Heron's Harem: the trap maze

The Trap Maze,
A short story from the ‘Heron’s Harem,’ campaign


“Well, here we are.” The serpentine creature’s voice was bold, but there was a smile in it, something utterly-

“Sneaky.” Emmriel adjusted her black hat, making sure that the wide brim was well set and that the massive purple feather was at the correct angle. “Are you sure that we’re going to make a profit off of this place?” She looked back at the copper-scaled creature, whose tail was lashing slowly across the well-crafted tunnel. His wings were pulled in tight against his sides, folded neatly. He climbed his way up the vertical side of the wall, using some arcane trick to grip the smooth brick surface.

“I told you exactly what I already knew. There was a very wealthy man from town who his entire fortune in these tunnels. He had a team of engineers and wizards design the defenses, and then hid the treasure in the center of the maze. There was another set of adventurers that have already hit this place, but they didn’t come out, which means that whatever it is that was inside is still inside, probably along with the corpses of the last party to try their luck.”

“So why didn’t you go in for this cache yourself?” The next to speak was the Litorian Kitren, who had agreed with Emmriel that they would work together, and split the loot that they made here. She adjusted her steel hunting claw over her left hand, and then smoothed the sleek black fur down her feline neck.

“What, do you think I’m stupid? Hatchlings don’t live to be Ancients by jumping into these kinds of situations. We grow old by letting adventurer’s do that, and then by building our hordes from the possessions picked off of those same adventurer’s dead bodies. If you come out, I’ll take a ten percent share from what you get. That will be good enough for me.”

“You know, I see a lot of risk here, and I don’t see you taking any of it. Why should you get ten percent?”

“Mostly because I’m a dragon, but also because you’d never have found this place if I hadn’t shown it to you.”

Kitren snorted. “And if we die, then you’ll find another set of adventurers to send in after us, to see if they’re stronger than the traps.”

“Well, yeah. That’s the general idea, and it’s bound to work eventually.” The copper dragon chuckled. “It’s nothing personal, and if it makes you feel any better I really do hope you are the ones to succeed. It makes me nervous to get anybody any stronger than you lot, because then they might decide to try adding dragon scales to their loot when they come out.”

“Well, we might as well get started.” Emmriel herself had seen a few traps in her day, and had been made a point to study how they worked so that she could hopefully find and disarm them before they hit her and the Litorian. She spoke a low word to activate the enchantment on her boots, and set her hands and toes against the wall. She began climbing her way up the side just like the dragon had done, using her own magic to mimic his.

“Are we late?” A fourth person arrived, a blonde girl with shoulder-length hair and a very non-traditional monk’s gi. It was patterned in teal and tan, which brought out her bright blue eyes.

“Hey Pois, what’s up. Wait, how did you find us?” Emmriel gave her a curious look. “There’s a whole network of sewers and tunnels between us and the city.”

“Oh, that. Well, it was the dm’s prerogative. We’ve got to pull the party together so that Cara doesn’t get bored.”

“Would you stop that?” Emmriel shuddered. “This is not a game. We’re going to go dungeon crawling and these traps are going to be dangerous. I wish you’d stop joking around like that, because this is serious. Traps make me nervous and I don’t want to die.”

“Well actually you’re wrong. I’ve come to the enlightened conclusion that this is, in fact, a game. Don’t worry though, because Shannan would be almost as unhappy as you would be if you died.” She spun her wooden quarterstaff over the back of her hand, striking its iron-plated end into the well cut stone of the tile floor. “But if you must know, I brought along Jairus. He’ll be here in a moment.”

“Right here.” Jairus was an odd man who was following Pois down the corridor, but had not been able to keep up with the monk’s quick pace. Emmriel caught a glimpse of the slightly pointed ears that pointed him out as half-elven, as he came floating along down the corridor seated cross-legged aboard some kind of bluish translucent disk. “Good morning Emmriel, Kitren, Vhaeren.” The man was wearing pristine white robes decorated with rune patterns, and had a brown ponytail that hung partway down his back. His eyes were a cloudy color.

“Good morning,” the dragon said politely.

“You didn’t answer the question.” Kitren gave a low rumbling growl, looking suspiciously at the monk. “How did you find us? You fought extremely well back at that tavern, but it makes me less than happy to know you can track us down like that.” The litorian loosened her longsword in its scabbard, ready for attack.

“Calm down, lady litorian.” Jairus beamed at her, spreading his hands wide. “Finding you was my doing, and as simple as a bit of magic. Divinations are my specialty, as I am a mystic. I can see the future.”

“That’s right, you were telling fortunes in the tavern earlier.” Emmriel recalled, and then her eyes narrowed. “And you told me that I’d lose one thousand gold pieces.”

“Which you will, I just don’t know when.” Jairus gave her a charming half-grin.

Pois was next to speak. “I was asking though, before we got sidetracked, are we late? I assume we’re going in after treasure.”

“Well, we haven’t gone in yet, if that’s what you mean.”

“Great! That means we all get equal shares!” Pois was excited.

“The more, the merrier.” Vhaeren climbed down to the floor and curled his body around itself, setting his head above the pile to watch them.

“After the dragon gets his ten percent, that is,” Emmriel nodded. “And what about the mystic? Does he want a cut too?”

“Oh no, that’s fine, I won’t slow down your economic progress any. I’m really just here because I want to see what’s going to happen. I find that these kind of encounters are immensely entertaining.”

“See, Jairus believes me,” Pois added. “He thinks that this is a game too, and he’s an NPC.”

“Is he coming in with us then?” Kitren asked pointedly.

“Heavens no,” Jairus held his hands up before them, palms forward. “I’m not about to risk my neck with a pack of suicidal adventurers.”

“That’s what I said,” The copper dragon nodded emphatically.

“And a smart man, er, dragon, you are. Come back of you need any healing magic.”

“Can we at least get a mystic reading first, to know if this is going to be successful?” Kitren asked the mystic.

“Hrm.” He unhooked a small brass ball from his belt, and cast a quick spell over it to light the contents on fire. A thin mist wafted up from the bowl, and he breathed it in deeply.

“What do you see?” Emmriel asked curiously. She didn’t have much faith in the man after he’d predicted her loss of funds, but she did want to hear what he would say.

“I see just one thing in your immediate future.”

“And it is?” Kitren was impatient.

“Pain, wait there’s something else, pain and-” he stopped, peering closer. “That’s right, pain and screaming.”

“That’s wonderful.” Emmriel rolled her eyes and continued climbing along the walls, examining the surfaces of the corridor with interest. “This guy’s a quack. Let’s get moving.”

“And then after that,” Jairus continued, “more pain, and more screaming.” The man was laughing to himself. “Have fun!”

“This is some game of yours,” Kitren looked at Pois and then started stalking forward, her eyes and ears sharp.

“What!? I think it is fun!” The monk was still grinning widely. “Such excitement!”

“At least it will be very lucrative pain and screaming,” the dragon said as the three continued walking down the corridor. “The man who hid his fortune in here was really, really rich. He was a friend of mine. The actual maze begins around that next corner. I’ll wait here!”

So the three adventurers, Emmriel the rogue, Kitren the Litorian unfettered, and Pois the Monk, made their way down the tunnel. The brick of the walls was a yellowed stone, slightly porous but very solid. The cave progressed nearly fifty feet before turning at a ninety degree angle.

“Any sign of traps?” Kitren looked forward at Emmriel, who was still crawling along the side of the corridor.

Emmriel had just reached the corner, and was peering around to the next hallway. “Actually, yes. Come check this out.” The other two hurried forward, and were a bit shocked at what they saw.

The next hall looked something akin to a small war zone.

The most obvious object in the hall was the massive bladed pendulum, which was slowly rocking back and forth toward the end of the hall. There were dark stains on the wall around it, apparently left by whoever had caught the brunt of the device. Only slightly less obvious was the wide charcoal discoloration not far from where they were standing, a perfectly round stain that had at its center a charred corpse wearing ruined leather armor. There were also several sets of small darts, presumably poisoned, littering the floor at various places along the way.

“Yup. Those look like traps to me,” Emmriel said, slowly nodding.

“Hard to disagree with that,” Kitren grumbled.

“Good, well then, let’s get going.” Emmriel continued crawling down the hallway.

“What are you doing!? There could be more of them!” Pois called out to her quietly.

“Well, it stands to reason that if they’ve already been set off, then there’s no danger. What’s to worry about?” Emmriel shrugged, and continued. “I’ll keep my eyes open, just to make sure.”

“Emmriel, stop. I don’t know much about these traps, but I do know something about dungeons. It’s never this easy. Not unless the dm was horribly unprepared.”

“Well, we’ll find out when we get there. Besides, I’m still up on the wall, and the pressure plates for those traps were all on the floor. No worries.”

The monk continued her complaints, coming up with different reasons why they should be more cautious as they rounded the corners. “Look, at least make a thorough search, and we’ll mark all of the traps where they are, just so we’ll know.”

“Fine, wait here.”

Pois searched her small pack and withdrew some parchment and a small stick of paper-bound charcoal. She started drawing a map of the corridors while Emmriel and Kitren went back and made a better search for the trigger-mechanisms of the dangers that had befallen the first party of adventurers to come through here.

The maze turned out to be a tight spiral, which was laid out with extreme precision. By the time they reached the center of the maze they had documented nearly thirty traps, ranging from the mechanical dart traps, to pit traps with spikes, to cruel and bizarre razor-wire traps that would raise from hidden locations and filet whatever object was nearest.

“I’m still convinced that we didn’t get all of them,” Pois said as they came around the final corner.

“What makes you say that?” Emmriel asked. “We certainly found enough of them.”

“We didn’t find very many magic traps. That makes me nervous.”

“Well, none of them worked anyway, and here we are.” The last stage of the trap maze was closed off by a large wooden door that was marked with a small steel plaque, enscribing a warning.


Esteemed adventurers:

I would like to ask you kindly to leave my things alone. If you choose to ignore that small request, then I hope you catch the worst of my elaborate design. I wish you ill luck, great pain, and a screaming death. If you survive, then you deserve whatever treasure you salvage from this place.

Respectfully,
Therion Signalblade.



“Huh, that sounds kind of like what Jairus said to us before,” Pois said, “’pain and screaming.’”

Emmriel had mostly ignored the plaque and had spent her time searching the wooden structure. “Well, the doorway checks out. Nothing dangerous here.” She gently pushed the door open.

On the other side was an ornately worked gold and wood chest. Hanging over the chest was the half-charred body of what looked to have been an elven rogue. He was wearing a slim rapier at his side, and he still had his thief’s tools in the ornate lock on the front of the chest. Again, there were charcoal scorch marks up the sides of the small room.

“Well, looks like he didn’t make it out,” Emmriel said, “And I don’t know about you guys, but I am looking forward to adding this Therion blowhard’s wealth to my own.”

“This is really bad.” Pois said, looking at the chest and taking a step back.

“What, like I said, the traps are already done. It’s just a matter of carrying the chest out of here. Piece of cake.”

“No, I really, really don’t think so,” Pois said. “It’s never ever this easy. Why don’t you stand out here to open the chest. You can use my staff to do it.”

“All right,” Emmriel stood outside the doorway and used the staff to prop up the lid of the chest. She could see the sparkle of precious metals inside, and even caught sight of what looked to be a gemstone. “Nothing happened, but even if all that glitters isn’t gold, you can still say that all that glitters is shiny. I’m a big fan of shinys.”

“Okay, but the chest is worth something too, so let’s leave everything inside, and just haul the chest out. That will be easier. Besides, there are probably more traps inside the chest that this man never got past.”

“All right, let’s do it,”

“Wait,” Pois said.

“What now?” Emmriel was getting impatient, and it showed in her tone of voice.

“Let’s pull it out with ropes, just in case.”

“No, enough. We’ve wasted enough time already.” The small rogue walked over and grabbed at one of the handles on the chest, hauling it roughly across the floor.

It was then that she heard the ever-so-faint clicking noise of the pressure plate below the heavy box.

“Oh hells.” Emmriel’s gut instincts kicked in and she pushed both feet off of the chest, throwing herself against the wall and then back through the doorway. After the pressure plate lifted, the walls began to rumble with the noises of a great clockwork machine.

Emmriel waited in horror until the noise stopped, not risking any quick motions. When it did, she gingerly turned around to look at her companions. Pois was at the ready, and Kitren was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s the cat?” Emmriel asked.

“Kitty’s a little jumpy. When the noise started going she bolted down the hallway.” Pois chewed on her lower lip, thinking for a few moments. “I think they’ve reset,” she said.

“All of them?” Emmriel cringed.

“Probably.” The monk nodded. “Plus the ones that we didn’t find the first time around.

“Oh hells.”

---

Several hours later, the party was almost out. It had been a long and very difficult process, but they had managed to drag the chest across, around, and through the worst of what the trap-maze had dished out. They stood just beyond the again-swinging pendulum, one of the final traps that Emmriel had been able to disarm.

The last to remain was the fireball trap, the first one that they’d found, and one of the most intimidating to encounter.

“So, are you going to disarm it, or are we going to stare at it for a few more minutes?” Pois asked the rogue. Her hair, skin, and clothing were burned and frazzled, but even that was relatively unintimidating when compared to the utterly wild look in her eyes.

“This is one of the magic traps, and I’m not sure that I can disarm it. If I get caught in it, then I’m not sure I’d survive. It’s kitty’s turn.”

“Well, I’m not going to do it,” Kitren harrumphed. “I had to lug this chest across the pit traps.”

“Yeah, using my boots of spider climb. Besides, Pois helped you with
the ropes. I lost all of my glass vials to the shatter spell, or else I’d just down a potion of resist elements and run through. Those were expensive!”

“I beat the wire-trap spell,” Kitren said.

“I destroyed the summoned funguses with my crossbow.” Emmriel returned.

“I triggered all of the pit-traps.”

“Again using my boots. I found almost all of them to begin with, and I marked them out. I also disarmed all of the dart spells. If you had-”

“Enough!” Pois silenced them with a gesture. “I took that doom spell head on, and it’s cursed my luck. I also took the brunt of that flame strike spell when we had to go back into the central room for the chest.” The monk looked down at the other two, and her fists began to shake at her sides. Her smile was twisted out of sanity. “And you know what else? I really don’t care anymore! If it kills me, then it kills me! I’m going to set the thing off!”

Pois cartwheeled backwards and threw her staff further down the hallway. Using the trained agility of an acrobatic martial artist, she rebounded off of the walls and danced around, inching closer and closer to the great charcoal stain of the fireball trap.

“Pois, maybe you should-” Kitren cringed and reached one hand out, as if to grab the monk and stop her.

Pois merely ignored her. “Ahaha! Ahaha! Aha-“ The fireball trap triggered, but some instinct inside of the monk warned her to push off of the wall and roll away, in time to avoid all but the smallest effects of the rolling explosion of heat.

She rolled to her feet in the defensive stance of her art, her breathing tight and her nerves sharp. As the rapidly heating and then cooling air created a breeze that rattled her clothing. “Thank the gods for good saving throws,” Pois whispered to herself. “And for evasion.”

“That, well, that was amazing.” Jairus floated around the corner, hopping off of his hovering disc. “That was simply amazing. We watched the whole thing in a scrying bowl. Drag that thing over here, you can carry the chest with my magic.”

Vhaeren followed him, clutching at his sides and roaring with laughter. He was wiping tears from his draconic eyes. “You were right, Jairus, that was entertaining.”

“A fat lot of help you two were!” Emmriel’s face was contorted with frustration. “You could have come in and helped us!” She walked up to stare at the dragon face to face.

“But it was so much better this way,” the dragon said. “We got to watch you fumble your way through all of those traps. It really was awesome. Listen, keep the treasure, and on top of that, take this.” The dragon produced a small steel whistle with a flourish, and held it up for her to take. “If you’ve ever got anything this entertaining going on, give that whistle a call and I’ll show up to watch. Seriously, you’ve earned it. I’ll never forget the look on your faces when they started to reset.”

“That’s right. We’ve earned it,” Emmriel nodded emphatically, holding up the whistle. She began smiling, as it sunk in that they’d finally survived the last of the traps. She also watched as Kitren and pois hoisted the chest up onto the blue floating disc.

“And we’re probably very rich.” Pois was back to her usual smiling self, although the effect was slightly muted by her scalded appearance.

“Healing spells all around!” Jairus grinned and lifted a flask into the air.