"Is that gold?" Janius commented upon glancing past the locked gate. "It's a wonder if it's been laying there for so long. Some parts of this place must be incredibly secure."

The vanguard advanced onwards until forming a plan by the next door. By what Ahnasha described, this would by the spot where the real challenge began.

"I should hope that we don't come across any traps by rushing in," Fendros remarked.

Sabine had been tense and alert the entire time, but even she didn't spot the brassy spider before it shocked both herself and Meesei. Sabine let out a short shriek and jumped away, lifting her legs as she did to get them away from the scuttling automaton. At this point, her trained response had her toss a pair of fire bolts in the spider's direction without putting in the time to aim carefully. By the time she found her senses, she had put up a ward and was charging another fire spell in anticipation of the spider continuing to move.

The others had already spun around to see what was going on. Janius started closing the distance to the spider to smash it if necessary.