Death's Chasm

by Constantine Noble

  “What is that board for?” asked Lorcan.

  “It’s a map of the dungeon,” replied Kurt, who began studying it. “It looks like there are five rooms, each connected by a small walkway or tunnel, much like the one in front of us. Each room will pose its own challenges and mobs, and the rooms will not interact with each other. The last room with the skull is the final boss. We can only leave once we defeat him.”

  “Well, if that’s our only way out, let’s get moving,” said Lorcan, taking a step forward.

  “Woah, woah, slow down Mage,” said David, stepping in front of him. “We need to be careful how we move forward. If you are in the lead, there is a good chance you will get caught and killed in just one shot. Let me and Gilnar be in the front, followed by the Kurt, with you and Sandy in the back. Like the five dots on some dice.”

  “But won’t we want our Cleric up at the front, too?” asked Lorcan. “She has higher armor and can heal you.”

  The Warrior shook his head. “No, that would leave our back lane open to attack. Gilnar can provide flash healing for me, and Sandy can help keep you and the Tracker up, and even do some off tanking if something comes from behind.”

  They moved into the first room. It was an open circle, with boulders and ore strewn across the otherwise flat terrain. Dozens of small holes, maybe a foot in diameter, were spread across the walls around the circle. In the middle of the room, sitting next to some ore, were three small, gray Kobolds eating some fruit.

  “Oh good,” said the Warrior. “This room looks like it should be easy!”

  Lorcan relaxed, before noticing how tense Kurt and Gilnar remained.

  “Oi, somethin ain’t right…”

  “Yeah. This doesn’t make any sense. David, let’s get a plan rea-”

  Before Kurt could finish, the Warrior was sprinting straight for the three Kobolds.

  “Don’t worry guys I can handle this on my own!”

  As he arrived in their midst, he slammed in the face of the left Kobold with his shield -

  0 of 10 HP remaining.

  - while removing the middle one’s head with a horizontal swipe of him sword.

  0 of 10 HP remaining.

  Before his friend’s head could hit the floor, the remaining Kobold was scurrying off towards one of the holes in the wall. David let him go, and turned around with a big smile on his face.

  “See? Easy as pie.”

  The world began to shake. Lorcan looked around frantically as his comrades all brandished their weapons.

  “Kobolds live in large packs, and while the gray ones may be small, they’re fast. You never want to let one go, or they’ll come back with an army,” Kurt snarled at David.

  The Warrior tried to apologize, but there was no time. Dozens of Kobolds poured out of the walls, crashing into the terrain like waves in the ocean. Kurt fired arrow after arrow into the herd, dropping a Kobold with each shot fired. Gilnar crashed his mace into the head of any enemy unlucky enough to get near him, while Sandy was desperately spamming her smite spell.

  Lorcan focused his emotions as best as he could, and summoned his Electric Blade to help out. He jumped forward and started swinging wildly, clipping a few Kobolds as he wailed away. He kept taking steps forward to take out the mob, when he realize he was no longer squared up with the rest of the group. As he turned to try and make his way back, two Kobolds made it to him and bit into his back.

  65 of 80 HP remaining.

  Lorcan screamed out in pain, which broke the concentration he had on his blade. He tried to shake the Kobolds free, but this just made them dig in deeper.

  50 of 80 HP remaining.

  “Guys, I need help!” cried out Lorcan.

  “Comin, boy!”

  The Paladin’s mace swung down on each of the Kobolds, dropping them dead on the ground. Before Lorcan could thank him, Gilnar had pulled him back to the group.

  “Ya gotta stay with us, lad, or else our armor be for nothin!”

  “He’s right, Lorcan,” added Sandy. “Since you’re a Mage, you really should hang back when others are around to help you!”

  As he caught his breath, he looked around to find the room was beginning to clear. They were moving towards where they last saw David at a snail’s pace, but were at least making progress.

  “Feel free to help whenever, kid,” muttered Kurt.

  “Oh, right.”

  He conjured fire to his hand, and started to let loose with firbolts. To his surprise, the gray Kobold’s he targeted all collapsed from just one hit.

  Several minutes later, they made it to David and only a few mobs were left. The Warrior was severely bloodied, but he was still standing and trying to fight off the remaining foes. His wife rushed over to him and tried to hold him back.

  “Calm down and let me heal you. The others can take care of the scraps.”

  “No,” he coughed out, trying to gently push her back. “This whole thing is my fault… I need to finish the rest off.”

  “Stop. We’re gonna need you later,” said Kurt, knocking down a Kobold with his fist. “Save your strength and let her heal you up.”

  Lorcan, Kurt, and Gilnar finished clearing the room as Sandy healed David back up to max health.

  “You’ve got to be careful, I only have so much mana,” warned the Cleric. “I won’t be able to heal this much every fight we have, or we’ll have to rest for an hour between each room.”

  At the other end of the circle from where they entered, a section of the wall suddenly rose up, opening the pathway to the next room. A green light appeared around Lorcan and circled him as he watched the wall rise. Level 11, thought Lorcan with a smile.

  Gilnar spent some time collecting gold from the fallen Kobolds. The purse totaled 600 when it was all said and done.

  “Next room?” ask Lorcan.

  Chapter 7

  The tunnel into the next room was at an incline which ended in stairs.

  “We are going up?” asked Lorcan.

  “It’s possible the dungeon ends with us getting out of the chasm,” offered Sandy.

  “Or, it was to contain that,” said Kurt as they arrived at the end of the tunnel and step on top of a raised, grated platform. The platform was only about ten feet wide and eight feet long, while a large pool of water was below them, filling out the room. Across the pond was another raised platform, with another tunnel heading to what they assumed was the third room.

  “Oi, I’ve never learned to swim,” said Gilnar, cautiously taking a peek over the platform. It wasn’t well lit here, so they couldn’t see what waited for them in the water. Lorcan wasn’t a fan of getting in the water either. Three of the five of them wore heavy armor, making it likely they would immediately sink. Even if they didn’t, all their weapons would be useless in the water because they wouldn’t have any leverage for their strikes.

  “Over here!” shouted Sandy, who was peering over the left side of the platform.

  Below her was a small wooden raft with four oars. It looked like they wouldn’t have to find out the buoyancy of a Dwarf after all.

  “Hmm… we have a decision to make,” said Kurt quietly.

  “What do you mean? We just need to take the raft over to the other side, and can fight anything that comes in our way,” said Lorcan.

  “That raft is too small to hold all of us at once. With there being just a handful of oars, the most it can hold is realistically four. We can either leave one person back to help attack anything that comes out of the water, or make two trips across the way.”

  “Wouldn’t leaving someone here be a death sentence?” asked David.

  “No. Once the final boss is defeated, everyone in the party is then teleported out of the portal. Anyone that is left behind here could simply go back to the previous room and wait for the rest of us to finish up.”

  Everyone in the group paused to think.

  “I think leaving someone back and only taking four to the next area would be the quickest,” said David. “W
e seem to be doing fine as we are, and the faster we get out of here the better.”

  “I wouldn’t want to be left alone…” mumbled Sandy.

  “It wouldn’t make sense to leave our Cleric back,” chimed in Lorcan. “In fact, the only two who could really stay back would be either Kurt or me.”

  “Why is that?”

  “We are the only two that have consistent ranged damage. You and Gilnar have a little, but we’ll need you later on to heal.”

  “Good job, kid. Then it’s decided,” said Kurt. “I will stay, and cover you from behind.”

  “What about me?” asked Lorcan.

  Kurt shook his head. “No. This dungeon is meant for someone at your level. If you don’t continue on, you will miss out on all of this group experience, and be stuck at level 11 or 12. Besides, you can help keep the group moving quickly.”

  Lorcan wasn’t a fan of them splitting up with the Tracker. Kurt seemed to be the highest DPS in the party, and had the most experience along with Gilnar.

  “How about this,” said Kurt, who was correctly reading Lorcan’s hesitancy about leaving him behind. “Why don’t you four make it across, and if everything seems fine, one of you can come back for me. Then we can still continue on as a group.”

  This seemed reasonable to Lorcan, and everyone else nodded their consent.

  They moved their way onto the raft, with Sandy and David in the front, and Lorcan and Gilnar in the back.

  “Go ahead and start rowing,” came Kurt’s voice from above. “If you run into anything, see if you can still make it to the other side without fighting. I will try to distract any mobs.”

  The group started rowing. It took a second for everyone to get on the same page of when to row, but once David took the lead of saying when, they were off to a good pace. They had made it just past halfway, when the raft started to violently shake.

  “Keep rowing, lads!”

  Lorcan kept his head down and kept pumping his arms.

  “Raaaaaaaaa!” screeched a creature behind them.

  The Mage could hardly hear Kurt yelling over the echo of the beast. “Don’t stop, I’m covering you!”

  The light flick of arrows cutting through the air added to the sounds of the creature’s wailing every time it was struck. Lorcan wanted to look back and see what the enemy looked like, and how Kurt was fairing, but he kept his eyes on the platform just a dozen feet before them.

  The creature took a deep breath as light began to reflect off of the platform and walls in front of them. The room became eerily quiet as they reached the platform, and scrambled up the side ladder. Had Kurt beaten the enemy?

  Lorcan was the last to begin his ascent onto the platform, and almost slipped off the ladder when he glanced back at the creature attacking them. It must have stood 20 feet above the water, with the rest hidden underneath. It had a long neck with a head not unlike a crocodile, only with six eyes. The body of the creature appear to be fat, from what Lorcan could see, covered with blue scales. The monster’s mouth was stretched open, and a shining light was taking form in it. The Mage looked down into the path of where it was aiming, and saw Kurt frantically waving away at him.

  “Keep going, you fools!” Kurt yelled, as Lorcan finished making it to the top of the ladder. “Don’t come back for me, just keep goi-”

  The light from the beast’s mouth shot out in a current, exploding above the Tracker and the platform they entered in on. The rocky overhead collapsed inward, crashing down onto the platform and where Kurt had been standing.

  “Kurt!” screamed Lorcan.

  “Lad, we’ve got to keep moving!” Gilnar yanked on the Mage who was no match for the Dwarf’s strength. Lorcan quit fighting as he saw the beast turn its attention to the survivors. The crocodile mouth opened again to take a breath, as a ball of light started to form once more. The remaining four scurried up the tunnel, not wanting to wait and see what the beast had in store for them.

  Chapter 8

  “We should go back for him,” said Lorcan after he finally caught his breath. They had sprinted up to the door of the next room, and were just now able to take a moment.

  “The Tracker knew the risks, and was explicitly telling us to continue one,” said David.

  “Don’t worry,” said Sandy in an attempt to comfort Lorcan. “Even if he is trapped under those rocks, if we hurry up and beat the dungeon, he could still be teleported out.”

  She had a point. The room two enemy seemed to ignore Kurt once he was buried under the rocks, and maybe he was just lying there, taking in breaths.

  “Oi,” interrupted Gilnar. “What is this writing on on the door?”

  They looked up to find a few lines of writing near the top of the door.

  “It’s too tall for me, I can’t see it well!”

  David was the tallest of the group, and while on his tip toes was just able to make it out. “It says:

  In the depths of Death’s Chasm

  Lives beasts with bad sight.

  This room shall be simple

  If you get by with no light.”

  The torches around them were extinguished when the final words left his lips. It would have been pitch black, if not for the moon shining down into the chasm.

  “Bit creepy, eh?” said the Dwarf.

  “From the sounds of it, this next room will have mobs that can’t see well in the dark,” pondered Sally aloud. “As long as we don’t do any healing or other spells that will cause light to spring up, we should be okay.”

  Lorcan glanced over at Gilnar. “Would you mind healing me now, then? We are half way through the dungeon, and it’ll be better if we don’t use any spells while we are in there.”

  Gilnar nodded and placed his hand on Lorcan’s shoulder. A flash of light appeared from his hand, and Lorcan felt immediate relief from the gray Kobold wounds he suffered earlier.

  80 of 80 HP remaining.

  “Thanks.”

  “Not a problem, lad,” said the Dwarf with a smile. “Just so we are all aware now, I’ve only got enough left for one more heal.”

  Lorcan nodded. “Let’s go ahead and keep moving then. Like Sandy said, there might still be time for Kurt.”

  The Warrior pulled back the door.

  Once again this room was a large circle, this time with the moon perfectly shining down on the door they needed to get to on the other side of the room. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t look like it would be very simple for them to make it over there. Scattered around the room were large crustacean looking creatures, each with giant shells on their back. While those looked hard enough to crack on their own, the real worry were the giant claws they all appeared to have a pair of. Their heads looked like snapping turtles with their eyes closed, and they would slowly open and close their mouths, as if they were chewing on something. While most weren’t moving and seemed to be asleep, Lorcan noticed a handful seemed to be snacking on rocks that littered the ground. Each bite cut the rock in half in one go. The Mage was confident that he didn’t want to get near their mouths just as much as he didn’t want to get near their claws.

  “Okay, it looks like there is a path right through the middle of them to get to the other side,” whispered Sandy. “Let’s go in a single file line, and go slowly. If they can’t see well, their hearing must be really good to compensate.”

  The other three nodded, and the group started moving up. David in the front, then Gilnar, Sally, and finally Lorcan bringing up the rear.

  After just a few feet, Lorcan was positive that Sandy was wrong and the crab creatures couldn’t hear at all. The three party members in front of him looked ridiculous as they tried to take slow, quiet steps while their plate and chain armor creaked with every half movement. It was a sound not unlike an animal shelter in the real world, with all of the dogs jumping on or into their cages to get a better look at the visitors.

  They continued their loud creeping for at a slow pace, taking around a full minute just to move a couple of feet. Lorcan
was about to say something, when two of the creatures near them started scurrying right for David.

  The group stopped, stunned at the speed of the creatures and at the fact they had been busted. Why now? They hadn’t made any more noise than they had been all along, and there was no light coming from them.

  The Warrior stumbled back, knocking Gilnar onto the ground. The two crab creatures slammed into each other, wailing away with their claws against the other’s shell.

  The group let out a collective sigh. The beasts were just fighting one another, and hadn’t noticed them.

  David and Sandy helped the Dwarf up, and the group continued their way around the sparring crabs.

  What seemed like an hour passed, and the group had nearly made it to the door. Just like the rhyme had promised, this room had turned out to be the easiest one yet. Just one more and a boss fight, and they would be out of this mess.

  A familiar green light lit up above Lorcan’s head, and slowly circled around him.

  Everyone froze.

  Lorcan quickly glanced at his stats. Level 12? How?

  “Why did you level, boy?” whispered Gilnar with wide eyes. “We haven’t beaten the room yet!”

  Loud hissing noises sprang up all around them. Lorcan glanced left and right. All of the beast had waken up and were staring straight at him.

  The Warrior leapt towards the door with speed Lorcan hadn’t yet seen from him, and started to push. It made small progress, and very slowly.

  “Crap, this is gonna take too long,” David said with a shake of his head. “We’ll have to fight them.”