A Living Dungeon

by Allan Joyal

  Lewfeld just shook his head and turned to Salene. “What do you think?” he asked.

  “We need to be careful,” she said. “The monsters here are quite happy to play hide and seek rather than stand and fight. It’s a change from Tidefall dungeon.”

  “Who cares about the stupid caves by the sea?” Mardrew asked. “It wasn’t the dungeon we are looking for.”

  “You are,” Salene said and then paused as if she decided to change what she was saying. She inhaled slowly and continued. “I’m here to explore the dungeons. I have no idea what your goal is, but we need to work together if we want to survive. Part of that is communicating what this dungeon is like.”

  “It’s a dungeon. It’s going to try to kill us,” Mardrew said.

  Koristal just shook her head and moved closer to her husband. “Let’s just continue,” she said quietly. “We don’t need to fight.”

  Salene glared at her brother and then headed into the passage to the next room.

  Faestari just watched in fascination as the family continued forward. The kobolds tried to ambush the family in the next two rooms, only to see Salene’s quick reactions result in two of their number dying. Another one was cut deeply by Koristal. The quiet woman then searched the kobold and took the creature’s pouch before quietly pulling a figurine from a pouch at her waist. It was carved out of some strange bone and looked like the upper half of an attractive woman, but from her waist down she had the body of a large coiled snake. Koristal whispered quietly. “May the power of my lady heal this cut and restore your blood. You were a worthy opponent.”

  The young woman held her hand on the kobold’s shoulder for just a moment and then pushed him into the tunnel he lay near. She returned to the group carrying a pouch that Faestari knew contained a pair of life cap mushrooms.

  Mordlew and Mardrew continued to complain and to claim every item that was found. This might have continued, but in the fifth room the kobolds cunning played out. They had held off on attacking until everyone was in the room. Once Mardrew and Mordlew joined the group, a dozen kobolds emerged from holes on the right side of the chamber. They started barking loudly, distracting everyone. Salene tried to maintain a watch on the rest of the room, but the number of the kobolds and their aggressive appearing feints forced her to stand in front of her sister. It was then that a spider came out from a hole near the entrance and struck at Mordlew’s leg.

  The patriarch screamed. Mardrew turned and with a snap of his fingers conjured a spiked stone that flew through the air and impaled the spider. Lewfeld dashed over and knelt down as their father collapsed.

  “He’s been bit!” he said. “Who’s got the antidote we brought?”

  “It’s in my pouch,” Luniri said.

  “Get it, the area around the bite is already swelling,” Lewfeld said.

  “We should call this delve done,” Salene said as she began moving towards her father. She was keeping her attention on the kobolds as she moved.

  “Why?” Mardrew asked. “The antidote will allow him to continue.”

  “We’re tired,” Salene said. “We also have a lot of treasure already. Let’s get back so your arm can be healed and we can review what we’ve found so far.”

  “But we aren’t to the dungeon heart,” Mardrew complained.

  “We’ll try again,” Salene said firmly. “We need to look into upgrading our gear. What we have isn’t enough. I’d rather we keep working through these first few rooms and gaining treasure for now than we go too deep and die.”

  “Like you know,” Mardrew said.

  “Who has more delves? Me or you?” Salene said.

  “I’m five years older,” Mardrew said. “And what magic do you know?”

  “Magic you can’t really use at the moment,” Salene said.

  “I cast the spell that killed the spider that bit Father,” Mardrew snapped back.

  “We’ll head out,” Mordlew said as he sat up. Luniri was holding a small potion vial to his lips. “Salene is right. We aren’t equipped for this kind of dungeon.”

  “You need boots,” Luniri said. “The ones you have are rotted through. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “We haven’t had much money,” Mordlew said. “Remember that we’ve been wandering for a long time.”

  “Only because Mardrew got us kicked out of the last two dungeons we visited. And I never learned what he did at Glenfrost, only that the entrance would close up whenever we approached,” Salene said.

  “Salene,” Lewfeld said.

  The kobolds started backing away. They were nearly to their holes when two members pulled out slings and immediately used them to launch two rocks. Salene caught one on her buckler, deflecting it towards the passage to the next room. Mardrew took the other on his strapped left forearm. The crack of a bone breaking was followed by another howl of pain.

  The kobolds vanished into their holes. Lewfeld looked up as Mardrew sat down on the floor. His right arm reached around to clutch his left.

  “Brother,” Lewfeld said. “I think you’ll agree that it’s time to leave.”

  Mardrew muttered somethingas Koristal searched the room. She soon found a Mush Stone. She picked the fungi and slipped it into her pouch before returning to the group. “How do we handle getting out?” she asked,

  Lewfeld stood up and then looked down at his father. “Father, can you stand and walk?”

  Mordlew stood up slowly. He limped towards the passage they used to enter the room. “Let’s go,” the man growled.

  Luniri sheathed her sword and then put her torch in her right hand. She crouched and took Mardrew’s right hand and put it over her shoulder. “This is going to hurt, but we need to get you out of here,” she said as she helped him stand. The young woman was strong and soon had Mardrew moving after Mordlew.

  Salene nodded to her brother and his wife. “I’ve got rear guard while we exit,” she said.

  “But the dungeon,” Koristal said.

  Lewfeld shook his head. “In all the dungeons Salene’s been in, only one has ever attacked a party retreating towards the entrance.”

  “And they had used magic to enter a monster lair and kill all its young,” Salene said. “That dungeon was a bit more upset than this one could be.”

  They started heading after the others. Just before they left the room, Lewfeld put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Why don’t you…”

  “I told you, My Lady warned me that should I ever heal your father or brother, I will lose my connection to her. They aren’t to know,” Koristal said.

  Lewfeld sighed. “I wish I understood.”

  Faestari found that she wanted to understand as well. However, for now the family was retreating. They had collected a surprising number of life cap mushrooms and other treasures and she was sure they would be happy once they sold their prizes. She stopped watching them and concentrated once again on her fifth floor rooms. It was time to start preparing them for occupancy.

  Chapter 17: Faestari Finds a Friend

  The fifth-floor rooms had changed quite a bit from Faestari’s original plan. She still had massive chambers in the northwest and northeastern corners of the level, but the rooms between had been enlarged as well. She also had added an underground stream. It started in the northwest room, flowing down the western wall and then becoming a babbling brook that wandered along the northern wall of the chamber. The brook flowed through six rooms on the floor, wandering from room to room as it headed east. In most rooms it hugged a wall, but one room was bisected by the stream and in the northeastern room it started along the north wall only to curve southward before turning back to the east.

  Faestari had connected this stream to the spring that was supplying the water for the campsite and future town. They had not seen the increase. Part of her worried about keeping the water flowing all year, but the secret cisterns she had placed during the winter had enough water to keep the stream flowing for over five hundred days even if she did not see rain or snow fal
l on the mountain.

  She was still seeking more creatures. She had brought down some of her giant beetles. The monstrous creatures roamed the floor, eating from forests of mushrooms that grew in the rooms away from the stream. But that still left large sections of the dungeon floor uninhabited. She had brought down plants to grow in the rooms supplied water by the stream, and then connected these rooms to sunlight with crystal veins hidden in the ceiling. But once everything was in place she decided to make some changes. In one room she started to work on the grass. Most would remain the same, but a large patch was transformed. It became carnivorous. Barbed blades would stab any soft skinned creature that walked onto this patch of grass. They would hold the victim in place as longer blades reached out to drag the creature down. The blood and flesh would nourish the grass and help it grow.

  The grass was not a potent trap, but she expected it would surprise a few people. She then used her growing mana stores to quickly induce several tree seeds to grow along the stream. These proved to be willows. Most of the trees she left alone, but she poured mana into two. These trees gained limited movement and a hunger for the flesh of formerly living beings. The hanging branches were capable of wrapping around the neck of the unsuspecting, quickly choking the victim to death, and then moving the body to the base of the trunk, where it would nourish the roots as decay set in.

  The adventurer party had left her domain, and she noted no additional attempts to climb up the path. The massive changes to the floor had exhausted most of her immediately available mana. She decided to wander out of the heart to view the new rooms she had set up.

  “I told the other dungeon that I like to see the rooms just like an adventurer might,” she told one of her stone rabbit companions as it awakened and followed her into the dungeon.

  The walk started out at a stairway. Faestari had to shake her head as she recalled an initial plan to keep the heart chamber where it was. She had finally moved it downward, deeper into the mountain. It now rested where the seventh floor would be once she got around to setting it up. She climbed up the winding spiral until she could reach the fifth floor.

  The rabbit kept up with her as she climbed the stairs. Once she was on the fifth floor it moved ahead of her. She followed it through the still mostly barren chambers as they headed to the six rooms with the underground stream.

  She had decided to start at the northwest room where the stream started. This room looked surprisingly peaceful. It was the closest to the stairway leading to the dwarven fortress, and the meadow looked like a perfect place to rest.

  It was a deceptive peacefulness. Faestari watched the ground and could see it undulate as several massive burrowing beetles moved around. The movement of the ground was very subtle, and it would likely fool a weary adventurer. She could even sense that the beetles had accepted her edict that they only emerge in this room if there was prey. They had another fungal-forested room that they could slip to under the surface and that was where they would feed most of the time.

  She moved out of the room. She had to pass through a couple of empty chambers before her route took her back to the stream. She walked through three chambers, including the one bisected by the stream. Here the carnivorous plants could be found. Faestari nodded to herself as she verified that only an unwary adventurer would be in immediate danger. The placement of the plants was just slightly off, but it should be enough to keep alert adventurers from stumbling into the reach of her lethal flora.

  The lack of enough creatures to fill the floor worried her. She continued her exploration, looking for inspiration. The emptiness of the fifth room bothered her more than she wanted to admit. By the time she entered the final room with the stream she was wondering how she could keep growing the dungeon. She wanted to make sure that no adventurer ever reached the end of the chambers.

  “After all,” she told the stone rabbit with her. “If they never reach the end, they can’t demand too much treasure. Not if there is a small gift in every room.”

  Faestari walked over to the stream in the final room. She had molded the stone so there were several stones crossing the stream. She crossed and then moved to sit near a normal willow tree. Some of the branches of this willow were touching the flowing water.

  Faestari was sitting on a rock next to the stream. She reached out to touch the water and was shocked when some of the water started flowing upward. It formed into the shape of a humanoid female. The water woman just sat there for a moment and then the hands of this being touched the stone just downstream of Faestari.

  The water seemed to rise up more. At the same time the water changed color, seemingly becoming solid. When the hands released the stone, instead of a woman made of water, a blue haired human woman who appeared to have just finished reaching adulthood sat on the rock.

  “Who are you?” Faestari asked.

  “Who are you?” the woman asked in return. “When I felt the call, there were no humanoids on this level.”

  Faestari shrugged. “There are none, unless you are one,” she said. “But I ask again, who are you? How did you enter here?”

  The woman pointed at the flowing water. “I can go anywhere there is running water. And I’m not the only one considering coming. This dungeon feels rich with mana, and it is rare to find one with running water so far from the ocean. I can see that I’ll have great fun here.”

  “Fun?” Faestari asked.

  “What? You think guarding a dungeon is all work? What are you?” the woman asked.

  Faestari sighed. “You know I could banish you if you fail to show respect.”

  “You’re the dungeon?” the woman said. Her hands turned into water as she brought them to her lips.

  Faestari looked at the woman’s arms as they seemed to dissolve. “You’re some kind of water spirit?”

  The woman stopped dissolving. She looked at the flowing water for a long moment. “I can’t believe I did that. I finally find a dungeon with a chamber perfect for me and I manage to insult it. What do I do now?”

  “You start by giving me your name,” Faestari said firmly.

  “Aylia,” the woman said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I mean; I’ve never heard of a dungeon that uses an avatar of a little girl. How old are you?”

  Faestari sighed and looked out over the water. “I don’t know. I lived with my mother and father for ten years. The problem was that the ten years ended suddenly. My mother pulled a gemstone from a pouch. I had never seen the stone, but the next thing I knew my body had turned into smoke and I was being absorbed by the gemstone. Sometime later I woke as if from a long slumber. My body exited the gemstone in an empty cavern within this mountain. That was when I learned that I was some kind of dungeon soul.”

  Aylia looked surprised. “Why haven’t you changed? How long have you been aware since you emerged from the gemstone?”

  “It’s been less than two years,” Faestari said. “At least I think it has. Since I started paying attention to the weather on the mountain there have been two winters.”

  “And yet you still have that body?” Aylia asked.

  Faestari looked down at her body. It was still that of a child. She looked at the water and shrugged. “I guess I could make it age, but it hasn’t mattered. I have no one to talk to and spend most of my time in my home chamber.”

  Aylia closed her eyes. “Oh, is it the one with the pool down below us? I can see the meadow and four more stone rabbits like the one waiting for you across the stream.”

  Faestari looked at the stone rabbit that had been holding vigil in the main section of the room since you had to cross the stream to sit under the willow. “Yes,” she said. “The rabbits were created by my mother, at least I think she did it. She was a dungeon soul.”

  “How?” Aylia started to ask.

  Faestari sighed. “I don’t know. She left me a letter, but it said little. I think she was rushed and had hoped to tell me more once I was a bit older. I do know both she and my father loved me.”

/>   Aylia looked uncomfortable. “I don’t even know if I have parents. My people don’t exactly socialize even among our own kind.”

  Faestari nodded. “Well, if you can see that pool, I guess you can visit when there are no adventurers in the dungeon. I actually try to avoid wandering too much. Some of the adventurers appear to be allied with wizards who wish to capture me.”

  Aylia shivered. “I’ve been enslaved magically in the past. That was not a pleasant experience.”

  “How old are you?” Faestari asked.

  “I reached this level of awareness over a hundred years ago,” Aylia said. “I’m not sure how long it took to reach this state. But I spent over twenty years serving a cruel master. That’s one reason I was looking for a dungeon like this. The mana here prevents a wizard’s call from reaching me.”

  “And you claim you can defend this room?” Faestari asked.

  Aylia laughed. “I know I can. I can even show you, if that body can’t drown.”

  Faestari blushed. “I haven’t needed to eat, sleep or breathe for over a year. I do eat at times. There are a few fruit trees up on the fourth level of the dungeon as well as two in the chamber where my body usually rests. Why?”

  Aylia looked at Faestari. “Because I can show you what I will do to the unwary adventurer. Especially a male one who only notices what I look like.”

  Aylia jumped back into the water. Her legs seemed to vanish, but her torso and head remained human looking. The strange water woman turned to Faestari. In a sudden lunge she grabbed the young girl by the shoulders and tossed her into the stream. Her hands pushed Faestari’s head under the surface of the water.

  Faestari could feel the hands on her chest, although she could no longer see them. They held her against the streambed as the water rushed by. If she needed to breathe she would have quickly perished. She nodded after a moment and the pressure let up. The same hands that had held her down lifted her to the surface and then helped her climb back onto the rock where she had been sitting.