostly hidden. The creature leaped from cover to the far wall, then leaped again, its arms and legs reaching as it dived on Evalynn. She gripped her weapon tight and waited until the last second before unleashing charging thrust.

[lvl 9 Glaive Knight skill: Charging thrust] Level your weapon and race across the ground to deliver a powerful thrust. Crosses 10 meters in one attack with improved armor penetration.

The creature was skewered in her weapon as she charged into its leap. The clawed hands raked at her body as she carried it back and tossed it to the floor in a heap.

Roric wanted to help, but his vision blurred as the spider's venom sapped his strength. He was still swatting them off his body and stamping the ones he could with his feet. His skin burned from dozens of bites, and he finally fell to one knee.

A cloud of glitter flew over him, and the remaining spiders fell from his body asleep. Gisley then rushed in to help him stagger back as Jaina rushed to aid him.

“Drain our health,” Jaina pleaded as they dragged him to the side.

“I didn't want to do that yet,” Roric gasped as Chandice, and her demon ran by to aid Evalynn.

“Just drain it!” Jaina shouted.

Roric nodded and used Serve me, Causing green light to flow from Jaina and Gisley to him.

[Lvl 6 conqueror skill: Serve me] Transfer health from a slave to the master, restoring the master up to 120% maximum health. A slave cannot be reduced below 50% health.

“Oh, I feel that,” Gisley said as she held up her hands to watch the light flow off. Roric looked better by the second, and in moments he stood up and ended the spell.

“You should have done that sooner,” Jaina insisted as he readied his spear. “We talked about this long before we came in here. You have slaves for this very purpose.”

“We can discuss it in a minute,” Roric said and rushed into the fight as Evalynn was knocked back by the creature as it leaped at her once again.

Roric triggered rampage and rushed into battle, catching the creature by surprise.

[Lvl 6 conqueror skill: Rampage] [Boosted 3] You gain superhuman strength and damage absorption based on the user's concentration. The effect lasts for the duration of your stamina bar. Once the bar depletes, the effect ends.

He focused on staying close and delivering rapid attacks, trusting his damage absorption to mitigate the beasts clawing hands. He drove it back as Chandice pelted it with shadow bolts until Evalynn joined his side, and together they pinned it to the ground. With a series of hacking stabs, the creature finally went still, a sickly purple blood spilling from its many wounds.

“What was that?” Chandice asked as she dared to get closer.

“I have never seen a beast like this before, but judging by how many hits it absorbed, I would say it was close to my level, if not a little higher,” Evalynn stated.

“A level thirty-plus monster?” Chandice gasped. “I am way out of my league.”

“You have us to tank the threats,” Roric said as he paused to catch his breath.

“I don’t like spiders,” Gisley said as she dared peek around Evalynn’s back at the dead thing. “And that spider scream was icky.”

“I nearly wet myself when it did that,” Jaina said. “Oh, that was horrifying.”

I tried to impale it twice, but it broke the hold both times,” Evalynn replied and looked at her armor. “Thankfully, it didn't have the skill to break my defense. I have only taken minor battering damage.”

“Oh, let me heal that,” Jaina said and leaned in for a kiss.

[Lvl 1 Seductress skill: Healing kiss] Kiss a target to begin channeling your stamina to heal them. Restores 12 health a second until healed or stamina is depleted.

In moments Evalynn was fully healed, but Jaina pressed the kiss anyway, enjoying the softness of her lips.

“You two can stop making out,” Chandice scolded. “We still have to find a way out.”

“There is always time for a good kiss,” Jaina said as they came apart. “Speaking of which, come here, little butterfly.”

“I am fine,” Gisley protested.

“Roric drained your health to heal his. Let me fill you back up,” Jaina insisted and planted her kiss. In moments Gisley was back to full health as Jaina stepped back and smiled.

“So, who is going to heal you?” Chandice asked.

“This is part of why I am a morphic,” Jaina said. “I have a natural regeneration that is much faster than typical players. Roric picked a class that can drain health from me, and I picked a class that recovers it quickly. I can also absorb mass to heal myself in an emergency.”

“So you two picked a class that could fight and another to act as a health battery,” Evalynn said with an approving nod. “Very clever.”

“It seemed like a good idea,” Roric added as he moved to one of the doorways to see it was a small room chocked in webbing and full of bones. It took him a few minutes to root around in the mess, but eventually, he found a smattering of coins, a few discarded weapons, and some old adventuring gear. All of this he stuffed into his magic bags and then went to the table to inspect it. He was confused to see it was covered in dried blood, and ropes were strapped to the corner, indicating that somebody had once been tied there.

“You don’t think somebody was tied here and left for that thing, do you?” Jaina asked as she considered the implication.

“I don’t want to think about it,” Roric replied and moved to the other doorway. This one was a tunnel that led slowly to the left. He took them down the passage, leading the way with his glowing spear. He felt miserable to know he led his girls into this danger, especially Evalynn, who had nearly died. She seemed to have shaken it off, but he wondered if it was an act.

They were wet, cold, frightened, and lost in a dark maze while a woman who could turn into water hunted them. He was full of disturbed thoughts about the nature of Alexandria and the terrible implications this situation highlighted. She was expending time, energy, and resources to visit harm on his girls, even risking angering Rajeen to accomplish it. This meant they would never be safe unless they found a way to hold a gun to her head. With that heavy thought, they headed into the darkness, hoping they would find a way out before the pursuer found them.