Dungeon Master 2

by Eric Vall

  Chapter 1

  As the hot winds brushed my skin, I released a breath and stared into the gaping mouth of the pyramid dungeon that lay right before my eyes. The entrance was enormous and reached up to nearly half the height of the pyramid itself. An endless sea of golden sand sprawled out in every direction as far as the eye could see. It had taken my minions and I nearly two weeks to travel to Valasara by ship, and just hours ago, we had disembarked from the Sarpedon before it reached the city so that we could conquer this particular dungeon before we visited the city.

  From the look of it, the pyramid had been here for centuries. It had been cursed by time, and the stones were crumbling. The rocks that formed the square base bore etchings of an ancient language that had been worn away with age and were barely decipherable. The structure stood isolated in the desert, with no other sign of civilization present, except for the capital city of Valasara far off on the horizon. Beyond the pyramid, nothing interrupted the seemingly limitless sea of glittering sands, not even trees. The heat was fearsome, and the sun’s rays beat down on us relentlessly, but I had faced far worse. I was, after all, one of the most powerful underdark deities the universe had ever known.

  My immense power could have been even greater had the Holy Band of Mages not bound me to my dungeon with their dark magic.

  Their imprisonment had not lasted forever though.

  Four beautiful, but inexperienced, women: Annalíse, Rana, Morrigan, and Carmedy had ventured into my dungeon and released me after consenting to become my minions in exchange for the power that I alone could grant.

  Now, on this new continent, our mission was not only to conquer each of Valasara’s dungeons, but to search for the sacred objects that were said to be hidden within them. Legends told that their fusion would unleash an ultimate power, one we intended to harness for our own ends. The power of the conquered dungeon combined with the power of the sacred objects would make me truly unstoppable.

  “This thing looks like it’s gonna fall apart on us as soon as we walk in,” Rana said as she kicked at one of the stones on the bottom layer of the pyramid with her bare fox foot. “This thing is ancient. It’s probably over two hundred years old.”

  The curly-haired thief frowned as she wiped the sweat from her brow with her sleeve, and her tail twitched in the air behind her in the way that it always did when something irritated her. The heat was getting to her, no doubt. As usual, the sarcastic fox wore her black trousers, dark blue vest, and her cream-colored long-sleeved shirt underneath was rolled up to her elbows.

  “You consider two hundred years old to be ancient?” Morrigan asked nonchalantly as she stroked the beaks of Fea and Macha, the pet ravens on her shoulders. Despite the heat, the dark magic wielding elf remained shrouded in her usual black cloak and hood. The long white hair that cascaded from beneath her head covering was a sharp contrast against her dark clothing as was her pale skin covered in red mage markings.

  “Well, yeah.” Rana shrugged. “That’s pretty old, don’t you think?”

  “Not at all,” Morrigan said flatly. “You have forgotten the lifespan of elves far exceeds most other beings known to this world.”

  “How old are you, Morrigan?” I asked, my curiosity now piqued. The blonde turned and looked at me silently for a moment before she spoke.

  “Master, do you not know that it is considered impolite to ask a woman her age?” The tattooed elf raised a white eyebrow and a hint of mischief shone in her eyes.

  Rana chuckled. “Whoa, did Morrigan just make a joke?”

  “I do believe she did,” Annalíse said with a small smile.

  “Now I really am curious though.” Rana grinned at Morrigan. “Seriously, how old are you?”

  “If you insist on knowing,” the pale elf said blankly, “I am one hundred and forty-five years old.”

  “Wow, you look good for that age.” Carmedy’s green eyes widened, and the rest of us burst into laughter at the cat’s comment. The sweet but scatterbrained alchemist never failed to amuse us. Her white peasant dress and green bodice had their usual multi-colored stains from her various chemicals and medicinal ingredients, but presently the stains were joined by crumbs and smears of what looked like cake. I wasn’t surprised. Desserts were probably the only thing that Carmedy loved as much as the world of medicine.

  “I wonder what kind of stuff is in there?” Carmedy whispered, and she ran a hand through her short black hair as she joined me at my side.

  “Oh, you know, the usual stuff,” Rana called out as she slung her pack over her shoulders. “Ghosts and mummies.” The fox wiggled her fingers ominously.

  “You think?” Carmedy’s eyes widened.

  “You never know.” Rana grinned. “With the stuff we’ve seen, just about anything is possible.” She was right. So far, we had endured worlds of illusion, hideous creatures crafted by dark magic, and an immense crumbling labyrinth that had teetered over a sea of lava. It truly did seem as though anything was possible.

  The petite cat bit her lip nervously at that and started to wring her tail in her hands.

  “Stop scaring Carmedy,” Annalíse said in her distinct raspy voice as she lit a torch and handed it to Rana. “There aren’t going to be any mummies roaming around in there. If there are any in there at all, they’re not exactly going to be taking strolls.”

  With that, the freckled swordswoman lit her own torch. The courageous but somewhat impulsive warrior was pretty much the exact opposite of Carmedy. While the small cat was easily frightened, liked to dawdle, and was frequently messy, Annalíse, on the other hand, was courageous, hated to waste time, and cherished neatness and order. Today, like any other day, her chestnut colored hair was pulled into a neat braid that rested on one shoulder and her tunic, fitted black pants, and boots were pristine.

  “How would you know?” Rana said with a wry grin.

  “Yeah,” Carmedy said nervously. “What-if-whatever-deity-that-lives-in-there-put-a-curse-on-the-mummies-and-now-they’re-walking-around-inside-just-waiting-to-eat-us-and--”

  “Calm down, Carmedy,” I interrupted the frantic feline’s rapid-fire stream of words. “A mummy isn’t going to eat you.”

  “Indeed,” Morrigan nodded. “While there are reanimation spells that can be utilized to bring the dead back to the land of the living, I very much doubt that a mummy would feast on human flesh.” The elf’s voice was quite nonchalant as though she were merely discussing the weather. “Creatures and beings that are revived tend to feed on soul energy, not flesh.”

  She was right of course, undead beings did indeed feast on souls, however, this information wasn’t exactly going to calm Carmedy’s nerves. The petite feline gulped, and her green eyes bulged in her head upon hearing Morrigan’s explanation.

  “Well, that’s comforting,” Rana snorted. “Thanks for filling us in on the finer points of dark magic, Morrigan.”

  “I was simply informing Carmedy of the inaccuracies she described,” Morrigan said plainly. “She has no need to fear that she will be consumed.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Rana rolled her eyes. “We don’t have to worry about the undead tenants here taking a chomp out of us, we just have to keep in mind that, at any moment, our souls could be devoured.” The fox threw her paws up in the air.

  Carmedy shivered at Rana’s words, but I put a cold, gauntleted hand on her shoulder. Perhaps it wasn’t as comforting as I intended.

  “Don’t worry,” I said gently as I hoped my words would work better than the icy steel of my armor. “Everything will be fine. None of those things are going to happen.” Truthfully, I had no idea as to what sorts of obstacles awaited us within the pyramid dungeon, but no matter what monstrosities lay before us, I would allow no harm to befall my minions.

&nb
sp; As I spoke, I eyed Rana and Morrigan as a signal for them to drop the subject. Thankfully, between that and my words, Carmedy seemed to calm as she gave me a small smile and nodded her head.

  “If you all are done trading scary stories, maybe we can get a move on.” Annalíse gestured toward the dungeon’s entrance. “We don’t want to waste daylight, remember?”

  “Annalíse is right,” I said as I moved to the front of the group. “Let’s get started.”

  The others formed a line behind me as they always did. First Annalíse, then Rana, followed by Carmedy, and finally Morrigan. I peered into the mouth of the pyramid, it was completely pitch black in there, but as I looked over my shoulder to ask Carmedy if she could use one of her mixtures to give us some light, the ground started to shake, and a loud rumbling struck the air.

  “Wh-what in the world is that?” Carmedy said anxiously as the five of us struggled to stay on our feet. We looked around to see what the cause of this sudden disturbance was, but there didn’t appear to be anything or anyone else around.

  “I don’t know,” Rana said as she knelt down to keep from losing her balance, “but whatever it is, I have a feeling we’re not going to--” The fox’s words seem to catch in her throat as her eyes widened and fixated on an area of sand to the left of the dungeon. Something began to emerge from the sand, something big, and my minion’s mouths dropped open as a large arm burst from beneath the sand. Carmedy shrieked and jumped back in terror, and another identical arm appeared beside the other, both limbs seemingly formed from the very sands they emerged from.

  “By the gods,” Annalíse breathed, and she gripped the hilt of the sword at her hip as the others looked on in horror. The humongous sandy fingers that had appeared so abruptly clutched at the air before they slammed their enormous palms down, then pushed up to haul the rest of the creature to the surface. First came the massive sandy head and two menacing, glowing red eyes. The creature opened its horrible mouth and released a roar that seemed to shake the pyramid itself. Then came the huge torso and two legs that resembled giant trees. Our party gaped at the sand giant as it rose to its feet, but we soon realized we had more troublesome things to worry about.

  “Look!” Carmedy squealed as she pointed to the right side of the pyramid.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Rana breathed as the rest of us turned to see what had frightened Carmedy. “I mean seriously, we just can’t catch a break, can we?” the fox moaned.

  Carmedy’s shaky finger pointed to another humongous pair of hands that had started to claw through the sand. No sooner had they appeared when two more sets of limbs erupted from the sea of gold directly in front of us. Within seconds, four of the behemoth sand monsters tore free of the desert dunes, each almost as large as the entrance of the dungeon. Their heights rivaled that of the massive trees that we had encountered in the forest dungeon, each easily over one hundred feet tall. With the pyramid at our backs, and the fearsome creatures in a semi-circle around us, we were surrounded.

  My eyes darted to each of the sand monsters as they moved forward. Fea and Macha cawed loudly and flapped their wings restlessly as though they wanted to leave Morrigan’s shoulders, and the elf whispered to them in an effort to calm them. Annalíse moved to draw the sword from her hip, but I placed a hand on her wrist to stop her. She furrowed her brow at me, and I shook my head. Now was not the time to attack.

  The beasts reared back their heads and released a chorus of earth shaking bellows and began to trudge toward us. Their footsteps thudded as they approached and tightened the half circle around us. There was only one way to flee, and that was into the dungeon.

  “Ignore them. We’re not here to conquer sand monsters. We’re here to conquer the dungeon,” I said as I led the way into the dark dungeon. “Besides, if these monstrosities could emerge from the sand this way, it is safe to assume that they were capable of periodically disappearing beneath the sand to make surprise attacks. We needed to level the playing field.”

  The others followed behind me without a word or any hesitation. The further we went, the more the darkness swallowed us. Rana and Annalíse had dropped their torches sometime during the panic, and they followed close behind me. As a being born into darkness, my eyes could pierce the gloom here easily.

  “Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh,” Carmedy breathed as we fled. “This-is-so-much-worse-than-mummies.”

  “I’m with you on that,” Rana agreed between panting breaths.

  “What are those things?” Carmedy moaned. “And why do they have to bother us?”

  “I don’t know what they are and I don’t want to stick around to find out,” Rana wheezed.

  “They’re just part of the dungeon,” I said over my shoulder as I rounded a corner. “First line of defense. There are probably plenty of people that haven’t even made it inside.”

  “D-do you think they’re going to follow us in here?” Carmedy asked shakily. As if in response to her question, a series of roars breached the darkness of the dungeon, and I glanced over my shoulder to see one of the sand monsters reach a hand inside the opening, though its immense bulk kept it from coming inside after us.

  “Well, there’s your answer. I gotta say, this is quite the welcome wagon.” Rana gestured to the beasts behind us. “They’re too big to follow us.”

  “We need to do something to stop them,” Annalíse puffed. “We can’t just keep running around in the dark like this.”

  “Um, have you seen those things?” Rana said in disbelief. “In case you haven’t noticed, they’re huge. Plus, it’s not exactly like we have a large open space to attack them. Right now, I’m not liking our odds. Fighting them here and now doesn’t seem like such a good idea. Besides, they can’t seem to get inside.”

  “Well, we have to do something,” Annalíse said in annoyance. “What else do you suggest?”

  “Rana is right,” I said without turning to look back. “Engaging those monsters in combat on this battlefield is unwise. For now, keep moving,” I said as we continued to race through the darkness. “They are not our concern. Only the owner of this dungeon is.”

  Annalíse didn’t argue with me, but I knew that she wasn’t pleased with my instructions. The swordswoman wasn’t the type to run, she liked to face her problems head on. I admired this about her, but this wasn’t the time for that sort of strategy.

  The five of us continued through the dungeon passageway as the hulking sand beasts thudded and snarled behind us. Even though they were stuck outside, they hadn’t given up on us, and I had a feeling that they wouldn’t until they caught us. The good thing was that their immense girth made it impossible for them to come inside.

  As we sped through the darkened tunnel, a thought crossed my mind that was cause for concern. So far, it appeared that there was only one passageway, the one that we were currently in. Typically, dungeons had various tunnels that branched off from the main one, but this pyramid didn’t seem to have any, at least not yet. It made me wonder if the giants were merely a means to funnel would-be adventurers along this path. I didn’t like it. I was almost certain that there would be some sort of trap ahead.

  “Look, I see some light!” Carmedy exclaimed. The feline was right. There was a faint light somewhere up ahead, so at least Rana and Annalíse would be able to see more easily. The grainy behemoths continued to thrash outside, and the ground beneath our feet shook with every step they took. The tremors made our getaway more difficult, but we were far enough away to stay out of their reach.

  The light from up ahead grew brighter as we approached it until finally the lone passageway let out into a large circular cavern. As we burst in, it became clear that the source of the light was coming from over our heads. To my surprise, it was a cascade of daylight that poured in through various holes in the ceiling to create a crosshatching of light through the cavern. Unfortunately, as I had suspected, we had been led into a dead end. My quick inspection of the cavern revealed that there were no other openings sa
ve for the one we had just come from. We had been herded into this cave as though we were mere livestock.

  A twinge of anger flickered inside me. Whatever deity resided here, I already despised them. To attack those that ventured here with sand monsters and have them chased and corralled into a dead end lacked imagination and flair.

  Intruders to my dungeon always suffered much more creative traps as was becoming of a deity of my level of panache.

  “So, I don’t want to be a downer, but I’m not seeing any other way out,” Rana said slowly. “Please tell me one of you sees something that I don’t.”

  “I’m afraid not, Rana,” I said as I scanned the rocky walls once more to double check.

  As I spoke there was a great tremor, and the ground beneath our feet began to shake violently. Then the whole of the hallway we had just come through seemed to split apart as the stone slid downward into the ground, the walls, and the ceiling until the entryway was big enough to allow the angry sand demons passage. The towering monstrosities lumbered toward us, and while they were slow, this didn’t make them any less dangerous. It would have been foolish to assume that they could be easily conquered because of their lack of speed.

  “Great!” The fox woman threw her paws up in exasperation. “Now what? We just sit here and get torn limb from limb by those things?”

  “We’ll do no such thing,” Annalíse said with a certain fierceness in her voice as she drew the sword from her hip. “We’ll fight.” As she spoke, her eyes glimmered with blood lust, and her freckled face was fixed with determination.

  The swordswoman turned to face the passage from which we’d come and planted her feet firmly on the ground. She reached over her shoulder and unsheathed the sword strapped to her back that she called Bloodscale, and its silver dragonscale hilt glistened in the light. The long, scarlet dragon’s tail that curled down each side of the sword looked all the more menacing as its features shone.

  “I guess we don’t have much choice,” Rana sighed and shook her head. “You know, when I’ve imagined my last moments in this world, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. I was hoping for something a little less... insane.” The fox grumbled as she drew the leather bundle that housed her set of exquisitely crafted elvish daggers from her pocket. Each twisted silver handle resembled the body of a scaly serpent. The black gem eyes that were fixed to each of the creature’s head looked just as sinister as the sharp bat wing-like quillons. Rana chose two of the longest blades and gripped them in her paws, poised for attack.