Adrik Silverstone ran a gauntleted hand over the smooth stone walls. "These tunnels aren't right."
"Is your rock sense tingling?"
The dwarf nodded distractedly, scratching his short beard but didn't crack a smile. Menia made a face, her teasing ignored.
Ariadne moved beside him; hair done up in the latest style, her dark brown skin positively glowed in the torchlight, as effortlessly elegant in her green traveling dress here in the bowels of the earth as she would at some fancy ball.
She looked up the tunnels walls, trying to think back to her geology classes at the lyceum all those years ago. "What is it?"
"No tool marks on the stone. Kobolds may be decent tunnelers but they leave some kind of markings."
"The tunnel could be natural. An old aquifer they adopted."
Adrik shook his head, gesturing higher up the wall. "Then there'd be more striation on the walls. Iron or calcium residue left on the stone."
"Which means?" Menia said as Ariadne wandered back over to her, momentary interest in the irregularity waning.
"Not sure," Adrik rested a hand on his sword hilt absentmindedly as he wandered back towards the pair of them.
"I'm sure you'll figure out." Just over three feet tall Menia still had to reach up to pat the dwarf on the shoulder. "Come on, let's not let Ven get too far ahead." She nodded down the tunnel. Her halfling stride made it a pain to keep up with the rest of the party.
They set off again, Adrik taking point; brow creased in a frown as his eyes kept wandering back to the stone walls.
"There's a cave up ahead."
They all jumped as Venner stepped out of the shadows not five feet from them, lowering the hood of his cloak. Menia had brought up her warhammer, Adrik had raised his shield and put himself between Ariadne and looming figure, her hand raised and a spell half formed on her lips.
Pale, with dark hair, short beard and a surprisingly broad build that belied his demi-elf heritage; Menia had once -drunkenly- claimed the man could sneak up on his own shadow.
"Ven, start wearing a bell," Menia sighed as she lowered her weapon, flicking her braid back over her shoulder.
"That would defeat the point of not making a sound, little summer."
Menia made a face, despite how much she enjoyed the nickname and Ariadne rolled hers eyes, fighting a small smile. When they were delving the already enigmatic ranger became even more inscrutable and they could never tell if he was being facetious or not.
"A cave?" Adrik's said, before the conversation could be further derailed.
Venner nodded. "Around the corner, hundred yards ahead the tunnel opens up. Two kobolds and a minotaur on watch. Might be a trophy or treasure room. Maybe a temple. Lot of pedestals. Dragon statue on one of them."
Adrik's frown returned, eyes darting back to the tunnel walls. "That still doesn't seem odd to anyone else? Minotaur's and kobolds working together"
"You're over-thinking things, dear," Ariadne smiled. "Kobolds love digging their little tunnels and they're always being subjugated by one thing or another. Given the minotaur love of mazes it actually seems like a match made in the pit."
Adrik considered it; she had a point but minotuars weren't often what anyone would call 'team players' outside of their own tribes. Something didn't sit right with him about the whole situation and it itched at the back of his mind.
They'd maintained the element of surprise thanks to Venner's preternatural stealth skills and keen eyes leading them around the kobolds beloved traps, but the longer they lingered the more likely someone was to stumble over one of the sentries they'd silenced. They could handle a few kobolds, even with minotaur's backing them up, but given the sheer size of warren there were likely more than they could reasonably deal with.
"Anything else in the room?"
Venner shook his head. "No. But I could make out four other tunnels feeding into it, so there could be could be twice that." He gave them a brief outline of what he'd seen and Adrik quickly sketched out their plan of attack.
They checked over their gear; Adrik rolled his shoulders and neck, loosening the muscles, and Venner strung his bow, while Menia closed her eyes and gripped the symbol hanging from her necklace, mouthing a soft prayer before adjusting her hold on her shield. With a cheerful smile, Ariadne straightened and checked the tome and pouches on her belt.
"Alright then. Let's go ruin their day."
The minotaur tossed her head and let out a snort of irritation at her squandered skill.
One of mottled green, overgrown lizards she'd been put on guard duty with eyed her nervously and took a step closer to its companion, chattering in its primitive tongue. Adjusting the battle axe draped across her shoulders, one hoof pawed at the stone floor of the trophy room's entrance. She ached to lose herself in the frenzy and feel the spray blood instead of standing guard for hours on end in the company of these witless reptiles. For a moment she considered abandoning her post, heading to the surface to hunt and relish in the kill.
The sight of the tall minotaur statue off to one side of the grand hall, head back in a silent challenge chilled the blood in her veins and she pushed the thought-
Something smashed into her back. She turned, swinging a meaty fist to smite the kobold who'd dared challenged her. She hit air. She looked around, pain flaring where she'd been hit. Both kobolds were on the ground, black shafted arrows protruding from their small bodies. Fumbling behind her, it took her a moment to grab the quarrel protruding from her back. The thought to sound the alarm had just begun to occur to her when a crossbow bolt spattered it across the cave wall.
Adrik shook the worst of the gore from his bolt and reloaded his crossbow, slinging it across his back next to his javelin before picking up his shield as Venner reclaimed his arrows and Menia and Ariadne got a good first look at the cave.
Illuminated by flickering torches set into the walls and crude iron braziers occasionally set on the uneven floor, the cavern was nearly 100 feet wide and maybe half again as long, half a dozen other dark tunnel entrances studding the perimeter. Great stone pedestals rose up from the floor at seemingly at random, the smallest easily 6 feet tall. A few held intricately carved stone statues; the most prominent of a young dragon with its mouth open, easily 6 feet to the shoulder even on all fours with a crest running from top of its head down along its spine. Atop several others, coins and jewels caught the torchlight; offerings the kobolds had made to their idol? Squinting up at the ceiling, Ariadne could just make out what looked like holes in the cave roof, at the edges of the torchlight. Wurm tunnels from the caves earlier occupant, perhaps?
"There's a pit over there," Menia gestured a little closer to the center of the room as she extinguished their torch, the cave offering more than enough light. "Hide the bodies?"
Patrols had been spotty in the tunnels but they didn't want to risk one tripping over the sentries. Grabbing the minotaur by each arm she and Adrik dragged it towards the hole while Venner and Ariadne moved to keep an eye on the other entrances.
Menia glanced over the edge of the pit when they neared the edge of the roughly ten foot square hole, expecting another one of the kobolds beloved pit traps. Instead she jerked her head back, averting her eyes with a surprised squeak.
Adrik was reaching for his sword but she waved him off with a little laugh. "Sorry, there's a basilisk in the pit. Wasn't expecting it."
He snorted and together they pushed the corpse off the wooden platform that lined the edge of the pit. It landed with a meaty thud and a hungry sound echoed up from below.
"Do basilisks eat raw meat?" Adrik pondered as they each grabbed a kobold and repeated the process.
"I think so," Menia tapped her chin thoughtfully. "The traditional remedies for petrification call for basilisk saliva and stomach juices, so anything it eats is probably transformed back to be digested. Could be we're just saving it a step."
They both shrugged and pushed the bodies into the pit.
"If you two are finished playing with the locals, I'd quite like to find out what's going on and leave this forsaken place." Ariadne had made no secret she'd thought this job was beneath them. Menia and Adrik had spent the trip to the warren imitating her indignant tone when Menia had first suggested they investigate reports of kobold attacking travelers on the road.
"Kobolds. Really?" "Let them hire some ratcatchers!"
They shared a glance as it crept into her voice again.
"What's s-"
Venner's hand closed around Ariadne's mouth and he unceremoniously grabbed her about the waist, hauling her behind one of the stone pillars. Adrik and Menia followed his lead, ducking behind another.
They hadn't heard anything but they'd been traveling with the ranger long enough to trust his instincts. Seconds ticked by and half a dozen kobolds appeared from one of the far tunnels, chattering to each other and oblivious to the adventurers. They took their time meandering around the edge of the cavern, the party carefully shuffling to keep the pedestals between themselves and the patrol.
Individually and even in small groups they could handle the kobolds without much trouble, but with sheer numbers there was a chance the dragon-kin could overwhelm them.
Adrik had put it rather succinctly when they'd been considering their approach. "At a point, quantity has a quality all its own."
Menia and Adrik moved carefully as they could on the uneven floor, neither sharing the demi-elf's uncanny ability for silence. Menia tensed when her foot knocked a loose stone and it rolled across the floor.
Fortunately, the kobolds across the cave seemed too far away to hear.
Unfortunately, the trio of kobolds and the minotaur that emerged from the tunnel directly opposite her and Adrik, not twenty feet away, were much harder pressed to miss them.
Both groups froze.
Adrik went for his crossbow and Menia clutched at the symbol around her neck. Muttering a prayer, she gestured towards the patrol as the minotaur reached for the signal horn at his belt. The kobolds were slower to react. Two began to draw their daggers while the third fumbled for its sling. The heavy bolt took the minotaur in the shoulder and it roared in pain. Or tried to.
It opened its mouth, but there was no sound.
In fact, none of them could hear anything. Not footsteps on the stone. Not the clinking of armor or creaking of leather. Not even the sound of their own heartbeat or breath.
The minotaur blinked, disoriented. Seizing the signal horn from its belt, it blew hard as it could. Soundlessly.
Menia hefted her shield and warhammer. Adrik reloaded his crossbow.
Stepping forwards to meet the kobolds, Menia dodged one of their sloppy lunges. It was nice to face an opponent her own size for a change. Her hammer shattered the kobolds spine. It crumpled on the stone floor.
Realizing what the she'd done, Adrik raised his crossbow and shifted his aim. The heavy bolt punched through sternum of the kobold with the sling, the force knocking it back several feet.
Signal horn was all but useless, the minotaur tossed it aside. Lowering its bull head, it charged, nearly trampling over the remaining kobold.
Standing the minotaur was more than three times Menia's size. Bent almost double in its charge, it was still nearly twice her height. Menia danced back, interposing her shield between herself and the minotaur. Its horn gouged the wood and nearly ripped it from her grasp as she turned the blow aside.
Twisting, she used the momentum, swinging her hammer.
The minotaur wasn't nearly so tall when the blow connected with its ankle and it sprawled face first onto the cavern floor.
Shouldering his crossbow and casually drawing his sword, Adrik drove his blade between its shoulders. With wide terrified eyes, the final kobold turned to run. Adrik's blade cut into its waist, nearly cleaving it in two.
Their whole skirmish had taken half a dozen seconds and had taken place in absolute, eerie silence.
Menia risked a quick glance around the pillar, hoping the fates were on their side and the other patrol hadn't noticed the fight.
Across the cavern, two of the kobolds would have had an angle to see them had black arrows not been protruding from them and their nearby companions. One of the survivors with an arrow in its stomach had raised a signal horn to its lips. Another arrow took it through the eye and it collapsed.
Dropping the zone of silence around herself and Adrik, sound came rushing back and they heard the echo of the signal horn reverberating through the tunnels.
Adrik sighed. "Well, shit."