21 - Off the Beaten Path
Twilight scrambled to her hooves and glanced to see her friends rushing to join her, but the guards were slowing them down in confusion. She was sure they'd catch up soon, which gave her little time to work.
She looked around the room she was in. Couches, reading material, bowls of fruit, paintings and tape... "Where should I hide a secret door..." Twilight wandered towards the large tapestry of the city. It had to be new, as the city was itself new, and she recognized the vista it offered.
Twilight lifted the tapestry clumsily with a hoof before her magic hefted it up and she began to pat down the wall behind it. "It has to be here..."
"Twilight!" Sunset was scaling across on the rope. "Don't go anywhere!"
Her time was running out. She pulled down the tapestry with a sudden tug of her magic and began frantically searching the wall with two flailing hooves and probes of her magic. "Take 20 don't fail me now!" She pressed on a panel she didn't see and it fell inwards with a soft click before the wall began to draw inwards and slide to the side.
Twilight moved to jump through as soon as it was open far enough, but a band of force tied her to the ground as Sunset caught up, the others following behind her. "Stop right there!"
Morning nodded her glittering head, but her attention slid to the open secret door. "What is that?"
Sunset looked ready to ignore it, but the others were drawn to it curiously. She let out a little breath and smiled a little. "Alright, tell us what you found."
Twilight pointed into the hole. "I'm almost certain this is where the queen went to. If we follow it--"
Roll look skeptical as she cut in. "We will be guilty of harassment, at the least."
Morning pointed to the hole. "If Twilight could find it, others could too. We owe it to our country to make sure no one is pursuing our lovely queen and that she is safe."
Sunset rolled her eyes dramatically. "You're not fooling me, but if I tell Twilight to go home, she'll be sore at me forever." She met Twilight's eyes as the energy faded from around Twilight. "Tell me this is really the best course of action."
Twilight nodded even as she turned for the passage. "I really think so..."
True pointed ahead and began marching towards the darkness without delay.
Sunset glanced around before tugging at one of the torches the lit the room. It didn't move. Twilight joined her efforts and they both pulled, wrenching it free with the sound of loosening stone. The torch put out no smoke or heat, just light.
"I'd say it's electric--" mused Twilight, "--but it's not plugged in, oh! Everburning torch." She smiled brightly and held it up. "Now we have a light. Let's go."
"Did you find her," called one of the guards from the other room. "The castle isn't safe for visitors."
Morning flashed a smile as she called out with her musical voice, "Oh no! She ran up ahead. We'll get her to safety as soon as possible."
"Blast, well, we have to close the door, so let us know with a shout when you come back."
It grew quiet from them and Morning nodded as she followed in the direction True had gone.
Roll shook her head. "Our new ally is skilled at weaving falsehood. If we are going, we should go."
All decided, they entered the secret passage. Twilight spotted a lever as they went and gave it a tug. The door behind them slowly slid shut, sealing the passage. "I was almost certain that'd do that..."
Roll looked over her shoulder a moment in the gloom. "Well, it seems unlikely we will be pursued."
The passage was clearly descending into the earth, weaving down further and further as they loosely circled until they broke into a vast cavern, the details of which were too far into the gloom to make out. The part they could see showed unworked and uneven stone for the floor and ceilings.
The platform they had emerged on opened out onto a cliffside that continued. No matter how hard they squinted in the dimness, they couldn't see the bottom of the cliff and proceeded with caution along the narrow band of rock.
Morning gave a soft whistle of appreciation. "I selected exactly the right, or wrong, day to join up with this group." She sung a brief song of light in the darkest places and motes of light appeared around herself to add to the glow given by the torch. She sent them down the hole, where they grew smaller and smaller, but reached the bottom an uncomfortable distance away. More worrying was the spined worm that lived in the crevice that snapped at the lights.
Fortunately they weren't solid and Morning could draw them back up. "I don't recommend falling."
Sunset shivered softly as she drew back from the edge. "You don't have to tell me." With a nervous flick of her tail she focused on the path ahead. "I really hate to be 'that' one, but it isn't too late for us to go back."
Roll glanced aside at her and forward at the eagerly exploring Twilight. "I do not believe your companion shares your hesitation. I will not leave her here."
"I won't either," sighed out Sunset before she quirked a smile and trotted up beside Twilight. "So why do you look so excited?"
Twilight waved a hoof at the dark cave they were surrounded in. "We're on a real adventure! It could have anything, just hopefully not gem gnolls."
They turned a corner and came a larger leveling out of the platform that showed clear signs of combat, both physical and magical with scorch marks decorating the stone, to say nothing of the corpses.
Twilight's ears went down and her enthusiasm ramped back several notches. Despite that, she timidly approached one of the bodies and nudged one of the humanoids over. "An elf?"
Roll tilted her head a little. "They do not appear to have been frisked. The Queen was in a hurry when she passed."
"That isn't an elf," warned Morning. "That is a drow, and the rest are creatures of the darkness. Was this their home?"
True let out a squeak as he prodded a bow more his size, but it lacked the spike that let him plant it in the ground. So close...
Sunset spoke alien words as she looked around. "Their armor is magic, but I doubt it'd fit us." She spied a glimmer of magic and moved to a dropped sword beside the unresponsive hand of its former owner. "This sword is glowing..." She tried to decipher the magic with a frown. "It seems... enchanted..." She couldn't figure out the specifics.
Morning strode up and spoke her own musical words as she looked it over before recoiling. "Fey bane weapons. They were made to kill the queen and her guards."
Roll gestured at the sword. "Take it. We may find a use for it. I'd suggest taking the armor, but that'd take too long. If we mean to catch up with the queen, haste is required."
"We're fey?" questioned Twilight with a raised brow, looking over herself. "I figured we were more animals, or magical beasts."
Morning raised a brow. "We're all animals, technically, but the ponykind are tied closely to the elements of the land." She reached a hoof up and tapped Twilight's horn. "You wield force by merit of birth, and can conjure light much the same way." She grabbed the sword between her teeth and slid it in to rest in the belt of her clothes. "I hope I won't need this."
Sunset raised a brow faintly. "Forgive the asking, but what element do you have?"
Morning tilted her head. "I have a double helping of earth. Is that not obvious? Like Roll, I am an earth-bound, but we are also literally made of solid materials. I am gem, and she is metal." She bumped against Roll as she advanced. "We make a great team."
If mechanical beings could blush... Roll moved to follow their newest member into the darkness, grabbing True along the way.
Twilight moved to follow the others while waving for Sunset to join them. "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I'm a little nervous."
Sunset glanced around the battlefield they were leaving. "I can't say I argue with that, but I figure you're still moving forward anyway?"
Twilight nodded quickly. "It's the only way to win this." She sucked a small breath. "We have to catch up with the queen."
They found the path narrowed and burrowed into the stone, become a spiral staircase that brought them lower and lower until Morning at the front, stopped. "Did I just--" The floor beneath her hoof surged upwards, no longer looking like normal stairs as it grabbed her and hauled her considerable bulk into the air, making her squeal in pain and surprise.
Roll surged forward as True bounced to the floor and planted his bow.
Twilight lowered her horn at the creature. "We'll save you!" Cold burst free of her, the gem in her headband glimmering as it lent its own power to her blast.
"What are we saving her from?" asked Sunset before she got to weaving the spell that'd make Roll bigger.
Roll drove her pick into its amorphous body as she charged it. "Release her immediately."
It didn't seem to care about their threats and squeezed the rock-hard pony as hard as it could, drawing free the fluid it could extract from her.
"Get this thing off me," cried Morning as she tried to beat it off with flailing hooves.
True pulled back an arrow and let loose, sinking it solidly into its side. Had it been a telling blow? He couldn't tell against the enemy that didn't bleed.
With increased size, Roll grabbed her friend and wrenched her free of the thing's grasp in time for Twilight and Sunset to double team it, even Twilight's aim was off and left little more than some frozen rocks.
True squeaked with triumph as his second arrow collided and pierced the flesh of the the thing and it began to melt to the floor.
But it didn't stay there. Just as the party began to collect itself, the creature swatted at Roll's back end. She brought down a clawed hoof on it, quieting it. "It's gathering itself. We should go."
Rather than wait for it to recover from the attack, they all hurried forward past it. Twilight peeked over her shoulder at it. "It must have attacked the queen. There's no way she just walked past it without it noticing her."
Sunset clenched her teeth. "Hardly the first bit of trouble she ran into. She was safer in the castle, truth told. Where are we even headed?"
Twilight looked aside at Morning Bell. "Did you know what that thing was?"
"What makes you ask me?"
"Bards usually know?" Twilight shrugged a little. "Sorry if that sounds bad."
"I'm not sure where you got your own wisdom, but you're not entirely wrong. I'm still not a bard, not a classical type. I have heard songs and stories and things. I mean, I've heard of a mimic that pretends to be a box or chest, but a flight of stairs? That's a new twist." Morning shook her head as marched on.
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There is an enemy I wouldn't want to have a stairing contest with. No chance to win at all.
At least your DM is kind enough to let you fight ONLY the floor monster. It's perfectly possible to set up a room where literally everything in it from walls, ceiling, floor, etc. is actually a shapeshifting monster that'll try to eat you...
Twilight's a scientist. Of course she's going to have ranks in Perception.
Heh. The mimic's trying to squeeze blood from a stone. Also, I have to appreciate creativity in mimicry. "Any Medium object" means any Medium object.
In all, a rousing start to the adventure. I just hope it goes more according to Twilight's hopes than Sunset's fears.
Only one typo spotted:
Capitalization needed.
7356960 Fix'd! I actually made this creature for fun and horror. Behold the dreaded FLOOR MIMIC!
That... makes a lot of sense! your 4th bonus point, i believe?
Great trick with the Stair Mimic, Sleeping there, then Rising when Tread on.
The worse one is where the Mimic is over the pit trap with oil in so when you go to check your way with burning hands.
Someone has put a lot of effort into this, it being a new secret passage as well. A true distraction assault with Gauntlet attrition on the Package?
I think Twilight would prefer to be up against Team Rocket.
Roll, use Thunderbolt.
7356927 That was in the aforementioned trap series.
Includes a wood to stone enchantment on the door the party enters into.
bane...They were
air, making her squeal
Well, well, well. This stinks of a setup, or a conspiracy, or a trap, or maybe all of those. Supposedly an assassination attempt by the tribe of bones, but now we have drow waiting in the escape tunnel with fey bane weapons? Clearly the Tribe of Bones thing was just a ruse. I can't wait to see where this is going.
Yay! Secret tunnel!
7357298 Fix'd! The plot thickens to a nice pudding-like consistency.
7356902 that is a horrible pun and you deserve to be staired... and I mean literally have a giant set of stairs land on you
You can never forget the Trinity of Dungeon Terror:
Lurker Above:
headinjurytheater.com/images/d&d%20beasts%20ceiling%20monster.jpg
Trapper:
headinjurytheater.com/images/d&d%20beasts%20trapper%20floor.jpg
Stunjelly:
headinjurytheater.com/images/d&D%20beasts%20stun%20jelly.jpg
You walk into a room. The ceiling, walls, and floor have an argument about who gets to eat what parts of you.
Don't forget to fear boulders, stalagmites, bedsheets, your cloak, the bushes, bunnies just chillin' out, and dirty laundry.
Ah, the old technique of "If the heroes don't ignore everyone saying the regent has been safely evacuated, then she DIES and everyone feels GUILTY about SCREWING UP their ONLY CHANCE."
Classic GM fuckery.