Chapter 445 - A crazed trapmaker (Patreon)

"Any luck? The staff doesn't seem to be a part of this," Hera asked when she joined the group in the main hall.

"I think I got something," Alex said.

"Same here. Or at least an idea of what to expect," Helena smiled.

"Who wants to start? We didn't get anything helpful," Bonnie sighed.

"I'll go first since I don't know if it's something or not," Alex turned to Helena, "I was listening to some conversations, and someone said that the pianist is supposed to be a playboy. There are a lot of women and men that he, how they put it, lure to his bedroom and ruin marriages. Apparently, he even did that to his music teacher, and the teacher's wife left him because of that."

"I found something that is completely unrelated. Apparently, there is a very dedicated fan of the pianist who was trying to learn from him, but he refused to take any students. Then they started chasing after the pianist and showing up in every place he was. When he finally cut them off and told them to stop, the kid didn't take it well and kind of went nuts because of it. It was someone who really wanted to be close to him, and they were devastated by the rejection. The problem is that the information is all over the place. Some say it was a young boy, others an old lady, a rival singer, or any number of things. This stalker could be after the music, the pianist himself, or he was their missing father. Everyone says something different," Helena sighed.

"There was this guy who was saying something like that," Blue started speaking but got cut off.

"That guy was too drunk to take anything that he said seriously. I mean, come on. He saw a werewolf, a vampire, a mummy, and a headless knight doing the cancan. Do you really want to believe in any of his stories?" Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"Not really, but he might have said something that could fit. He talked about how the pianist was a lousy father and then he said that a weird guy was carrying a bunch of boxes to the castle while the monsters danced, but still, it's  weird to have a random guy carrying the boxes of the castle, maybe that's something," Blue insisted.

"Well, I wouldn't say that's gonna be helpful, but it can't hurt. At least we know someone came in here bringing things from the outside. So whatever we are going to face might not be something that was necessarily in a castle," Helena explained.

"Do you have a specific example in mind? 'cause that idea is very open-ended, "Alex said.

"I can't say for sure, but I believe that if there is a witness saying that someone brought something from the outside, we can expect things like plants, sand, or ice, or something that wouldn't fit here, like from a different biome."

" What about the monsters? Could they be a thing? "Hera asked.

"Yes, but not actual monsters. It's probably some costumes or statues that can be used to scare or threaten us. Like I said, this place is not supposed to have any traps that are deadly by design."

"OK. Then where do we go?" Bonnie asked.

Helena didn't reply, just turned to the butler, who was accompanying them, "I can take you to the hallway leading to the rest of the castle. However, I won't be going beyond that."

Agreeing with those conditions, the group was led to an exit in the kitchen that would give them access to the rest of the building. The corridor was very similar to the ballroom in a way. Everything has sharp angles in the same red and gold motif. However, it was less gaudy, there were fewer decorations and details on the walls, and things here seemed to be built for comfort, not appearance. They started walking, everybody already expecting a trap to spring up out of nowhere. With their slow pace, it took them about five minutes before they got closer to the door on the other side of this hallway.

"Say, why are we so sure that we need to see the rest of the castle?' Bonnie asked.

"It's because that's the dungeon. If we can't find the criminal in the ballroom, we have to come here to find them. I know it sounds like a stretch, but it's how the dungeon is set up. The murder mystery part is more about finding information that will help us deal with the traps. In the end, this is more like a funhouse than anything else. You know, one of those you see in the carnival," Helena was using some shadows to touch the area in front of them. Trying to locate any traps to warn the group beforehand.

"That's better. Honestly, if this was an actual mystery, I would go nuts," Blue pushed the door open, but Hera quickly jumped to her side, trying to stop her.

Unfortunately, the explorer wasn't fast enough. The moment blue opened the door, a large bag with some milky white liquid exploded and sprayed both their faces.

"Shit! What's that?" Hera gasped as she tried to clean herself up. Her eyes started to water, and her nose clogged up.

"What is this taste?" Blue started scraping her tongue with her hands, trying to get rid of whatever was in her mouth.

Alex leaned over and sniffed them, "Isn't that... Onion?"

"Onions?!" Blue and Hera gasped at the same time.

"That fucker sprayed us with onion juice?" Blue asked.

"It looks like it," Alex replied.

"Oh no," Helena took a step back, "Don't tell me it's this one."

"This one what?" Bonnie asked.

"Each run usually has a theme for the traps. Some are about binding you, others are about pushing you in the wrong direction, and some are some kind of psychological warfare. The theme this time could be pranks. Well, maybe not, it's just the first one, but if it is about pranks, then it's going to be really annoying."

"Why me, though?" Blue gasped.

"Because you opened a door in a place that is supposed to be filled with traps. We should take a moment to check those things," Hera was still trying to take the onion juice from her eyes. Bonnie stepped up and helped her clean herself with her water spell. Mostly just so they wouldn't be crying during the rest of the dungeon.

The group double-checked the door to see if there were any more traps, and after confirming that everything was clear or at least that the entrance to this new room was empty, they walked inside. This place looked like the actual entrance to the castle. There was a massive staircase leading to the second floor with a gigantic stained glass window behind it, two doors leading in opposite directions, and very little furniture. There was only a small coffee table by the foot of the stairs and a single painting on the right wall. The painting itself was all scratched and torn apart. Everything that Hera could make of it was that It was of someone holding some sort of small animal. Besides it, there were some drapes that could be used to cover the picture.

"So, what should we be looking for!" As Hera walked through the room, she stepped over a rug that was hiding a trap door. She plummeted for about four meters into what could only be described as a pool of honey. Luckily, it was only half a meter deep, so there wasn't any risk of drowning, but Hera was covered from head to toe in amber goo with the fall.

"Are you OK? Bonnie asked, looking over the entrance of the hole.

"I'm fine. I just need a shower now," Hera looked up, and she saw a way to climb back to the first floor. It was a small tunnel, and she would have to crawl through it, but it looked like it would lead to the right location. There was even an exit sign above the entrance. She created a light, got closer, and saw that this tunnel was covered in sugar ant hives. Hera stepped back and used her stone wall to bring the floor up so she could avoid the ant trap.

"Is it good honey at least?" Blue asked when she saw Hera emerging from the pool, looking like some sort of blob monster.

"I'm not gonna eat honey that was in a pit!" Hera gasped.

"I never expected to be saying this, but don't eat honey you find in the bottom of the trap," Helena turned to Blue.

"Fine, fine," Blue rolled her eyes.

"Will she start eating things we find in dungeons now?" Bonnie whispered to Alex.

"I think so," Alex sighed.

"OK, OK. Can we keep going now? I want to finish this soon, so I caaaaa!" Hera was walking towards the painting so she could use the drapes to wipe some of the honey out, but she ended up falling into another pitfall. This one was shallower, and the moment her feet hit the bottom, 4 panels shifted, one on each of the sides of the square pit. A burst of sand came out of the holes and covered her completely. The sand wasn't constantly coming out. It was just an initial burst that stopped right after.

Hera cursed and created another stone wall from beneath her to climb out of this trap, "Are you fucking shitting me?" she gasped, now covered in a mix of sand and honey. Daskka was laughing, but the snake still created some mist and tried to help her owner with it.

"Should someone else take the lead?" Helena asked while trying to hide her laughter.

"Yeah. Please," Hera turned to Bonnie, "Can you help me?"

Bonnie nodded and started using some water and ice spells to clean up the honey and the sand. While that was going on, the rest of the group started looking around. There were five doors in this room, two on the second floor, 2 on the bottom floor, and the one they used to come here. Unfortunately, there was nothing else that could help them figure out where they were going. Even using some spells like Hera's sensory net didn't give them any more information. The party started to discuss where they should go next. The only difference between the four doors they had to choose from, if you could call it that, What's that one of the doors was closer to the ripped-up painting. As the group talked, she focused her attention on something else. She was trying to see if she could figure out a spell to clean herself up. Many explorers would have something like that in their arsenal, and Hera knew that eventually, she would have to learn that spell, and considering the situation, this was a good place to get it.

In the end, they decided to go to the door nearest to the painting. It was the only one that seemed to have any difference and they all agreed that there had to be a reason for that. This time, Hera stayed in the back while blue took the lead. It was a good thing since her Blades were still floating around. With her in the back, they could stay away from everybody and make sure that she could tell them to help anyone if needed. In hindsight, Hera should have been doing this since the beginning. Now that she controlled her court, she had to get used to staying in the back. After all, she was supposed to be the commander of a small army and not part of the vanguard. Then again, she might be just thinking that so that she won't have to fall into another trap and feel even more disgusting than she already was.

The group opened the door by the painting and started heading deeper into the castle in this one corridor that was almost an exact copy of the one connecting the main castle with the ballroom. They found another half a dozen traps on pressure plates they would spray odds liquid and plumes of dust are pollen to annoy them. This would feel like a kid's movie about someone making traps if it wasn't for how intricate the traps actually were. A pressure plate wouldn't activate right away. Instead, it would make a panel pop up, causing the party to split off and move away from the opening, only for noises and other signals of mechanisms moving inside the walls to start to appear and almost shepherd them towards a specific location where the actual trap would trigger. Lucky for them, Blue and Stormcloud were on point to stop most sprays. Everyone got somewhat dirty, but nowhere near enough the same way that Hera was.

The first room they arrived at was eerily empty. In fact, there was nothing, no doors, no traps, no windows, no rugs. It was just a completely empty room with walls of gray stone. They tried pressing the walls to see if there were any hidden buttons or compartments, and, just to be safe, Hera used Yarnball to ask if there were any secrets in this room that they had yet to see. The answer was no, which made everyone shrug and turn back to the exit. The moment blue touched the door, some magical barrier pushed her away in a voice echoed through the chamber.

"Naughty, naughty, naughty," a shrill voice spoke and followed with a burst of mad laughter, "Why are you here? You're not supposed to be here. And why are you chasing little old me? I don't know you, I never met you, and you never saw me, so I don't get it. Why me? Why? Why? Why?" the voice started speaking slowly then became more frantic and crackled only to stop again and regain some composure, "I've done nothing wrong. I only took care of a bad, bad man. A very bad man. Why must a man like that be alive? Someone who made many people suffer, caused death, pain, and destruction while relishing in it all. Now you come after me like he's some sort of martyr? Like he's a saint? I saved you. I saved us. I'm not the villain here. It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair. IT'S NOT FAIR!!" the last line came in an almost indecipherable screech.

There was a long moment of silence, with Hera and the others trying to find where the voice was coming from before it continued speaking.

"Then again, it's like they say. If you murder a murderer, nothing will change. There will still be another murderer in the world. I suppose the only way to fix that is to get rid of more murderers. And I won't let anyone get in my way. Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. Not unless you try to kill someone. No. You have to kill people. Then I can kill you. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That makes sense. Stop! Here's the deal. If one of you kills the rest of you, I'll let you go. I'll even put you at the end of my list. That way, you won't die today. I'm only letting one of you get out. Yes, that's a good plan, and when you are a murderer, then I can kill you. There, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect. No plan was ever better."

There was another pause before the voice returned with an annoyed tone," Well, what are you waiting for. Do something. Kill, stab, maim, gouge, shoot, burn, melt. So many different ways to kill. Pick one!" Hera looked at Helena with a worried expression, but the mage just waved her off.

"Fine, it was my fault. Let me give you a push, a reason for doing it. Have fun!" the voice spoke again

With that last message, a large white spell circle appeared on the floor and on the ceiling of this room. It flashed in bright light, and when the group managed to get their bearings, they were now on top of a very large tower overlooking the ocean. Looking around, they saw a small sign that read.

'I am fair, unlike him. I'm at the bottom floor. Find me, and you can leave. Kill all your friends, and I'll set you free. I wonder what your choice will be.'