CHAPTER III: RESCUE PARTY?

Krougu found himself in a large stone entry way where Furrius and Barakus had been only days before. Their scent had been lost in the daily shuffle of beasts and monsters.

The familiar laughter rang through the room as a hooded figure appeared, positively rocking with laughter. The very same man that had personally delivered the letters to them; as far as they could tell. "Finally! You make it past the oh-so-difficult to decipher doorway…why, I thought you had at least one brain amongst the lot of you, but it seems I was wrong… NO MATTER!" his voice was harsh and unpredictable – he could be whispering one moment only to scream at them the next – it proved to be quite disorienting. "I wanted you to come here to help me, but since it's taken you so long to merely gain access to the room, I don't know if I can count on you to do the thing that I had intended you to DO…" he rambled, thoroughly confusing the new companions. "Ah…well, as hard as it proved to get into this room, it will prove infinitely harder to get OUT…" he chided, laughing as he disappeared into a black mist.

"Well that was nice…" Illonel said, rolling his eyes.

Looking back, the rugged rogue Krougu realized that he was still accompanied by some of the strangers he had met in the inn.

Illonel, the handsome elvin fighter smiled as Krougu looked his way. Next to him stood the diminutive Sic, counting his hard earned gold. The bard wasn't selfish – but who in the world put more merit in the friendship of strangers than in gold? Celathiel rubbed his wounded nose gingerly, wiping the blood streaks away with his sleeve.

"Where's the rest?" Krougu asked, knowing that his traveling mates were just as clueless as he was. The female sorcerer, the brave paladin, the druid and the wizard hadn't followed. Perhaps they were still safely in room fourteen…perhaps they had suffered a far worse fate. The group shrugged at Krougu's question.

"Let's search the room…" Krougu said, beginning to peek intently at the stony walls.

"You mean instead of walking straight through those big doors straight ahead? Those aren't good enough for you?" the sorcerer asked sarcastically.

"Smartass…" Krougu said, continuing his search. "Ya gonna help me, or not?" he barked, causing the men to sigh and assist him in his search. Eventually, Krougu had spotted a small slit under one of the rock panels.

"Hey, there's a button under here…should I press it?" he asked over his shoulder to the party.

"Go for it…" said Illonel, stepping as far away as he was able.

"I concur…" the bard said, meeting Illonel.

"Yeah, sure…" agreed the sorcerer, keeping a safe distance.

As the rogue pushed the small button within, the panel slid open to reveal an ornate passageway.

"It's nice…kind of like it's too nice for this creepy old dungeon, ya know?" Sic half-asked the team as they headed down the narrow, ten-foot wide hallway.

The sorcerer walked up to the wall and tapped it with his hand – it felt and reacted just like any other wall, as far as he could tell…

Krougu and Illonel reached another smaller set of double doors up ahead – slowly opening them, they were treated with an interesting sight – three large humanoids stood in the room, sniffing intently. Large sconces with torches burning brightly let them take a closer look at the monsters. Their skin was grey and scaly…their eyes, nonexistent. Dark black sockets laid where eyes normally did the same, and most of the group didn't have any idea what the creatures were.

"Grimlocks?" Illonel pondered, firing an arrow directly into the center monster's chest. It bellowed a fierce battle cry as Krougu followed suit with his bow and arrow.

"Uh…do we even know if these are enemies?" the sorcerer asked, sighing. "Well, I certainly hope you're enemies, because if you're not, I feel terrible about this…" he said, aiming a shot with his crossbow, next to the bard. Both of their bolts missed – Sic's was so far off that Illonel felt the breeze of it next to his pointed ear. He turned and shot his party member a furious look, only looking back to jump into the fray of battle. Sic smiled sheepishly as he stepped backwards, trying to line up a shot for his next opportune moment.

Stupidly rushing into the line of sight of the rogue and fighter, the first grimlock was easily dispatched by Krougu's first opportune attack. Attempting to flank the second one, Sic and Krougu made easy work of it – though its crude battle axe took a sizable chunk of the rogue's shoulder with it. The final grimlock had no chance – a magic missile issued by Celathiel burst his head open like a watermelon.

The only thing of interest that Celathiel and Krougu found on the grimlocks was a small, black pouch seemingly made of leather. Searching the rest of the room, Sic happened upon a small, golden coin. It had strange etching in it that seemed random; nobody could decipher it. It wasn't even clear that it was a language…Sic stowed it away as they searched the rest of the room.

Sliding his hands across another odd panel, Krougu caused a hidden doorway in the rear of the room to slide open, revealing a large, human body. The limp body of Barakus slumped over Krougu, knocking him to the ground. As Sic and Illonel helped lift the man, Krougu shook him.

The tall barbarian came to quickly, rubbing his stomach hungrily.

"Are you alright?" asked Illonel.

"Yes," replied Barakus. He said nothing more as the party stared at him blankly.

"Uh…okay…are you an enemy?" the rogue said, attempting to use his charisma to win over the large man's favor.

Inspecting his rescuers, Barakus realized that Furrius was not among them. Sensing no threat and wishing to find his missing friend with as much assistance as possible, he said, "no. I'm Barakus."

Sic, Calathiel, Illonel and Krougu rolled their eyes. As much fun as it was to have a conversation with a brick wall, they needed to move on. The room they had opened was just an indentation in the wall – they had reached a dead end.

"Well, Barakus…we're trying to get out of here. Are you coming or not?" Krougu asked impatiently.

With the promise of exiting the dungeon and the hope of finding his friend, Barakus looked into Krougu's eyes and simply said, "sure."

A few minutes later, they found themselves in a room peppered with jewels and etchings.

"See? I told you it was a good idea to use the big doorway…" Celathiel remarked as the group entered the long, black corridor. Clearly enamored with the jewels embedded in the wall, Illonel attempted to pry one free for his personal use…but it was no good; his rapier simply could not do the job. Barakus, hoping to win over the favor of his new traveling party, attempted the same with his greataxe, with a much worse result – slipping off of the wall, he slammed his face into his own axe.

"There's a lesson in thinking before you act…" the bard said smugly as Barakus scowled, wiping a bit of blood from under his nose.

"Hey, guys…a staircase…" Krougu said, peering down the dark reaches below. "I'll go first with Illonel…we'll call up when we see that it's safe…" he said, starting down the stairs.

Illonel sighed and shook his head. "Why must I always be volunteered for these kinds of things…?"

Slipping from the top step just like Furrius, Krougu thought he was done for…until he grabbed hold of a banister that was shrouded in shadow. "H…hey! There's a banister!" he said childishly, using it to get to the bottom of the stairway. As the five of them reassembled at the bottom of the steps, they stared in awe at the room.

It was a glassy looking room…beautiful, almost no imperfections in wonderfully sculpted stonework. Four doors stood on each wall of the room, with the spiral staircase almost directly in the center.

"Let's go through one of these doors…" Sic said, trying to get his comrades' attention. "Hello? Doors? Why are we searching the room again! There are four freakin' doors!" he cried, exasperation dripping from his voice. "We don't need to search every inch of every room! This is tedium at its worst!"

"If you'd just shut up and help, we'd be done a lot faster…" the sorcerer reasoned. Soon enough, after marveling at the slick transition from wall to floor in a corner, Illonel had indeed discovered a small ring sticking up from the ground. With Barakus' help, they opened the heavy hatch to reveal a small underground chamber.

"Down," Barakus said, looking into the hole.

"Uh…yeah, sure thing, big guy…" said Celathiel, lighting his weapon aglow with the power of a light spell. "You want to check it out?" he asked Illonel, handing over the arrow.

"Why don't you do it yourself…" Illonel said moodily, clearing the way for the sorcerer.

"Okay…somebody grab my legs…I'm going down…"

In the corner, Sic and Krougu crassly laughed at the sorcerer's poor word choice. Barakus listened intently – he swore he could hear the faint screaming of his traveling partner emanating from the underground passage. He grabbed Celathiel's ankle and lifted him high, staring into his eyes.

"Furrius," he said, lowering the confused man into the hole. Even with the light of the weapon and his low-light vision, he couldn't see too far down the path – what he could tell, however, was that it was a long, cylindrical hallway that led diagonally across the room.

"Pull me up!" he squeaked, as Barakus complied. "Okay, now lower me down so I can touch the ground with my feet."

Barakus grunted and lowered the sorcerer by his wrist, this time, letting go at the furthest point of his descent. Awkwardly, the half-elf snatched to the human's arm before he started to fall – there was no ground directly beneath his feet, so he couldn't stand. A short drop wouldn't have killed him…but he clung on for dear life like it might have. Raising him back out of the hole, Barakus yelled in his face. "Stupid!"

"Would you just slide down the damn wall?" Krougu asked, getting irritated with Celathiel's poor grasp of physics.

"Slide down the wall? What the hell are you…" Celathiel protested.

"Seriously, get down in the hole or let someone else do it," Illonel said harshly.

"There's always the option of one of these four freakin' doors…" Sic said, still angry that no one was listening to him.

"Gee, sorry for breathing. Fuck…" the sorcerer said, stepping to the side and allowing Krougu to jump below.

Immediately upon landing, Krougu slid down the length of the hole, like it was a sick, demented water slide. As he reached the far wall, a trap door identical to the entrance opened above and he was launched in an arch across the small room. Awkwardly landing on Illonel, the two of them stood up, brushing themselves off.

"What a ride…" he said, heading back for the entry trapdoor.

"Wait…wait…you're going back in there?" asked Sic, questioning his sanity. "Not only are we NOT using conventional doorways, but now it's a good idea to go back into hidden rooms that are obviously booby-trapped?"

"There's another hatch down there…just need to time it right to get it open…"

After Krougu and Illonel had both gone into the hole, Barakus and Calathiel followed, each of them ending up in the small, hidden hatch that Krougu had miraculously opened. A few times, they missed the hatch and arced across the room for minutes at a time – some actually had a good time of it. Finally, the bard stood in the room alone.

"Fuckin' loonies…can't even use a perfectly good doorway…" he mused, diving below to meet his group in the secret room.