The staircase was fairly long. He couldn't say for certain how far he went but was almost certain it was forty or fifty more feet down from the Tavern. The landing was well lit, with a large brazier burning on either side of the entrance. He drew his sword and studied his surroundings. Old tapestries hung from the walls. A heavy metal grate was on the floor in the center of the room. There were a pair of tables and broken chairs nearby. Stone blocks made up the walls and floor in a very similar pattern to what he'd seen before. "That means you're down here somewhere" A flash of the creatures toothy grin passed over his thoughts. "I'm going to find you. I'll bet you still have my Ruby" The room had three exits. He exhaled out his nostrils and decided to try the door to his left, he thought of it as 'north' The corridor was a nondescript hall that had doorways on either side. The first he came by was on his left and the interior chamber was dark. He tried to make things out in the darkness but could not be certain of anything. He decided against it and checked the room on the right side of the hall. This one had a door and it was slightly ajar. Riddle examined what of the room he could. There was an unlit fireplace and a bench. The room was unlit but the wall sconce behind him in the hall offered lit enough to see the room. He gently pushed the door open and winced at the hinges moaned. This disturbed the stillness and out of the dark emerged three large gray rats. He yelped and stepped backwards but still had the presence of mind to skewer the first to come near him. It's tongue lolled out from behind it's jagged yellow teeth and he shook the thing off of his blade. The second bounced off the door with enough speed to land on him directly. He felt himself toppling backwards and by the time he was on the ground he felt the bright red pain of it biting into his shoulder. It twisted and held some of his skin and tunic alike in it's stinking mouth. He drove the short sword through it's side and it screeched and rolled off of him. The third bit hard into his foot and yowled. He sat up sharply and drove the tip of the sword into it's back like he were a scorpion striking with it's tail. It too relented and shuddered. He pulled himself up against the frame of the door. He saw the rats shrivel and shrink and lose their color like flowers wilting in a time-lapse. He saw bruising and scrapes on his toes through the sandals on his feet and similar damage to his shoulder and upper chest. There weren't open wounds that he expected to see. But like his previous death he knew that bodily damage worked differently here than in the world he knew.

  When he was young he and his family had been in a car accident. His mother was driving and his father was directing her unkindly from the passenger seat. He was little, maybe six years old. The specifics of the contents of his day leading up to that point were lost, but he remembered with total clarity the force of two cars hitting each other. The silence and confusion that followed and eventually the yelling and panic. His dad broke a rib because he was turned gesturing at his wife distracted and not wearing a seatbelt. His mother had managed not to break any bones, but the station wagon was an oldie and made before cars had airbags. Her forehead swelled and there were shallow cuts around her cheeks where she hit the steering wheel. For Ridley there was just a general dreamy quality about what happened after that, being a child in shock. Those had been blunt indirect hits, and his current state reminded him of that.

  There were no weeping lacerations from their horrible teeth on him. There was almost no blood. Just a general sense of his health being diminished. He quickly tried to gather himself and concentrate and his Character sheet appeared. He could see that he'd lost seven hit-points from his total of sixteen. He also checked to see if there was anything like a status effect but found nothing which brought him some relief.

  He climbed to his feet and pushed the door fully open. His own shadow stretched to fill the room and he found it mostly empty. A bench and stone counter were on either side of the chimney. The bench contained the rat's nest, being made of rotten carpet and filth. He clambered up onto the counter and discovered a recess on the profile of the chimney. In it hung a brass key and a small pile of coins. He snatched them up in short order and caught himself whistling. He was in pain, sure. But he'd just cleared his first room in a real dungeon. It didn't matter that he was three feet tall or nearly broke. He had for the first time in his life felt an enterprising breeze blowing over the contours of his heart and was certain he would risk his safety further if it meant he could feel it again. Riddle hopped down and and went to the hall. Drawing his torch and straining to touch it's pitch covered head to the fire burning in the wall sconce.

  "Let's see what we can find" He led with burning torch. The room was dark and in large square recesses that descended down to a lower location. He peered over the edge of a stone still holding it's position and gazed downward. There were no real details to make out but he was still curious, wishing he had a stone he could toss down. Riddle moved over the existing blocks to a small island of cobblestone and saw that it had chest set into a depression in the wall.

  "Probably empty" He glanced around at the pits and hesitated. "Probably trapped" The halfling scurried back out to the hall and moved on northward sword and torch out ahead of him. As soon as he passed the threshold of a larger room. It was hexagonal and had a fountain with a statue. It was lit well enough to navigate without the torch so he approached the fountain, eyeing the large statue as he neared. He slowly passed it under water and it hissed and belched smoke. He never looked away from the statue.

  "There are probably a pile of coins in here, right? and if I reached for them you'd kill me. Maybe the water is poisoned. Doesn't matter. I'm not going to find out" The large room had another open hall to the east and he took it. It was not entirely different to the one he'd used before. He was still very near to the entrance, but understood how easily someone could get lost. Especially if it was big enough to justify the title of 'labyrinth'

  Dark figures moved through the hall but at the other end. There silhouettes were roughly human but he noticed there was an uncomfortable quality to how they moved. He went to his knees and crawled along the wall. Unsure of them but certain that his odds of surviving an encounter were very low. At his earliest opportunity he ducked into a room on his right. It was dim but not totally dark. It was perhaps fifteen feet on a side. The center contained a pair of large rocking horses. The wood was ornately carved with repeating patterns of knots. They were each about as tall as a grown man and either the wood or the stain used of them was very dark and grainy. He moved around them to a stone counter that was about chest height for him. It was covered in the wax a dozen melted candles, each the size of his arm. Keeping the toy horses between himself and the door. Noise traveled from the out in the hall. It was something like speech. Too indistinct to identify, but certainly the sound was voices. He felt an urge to announce himself but this was not like encountering a fellow insomniac at the school library after-hours, there were real consequences to revealing himself to the wrong people. If these figures turned out to be people. The voices grew in volume and clarity. He could identify no single word that made it to him, but the sentiment was clear. They were enjoying themselves and on some kind of excursion. There may even have been a drunken quality to their speech, but given that he didn't recognize the language at all so it could have been the muddy dialect that it was spoken with. His heart sank as one of them moved to the doorway and peered into the dim room. It was misshapen. With thin bowed legs and gnarled short arms. It's torso appeared bloated and was partially armored. The head was melon like and wearing a helmet with many studs. The light was to it's back so the details were beyond him. It stayed there for a few long seconds and said nothing. Ridley was holding his breath and his heart rate was ramping up, but he remained still. The figure clicked it's tongue and moved away from the doorway. After a few seconds he exhaled and put his hands down to steady himself. The fear had created something like an instant migraine. He began to stand when he heard a voice again. Then there was another. A manic cruel intonation in each of them. Sounds like giggles escaping between each savage word. A figure moved to the far side of the doorway, then another to the closer side. A third took it's place in the middle. The entered with a kind of comfort that told Riddle they had the same estimation of his chances that he had. He crawled behind one of the horses. Staying low and ready to leap in whatever direction these creatures didn't take. One had a ball-headed mace and held it out like it was about to swat a fly. Their jeering became unrestrained. Nearly shouting to him in their ugly language. Riddle felt faint, and was only able to take tiny gulps of air.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  "This is it then. Let's get it over with" He was resigned to his fate, but he would still wound one before the killing blow came. The one with the mace was nearest and on Riddle's left. He dashed in towards him and gripped at the rocking horse to steady himself to strike. The wooden horse sprang into action. Rocking with enough force to pull him nearly off his feet. The other two shouted and cursed and took a step back. But the other horse rocked forward at them like a charging bull. Riddle shot back, flabbergasted. Climbing up on the surface covered in wax and put his back to the wall, sword in his hand but quivering too severely use it. The wooden horses leapt and rocked and thrashed the humanoids with enough force that Riddle could feel the impacts through his feet. Disembodied ghostly neighing sounds trumpeted from nowhere in particular as they dealt with the intruders violently. One was knocked from it's feet and crushed, another was bludgeoned by the head of a horse like a hammer coming down and when he toppled it's runners kicked him to the wall near the door. The big one, the one that taunted him with his mace, was wounded and limping. It made it's way for the door and took another hit that tossed it out into the hallway. Riddle waited for a second hoping that the horses would return to their original positions and deactivate. They did not. They rocked gently to reorient themselves until they were looking directly at the Halfling. He made an audible moan and took off. Moving with ease that he'd never had as a human being, even at his fittest when he doing track in high school. The power of the wooden runners landing near him and the wind of the heads narrowly missing him like falling axes. He blew out of the room and into the hall, skidding and catching his balance to see the humanoid trying to limp away back the way they had come from. He glanced back and saw that a rocking horse on briefly breached the doorway into the hall and then seemed to disengage and remove itself from his view.

  A cruel want filled the place where terror had been.

  "You and your friends were going to kill me, monster. But I think I'm going to come out on top" He bolted for it. Sword out to his side. It looked back at him with a mix of fear and hatred in it's bloodshot eyes. It was one of the pig faced things he'd seen in the tavern. He guessed it was an Orc. It stood unsteadily and braced for him but he was unafraid. It's free arm looked broken and was clutched against it's chest. In Riddle's mind, it was now a fair fight. It's mace descended faster than he had expected but he knelt and felt himself sliding on the stones. His sword entered into his abdomen with little effort and he buried it nearly to the hilt before he stopped hard against it's knee. It squealed briefly and took a step backwards and then collapsed. He saw the color go out of it rapidly. The eyes become small and black like raisins and it deflate and cast off a low gray mist. He retrieved his sword and then hefted the mace but in doing so found that a small pile of coins had appeared after the Orc's harness had dissipated. He whistled and collected them.

  "Eleven more groats. This mace must be worth something as well" He focused on the weapon for a moment and a film appeared and stated that it had six attack and required nine strength to wield.

  He glanced ahead to see a larger squared chamber with wooden pillars and things that looked a bit like scaffolding and catwalks. He saw no figures among them and walked carefully through the room. Climbing a ladder and traversing the higher level in hopes he'd find some item or mechanism. He found a large carved wooden chess piece. It was a bishop. Riddle was only slightly larger than the piece, which he investigated for hidden compartments or inscriptions.

  "I'm sure you serve a purpose, but I don't know it yet. And you're too big and heavy for me to carry around until I figure it out. I'll just make sure to remember where I found you" He felt a primal itch along his spine that made him stand and examine his surroundings again. He discovered no new detail or element that he'd missed before, but the sensation persisted. A feeling like being watched, he decided. Though there was no person or creature visible to him, he felt it was necessary to not longer in this room for any longer than he already had. Riddle took an eastern hall out of the strange room and that hall led him passed a large barred iron door to another hallway, this one running north to south. The north looked quite dim to him and the south was mostly lit. The choice seemed obvious. As he moved south he could see the light of another intersecting hall ahead. The closer he got it the clearer it became that this new hall hidden from his view contained people. They were speaking in English, at least he understood it as English. He sidled up against the stone wall and shimmied near to the turn to hear more clearly.

  "This way should take us to the larger chambers. More monsters, at least"

  "There are better ways for us to find treasure, Claude. Ways that are more rewarding" A man said sharply.

  "And more dangerous. A couple of fighters and a priestess may not be able to dance around so many traps. Especially when our most clever member disappears so often" The voice of Claude returned gruffly.

  "His skills are here for the benefit of the party. My spear and your shield. She has the book of miracles. We've each our part to play" Riddle wondered.

  "quit it, the both of you. We have a clear goal and can only stand to lose by becoming distracted from it. Eventually the hunter will find his way back to us, and hopefully he'll have learned something useful to share with us" Riddle glanced around the corner to confirm his suspicions. He saw the fighter with the open helmet and spear. He was the other with large square shield and a studded gorget. They were each wearing Ring-mail that differed only in color. One was red and the other was brown. Standing near them was blonde haired Priestess he'd spoken to. He couldn't be certain of their nature, but his impression was that she seemed friendly and decent. He made up his mind and walked out from his hiding place.

  "Hello, we meet again" Riddle tried to sound confident, but he could hear the uncertainty in his voice.

  They each took defensive positions at first. Then there was a nervous laugh out of the fighter with the spear and the Priestess glared at her companions.

  "Yes, indeed. I see that the sword has come in handy" The Priestess noted before bowing. "I am Enfrida. This is Claude and Lloyd. We are missing our own Halfling but he will turn up eventually. How about yourself? Are you fairing well?" She said with a maternal concern. Her blue eyes all over the rips in his clothing and scrapes beneath them.

  "Well, I had an encounter with some large vermin"

  "Is that all the trouble you had?" A steely voice came from behind him. He turned to see the dark haired halfling from before. His bow hanging at his side and a hand-axe in his belt.

  "Sorry?"

  "The mace. I Saw the remains of an Orc patrol in a hall back that way" He pointed through the blocky stone of the wall as if to an exact location. "Oh, well. Yeah they cornered me" the Halflings amber eyes bored into him as if he were waiting for an explanation.

  "I got lucky" He offered. "I don't think I'd fare as well a second time" Xandal scanned riddle unhurriedly but gave no indication as to whether he believed him or not.

  "You were most fortunate. A pauper like yourself against some Orcs? Well, most are not so lucky" The Halfling had the same cold accusatory look as before. Enfrida seemed very impressed by this. Her eyes widened and she clasped her hands together.

  "Indeed! perhaps we could use your sword as well. We mean to find a monster lair of some kind. They always have a treasure horde. And it looks like you could use the coin to armor yourself" Claude and Lloyd each dismissed him with their eyes and posturing. The severe Halfling said nothing but his face tightened further.

  "I accept. Just so long as I can be useful"

  "We'll make certain that you are"