Chapter Three - A Little Magic

She needed to use a little magic. She'd never been in a place like this before, a dungeon that could change its own shape. However, she knew she needed to cover her tracks first. Reaching into a belt pouch, she pulled out a tiny magic pebble and tossed it up at the ceiling where it blinked and turned into a wall of stone that sealed off the hole in the ceiling. Dungeon or no, she had no intention of being found while she figured out what exactly was going on. She was a professional Delver after all.

She set the pen-light on a table and then sat down on a broken chair. The room was dark but for her light and she took a moment to study the place. A desk, two chairs, and a door that looked like it might be trapped. Walking over to the desk, something winked at her from the floor. Leaning down, she took a closer look and immediately knew what it was. A glamour. A magical two-way mirror that allowed the user, usually a wizard or an artificer, to spy on whatever was happening on the other side. No wonder her getaway with the sword had not been clean. Someone had been watching her the entire time.

Her mind spun. How many glamours are in this place? How many trolls are there and where's the wizard? She hated spies and she hated treachery. Calista did not like violence. In fact, in the all the dungeons she had delved in her career, and there were more than a few, she had never once needed to kill another player before. Wound? Yes. Maim? There had once been a Fallen Paladin on a dragon avatar that she'd needed to make certain wouldn't come after her. It had taken all of her skill and one big favor that she still owed to clip the dragon's wings. However, something told her that this time would be different. This time there might be blood.

She checked the timer on her Head's Up Display. She had about a minute of invisibility left. Bending down over the glamour on the floor, she pulled out her rock hammer and bashed it in. There, that should keep him from at least seeing what I'm doing. Then she took another look around the desk. It was a broken thing, just like everything else in the room. It had a broken leg, two missing drawers, and a shelf that was warped. She pulled out both of the good shelves but found nothing. Then, with a heave, she pulled the desk free of the wall, and there, sitting tucked behind the broken leg, was a small iron key. Finders keepers, I guess, she thought as she tucked it inside her pack.

A last glance revealed there was nothing else notable in the room, so she pulled out her tool kit and walked over to the door. Kneeling, she checked for traps and was immediately rewarded. Spikes and something that would swing from the ceiling. There was no way she could disarm it from this side. She would have to just set it off. It took her only a moment to unlock the latch. Then with a turn of the knob, she pushed the door open and stepped back. Spikes as long as her forearm shot out from the door frame as a heavy mace swung down from the ceiling. Clever, she thought, I might have lost half my health with that one.

The hallway was long and dark, so she grabbed her pen light off the desk and walked carefully into the dark. No more traps, but there's something hanging from the ceiling. She held up her light and found it was a cage hanging from a heavy chain. Briefly, she considered climbing up to it but thought better than to push her luck. Holding her pen light up, she could see the shape of an old troll slumped against the bars. "Hey," she called, but the form didn't move. The light shifted as she walked forward and she could see bones sticking out from the tattered clothes. It was a decaying skeleton. Well, someone didn't make it. In dungeons at the higher levels – like this one appeared to be – skeletons represented players who had died somewhere inside. Judging by the robes, this one appeared to have been a mage. She kept walking.

Another door. She did a quick search and found the door looked clean. When she found it locked, she tried the key and it unlocked with a click. Best of all, nothing triggered. With a sigh of relief, she held up her pen light and took a look around. It was another long hallway with three doors. One to her right, another to her left, and another at the end. Stepping carefully, she went straight.

Reaching the door at the end, she found it locked. She checked for traps again and found none. A half minute with her lock picks and the door clicked open. Stretching before her was an oval-shaped room with a massive pit in the middle. Then an alert populated on her H.U.D, so she checked her internal display. Her invisibility was wearing off. Turning around, she carefully shut the door behind her and as the latch clicked shut, she and her Voorlock were visible once again.