The group of figures walked down the cold, dark stone hallway. Any person who saw them in normal circumstances would have wondered what an elf, a human, a tiefling, a white dragon wyrmling, and a gnome were doing in each others company, but these weren’t very normal circumstances at all. The party of heroes had been sent down here to find a group of adventurers who previously went searching for an apple, which was one of the most powerful objects in all the Realms.

“I hate this place!” the gnome said, a little bit too loudly, glaring at the elf. “And I hate you too!”

The gnome was dressed in a small set of chainmail, with a metal helmet resting on his head. He was carrying a warhammer that was a little too big for him, and he kept twisting his hands around the hilt as if he wanted to strangle someone.

“Quiet Lawn. Try not to wake up the whole citadel will you?” the tiefling said, sending a sharp look the gnome’s way. The tiefling looked the most nightmarish of all the group. His infernal heritage gave him wicked looking horns, and his black hair gave a sharp contrast to his red skin. The tiefling’s humanoid form was covered in purple and black leather armor with strange symbols on it, and he had a mace and a shield ready in his hands. Covering his face was a skull mask, and his orange eyes glowed menacingly through the hollow eye sockets.

He nodded to the human as they came to an intersection.

“Randal, scout ahead here. We don’t want to run into any more trouble than we already have.”

“You got it Wulfric.” Randal said, and pulled up his hood. Randal was dressed in black leather armor and a black cloak, and as he pulled up his cowl, he seemed to melt away into the shadows. He drew a dagger from his belt, the metal glimmering faintly in the dim light, and then disappeared down the hallway.

As the other four companions waited, Lawn walked past the elf, who was leaning against the wall with the small dragon curled up by his legs, with a loud harumph and another glare.

“What’s the problem Lawn?” the elf said, exasperated.

He was tall for an elf, and was wearing a green cloak and brown leather armor that marked him as a ranger. There was a huge longbow slung across his back, and he had two shortswords sheathed at his sides, his hands resting lightly on each one.

“What’s my problem Tex!?” the gnome said angrily. “My problem is that you killed our friend!”

Tex frowned at the gnome, his hands tightening on his swords slightly.

“That excuse of a Kobold was not our friend. First of all he was a monster, second of all he kept Calcryx locked up for who knows how long, and third, he was a complete coward whenever it came to fighting anything! You call that a friend?”

Tex couldn’t see Lawn’s face in the darkness of the hallway, but he was pretty sure it was bright red.

“You...You...Gah!” The gnome swung his fists in the air, and then walked over and kicked Tex in the shin with is small but heavy metal boot. The kick didn’t really hurt Tex, but the movement disturbed Calcryx. The white dragon raised her head, narrowing her eyes at Lawn, and growling. Lawn growled back at her.

“How could you say that!?” he said, his voice rising in volume.

“Meepo helped us read that dragon fountain! And he helped us find our way to your special dragon! He was my friend! Do you know how hard it was to find someone else who is the same height as me?”

“Quiet both of you!” Wulfric hissed, cutting off the gnomes rant before he could get going.

“Meepo is dead now, and there’s nothing we can do about it! Now keep it down and get ready to move, Randal is coming back.”

Tex and Lawn went silent, the gnome still glaring daggers at the elf as Randal came around the corner.

The human pulled down his hood, eyeing each of his companions with a slightly confused expression.

“Everything all right over here?” he said, looking at Lawn.

“We’re fine.” Tex said, before anyone else could reply. “What’ve you got Randal?”

Randal gave Tex a doubtful expression, but decided to let it go. It was probably about the kobold incident anyway.

“The hallway has eight doors in it, four on each side. I didn’t open any of them, because I figured we should probably do that as a group. Beyond the doors, there is an archway that leads into another chamber with one of those dragon fountains in it. That’s as far as I went.”

“Alright, let’s go but take it slowly, and don’t go opening all the doors at once. We take each door one at a time, as a group. And keep your weapons on hand. We’ve all seen the things that inhabit this place.”

The group walked around the corner into the hallway, and they moved to the first door on the right, each taking up their respective positions by the door.

However, Lawn, in his angry disposition, didn’t feel like getting in position and instead stood right in front of the door, hefting his large warhammer, ready to clobber the first thing that came through that door, friend or foe.

Wulfric reached forward, shaking his head at Lawn, and opened the door. That gnome was going to get himself killed one of these da--

His train of thought was cut off as something large, black, and furry shot out of the doorway and smashed into Lawn, knocking him to the ground. As Lawn went down with a muffled yelp, three more of the creatures bounded out of the dark room, hissing and spitting.

Tex lept over to Lawn and kicked the huge rat that was trying to eat his face in the side, sending it flying into the wall with a crunch.

“What the hell!” Lawn said, gasping for breath as Tex helped him up. “Why does it always have to be rats?!”

The vermin that Tex had kicked into the wall was starting to get up, but the elf pulled out his bow and fired an arrow in one smooth motion, pinning the dog sized rat to the wall.

Wulfric smashed one in the head with his mace, and Randal stabbed another one with his rapier as Calcryx bit out the last one’s throat.

Lawn went over and picked up his hammer.

“You know guys, if I ever see another giant rat, I’m gonna jump in the next pit trap we come across.”

Just as those words left his mouth however, all of the other doors in the hallway burst open and eleven more of the huge rats poured out into the hallway, hissing at the intruders!

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Lawn yelled as the front row of rats smashed into them. An arrow whistled by Lawn’s ear and pierced a rat’s skull, and Wulfric shouted a word of power, throwing a bolt of green energy into another rat and incinerating it.

Lawn ran over to the nearest rat as fast as his small legs would carry him. The rat, hearing a sound behind it, spun around just in time to catch the gnome’s hammer in the face.

“Ha! Eat it ya stupid rat!” Lawn said triumphantly. He moved in to kick it, but then he heard Randal yell from behind him:

“Look out Lawn!”

The gnome tried to spin around, but was already halfway into his kick on the dead rat, which threw him off balance. Lawn gave out a weird “AhahahAAA!” yell, wobbling in place as his foot got caught in the rat’s tail, and then promptly face planted.

The face plant, however, saved Lawn’s life. The rat that had leapt at Lawn from behind sailed through the air above him, and crashed unceremoniously into the wall. However, it recovered quickly, and charged the gnome again.

Lawn, not having enough time to grab the hammer that he had dropped when he fell, grabbed his helmet off his head, and brought it crashing down onto the rat’s skull with a resounding BONG. The rat’s eyes rolled up in its head, and it slumped to the ground.

“Hahaha!” Lawn said, leaping up and holding his helmet up triumphantly. Then he leapt into the fray.

A couple of Bongs, dagger stabs, mace smashes, and arrows later, Lawn sat on the carcass of a dead rat, polishing his helmet.

“Found yourself a new weapon there did you?” Tex said as he collected his arrows.

Lawn finished polishing his small helmet, kissed it, and then put it back on his head.

“Yep.”

Tex picked up another arrow, studying the razor sharp tip for a moment.

“You know Lawn,” he said, still studying his distorted reflection in the triangular piece of metal, “I’m sorry for killing Meepo. I don’t even know why I did it. I just…” Tex frowned, for a moment seeing the reflection of something else in the metal. “I--”

Abruptly, Wulfric and Randal came out from searching the rooms.

“There’s no sign of the last group in here, let’s move on.”

With grunts of grudging approval, the rest of the party moved down the hallway, Lawn giving the ranger a confused glance. Tex gave the arrow one last troubled look, but it was his own reflection in the metal again. Shaking his head, he put the arrow back in his quiver and followed the others into the darkness.