A grey wolf padded through the doorway and halfway down the stairs. She stopped for a moment to look around, then turned her head back towards the doorway she had just passed through.
"Shade doesn't see any immediate threats, " Cliff told his companions before stepping aside to let the paladin take the lead as always. She hoisted her shield, hand on the battleaxe at her waist, before leading the group into the room. "Be careful, "she warned. "Just because we don't see a threat doesn't mean one isn't there."
The genasi at the back of the group snorted. "We've been travelling together for months, Vastryd. I'd think you'd have enough faith in us by now to not feel the need to warn us every time we walk into a new room. Besides, we have Merryn here to keep an eye out for any traps, right?" She laid her hand briefly on the gnomes head before it was shrugged off in annoyance.
"The only thing I have faith in is the strength Erathis grants me, Tiala," the dwarf replied as she reached the bottom of the stairway. "I haven't stayed alive by—" She was cut short as her companions plowed into her from behind and thrust her into the center of the room. Merryn had managed to maintain her position, but everyone else had tumbled when the stairway suddenly turned into a steep ramp. Unfortunately that was only the first sign they had triggered something. A grinding sound accompanied the outer tiles of the room giving way to reveal a deep trench full of spikes along each edge of the narrow room. The remaining floor started to tilt in every direction, hindering everyone's efforts to regain their footing.
"We have Merryn to keep an eye out for any traps," Vastryd mocked as she stumbled to her feet. "Like I said—"
"Shut up," Tiala interrupted. "We have incoming." She nodded towards the side of the room, where green oozes were starting to climb up from out of the trenches.
Vastryc opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted once more, this time by Cliff. "Whatever you're about to say, save it." He swung his club at the nearest slime, Shade at his side snapping at them to no effect.
By this time Merryn had joined in the fray, slashing her daggers and dodging slimes, until something knocked her sideways and into the trench. She was barely able to catch the ledge and avoid falling onto the spikes. She looked up to see several dark creatures flying around the room. "Great, we've got bugs too," she announced while pulling herself back up.
Cliff dismissed Shade, who was getting in the way more than helping. "You and Tiala get them. Vastryd and I will handle the slimes." An arcane bolt and an arrow both shot past his head in different directions as he spoke, proving his words to be needless. He turned his attention back to the slimes, clubbing one with a satisfying squishing noise.
With a small effort of will, Tiala ignited a small ooze that had somehow found its way onto her arm. It quickly burnt up. "They're oil. We can use fire on them." She summoned a pillar of fire that caught two bugs and an ooze, giving a satisfied smirk.
Vastryd cleaved a slime in half, creating a puddle on the unstable floor. "That's great for you, but not helpful for the rest of us." She intercepted a bug that was about to pull another sideswipe on Merryn, knocking it out of the air and into the pit.
Shortly noise in the room ceased—the floor stopped shaking, and the four looked around to find themselves alone in the room aside from the corpses. Merryn quickly bounded up the ramp opposite where they had entered the room and tried the door. "Blasted thing is still locked."
"Things are never simple, are they?" Cliff mused aloud. "You see what you can do about that door. Tiala, you want to look over these murals with me? Maybe they can tell us something. Vastryd, let us know if anything else happens."
The murals depicted a battle long past, when the goblins defeated their enemies and became a free people. There was a strikingly detailed depiction of King Gethame leading his troops to victory over the goblins' oppressors, who were shown as little more than shadowy figures. From a historian's perspective, it was quite interesting, and under other circumstances the two would have been happy to spend time looking at it. However it yielded no clues as to how to escape the room they were currently in, leaving the pair frustrated. Merryn had only slightly better results with the door.
After a while, the sound of grinding stone returned. Vastryd felt the floor start moving under her feet again, and looked around to see if any more monsters were coming in. Sure enough there were. "We have more company."
This time the creatures were defeated more easily, Tiala tossing out fire spells almost gleefully. The exertion left the group tired, and when the floor settled back into a level position they stopped to take a rest before risking triggering another round of monsters. It wasn't long before the grinding sound returned for a third round. Tiala groaned. "You have GOT to be kidding me."
Jenny groaned. "You have GOT to be kidding me."
Ian looked at Laura. "Is there actually way out of this trap or are we just going to be stuck killing things until we die?"
She ran her hands through her hair as she inspected the book she was working from. "Yeah, it's just…kinda specific. And it requires doing stuff we haven't really used before. Argh, you know what? Screw this. The room doesn't exist and you all get experience points for frustration. Jenny, could you pass me that black marker?"
Jenny complied as Ian started clearing the map. "What for?"
"I want to make a note in case we ever run this again." She eyed the two-page spread. On the first one she wrote a giant "F" over the page, on the second one a giant "U".