The Circle Of Swords adventuring group entered a cave and tunnel complex in the region of Luolia defended by small reptilian kobolds. Beruma, now the remaining survivor of the deadly gauntlet of tricks and traps they encountered, finds it is just as dangerous getting back out as it was venturing in.
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[Music] It's Wednesday Wonder's science fiction and fantasy on the mutual audio network. [Music] The following audio drama is rated G for general audiences. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] The rumour hunched behind the rocks and peered over the top of them. She scanned with her eyes from corner to corner of the murky cave. Her eyes were playing tricks on her as shadows and silhouettes jumped out at her from the various shades of darkness. She thought she saw something move, or heard a telltale sound, some signal that she was not alone. She had waited for the dust to settle, all while hearing the muffled death cries of her companions on the other side of the rock barrier. At least two, maybe three, were crushed by the dead fallen homes. Their deaths were a mercy. The remainder were cruelly killed by the cobalt crown that fell upon them amidst the confusion. Now she was the only one remaining. There were 12 members of the Circle of Swords' adventuring group which entered the cave and tunnel system in Luolio, on their way to treasures beyond. And maybe with the idea to root out its inhabitants and loot what valuables could be found. Now with the passage completely blocked with fallen rock, she had no alternative but to head back, back through the deadly gauntlet the cave had become. Barumas slipped out from behind her sanctuary of rocks and crept out into the cave chamber. Normally she'd have her back along one wall, but she learned that the small dog faced reptilian terrors had dug passages to run along the walls and cut out holes to throw spears or large poison darts through. They also had crawl spaces where they could sally out in ambush and then melt back in again into the shadows before her group could rally a defense. So she silently moved in the middle of the chamber, looking to either side above to the floor as she moved. She came upon the pit in the floor. That hateful pit which still reaped a burnt flesh. QWPA was on point when false floor gave away and fell down into the pit. As they heard him splash in in the knee-deep liquid, Uri had remarked how they were lucky that it wasn't filled above the head with water. Lucky! Drowning would have been preferable. Uri and QOlet held onto their rope line to anchor it for QWPA to climb out. The rest were stupidly looking around trying to figure out how to get past the pit and continue on through the cave tunnel system. That's when the little demons sallyed out and pushed Uri and QOlet into the pit, and then after completing the short skirmish to make us all forget the pit. They lit it on fire. She could still hear the cruel yappen from above when the bastards dropped the flaming brain into the liquid which turned out to be bad oil and ignited into flame. QWPA, Uri and QOlet were covered in the star sloshing around with a pit, and she could still hear their screams while the rest of them were helplessly occupied, bending off the surface. The ambush was a distraction tactic, and none were injured when the COVID slipped around, but three of the circle of swords adventuring group were met with fiery deaths in that pit. They were finally able to cut footholds into the vaults and pound spike hand holes into the wall in order to get past the smoldering pit. The work was done fearfully, while others stood on alert for another attack. Looking at the pit, she recalled how she needed Onet to reach out and give her a hand as she crossed over the first time. She thought of how Onet had perished in the rock fall and the chamber behind, and now there was no one to give her help on her way back. And would there be cobolds waiting in the shadows to push her into the pit once she made it to the other side? She shivered as she carefully set the toes of her boots into the first of the footholds, and tested the hand spike to make sure it was secure into the wall, crossing the pit, hugging the rock face with her back to the chamber while breathing in the smell of her burnt comrades was unnerving and exhausting. And when she made the final hop onto the other side, Baruma collapsed into a huddle and nearly cried, though she dared not utter any sound unless she alert her shadowy enemy. Leaving behind the fumes of the pit chamber, she sidled around the corner and looked into the next passageway, which was extremely narrow and impossible to traverse except shuffling sideways with her face pressed into the solid wall and rock patrusions sticking into her back. The passage allowed for a sudden spear thrust by waiting cobbled through a murder hole, and it made it even worse when Tuke Kim was severely wounded by a spear, and the creviceway was blocked by his inert body and had to be physically dragged through. Baruma used the rock patrusions as footholds and climbed above the key floor, imagining she'd been above the holes in the wall and struggled through the passage, not knowing if it had even been worth the extra exertion. When she emerged into the next chamber, she was covered in scrapes and sweat and her own blood. After a short rest, Baruma thought ahead to the next passage, which was certainly wider, but in it, the group had been shot with small needle-pointed darts, which they had discovered were tipped and poisoned. Carcia took a dart in the neck and it was the first time they were even aware that the cobolds were in the cave, at first he was annoyed at the minor wound, but then soon his knees began to buckle and he fell onto the ground, confused and disoriented. The others had rushed ahead to the turn in the passage to avoid the onslaught, but then came the awful realization that one or more had to run back to retrieve Carcia from the passage. Tusca and Kipu made a makeshift cover of stretched cloak and blanket, and though they managed to wrestle the delirious Carcia through the onslaught in the passage, without getting hurt themselves, Carcia finally succumbed to the poison and died in a wheezing, sweat and blow. We call him that Baruma looked around frantically, noticing Carcia's body was not where they left it. Clearly they'd drug him back to their Warrens, where they stripped him of everything they found useful, and who knows, cut up his body for animal trap bait and made tools and weapons from his bones. Baruma saw more than one spear wielded by the yipping tormentors tipped with a sharpened bone. At first she thought to crawl through the passage, and perhaps the holes for shooting darts wouldn't allow them to aim low enough to harm her. She decided against this, as the reptilian foes seemed to have accounted for any contingency, and something so simple they would have provided ample measures to defeat such an attempt. Instead, she decided she would make a run for it. That would make it harder to see her coming into aim as she flashed by the stations for firing darts, and as opposed to entering the caves where they didn't know what lay beyond, which precluded running blindly ahead into a gauntlet of death, she knew what lay ahead before her on the return trip. Baruma bolted into a limping run, and in her imagination she thought she heard darts sailing past her head as she lumbered along, and expected to feel the sudden sting of a needle into her soft skin. But no darts issued from the hidden holes. And she made it through the passage without incident. In her elation, she realized there were no more traps that they had encountered in the tunnels, and she kept running with the excitement of being able to put these hated tunnels behind her and be out and free. Baruma turned past a bend in the passageway, and there was only one more turn and she would be out, but as she cleared the corner she expected to see a clear path through the rocks, but instead there was a cluster of boulders in the way. She stopped her run and stood, pandering breaths and trying to understand what was before her. Behind the rock she could see the club being a little rod-shaper of two in heads with reddish glowing eyes. She saw spear sticking out from the boulders in a defensive picket. She saw dart blowpipes aimed toward her. She saw other bone weapons wielded by anxious hands and the reddish glow of cruel eyes. It was then that Baruma realized that the cobolds had positioned themselves to block the exit of the tunnels as soon as her group had passed through. There was never any escape the moment her group had entered, and it was just a matter of time as they continued through the deadly gauntlet that they would all succumb to the cave demons. She dropped to her knees and her mix of alternately laughing and crying before the tactical wall confused the defenders. They hesitated where normally they would have immediately rushed forward for the finish, eventually. Inevitably though, the tunnel would be cleared, and the reptilian clan of tiny cave dwellers would reset their traps, their pits, their deadfalls, and assume their ambush positions. For the next intruders that entered the cobalt tunnels with the idea of rooting out its inhabitants and loot what valuables could be found, they would be ready. ♪♪♪ You've been listening to Cobalt Caves of Lulolia, a sidequest short story of the Dungeons & Damsal series by Unchained Productions, written and directed by David Ian. Voice Talented by Danny Baldwin. Sound Engineering by Dino Dielpho. Sound Designed by David Ian. Theme by Ron Perovich. Music by Mark Rose. Tunnels of Lulolia is a sidequest short story of the Dungeons & Damsal series by Unchained Productions. ♪♪♪ Do not adjust your sets. Your tune to Wednesday wonders on the Mitchell Audio Network. Tomorrow on Mutual is Thursday Thrillers, our roundup of action, adventure, mystery, crime drama, and thrillers, of course. Subscribe to the full Mutual Audio Network feed for everyday of diverse audio tales. Or, find the Thursday Thrillers feed in your favorite podcast players. ♪♪♪ The Mutual Audio Drama Network, where we listen and imagine together. [MUSIC PLAYING] (beeping)
