《Delvers》Chapter 1 - Awakening

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It had already been a shit day. After weeks of talks and applications, she had been frozen out of another big project. She also remembered ordering food so she could work some overtime, but not much after that. Actually, there was nothing after that. No warning, no pizza, just darkness and no clue as to how she got here. She awoke in a dark and humid cell, the only illumination a small torch in a holder on the far side. Shadows and darkness surrounded her. She sat on a brick floor that was slightly wet and slick. The other thing she noticed was that her foot was chained to the wall.

Slowly coming back to her senses, she screamed. "What the fuck is happening!"

She tried to back away, but the chain grew taut, and she felt the pain in her leg. She suddenly felt a lot of stress, her heart started beating hard and her breath came in quick successions. She began to hyperventilate and tried to calm herself and take stock of the situation in front of her. This made no sense. She was still in her suit, she always dressed professionally during work hours, but she had gone all out today for the meeting, not that it had helped. The suit was ruined now though. It had crumpled and the wetness of the floor had soaked into the fabric. There was something new as well, an added accessory in the form of a metal band chained to her ankle which connected to wall behind her. The wall looked abandoned and mouldy; the rest of her impromptu cell was not much better either. The ceiling, walls and floor were made from old bricks, with mould growths and wet to the touch. Her view ended in a simple wooden door that looked out of place, simply for being fully whole.

She took all of this in and tried to stay calm. She had been working pretty late and this was just a dream. I mean, it had to be right? This kind of shit just doesn't happen and the memory loss made no sense either. So it's a dream and once you know it is a dream you can manipulate it, right? Lucid dreaming, that was what it was called. She tried to imagine herself waking up, if she was still at the office, she should probably get home, no way she can get anything else done if she is falling asleep at the desk. But nothing happened. She tried again to no avail. She decided to pinch herself instead, she had seen that in movies, but this also did not work.

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"Shit. Ok, I guess were going with kidnapped, not sleeping."

Deciding to not put her faith in whoever had taken her, she looked at the chain and the band connecting her to the wall. It ended in a metal plate screwed into the bricks. The plate and chain looked sturdy enough, but the bricks looked old and cracked. She shifted her position and grabbed the chain, setting her feet against the brick floor for support, she pulled. A grunt of effort escaped her, but she heard something else as well, a shift, a small crack. Encouraged by this she pulled harder and grabbed more of the chain. With another grunt of effort and a crack the brick came loose from the wall and the plate came with it. She fell back on her back, but the chain came with her.

"YES ok, good... What do I do now? There are probably people here and let us assume as they chained me to the wall, they are not nice people. I need a weapon."

With a grunt she picked up the brick and chain and held it in one hand. The combination was heavy, but it was better than nothing. She slowly made her way to the door. The door looked sturdy and had no lock, so she slowly opened it. On the other side of the door was small chamber. The bricks here did not look as mouldy, but still not well maintained. The chamber also had a small desk and chair made from wood and two doors leading to, presumably, two more rooms. There was no one in this chamber so she moved further into it. She sat in the chair and took stock of the situation. She had been kidnapped, had a brick on a chain, her clothes and... well that was it, really. Her phone and bag were probably still in the office, and she did not really carry else on her person.

"I'm getting pockets next time; I don't care how long I have to google. I'm buying something with pockets."

The thought of her chain made her check the wall and sure enough, on a nice little hook in the wall hung a keyring with one large iron key. She quickly walked over and unlocked her ankle. The band had not been extremely tight, but it also was not great being chained to a brick, especially as it was her only real weapon. She kept the key her other hand and moved to the doors.

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The 2 doors seem to lead to 2 different rooms, as she tried to look through the small keyholes, she saw one had two robed figures sitting at a table. Their robes looked made from black fabric and had a red trim around the ends of the hoods and arms. She could also make out a small silver chain connecting the shoulder pieces to each other. She could not see much from the figures due to the hoods, but their hands were tattooed in a pattern she could not see through the door. They seemed to be playing a game using large, old looking cards and placing bets using small bones. She tried to listen but whatever they were saying, but it was not in a language she could understand. She backed off and decided to check the other door first. The other door led to a wide hallway that turned left after a few yards. It looked to be leading further, but that was not all. On a wall beside the door, she was looking through hung 3 robes in a similar style to the figures through the other door. She stepped out, grabbed one and stepped back into the previous room.

The robe fit, so that was definitely a win in her mind. She clasped the chain in place and shook out her arms to see how well it felt. With the hood up and arms covered she seemed to be fully covered. The robe also had various hidden pockets. Hers contained two items. Firstly, a small book bound in leather with old paper as pages. Opening it, she found writing in a strange spiral like language she had no idea how to end begin to read. Putting the book back she got out the second item, a tablet like device that looked extremely out of place. The small device easily fit in her hand and had a white almost plastic like outline and a screen. This screen looked filled with the strange writing she had seen before, but as she looked the letter moved and warped into English.

-- Welcome, Warlock Candidate. --

"What the hell, did I suddenly learn to read spiral-ese?"

More words formed as the screen reorganised itself into more English text.

-- Current objective: Survive or Escape the Cultists --

-- Loading map ... --

As the screen changed again, she grabbed the previous book and opened it on the table. The text there remained unchanged, even when she tried to focus on the text in the book, there was no change. Going back to the tablet, she saw a new screen had popped up. It showed a map of the current compound, at least, what she had seen of the rooms so far. It also contained three dots. One black, where she assumed she was now. A red dot further to the right and a blue dot further below.

"Alright then, all of this is insane, but red always means either killing or death, so I'm betting on blue."

She put the tablet and book back in the robe and walked out the bottom door into the next room.

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