Part 1 - The Manticore Training Dungeon
Chapter 4
Character Aurea; Level 1; Class Rogue; Hit Points 20/20; Mana 11/11; Stamina 32/32; XP 40; Next Level 60 XP needed; Rank Unranked; Followers None; Lethality Trivial
Huck finally decided we should go right. He didn’t ask us, and I almost complained but… I didn’t really know why I would or what I would say. Right seemed just as good as left. It did annoy me he was just assuming we’d follow, but I rolled my shoulders and walked to the right door, examining it. He was the party leader.
Checking that the door had no traps, I tested the latch then pushed it open, revealing a stone hallway that ended at a corner about 20 feet from us. The corridor was made of stone paneling, each stone about a foot across and long, at six panels across, I judged that the corridor was six feet wide and eight feet tall.
I stared suspiciously at the panels. I had seen too many vids of divers triggering a pressure plate trap to be trusting. Even though my Trapfinding skill wasn’t activating, I still couldn’t help but think of all the ways that you could spot pressure traps. The panel might be slightly higher or lower than the other panels, the grout wouldn’t be connected to the panel, the panel may have a small, almost invisible marking on it, or there could even be a trip wire just a few inches off the floor.
I continued down the corridor, leading the way. I didn’t want to, but the others were likely to set off a trap and I could quickly jump behind Huck and his shield if we spotted any monsters ahead of us.
Once we reached the turn in the corridor, I slowly peeked around it and furrowed my brow. Ahead of us in the corridor, the stone panels continued, but now many of them were sporting dozens of small holes that perforated their exterior. Some even had nozzles, though just along the ceiling.
“Looks trapped,” Huck said, coming up from behind me.
“Gee, you think so?” I shot back as a I slowly approached the first panel that was perforated with holes. I stared at the panel, cautiously looking for hidden traps.
Wires.
The system whispered into my head as I curiously peered down at the perforated panel. Wires? I thought to myself, and bent further over the panel, trying to see down the holes. I jerked back as fast as I could as I felt the top of my head brush something and a dozen needles shot from various panels all around the hallway, the light clattering of tiny metal skating across the stone echoed throughout the chamber.
Trap Damage // You have taken 1 damage from a needle trap.
Trap Damage // You have been poisoned by a needle trap. You take 2 damage from poison and you must attempt a new save every ten seconds until the poison runs its course.
I froze in horror as I saw my twenty hit points tick down by 3. I hadn’t felt anything, until I noticed my cheek was stinging. I shakily raised a hand up to it, feeling warm blood and a strange protrusion. Before I could do anything else, Huck had grabbed the back of my armor and dragged me several feet away from the trapped hallway and over to Elise and Colin.
Elise knelt down and carefully removed the thin metal needle from my cheek, tossing it aside and grabbing a fresh cloth from her belt pouches. She held the cloth to my cheek and looked worryingly over the top of my head, staring at my health bar as it ticked down another point.
Trap Damage // You failed to resist poison. You take 2 damage from poison and you must attempt a new save every ten seconds until the poison runs its course.
The ten seconds had passed so fast. I had 15 hit points left, I could survive for another few minutes, hopefully the poison would run out by then or I could make my save. But there wasn’t much for me to do, it was a random chance based on your class, your Strength and Will, as well as luck. With my Strength at 4 and Will at 3, I had decent odds, but rogues just weren’t built for poison saves - that’s the warrior’s role.
“Do you have neutralize poison?” Huck asked, turning with worried eyes to Elise.
“No,” She said, shaking her head, concern heard clearly in her voice, “I didn’t think… I, uh, didn’t have enough slots.”
“It’s fine,” I said, though my tongue felt thick and fuzzy. The poison probably working its way into my body, “I’ll be fine.”
I felt woozy. Like the world was spinning too fast, and I laid down for fear of throwing up. I didn’t like this at all…
Trap Damage // You failed to resist poison. You take 2 damage from poison. The poison has ran its course.
As the message finished being read to me by the system, the spinning began to slow down and I felt slightly better.
“I think it passed,” I forced my throat to croak out. I focused on keeping the contents of my stomach down as I could see relief flood across two of the three faces staring down at me. The system, I assumed, had caused my entire vision to turn blurry with strange, streaks of color slowly twisting and writhing like snakes in front of me.
“Can you disable the trap?” Colin asked, concern hadn’t touched his face. What an asshole.
“Aaaaaaaaasssssssssssssss,” I groaned out, feeling a modicum of relief as the nausea ended.
“I think the poison made her stupid,” Colin announced, “Well, more stupid. Only has a 3 Intelligence.”
“AAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS,” I said louder, slowly sitting up and pushing Colin away who rolled his eyes with exasperation.
“I don’t know why Aurea gets to be mean to me, but if I say anything, I get yelled at,” Colin complained.
“Shut up, Colin,” Elise said as she helped me sit up and wiped the blood that had welled up on my cheek. I liked her touch. She was never rough, unlike Huck or Colin.
This poison really was messing with my head as it swam in and out of blackness.
“Give me a few minutes,” I managed to get out again, waiting for the last of the poison effects to dissipate away. I could’ve walked while under the effects of the poison, but I really didn’t want to, feeling my breakfast churn. And I especially didn’t want to disable a trap while feeling this way, but I knew time was short. So before my head could fully stop spinning and my vision could clear, I got up, mostly held up by Elise and Huck, and slowly moved over to the trap.
“Ah,” I muttered, my finger dancing across a super-thin wire that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. My head had brushed the wire, causing the needles to shoot out. I pulled my kukri out and touched the wire, this time from a safe distance, and saw an explosion of needles shoot across the space and the sound of metal on stone echoed down the corridor.
“Found the trap,” I said, then giggled to myself. I had found it.
“Used my head,” I continued, then giggled a little softer to myself. Wow, this poison really sucked. I gave my head a hard shake, almost slipping, and felt a little more normal with the action, my vision sharpening. The poison was starting to fade, I hoped, and I closed my eyes and counted to ten.
I felt better, marginally.
“So how do we get past it?” Huck asked, looking at me with some concern. I shrugged and struck the wire with my kukri, severing the wire and launching a dozen more needles into the space. Once the tinkling metal stopped, I gingerly pressed on the stone with my kukri. If the stone was a pressure plate, it didn’t give under the weight or force.
“Seems safe now,” I said. Huck stared at me unconvinced.
“Well, that spot is safe,” I continued, “there are probably more traps along the corridor.”
Huck continued to stare at me, as if waiting for something. I stared back for several seconds, and then realized what he was waiting on.
“Oh, right, I should check for traps.”
Are you feeling alright?” Huck asked, a bemused smirk crept across his face.
“Yeah - just a bit… I don’t know… something from that poison. It’s almost passed.” I wasn’t sure if that last part was a lie.
I slowly moved panel by panel, waving my kukri across each panel and inspected the panels. I found several more traps, all with the same wire that stretched from floor to ceiling, and I sliced through them. I would’ve preferred this work with a long wooden pole, maybe 10 or 15 feet long, but I only had my short kukri whose blade was not even a foot and a half long.
Luckily the trapped part of the corridor wasn’t very long and we were able to work our way through in just under ten minutes - which gave Elise and Colin time to recharge a few of their mana points.
At the end of the corridor it turned another corner and I was the first to peek around it, and then jerked my head back quickly.
“Skeletons!” I whispered back to the group, “Three of them, two of them with spears.”
Huck nodded and, on tiptoes, moved over to me and peeked around the corner. We then retreated as a group a few feet back and began going over the plan.