Demons and Botched Rituals Part 12 (Patreon)

"Don't worry, we're just appreciating the size of your hoard," Harry said before Franklin or Jessica could say anything that might get them eaten by the dragon.

"It is quite impressive isn't it?" the dragon asked.

"It's certainly impressive." Harry glanced over at the door with an exit sign over it that was being blocked by the dragon's tail. "I don't suppose you can train people in enchanting?"

The dragon snorted. "I am a dragon."

"Does that mean you're willing to teach people?" Franklin asked hopefully.

The dragon focused on Franklin. "That depends, are you willing to run a couple of errands?"

"That depends," Harry cut in before Franklin agreed to an insane quest. "What do you need us to do?"

"I find myself without a decent cup of tea, which means I need someone to collect some herbs from the middle of the maze," the dragon pointed at a door in the wall the group would have sworn wasn't there when they'd first scanned the room.

Harry's gaze jumped to the sign over the door he was fairly sure hadn't been there before the dragon had mentioned it. "Maze of Annoying and Dangerous monsters?"

"You were expecting something easy?" the dragon asked with amusement.

"Honestly, no," Harry muttered, thinking about the last task of the tournament.

"Is there a reason you can't get it yourself?" Jessica asked.

"Several," the dragon replied dryly. "I'm at a decent spot in my book and the door is barely large enough for me to squeeze my hand through it."

"Any hints what we'll find in the maze?" Harry asked as he started walking towards the door.

"Gargoyles, enchanted suits of armor, and a magic resistant minotaur that wanders around the maze," the dragon explained as he went back to reading his book.

"So, if we get your herbs, you'll teach us enchanting?" Harry asked, wanting to make sure to finalize the deal before they recovered the tea.

"Yes, yes," the dragon replied absently. "I'll teach you an enchanting class for an excellent cup of tea, now scurry off, the heroic Lord Byron is seducing the dragon."

Harry shook his head, rather amused that the dragon was reading something that sounded like a trashy romance novel. "Let's go," he said as he walked through the door and into a dimly lit hedge maze. "Maybe you should stay with the dragon," he muttered as his gaze traveled up the hedge walls and realized the hedges grew into the ceiling.

"We're in this together," Franklin assured him as he walked in and looked around. He grinned when he spotted the torches set into rings on the wall. "At least we'll have light."

"Yeah…" Harry trailed off as he focused on the suspiciously ornate torches mounted on the wall then looked at the five oil soaked wood and tar torches sitting in a plain looking barrel by the door. "I'm guessing wandering around without light is a bad idea."

"Generally," Franklin said as he picked up one of the unlit torches. "How many do you think we'll need?"

"Why not just take all of them?" Jessica asked.

Franklin shook his head. "There's probably a trick."

"Just a second," Harry said as he picked up one of the unlit torches, dropped it into his enchanting box and hit the runic script button. "Great, it's charmed to attract monsters and to randomly extinguish itself," he explained as he checked the rest of the unlit torches.

"Let me guess, they're all the same?" Franklin asked when he saw Harry's expression.

"No, some of them are worse," Harry said as he dropped the unlit torch back in the barrel with the rest of them. "That one twists your sense of direction and one of the other ones makes you get thirsty five times as fast."

"Which means we should probably avoid drinking from any fountains," Jessica offered.

"Probably," Harry agreed as he walked over and grabbed the ornate torch off the wall. He dropped it into his enchanting box and hit the button. "Huh, that's nasty."

"Let me guess, it's cursed?" Franklin asked dryly as Harry put the torch back where he'd found it.

"Basically. It's charmed to explode if it's moved more than twenty feet away from the wall," Harry explained as he walked over and checked the other torch. "This one is charmed to attract monsters and randomly extinguish itself which probably counteracts the everburning charm."

"Which means the maze is probably filled with grue," Franklin grumbled.

"What are grue?" Harry asked.

"Most 'experts' aren't sure if they're a monster or a terrain feature in certain dungeons, I lean towards them being a terrain feature considering no one has ever managed to tame one and they don't leave bodies when killed." Franklin shrugged. "Of course, I'm not sure I believe the stories of adventurers killing them considering the lack of proof and the reputation of the people making the claims. Either way, they're easy enough to avoid if you make sure you always have a source of light."

Franklin gestured and conjured a floating orb the size of his fist, that barely gave off enough light to illuminate the walls. "Huh, I was expecting that to work better, I hate dungeons, they cheat."

Harry pointed his troll-like hand towards the maze. "Lumos." His own ball of light was barely better than Franklin’s, but between the two they gave a decent view of the maze.

"Do we have a plan for navigating the maze beyond not getting separated?" Franklin asked as he followed Harry and Jessica deeper into the maze.

"I figured we'd just follow a wall, if that doesn't work, we can always try blasting a hole to the center or at least closer to it," Harry replied.

"Let's save that for a last resort," Franklin replied, fairly sure the dungeon would have anticipated someone trying to cheat and planned something nasty.

0o0o0

The woman behind the counter glanced up as the bell over the door rang. "Don't let the cat out and if you have any questions, just ask."

Hermione smiled as the familiar scent of leather and parchment hit her nose as she glanced around the small corner bookstore. She glanced up at the large black cat watching her from the top of a bookstore then over at the red haired clerk that looked in her twenties or early thirties. "Nice cat."

The shopkeeper laughed. "Don't let him fool you, he can be a real pest when you ignore him, go ahead and scratch between his ears."

Hermione reached out and scratched the Maine Coon sized cat behind the ears, causing the cat to start purring. "Does he have a name?"

"Several, most notably, Cat, ‘Hey, little bastard’ or Salem," the shopkeeper replied as she glanced at the boss' cat, who was doing a surprisingly good job pretending to be innocent, happily purring as Hermione scratched between his ears. "Welcome to the Arcane Grimoire, is there something in particular I can help you with?"

"Do you have any maps of the area?" Selena asked as she pulled her attention off the cat.

"Are you looking for basic maps or more detailed aerial maps?" the shopkeeper asked as she walked over to one of the shelves.

"You have aerial maps?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"One of the local dragons is a cartographer," the shopkeeper explained as she pulled out a large book and opened it. "Come over and take a look."

"Sorry," Hermione offered the cat as she walked over to look at the map.

The cat turned then walked over and jumped to the next shelf.

Hermione rolled her eyes then reached up and continued petting the cat while looking at the exceptionally well done artwork in the book. "How much?"

"I can let you have a copy for fifty gold," the shopkeeper offered.

Hermione winced at the price, used to the cheaper prices in Diagon Alley. 'I guess that's not completely unreasonable considering they probably don't have a printing press and the detail is exceptional,' she mused as the shopkeeper carefully turned the pages. "It's certainly impressive."

"Does it show the entire region?" Selena asked as she walked over, not really bothered by the price as she still had a fortune in her bag.

"Near enough, it's a bit light on detail when it comes to the mountain, but there are some dangerous monsters up there."

Selena raised her eyebrows. "I thought you said the cartographer was a dragon?"

The shopkeeper shrugged. "He's also less than twenty years old."

"Fair enough," Selena admitted as she thought about some of the stories she'd heard about the mountains. "We'll take a copy."

"Do you have any books on learning enchanting?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"Sadly, places that sell those types of books around here have an unfortunate tendency to burn down," the shopkeeper replied as she walked over and set the map book on the counter. "Feel free to look around. We have a nice collection of spellbooks and alchemy recipes if you're interested."

The cat lazily walked over to the edge of the shelf and jumped to the next shelf then threaded his way between the stacks of books.

"Thanks," Selena said as she looked through the various tags.

Hermione smiled slightly when the cat sat down, looked right at her and meowed. "You're almost as bad as Crookshanks…" she trailed off as she glanced at the dusty bookcase the cat was sitting on and felt her eyes try to slide past it. 'Interesting.' She walked over and looked at the collection of journals and books. 'History of the Northern wars, Secrets of the Priestly Orders, Monstrous Grimoire of Monsters, Secret History of the Silver Kingdom, Wicked Cooking, Eating Souls and Ascension, The Winds of Winter, Forbidden Sorcery, The Real Story of My Pottery Obsessed Hero, Most Forbidden Sorcery… yeah, someone is trying too hard. Illustrated Guide to Fairies and Nymphs.'

Selena glanced over at Hermione then went back to looking over the tags.

Hermione nearly squealed when she saw a large dust free tome on the bottom of the shelf with the words 'Grimbane's Enchanting Primer' written on the spine in glittering silver ink. She gave the smug looking cat a suspicious look then reached out and scratched him between his ears. "Never mind, you're worse," she said affectionately, hoping that someone was taking care of her cat.

"Stop bothering the customers, Salem," the shopkeeper ordered.

The cat meowed then jumped down off the shelf and lazily headed for the counter.

"The Monstrous book should be good," Hermione mused as she collected both books on forbidden sorcery as she was curious why they were forbidden then added the cooking book to her pile, mostly because it was on a charmed shelf with a couple of dangerous books and she was curious. 'Eating Souls, that should probably go into a vault somewhere.' She tossed it on her pile along with the Illustrated Guide then staggered over to the counter with her large collection. 

"Just remember we have to carry everything we buy to the swamp," Selena pointed out as the shopkeeper helped Hermione set everything on the counter.

"We have a really nice backpack," Hermione countered.

"Point," Selena admitted as she walked over to look at Hermione's collection of books. "At least you'll have enough to keep you busy for a couple of months."

"Months?" Hermione muttered as she looked over the books that would probably take less than a week to read outside of the enchanting primer that looked more like a reference guide. "It's a good start."

"Excellent," the shopkeeper replied as she added up the total, seeing no reason to ask why the demon was so excited about gardening books but not seeing a reason to question it as they were decently expensive gardening books. "So that's where the extra copy of herbs and fungus went."

"What do you need a Guide to Growing Weeds for?" Selena asked as she picked up the top book.

Hermione opened her mouth to ask what they were talking about then realized the books were probably charmed to look like something innocent. "You never know what type of alchemy ingredients we'll need."

"Fair point," Selena admitted reluctantly as she started counting coins.

0o0o0

"Reducto!" Harry shouted as he pointed at the rusty suit of armor that had just charged out of the darkness at him.

Franklin twitched as the construct's chest plate exploded, scattering bits of metal on the path and causing his ears to ring. "Is it dead?"

"No idea," Harry admitted as he watched the mangled suit of armor.

"Let's check," Jessica replied as she walked over and kicked the suit with her foot. "It didn't jump up and stab me so it's probably fine."

Harry walked over and stuck the mangled suit of armor in his inventory. "At least I'll have plenty of scrap metal for smithing."

"Hopefully we'll find something worth collecting, like mithril or star metal," Franklin mused as they continued down the path. "Do we have a plan for how we're going to deal with the minotaur?"

"I was hoping to avoid him or lure him away while you grabbed the tea leaves," Harry admitted, knowing it wasn't much of a plan. "It depends on how intelligent he is, if he's an idiot, we can drop him in a pit trap."

Franklin's spell suddenly died and a deep voice said cheerfully, "I wouldn't count on it."

Harry twitched as he heard something move in the darkness that sounded like it was coming from behind them. He quickly grabbed his two companions and apparated back to the beginning of the maze. "We're going to need a new plan."

Franklin twitched and vomited off to the side, not at all prepared for being pulled through a pipe.

"Neat! Can we do it again?" Jessica asked excitedly.

"No," Franklin complained after wiping his mouth with a handkerchief. "My spell shouldn't have cut out like that."

"Yeah, I'm guessing he's more than just a little magic resistant," Harry grumbled. "There was also something else in the darkness with us, probably a grue."

"Fine, you made the right call," Franklin admitted as he took a step back and turned so that he wasn't looking at his breakfast. "Any ideas?"

"Yeah, I think we should try to kill it." Harry said as he walked to the edge of the light then tossed a fire guardian down as far into the darkness as he could. He grinned slightly as the snake-like fire turret started tossing firebolts at something in the darkness. He frowned slightly as the guardian stopped throwing firebolts for a second then started then stopped as the light from the firebolt was enough to force the creature back. "That's probably not even close to enough damage to matter."

"Do you know any more powerful spells?" Franklin asked.

"Nothing that wouldn't result in our death," Harry admitted, knowing he wouldn't be able to control fiendfyre, especially with all of the magic in the air. He pointed his troll-like hand at the hedge in front of him. "Reducto!"

Franklin watched as the damaged hedge quickly regenerated almost before they got a brief glimpse of a small chamber with stone benches, a pool and something that might be a gargoyle. "That was less effective than I was hoping."

"Reducto!" Harry adjusted his aim slightly to the left. "Reducto! Fire Guardian!" he said, changing his spells together as best he could to give the hedge less time to regenerate. He grinned as he heard the fire guardian start tossing firebolts at something. "We'll give the guardian spell a couple of minutes then I'll teleport over and check to make sure everything is dead."

"What about the minotaur?" Jessica asked warily.

Harry glanced at the open door. "I've got an idea." He grinned as he walked over and grabbed the metal torch and jammed it between the door and the doorframe so that it would have a hell of a time closing on the off chance that it was designed to close if the minotaur got close.

"What are you doing?" the dragon asked.

"I'm making sure the door can't trap us in here," Harry replied as he wedged the second torch between the frame and the door.

"Let me guess, you're planning on luring him out here so I'll be obliged to smash him?" the dragon asked.

"Hey, that's a great plan, you're awesome," Harry said cheerfully.

The dragon snorted, sending a small gout of flame out of his nostril. "I doubt the minotaur will get close enough, he's not stupid."

"Mostly I just didn't want to get trapped in there," Harry replied as he looked at the dragon that was still reading his book. "I don't suppose you know of a good way to kill the minotaur?"

"Blunt force trauma usually works for most things," the dragon replied absently. "Now go away, I'm reading."

'If you weren't a dragon, I'd ask about your choice of reading material but maybe it's actually a decent story,' Franklin thought, knowing better than to bring it up.

"Sorry," Harry replied, reminded of Hermione. 'I hope you’re safe back at Hogwarts wondering what happened.'

"Do you think that's long enough?" Jessica asked.

"No idea." Harry walked back over to the edge of the light and raised his troll-like hand and repeated his earlier chain of spells, blasting a hole in the hedge and dropping another fire guardian in the pool area. "We should probably check on the goblins while those are softening up everything."

"Sounds good," Franklin agreed, seeing no reason not to check the other path in case they found something that could help.

The dragon glanced at Harry's group. "Are you giving up?"

"No, we're just checking something real quick," Harry assured the dragon.

"Do try to hurry," the dragon ordered them.

Harry nodded then headed back out of the dragon's room and back to the goblin's area. He scowled as he noticed several silver coins floating through the air towards them. "Is it worth trying to steal them back?"

"From the dragon? Not even remotely," Franklin replied as he continued walking down the hallway. "Unless it's magic, I really don't care and I'm willing to ignore a lot for the chance to pick up enchanting, since that was my point in daring the maze."

"Fair point," Harry agreed as they continued down the hallway, doing his best to ignore the dragon robbing them blind, mostly because it wasn't worth complaining about.

Franklin glanced around the large arena-like chamber as they reached the end of the hallway. "Worst case, we can always leave."

"At least the goblins are dead," Jessica said as she glanced over at the exit, a touch surprised that they'd all charged to their death like fanatics.

"Ring the bell to summon the arena champion and to get a fantastic prize," an ethereal voice said cheerfully as a mithril chest materialized in the center of the arena next to a wooden post and cross beam with a head sized brass bell hanging from the beam.

"We could probably use the prize to deal with the minotaur," Harry mused as he looked around the area, trying to judge the distance. 

Franklin shook his head. "That's assuming you can even kill the champion."

"If it doesn't work, you can always summon my back," Harry replied as he walked into the arena.

"This is a horrible idea," Jessica muttered as she followed Harry into the area. "Do we have a plan?"

"Yeah, kill the champion and get the key for the chest," Harry explained his 'plan' as he walked over and shoved the chest into his inventory, seeing no point in walking away empty handed on the off chance the champion managed to kill him.

"Good luck!" Franklin shouted from the tunnel.

"Kick his ass!" Jessica called out as she retreated to just outside of the tunnel, seeing no reason to get closer to the bell or the other side of the arena unless Harry needed her to.

Harry reached up and pulled the chain on the bell causing it to ring. He blinked as a bolt of lightning struck the sand twenty feet away from him and a large almost ten foot tall minotaur appeared. 'Fuck, he looks like he could snap Hagrid in half.' He raised his hand. "Reducto!"

The minotaur smirked as he let Harry's spell wash over him. "You escaped once, you're not escaping again."

Harry stared at the minotaur, fairly sure a dragon would have shown more of a reaction or at least a dragon from back home. 'Okay, Plan B.' He pointed at the ground in front of the minotaur and screamed, "Reducto!"

The minotaur took a step back as the ground exploded, less than impressed with Harry's attempt at injuring him. "Was that supposed to hurt?" he asked as he started stalking towards Harry, making no attempt to run.

"Plan C," Harry muttered as he raised his hand and shouted, "Aguamenti!"

"Razzle dazzle!" Jessica shouted as she raised 'her' wand and launched a stream of holy light at the minotaur's eyes, figuring she could at least blind him if nothing else.

The minotaur sputtered as the firehose thick stream of water hit him in the crotch at the same time the stream of light blinded him. "I'm going to rip you apart and eat you!"

Harry activated his Heart of Winter aura and grinned as the water on the ground froze creating a slushy mess and making him rather happy that the minotaur wasn't taking damage as he really didn't want to deal with the feedback right now. He dropped his annoyingly expensive cold aura when the minotaur slipped on the ice and apparated almost a hundred feet in the air above the minotaur. He quickly pulled his scrap chest out of his inventory then apparated back to the ground and rolled to bleed off some of his momentum.

Jessica kept the beam of holy light on the minotaur's face as she watched the heavy looking iron chest fall, hoping that she could keep him distracted enough that he wouldn't notice the chest.

Harry sighed in relief as the chest slammed into the minotaur's head, reducing the top half of it to paste and causing the chest to burst, scattering all of the armor and scrap he'd stuffed into the previously magical chest in a circle. "At least he's dead."

"Congratulations," the ethereal voice said as a shiny mithril chest with a key appeared where the old chest had been.

Jessica shook her head as she walked over. "It's just not the same if you don't use a piano or an anvil."

Harry turned to look at his bunny girl as the door opened and Franklin walked in. "Sorry, I'll work on getting some extra anvils."

"What made you think of dropping a chest on his head?" Franklin asked as he walked over.

"Magic wasn’t working and no way was I getting close enough to stab him," Harry replied as he walked over and opened the treasure mithril chest with the key.