Dungeon Bringer 1

by Nick Harrow

  Would I rather be super rich back on Earth, or be surrounded by lovely cat women here in—what had Nephket called this place?—Soketra?

  Tough call.

  Nephket opened the door on the far side of the alcove and torchlight flooded over us. The hallway ahead of us was where I’d battled the raiders, and their blood still stained the walls and floor in thick crimson blotches and stripes. The streaks and splatters gleamed in the torchlight, which told me they were still wet and it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes since the fight had ended.

  “Where did the raiders go?” I asked. “When I killed them, they dropped some of their gear and just, poof, vanished. And speaking of gear, where did that go?”

  “Recall amulets,” Nephket said with a chuckle at my stream of questions. “Raiders are cowards. They delve into dungeons in search of treasure and arcane power, but they never venture into danger without a way to cheat the deaths they so richly deserve. The recall amulets provided by the Raiders Guild teleport them back to the staging area when they near death. Clerics and shamans are always on standby to heal them from even the most grievous wounds when they return.”

  That certainly sucked. It meant that Kezakazek’s threat to return wasn’t empty. She’d wounded herself to escape, but she’d be back in fighting form before long, and I’d have to deal with her all over again.

  “If they aren’t dead, how long will it be before they come banging on our door again?” I asked. “Because if I don’t have a body, I won’t be able to hurt a flea.”

  Nephket tilted her head to one side as she considered my question. Her skin glowed in the warm caress of the torchlight, and I fought back an urge to reach out and brush her soft cheek with the back of my hand. There was something about this woman that drew me to her. I wanted her in a way that made my soul ache, but even more than that, I wanted to keep her and the rest of the wahket safe. They needed me.

  “This is the first time that raiders have attacked your tomb in my lifetime, but the legends say the fallen raiders cannot return to the dungeon for three days after they are dispatched,” she said. “And the Raiders Guild will not allow another party to attempt a raid until the first group has failed three times. That is how they prevent conflicts between their members and preserve their numbers.”

  “That gives us a little time, but will it be enough for me to gain the ka I need to get my body back?” I asked Neph.

  “There is nothing a dungeon lord cannot do,” Nephket said with an encouraging smile.

  Before I could ask for more information, we reached another door, and Nephket opened it to reveal a wide stone chamber. The glowing blue grid was still visible, and I used it to measure the room quickly. It was fifteen feet across and thirty-five feet wide, and the only furnishings were a few torches mounted in brackets along the walls and piles of sand that formed gritty drifts in the corners. Based on my extensive knowledge of ancient tombs gleaned from my years playing Dungeons & Dragons and online role-playing games, this place didn’t appear to have much that would interest greedy raiders.

  “If this is a dungeon, where are the monsters? Or the treasure?” I asked. “Why would the raiders waste time kicking in the doors of empty rooms?”

  Nephket scratched the claws on the tips of her toes against the stone floor as she considered her answer. She released my hand, stepped into the center of the chamber, and turned in a slow circle with her arms spread wide.

  “This is the vault chamber. It was meant to house the incredible wealth Rathokhetra earned over his centuries as a dungeon lord,” she said. “Those treasures are what the raiders seek.”

  “So why is it empty?” I asked. I explored the limits of the room as I waited for an answer. The whole area smelled dry and old, and the walls were carved with intricate murals that had been worn down over the ages. I could just make out an army of giant scorpions led by a naked woman with way too many legs on what the compass rose at the edge of my vision told me was the chamber’s eastern wall. Her stinger-tipped tail hooked up over the top of her head to menace her fleeing enemies, and she wielded an oversized spear with twin forks that she’d used to pin an armored warrior to a skeletal tree.

  “The treasures that should rest here were lost,” Nephket said with a shrug. “Long before my time. When our kingdom of Anunaset fell to its enemies, the wahket fled across the desert with the sarcophagus of our fallen lord, Rathokhetra. Our people had always planned to return to our fallen realm and reclaim what we could, but we needed your guidance and strength. We have spent generations trying to wake you from your slumber in the hopes you would lead us to glory and reclaim our homeland.”

  As Nephket spoke, her words roused a cold anger deep inside me. Rage flared in my heart as her words painted an image in my mind of the wahket fleeing from their enemies. Whoever had dared to raise a hand against my people would pay.

  “Let’s see the rest of this place,” I said as I tried to shake the angry thoughts from my mind. I only partially succeeded, because no matter what I thought, I had a bond to this dungeon and its people. The sense of déjà vu I felt here was so powerful I almost believed I’d been here before.

  Wherever here was.

  I led the way through the arched doorway across from us. A long hallway extended to yet another stone door, this one flung wide open. Burning torches cracked and popped as we made our way down the hall, and their fragrant smoke reminded me of pine campfires. I’d been here before. I knew it.

  I shook my head. That didn’t make any sense. I wasn’t even sure this place was anything more than my brain’s dying hallucinations. There was no way I’d ever been there.

  Nephket curled her fingers around mine when she caught up to me. The hallway was narrow, and her hip bumped against mine as we walked side by side. She glanced nervously up at me, and I smiled back at her.

  “Trust me,” I said with a grin. “I’m not going to complain if you want to touch me.”

  She blushed again and ducked her head. Her long black hair curved past her pointed ears to hide her face behind its glossy veil. I squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back, and nothing else in my life had ever felt so right to me.

  We emerged from the hallway into an oddly shaped room that was wider at our end but narrowed on the far side. We stood on a raised platform where an enormous throne crouched at the head of a steep set of steps. Massive iron braziers shaped like striking scorpions flanked the throne, and the heat from their flames washed over us as we approached them. The ancient throne was a beast of heavy wood and curved iron that had blackened with age. It looked more like a weapon than a piece of furniture, and I imagined it would’ve scared the shit out of anyone who came before the king who sat in it.

  “This is your audience chamber. The throne came with us from our fallen kingdom,” Nephket explained. “It was from this very seat that you commanded your armies to lay waste to the Kinshari Star Elves. You also sat within the throne’s embrace and held court with your allies and subjects. Please, take your seat again as our ruler. Our protector.”

  Nephket hesitated for a moment and looked down at the floor between her feet as if awed to be standing there. She took a deep breath and then almost whispered another pair of words.

  “Our god.”

  She led me around to the front of the throne and bowed low as she swept one hand toward the massive chair.

  For a moment, I hesitated. Overwhelming emotions boiled through me as I stared at this throne, and memories rose up like bubbles of poisoned swamp gas.

  In my memories, I commanded an army that stretched across the horizon and laid waste to all who dared stand before me.

  Defeated kings knelt before me as the blood of their subjects painted the floor of my throne room.

  A whole world, all of Soketra, trembled in fear at my name and cowered before the clawed might of my invincible wahket soldiers.

  “Holy shit,” I whispered to myself as the visions faded. Those memories had been far more powerful than simple
movies played in my head. I could smell the blood in the air. I could feel the sand against my skin and taste the fear of my enemies as the army I led plowed through their ranks. It was as real to me as the taste of the cartel thug’s gun barrel when he’d shoved it between my lips.

  I didn’t know how it was possible, and I didn’t care. This was real. In some way, somehow, I was Rathokhetra. Or he was me. That realization shook me to my core, but the alternatives were that I’d gone completely insane or I’d died. I didn’t want to contemplate either of those versions of reality.

  For the moment, I had to roll with being Rathokhetra.

  I left Nephket and mounted the throne. The wood and iron were cold to the touch, but the enormous chair felt as if it had been made specifically for me. The arms were in just the right spot, the back was arched to match the curve of my spine, and my feet sat easily on the rest that jutted from the throne’s foot.

  “My lord,” Nephket whispered. Her eyes filled with tears. She crumpled to her knees and bowed so low her forehead touched the stone floor.

  “No,” I said sternly. “Not like that. You’re my ally, Nephket. My partner. Not my servant.”

  “But, Lord Rathokhetra,” she said in a voice that trembled with emotion.

  “But nothing,” I interrupted. “I need your help, Neph. Explain what I have to do to defeat these raiders and protect my people.”

  She beamed as I spoke, and she blotted her tears with the backs of her hands as she rose and took her spot at my right hand.

  “First, you must understand your connection with your dungeon,” she explained. “It is as much a part of you as your heart or mind. Think of this place as the body that surrounds your body. Concentrate on it, and it will be yours.”

  Neph’s words didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I was determined to try what she said. I’d left all doubts behind the second I took my seat upon the throne. I hadn’t given up on returning to good ol’ Earth, but I wasn’t going anywhere until I made sure Neph and the other wahket were safe. To protect them, I’d become the best damned dungeon lord Soketra had ever seen.

  I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the surrounding space. Nothing happened for a few seconds, and then a blue grid appeared in my mind’s eye. It draped itself over the dungeon’s structure like a drop cloth over a piano, and soon I had a wireframe representation of the entire tomb in my head. With a thought, I shifted my perspective to an overhead view and saw my entire domain at once. The map wasn’t detailed, but it showed me the basic structure and contents of the dungeon.

  Another corridor led north from the audience chamber I sat in. It ended in a door, but another tunnel branched off from its east side midway along its length. The eastern passage led into a musty cavern that looked as if it was a natural formation that had been incorporated into the tomb’s design. Whoever had built the place must have had plans for it at some point, but they’d never had the chance to finish it.

  Maybe I’d take care of that for them.

  The doorway to the north led to a square room that was twenty-five feet on a side. Two rows of five wahket statues flanked the center of the room. Each of the statues held a torch in one hand and a stone spear in the other. The statues were nude, and their stylized bodies were the perfect mixture of supermodel beauty and warrior strength.

  If all the wahket looked like that, maybe I wouldn’t go back to Earth.

  Past the chamber to the north, a short corridor ended in a flight of stairs that led to the surface world and my enemies. One of Rathokhetra’s memories resurfaced, and I understood that I could never ascend those stairs—my place was within my dungeon.

  I opened my eyes, but the mental map of my tomb remained as a ghostly afterimage in the upper left corner of my vision. It hung there like a miniature map from a video game, and I found I could pan and zoom in or out of it if I concentrated on it. Weird, but neat.

  “I see it,” I said. “Not sure how, but I definitely see it.”

  “Your next step is to reunite with your dungeon core,” the priestess explained. “That is the key to your abilities as a dungeon lord.”

  “That’s what Kezakazek said she wanted to steal,” I said. “Where is it?”

  “In your burial chamber,” Nephket explained. “The orb in the cobra’s jaws is the physical manifestation of your core. If raiders ever reach it, they will destroy it and steal your power.”

  “And that would be bad,” I guessed.

  “Very bad,” Nephket confirmed. “The legends say a dungeon lord can feel his core no matter the distance between them.”

  “What does a core feel like?” I asked.

  “It’s part of you,” the priestess said. “So...”

  That wasn’t the most helpful advice I’d ever received, but it was clear I wouldn’t be getting clarification on that anytime soon. Nephket did her best, but there were things she didn’t know, couldn’t know, because she’d never been a dungeon lord. This was all on me.

  One of the meditation tricks I’d learned to manage stress from my hacker lifestyle involved a body inventory. Deep breath. Feel your toes. Imagine all your little piggies are very loose and relaxed. Deep breath. Your calves are super relaxed. Deep breath. Keep going until your whole body is as loose as a puddle of goo.

  The breathing part was a little strange in my disincarnated body, but I managed to fake it well enough without diving down the rabbit hole of paradox. On the one hand, I could pass through most people like a spooky ghost man because I didn’t have a body. On the other hand, Nephket could touch and feel me because in some sense I did have a body.

  There was that rabbit hole. Back to the task at hand.

  My body, such as it was, relaxed as I focused on each of its parts in turn. When I’d finished with all the usual parts from the soles of my feet up through the crown of my head, I started on the new additions I’d made in the past few hours.

  Deep breath. There’s my burial chamber. Deep breath. And the empty treasure vault. Deep breath. Audience chamber. Deep breath. Monster lair. Deep breath. Statue chamber. Deep breath...

  And there it was. My dungeon core burned in my mind’s eye like a distant star. I focused all of my awareness on it, and the light unfolded into a small constellation of tablets that glowed with warm, golden light.

  Well, wasn’t that special.

  There were four large tablets labelled Incarnation, Engineering, Guardians, and Transformation. Smaller tablets with indecipherable labels were tethered to the larger tablets they orbited by thin, steely threads.

  No matter how hard I tried, I could not make sense of the labels on the smaller tablets. But the largest four seemed familiar, as if I’d seen them before.

  I opened my eyes to ask Nephket how the hell that was possible, but she spoke before I could spit out my question.

  “I see the light in your eyes,” Nephket said. “You have reclaimed your dungeon.”

  Nephket was right. Despite the tablets I couldn’t yet understand, the dungeon felt as much a part of me as my eyes or tongue. If I focused, I could tell the exact location of every creature within the tomb’s tunnels and chambers. That was great and all, but it didn’t solve the bigger problem we had.

  “How do I defend this place if I don’t have a body?” I asked. With the khopesh and crown I’d been able to kick some serious ass, but without a body I couldn’t wield either of them effectively. In three days, Kezakazek and her little band of murderous misfits would show up to finish what they’d started. There was no time to whip the wahket into fighting strength in that short time, and we had no other defenses if I didn’t have a body.

  “You must summon guardians to defend your dungeon when you are not incarnated,” Nephket said. She seemed pleased that she could tell me things I didn’t know, and I was more than pleased that she had the knowledge I lacked. “But to do that, you will need ka.”

  “Which I don’t have,” I grumbled. “You said I burned up the last of it fighting off the raiders, right?”
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  Nephket shook her head as she reached out to take my right hand. She turned my arm over to reveal the inside of my forearm and traced a circle on my skin with her claws.

  “This is a ka vessel,” she said. As she retraced the circle, it glowed sapphire blue against my skin and became spherical. It looked like a radioactive marble embedded in my arm. “It captured some of the essence from your fallen foes. Not as much as it would have captured had the dungeon defeated them without your aid, but some is better than none.”

  I prodded the ka vessel with the index finger of my left hand, but it didn’t budge. I expected it to hurt, but I felt nothing when I poked the little orb. It felt like I’d touched a piece of stone, not a part of my own body.

  “Great,” I said. “I can use that to get a body and kick their asses again. And every time I kill them, I’ll get more ka, so I can just do it over and over. You should have led with that. I wouldn’t have worried about this so much.”

  Nephket furrowed her brow as she looked up into my eyes. Clearly, I’d misunderstood something.

  “Not exactly,” she said. “This vessel holds but a single mote of ka, which is not nearly enough to fuel your incarnation.”

  Well, shit.

  “How much ka will I need to incarnate again?” I asked.

  “At least ten motes, but that will only sustain you for a minute or so,” Nephket said in a sorrowful voice. “I wish we’d had more time to talk before the raiders came. You held a physical form for nearly five minutes. The cost was very high.”

  Ouch. If Neph’s estimates were right, I’d burned almost fifty ka to kick the raiders out of my house a single time, and all I had to show for it was a single mote. That was a terrible return on investment. I needed to smarten up if I wanted to protect the wahket.

  “What can I do with one ka?” I asked.

  Nephket reached across my body and her chest brushed against mine. The coins on her halter and skirt jingled when she moved, and sparks of blue light rose where her skin touched me. All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around Nephket and pull her into my lap.