“Great little one, your mother, Vindraxsaliis, was put here as a guardian. Her lair above is only the entrance to very bad place.”

“There's like a dungeon below this?”

“What? No. No dungeon. Is a place where relics of lost ages are kept. Dark things, dark powers.”

“Oh really...” Rich felt hope stir within him. He might not have to go far to unlock his job's full potential after all. “How do we get into this bad place?”

“You is already in it!” Geebo threw up his hands. “We must get out! You are in first layer, the caves of madness! Things sleep here, old and alien and eldritch.”

Rich blinked.

“I don't think I know that word.”

“Eldritch? It means... um... it mean.... er... it's bad,” finished Geebo, lamely. “But there is hope!” he rallied. “Geebo is Architect. Been doing some mathing. Geebo knows where secret way up and out is. Except...”

“Except...” prompted Rich.

“It is right through one of the vaults of the Old Ones. Geebo could tell because of runes on the door. All twisty and evil.”

“And it's the only way out?”

“Only way,” Geebo nodded. “Other ways only take you deeper.”

Rich looked at the Crawmammy's shellpile. “I bet I can handle it. I took down this thing without too much trouble.” Well no, actually, it was a lot of trouble, he thought. But I'm level two now, so I can probably handle the next challenge.

“Little great one, Geebo is in awe of your power. And would never think of disrespect. But ah...” The draggit seemed to be working to find the proper words.

“But...” Rich prompted.

“But this thing was pest that probably got in through very small hole when young and grew too large to get back out. Things in vaults eat it for dinner if it intrudes.”

“Oh,” Rich said. That put a new spin on things. If this crawmammy had been a trash mob, he couldn't imagine what the bosses were supposed to be like. “You're ah, you're sure this place isn't a dungeon?”

“Yes! Your egg was only dungeon in here,” Geebo said. “No other eggs. Mistress...” he choked a bit, and sobbed. “Mistress was young, still... in prime of life, only one mating. Gone now.”

Gone.

Rich remembered his own mother. And he felt like crying a bit himself. Hesitantly, awkwardly, he extended one arm and patted Geebo on the shoulder.

Which would've been a very compassionate and thoughtful gesture if he hadn't greatly underestimated the strength of his new body.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” he said, as Geebo picked himself up off the floor. “I didn't mean to do that.”

CHA+1

“Is... okay? Geebo thought you was punishing him,” Geebo said, putting his spectacles back on his beak. “You are very strange great one.”

“Well I mean I wasn't trying to punish you, you hadn't done anything.”

“No. Geebo mean it is strange that you say sorry. You have said it several times now. Mistress never said it, not once.”

And now Rich remembered his father, and his angry words. How he was adamant that strong men should never apologize.

A flicker of anger stirred in Rich's chest. Well Dad, he thought, I'm getting charisma from apologizing, so the game thinks I'm doing something right at least. How's your own charisma doing? Negative six, I'll bet.

“It's just how I am, I guess,” Rich said. “I hurt you and I didn't mean to so I'm sorry about it.”

“Very strange,” said Geebo, then shook his head, frills flapping as they settled back into their sockets. “Anyway. You know risks of what we go into? You know what we must do?”

“Fight or die,” Rich said. That was what the god... the goddess had said.

“Yes,” Geebo nodded. “This will not be easy. Artifacts and creatures undying inside. And they all hate dragons, with hate that never dies.”

“Well, they're not getting any less hateful,” Rich decided. “Lead on. Let's get this done.”

Through the dark caverns they walked. Rich leveled up Dragonseye again, but after that it started tapering off. Three more activations only got him up to level 11. So it scales as the numbers go up, he thought as they walked and climbed up steep slopes, and swam through dark pools full of blind fish and serpents that stayed wisely far from the apex predator in their midst.

Geebo didn't say a word as they went, eyes wide and almost luminous. He didn't seem to need a skill to see in the dark, seemed comfortable in it. At one point he whipped his hand up as something like a Crawmammy passed, twice the size of the previous one but a lot slower. It took no notice of them, but Rich stayed still anyway. The name above it listed it as 'Crawgrampa,' and Rich didn't feel like killing his way through his last opponent's family tree.

“We is close,” Geebo whispered, as they wound around a corner and passed some odd rock formations. “Bones of Geebo's ancestors here.”

“What?” Rich asked.

Then they were passing the rock formations, and they weren't rock formations at all. They were old, old bones, limed over with crystals poking through in spots. They were in tidy little piles in two neat rows that lined the walls of the cavern.

“Before Mistress' time. Master of the vaults said dig here, and build door. When it was done he enchanted door and departed. But they could not. Door was not to be opened, and there was no other way out. So they obeyed for master, and lay down and died.”

“Oh my God,” Rich said, feeling dread creep over him. There were a lot of bones. “I'm so sorry.”

“Why?” Geebo's eyes were full of confusion behind his spectacles. “They sacrificed all for master? Ultimate honor!”

“To die down here in the dark? How did their... uh, master leave?”

“Probably use magic to leave, before he sealed ward to keep magic from leaving.”

“And that's why they had to stay behind? To activate the ward?” Rich asked, trying to find an explanation that was less monstrous.

“No, ward got put in from outside, and activated runes. Why you ask?”

“Couldn't he have taken the draggits with him?”

“Of course he could,” Geebo said, still radiating confusion. “But why would he? Would take more time and effort. Draggits exist to serve dragons, make lives easier! Draggit making master take more trips or spend more magic, that not making life easier.”

Rich lowered his head. This game is brutal, he thought to himself. Then he tried to focus. Geebo's just an NPC, after all. Why do I care so much?

He had a level of interaction that Rich hadn't seen in any other game's NPCs though, and Rich couldn't help but feel a bond to the little guy. He was literally the only friendly face he'd found since he'd gotten here.

But it was hard to put those rows of stony bones out of mind, as he passed them, the occasional eyesocket watching him go with the patience of the dead.

At last they came to a door... a big one. It was at least fifty feet high, and half as wide. A carving towards the top of the door showed a robed man. He was wearing a mask, and writhing worms or tentacles or something protruded from his tattered sleeves, blending and straightening into lines that traced their way all down the stone, and into crystals set into the edges of the door. Some of the lines were glowing but others were dark, just grooves in the stone. Seven metal gears with symbols along their edges intersected several of the lines.

“Um.” Rich said, studying the door. “Those gears look like they're built to move.”

“Yes. Is lock,” Geebo replied.

“Why is it locked from this side?” Rich asked. “It's not the way out.”

“Geebo... does not know. Everyone who made the thing is dead, except for master dragon who forged the magic. And he moved on to a better place now.”

“Oh. Right.” No survivors meant no survivors, Rich thought, casting a glance back at the bone piles behind him.

“Although...” Geebo said, “If Geebo were to guess, he would say that it would keep the things inside from getting into the other vaults. Lots of dangerous things. If they tried to free each other.... bad. Bad times.”

“If they were so dangerous, then why store them all so close together?” Rich asked, giving the matter a little more thought. “Why not separate them?”

“Geebo does not know. Am sorry, little great one.”

“You are forgiven,” Rich told him, turning his attention back to the door.

Well. He had five tokens left didn't he? The worst they could do was kill him. And if he unleashed ultimate evil in the game world that would get the dragonkilling players nearby out of his hair, wouldn't it? Hell, they'd probably thank him for giving them something to do.

So Rich studied the door again. “I'm guessing we either have to make all the lines going to gems glow or turn all the glowing lines off.”

Geebo shrugged.

Rich reached out a hand, and touched one of the gears. It was cool to the touch at first, but then it started warming beneath his hand. After a second it was unpleasantly hot, and he pulled his claws back.

Then he put his fingers on it again, and sure enough, it was cool... warming up once more. He turned it a click, rotating the symbols. And lightning flared!

The Gate deals 68 points of electrical damage to you!

“Great one!” Geebo gasped.

Rich pulled back his charred hand, and watched scales flake off. “I'm okay. Well I'm alive I mean. This seems kind of dangerous. I should probably try to figure out what I'm doing before I mess with it.”

WIS+1

“Please do not put yourself at risk, little great one!” Geebo said, throwing himself to the ground. “Allow Geebo to take the pain in your place!”

“There is no pain,” Rich told him. “But I don't plan to get zapped again. There's... hm.” He did what he should have done the first time around, and started up an Echo recording.

Each gear had four symbols on it. One symbol resembled a bullet, with a line coming out of the front and two lines coming out of the back.

The next symbol had the lines, but instead of being bullet shaped, it had a swooping curve in the middle of the back of it.

The third symbol had the swooping curve and the back lines were the same, but the front line had a tiny circle where the line met the bullet's nose.

The fourth symbol was bullet shaped again, with lines in back, but a circle similar to the third symbol's between line and nose.

All of them had two lines running into them, and one line going down somewhere else on the stone. All lines ended in gems, but not all of them were glowing.

“I don't think I can solve this without clues,” Rich said. “This might take a while.” How long had he been playing, anyway? It had taken a few hours to sneak through the caverns, he was sure of it. “I might need to cheat and look this up online.”

“On what line?” Geebo asked, eyes puzzled behind his glasses.

“Nevermind. I should probably go back anyway. Are you good if I leave you here alone for a while?”

“I... of course,” Geebo said, frowning. “But where would you go?”

“The same place I did last time. Don't worry about it,” Rich assured him. “Options.”

BEGINNING LOGOUT OF RUTGER ROYAL

30...

29...

Well we've made progress anyway, Rich thought as the countdown continued. I'll check the readits and OW. OW OW OW!

Rich's world turned into pain.

He couldn't stop a scream from passing between his lips, as he found himself on the floor next to his bed, and every muscle in his body was screaming in fiery agony.

It was like going to sleep and waking up in lava. It was like being stung by hornets that were inside your skin. It was nothing he had ever felt before, and he cried freely and without shame.

And eventually, more tired than he had ever been before in his life and still hurting worse than he'd ever been hurt before, Rich fell into an exhausted slumber, fleeing into sleep as a refuge against whatever the hell had struck him down.

RUTGER'S CHARACTER SHEET

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Rutger Royal

Age: 6 Hours

Jobs:

Cultist 1, High Dragon Hatchling 2

Attributes Pools Defenses

Strength: 102 Constitution: 101 Hit Points: 203 Armor: 45

Intelligence: 30 Wisdom: 27 Sanity: 57 Mental Fortitude: 45

Dexterity: 12 Agility: 27 Stamina: 39 Endurance: 0

Charisma: 30 Willpower: 101 Moxie: 129 Cool: 45

Perception: 101 Luck: 30 Fortune: 131 Fate: 2

General Skills

Brawling – Level 8

Dodge – Level 2

Fly – Level 2

Ride – Level 1

Stealth – Level 2

High Dragon Hatchling Skills

Burninate – Level 5

Chomp – Level 3

Draconic Tongue – Level N/A

Dragonseye – Level 11

Limited Equipment – Level N/A

No Thumbs – Level N/A

Scaly Wings – Level N/A

Slow to Age – Level N/A

Cultist Skills

Unlocked Jobs