Dungeon Runner

Stepping Up, Chapter 88

Another fight against Gnolls. This one along a narrow passage that made it hard to keep out of each other's ways. Some of the injuries Tibs healed were caused by his teammates.

This cache's entrance was hidden behind a weave of Light, Earth, and Corruption. Tibs carefully drew light from around him and manipulated that into the weave, causing the weave to expand, and let them walk through the still visible wall as if it wasn't there.

On the other side were more pedestals. One had an arrow, the next a knife, then a metal helmet, another book, and another amulet. Without knowing what the book contained, Carina couldn't judge its value, and the amulet was much like every other one, which made the helmet the best value.

Then, they went through a handful of intersections and halls without incidents, then reach a door blocking their way.

It looked to be made of a dark wood, set in a golden frame, but the essence making it up was mostly Light, with Earth, Corruption, and other essences he couldn't identify. The weave was tighter than that of the cache and when he added Light to it, nothing happened. He tried the same with Earth and Corruption, to the same lack of results. It had no handle or keyholes, and Tibs couldn't find any hidden latch that might open it.

For decoration, it had three black shields, each with a different design. The one at the top was like a bird with its wings spread, but it had four legs with claws and it didn't seem to have feathers.

"That's a dragon," Carina said. "I've seen paintings of them in books."

"The way it's posed within the shield makes me think this is a crest," Mez added. "Which would make the one with the boar another crest. I don't know what that one is." He indicated the bottom one, with the face of a golden animal, its muzzle open in a scream, surrounded by brown mane.

"It's a lion," Jackal said. "The Arena in Mountain Sea had one while I visited with Kroseph. They're deadly and it'll take three or four of the better fighters to take one of them down.

"So, what do they mean?" Carina ran a hand over them. "They're part of the door." She looked at Tibs.

"They don't move. The essence that makes them is woven into the door in a way that feels it's all one thing. I've tried changing the weave and I can't; it's too tight. I don't think that whatever we need to do is in the door."

"Maybe this serves only to distract us?" Khumdar offered. "Keeping us from exploring more of the floor."

"You sense any secrets?" Jackal asked.

"Many, but as with the others before, the sense of them is strange. There is an eagerness to the surrounding secrets that I do not understand."

"They want us to discover them?" Mez asked.

"I do not know. The caches, which want to be found, have a different sense to them."

"If we need to explore more of the floor," Carina said, "we're going to need to start mapping it; otherwise, we're going to get lost."

"No," Jackal said, as Tibs said.

"I can get us back."

They looked at each other, and Tibs motioned for the fighter to continue.

"I can sense the way we came to get here. It's not the dungeon doing it, I just have a.... memory of the stone that's around us."

"That is interesting. Does it work in the town?" she asked.

"I just realized I can do this," Jackal replied. "And it's not like the town is filled with stone." He looked at Tibs.

"I just remember the way we came."