Tristin wondered if the bandit could be trusted. But it didn't seem like they had any other choice than to trust in Riling as he led the group through the pitch black tunnels following just his muscle memory. "Be careful here.. there's a uhh trap"
Riling jumped over an upshooting rock in the ground and the rest of the party followed his lead. He smiled briefly before taking another step into the pitch black this time pressing down on the actual trap.
Five holes in the wall shot one old arrow each, they were all destroyed by Haparas haldberd. "Be careful" was all he said.
Opip walked at the back of the group and Tristin slowly joined her. "Do you think Jakurk is still alive?"
"Yeah, he isn't the type to die in a place like this"
"I think so too"
The two continued in silence for a bit, Tristins pace became slightly slower then the rest of the group letting the two of them hang back, a little out of the others ear shot.
"Jakurk is the mage who they are looking for, isn't he?" Tristin had already put two and two together. From the way Jakurk had been able to cast magic without owning a flame of his own, to the fact that he had served a purple prince during the Orrain war.
"We don't know that, besides did Jakurk ever seem like the kind of man who would kill someone in cold blood?" Opip still didn't fully believe it. She wasn't dumb enough to not notice the resemblance. But to her, Jakurk was still that friendly old man.
"I mean, sometimes it seemed like there was more going on than what he let on, you know?" Tristin had begun to doubt. If they were to meet Jakurk and if there was battle between him and Hapara's party then whose side should they be on? Their friend who might be a war criminal from a war which ended fifty years ago or their stronger allie who still carries the scars created from that war?
"Shouldent you be more worried about something else?" Opip didn't want to think about this anymore. Their main focus should be surviving the dungeon not whatever drama this was.
"Something else?"
"The bandits, the dark march, the dungeon master… Your brother"
"My brother is dead," Frustrated Tristin walked ahead.
"Can you still be sure of that? The Black egg can only take the form of something which has wounded it, and it seemed like its final act was to take the form of someone you knew" Opip had realised it. Perhaps Tristin had too.
"So what if he had, it doesn't mean hes alive"
"It means he survived the fall, doesn't it?" Opip knew the subject was a hot topic, and she didn't want to install any false hope. But maybe, just maybe there was a chance that Tristin's brother was still alive somewhere deep down in the dungeons' lower levels. Where the magic was still strong.
"Up ahead" Riling pointed towards two lit torches far down a stairway. In the light of one was a hooded figure.
"Does everyone remember the plan?" Hapara asked. Everyone nodded. "Good, lets go" The plan they had made was a simple take over.
Tristin fired the first bolt, It sank into the neck of the front guard. Just as he was about to fall over, Sirsten was quick to catch him and gently lay him down atop the floor.
They moved silently through the next corridor, a square room came next with three bandits inside. Two bolts and a sword throw from Opip ended two. The one which received a bolt to the shoulder managed to scream out and alert the rest of the camp.
About fifteen more bandits made their way inside the room. And it turned into a fierce fight. But one which was served in the adventurers favor. The bandits who adorned old leather rags stood no match against the adventurers sharp swords and full plated metal. Any small wound inflicted on the adventurers was quickly healed by their mage. And as the adventurers advanced the morale of the bandits dropped to a devastating zero.
Five bandits managed to escape further into the tunnels. While the rest laid dead in the now bloodied chamber.
"I guess that's that." Hapara wiped his Halberd on the tunic of a dead bandit.
"The camp is just through here" Riling continued through the chamber into a massive circular room. With a ceiling that bent inwards like a dome. A Blue crystal shined blue dancing lights across a heap of raggety tents and snuffed out fireplaces.
"They got some good food here" Sirsten was quick to steal from the bandits supplies although by this point one should just call it looting.
"What is that thing?" Opip pointed towards the massive blue crystal at the ceiling's centre.
"A Barrier crystal, Although not active" Fidel spoke with a clear and refined voice far different from Opip's high pitched and almost rude tone.
"What does it do?" Opip asked.
"If the fortress was sieged, the elves here would have activated it to create an active wall of force which wouldn't let anyone leave or enter, Although you see those dark clumps in its core?" Fidel pointed towards the weird smudges inside the otherwise clear crystal.
"Yeah"
"Thats cursed miasma, probably accumulated over several years of neglect"
"And what does that mean?" Now Opip felt a little interested.
"It means that if it were to be activated it would likely explode, leveling this entire floor and maybe the one above to rubble and dust" Fidel smiled as if she didn't just reveal that their only source of protection in the dark was a landmine just waiting for someone to make a poor choice.
"That's.. Fun" Opip didn't feel that safe here anymore.
"Opip, Fidel come check this out" Hapara and the others were gathered around a hole in the northern corner of the room. It was larger than the one back in August's drop and it carried the same ominous darkness.
"Whats this?" Tristin turned to Rilling.
"The bandits drop, it goes all the way to the lake on the fifth floor" Down in the deep hole was an ominous white light. Created from the many crystals that grew alongside the snake lake on the dreaded fifth floor. The place most adventurers avoided for its lethality. Poisonous gases, parasitic spores on the land and parasitic worms in the water. Not exactly a fun place to explore.
"I guess we've found our way down" Hapara looked relieved as if everything had worked out perfectly.
"You can't be suggesting that we all just jump down?" Tristin held a little more disbelief.
"Im sure we can find some rope at this fine camp, but your right we should rest up and prepare our forces, we descend tomorrow" Hapara proudly announced to a party of faces that seemed to ask, really?
And so the group collected themselves, made dinner, ate and spent a moment to relax after all that had happened to them. Just for it all to be disrupted when Jakurk Mianta Naitch and company entered the scene.