FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Rissa and Rehrdahl were pleasantly surprised when the long slide down merely tumbled them along the floor at the bottom of the room. Rehrdahl recovered his hat from where it had fallen while Rissa looked speculatively back up slide. "That was actually kind of fun. Do you think we could do it again?"

Rehrdahl's answer was a look of disapproval as he affixed his hat over his ears. "I thought this was why you let me go first before stepping on things."

"You were taking too long." Rissa put a foot against the bottom of the slide. The rock was slicker than it had any right to be. "Do you think it resets?"

Rehrdahl took a moment to recast detect magic. Still no magical auras were revealed besides the items Rissa wore. "No idea. There's no magic that I can see, which implies it's mechanical, but that doesn't seem likely given the scale and the smoothness of the rock. We may need to find another way back up."

"Speaking of another way, do you see one?"

Rehrdahl looked around the bottom of the room and was slightly miffed to not see any obvious doorways out. "Seems a waste to excavate all this and not put anything down here."

The two of them started searching in opposite directions, checking the walls and floors for any hidden passageways. It was with a growing sense of frustration that Rehrdahl passed Rissa halfway around and they started rechecking each other's work.

"I refuse to believe this is a dead end. Even if someone intended this to be a trap for the unwary, you wouldn't rely on them dying of thirst down here. Too many potential seekers would be able to climb or fly or otherwise get out."

"We can't."

"Not. Helping. Ree."

"So what do you suggest?"

Rehrdahl closed his eyes. For some reason, it bothered him to have to start burning through magic at this point, even though this was exactly the sort of thing he had studied it for. Even so, there was always the niggling feeling that he might need more magic later, and there was only so much he could cast in a day, his knacks not withstanding. This time, the emotion he reached for was longing, and to his mind's eye he conjured the image of glass becoming stained. Rissa had been around him long enough to recognize the runes that appeared despite her lack of arcane knowledge.

With fresh eyes, Rehrdahl looked around the room once more. It was with a feeling of relief that he saw a lever on the wall by the bottom of the stairs. Still, he felt some small unease. Whoever had built this place had decided to invest the resources to permanently hide the level behind both an invisibility spell and a spell of magic aura. Without the latter, the illusion aura would have been plain to his detect magic spell. Rehrdahl had never looked into permanency before, but he knew that the materials required to cast it weren't cheap. In the back of his mind, he was still aware that if this place were easy to explore, the Pathfinder Society would have certainly have uncovered its secrets before now.

It was a bit of a stretch. Whether or not the old Thassilonians had built this place, the builders had certainly not been ratfolk, or halflings or gnomes for that matter. With a bit of effort, he managed to grasp the level and bring it down. There was a loud click that echoed up the chamber, and a hidden door across the room slid open, revealing part of a another staircase down.

"See? I told you--"

Rehrdahl's gloat was interrupted by a skeleton which practically flew out of the now open door, a greatsword in his hands carving through the air toward Rissa. Her rapier was drawn before either of them really processed what was happening, but Rehrdahl found the presence of mind to call on his magic just as the sword swung. A glittering dome covered for Rissa's surprise, and the strike barely missed Rissa's whiskers.

Rissa dove into the opening provided by the skeleton's swing, barely taking time to note the burning blue eye sockets before swinging her rapier hard and under the exposed ribs. The slender piercing weapon wasn't well designed for this kind of enemy, but Rissa was skilled enough to knock a chip out of the skeleton's backbone with the blade before diving in close to strike with the pommel. The bone broke entirely, and the glow from its eyes faded as the skeleton collapsed.

There was little time to celebrate. More skeletons were emerging from the newly opened passage. Rissa saw four bolts of silvery light fly past her and strike unerringly into the leader, blasting off bone and causing it to fall. She waited patiently for the next one to enter her reach and parried it's worn saber, redirecting the blade harmlessly past her and retaliating in kind. This time, her rapier hit the weak spot between bones and sent the undead crumpling to the ground in a single blow. Once again, silver light streaked by, three bolts disintegrating one skeletal champion and the fourth knocking a second off balance. While Rissa went to work finishing off the damaged undead, Rehrdahl deftly dodged back from another. In the blink of an eye, he drew the blade concealed in the cane and knocked a chip out of the skeleton's sword arm. A sidestep and deflection with his cane avoided another blow, and while he lacked Rissa's martial prowess, he was skilled enough to identify the areas where he could inflict the most damage. His retaliatory swing took the skeleton's arm at the elbow, and another strike caused the dark intelligence to leave the mortal world once again. He took a moment to breathe, glancing around at the broken bones that now littered the floor.

"Are you all right?"

"Fine. You?"

"Fine." Rehrdahl breathed a small sigh of relief. They were both worth more than their weight in a fight, he knew; they had to be in this line of work. Still, all it took was one unlucky step. He slid his blade once more into the cane. "Maybe that'll be our last surprise."

Rissa chuckled. "C'mon, Rehrdie. Where's your sense of adventure? Tales of our daring exploits are much better when they're true."

"Tales are best told when we're still alive to tell them." Rehrdahl started walking towards the door, taking time at the threshold to ensure there were no other surprises waiting for them on the other side. "Let's go grab this thing so we can get out and tell of our 'daring exploits.'"