Did the wizard who owned this dungeon just not know about this room? If the gryphon head was to be believed, the dungeon was a prison, so maybe this was some sort of puzzle room that the original builder had left behind?
Charlie sighed, wondering what the trick was to this puzzle.
He’d expected a clue or a riddle, but he didn’t see anything that would help him out. When he inspected the chests, he couldn’t see any discernible difference. He had a nagging feeling that choosing the wrong one would be bad.
There was nothing for it. Charlie tossed the coin – Heads.
Charlie walked over to the left chest and checked it for traps. Nada. With his dagger as leverage, the wolf pried it open.
Inside the chest, lying on velvet, was a glimmering dagger. It was wickedly sharp, the metal that same oily black substance the golem’s armor was made of. There was a wolf’s head on the pommel with citrine eyes that sparkled in the lantern light. As Charlie picked it up to inspect it, he thought the wolf almost looked like… himself?
He looked over at the other chest, then at the gryphon head sitting silently in the middle of the room. Was this what would have happened to him if he had opened the other chest? Or perhaps his fate if he had waited too long to pick? Or maybe it was just Finn something had put in here to creep him out.
Whatever it was, it was his now, so he picked it up and gave it a swish.
The blade blurred as it passed through the shadows. Charlie’s heart pounded excitedly. Was this a magic weapon? Something like a shadowblade? He thrust it through the air, watching the dagger blur again as it passed through another shadow.
“Amazing!” Charlie chuckled.
A loud click came from behind him, followed by the creaking of old door hinges.
“Is it safe?” Oswin asked, as he pushed the now unlocked door open and poked his antlered head into the room.
“What?” Charlie looked up from the wonderful new weapon in his hands. “Um, sure, yeah, just don’t go touching anything.”
A few Rangers wandered into the room, inspecting the walls, probably looking for other hidden passages.
“Can the chests be moved?” An otter asked.
”I don’t know. I haven’t checked.” Charlie said.
“Is that a magic weapon? Was that in the chest?” A wolf asked excitedly. “Whoa, look at it! It’s got a really cool pommel!”
“Yeah.” Charlie coughed, suddenly fearing someone was going to claim it as theirs.
“What about this chest?” A bear called, lifting the lid as he spoke.
Charlie’s eyes widened, “Wait, don’t-!”
As the chest opened, a longue tongue shot out, smacking the ursine in the face.
The bear’s massive body was suddenly pulled partway into the chest. At first it looked like his body would be too big to fit inside the relatively small chest, but somehow, impossibly, the chest bulged. The otter and wolf ran forward, grabbing the bear’s flailing legs and pulled.
Two arms grew out of the chest’s sides and shoved the two surprised anthros away.
Then the tongue pulled even the bear’s flailing legs into the chest and the lid slammed shut with a tone of finality. The Rangers beat upon the lid, but the chest’s skin grew metallic and shrugged off the blows. Charlie could only watch as the sides the mimic began to pulse and warp as the digestion process began.
Veles appeared to be readying a spell.
“Don’t attack!” Charlie called. “Wait for it to finish! It’ll be vulnerable then!”
“Finish?” Oswin bellowed, “Screw that! Give that box everything you got, boys!”
Charlie noticed that while the stag talked big, not only had he not stepped foot into the room yet, he was pulling Veles back out into the hallway.
The anthros continued to pound at the impermeable mimic.
Eventually, the peristalsis stopped, and the mouth opened, belching an axe out onto the dungeon’s floor. Then it rose on legs, arms extending from its sides again and the lid grew sharp teeth. It stalked forward, battering at the Rangers.
Charlie observed through trained eyes as he tried to find the weak spot. Then he saw it - an eye at the back of the mouth!
He drew a dagger, cocked his arm back, and threw.
It whizzed through the air and punctured the mimic’s eye with a sickening thunk. The mimic’s limbs briefly flailed outwards in shock, only for the entire thing to collapse shortly thereafter into an amorphous pile of soft flesh.
Everyone panted and caught their breath.
Oswin stomped forward, casting Charlie an angry glare. He picked up the axe on the floor and inspected it. It was clearly magical, with the blade of the axe coming out of a roaring bear’s head. Very intimidating.
“Veles! Trim my Ranger back!” Oswin demanded, holding out the axe.
Veles looked at Oswin, then shot a glance at Charlie.
Charlie subtly shook his head.
“I-I’m sorry Oz, but I used up all my Trim spells with the golems. We’re on our own until I get my spells back tomorrow.” Veles shrugged, trying to look suitably apologetic.
“You!” Oswin wheeled around and snarled at Charlie, “You said the room was clear!”
“I also told them not to TOUCH anything!” Charlie puffed his chest indignantly, “That includes fucking around with chests that I haven’t gotten to yet!”
“Fucking useless is what you are!” The stag shoved Charlie hard.
The wolf stumbled and slammed into the chest, smacking his lower back against the lid, yelping at the sudden pain.
“Touch me again, and I’ll slit your fucking throat.” Charlie snarled as he staggered back to his feet.
“Oh yeah?” The stag raised his arm and Charlie found 5 crossbows aimed at him.
“Oz, stop!” Veles cried, clinging to the stag’s muscled arm. “We don’t have time to fight here!”
Oz glared at Charlie for another moment before lowering his arm. The Rangers let their weapons drop, though Charlie noticed that Geoffrey and Gregory had carefully positioned themselves in the corner to kill the Rangers if need be.
“Fine. But we’re settling this when we’re out, wolf.” Oswin snapped, then let the cougar lead him out the door.
The Rangers followed after him, one spitting at Charlie’s feet.
Charlie boiled with rage. That fucker! He was going to kill him. It wasn’t a question of how - he could improvise. No, the question was just when. But that when would have to come later. For now, he needed the extra meat shields to deal with the traps of the dungeon. And now that he saw what Oswin was really like, he was glad he hadn’t let Veles Trim the bear back to life.
The party returned to the first room again.
(Return to the main chamber and choose another door.)
(CONGRATULATIONS, YOU NOW HAVE THE DAGGER: SHADOWBLUR. IT WILL OPEN UP EXTRA OPTIONS LATER ON! HOWEVER, YOU ARE DOWN ONE RANGER. OSWIN HAS A MAGIC AXE NOW. GOOD LUCK.)