Emerick approached confidently, hand reaching out towards the intricate bronze clasp on the lid, fingers brushed cold metal.
Without warning, the chest lurched violently.
Emerick yelped as a long, sticky tongue shot out from a hidden seam near the lid, whipping around his waist and leg with incredible speed. Before he could react, it yanked him forward with irresistible strength. The lid flew open fully to reveal not treasure, but a gaping maw filled with rows of jagged, glinting teeth and a hot, wet interior reeking of decay.
A wet SLUUUUURP and a startled curse, Emerick was pulled feet-first into the creature's gullet.
"…ELP!" he managed to choke out when the darkness enveloped him, his cry muffled by flesh and saliva. The heavy wooden jaws snapped shut with a loud CLACK! that echoed down the corridor.
The chest-monster trembled briefly, then stilled, its carnivorous nature temporarily sated. It sat innocuously once more, looking like nothing more than an unremarkable wooden chest, save for a few disturbing vibrations within.
Back at the main corridor, the rest of the party walked onwards unaware. They hadn't heard Emerick's muffled cry but Nekari stopped abruptly after only a few steps. Her ears swiveled back.
"Where's the elf?" she asked, a frown creasing her face. Her nose twitched, picking up his faint, woodsy scent… but it was wrong, moving backwards, not forward.
"The elf gone!" Rolfe boomed, instantly on alert, spinning to look back the way they'd come.
Hanry's torch swept across the dark junction. The corridor behind them was empty. "Emerick?" he called out sharply, his voice echoing in the stillness. There was no response save the faint drip of water somewhere distant.
Miriel clasped her book tightly. "An ill wind," she whispered, her voice thick with sudden dread. She gestured towards the left-hand branch. "I feel… something wrong… coming from back there. A sudden void like a light extinguished."
They knew their flanker, their ranger was gone. Without a sound, without a struggle. Simply… vanished. And the silence left behind felt unnaturally deep, charged with an ominous, hungry energy that seemed to press in on them from the shadows.
"Stick together!" Hanry snapped, his voice tight with concern. "No one strays more than arm's reach. Not one step. Clear?" His knuckles were white where he gripped the torch and his sword hilt.
"Mhm," Rolfe grunted, shifting closer to Miriel, his axe a dark, deadly arc in the torchlight.
"Understood," Nekari said grimly, her tail lashing. "Should have smelled it. That fool's stupidity…" She spat the last word with venom.
"He serves Caelus still, in his own way," Miriel murmured. "Faith, Nekari. Please lead us onwards."
Their journey became a tense crawl. The catfolk moved first, not just scouting but painstakingly searching each stretch of floor, wall, and ceiling for hidden threats.
Her claws clicked and scraped as she pried loose hidden tiles, dismantled pressure plates with deft flicks of her dagger, and rendered deadly pit traps harmless with delicate tinkering.
"Tripwire," she'd whisper, snipping a fine cord that led to a ceiling weight. "Spike trap," disarming a floor panel rigged to impale anyone stepping on it.
Rolfe watched her back, his eyes constantly sweeping the corridors.
They met resistance soon enough. Around a sharp bend, two midsized green slimes oozed towards them from recesses in the wall.
Hanry met the first with a swift thrust of his sword, puncturing its core and reducing it to a puddle. Rolfe batted the second one aside with a mighty sweep of his axe, sending it splattering against the wall where it slid down, dissolving.
Further in, the temperature rose noticeably. Two molten-red fire slimes bubbled out of a side passage, leaving smoldering trails on the stone floor.
Hanry held the first's mini-slimes off with quick, defensive slashes while Nekari, lightning fast, leapt over them and threw her daggers deep into the main slime's core, dodging the bursts of flame erupted from its body.
Rolfe simply walked into the second one, his pauldron absorbing the heat. A simple downward swing of the battle-axe cleaved it in two with a hiss and a shower of sparks.
Before the echoes of the fight died, three shrieking goblins wielding crude spears charged from a hidden alcove. One aimed for Hanry's back.
Growling, Rolfe spun, caught the spearhead on his great shield, and kicked the goblin backward hard enough to crumple it against the wall.
Nekari was a blur of motion, disarming the third and finishing it off with a precise stab under its ribs.
It was swift, efficient violence. Hanry bore a shallow burn on his left arm from the fire slime, Rolfe had a bruise forming on his leg where the goblin had managed a desperate kick, and Nekari was breathing hard.
"Hold," Hanry commanded once the last body hit the floor. He quickly stripped his vambrace to reveal the reddened burn.
Miriel was instantly by his side. She placed a gentle hand over the injury, her eyes fluttering closed as she channeled the light of healing spell. A soft, warm golden and green glow suffused her fingertips, radiating through Hanry's arm. The angry red burn faded to a faint pink scar within moments. She repeated the process on Rolfe's leg, murmuring prayers as she worked.
"Better?" Miriel asked, looking up at Hanry.
He flexed his arm, amazed at the lack of pain. "Much. Thank you, Saintess."
"Caelus provides," she said simply, standing. "His void guides, and heals."
Rolfe stomped his healed leg, nodding satisfaction. "Good fight."
They pressed onward into the dungeon's heart, leaving the bodies and the inert slime puddles behind. The next encounters were mere nuisances. A couple more straggler water slimes met quick, gooey ends. A lone lightning wolf shrieked in terror when Rolfe picked it up by the scruff of its neck and hurled it headfirst into the nearest wall.
The monsters seemed disorganized, weak, scattered. Each victory was quicker, easier than the last. The team grew more relaxed, shoulders loosening, grins replacing the earlier tension.
"Hah!" Hanry laughed after dispatching a particularly small green goblin that barely reached his waist. "Is this all the monsters? Pathetic!"
"Dungeon getting easy," Rolfe rumbled, twirling his axe idly. "Rolfe almost disappointed."
Even Nekari's tail swayed with a hint of swagger. "These things are fodder. Maybe there really is treasure left down here… though why anyone would want it in a dump like this, I can't imagine."
Confidence flowed like cheap wine through their veins until they rounded the next bend and promptly found a dead end.
Stone walls pressed in on three sides. Before them stood a rough barrier of piled rubble, partially blocking a low archway that was choked with debris. To the left, in the corner, was a small, dark opening barely wide enough for a person to crawl through, roughly shaped and reinforced with loose stones around its edges. It sloped downward.
"Damn it!" Hanry spat, kicking a loose rock skittered off the rubble pile. "Another obstacle." He shoved experimentally at the blockage, but it held firm, deep-seated and immovable without hours of backbreaking work they couldn't afford.
Rolfe sizing up the small hole with distaste. "The cat fits. Maybe." He gave her a doubtful look. "Dark down there."
Nekari was already at the opening, peering into the gloom with her glowing eyes. "Yep. Looks tight and smells damp. I can't see far though."
She glanced back, a challenging light in her amber gaze. "Someone needs to check. Could be a back way, or a treasure room. Or nothing. Only one way to know."
"Absolutely not," Hanry said instantly. "We have no idea where that goes, or if you'd even get stuck."
"Don't do it please," Miriel agreed softly, her face pinched with concern.
But Nekari was undeterred. Their recent victories had made her bold, perhaps even reckless.
"I can slip through, I can handle it. What, you don't think a tiny kitty can manage a tunnel? Besides, it's better than turning back, right?"
Before anyone could argue further, she unfastened her light leather vest and handed it to Rolfe. She retained her daggers and a belt pouch. "I'll be back before you can say 'Gloomy Caves are Horrible'."
"Nekari…" Hanry began, but Rolfe cut him off with a gesture toward the length of sturdy rope coiled at his waist.
He looped one end securely around Nekari's lithe waist, knotting it firmly, and anchored the other around his own wrist. "Rolfe hold line. Pull hard if trouble. Three yanks means haul back."
Nekari grinned at him, a flash of teeth in the low light. "Smart bear." She tested the rope. "Nice and snug. Okay, watch this."
She shot Hanry and Miriel one last wink, ignoring their disapproving expressions, before dropping to her hands and knees and wiggling headfirst into the tunnel, her hips squeezing through the narrow opening with a little shimmy. In moments, only her black-tipped tail remained visible, giving a playful flick before it too vanished into the shadowy depths.
Hanry sighed heavily, staring at the black hole where the scout had disappeared.
"Cat." He looked at Rolfe, who stood patiently, arm outstretched, the rope leading into the darkness taut but not yet pulling. "Be ready, Rolfe. The moment she pulls, get her out."
"Hm," Rolfe acknowledged, his grip tight. Miriel closed her eyes, her lips moving in silent prayer for their headstrong companion.