By David C. Daoust
Page 6 of 10
He suspected he had successfully given the creatures the slip for now, at least until they squirmed over the trigger in their search for morsels of food to melt down and absorb. He placed his sickles back at his sides, and took in his new surroundings. He found ever more stairs as his only option and headed down them. Spiraling down, more and more, they did not want to stop until Efreet thought surely he would walk into the very center of Drue. He imagined what he may find at its center.
At one point he sat down and took a break, there were ever so many stair. He pictured himself, sitting so deep underground, in such a narrow spiraling stairway, without another soul for miles, and chuckled a bit.
He continued down the thousands of stair, until finally he found their end and with it a hall.
The hall was long, he knew because his low-light vision did not allow him to see the end, it just faded into darkness. He moved carefully down the hall, made up of the same fine brickwork, though with no hanging moss, which probably boded well, as it was less likely to be another ‘Squirming Screecher’ in the vicinity.
He found the end, it led down a short flight of stair, with another heavy oak door at the bottom. This one had no bars, instead had more of the glyphs and writing carved into the wood like the ones in the altar room he had just escaped.
Now this is what I like to find, Efreet thought, finally finding something that HAD to be a trap, the thin metal cord was laced tight around the door jam, most people would not detect such a thing, but Efreet, Efreet was ever vigilant of such things.
It was exciting to say the least as he worked with his tools to disarm the thing, to think what could be worth putting so very deep underground, behind two secret doors, and then trapping? Probably something far more expensive than a shiny black altar! He hoped anyway, though groaned at the thought of the altar, a pitted sizzling mess probably getting worse by the moment.
The cord was simple enough to clip once he found and removed all the, dozen or so, poison tipped darts set up to be shot out of tiny holes in the stairs behind him. It was quite genius in his mind, although he did take note that none of them were at a height of a gnome. They probably would have launched right over his head. He made short work of the lock after that, and then kicked open the door, which was far more giving than previous doors in this place, rot or rust just did not seem to take root in here. He stood back only momentarily weary of any missed traps.
There was something about the seclusion of the place, it was clearly successfully sealed air tight to not have any rust or moss, that made him decide it was safe to use a light. Gnomes had certain innate powers over shadow and light. There was really only one kind of wizard amongst gnome societies, only one respected anyway, illusionists. Efreet had learned the quick cantrip in his travels, or rather for his travels. He quickly muttered the spell, and the small floating light appeared before him, following along like a tiny glowing bug. It lit the entire area, and what he found behind the door was a hall.
Hmm more halls, he thought examining his surroundings.
