Dungeon Mauling

by Eric Ugland

  I made a mental note to talk to Nikolai about the 53 points. Maybe he’d have a better idea of how I should work them, other than just dropping more in strength to see how far I could take it. Although, if I put everything into strength, that’d pop it up above 100. And that was really intriguing.

  I pulled up my character sheet to look over things. It was getting so long it was unwieldily, so I fiddled with it until I only saw the things I actually cared about.

  Montana - Lvl 23 Warrior

  Traits

  Race: Royal Fallen

  — Minimized —

  Statistics

  HP: 429

  Active Effects: Frightful Presence

  — Minimized —

  Attributes

  Strength: 71

  Agility: 31

  Dexterity: 30

  Constitution: 53

  Wisdom: 24

  Intelligence: 19

  Charisma: 31

  Luck: 30

  Unassigned points: 53

  Skills

  — Minimized —

  Abilities

  Darkvision

  The Sword of My Enemy is My Sword

  Iron Will

  Make An Entrance

  Stand Tall

  Regal Bearing

  Rallying Cry

  Art of Movement - You are able to move freely regardless of terrain, traps, or spells.

  Labyrinthine Recall - you have perfect recall of any path you have taken.

  Detect Mimic - you are able to detect if any object is a mimic from a distance of 20 feet.

  Indomitable - you are immune to fear causing effects.

  Swift Tracker - you may run at full speed while tracking.

  Veritasium - once per day you may ask any question and receive a fully truthful answer.

  Detect Metals and Minerals - when concentrating on a sample, you may detect a minimum of 10 pounds of a metal or mineral within 500 yards of you.

  Tremorsense - you are sensitive to vibrations around you, and can automatically pinpoint the location of anything that is in contact with the ground or any structure you are touching. Limited to 200 feet.

  Boons

  Powerful Build (Mister Paul) - You are bigger than you look. For all strength roles, you are counted as one size category larger than you actually are.

  Regeneration (Mister Paul) - Outside of combat, your body will repair rather quickly. Given enough time, it’s possible you will heal from nearly any wound.

  Gift of Gab (Mister Paul) - Should you encounter a language you do not understand, as long as you hear at least three words of it, you will understand it, and speak it, perfectly.

  Monstrous Companion (Typhon) - You have been gifted a companion from the god Typhon. Your companion is immortal, though if reduced to 0 HP, he will be forced to return in a different form, chosen at the whim of Typhon. You may absorb your companion for a temporary boost to your abilities, but the boost will only last until Typhon sends another companion your way.

  Indicium

  Coggeshall Heraldic Achievement (incomplete - Family Crest) - You are granted permission to enter family buildings, granted permission to access family funds, and granted permission to use the family name.

  Eona’s Blessing of the Spear - Eona blesses you with +10 spear, +7 swimming, +5 fishing, +10% movement in water, +3 Agility

  Indicium of Imperial Prerogative: Magic - You are permitted to perform magic within the Empire of Glaton

  Royal - You are identified as being of Royal Blood, and gain the abilities Stand Tall and Regal Bearing

  Dungeon of the Ancients Indicium - You gain the following skills and/or abilities: Art of Movement, Labyrinthine Recall, Detect Mimic 20 ft, Indomitable, Detect Traps +45 levels, Swift Tracker, Veritasium, and Endure Destruction.

  Slayer - As a living embodiment of death, know that you cause Frightful Presence. Your enemies now have a chance to be frightened when they are aware of you.

  Typhon’s Mark of the Beast - Typhon blesses you with +10 intimidation, tremorsense, labyrinthine recall, and +5 Strength.

  Titles

  Imperial Duke of Coggeshall

  — Minimized —

  Relationships

  — Minimized —

  Languages

  — Minimized —

  Spells

  — Minimized —

  It looked good. Did it look like an Imperial Duke? Maybe. But I figured it looked like someone who was ready to build a holding for a group of people. I was finally starting to think I could actually do this, that I could keep people safe and give them a home.

  Someone was coming up behind me — I could sense the vibrations of their feet on the brick. It was super weird, and immediately I knew I needed time to get used to this new ability. It could be massively helpful, but only if I harnessed its powers. I figured it was Nikolai, coming to give me shit about something I’d forgotten to do, or — and this was definitely a stretch — to thank me for saving his life.

  “Hey,” I said, starting to turn around.

  It was Donner.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “I wanted to take a moment and thank you for rescuing me.”

  “Totally welcome,” I said with a smile. I looked over his shoulder and noticed that no one else was there. No one was around at all. Weird. “Where’d the others go?”

  “Skeld, I believe, mentioned there was a hotel where you have rooms. Safety.”

  “Oh. Yeah, that’s true.”

  “He said he would lead the others there, that you would meet us there. I said I would make sure you were safe, as I wanted to thank you before anything else happened. Needed to thank you.”

  “That’s very nice of you.”

  He nodded, smiled a weird little smile.

  “I was locked down there for so long. I feared I would never see the sky again.”

  “Yeah,” I said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable about this whole thing, “glad I could help.”

  “I was thinking maybe I could show you something.”

  “I mean, I’m pretty gross. And tired. I was thinking more a bath and a bed—”

  “I know of a bath house. A bathhouse was exactly what I was going to show you. It is a truly luxurious experience — at least it was. A— my uncle runs it. He will be overjoyed to see me, and he will want to thank you. Provided, well,” he paused for a moment and turned away from me, “provided he is still alive.”

  “Uh, sure,” I said. The guy was just trying to say thank you, and I figured, maybe if I let him, he’d chill out a bit. Besides, if there was one lesson I’d learned from Cleeve and Nikolai, it was that I needed to allow people to thank me. To provide the gifts they had promised for their quests. “Lead on.”

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Donner’s uncle’s bathhouse didn’t look like a bathhouse from the outside. I mean, I didn’t really know what a bathhouse would look like, but I imagined it’d have some sort of signage. Something indicating a business down the dark alley and behind an unmarked heavy oaken door. Instead, nothing but a growing creep factor. We walked down a dark alley, in between tall industrial buildings, until we got to an otherwise unremarkable door.

  Donner pounded on it. Then he looked at me, and gave me that same weird little smile, the one I’d been taking to mean he was enjoying showing me gratitude.

  When the door opened up, steam came out in voluminous clouds. A large man stood there, silhouetted by a blueish light coming from behind.

  “By gods,” the man said, bringing a lantern out and holding it above Donner’s head. “Donner!”

  Donner grinned and nodded.

  “I never thought to see you again,” the man said.

  “It is all thanks to this man here,” Donner said, pointing to me.

  The man nodded deeply to me. I could see him better in the lantern light. He was a large human with a big bald head somehow accentuating his oversized features. Wide eyes, massive nose, ears like an elephant. His
arms were huge, and he had little in the way of a neck. Like Donner, he was built. Family resemblance, I supposed.

  “I brought him to meet my uncle.”

  The man smiled. “He will be pleased.”

  So it wasn’t family resemblance, as this dude wasn’t Donner’s uncle.

  “Maybe a bath first?” Donner asked.

  “But of course,” the man said to Donner.

  I noticed no one bothered to ask me anything.

  The man gestured for us both to enter.

  The foyer of the place was tight and dark. Heavy curtains hung along all three walls.

  As he passed me, Donner said, “Go with my friend. He will take care of you. I must speak to my uncle.”

  Seeming like he knew where he was going, Donner slipped behind curtains and disappeared.

  The man smiled at me.

  “I am Mason Crogan,” the man said with a slight bow. “I am one of the chief firemen here at the bathhouse. If you will.”

  He started walking towards the far set of curtains, and I followed. As we passed through the heavy drapes, we went into in a small wooden hallway. Floors, ceiling, walls, all wood. We passed a number of doors until we got to the one he was apparently looking for. He pushed it open to reveal a small room with another door.

  “Please undress to your level of comfort here,” he said, “and when you are ready, please proceed through the door there. Inside, rinse yourself with the water in the corner, then, when you are in the hot water, your attendants will enter.”

  “Okay,” I said, smiling. I felt a little weird about the whole thing, but did my best to allow myself to be pampered.

  “Should you wish us to launder any of your things?”

  I looked down at what I was wearing. Eona’s seal pants, a grubby undershirt, some rank underwear, and some broken chainmail.

  “I think I’m fine,” I said.

  He raised an eyebrow, but nodded, then backed out of the room.

  Alone, I stripped down, putting everything of mine inside the bag of holding. Then I stood there. Holding the bag of holding. The knapsack. The Unfillable Knapsack. I didn’t have a place to put it, and I especially wasn’t comfortable leaving it just sitting on the bench. It had the treasures of a kingdom inside. Above, there was a big beam across the ceiling. With a little jumping and parkour, I grabbed the beam, and pulled myself up. The top had a thick layer of dust, and I set the bag down as careful as I could, making sure there was no way to see it from down below.

  Then I dropped down, wiped my hands on my naked body, then pushed through the other door.

  Despite torches around the edges of the room, it was darker than I expected. Coupled with a massive amount of steam, enough that I couldn’t really tell where the steam came from, the bathing room was equal parts comfy and creepy. The place smelled fantastic, a mix of hot cedar and essential oils. Water burbled, and in the center of the room, flush with the floor, there was a pool. I pushed into dark vision, and looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary. Three steps at one end of the bath, and a small bench at the other. It looked deep, enough for me to be fully submerged standing on the bottom and have just my neck and head above water if I chose to sit on the bench. I looked behind me and found the rinsing station: a bucket with a ladle sitting in front of a stool tucked in the corner.

  I sat on the stool, then poured water over my face and head a few times. It was cold, and it definitely woke me up. There was a brush inside the bucket, and I used it to scrub my arms, my neck, my shoulders, trying to get all the places where blood had been. I didn’t think I was scrubbing my skin off, but I was definitely doing more exfoliation than I had in a while.

  Finally feeling truly clean, I walked to the center of the room, down the stairs, and into the water. It was hot. Not painfully hot, but hot enough that I couldn’t help but sighing. It felt amazing. It felt better than almost anything I’d experienced the entire time I’d been Vuldranni. I made an oath that my settlement would have a bathhouse like this one, that I could forgo most of the luxuries a noble might want or need, but this, this was something I would fight to keep.

  A moment later, a door opened, some light bloomed in, and two figures walked into the bath room. In the dim light, I could barely see them. Switching into dark vision, I could see that they were young women wearing thin robes carrying baskets. One of them grabbed some flower petals from her basket and tossed them into the hot water. A delightful scent filled the air.

  I felt all the stress and pain of the past few days leaving my body, and it it was glorious. I leaned back, let my head fall against the wood planks behind me. I closed my eyes, and I let everything just sort of drift away.

  Which might be why I didn’t notice the dagger before it plunged into my chest.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Pain erupted from my chest.

  My eyes popped open.

  All I saw was black.

  I pushed into dark vision immediately.

  Blackness.

  Nothing.

  I swung my arms, touching the side of the bath, knocking over a basket, but touching no one.

  Panic rose.

  I could feel the dagger sticking out of my chest, my heart thudding and the dagger moving with each beat. My blood seeped out around the blade, and I could feel more blood waiting to come out if the dagger was pulled. I took several deep breathes, calming myself, then I got out of the bath, and stepped onto the wood.

  Giggles.

  Feet moving, someone running.

  My ears were straining, and they weren’t doing the job I need them to do because I heard someone approaching me, but I couldn’t figure out which way they were coming from until they dragged a blade across my legs, slicing into my hamstrings.

  “Fuck,” I shouted.

  I tested my legs. Still functioning. Painful, but working.

  My assailants giggled again.

  Giggling while they tried to kill me. That made me angry. Really angry. And I relished that rage, because rage had always been my friend in nasty situations.

  I think it might have been rage which forced my brain to finally turn on and remind me that even without dark vision, I had a few things going for me. Notably, tremorsense. A quick mental push, and I could tell exactly where the two little assholes were. One of them was on the other side of the pool, her heart beating fast. Excitement. The other was directly to my right, taking very soft steps. I could also sense someone in the room next to mine, resting in a pool. And an additional someone in another room next to mine. Six people below. The more I just let my sense extend, the more I could feel in the building.

  One of the girls snuck towards me, ready to make another pass with her blade. I could feel more pressure from her steps, so I guessed she was going low.

  Step.

  Step.

  Step.

  Then she sprang, ran two steps, and swiped.

  But I wasn’t there.

  I jumped back, and she sliced the air while I grabbed her head.

  She was small enough that I could palm her, and I grabbed her skull as hard as I could. And, with very little remorse, I picked her up in the air, ignored her screaming, and I slammed her into the wooden floor.

  I cracked the board she hit.

  She wasn’t giggling. She was, in fact, quite still. Her heart still beat, I could feel the tremors from that, but no other movement came from her.

  There was a gasp from the other asshole in the room with me.

  I reached down, and I felt the ground until I found the blade the girl had sliced me with. It was something along the lines of a tanto. Just to be sure, I fired off my little spell and it confirmed it. A straight blade meant for slashing not stabbing.

  “You will regret your actions,” a small voice said.

  “Won’t be the first time,” I replied.

  She was moving. Stepping foot over foot, making a slow circle around the bath.

  I purposefully moved like I was reaching out and around, tryin
g to feel around for where I was going and whomever might be around me.

  The girl seemed to buy it, and I could feel her heart-rate rise. I was impressed with the sensitivity of my abilities, but I wasn’t in the type of position where I could question or experiment. I just had to roll with it and wait for my next chance to strike.

  Of course, I didn’t exactly have that much time to play with, since the dagger in my chest was doing some real solid work dropping my HP. Its bleed damage was out of control. Even though I had some serious HP, I could almost watch the red bar representing my health drop each time I took a breath.

  I felt the girl’s knee brush against the ground.

  Then she leapt.

  I turned, grabbed her, and rolled, kicking out with my feet as my back hit the ground. She soared over the bath and crashed into the ground. I finished the back roll before leaping across the bath, coming to a sliding stop next to her.

  She was picking herself up off the ground when I picked her up by the neck. With my other hand, I squeezed her forearm until I heard a snap. She dropped her dagger.

  “What are you doing?” I asked her.

  “Mistake,” she wheezed out.

  “Yes,” I said. “It was.”

  “No,” she said. “You.”

  “Uh huh.”

  I held her up in the air with one hand while she struggled, and tore the dagger out of my chest with the other like it wasn’t a big deal. I tossed the tanto over my shoulder right into the bath.

  She tried to talk, but I crushed her neck just a little bit. She had both hands around my wrist, one of hers completely ruined, and was trying to pull herself up.

  I let her wiggle back and forth, and I, in essence relaxed.

  And the game seemed to think combat was over. At least for the moment. Because my wounds started to heal right back up. While waiting to regenerate enough to feel comfortable, I reached out with my tremorsense to see if anyone had moved. I had no illusions about these girls working on their own. Someone was casting a spell to make the darkness around me complete. And now that I had a moment to concentrate, I could tell that someone was chanting in the room next to mine.