Scrooge
Scrooge hated airports. In the untamed wilds, you could land a plane wherever you wanted and be adventuring within minutes. In an airport, it could take days persuading, arguing, and, depending on where he was going, bribing his way through layers of needless bureaucracy and paranoid protocol – and that was just to be able to land in the blasted place! Maybe it'd be an easier process if he didn't insist on taking the Cloudslayer, but he'd learned the hard way that the trouble of transporting all his adventuring gear on commercial airlines was far more than it was worth.
Once they were out of the airport, though, they were free to roam the streets of the city of Byblos. Through the winding streets and the brickwork archways the family travelled, past colourful shops selling clothes, jewellery, carpets, and more, manned by merchants who called out to them as they passed. Surrounding them were rectangular stone houses and apartment buildings, each built close together and from pale, yellow-brown sandstone.
It was already late in the afternoon when they'd arrived. By the time they got to the harbour, it was close to evening. Scrooge booked rooms at the cheapest hotel he could find, one room for him, one room for Della, and then a shared room for the kids. Once he was alone in his, he took his tan explorer's outfit out of his briefcase and changed into it. He looked over himself in the mirror and smirked. Still looked every much the dashing adventurer, even now.
He quickly looked around the room, then pulled something else out of his briefcase – a folded-up map of the temple in its entirety. Keeping an ear out for anyone approaching the room, he scanned over the map one last time. Three floors, plus a large chamber on the topmost floor. Arrow traps located in the hallways, a boulder trap at the top of a staircase, a scythe trap on the bottom floor… he spent about a minute reminding himself of the traps that Gyro had identified, and identifying which ones had been made 'safe'.
He looked the note that Gyro had written in the corner. Room containing cloak is at top of the temple, it read. Suggest meandering route through side corridors.
Scrooge grinned, then tucked the map away again. He put his exploring helmet on, then left the room and gathered the rest of the team. They were heading out immediately!
"We can't go in the morning?" Dewey asked when he told them this.
"The tablet will only work in the dead of night!" Scrooge replied. "The earlier we head out, the more opportunity we have for adventure!"
"But what about dinner?" Huey asked worriedly.
"Already sorted!" Scrooge replied with a grin. "Donald and Mrs Beakley made some pre-packed lunches for us, to sustain us as we travel. And I know what you're thinking," He added as the kids shared a grimace among themselves. "And don't worry – the tuna sandwiches were refrigerated during the plane trip."
"…Or," Louie spoke up. "We could use this opportunity to take a bite out of the local cuisine here. I'm pretty sure I spied a couple of nice little restaurants on our way here."
Scrooge blinked. "Erm-"
"Oh! I think I saw a Mediterranean place that overlooked the harbour!" Webby spoke up enthusiastically. "We'd have such a great view!"
"Yes!" Huey said, his eyes lighting up. "I can't remember the last time we had café food!"
"I'm so on board with this!" Dewey agreed, turning to Scrooge with a grin. "Can we, Uncle Scrooge? Please?"
Scrooge remembered what the average price for food in a café was, and he baulked. "I- that's-!"
Della sidled up to him, a sly look on her face. "This is the first adventure we've had in four years." She pointed out. "A nice dinner would be a good way to kick things off."
Scrooge hesitated, then sighed, relenting. "I suppose we could…"
The kids cheered.
They quickly found a nice restaurant that overlooked the harbour, out to the island where their eventual destination was. As much as he winced at the prices of something as simple a nice dinner, Scrooge found himself relaxing and enjoying himself as the family ate. It was nice, seeing everyone so energised and excited. The family had been becoming gradually quieter and dourer before this, and this re-found cheer was exactly what Scrooge had been hoping for.
Louie and Webby in particular looked brighter than they'd looked in years. They had been smiling almost the entire time, filled with vigour, energy and anticipation. He could scarcely believe how well this was turning out, and they'd only just begun!
But even as he thought that, he remembered that it was too early to get cocky. Things could very easily go wrong if he wasn't careful.
Once dinner was done, and the bill had been paid, the family got up and made their way to the harbour. The night was still young, and adventure waited for no-one.
The island sat a mere hour from the waterfront, the twinkling starlight shining down onto the ruins. All that remained of this once glorious structure was an outline of stone brick, overgrown with moss and grass. In the centre of the remains was a pedestal with a square-shaped indent upon its face.
The adventuring team of six approached the pedestal, each carrying a rucksack save Scrooge, who held only the stone tablet that would awaken this ancient place. He marched up to the sandstone plinth with the confidence of a seasoned explorer, and delicately placed the tablet upon the platform, taking a step back once he did so.
The runes upon the tablet, already glowing a deep purple, started to glow brighter, more intense. The island started to shift and rumble, causing some of the kids to step back in alarm. The rubble surrounding them started to rise off the ground, held aloft with a bright, indigo aura. Bricks once buried under the earth pulled themselves free from the dirt and stone, hovering into the air. The arcane brickwork floated in the air, still and strange.
Then, they flew towards the outline of the great building that had once stood, rebuilding the temple from the bottom up. Bricks came from all around, from the earth underneath the party, from the sea surrounding the isle, some even came flying in from skies afar. It took all but a minute for the building to reconstruct itself, and once it did, the party took a step back in awe.
Standing before them was a large, rectangular building, crafted from pale stone. The walls of the temple sported countless windows, each opening to give one a glimpse of the darkness within the temple's confines. Before them were two massive brass doors, engraved with various ducklike figures, with massive pillars standing on either side. Above the doors were two large pictures, each depicting a side-facing minotaur.
The picture on the left depicted a male minotaur, wearing a suit of armour and sporting a large beard that covered much of his face. He held a large club in one hand, and a bolt of lightning in the other. The picture on the right depicted a minotaur woman, completely naked, holding a corn cob in one hand, and another lightning bolt. The two pictures faced each other, the hands that held their respective bolts outstretched towards what appeared to be a depiction of a cloak, hovering before them with a white circle drawn around it.
After a moment, the great brass doors opened inward into the darkness beyond, as if to beckon the party into the mysteries that waited within.
Well… mysteries for the kids, Scrooge thought with a grin.
"…So…" Dewey said slowly. "You guys think anyone else is gonna notice this, or…?"
"Everyone get yer torches out!" Scrooge ordered, turning back to the family. "Time's a-wastin'!"
Webby swung her rucksack off her shoulders with a grin, setting it down and pulling out a torch, a tinderbox, and a plastic box containing a bunch of oiled-up rags. She pulled out the rags and started tying them around the end of the wooden stick.
Louie pulled out his phone and turned on its built-in flashlight, immediately illuminating the area.
"…Come on!" Webby cried, annoyed. "Really?"
"What?" Louie said with a smirk.
"Lad, that's…" Scrooge said uneasily. "It's not the proper way…"
"It's modern technology, guys." He replied, striding ahead cheerfully. "You should try it sometime."
Scrooge sighed irritably, then gestured for the rest of the family to follow. Webby reluctantly put the torch back in her backpack and followed the rest of the family inside the ruins.
The moment everyone was inside, the doors slowly closed shut behind them. Dewey and Huey's phones soon joined Louie's, offering ample illumination to reveal what was before them. A great hall extended before them, almost a hundred yards long and ten yards wide. At the end of the hall were two staircases, each leading up to a balcony that looked down upon the hall. Doors lined the walls, each leading to chambers unknown and decorated with carvings of the minotaurs they'd seen on the entrance.
Immediately before them was a chasm in the floor, leading down into an inky abyss and separating the party from the other side of the chamber. The chasm stretched out fifty or sixty feet wide – too wide to jump over. Scrooge looked around, noting that the chasm was as wide as the chamber, and the only ways to progress where two doors to the left and the right.
Scrooge cast his mind back. According to the map, both doors led to a corridor and both of them were trapped. The trap in the rightmost corridor had been disabled, while the trap in the left corridor – an arrow trap – had been augmented according to Scrooge's specifications. A close experience with a trap would be a good start, he thought to himself.
"Alright… two paths we could take, no way of knowing what's behind either of them." Huey thought aloud. "We could flip a coin, or…"
Scrooge shook his head. "We cannae leave our adventuring path up to the whims of fate! We need to rely on our instincts to deliver us to our destination!"
"…Okay." Huey shrugged, turning to the right. "Um… we can go right?"
"Ah. Well…"
"Or!" Dewey said excitedly, pulling out his prop bullwhip. "We can swing across!"
"…What?" Scrooge and Huey said simultaneously.
The blue triplet, still decked out in his 'adventurer' costume, pointed towards a spot near the underside of the balcony. "There's, like, an outcrop there! I can use my whip to grab on and swing across, like Ford Windfall!"
Scrooge looked towards where the youngster was pointing, seeing that there was, indeed, an outcrop of stone jutting from the wall and looming over the chasm. It was small, fragile-looking, and about ten feet off the ground.
"…Like… the movie character?" Della asked confusedly.
"Dewey, I don't think whips actually work like that." Huey told him warily.
"Course they do!" Dewey said, moving to the edge. "Watch this!"
Dewey threw the bullwhip back, flailing inelegantly behind him, and then swung it forward.
The cotton prop tool swung over his head and onto the floor limply.
"Nice." Louie said sarcastically.
"Shut up, this is gonna be cool!" Dewey replied, swinging back for a second time.
The tip of the whip brushed against the outcrop before falling off and dangling over the pit.
As Dewey reached back for a third try, Scrooge reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling awkwardly at him. "Erm… lad, maybe we should just go through one of the doors."
"…Alright." Dewey said disappointedly, rolling up the whip. "Let's just go right, then."
"I-"
"I vote left!" Webby said quickly.
"I vote right." Louie added. "Cause, you know… it's random chance, and it doesn't matter."
"…Uh…" Della shrugged apologetically. "I'll vote right, too."
"…To the right it is, then!" Scrooge said grandly, a forced smile on his beak. So, they were skipping the first trap. No matter. There were plenty of other opportunities.
The right door opened up into an unlit corridor about five feet wide and seventy feet long, the walls covered with ancient runes and hieroglyphs, their meaning lost to time. Huey and Webby took the lead, looking around the room with awe.
"Incredible… Webby, are you getting all this?" Huey asked, taking out a notebook and jotting things down.
"Kinda… I think it's like, a retelling of a myth or something?" Webby replied, her eyes scanning the corridor as they walked. "I only had a week to learn Early Linear, so there's still a few gaps in my- Huey!"
Webby suddenly grabbed Huey by the collar and yanked him back. He fell backwards with a yelp, the notebook flying out of his hands.
From the other wall, seven arrows flew forward and impaled themselves into the wall, skewering the notebook through its spine.
The family immediately ran forward in alarm, Huey sitting on floor in stunned shock as he stared at the spot he'd been just a moment before.
"Shit! Are you alright?" Louie asked, frightened.
"I'm sorry, but… you didn't notice them, and I didn't know what to do-!" Webby spluttered apologetically.
"It's alright, lass." Scrooge told her comfortingly. Then, he turned sternly to Huey. "You need to be alert, Huey! This is an ancient ruin, not a theme park!"
"Didn't you listen to Donald's lecturing before we left?" Della admonished him as she helped him back up. "Tripwires, runes-"
"Yes, I know, I know!" Huey said quickly, standing up and brushing himself off. "I'm okay, I… that won't happen again."
"No, it won't." Della turned to her other two children. "All three of you – stay sharp. Don't go forgetting where you are."
"Kay, mom." Dewey said quickly.
"Yeah, yeah. I know." Louie told her.
Huey moved up warily to the slits in the wall, where the arrows had come from, then to the triggering pressure plate he had inadvertently stepped on.
"…How did I miss that…?" He muttered to himself.
"You just need to be on the lookout for these things." Scrooge told him. "Webby had your back this time, but if she isn't there the next time…"
"…Right, yes." Huey nodded. "I'll look out for them."
As the party moved past the trap, carefully stepping around the pressure plate, Scrooge hung back for a moment to look at it. He quickly cast his mind back to the map again. He was sure that the arrow trap was marked for the left corridor. The trap in this corridor was supposed to be a magical rune that had been dispelled. Was he misremembering things? He'd studied that map just a few hours ago, and numerous hours back home!
He clenched his cane angrily. Lord help him, if he learned that Gyro had made an error in his map…
He peered at the arrow slits a little closer. Behind the stonework, he could see the outline of a small lightbulb – one of Gyro's modifications, likely a motion sensor. So that trap had still been safe, at least…
He shook his head and moved on. He noticed Louie, who was at the back of the party, quickly look away as he left the trap. He frowned, and moved up to him.
"Remember, if ye want us to turn around or take a different path…" He said to him quietly.
"I know. I'm fine." Louie whispered back. Not entirely convinced, but recognising when the boy didn't want to talk anymore, Scrooge nodded and moved up to the front of the party.
They progressed slowly down the hall, more cautiously this time. Webby and Huey were still at the front with Scrooge, but they were scanning the walls and the floors thoroughly this time, Huey repeatedly muttering under his breath, "…tripwires, runes, arrows, plates…"
Eventually, they reached the door at the end of the corridor, large and made of fine wood. Scrooge mentally reviewed the map, remembering that there was supposed to be a small ritual chamber beyond this door. His confidence in the map lessened, he carefully inspected the door before gently opening it to the room beyond.
When he saw it, he double-blinked. "Eh- what?"
He stepped out and looked around, the rest of the family following him with similar confusion.
They were on the main balcony of the main chamber.
"…Cool!" Dewey said excitedly. "This place, like, shifts around!"
"Non-Euclidean architecture!" Webby gasped in delight. "This place is enchanted to switch its rooms around to trap its intruders! Like the House of Fortune in Macaw!"
"…Intruders like us." Louie added quietly.
Scrooge looked over the balcony warily, confirming that it was indeed the room that they had entered the temple from. They seemed to be on the left-hand side of the chamber – even though they'd gone down the right-hand corridor.
Okay, Scrooge thought to himself as he backed away from the balcony railing. So, the map wasn't reliable. That was fine… the traps were still modified, so the adventure was still safe… just a little unpredictable, that was all. The uncertainty might even add to the atmosphere.
…But if the temple prevented them from leaving…
"…Alright. Everyone behind me and move carefully." Scrooge told the rest of the family. "Remember which doors we've been through – we cannae let this temple deceive us."
The rest of the family replied in confirmation, Louie doing so quieter than the others.
The next door to be opened was two doors down, leading into a room that was supposed to be on the other side of the chamber. Another corridor stretched before them for about fifteen feet before branching off in three different directions. Recognising this room as a maze room, Scrooge remembered that the only traps in this room were located at the dead ends. All he had to do was lead the family down the right path, and they should get through the maze easily – assuming, of course, that the layout of the maze hadn't changed.
He led them down the right path, then turned left, and straight on for a bit. So far, it was following the same layout. He led them down the path for a bit, coming up to another intersection in the maze with one path leading right, and the other leading straight ahead.
Illuminated by Huey's phone, the march led them closer to this intersection. As they came closer, Scrooge stopped as he noticed something on the floor.
Drops of a red liquid.
He held out his cane to stop the rest of the party. Huey looked down at where Scrooge was facing, then backed away. "Uh…"
Slowly, Scrooge's eyes followed the trail of blood splatters as they led towards the path that diverged right, the path that was supposed to lead the party out of this maze. On the corner wall of that path was a long smear of crimson that had stained the ancient brickwork and obscured the symbols upon it.
"…Someone else has been here." Webby said softly.
"…But we were the only ones who had the tablet." Dewey pointed out. "Maybe it's from the last guy who tried to explore this place…"
Scrooge turned back to the kids, giving each of them a very stern look. "Stay. Here." He ordered them. Silently, they nodded.
Scrooge slowly approached the blood smear, Della following behind him apprehensively. Once they were close to the blood, Della pulled a small flashlight out of her back and turned it on with a click. Getting a better look, Scrooge saw that while the smear was dry, and had congealed slightly, it couldn't be any more than a couple of days old, at most. Someone else was down here with them.
Della turned her flashlight down the right-hand corridor, looking down it and revealing that the blood smear went on for quite a bit longer. She leaned in towards Scrooge and whispered anxiously, "…Gyro came back, right?"
"Aye, I saw him in his lab on Friday." Scrooge murmured back. "I don't know what's goin' on…"
Della didn't say anything back. She turned back to the kids, handing Scrooge her flashlight before she left. The old adventurer peered down the tunnel, tracing the morbid trail with the beam of light. It seemed to go on for the entire length of the corridor, though the light only travelled so far. And now that he was looking at it… the corridor seemed to go on for longer than the map had indicated.
"…Louie?"
Scrooge turned back at the sound of Della's voice. He could see Louie hanging at the back of the group, looking away from the rest of the party. Even in the dim light, Scrooge could see the young man's heavy breathing, and the intense stare into nothing. Louie opened his beak to say something, then closed it.
"It's alright." Della told him gently.
He opened his beak a couple more times before he managed to get the words out.
"…I don't wanna be here anymore." He said quietly, almost ashamedly.
Scrooge turned back down the corridor, the trail of blood leading deeper into the dungeon, almost certainly leading to a trap, or a grisly scene…
…He felt a sharp pain in his temple. He grimaced, hesitated, looking down the corridor almost longingly…
"…Scrooge?"
Della's voice shook him out of it. He sighed, then nodded, still looking down the corridor. "…Aye. Let's turn back."
"Yeah, I… I think that's a good idea." Huey spoke up immediately, his nerves evident in his voice. "Maybe we're not ready just yet…"
Webby was silent, looking down at the floor as Della embraced Louie behind her. She looked up at Scrooge and asked, almost desperately, "Could… maybe some of us could continue on, while the others-?"
"No." Scrooge growled, the tone of his voice startling Webby into silence. "Somethin's wrong here… and we cannae go on until we know what it is." With that, he turned around and started to make his way back toward the party.
Upon which the floor opened up beneath him and he fell into a pit.