“Ugh, that’s horrible!” Sang said.
“Yeah, Trolls are nasty creatures,” Van replied. “They probably drag all of the corpses they kill into this room and feast until all of the meat is gone. This ribcage looks picked clean.” He picked up one of the ribcages and inspected it. “Yeah, definitely picked clean.”
“Man, this kind of detail is gross. Why can’t this place be less weird and creepy?” Sang asked. She certainly didn’t like the discussion of bone chewing.
“I dunno... adds character to the game. Come on, the hissing is coming from this direction,” he said, taking a sharp right away from the bone pile and moving forward.
Sang followed along after him, making sure to look behind her after every few steps. Her gut was telling her that something was wrong, and she wasn’t about to let anyone or anything get the drop on her.
“There!” Van whispered as they turned a corner of the underground network of tunnels to find a large blue mass hissing and writhing. It was made up of about two dozen Trolls, all lying on the ground, sleeping. Their hisses and shrieks were products of whatever nightmarish dreams they were having.
“Kill them?” Sang asked.
“Nah,” Van said, “they’ll just respawn. Bosses and the Troll Lord won’t, however. So let’s keep moving, but quietly.”
Sang nodded and continued creeping forward. The tunnel seemed to branch off every few feet into smaller holes where they’d see a few dozen Trolls were sleeping. It was as if this area was some sort of gigantic dormitory. Sang had never seen so many monsters before, and she wasn’t sure what she should be doing or feeling in response. Van didn’t even bother to stop to check the monsters, though, and instead was mumbling about finding the final boss. He had explained that killing the Troll Lord would cause all of the nearby Trolls in the area to revert back to their individualistic nature, and then they would all attack each other. So, for as long as he and Sang could, they would be as inconspicuous as possible.
As they walked, Van stopped suddenly and pointed at something hanging from the ceiling. “What is that?” he asked.
Sang craned her neck to see that it was some kind of bell. There was a thick rope tied to the bell, leading downwards. She followed the rope down until she realized that Van was standing right on top of some sort of rope trigger.
“Van!” she hissed. “Don’t move your foot!”
Van looked at the ground and then back up at the rope. “Ah crap,” he whispered. “If I trigger this rope, it’ll cause the bell to ring and wake all these things up at once.”
“And we’re right in the center of their nest!” Sang hissed. “We’re going to die if they wake up!”
“Well, try to disarm the trap,” Van replied. He was looking around rather frantically. “Oh man, I’ve counted at least sixty of these sleeping bastards.”
“Don’t pressure me!” Sang said as she dug out her knife and began to look at the complexity of the trap. It appeared that, if the rope was stepped on, the pressure would cause the bell to go taught. When the pressure from the foot released the rope, it would relax the bell immediately, causing it to ring out. So, cutting the rope was out of the question because it would immediately begin to ring.
“Any ideas?” Van asked. “I’m starting to panic!”
“Take it easy! If you calm down, we’ll get out of this together!” Sang said.
“Look, I’m trying really hard not to think about moving my foot, but I’m worried that I might! It’s really hard for me to not do something,” Van confessed. “You saw me with the treasure chest. You know my weaknesses...”
“Van, I will kill you if you pull your foot off that rope,” Sang replied.
“Hurry up!”
Sang looked up at the bell and realized that the only way to stop it from ringing was to remove the tongue of the bell. It was too far up for her to reach, though. “Van,” she said, “don’t move... I have a plan.”
“What is it?” Van asked. She didn’t reply, but instead grabbed onto his neck and hoisted herself up onto his back.
“Hey, stop it!” Van hissed as she clambered atop him and managed to stand on his shoulders. She had the appropriate Climbing skill that made it easy enough to climb up another player. With the additional height, she could reach the bell easily.
“Oh, your boots are digging into me!” Van whimpered.
“Shush, and don’t squirm! If you mess me up, this bell will ring, and then we’re definitely going to die!” Sang instructed as she very carefully grabbed the bell with one hand and shoved her fingers into the mouth of the bell at the same time. This prevented it from making any noise. She fumbled to get a grip around the tongue of the bell, finally holding it firmly. It was made of iron, and would require some force to break off. Below her, Van was busy shifting a little, trying to hold himself perfectly still but failing miserably at it.
“Van, I’m gonna need you to stay extremely still! I need to pull the bell’s ringer out!” Sang instructed. “On the count of three, okay? One… two… three!” And with that, she yanked as hard as she could on the bell tongue, tearing it out. The bell swung free from her grasp as she lost her balance and plummeted to the ground. Van collapsed to the ground underneath her, softening her crash. She made a dull thud, landing on his back. Above them, the bell swung back and forth without a sound.
“Whew! We did it!” Sang said quietly.
“Oh, my ribs! Please, please, get off of my back!” Van wheezed. Sang chuckled a little as she stood up and looked around. The horrible creatures were still sleeping quietly.
“Come on,” she whispered, shaking her head. “We need to keep moving.”
“Something’s definitely up,” Van said, looking up at the rope. “Trolls aren’t nearly this smart. I’m thinking there’s something other than a Troll down here.”
They reached the edge of the Trolls’ apparent sleeping area and found a large steel gate barring them from going any further. There was a small keyhole and a knob, though... indicating that some portion of the gate could be opened like a door.
“Perfect!” Sang exclaimed. “This can block the Trolls from getting to us while we investigate.” She crept over to the door and began to fiddle with the lock. She had put points into lock picking since her last encounter with a lock, and this was far easier to mess with. After just a few seconds, she had the door open.
“Nice work!” Van muttered. “But I could have used my lock rattling song.”
“Yes, please sing loudly while a bunch of sleeping Trolls are around us,” Sang remarked sarcastically as she walked through the gate. Van followed after her and they made sure to lock the door behind them.
“Safe and sound!” Van said, breathing a sigh of relief as he turned to inspect the area. “I can’t believe we got through that alive!”
“These traps and this gate are worrying me,” Sang said as she looked around. They were still in some kind of tunnel, but the ground was made out of smooth marble. “And check out this ground... not great.”
“Yeah, definitely something spooky is up,” Van replied. “I bet it’s some kind of surprise twist to this adventure.”
“Well, let’s hope the surprise doesn’t try to attack us when we aren’t suspecting it,” Sang said as she continued forward. The marble floors went on for quite some time, and the further down the tunnels they went, the more marble they saw. Even the roof of the tunnel was beginning to transform into what was mostly a marble surface.
“That’s definitely man-made,” Van said as he ran his hand across the smooth surface. “I wonder who put this here.”