"The desk looks safe," Kaltent says, then grins, "Course, Zinn might already have figured it out if it wasn't."

"The chest is trapped though," he continues.  "Looks like something to do with lightning."

Shift pushes Bronx into the room, directed away from the rug, before walking in and over to the chest, avoiding the rug himself.

"So you think you can disarm it?"

Shift gives the rug some side eye, while he talks to Kaltent.

"Probably," Kaltent responds, following Shift towards the chest, also avoiding the rug.  Once there, he pulls out his thieves tools and sets to work.

Thieves tools: 7

(Well shit.)

As Kaltent prepares to pick the lock, he bends down to lay the tools out and, upon straightening, bangs his head on the lock, release an electric jolt that damages him for 10 health. The traps whines a little as it automatically recharges.

Shift sees Kaltent jerk with the jolt of electricity and just barely manages to hold in his laugh, a half suppressed grin still evident on his face.

"You ok there Kaltent? You need any help?"

"I could always give it a try."

Shift holds up his own Thieves' Tools, spread out in his hand like a hand of playing cards.

The grin is now a full cheek-to-cheek smile.

Shift lets out a laugh, unable to hold it in any longer.

Zinn shrieked a laugh as well, he carefully stored the books. He proceeded to watch Shift, hoping he has better luck, but also grinning as he thought about how amusing it would be to see them both get zapped.

Kaltent stands and steps back from chest, waving a hand at it as he raises an eyebrow to Shift, inviting him to see how he does.

Shift gives Kaltent a cocky grin, before kneeling down to give the trap a go.

(Hax)

As Shift works on the trap, Kaltent casts a Silent Image to make it look like electricity is building up to release at the changeling, just to mess with him.

As lightning appears to build up around the lock, Shift feels the mechanism release, both disabling the trap and unlocking the chest. Inside, Shift finds nothing except a piece of parchment that reads, "Retirement fund. Don’t spend this on ale, Kalabash!”

The lightning continues to build up as the chest unlocks.

Shift turns and gives Kaltent a look that says, "really, you think i would fall for your shenanigans?".

Shift, without looking back at the chest, opens it to reveal nothing.

Shift's look changes to one of total let down as he turns to look at the content of the chest.

"What?! Nothing?"

Shift fishes the parchment out, reading it, and then turning it over, before looking back into the chest.

"Dam tightwad! Couldn't leave us something fun or expensive?"

Shift lightly kicks the chest as he stands back up, giving the parchment to Kaltent.

"Looks like we didn't get diddly-squat this time. What a waste."

The Kobold cackles again at the anticlimactic reveal. After a moment he walks up to them with his arms crossed.

”This place is just useless junk. Lets get moving and see what else we can find in this cursed maze.”

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea, this place turned out far more boring then the name would suggest."

"Where to next Zinn?"

Most recent map, minus the new room you just opened:

Quote from MindDetective >>

Chapter 2: Familiar Territory

Two ten-days earlier:

Krennic hands the map back. "I had assumed you had explored more of this level." His tone is curt but the disappointment shows through. "We need to find a safe place for me to camp on this level, preferably near the stairs down. I have a task for you on the surface once I am secured somewhere."

 
“While it’s not close to the stairs, the mage lab is likely one of the safest places to camp. We can press on, but these may be our finest accommodations on this level. Surely you don’t want this rif raf in a brewery!” He let out a screeching laugh at his own joke.

"Just get us through this maze," Krennic says as he leans against the wall. He seems unperturbed by the group's antics and his voice does not even betray any sense of impatience.

Shift smiles broadly at his diminutive friend, miming drinking rapidly, before winking at Zinn.

Shift looks over Zinn's shoulder, as Zinn pulls out the map again.

"So, do we wont to check out the Mine Storage, or do we want to see where that door heads and if it joins up with the west side of the Wash Rooms?"

Shift points out the door in the passage south of the Mine Storage room.

"We could probably check out the storage first, then go see where the door leads after," kaltent suggests.

"Yeah, sounds good."

Shift starts heading off in the direction indicated by Zinn's map, not waiting to see if the others follow.

Shift checks the area, as he moves through it, for traps or anything of interest.