After a lot of exploration, we found a minion rapidly escaping a trapdoor underneath some rubble, in a half destroyed home.
The trapdoor led to a tunnel, that after some time led to a giant cavern. The walls glimmered purple, as if covered in thousands of amethysts. And in front of us, an immense, half transparent wall, with an opening leading in to what seemed like a labyrinth. The floor before the opening was marked, with a painting that looked like a map.
Furthermore, we saw another team, taking a specific path, doing weird actions to eventually reach one of theirs, far off.
Of course, our bard Amashi immediatly rushed head first. Sir K13 barely caught her and pulled her back as her feet touched the floor, causing the floor to spring up into the darkness above. A moment later we heard a loud smash, most probably indicating the bonding moment the ceiling and the floor were having.
We deduced that the coming section would most likely be a trap maze. This indicated that we were most likely on the right path. However, with the noise created by the trap springing up, we most likely had not that much time before someone came to investigate. We also decided that the team in front of us must have found the best path. . By that time, the floor had fallen back down to its original position.
We cautiously tested the floor with a single foot, from the border, but there was no reaction. The trap must've had a reset time. We moved onto it, next tile now was a dash.
Again, we used our foot-testing. We saw saws sawing the air, and retracting when we removed the foot. By looking at their speed, we deduced that we would have the time to cross the tile before they closed in onto us. The next tile would be a question mark
However, this meant we couldn't use the foot testing method. After a brief discussion, we decided that Sir Muffin, armored in the dragonproof armor we designed, would run first, triggering whatever trap was laid in front. He was strong enough to be able to withstand or escape most traps we could think of, and worse come to worse we'd be soon behind to assist him (as soon as the blades would have retracted we would run in).
He ran, and was met with a fireball as soon as he stepped inside the square. From his tale after we joined him, he briefly saw a few wands pointed at him before the blast dazzled him. The air felt strangely cold for such fire, and tasted of peppermint. What odd wands.
The next tile was a dash. Another blade trap. On its left, a hole, as if someone obliterated the world there. Muffin once again ran forward, and stepped on the next tile, a green circle. We prepared to run in, but he made a sign not to. Through signing, he indicated that a wall appeared behind him.
We used one of our swords to jam the sawblades, an unsafe and temporary thing, and reached the invisible wall separating us from Muffin. As i studied it, looking for a way to dispell, I asked him to check the other side, to see if he could continue on. He ran to the other side, and as he jumped the last bit, the wall disappeared for a bit.
One by one, we came in the circle, the ones already inside jumping to let us come in. The last to come in was Kaempfer, just as his sword finally yielded to the sawblades.
The next tile was one with a red cross. Ominous. We decided to all jump, using this time the pressure of a sword on the tile, instead of the pressure of our foot, to trigger the trap.
A good thing we did. As the wall reappeared, boulders upon boulders fell onto the tile. They stacked against the invisible wall. Once we saw the boulders stop falling, we went to the other side of the wall, and jumped a few times, making boulders come inside, and occasionally be cut by the wall. This rapidly allowed us to have enough room to jump one by one on the crossed tile.
The next tile was a dash - another blade room, but the boulders had fallen there too, triggering and crushing the blades. It was safe to continue. Then, an arrow. We triggered it, same as the first one, and waited till the floor came down to continue.
Then, an exclamation mark tile. We did not know what that was, so again we used the foot technique. A bunch of monsters, radiating power, emerged, looking very much like the one described in the notes we found a couple days ago. We retreated back into the broken blades trap, hidden behind an improvised cloaking spell. But it did not last long, and as soon as the monsters spotted us, they rushed in for the kill.
And then they stepped on the floor trap. The floor rushed up again (giving us a good estimate of the trap's reset time), and made a squelching sound when it hit the ceiling. Jelly dripped, and we moved on once the jelly-covered floor was back down.
Continuing on. Another circle, another arrow, avoided the same way as before. And then another interrogation point. Muffin once again to tank it up. This time, though, the effect was much crazier, lots of light, and when we could see again, he had started running, following the light like crazy. He ran on a golden star tile, triggering an awful noise. Moment later we heard screaming from another part of the labyrinth. Looking back, we saw another team, getting crushed as a spring trap activating on them.
Muffin continued running, activating a spring trap, a blade trap, and a circle of wall, getting stuck.
We followed in his footsteps, carefully avoiding both traps. By the time we reached the circle, he had gained back his senses, and we did the jumping.
Finally, the next tile was a purple, shimmering square. We walked into it, and were teleported... right into the dragon's abode.
