Saturday, 19 March 2022

4 Yarthmont - It's the pits

 Having caught his breath, Broneslav left the storeroom and followed the corridor south. Halfway down, he found a branching corridor. At its end was a room with bunk beds in, clearly someone's quarters. It was empty, so he carried on. The corridor turned eastwards and shortly came to a crossroads. Broneslav decided to check left first. As he stepped into the junction, the floor gave out from under him and he plunged 10 feet into a pit filled with spikes. Twisting to try to avoid the spikes, he still hit the ground hard (2 DAM). He cursed. Getting to his feet, he leapt as high as he could and tried to grab the edge of the pit. His powerful legs drove him upwards and his fingers closed on the lip of the pit. Scrabbling for purchase with his feet and drawing himself up slowly with his arms, he managed to roll out of the pit, effectively if not elegantly.

He continued northwards as he had originally intended. The door at the end of this corridor opened into the large chapel, so he returned to the pit and turned left, leaping easily over the corner of the pit now that he knew it was there. The corridor ended in a T-junction. Left led to the secret door that still stood ajar. Right led to a door. The room revealed by opening the door seemed oddly damp and appeared to shimmer slightly, as if seen through water. The room itself contained nothing of interest: a bed, some chairs and a table. Suddenly the room seemed to move towards Broneslav. He ducked as a clear, jelly-like pseudopod slapped the air where his head had been and backed up fast. A huge cube of translucent gelatinous material was oozing slowly towards him.

Seeing no reason to fight this thing for the rewards this room almost certainly did not contain, Broneslav backed up faster and headed towards the pit. If the creature did catch up with him fast enough to attack, he reasoned that it would struggle to cross the pit. His route then took him back to the consultation room.

Puzzled, Broneslav looked around. The place looked like there had been a fight and there were bodies on the floor, but he had no recollection of creating those bodies. Was someone else here? This thought worried him. Carefully, he searched the room in case they had not been as thorough as he was wont to be. He was rewarded by finding 3 gems which he immediately pocketed.

In the next room, he saw that the door on the other side was wedged open. He moved quickly through this room to investigate what lay beyond. His newly found potential adversary must have wedged the door open, but he had no clue why or who they were. In the next room, he found the bodies of two large snakes. The human body that lay in this room had not been looted, and Broneslav pocketed the necklace around her neck. He wondered if this was his mysterious adversary. Had she fought and defeated the snakes but succumbed to her wounds?

He recognised the next room. This was where his last memories before coming to surrounded by bodies were from. He remembered feeling like he had been struck when he picked up the white cloak he was now wearing. He was astounded to find all his possessions here too. Gratefully, he shrugged into his pack and belted his sword at his side once more. The mace was relegated to his pack too, having done its duty.

He searched the room in case he had missed something. He found a secret door. Beyond it was a small room with a tapestry on the wall and a large treasure chest. Nice. He moved to the chest to check it. Suddenly the tapestry lashed out at him (2 DAM). He fell backwards in the face of this attack but rallied himself quickly. His sword flashed and pieces of 'tapestry' fell to the floor. Undeterred, it lashed out at him again (1 DAM). Once more his sword lashed out and more of the creature fell unmoving to the floor but it cut slices from his arm just the same (2 DAM). Desperately, Broneslav sliced again at the creature but it still seemed tattered but undeterred and cut him again (3 DAM). Broneslav's wounds were bleeding freely. He knew he could not take much more. He gritted his teeth and focused a mighty blow at the creature ... and missed. But the follow up backslash tore it in two. The whole thing fluttered to the floor oozing black ichor.

He fell to his knees and gulped in huge breaths until he had recovered enough to bandage his wounds. Then he shifted the creature's body where it had fallen on the chest, and examined the wooden box before discovering that it was unlocked. Clearly the creature had been the primary defence for the treasure within. This treasure comprised a large number of gold coins and a full potion bottle. He recognised the potion as being a Potion of Invisibility like the one he already had. He filled his pack and returned to Auriga on the level above.

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