The others rushed to kneel beside her, looking for injuries. Mace checked her status on his UI. She wasn’t losing health, and there was no poison or bleed debuff.
The pain seemed to fade after half a minute or so and the halfling straightened out, breathing hard.
“What the hell?” she gasped. “That hurt! Was one of those items cursed?”
Mace turned to the pile of loot. There was a complete set of armor laying there in pieces, along with a longsword. All of them glowed in the light of the globe above them. There was also a small chest that looked to be made of mithril, with two locked latches holding it shut.
Next to it sat a bag with contents unknown. Mace tried to use his Identify skill on the armor, but other than the name he only got back question marks.
Armor of the Peacemaker
Quality: ??
He got even less for the sword, not even being able to see the name. Lila, now back on her feet, stepped forward to take up the bag and open it. Mace noticed she was walking funny. “You okay?”
She poured some of the contents of the bag into her hand. “Emeralds. Rubies. Of course I’m okay. Just, my boots are a little tight. Must have shrunk in the water.”
She grinned at him, holding out her hand to show him the gems. When she did, he noticed that her sleeve was bunched up on her forearm. Looking down, he saw that her leather pants now barely reached the tops of her boots. And her shirt looked uncomfortably tight, clinging to bits of her that he tried not to notice.
Shari seemed to have noticed as well. “Lila, sweetie. When you level up, do you normally grow taller?”
Lila looked at her, confused.
“Was that a short joke? I’m a full-grown halfling!” she protested. Her size was a sensitive issue with her.
Shari held up her hands. “No, no! No joke. It’s just… you seem to have outgrown your clothes.”
She motioned for Lila to look at herself. The little halfling looked down, then stretched out her arm and examined it.
“I’m… I’m taller!” Her voice sounded panicked. “Why am I taller?”
Her eyes went vacant as she was clearly pulling up her character stats. “My… my Agility has increased. And my Strength,” she mumbled.
Layne was looking at the pile of loot suspiciously now. She pulled out her lute and began a soft melody, accompanied by almost whispered words. A moment later, she shook her head. “There are no curses on any of these items.”
Shari was walking toward the pond. Looking down at the water, she asked, “Lila, did you swallow any of this water?”
The rogue shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe? It took me a while to swim to the bottom and gather up all this stuff.”
Shari looked back at the group.
“The giant mole. The giant ants. I think this water is what mutated them.” she said, making Lila gasp, her eyes widening in fear. She began to cough and frantically wipe at her still wet clothes and skin.
“Get it off me! I don’t want to be a mutant!” she cried. She stuck a finger down her throat, attempting to clear her stomach of the water. Layne rushed over and hugged her, using soothing words to calm her panic.
“Hush, little one. You are no mutant. Mutated in this case just means altered. And you have been altered. But no harm has come to you as far as I can see. You’re just a few inches taller, stronger, and faster.” She patted Lila’s head as she continued to hold her tight. After a moment, Lila stopped struggling. She voiced a question, but the sound was muffled as her head was buried in Layne’s chest. The elf released her.
“Really? And I’m going to stay this way?” She held her arms out and spun around slowly.
She started to ask another question but was interrupted by a shout from Brahm. The whole group turned to see him drop his axe and leap out into the pond, landing with a big splash and creating a wave nearly as large as the one made by the stalactite.
A moment later he stood, scooping some of the water into his hands and drinking deeply. Seeing the others watching him, he said, “What? Increased size and strength? Who would not wish this?”
He walked out of the pond and stood among his friends, waiting. Sure enough, a moment later he grunted in pain and bent over double. His legs weakened and he went down on one knee, using a hand on the ground to balance himself. He growled through the pain, his eyes watering and the color draining from face.
When the pain faded, he stood unsteadily and began to examine himself. His armor was nearly bursting trying to contain his body.
He shifted a bit, trying to get comfortable, then he too zoned out to inspect his character sheet. “Strength increase of 10% Stamina too.”
He flexed his arms and the leather vest that he used as padding for his armor ripped apart at the seams.
“This water is most beneficial. Let us see if it has limits.” He turned and dove back into the water.
No longer able to resist, Snuffles charged into the pond after him, squealing happily. Mion took to the air and circled the water as Snuffles splashed around. With a dragony grin on her snout, she shot a tiny lightning bolt at the pig, with a small fraction of the normal power behind it. The bolt struck Snuffles in the rear and he leapt out of the water, squealing. He gave Mion a dirty look as he moved to hide behind Shari.
The dragon looked remorseless as she landed on Brahm’s shoulder and licked some of the moisture from his face, surprising him. Realizing what she’d just done, he held out both his hands.
“Come, little one, sit here until the pain subsides.” Mion hopped down into his cupped hands and chirped happily at him. A moment later the pain struck, and she whimpered as she curled up in a ball.
The giant minotaur hugged her to his chest gently, speaking softly to her as she suffered. When it was all through and she was able to stand again, he stepped toward Shari and placed the little dragon gently on her shoulder. Mion wrapped her tail around Shari’s neck and closed her eyes.
As Mion had gone through her transformation, so too had Snuffles. Only he was much louder about it. When the pain struck, he squealed and collapsed on his side. Rolling on to his back with his legs flailing, he grunted in pain and squealed in misery.
Shari tried to comfort him, rubbing his belly and scratching his head, but took a hoof to the face as he thrashed about. She tried casting Life of the Forest at him but it had no effect. And though Snuffles was a good bit taller when it was over, with freshly sprouted tusks about two inches long, Mion didn’t look to have increased in size at all.
Mace didn’t think the middle of a dungeon was the best place to investigate. Instead he said, “Shari, do you want to take some of that water with us? If it has the properties it seems to, it would be worth quite a bit. And it could make all of our allies stronger.”
Shari nodded. She moved to the pond and removed several flasks, which she began to fill with the clear water.
“Bah!” Brahm produced a minotaur-sized keg from his bag. He took a long drink, then offered some to the others. “Ale,” was all he said.
When the others declined, he took another drink, then poured the rest into the stream. When the keg was empty, he submerged it in the pond, filling the twenty-gallon container with the enchanted water.
Mace went to the edge and dipped his hands into the water, taking a drink himself. No way as a player he’d pass up such a huge - and seemingly permanent - buff. Shari followed his lead and gulped down one of her vials before refilling it. Layne took one for herself and drank as well.
The three of them quickly sat, anticipating the transformation to come. It didn’t disappoint. Shari whimpered and curled up, much as Lila had. Mace ground his teeth and growled through the pain, while Layne seemed to just accept it with a stoic expression. Though Mace noticed that her skin grew quite pale.
When it was over, Mace felt Minx return to his shoulder and wrap her tail around his neck. She became visible, looking at him with her oversized eyes. He asked, “You want some too, little Minxy?” She shook her head and
leaned back from him as if he were crazy. He chuckled “It’s okay, you’re perfect just as you are. Can’t have you getting too big to ride my shoulder, can we?”
She purred at the compliment, settling in and closing her eyes. He took a look at his stat sheet to see what he’d gained.
Character Name: Mace
Class: Sorcerer
Level: 41
Race: Drow
Spec: Darkblade
Exp: 7350/12,000
Health: 5500/5500
Mana: 1200/1200
Attribute Pts Avail: 2
Stamina: 16
Wisdom: 22
Charisma: 11
Life Regen: 20/sec
Strength: 16
Intellect: 24
Dexterity: 11
Mana Regen: 5/sec
Agility: 13
Luck: 11
Armor: 85
Skill Pts Avail: 0
He’d picked up a couple points each in Strength and Agility and his Health Regen had increased. Plus, he felt both taller and stronger. A quick check of his armor didn’t show a difference, but that made sense. Player armor adjusted automatically to fit. Mace bagged all the loot in his new ring and they made one last search of the cavern.
Lila found an exit, a small crevice in the wall near the waterfall. As they didn’t have a good way to climb back up to their ledge, Mace told Lila to lead the way.
Brahm had to force himself sideways through the opening and Snuffles was now too wide to get through without help, but once they were past the first couple feet of stone the crevice opened up and was maybe six feet wide.
Mace called down his light globe and set it ahead of them. Almost immediately, the crevice came to an end at a blank wall. There was no way forward, so Mace and Lila began to search the walls for other openings or hidden doors. Finding none, Layne suggested they climb.
Chapter 6
Arrow to the Knee
Shari looked at the walls on either side of them. They were nearly smooth, with just a few jagged cracks here and there. Shifting her gaze to Layne, she said “I don’t think I can climb that.”
Layne just smiled. “If you had completed your ranger training at the city, this would be easy for you.” She led them back to where they had entered the crevice. Right before it reached its narrowest point, she turned and faced them. Shifting to a wide-footed stance, she pressed her hands out against the walls on either side.
Supporting her weight with her hands, she lifted both feet, placing them against the wall. When they were secured, she pushed with her legs and straightened her body. Once more, she used her hands to press against the walls and support her weight as she lifted her legs. In this manner, she spidered her way up the crevice.
It was slow, and the elf was beginning to tire when she reached an opening about three stories up. Skillfully pushing off on the opposite wall, she rolled herself into the opening. A moment later, a rope came tumbling down.
Brahm took hold of the rope first. “There may be enemies above,” was all he said before using his newfound strength to pull himself upward. He barely used his feet as he made the climb.
When he reached the top, he called down, “Lila, tie the rope around yourself, I’ll lift you.”
The halfling did as instructed, and when she called out that she was ready she was practically launched upward. She giggled as the minotaur hauled the rope hand over hand with ease.
Shari went up next the same way, followed by Snuffles. Mace declined the rope and scampered up the same way Layne had.
The opening turned out to be a hole in the wall of a tunnel that extended off to their left and right. Mace activated his stealth and went left first.
He’d only been walking about a minute when he spotted the wall of ice he’d put up earlier. So, this was the right-hand tunnel they hadn’t explored yet. He returned to the others to let them know what he’d found before they all continued down the tunnel. Mace had left the light globe behind, but he called up a new one and sent it forward. As they made their way along the corridor it began to slope downward. Eventually it ended in a medium-sized room, maybe fifteen yards wide and about the same length. There were three doors in the walls opposite, left, and right of them. In the center of the room was a wide stone column that stretched from floor to ceiling. It looked as if the room had actually been carved around the column itself.
Getting closer, the party could see engravings carved into the stone. The artistic quality was stunning. There were mostly images of dwarves going about daily tasks. Smithing, brewing, mining and the like. Some of the images depicted battles, and the carvings circled all the way around the column, telling a tale as they progressed around.
The greatest of them, taking up the entire top third of the column all the way around, was a story about a dragon attacking a dwarven citadel built into a solitary mountain that overlooked a wide lake. There were scenes of fire and death as the dwarves tried in vain to defend their home and were slaughtered or driven out. While the locals in the group stared in wonder at the story, Mace and Shari grinned at each other. This was a tale known to every gamer and lover of fantasy since the mid-twentieth century.
As the others continued to admire the carvings, Mace moved toward the left-hand door. He quickly checked for traps, and found none. With a discreet whisper, he got the attention of the others, and they watched as he opened the door partway and peered through. When nothing jumped to attack him, he opened it the rest of the way and sent the light globe in.
It was a room with several short beds made of stone in rows along opposite walls. At the foot of each bed was a stone locker. There were empty weapon racks at both ends of the room and a small screened area in the back. The hole in the floor there suggested that it was the privy.
Finding no monsters, the group quickly checked the lockers for any interesting loot. They were mostly empty, though some contained coins or weapons made of dwarven steel. Lila pulled a mithril dagger from one, hugging it like it was a long-lost sibling. In her tiny hands it looked more like a short sword, but she fastened the sheath to her belt at the small of her back and practiced drawing it a few times. If it had glowed, Mace would have insisted she name it ‘Sting.’
Moving on, they returned to the hub chamber and Mace checked the next door. This one led to a stairwell leading down. Brahm spoke before Mace had the chance.
“Let us check the final door before we proceed to the lower level.”
This door was not only trapped, but locked. The trap was a combination of magical and mundane. The magic portion was an alarm that would sound if the door was opened, while the mundane physical trap was set to expel a cloud of poison gas.
Mace disabled first the gas, then the alarm. After checking carefully for more traps, he opened the door.
It opened into a nightmare. There were pieces of bodies everywhere. Some on shelves in jars, some on hooks hanging from the ceiling. Animals and sentient beings alike. There was the head of a dwarf sitting on a workbench, its eyes open and moving.
When it spotted the intruders, it let out a long moaning cry. This triggered movement in nearly every other limb in the room. Arms twitched. A severed hand stuck on spike began to thrash, trying to free itself. Even the solitary organs in the jars began to throb in their liquid prisons.
“Necromancy.” Mace spit on the floor. “This is a necromancer’s workshop. Let’s burn it to the ground.”
Brahm agreed whole-heartedly. He stepped forward and shoved a bookcase full of squirming body parts. The case tipped over into another, and both fell with a crash of heavy wood and breaking glass. Immediately, some of the freed organs began to hop or slither toward the group.
Mace put his hands out. “Infier!” and blasted the area with fire. Whatever chemical was used to store the items in the jars was apparently flammable, and extremely so. The air was sucked from the room and then blasted outward as a giant fireball engulfed them all.
All but Brahm were thrown back out the doorway.
The poor minotaur was heavy enough that he remained and took severe burn damage. He stumbled blindly out the doorway as Shari called out to him, then collapsed. She, Mion and Layne all began to heal him nonstop.
The burn damage had caused bleeding, and his health bar fluctuated up and down. Mace took out a health potion and poured it over the minotaur’s exposed skin. He was burned everywhere that wasn’t covered in armor.
After half a minute, the heals had repaired most of the damage. Brahm sat up and shook his head. “That was… unpleasant.”
Shari snorted. Lila rolled her eyes, then grinned at the big tank. “Did you know fried minotaur smells just like roast pork?” He took a half-hearted swing at her as she danced away giggling.
When the acrid smoke cleared, they looked back into the room. Nothing organic had survived the fire. The body parts were all burned to a crisp, while the wooden shelves and workstations were charred but still whole.
The group began to poke around, looking for hidden doors or secret caches of loot. Lila found a hidden compartment behind the door, and it opened to reveal a stash of vials containing potions none of them could identify. Shari put them in her bag, intending to investigate them later.
Finding nothing further, they exited the room and closed the door behind them. It was time to go downstairs. Mace took the lead to look for traps but didn’t bother to use stealth. After that explosion in the lab, he was sure anything down here was aware of their presence.
He found a pressure plate about halfway down the stairway. Stepping carefully past it to the next stair, he used his normal dagger to lift the plate and peer underneath. The trigger was simple: Weight presses down on the plate, pushing down on springs at the four corners. When it lowered, a pin that was hooked to one of the springs was released. When the weight was lifted off the plate, that pin would rise back up, pulling a thin metal wire along with it. That wire led to an explosive charge surrounded by vials of poison, and the explosion would disperse the poison in a gaseous form, killing not only the one who triggered the trap, but anyone nearby as well.
Survivors Page 13
