They make it to the Dungeon

The rest of the march was pleasant for Lauren. He played his music for Ilya who walked beside him. Vorka also chose to walk right in front of him and he took in the sight of her rear. It was possible he was imagining things, but he thought she didn't usually shake it that much while marching. Then again, what was 'usual' no longer really applied from Lauren's perspective. To prove this point, Temerity and Isabelle were walking side by side and practically trying to grope each other through their armor. Jasper was as always hanging in the back.

The dungeon entrance was nothing special. There was a stone arch that was along the side of a small hill. The arch had ancient script upon that simply read, "Teloron's Doom." To think that there was such a powerful artifact inside it made Lauren uneasy about what else could be in there. The party went back through the areas they had already cleared. Again they found the one very scared kobold and a lot of corpses. Nothing had moved in during the night which was nice. They made their way back to where they had left off quickly and efficiently. Temerity and Isabelle stopped fooling with each other. This was work. Time to get serious.

There was a door in front of them. First Jasper checked it for any physical traps. Lauren played his magical song to help Jasper with this. After Jasper confirms that there are no traps on the door, Ilya investigated it magically. She takes a few minutes to lay out divining ingredients in front of the door. This is her area of expertise and she proceeds through the motions with grace and speed. Finally, she speaks, "It's trapped."

Isabelle asked the obvious question, "Trapped how?"

"I'm unsure. Magic will trigger upon opening this door. What the effect will be cannot be ascertained except by opening the door."

"So someone has to take the hit?"

Ilya paused for a while then said, "Yes."

There was silence. This was the third door trapped by magic in this dungeon, all of them beyond Ilya's ability to discern the effects of. Jasper opened the first one and barely avoided being disintegrated. Vorka opened the second and nearly died had it not been for Isabelle's healing. Whatever this door did, it would be bad and might be deadly.

Jasper spoke first, "Lauren should go."

Temerity said, "We should draw straws."

Vorka: "I did my try. You all can deal." Jasper nodded.

Ilya stated, "Temerity is the heartiest of those eligible."

This quickly devolved into an argument. In the end though, it was decided to draw straws. Ilya drew the short straw.

Lauren had never really seen Ilya afraid. Not the way he had seen the others afraid. Elves were so haughty that it was hard to imagine one afraid. You would think that they would go into a hopeless situation with grim determination or something. This was not the case with Ilya. Ilya was afraid, and she showed it. She cried and begged and bartered for someone to take her place. No one would. Finally, she meekly went to the door and opened it.

Just before she opened it, however, Lauren made a wish.