"Part of the loot went for gambling, part for horses, and part for women. The rest I spent foolishly." -- George Raft

I wasn't wrong. The traps had worked well on the goblins, but against experienced adventurers the cues I'd left for them were more than enough. Lugrub had triggered both of the main traps simply by tossing a rock in an appropriate place. The glint of the mica beneath a suspicious patch of loose soil tipped her off, and a mid-sized rock broke open the pit which the adventurers eyed curiously.

Lugrub gave her opinion. "Not really meant to kill anything, minor damage and the possibility of significant discomfort, but no serious threat. Might discourage a random, wandering critter, I guess."

Lazgar nodded. "I suppose. It's supposed to be rated a bit higher than absolute beginners, though, so I wouldn't trust that pattern to hold."

Lugrub just gave him a sardonic, side-eye. "Oh, of course. And here I was just about to put my faith into the random dungeon... No offense meant, dungeon." She did cast a quick glance about and made some sort of odd gesture I assumed was meant to fend off my nonexistent ire.

The party had made a polite donation back at the entry shrine when they'd dropped off my reader and registered their visit with the guild, so they were already in my good graces. I was excited to get to the reader, but I couldn't simply absorb the intricate magical device, and I didn't want to send a denizen past them to retrieve it. The donation I could absorb readily enough and so I had. They'd simply offered a few coins to the God of All Dungeons and to my unknown patron. To me, they'd donated a skin of some sort of fermented milk, which I was assuming was likely some sort of traditional gift to hosts, as well as a steel amulet attuned to Drogma, and a tooth from some apparently large, predatory creature. The resulting blueprints were interesting, though I'd also kind of been hoping for a book. I wasn't sure if they just weren't big readers or if there was some other logic behind the selections.

Blueprint Acquired: Traditional Orcish Kvass

Blueprint Acquired: Steel Amulet of Drogma, Goddess of the Stars

Blueprint Acquired: Plains Fellwolf

I thought I might add a small pack of wolves to my surface domain, though it sort of depended on how strictly accurate I wanted to keep my representation of the local environment. These were fairly large creatures, perfectly capable of hunting the elk, I suspected, but I hadn't seen any evidence that this species was already present on the island.

The amulet of Drogma turned out to have some minor magical pathfinder effects, and an articulated arm on the loosely circular object would always point in the same direction. It didn't seem to be towards the north, so I wasn't sure what it was pointing at. The place it was created? The nearest shrine to Drogma? I'd have to keep an eye on it and see how quickly it shifted. I couldn't really ask very readily, as none of the party appeared to have any telepathy skills. I suspected that might make working with Sir Milback tricky, but I'd use the logbook function if I needed to - and to that end, I was saving my limited word allowance.

While I'd been distracted reminiscing about my new toys, Lugrub had moved on to disarming the simple pressure plate trap, which I'd left a bit taller than the surrounding stone and a slightly different color, by bouncing another rock off of it from two meters back or so. The gutcrusher trap swung free, passing rapidly through the space above the trigger. They waited until it came to a full stop before sidling past, with Lugrub noting "Nastier this time. There's potential for significant injury if you get caught in the wrong position - or if you're too tall or too short... Still pretty obvious, though, and by design. Like the reports said, the dungeon doesn't seem all that bloodthirsty."

She even spotted the greed punishing trap behind the waterfall, expressing her appreciation for my grasp of adventurers' expectations. "For lower-level parties, if any ever come here, that might be worth the minor damage. Solid grasp of the motivations of some adventurers though - it only hurts you if you're greedy and careless. She left the nugget where it was but noted that it wouldn't be too hard to either break the trap or use some tools to remove the loot safely.

They moved along the narrow stream hallway into the pond room, moving along the edge of the water towards the exit. The trapdoor snapping turtle wasn't spotted, and it did make one lunging attempt at Ushug's leg, but his reflexes were sufficient to dodge, and the apparently instinctive kick he lashed out booted the poor turtle back into the deeper part of the water. Not feeling particularly threatened, I allowed it to simply stay there and avoid further conflict. Lugrub got a good chuckle out of the interaction but argued that unless the turtle doubled its current size, it wasn't ever going to be a real threat to an Orc barbarian like her brother. "Could have given Orbul a nasty nip, though. And for one of the smaller races, I suppose there's a threat of dragging them into deep water. Shouldn't really be any issue for a standard party, though."

Shuzug was taking note of their reactions, though he said nothing, letting Lugrub take up a narrative role that suited them both. Orbul just sniffed disdainfully at Lugrub's comment but opted to collect some more healmint, rather than actually replying.

The cave goblins in the next room were entertaining for the party but didn't actually offer any challenge, with Ushug and Lazgar taking them down in just a couple of straightforward exchanges. Lugrub's sharp eyes picked out the copper nuggets from the detritus of the goblin den, and she pocketed them casually. "Definitely on beginner mode so far. I'm assuming this will get harder as we get deeper in?" She eyed Shuzug, assuming he had a better sense of the nuances from the earlier inspectors' reports.

The massive, scarred orc just shrugged. "You read the same reports I did; they're not super detailed, as you know, but reading between the lines... Yeah, should get a bit tougher on the second floor, though not really likely to be a problem for you guys – overleveled as you are."

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Their first real surprise came in the next room. Lugrub had spotted the anklebreaker trap almost immediately, but it seemed the party wasn't as accustomed to looking up as I'd have expected veteran adventurers to be, and they'd missed the wyverns silently poised on their ledge. To be fair, they did match the surrounding stone quite well, and I'd guess the Orcs spent more of their time adventuring in open air settings, but that was just a guess.

In any event, as Lugrub crouched by the edge of the pit to check out the bottom, one of the wyverns launched itself at her silently. She caught the whistle of its wings but was out of position to defend herself well. She was off-balance, attempting to rise as the wyvern impacted her back at shoulder height. If she'd been firmly planted, it likely would have been fine for her – the wyverns not being all that heavy, really. In her awkward position, though, she was rather ungracefully knocked over the edge into the pit.

She was largely uninjured, however, having twisted in the air to land on her feet. Those feet being fairly large and encased in sturdy calf-height boots, the anklebreaker trap failed to live up to its name, and the damage was really only to her pride. She leapt up to the edge and pulled herself out of the trap, angrily eying her brother as he laughed and used his axe to swat the other wyvern from the air. Lazgar shielded her from a second attack by the first wyvern, and she took it down with a rather nasty looking throwing dagger with an evil-looking, sickly-green glow. "Not a word, Ushug. Not one word. Thanks, Lazgar."

"Ugh. Alright, that one was legitimately more dangerous. Not many parties are going to be prepared for the combination of a trap and an ambush intended to push them into it. The trap itself isn't too dangerous, really, at least for an orc. For anyone smaller and more delicate, the potential for injury is significant. Death would be unlikely, at least. It's just not that deep. The wyverns aren't particularly tough, either, but getting surprised here was bad form on my part. It's been a long while since we've been attacked from above."

Ushug smirked but held his tongue. Lazgar and Orbul exchanged a quick glance, then Lazgar spoke up. "True enough. I think we got a bit lulled by the earlier rooms. We should all know better than that. And it's not all on you, either. We count on you to scout and spot traps, but we can do better in helping keep an eye out. No harm done, at least, and a valuable reminder. Now the question is, if we start keeping an eye out for attacks from above, are we going to miss attacks that come from below or the sides. Still, likely we should pause as we enter each room to do a quick check for traps and creatures, rather than just piling through the door like beginners." He grinned, a bit ruefully, shaking his head. Shuzug and Sir Milback carefully said nothing but nodded approvingly.

That caution stood them in good stead in the next room where the shade owl failed to surprise the adventurers, while Lugrub spotted the chute trap with a low whistle. Orbul took down the shade owl with a barrage of magic missiles as it attempted a surprise attack, and its resulting injuries prevented it from trying to make an escape as well. It was dispatched cleanly by Lazgar as it thrashed about on the floor of the cave, attempting to regain the air. Orbul collected a few manashrooms, apparently out of habit, pocketing them with a generally neutral expression.

Lugrub grinned. "Now I'm glad the wyverns jumped me in the last room. Had the owl caught me by surprise, this would have been a much nastier trap to fall into. Not sure, but it looks as though this trap might dump you off the sky island entirely. Still have my featherfall potions, but that's a long drop with time to think about your mistakes. I'm guessing it's got a comparative safety mode, or the inspectors would have upped its danger rating."

**GREEN**

The sudden green light startled the adventurers, while Shuzug just snorted. "Did you ALL forget this is a sapient dungeon that communicates with colored lights? I believe he just confirmed that the trap isn't lethal, or at least, isn't CURRENTLY lethal. Still, while I'm kind of sorry to miss seeing Lugrub trying to climb that chute while coated in slime and swearing up a storm, it's probably better for our timetable that she avoided it."

Lugrub flashed her tusks in an expression somewhere between a snarl and a grin. "If you just want to see me greased up and talking dirty, I can think of more entertaining options..."

Sir Milback laughed at that one. "Trust adventurers to turn a trap into an opportunity for sex jokes. Brings me back to my own younger days."

Lazgar shot him a surprised look, to which the gnome paladin smiled innocently. "What, lad? I'm a paladin of order, not a eunuch, and I haven't always been 400 years old."

Lugrub chortled. "Lazgar's still all caught up in his image of a holy warrior. Be good if you rubbed off on him. Then maybe I could rub off on him too." She laughed loudly as Lazgar flushed, and her brother just winced and shook his head. I did notice Lazgar eying her rather speculatively as she turned towards the entrance to the next room. I no longer had those urges myself, but the lithely muscular woman in her skintight leathers clearly had an impact on the young paladin. She appeared not to notice, but Ushug threw Lazgar a not particularly gentle elbow to his gut and shook his head quietly. I wasn't sure if he actually disapproved, or if he was simply aware this wasn't the right time to deal with the apparent tensions. I suspected Lugrub was at least peripherally aware of the interaction, as she noticeably added some hip action to her sauntering stride while she led the way, grinning to herself.

In any event, they made fairly short work of the granite badger in my old core room, and Lugrub had seen the tiger trap coming, distracted or not. She still had paused to admire the creativity of having sharp flint flakes line the edge to impair victims' ability to extract themselves from its clutches.

That just left the mimic for them to deal with. Apparently underestimating my resources again, Lugrub had her lockpicking tools out and had closed to within a foot and a half before noticing something was off. Her backward lunge was just in time to avoid the suddenly lashing tongue going for her neck. The mimic did still manage to snag her right leg around mid-calf and attempted to pull her in. Unfortunately for the mimic, her spirited resistance held its tongue taut enough that Ushug's overhand axe blow severed it with a disturbing twang and a spray of oddly blue blood, and after that, it was a matter of moments for the hapless mimic to be disposed of. I'd endowed the mimic with a small reward for the party, and Ushug and Lugrub were quite pleased with the lesser paired whisper rings, at least once Orbul had identified them and explained their communication functions.

"Good loot for the first floor; was kind of light up 'til here, though. Seems scaled well for beginners up to this point overall. There's a couple of creative traps, but nothing too lethal, and the monsters shouldn't be beyond most low-level parties." Lugrub grinned, admiring the fairly simple looking ring and using it to blow a raspberry directly into her brother's ear while watching him startle. "Probably going to have to set some ground rules for these rings, though, or the temptation may be too strong..."

They proceeded to the final room on the floor – my rest area. They generally appreciated the gesture on my part, but as had been the opinion of previous visitors, felt it wasn't really necessary at this stage of the dungeon. I was starting to think that I might want to convert the space into something more interesting with another encounter, maybe a trap or two or a puzzle to complete in order to proceed.

They had no need to rest, though, and were on their way down the stairs after taking just long enough to grab a drink and make sure they weren't missing anything.

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