Wow What a Hole
“Now that is one deep hole.” Horn says staring into the depths of the dark pit. It had taken Roland and Horn about two hours and another fight with one of the overgrown house cats to locate the dungeon entrance.
“How did anything even crawl out of that?” Roland asks. The abyss, that’s the only word that seems to fit the seemingly bottomless hole in the ground, is an almost entirely vertical shaft and is deep enough that thin light coming through the trees doesn’t even come close to penetrating the bottom.
“Ahh, less talking and more working”Horn shrugs and takes a flying leap into the darkness.
“And the weirdness continues…” Roland thinks to himself, as he follows Horn in what appears to be a suicidal leap into the bowels of the earth.
After at least a minute of free fall, the air in the cavern begins to change an updraft meets Roland and his fall starts to slow. Looking at his feet, he can see a dim light growing below as he gets closer. As he suddenly pops into an open space, he notices clusters of glowing crystals surrounding the aperture much like the mana ones in the guild. He slows further as an upwelling of cold air buffets him and his feet touch down on the hard, stone floor. He stumbles slightly as he lands but recovers quickly.
“Ha! Nice soft landing there, rookie.” Horn laughs as he walks back toward the light in the room. “It looks like the first tunnel is clear, but we should still be careful. You have better senses, so go ahead and take point and I’ll watch our backs.”
“Got it. Let’s get a move on then. I hope there’s another way out of here because I don’t really fancy climbing up that shaft. Why did neither of us bring rope?”
“Ahh, you think too much. Let’s get moving.”
Roland moves down the tunnel ahead stretching his hearing and sight to their limits as he wills himself to feel out the area around them he notices that they are continuing to descend deeper into the ground along a very subtle slope, almost invisible to the naked eye.
After an uneventful ten minutes or so, the tunnel opens into a large, open cavern. Huge crystals, both single and hanging in clusters, adorn the ceiling casting both light and shadow across the floor. Pools of shadow so deep they look almost liquid dot the cavern floor and walls. Roland notices a few smaller tunnel openings in the cavern walls beginning just a few yards inside the room. As they pause just outside the room, Horn points to dark shapes slipping from pool to pool with liquid grace. Roland can just make out Jet black cats skulking among the shadows in the cavernous space and Jerin scuttling from place to place as they attempt to avoid the large, predatory cats.
The two adventurers quickly move back up the tunnel a ways and pause to discuss their plan of attack. “Horn, we either have to take those cats out in one fell swoop or find another way around. There are dozens of them down in that cavern. I really don’t like the idea of fighting that many even with you playing man mountain. They’re way too fast and I’m highly allergic to being eaten.” Roland whispers.
“Fair point. I don’t think I could take more than five or six at a time. We should try and kill a few more, see if we can’t even the odds a little.
“Makes sense. Let’s see if we can catch a few in the other tunnels. I think we can reach that first one on the left without running into too much trouble.” Roland moves forward quietly slipping to the left of the main opening. Sliding along the wall, he motions Horn along. All he can do is cringe and shake his head as Horn stomps forward with all the stealth of a small army clad in brass cymbals and hob nailed boots. Luckily, the tunnel entrance is close enough that the two reach it before either the cats or the Jerin take too much notice of their presence.
There is little light in the smaller tunnel. As they pause to allow their eyes to adjust to the relative gloom, Roland again stretches his hearing and other senses as far as he can. He gets no twinges, like the first time the leopard stalked him in the woods moving on down the tunnel, however he spots something moving down the tunnel towards them. Roland signals to Horn and reaches for his hatchet wrapping his hand around the now familiar haft. As he readies himself to strike at whatever it was sliding towards him, the thing begins to swell filling the tunnel with itself. Roland slashes the hatchet horizontally into the creature. He almost falls directly into the monster as the resistance of steel meeting flesh that he was expecting didn’t happen. The hatchet slips easily through the thing, like a hot knife through butter, before its momentum runs out and it stops.
Roland attempts to pull the hatchet back out, but it suddenly feels like it’s buried in wet cement or quicksand and it doesn’t budge. His hands slip as he yanks and tugs, and during the struggle, he loses his grip on the haft. He watches in disbelief as the handle is absorbed into the body of the thing.
“Ahh..Horn? I kind of need a hand here.” Roland backpedals as the thing slumps forward again, it’s bulk filling more of the tunnel.
Horn slams into the thing, with his huge great shield leading the way. The smack of solid flesh meeting the mass of goo echoes in the tunnel. Horn digs his boots into the floor, literally, his massive legs driving his boots down into the rock. “Crush the core, dammit! I can’t hold this thing for long. Just smash it!”
Roland dives back into the thing, talons shooting from his fingers, and begins digging into the gooey, semi-liquid flesh struggling against Horns spiked shield. Roland gives over a part of himself to the beast letting his more savage instincts surface as he rakes globs of flesh away from the monster’s body. With a suddenness that surprises even him, his talons strike what feels like metal and bounce off. He quickly strikes again, straightening his claws and bunching them together in a reasonable facsimile of a spear point. A third direct strike shatters, what he assumes is the core, and with a slightly nauseating sound and far more nauseating smell, the semi-solid mass suddenly loses form and splashes to the floor.
“Ugh, it got in my mouth” Horn spits and gags on the foul-smelling goo. “First thing we run into, and it’s a cave ooze. I already don’t like this place. They’re not even good for any loot”
“Man, the thing ate my hatchet.” Roland gripes finding the blackened, corroded blade on the ground.
—
Several tunnels and one really weird upside-down room later, they are able to successfully lure the majority of the Leopards into the smaller tunnels and dispatch them. Horn and Roland make their way back into the main cavern noting that a handful of cats still stalk the caverns dark places.
Horn makes his way into the cavern, clanking and clattering as if he was strapped with pots and pans instead of armor. Attracting the attention of the remaining Lions, he pulls the great shield in front of him, unstraps his large mace from his belt, and begins to stretch and limber up his shoulders. The sound of claws scratching across stone, reaches his ears as the Beasts make for him from all across the cavern. The first reaches Horn and leaps, intent on removing his throat only to be met with the hard edge of his great shield.
Horn smashes the cat across the head stunning it. Roland slips quickly out of the darkness, slamming a taloned hand into the stunned Lion’s brain and killing it easily. Two additional cats claw at Horn with his heavy armor deflecting most of the strikes. His mace flashes left crushing the hip of one of the cats. Roland leaps in, raking the eyes of the last Lion attacking Horn, as the big man turns and finishes the crippled cat howling and spitting on the ground. Roland clings like a burr to the back of the blinded Lion, his talons sunk deep as anchors. He pulls one hand free and spears his talons through the back of its skull. The final Lion drops like a puppet with its strings cut.
“See, waiting to do that was a good idea right?” Horn gloats as he eases himself down onto the gory floor to catch his breath, propping his feet on the corpse of one of the Jet Lions.
“Shut up you just wanted those other hides to sell to the guild.”
“Yeah, you're not wrong.” Chuckling, Horn sucks down a potion to heal all the nicks and small wounds he incurred during the fighting.
“Okay. Let’s keep moving on. I think I see the way down over there.” Roland points to a slowly spiraling pool of inky darkness in the center of the cavern. “Hey, Horn, hold my feet and let me check it out.”
“Okay.” Horn clambers back to his feet and grabs Roland’s ankles, lifting him easily. He walks to the edge of the portal dipping Roland’s head into the spinning mess like human fondue. As Roland’s hands touch the surface, it shines with a ghostly silver light and begins to emit a powerful sucking noise. Despite Horn’s attempts to lift him back up, it begins to pull him slowly deeper and deeper. As his head enters the portal, there is a sudden burst of light and both Horn and Roland are sucked into the pool.
“Well, so much for just checking it out.” Roland says, laying on the hard dungeon floor. “Would you get off me please? You weigh a ton.” Roland wheezes.
Roland pushes Horn up as the big man struggles to his feet. Once they are both up, the two look around and take note of their new surroundings.
The walls are smooth, and the tunnel moves in a slow downward spiral deeper and deeper into the ground. Monsters are conspicuously absent as they begin their descent.
“I have a bad feeling about this.” Horn whispers softly under his breath.
“Me too.”
The tunnel gradually begins to widen and the glowing crystals dotting the walls and ceiling of the place become more numerous as the two progress.
The walls suddenly open up into a massive cavern so large that the glowing lights from the crystals do not reach into the deepest pools of darkness. At the rear of the massive cavern, two statues flank impossibly tall doors that appear to be made of solid iron. The doors and statues are wreathed in their own light, so that the eye is immediately drawn to them. One wears an expression of serenity and peace, the other an expression of rage. A stone coffer lies at the feet of each of the statues. Roland looks closely at the floor, realizing that what he took for a simple pattern on the floor is in fact a massive array of tiles and patterns arranged to form a single mosaic.
“Horn wait just…” Roland trails off as Horn steps into the mosaic covering the floor. It ignites with red and black light filling the room with an unholy glow and twisting shadows.
Roland runs to his side, talons extended, and body lowered ready to pounce on any threat.
“MORTALS MAKE YOUR CHOICE!” A booming chorus of voices fills the chamber as the two statues speak in unison their voices echoing as the two adventurers clap hands to ears.
“COMBAT OR SUBMISSION?”
“No question. We fight right? Submission sounds like a really bad idea in here.” Roland says glancing at Horn
“Yup. This dungeon must be a lot older than we thought to have already spawned a guardian beast.” Horn positions himself in front of the statues
“We choose combat.” Horn’s voice rings with passion. This is the kind of thing the man seems to thrive on. In the last week Roland has seen him smile a few times with friends but it’s nothing compared to the grin stretching across his face at right now. He swings his mace, sets his shield, and braces himself to face whatever comes.
The cavern rumbles and the great iron doors swing open slowly. Heavy footsteps sound as the beast tries to make its way free of the doors. A massive, clawed hand reaches out to grasp the heavy frame. The thick iron bends under its grip as another reaches out to join it, followed by another, and another. As it clambers through the doors, the guardian beast fully reveals itself. A colossal humanoid with four arms, a lizard’s head, and rough scales running the length of its body. Clad in nothing more than a set of golden armlets shaped like crocodiles upon its biceps and a rough loincloth. The beast’s eyes gleam ruby from beneath heavy brow ridges. Its body moves forward hunched over on one pair of arms, the other pair grasping and reaching with mammoth clawed hands. In the back, its legs are bent like a dog with muscular haunches. As it spies Roland and Horn, the thing tips back its massive head and howls. As it does, a wave of pure terror and pain leaps out from it freezing the two where they stand.
“Well, shit.” Roland says…
