Exactly 4 Hours

You re-coalesce four hours to the microsecond later, and look around, your pack is with you including two ghouls in your 'floating' slots who WEREN'T at the 'Fated Meeting' as you are starting to think of it, and you hastily fill them in on the plan. They look at you incredulously but follow as you head for the red **** chamber.

As you walk something nags at your mind: the re-spawn time. While it is POSSIBLE, barely, that the dungeon could have shut down while you were out of action and been reactivated at EXACTLY the same time you would have re-spawned if heroes had never left the dungeon that entire time, it is: improbable. That means that most likely that thrice damned NINJA is still here.

Ninja are a very advanced 'honor class' evolution of rogues. You have to complete a difficult quest string to gain entrance to the class and cannot even start that string until you are 25th level, and would find completing it almost impossible without the help of an existing ninja before level 50. This means that most full Ninja are at a minimum of 35th level, and they often have access to powerful alchemical items, supposedly gaining access to a specialization at 75th level or so which effectively makes them both a Ninja and equivalent to an Alchemist of 1/3 their level. That's not what makes them scary however, not really.

What makes Ninja scary is that they are faster than any other non-mounted, non-flying class, and get as one of their starting abilities a 1 MP per MINUTE 'lesser invisibility' power.

'Lesser' Invisibility is distinguished from its more sought after counterpart 'Greater' Invisibility in that when you move or attack there is a visible distortion in the air, betraying your position to those who know what to look for, like anyone with as much experience in the game as a Ninja has will. Sorcerers and other arcane spell-casters start getting the ability to become 'invisible' at around 10th level or so, so by the time Ninja get it it's old hat: but, NO ONE other than Ninja, get the ability to do it without a set time limit on how long it lasts. With them being so gods damned FAST this means they excel at 'hit and run' tactics. They run up, toss an alchemical burst weapon of some kind into the midst of a group, then start running away, still invisible, and find a location where they can stand stock still, which means there is no distortion to betray them until they attack again, and wait for you to come looking for them: lather, rinse, repeat.

What's more, that ninja had gotten from the entrance to the dungeon, to the stairs between the 1st and 2nd Z-Level, and down to whichever of the several virtually identical 4 way intersections on the 2nd floor where the Fated Meeting had happened in a matter of under a minute. That meant he or she HAD to be at or near level cap, AND had to know this dungeon's layout like the back of their hand.

How much had they heard? And how long would they commit to flummoxing this plan to meet at the Red **** Chamber if they had heard too much? Long enough to make the others give up?

It's in this apprehensive mood that you approach the hallway leading to the Red **** Chamber, One which you will have to navigate carefully, because it is boobietraped with spikes along almost it's entire length, with only a few clear patches next to doors and intersections with other hallways. Your Trap Sense ability outlines the positions of the various spikes and pressure plates that trigger them, but even without that you would know where to step and not, you've died from these spikes a hundred times and more during the early years of the game and know each of their positions intimately.