Chapter 10

It was in our best interest to head north through the jungle. One of the remaining four levers wasn’t too far from the chest. When we first arrived at the chest we’d been pleased to see that two of the bones encasing the chest had crumbled to dust. Four more levers, and four more bones.

Training Arris’s orb weaver was difficult, to say the least. Vynk, Arris, his spider, and I, cut through the jungle to the northernmost lever, leaving the rest of the party at the chest. With a bit of patience and repetition, the spider was able to learn to knock the lever down. When the wood of the lever struck the stone on its descent, we heard our other party members cheering.

The second part of training was just as difficult. We were eventually able to practice sending the orb weaver back and forth over the jungle’s new growth between where we were, and where the party remained. Eventually, we felt confident in our plan.

It took us half an hour to return through the new growth of the jungle to the chest. Vynk was absolutely destroyed. He needed to rest more frequently and his strength was surely waning.

“It all comes down to this,” Arris said.

He squatted down to the orb weaver’s level and pointed him in the direction of the most southwestern lever. Then he mimicked pulling a lever and gave his spider an “off you go,” pat.

His spider deftly climbed the packed jungle matter, climbing thick stems, navigating fronds and leaves and flowers, curling around and over branches, and quickly disappearing into the canopy. He returned in about fifteen minutes. We all pretty much groaned in disappointment since none of the bones had crumbled.

“Alright,” Arris said, shaking his head clear of the failure. “Let’s try this one more time. Ok buddy, let’s turn around and try a different direction. You’re going to go that way. You see where my hand is pointing?”

His orb weaver swayed its body and performed a small loop and shake. Then it looked between Arris and the direction he was pointing in.

“There’s a lever,” the ancienne said, miming pulling the lever down and making eye contact with his spider. He pointed once more. “Can you pull it?

After another “off you go,” pat his spider zoomed off, gracefully climbing up into the jungle canopy once more and navigating masterly.

After twenty minutes, Foli started to pace with irritation. First it was just pacing. Then it was huffing and puffing. Then it was muttering under her breath. Then-

“Oh this is ridiculous!” she said with exasperation. “We’re just sitting here, soaked to the bone because of this freaking rain! I’m walking on dead things! It smells! I’m wet! We’re wasting our time!”

“Here,” I said, unclasping the toggle of my cloak and twirling it around her shoulders. I pulled the hood over her head. She pouted, but didn’t resist because she very well knew she was about to be dry. I caught a glimpse of Pelle stifling laughter.

I cast 10 mana points into the embroidered drying rune. All the water from Foli’s clothes and gear soaked into the cloak. Then I sent another 10 mana points into the rune once more. Steam escaped the cloak, and it ruffled as the fabric slightly shifted through the drying process.

“Thanks,” Foli said, “that’s a little bit better.”

One of the bones trapping the chest burst like snapped chalk. It crumbled to dust and we all cheered. Arris was fiercely proud of his spider. He puffed his chest out as we surrounded him in a massive group hug.

“Oh thank Felke!” Vynk said, leaning wearily on all who would hold his weight. “I was already pushing myself. I don’t know if I could have kept cutting, guys. I don’t know if I could have kept going without some serious sleep or something.”

“Only two more,” Arris said, checking the map once more. “There’s one in the center, almost straight south of here. Then the first one which my orb weaver missed. Let’s all congratulate it when it returns.”

His orb weaver didn’t return and we began to worry.

“Do you think something happened?” Lep said.

“I hope not,” Arris said. “I’d have to teach it all over again when I conjure the next one.”

“They don’t keep what they’ve learned?” I said.

“No,” Arris said. “Well yes, they do learn, but it’s a very slow learning process. Everytime a familiar is conjured, it keeps a little bit of knowledge that stays with it the next time it’s conjured—and I really mean only a little. At a certain level, with specific runes and enchantments, anciennes are able to permanently teach their familiars, but I’m pretty far off from that level.”

Just then, another bone snapped and crumbled into fine dust. A puff of bone dust was left behind and drifted away.

“He went to find another one!” Arris said.

After another forty minutes later, the last arching bone crumbled to dust. I could have sworn that Vynk was on the verge of tears, elated that he wouldn’t have to toil away at carving us a path through the jungle.

“Just a second guys,” Robern said, swooping in and checking for traps.

Satisfied at finding none, he lifted the latchless lid. It took a bit of effort because the chest was old and the hinges stuck a bit.

There was quite a bit of loot in this one. Quite a bit of gold too.

“Seven gold, forty-eight silver, and thirteen copper!” Foli said, tucking the coin away.

Negotiating the loot went amiably. There was a bit of back and forth between Robern and Lep, but it was all easily settled. I ended up with a strange amulet made of chipped green glass, two small white statues, and a mana crystal.

The statues were alabaster white, crudely cut, and resembled two solemn men in simple draping chainmail shirts. Each piece was stained around the edges. I would have guessed that they had been buried at some point.

“Alright, so this is the last item,” Pelle said, holding up a large potion bottle. The bottle had a long neck with cloth tied around it. The glass was thick and dark blue. There were no identifying features. After passing the bottle around, none of us had any guesses.

“Don’t drink it!” Foli said, chastising Vynk. Vynk had popped the cork off.

“Relax, I’m just gonna smell it,” he said.

He took a deep sniff and frowned. After a moment, he seemed unable to decipher the smell so he passed it to Arris.

“Smells like the inside of a tree,” Arris said.

“Yea, that’s exactly it,” Vynk said. “I think?”

“Well as unusual as the potion is, could there be anything else that might be the item we’ll need in the next dungeon chain?”

“Let’s check the map,” Arris said.

The map offered us no new information. The X clearly marked where the chest had been, so it couldn’t have been meant for anything else. We kicked the corpses around a bit, then dug around and beneath the chest just to be sure. Eventually, we were confident one of the items in our possession was the key to completing the next part of the dungeon chain.

After leaving the dungeon and wearily returning to Magic & Lance, we all decided to retire for the day and pick up where we left off the next morning.

That morning we examined all our loot. With a little help we found out that the potion was water-breathing. The alchemist was keen on buying the potion from us, but in case it was crucial to the next dungeon, we had to keep it. It wasn’t until we learned what the next dungeon was that we were more certain the potion was most likely the key.

Gathered by a hearth, we shared a massive loaf of pumpernickel bread with an assortment of jams. Steam rose from all our mugs of coffee. By the windows, I idly watched the snowfall as we talked.

“So I checked what the next dungeon was,” Lep said.

“And?” Foli said.

“The dungeon plaque read Corrupted Springs, Level 3.”

After tearing off a piece of pumpernickel, Pelle said, “Then we’ll be dealing with water. My guess is that we’ll need that potion.”

“You think we’ll be diving?” Foli said.

“Probably,” Lep said. “I mean—why else would we have gotten a water-breathing potion? None of the items I got are more appropriate for a dungeon like that. What about you guys?”

We all shook our heads. I didn’t think the items I’d looted would help too much for the next dungeon run. The green glass amulet turned out to hold a poison enchantment that could be transferred to a single weapon of the user's choice.

It offered me the opportunity to destroy it and see what happens with my alignment to Ghospo. She’d said I would earn favors and boons per poisonous item destroyed, so now might be a good time to test that.

The statues I had were still a mystery to me. Most everyone I talked to at the trading post had no clue what they were. They’d simply shrugged and said, “Might be worth something. Might not be.”

Then it was mentioned that there’s a figurine collector in the city and I might have better luck consulting with them. I could expect to find a man named Anthony a few intersections down from the Verglade Scroll House. Verglade city wasn’t too far from the guild. Half a day’s walk at most.

After finishing our breakfast, we split up, deciding to take a few days to recover, level up, and attend to whatever personal matter we wanted. Since the day was still young, I decided to return to my dorm and absorb the mana crystals from my spellbook, and the mana crystal I’d earned from the last dungeon. They all totalled 59.

Then I held the amulet of green glass between my hands and watched the daylight sheen on it as I turned it over. It was a rather beautiful piece, though quite large, and its chain was small and copper. I removed the chain, then snapped the amulet in half. It gave a loud snap before each piece dulled to a dark greenish black.

Ghospo’s disembodied voice echoed either in my mind or in the room.

“My child,” Ghospo said with tender compassion. I felt her presence around me. The touch of an invisible hand gently brushed my shoulder.

“You have destroyed a poison item. Our alignment has strengthened, and I see you still wield my braid of ward poison. As a thank you for fulfilling a piece of my destiny, I will improve the braid.”

Her presence left me for a moment and an unseen breeze disturbed the articles hanging from my flagstaff. Ghospo’s emerald braid lifted. The invisible divine goddess began unbraiding the item, and I watched raptly as the long strands of hair lengthened. Then the braid was redone until it dangled once again from an eyelet.

Ghospo did not return to my side, but her voice trailed a form I could feel withdrawing from my presence.

“Ghospo’s braid has been improved. It now has a sixty percent chance to ward poison for yourself, and a twenty percent chance to ward poison for party members. Continue to fulfill my desire to rid this world of poisonous items, and I will continue to grant you favors and boons. Farewell Tosin Siege.”

Visiting divine temples was one thing. Being visited was an entirely different thing. I felt a mix of emotions. I felt awe and incredulity foremost, so it took me a few minutes to come to my senses.

“Well, that was quite worth it,” I mumbled.

Especially since we were going to crawl through a dungeon called Corrupted Springs. I felt more prepared, but there was still so much to do. I wanted to learn more about complex poison afflictions, and I wanted to identify these white statues and see what I could get for them.

I bundled myself in my cloak and went searching for the figurine collector near the Scroll House in Verglade City. It snowed like mad and I could barely see more than a dozen paces around me. This made finding the Scroll House quite difficult since I had to get quite near to buildings to read their signs. Though the going was arduous, I finally found the building. The collectors business—Anthony’s Pieces—was just a few streets down and right around a corner.

The door was left open and drifted snow had piled to form a large doorstop. It was warm inside. There was a counter immediately on the right, and a fellow looked up from a book. There was a large and open fireplace at his back. There was a table at the end of his shop with an assortment of tools used for carving wood and stone. A young man was hunched over, hard at work. The rest of the building was simply rows and rows, and shelves and shelves of perfectly spaced statues and figurines of all kinds.

“Welcome to Anthony’s Pieces,” the fellow at the desk said, sliding a bookmark into his book and gently letting it close. “I’m Anthony. What can I do for you?”