[Iron League] The Serpent Temple

[FennWenn]

Holy shit, this was the best arena Fenn had ever explored.

Amid the dusty temple ruins were hundreds upon hundreds of hidden traps. Trapdoors, tripwires, and weight-reliant stones were the most common triggers. He had a vague sense of where to find them. Exploring dangerously abandoned places was one of his favorite pastimes, after all! It helped that he was a slight slip of a fae. Fenn grinned as he hopped onto a particularly sunken stone. On purpose, of course; he wanted to see what it would do. The obvious trap-trigger only clicked into place once his full weight of fifty-two pounds was squarely pressing upon it. Gleaming blades whooshed out of the thick cracks in the wall, aimed towards his neck -- or rather, where his neck would have been, had he stood two feet taller.

What didn’t hit you didn’t hurt you! Fenn gave a delighted squeak at the blades as they slid back into the wall. Yep, this was the coolest arena ever. Maybe he wouldn’t even have to meet his opponent -- maybe they’d just perish in the traps before he even found…

...was that a lit torch in the tunnel up ahead?

Fenn gasped and slunk over to investigate, carefully stepping over a trip-wire near some holes in the floor (probably spikes). Yes, that was a lit torch. The fire crackled with sinister cheer, seeming as happy about its surroundings as Fenn was. Though he had noticed the torches around the temple, none of the ones he had passed before had been lit -- and he hadn’t bothered to change that. Why ruin his decent-enough-ish night vision? Especially since they were so spread out as to be practically useless. But, someone else obviously hadn’t been thinking the same way.

He didn’t know how long he’d been wandering around in the dark, but he knew that it was longer than it usually took for him to find his opponent. A sigh fell from his lips. If they had lasted as long as him, they probably weren’t going to up and die from the traps alone, were they?

Oh well. Better find them and make sure that they do. Or, find them and end the fight by getting smashed into an oozy, oily little pulp. Again.

Following the indistinct path of lit torches for a few minutes, Fenn came upon an open section in the floor. Oh, another trapdoor. There were no more torches glowing ahead, so he supposed his opponent had fallen into the lower levels of the place. A seething mass of hissing emanated from within the dark pit. Fenn could see glassy, slitted eyes writhing around at its bottom.

Snakes. Fenn made a face. Bad news. Still…

Bracing himself for both the landing and the literal nest of vipers he was going to stumble into, Fenn lowered himself over the edge of the pit and dropped in. Fenn be nimble, Fenn be quick, Fenn jump over the -- OH GOD THAT IS A LOT OF SNAKES RUNRUNRUN--

(note; Fenn will be fleeing the sneks very fast in the next post, probably will end up in the same room as John with a bunch of them behind him? is that okay?)