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Maritza and Shim stood on the dais in the center of the black pit. The elf had been yelling into the abyss after Karex for nearly five minutes at the edge. The rest of the room was deadly quiet.

"Let it be, Maritza," Shim said. "He's not going to answer you. We don't even know how far down that hole goes."

The elf stepped back from the edge, sorrow painted on her beautiful face.

"Sixty feet at least..." She replied. "I know you, Shim Darker. You're just as worried for him as I am."

"Indeed, but I know that there is little we can do about it right now."

"We can't just leave him down there to rot! If he is... If he is dead, then he at least needs a proper burial!"

Shim took her hand in his and knelt on one knee, bringing his other hand in a fist to his chest.

"I have never lied to you, Maritza Salonil. I vow, on my honor as a Soldier of the Glade, that we will find a way to Karex or his body. For now, though we need to get out of this chamber."

The two looked at the closed exit that Aldo had sealed. The passageway beyond it was dark, despite the torches on either side of the door.

"I could get into that passage if I could see where I was going," Maritza mumbled.

Shim nodded and pulled a grapple and rope from his pack.

"Have no fear, milady."

He swung the grapple a few times before launching it toward one of the skeletal statues on the wall near the ceiling. The metal hook clanked as it latched on and Shim tugged on the rope with all of his might. The hook held fast. Maritza took a torch from her backpack and lit it, handing it to the ranger. Shim wrapped the rope around his wrist after taking the offered burning stick and stepped up to the edge of the dais.

"Wish me luck," He said.

"Don't let yourself fall too. I need you to get out of here," she replied, smirking.

"And with that vote of confidence..."

Shim launched himself from the stone pillar in the center of the room. Maritza sucked in a breath behind him as he sailed over the blackness below. She lifted a hand to her mouth in worry as his feet loudly connected with the opposite wall. He tossed the torch through the bars of the portcullis next to him and turned back to Maritza to give a thumbs up. The elf nodded and started to concentrate. Shim steadied himself on the wall, waiting. The rope suddenly moved, dropping him slightly.

"Uh... any time, Maritza..." He said nervously as the sound of the statue above him cracking reached his ears.

"Patience is a virtue," she replied.

Very small pieces of the stone above the human ranger fell onto him with dust. The statue was slowly disintegrating under the added stress of his weight.

"Not right now it isn't!"

"Ossalur," Maritza said as she vanished from the dais. Shim heard the lever on the other side of the portcullis being pulled and the metal grate slid upward. He quickly grabbed the edge of the doorway and hauled himself into it with Maritza's help as the grapple finally gave out. The large stone remains of the statue barely missed his head as he moved.

"That was well timed, if I do say so myself," Maritza said, grinning.

Shim gave her an annoyed look as he pulled the metal hook back up out of the darkness and coiled the rope with it. He looped it onto his belt and picked up the still burning torch from the ground.

"I think I'll keep the rope handy from now on. There might be more chasms to swing across," he explained.

"In this place? I wouldn't be surprised."

They set off down the passage after the treacherous Halfling.

---

I was abruptly brought out of unconsciousness by something poking my side. The pain I was in came flooding back, making my jaw clench shut against it. I tried to move as the thing jabbed one of my bruised or broken ribs.

"Oh, so you do yet live," a raspy, old voice said.

I coughed. The figure speaking was shrouded in darkness that not even my gnoll vision could pierce.

"Who...?"

"Names are not important in this place. What is important is your strength. Do you have the strength of will to do what must be done for me, little cleric?"

"If I am to die here, then it is Cuthbert's decision," I replied.

The stranger clucked his tongue condescendingly.

"Such devotion to a god who cares not for your well being. Has he descended from on high with a message of faith? Has he healed all of your mortal wounds?"

The wooden stick jabbed me again and I winced, coughing up a bit of blood this time.

"Did he send you...?"

Even I wasn't convinced by my guess. The dark figure laughed.

"Do not insult me, Karex. I am my own master and I am offering you your life. It is your decision whether to die here like a common mongrel or whether to seek retribution on the one that has betrayed you and your companions."

I spit the coppery liquid from my mouth.

"How fair my companions?" I asked. Though I did want revenge on Aldo for his betrayal, I would have rather done it for the just cause of defending my friends.

"They are in grave danger. Without a way to discover the traps that the Halfling has set, they will surely perish."

I grimaced. I had no way of knowing if the voice was telling the truth.

"Let me see your face. Then I will consider your proposal more fully."

The figure snorted.

"Bargaining when you are so close to death? You are foolish. But if it will make your decision easier..."

The darkness swirled and cleared. An old man in a dirty, tattered, and brown robe was standing over me, his long, gray beard scraggly and unkempt. He smiled, a grin filled with missing teeth. I noticed he was also missing an eye. The long wooden staff he had been poking me with was topped with an eagle figure, wings spread and clutching a crystal of some kind. A wave of pain assaulted me and I clenched my teeth against it. I had little choice if I wanted to live.

"What is it I must do?" I asked.

The old man grinned again.

"It is simple. Find the Halfling, kill him, and destroy what he has brought into this temple."

"Brought?"

"Yes. He has transported an artifact of immense evil into this sacred tomb and it could be used to unleash powers that would bring ruin to the world. You must destroy it."

"Why send me to do this?" I asked.

"I am old and my clerical abilities are not what they once were. You have stronger fortitude than I. You could battle the Halfling and emerge victorious. Are we in agreement?"

"As you wish, but I do this to save my companions and to keep these powers buried, not for revenge."

"Excellent!" He said, giddy.

The man knelt beside me and held his hands over my broken body. They glowed with holy light. I felt the wounds closing and the bones mending rapidly as he chanted. I was surprised that his spell fixed my armor and gear as well. I stood gently when he finished, holding out my hand to help him up. He took it, though I had the sense that he was only doing it for show.

"Take heed, Karex," he said. "There are many secrets in this ruin. Beware the unpleasant ones for I will not always be around to save you."

He released my hand and took a step backward into the darkness.

"Wait!" I called, "You didn't even tell me your name!"

But he had vanished. I quickly pulled a torch from my pack and lit it. The stone floor was covered in the charred bones from above. Where I had landed was a dent in the stone. That fall should have killed me. I wondered if the old cleric had been watching me fall and protected me slightly. In any case, my first task was to find Shim and Maritza to make sure they were safe. The smell of the swamp above was less prevalent this far down, but the stone walls of the pit shined with moisture from the encroaching marsh. The pit had steeply slanted walls around where I had landed and they funneled all of the falling bones and debris into one location. I didn't like the looks of it. There was an exit carved into the wall, a round hole that looked more like a mouth than a tunnel in the flickering torchlight. I took a step forward, but the sound of something falling from above caught my attention. I lifted my shield against the dust and debris as the remains of a skeletal statue came crashing down in front of me. The massive statue completely blocked the exit I had planned on taking. Perhaps it was for the best. The torchlight revealed that the flat ground continued away from the pile of bones that I had crushed and I set off in that direction instead.

Before long, I came to the ruined entrance to a hallway. The stone on the walls had fallen away into the rough rock surface of the rest of the pit. I had an uneasy feeling in my gut. The entrance was too deliberate. It looked like the perfect place for a trap. I drew a divine symbol in the air in front of me.

"Animadverto decipio," I said.

The passage entrance lit up in front of me and the nearly invisible trip wire running along the bottom of the stone as well as the pressure plate beyond it were suddenly obvious. I had no idea what the trap would do if sprung. I also had no way of disabling it on my own. I gingerly stepped over the wire, being careful not to touch it in any way. There was very little room to stand in the space between the wire and the plate so I took a breath and leapt over it. As I jumped, I felt my toe hit the plate and the sound of clanking gears sprang to life around me.

Shit! I thought as the stone floor opened up beneath me. My chest slammed into the far ledge of the stone pit and the torch I had been holding sailed farther down the hallway. I scrambled for purchase, my boots scraping against the stone wall of the hole and trying to find something to stand on. The walls were smooth though, and I was starting to slide backwards into the gaping, black maw of the pit. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the stone floor starting to swing back into place slowly and I frantically flailed my hands to try to grab anything. My fingers finally latched on to a piece of uneven stone and I hauled myself up to the safety of the passage as the floor clanked shut behind me. As I laid there, panting on the stone floor and gazing tiredly up at the ceiling, all I could think was: I'm getting too old for this.

---

Shim and Maritza had fared better. The two had been walking down the snaking passage for a while without encountering a single trap. The hall was carved much like the staircase at the start of the ruins with statues on either side that gave it an eerie quality. When they came to a door, Shim braced himself and opened it. Another hallway was beyond that ran perpendicular to the one they were in. Shim stepped through the door and Maritza followed. This new hallway was more plain than the previous one. There were no carvings on the walls, just bricks of stone.

"Which way, do you think?" Maritza asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Shim replied. "I am more experienced with finding my way through the forest than through tunnels."

"Which way would Aldo have gone?"

"Well his memory was never that good," Shim said. "Maybe he left clues for himself to follow."

"But he would have erased or moved them on his way through, wouldn't he? He would have assumed that we would find a way to follow him."

"It's worth a shot, though. Help me look."

The human ranger began stooping over to look at the floor more closely. The torch in his hand spread a pool of light across the intersection, lighting up a good portion of the passages beyond. Maritza stood near the other passage and looked down as well. The stone floor was unremarkable and dirty, like any other dungeon the elf had been in. She stared at the stones for what seemed like an eternity until she felt as though the silence would drive her mad. She was about to turn back to Shim to tell him off for having this asinine idea when she noticed one of the bricks had three distinct and relatively recent scratch marks in it that formed an 'A'.

"I think I found it," she said, reluctant to admit that the ranger had been right.

Shim brought the torch closer and nodded.

"Looks like it's pointing this way. Let's go!"

Shim dashed off in the direction that the 'A' was pointing and Maritza begrudgingly followed him. Before long, they heard what sounded like coins clinking together. The sound grew louder as they followed the hallway.

"Sounds like treasure," Shim mused.

"We hardly have time to sate your greed," Maritza said, scowling.

"Relax. I wasn't going to go out of the way to find it. It just sounds like the path is leading us closer to it, that's all."

They rounded a corner and were faced with a dead end in the form of a square room. The stone floor stopped where the hallway ended and the floor of the room was made of metal. The walls were still made of stone; however the thing that caught both of their eyes first was Aldo, stooping in front of a massive pile of gold and gems to stuff handfuls of the treasure into a bag.

"So it looks like your greed has caught up with you," Shim said.

But Aldo remained silent, continuing to shove coins into the bag.

"Do you have nothing to say for what you've done?" Maritza asked.

"Hey! Answer us, you little jackass!"

Shim's taunts rang on deaf ears and the ranger approached the Halfling angrily. Maritza moved forward as well to stop him.

"It could be a trick," she said.

They both stopped moving and, as if in reply to the elf's assumption, a stone slab slid over the entrance behind them.

"Oh not again," Maritza groaned.

The illusory image of Aldo disappeared, and the room was suddenly deadly quiet.

"He was an illusion? How did the room know what to show us?" Shim asked.

"I couldn't even begin to guess at that," Maritza said, frowning.

"Well at least we're trapped with all of this loot," Shim said. "We might as well take some for when we find a way out of here."

The ranger grabbed a handful of the coins before Maritza could stop him.

"Shim! What if the gold is part of the trap?"

The metal floor opened, revealing a grating and the treasure began falling through the cracks into the darkness beneath.

"See!?" Maritza exclaimed.

"Relax," Shim said as he pocketed the handful of gold. "It's not like coins can hurt us."

As the pile of treasure disappeared, three treasure chests were revealed underneath. Shim took a step toward them, but Maritza held him back. The sound of clanking metal filled the room after the entire pile of gold and gems vanished through the grate in the floor.

And then there was silence.

The two adventurers looked at each other uneasily in the quiet room for a long while. After nothing happened, Shim shrugged.

"This trap is kind of lame," he said. "I was expecting spikes from the floor or a crushing ceiling at least."

Maritza ignored him as she turned back toward the entrance where the stone wall had slid into place over the opening. There was no door to open.

"Unless we had some way of digging through this wall, we're stuck in here," she said.

"Why not try blasting it open with a fireball?"

"This room is too small. We would both be caught in the blast," she replied with a condescending tone.

"Well let's see what's in these chests then!" Shim said with the excitement of a child.

He made a move toward the first chest, but Maritza's voice stopped him.

"Don't be an idiot!" She said. "Those chests probably continue the trap!"

"I'm sure we can handle whatever this trap throws our way. We saved the world once, remember?"

Maritza scowled as Shim took a few more steps. A bang suddenly echoed through the room and one of the gems that had been in the treasure pile shot out of the grating in the floor. It hit Shim squarely in the shoulder and he winced from surprise more than pain.

"What the hell?" He grumbled. "Gem bullets? Really?"

The single gem clattered through the grating before Shim could catch it. Several more bangs reverberated around the room and more gems fired up at them from below. One of them hit Maritza in the leg and she narrowly ducked another. The other two bounced off of Shim's armor like they were peas from a shooter. Maritza lifted her robe to look at her leg. She was bleeding.

"I hate you," she said to Shim as the rapid-fire sound of more launched gems filled the room.

Shim ducked and weaved through the hail of gems as he ran up to the first chest. He lifted the lid and the golden light of coins shone up from within. He ran his hand through the pile and grimaced as one of the gems struck him in the back.

"What are you even doing!?" Maritza yelled as several of the gems hit her.

"There has to be another way out of this thing," Shim said as he lifted the lid of the second chest.

This one was empty and he grumbled, moving for the third.

"Whoever invented this trap probably wanted us to die slowly," Maritza said scowling.

"Aldo came through here, remember? There has to be another way out."

Shim lifted the lid on the third chest only to find another pile of gold coins. He returned to the empty one and stuck his hand into it. Maritza slowly made her way up to him through the storm of stones. The bottom of the chest moved slightly under Shim's touch.

"I told you!" He said.

"But we don't know where it goes."

"Aldo went this way, that's all that matters! Come on!" Shim jumped into the chest as another round of gems began flying up out of the floor.

Maritza watched as the bottom of the chest opened under his weight and the ranger disappeared into darkness below. A gem hit her in the back and she sighed angrily, following the ranger. The blackness of the secret chute was probably better than dying slowly of minor wounds from the gems... probably. The dark chute dropped them quite a long way down. They had been falling for at least five seconds before Maritza could make out liquid glinting below them.

Oh thank the gods, Maritza thought as they plummeted into the liquid below.

The two floundered about in the water, trying to come up for air, but their victory at having escaped the trap was short lived. Shim knew something was wrong when the 'water' made his skin tingle and then start to sting. He thrashed in the goo, now much thicker than water should have been. The mass convulsed around them as Shim tried reaching for his sword. Grabbing the hilt proved more difficult as the ooze creature tried to stop him. Maritza silently waved her hands in front of her and six balls of purple light appeared around her. Each of them slammed into the gelatinous cube. The creature shuddered with anger, squeezing the captive adventurers tighter in its gooey grip. Shim was finding it difficult to hold his breath. His straining hand finally closed around the hilt of his sword and he unsheathed it with a wide, slicing arc. They heard a screech around them as the constricting grip of the ooze was suddenly lessened. The liquid still stung as the creature's digestive acids continued to try and eat them. Shim found Maritza's hand and pulled her upwards until they broke the surface of the dead gelatinous cube and climbed out onto a stone passage nearby.

"I hate those things!" Maritza grimaced, trying to wipe the goo from her clothes and skin.

"You hate anything slimy, but I can't blame you in this case," Shim replied.

"How the hell did Aldo survive that without killing it?"

"Maybe there are two exits to the trap and we picked the wrong one."

The elf wizard scowled and kicked the last of the goo from her shoes.

"Yeah, there's another passage up here that ends at a pool of water," Shim said as he moved ahead.

"When we find Aldo I am going to kill him for ruining my robes," Maritza fumed.

"Remind me never to damage any of your trivial possessions in the future then," Shim replied jokingly.

"Do you always find it necessary to mock others to their faces?"

"I like to keep situations light," Shim replied. "It's how I deal with stress. Shall we continue?"

"If we must, then we must," Maritza relented.

The two started walking away from where the trap had deposited them, deeper into the underground ruins.