Dungeons & Demons VII

Grinkdor was technically the first town I visited in my new world, it was located in a vast cavern that was a few miles in diameter, multiple dim crystals filled the ceiling, washing the entire place in an eerie violet hue.

Orcs and goblins usually had some form of dark/low-light vision in lore, so I figured it was enough for them to see by, though I could see sputtering torches dotted about the warren-like streets at random, so maybe it wasn't quite enough?

The town itself was located at the peak of the small slope that rose up to our right, the back end of the town – where I could see the richest and largest buildings had been built – was backed up next to the cavern wall on that side, a massive waterfall could be seen crashing down, splitting the town in two with its river.

The underwater river meandered out through the walls of the town and down the small slope, as it travelled through the cavern, the banks expanded, the river getting both wider and faster, picking up speed once more. Speed it had lost when it pooled in the small lake at the bottom of the waterfall.

The water also got much dirtier and debris-ridden the further downstream it got. Starting at the beautiful almost clear violet coloured lake – there were more of the glowing crystals at the bottom of the lake, though, I could not see any others that weren't on the roof of the cavern – and progressing down the spectrum to a murky, viscous black gunge at the point it flowed from our view.

The reason for this wasn't just because of the waste produced by the town, – Verrick reckoned there must be about ten thousand orcs inside its walls – in fact, it was far more likely the run-off from the fungal farms were the cause of it.

The orcs, in a fit of genius, had opted to farm the massive – almost two stories tall in a few cases – mushrooms that littered the cavern floor, obviously their main source of sustenance. There was also hog farms dotted about in small clearings in the fungal forest, their run-off perhaps even worse than that of the mushroom farms.

We followed a path Verrick had discovered in a more inclusive map he'd found in the orc Commander's ready room – there had clearly been just one Commander, but none of us were sure which brother it had been, and in the end it hadn't really mattered anyway – and we'd traversed through a few cramped disused tunnels, until we'd come out the back of the fortress and found ourselves overlooking this oddly stunning vista.

There were no guards in sight or any other orcs for that matter. They obviously figured the massive fortress guarding their flank to be more than enough.

Apart from the fortress to our backs, we could see no other points of ingress or egress, except the rivers two, of course.

As we made our way down towards the river in front of us, veering slightly to the left, I wondered if this were normal for a dungeon in Elmeron.

The goblins' encampment had been slightly odd for a dungeon, in my opinion, the orc's fort and been even stranger, having a similar number of beings inside it – around 600 according to a list in the Commander's ready room – but this was insane.

There was no way the dungeon had created all this in the brief time it took for us to enter it, right? How could it create this location instantly, with its obvious wear and tear – some of the sewer tunnels had clearly been ancient and were obviously of a different design than the more frequently used ones. They'd clearly built their fortress on top of a previous structure, or perhaps built upon what had already been there.

I couldn't make heads nor tails of it. Was the dungeon godlike to these creatures, creating histories, memories, lives for these creatures out of nothing, or was each intelligent being we came across just a small spark, a tiny particle of its mind? I struggled to conceive of any mind that could handle that much information at once. Even the limited AI's of my world, run on quantum processers, would be far from reaching the processing power required to manage it all.

Heck, even though they technically had more connections than a human brain, and ran a fair bit faster at that, they were far from sapient. They still couldn't think for themselves, still single-minded and obstinate. Though, I guessed the dungeon didn't necessarily have to be sapient at all.

Of course, the other options that came to mind were far more likely than that of a godlike being either creating everything at once or controlling everything at once.

The simplest option was that the portal into the dungeon had actually transported us to somewhere else in the world, and the dungeon had just given us a quest that was relevant to the location. I was hesitant to believe this to be true, however, my experience may have just come from fantasy books, games and various other media, but dungeons were usually thought to be strictly limited to a singular area, with perhaps the ability to grow outside its bounds.

No, it was far more likely that we were still inside its walls, that the dungeon was not both omnipresent and omnipotent.

That concluded, there were only two real theories left, and they basically amounted to the same thing.

Either the dungeon had created this society long ago, either as part of one of its 100 floors, or in preparation as just such a claiming run as ours, or a group of orcs, goblins and other such creatures had made a contract of sorts with the dungeon.

Without more information on this world, and specifically dungeons, I couldn't speculate further. But one, or perhaps a combination, of the last two options, seemed the most likely options.

My thoughts about the nature of dungeons and how they worked, unfortunately, came to a close at this juncture.

Unfortunately, it was because Verrick had led as down yet another shit-filled rubish-ridden cramped sewer tunnel that he'd found at the river's edge, one that should lead us undetected into the rear of the town, where the Priest's quarters were located.

Interestingly, both Verrick and Belloff had been surprised at the notice of a [High Priest] and a [Paladin]. Their conversation a very informative insight into the history of the world I was now living in.

Basically – and for a reason they didn't explain, despite my wishes otherwise – a long time ago the gods of this world – yes, they had actually existed here, in some form or another – had disappeared. It had been thousands of years since anyone's prayers had been answered, and only slightly less time than that since widespread worship of the god's petered out completely. Not that it didn't happen, apparently, in some pockets – reading between the lines, out in the boonies – worship of the gods still did occur. Whether they still existed or not was apparently a hot topic among scholar's, historians and priests everywhere. What they didn't debate, though, was the fact that holy magic still did exist. And various combat and non-combat Classes were available to be chosen, even if the gods you worshipped seemed to have faded into the void.

It all made me extremely curious about how this world worked. The more I learnt, the less I knew.

Thankfully, there weren't any Metzscarabs in this sewer, nor were there any other real monsters so my distraction didn't cost me. Though we did spot a few grotesque oversized rats but they skittered away when we get too close.

Verrick left me and Belloff down in a surprisingly clean and open sewer – perhaps a storm drain of some kind? If they even had such things as floods underground – as he went to the surface to procure disguises for us. And by us, I, of course, meant him and Belloff.

They'd have to scout ahead and ensure the path was safe for me on the surface.

We couldn't afford to set off any kind of alarms on this floor. Not only had it taken us around twenty minutes to get here, but there was no way we'd be able to fight off all the orcs above us, even if we'd had plenty of time to spare. So stealth was our best bet, stealth and disguises.

I may have had a great disguise for blurring my person entirely, but it was no good at blending in, in any situation other than the one in which I'd found myself in the last few days.

So they'd be doing the scouting and the disguising, and I'd be doing the running and the hiding, which was fine by me.

“We're in the right place,” Verrick announced when he returned, trying to alleviate any worries we had. Seeing as I thought he'd led us unerringly to the correct location thus far, I hadn't been at all worried that he'd done otherwise this time, until he said that.

He was holding up two large brown pieces of clothing, I was unable to tell what they were until the other two put them on. They were very simple monk's robes, a loose brown cloth that covered the entire body, barring the head when the hood was down, even the elf's gangly arms were hidden within the folds of the loose billowing sleeves, the robes were cinched together loosely at the waist with a simple piece of hemp rope. Fortunately, the sewer we were in was a dry one, otherwise, the hems that dragged along the ground would have quickly been covered in the various waste products the orcs threw down here.

It was a good thing, too, that orcs were generally well over six foot in height, as the lanky elf would normally stand out but was of the right height here, whereas the somewhat shorter human would actually be more conspicuous due to his shorter stature.

I followed them up and out of the sewer here, as this exit led into the tight confines of a well-swept alley.

I found the lack of rubbish a bit disconcerting considering my most recent surroundings, and my – perhaps racist – presumption that orcs, like goblins and other such creatures, usually wallowed within their own filth. Then again, the Emperor had been an orc himself, and he clearly had never wallowed in any filth. Not until his death at least.

It took until the third such almost identical alleyway for me to realise why the streets were so quiet. Though to be fair, the violet crystals above didn't seem to ever change in luminosity, so it wouldn't be obvious to an outsider such as myself that it was actually their 'nighttime' as we infiltrated their town.

At first, I thought it was a lucky coincidence, but then I figured the dungeon had probably done it on purpose, there was no way it would expect us to sneak in here during the busiest part of their day? Actually, considering we were closing in on the end of the 24 hours, perhaps if we had found it earlier it would have been daytime here and made our current progress so much harder.

After all, the reason the last level had been so easy – partly at least – was because we waited for them to go to sleep.

Our destination had been obvious from the moment we entered the vast cavern the town was situated in, on the right side of the waterfall was the largest building in the town, the bell tower reaching up almost three stories higher than the castle that was its neighbour on the other side of the waterfall.

It was, obviously, a cathedral of some sort, and it appeared to have been mostly hewn out of the cavern wall that formed one of its sides. The bell tower rose up above the ledge from whence the water came, that structure also made from the same stone, but obviously artificial in nature. The castle beside it stopped when it reached the ledge, though, it seemed like there was a small guardhouse of some sort that poked up ever so slightly.

Gaining access to the cathedral was surprisingly easy, the massive doorway at the front of the structure was wide open for all. The priests obviously accepting supplicants at all hours. Verrick and Belloff simply walked in through the front door, then came and opened a side door we'd found in yet another well-scrubbed alley that was indistinguishable from the last.

The side door opened into a small corridor that led to a washroom of sorts, massive vats were worked into the floor of the room, currently empty of any liquids, and of people. There were plenty more of the brown robes that my Partymates wore, alongside other similar outfits and bedspreads. Obviously, this cathedral was far from empty.

The walls and ceilings were covered in tiny chips of crystal, smaller cousins of the ones on the cavern's roof. My eyes had adjusted somewhat to the odd light but colours still felt slightly off, wood and stone and other such mundane things felt slightly mystical due to the violet hue.

“Where to?” I whispered, wondering how we were going to find an egg in this massive building.

“Up.”

“Up?”

“Yep, the higher one's position, the higher and more removed the offices usually are in the building. I doubt a High Priest is any different. So we go up, and follow the scent of prosperity.”

I nodded in agreement with Verrick's assessment, rich people were the same everywhere it seemed, always surrounding themselves in luxury and lording it over their fellows. Not that I blamed them, not for their wealth anyway, if I was rich I'd surround myself with luxury too.

Or I would have in my previous world, here though, I wanted to do some exploring first, as long as I wasn't killed I figured I'd have plenty of time for lazing about later, once I'd actually built up some wealth. Not ageing really changed how you viewed your future, and your prospects.

We only had to dodge a couple of groups of orcs on our way through the cathedral, despite it being open there wasn't actually that many people up and about at this time. And considering it'd be around midmorning outside, I figured dungeon time was slightly out of sync, which harkened back to my previous thoughts on the nature of dungeons, but just left me with more questions to add to my ever-growing list.

Our passage through the building may have been unhindered, but it was still a massive structure, and it took two separate false leads before we finally found ourselves standing outside the [High Priest]'s office. We hoped it was his office anyway, otherwise, we'd have to accept our conclusion about his stature being incorrect and he was one of those godly followers that both preached and practised austerity.

With an almost unheard click, Verrick removed his lockpicks from the old-fashioned – for my world – lock, and pushed the door open slowly, checking for any tripwires or other similar magical alarms as he did so.

“All clear,” he breathed, finding none.

I took a step forward, intent on entering the room beyond when an unseen force kicked me in the chest, my ribs cracked, broke, then shattered as the force radiated outward from its point of origin at the centre of my breastbone.

My skin, flesh and bones did little to deter the body shattering force, and it travelled unhindered through the centre of my body, ripping apart and flaying the organs in my chest. My scream died in my throat as I lost all of the air in my lungs, along with the lungs themselves, the force was fairly contained as it ripped through my body, mostly missing my struggling and soon to be oxygen deprived heart as the cylinder of destruction burst out the back of my body, taking the remainder of my lungs and a small section of my spine with it.

This act of wanton destruction took bare fractions of a second to pass through my body and out into the hall beyond, its path, and any further destruction it would cause, was left unknown to us.

As my body tipped backwards, the crushing pain halted due to the removal of the nerves in the centre of my spine, the pain that I'd barely begun to recognise, and I felt just the dull ache of its passing, only the memory of the pain that no doubt still wracked my decimated body.

All this, however, was left behind, almost forgotten as the world shifted into shades of grey, the ever-present violet light washed out.

A new body, greyscale to fit with the world beyond, slipped from my still falling body and completed the step I'd begun, and once the last molecule of my new form had removed itself from the shell behind, the world ground to a halt.

But only momentarily, as two more shadows, grey ghosts in a grey world, stepped from the frozen forms of my partymates, and as my new existence took a second step, I felt growing horror as I realised I was just along for the ride. A passenger in my own body, my new transparent form moved to its own whims, no matter how long and how hard I struggled.

Ghost-me and its ghost friends stalked carefully into the [High Priest]'s office, ignoring their counterparts they left frozen in the hall behind.

“There it is!” Ghost-me whispered, the sibilant sound echoing off the very fabric of the world around us, sounding as though it was only heard within my soul. It clearly wasn't hower, as a similar but more nasally voice echoed from Belloff's ghost self, his lips, as mine had been, remained unmoving as he spoke.

“Finally, let's grab it and go.” The ostrich-sized egg was situated in pride of place on a pedestal to the right of the door.

“Wait,” Verrick's voice joined the hissing whispers that resounded in my soul, “let me check it for traps first!”

But his warning came far too late, as it'd taken him a few seconds to process what the MoC had said, too busy studying a campaign-type map that was spread across the wall directly in front of us.

Belloff lifted the egg from its pedestal, and after a few seconds paused, smiled. “See, nothing happened. It wasn't trapped, now let's get out of here.”

Verrick frowned, “why would the [High Priest] leave such a valuable object out for anyone to grab without leaving a single ward behind to protect it? It makes no sense.”

Belloff shrugged and espoused their luck, and the [High Priest]'s apparent arrogance as grounds for his lapse in security.

Verrick frowned, but finding nothing to dispute it, turned back to the map, to find another way out of here, and to discover our next destination.

I, however, could see what the others had missed, I was facing Belloff as he spoke to Verrick, his position not allowing him to see what I could. Verrick himself had his back to the cause of my newfound dread.

My body turned, facing the glint of metal it had seen out of the corner of its eye, a piece of metal that should not be there. A piece of metal that had not been there when we had entered the room.

I screamed, trying to warn the others of the new threat, but I was still but a passenger, unable to control the ghost body I was riding in, unable to voice my warning, even as I mentally shouted as loud as I could.

I felt words bubble up in my ghost body, as it finally realised what I had already seen and worked to give its own warning, but it was far too late. Far, far too late.

I cringed, attempting to dodge the fate of ghost-me, still fighting to control this body in a world gone mad – or madder anyway – but I was again, unsuccessful.

An orc stood in the doorway, as grey as the rest of the world, helmless but wearing well-fitted plate armour, he could have been a twin to the “Drerk Smash” guy, from the floor before. Excepting for the obvious intelligence I could see in his eyes, eyes that glowed a faint misty light, the same light that abounded from the strange looking runes on his armour. The same light the shone from the massive greatsword he was swinging, though the light of the sword was far harsher, far brighter than the rest. So bright, in fact, that I could only just make out the form of the sword, the lines of it blurring as the harsh light burnt my eyes.

My cry rose from my lungs to my throat in its attempts to escape, to warn the others of this orc. An orc that had appeared from nowhere.

That cry was cut off long before it escaped, dying in my throat just as I did. Cut off just as my head was.

As the blazing greatsword sliced through my neck, I felt nothing, no hint of metal kissing flesh, no hint of that shining light affecting my body in anyway.

And then all was light.

A faint ache spread from my breastbone once more, the leftover remnants of an attack that I never saw coming as I suddenly felt myself residing in my normal body was more. The world was still frozen around me, though, as time passed, the violet light began its invasion of the dull grey around me. My body began its slow descent to the ground once more. Time, once frozen, was starting up again.

And, looking at my vitals, I knew what I had to do.

When time finally sped up to its normal passage once again, I'd already opened my [Inventory].

When Verrick and Belloff turned, concern on their faces as my Health dropped to critical levels, my insane regeneration unable to keep up with the damage, a potion dropped into my waiting hands.

I willed my body to move, to remove the stopper from the potion so I could drink it. So I could regain health once more, and heal. But, my hastily formed plan to save my life failed due to one simple fact.

I could no longer feel pain because my nerves in my brain were no longer connected to those in my body, but the pain-relieving effect had a far worse outcome. I could no longer control my limbs. I couldn't remove the stopper from the potion vial. I could no longer lift that same vial to my mouth and swallow the life-saving liquid within.

Verrick, however, was a seasoned adventurer, no doubt used to seeing team members injured and dying, and his instincts, honed through countless battles and dungeon runs, kicked in. He knelt, questing hands seeking the vial that rested in my limp hand, and the unstoppered vial was tipped into my mouth, his movement so quick and assured I was unable to follow them.

The life-saving red liquid dripped down my throat and as it spread it halted the injuries from progressing further, then as it reached my lungs, it finally began repairing them. Targeting the worst injuries first, the high-level potion repaired my body in seconds, and I was glad that I had access to only the best of medicines as Empress.

I groaned as I finally pulled myself to a seated position a minute later, my body still wracked with phantom pain, but already fully repaired. And as I did, bits of metal clinked to the ground below, falling from my body and the Garb that covered it.

“What in the System just happened!” Belloff whisper-shouted, getting far too close for comfort. Verrick pulled the irate MoC out of my personal space, much to my gratitude.

“Are you alright, Empress?” He asked a far more reasonable question.

“I... I think so...”

He let out a sigh of relief, “thank System for small favours.” He shifted back onto his haunches, “and if you are feeling whole once more, I, too, would like to know what just happened.”

“I...” I ran my hands over my head and face, then down to my chest. Checking to ensure what I felt was true, that I really was whole once more. As I did so, another piece of metal dropped out of the Garb, the material practically pushing the foreign object out, and as I inspected the item, a growing understanding came over me.

“I can't remember if I explained the third item Felix gifted to me, but I think it just activated and saved my life, and probably yours as well.”

“Well forgive me for saying, but it looked like it almost killed you, not saved you.” The MoC sneered.

“No, I don't remember you mentioning such an item,” Verrick said, ignoring the MoC.

“Well, um, I kind of forgot about it, Felix had been unsure if it would even work when he gave it to me, so its existence just dropped from my mind.”

“So you just had an item equipped that had unknown effects as we entered a dungeon that the completion of, was paramount to the ruling of our country?!” Belloff, it seemed, was unable to let it go.

I winced, “yeah... I guess... I just trusted Felix, the quartermaster, wouldn't give me something harmful.”

“That trust was misplaced then wasn't it!”

“Ignoring its obvious detrimental effect, could you explain in your own time, why you think it saved our collective lives?” Verrick's tone was soothing, and though I could see the reprimand in his eyes, he was willing to wait until I explained what happened before he passed judgement.

“Okay, well, um... ahem... When [The Amulet of Foresight] activated-”

“Exploded and almost kill you, you mean.” Belloff corrected, sneer in full force. But after a glare from Verrick, he agreed to remain quiet until he was done with my story.

“So, as I was saying, when [The Amulet of Foresight] activated, time stilled and froze. Then ghostly forms stepped from our bodies, like a strange after-image of sorts. Though, I guess it was more of a pre-image, a future-image?”

“Pfft, that sounds ridiculous.”

“No, not all. I have heard of similar things before, do go on, Empress.” Verrick defended me and glared at the MoC again. Quelling him once more, for a time at least.

“A-anyway, these 'future-images' entered the office beyond, inside we found the Cockatrice's egg, and a map pinned to the wall... I'm sure there were other things, but it's all kind of blurred.” I paused, getting my ducks together as I thought through how best to explain what happened next.

“The egg was sitting in a pedestal to the right of the door, and seeing no obvious traps, Elbellkioff removed the egg from its position, and we were about to study the map to figure out where to go next, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Or at least, my future-image did. I was kind of along for the ride in my own body, it was a weird feeling...

“And when it turned, it- I saw an orc. He was wearing full plate and glowing with a strange white mist. He had a greatsword held in both hands and was in the process of swinging it at me. It glowed with the same light as his armour, though much brighter and harsher. When he finished his swing and removed my head my ghostly future-image, I reappeared in my actual body once more. And I had a few seconds before time restarted again, so I took that time to open my [Inventory] and began removing the potion vial... And that's it really. I'd say it all took a minute or so to occur.”

My story told, Verrick proceeded to interrogate me further, intent on discovering any other bits that I'd missed or glossed over in my retelling. Once done, he formed a plan of sorts, and I entered the [High Priest]'s office again.

It looked just as it did before, except instead of shades of grey, the room was now resplendent in shades of purple, the room far more brightly lit than any other we'd entered in our search.

The was an altar situated to the left of the door, bare stone with a small rug lying on the floor beneath, just large enough for one person to kneel upon. In front of that was a fairly large wooden desk – I wondered where these people got all the wood from, it clearly hadn't grown down in the caves – with all manner of papyrus, scrolls and religious memorabilia scatted on its surface.

The wall opposite the door was covered with a massive map, on that I could not make sense of, squiggling lines overlapped everywhere, the confusing mess obviously showing the tunnels we were in. Verrick spent some time in front of the massive map, working out an escape from the cavern we were in.

Once an escape route was found, and his plan explained we finally picked up the egg.

Verrick had been unable to discover the alarm that had been placed on the egg or the pedestal. So, instead of disabling it, he used my knowledge of what would happen to make a plan of attack.

Belloff hid down the hall outside, far from the range of any attack, as I stood alone in the room, the most vulnerable position, and picked up the egg.

Moments later, as he did in my vision, the orc [Paladin] appeared in the doorway, massive and glowing greatsword held in his hands, he scowled at me when he saw the egg held in my hands, and the light grew brighter as he prepared to charge.

He didn't have the chance to repeat his previous actions, my head remained safe atop my shoulders.

Verrick had positioned himself in the shadows of the hallway, a massive sword of his own in his hands, it too was covered, but unlike the [Paladin]'s glowing sword, Verrick's was covered in writhing shadows, shadows that lashed out and flicked at the air around it, a sensation of cold dread emanating from the blade, one that I could feel from the other side of the room as Verrick stepped from his shadows.

The [Paladin] felt the blade too, of course. But he didn't have any time to react as Verrick lashed out and removed the orc's unarmoured head from his shoulders.

“Huh,” Verrick said with a small amount of surprise, “well, that worked.”

“What do you mean, 'well that worked'. You assured me your plan was foolproof, that I was in no danger!”

“Not entirely foolproof... I was kind of expecting a fight, but I'm glad it ended as it did, that armour of his looks almost as well enchanted as my own.”

“...Right...”

We left the dead [Paladin] behind in the office, locking the door as a minor delaying measure as we did so, then fled. Running to the escape route Verrick had discovered that led through a tight passage behind the waterfall.

The [High Priest] would no doubt be hot on our heels as we entered the next floor, it was unlikely that the alarm had only notified the [Paladin], but we didn't have the time to hang around and deal with him. Especially as it was likely he'd be bringing friends. However, if we escaped in time, we'd get away without any further repercussions.

*