by Eric Vall
Chapter 1
My life was darkness. Emptiness. A void of nothing.
Trapped in this dungeon for all eternity by those who feared me.
Despite my infinite power, it was impossible to know how long I stayed in this state. Perhaps I would have never awoken, but awaken I did to a familiar sound.
The sound of footsteps.
The sound of heroes entering my dungeon.
Centuries of slumber had left a thick soup of fog over my mind, but I still snapped awake and focused on listening for any new sounds. I could scarcely believe my luck. The thought that someone else was actually here was pure lunacy. And yet, the feeling of solitude I had grown so accustomed to was absent. I could feel something. I could feel another presence. No. Not just one. Multiple presences. I was certain.
For the first time in almost three hundred years, adventurers had finally entered my dungeon.
And I was ready for some excitement.
As I moved my presence throughout the massive shadow-plagued caverns, I inhaled the scent of the damp moss that clung to the walls. This had become my home after I’d been cast from Heaven like so many others. We fallen gods had been exiled to earth and scattered across the realm of mortals, and our sudden collisions had resulted in the formation of countless subterranean dungeons.
News quickly spread of the sudden appearance of mysterious dungeons, and humans, elves, and sorcerers alike set out to explore them and see what they held. Those that lived to share their adventures returned with stories of eternal caverns, horrific monstrosities, and deadly traps, but they also returned with tales of great treasures.
Little did these adventurers know that we fallen gods were the ones hurling obstacles at them left and right. Some dungeons granted treasures to those who conquered them. Others bestowed immense power, but either way, the adventurers learned a simple truth. Conquering a dungeon could increase social status, fame, and fortune. Few succeeded or survived. The young and the old, the innocent and the wicked, all seemed to covet the dungeons’ treasures. The poor chased dreams of wealth. The rich sought to become richer. Some merely desired a title, while others were after legendary and unspeakable power.
Which of these rewards would these newcomers seek? And how hard would I push my new playthings as they endeavored to obtain them?
As I continued my descent, the wind whistled through the tunnels and brought the familiar smells of mushrooms and stale water to my nose, but that wasn’t all they brought. Oh no. This time it was different. I could taste the new scents on the air. Lilacs, chocolate, ravens, and cream. It was so tantalizing I could barely stand it, and as I paused momentarily to savor the new flavors, to let them roll over my senses, I realized something that nearly made me cry out for joy.
Now that I was closer, I could determine the exact number of people presently in my dungeon. There were four, and I couldn’t remember the last time I had encountered a group of that size.
My dungeon was a delightfully dismal blend of ghastly illusions, horrendous monsters, undead creatures, and other such things one would expect of an underdark deity. I had once been one of the most powerful gods of the underworld that the universe had ever known. I often thought that I must have been the most powerful underdark deity in existence because the entire Holy Band of Mages had united to trap me and keep me from expanding across the continent.
My dungeon in all its gruesome glory had proved to be insurmountable, and the steady flow of valiant adventurers began to trickle to an occasional few desperate souls. Over time, explorers stopped coming to my dungeon altogether. Days became months. Years became centuries.
There was only one way that I could leave this place, and I had given up on wishing that would come to pass long ago. It was possible for me to create a physical body for myself and that body would be free to roam, but I was trapped here and I couldn’t simply send my avatar out into the world on its own. And so here I had remained, confined to these suffocating catacombs beneath the surface with no adventurers to torture, main, and murder.
Until now, anyway.
I was getting closer, and I could scarcely contain my excitement. Who would they be? And, more importantly, how would I kill them? Would I make it quick? Would I savor it slowly? Were they the first of many or nothing more than a blip barely worth waking for?
I could hear voices now, and the sound of them shocked me to my core. The voices were… female. That was… odd. Women had never entered my dungeon before. As I approached, I saw their quivering shadows along the rough stone walls in the dancing light of their torches. I rounded the last damp corner and hovered near the roof of the tunnel to quietly observe my new visitors.
The light from the torches revealed four women as they walked single file through the blackened tunnel. The group was led by a tall human female with a torch in one hand and an impressive sword in the other. The light reflected off her immaculately polished weapon and her chestnut braids that twisted around her head. She must have been the leader and was probably equipped to handle frontal assaults. Did that mean their next mightiest warrior would be in the back to protect the rear?
Turning my attention toward the last woman, I saw she was shrouded in a black cloak and hood that allowed her to melt into the surrounding darkness. A raven sat perched on each of her shoulders, and as I peered closer, I realized, much to my shock, that her skin was exceptionally pale. And her hair, which cascaded from beneath her hood and reached down to her middle, was a striking white. Could she be an elf?
Interesting, especially since she had the markings of a mage on her forehead. Typically, ravens were not the chosen familiars of mages or elves. It was curious, but I’d no doubt discover the full extent of her abilities soon enough.
That left the women in the middle, and as I extended my senses toward them, my very being was overcome by both curiosity and astonishment. I had never seen anything like them before.
The middle two were some sort of strange animal-human hybrids, their bodies a blend of both human skin and soft looking fur. The one closest to the front appeared to have a human face and body, but the rest of her features were fox-like. Two orange, black tipped fox ears stood on either side of her head. They twitched, clearly alert, and her fluffy orange tail swished defiantly behind her. As her bare fox feet moved noiselessly across the stony floor, her paws gripped a flickering torch that illuminated her ginger fur.
The third woman carried no torch and instead nervously clutched her long black tail. Even as her tufted obsidian ears lay flat against her head, her large jade cat eyes darted from side to side and glowed with an intensity that seemed to pierce through the thick darkness. In all my years I had never seen such creatures as the two women in the middle. It seemed that while I had been asleep, the gods had created new races.
I couldn’t wait to test them.
I couldn’t wait to destroy them.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” the one with the fox ears asked with an annoyed twitch of her tail. “It honestly seems like you’re randomly picking tunnels.”
“I know what I’m doing,” the human hissed over her shoulder, but as she turned back to the oncoming darkness, her face twisted into a mix of frustration and confusion.
“Are you sure?” The fox raised a ginger eyebrow. “You just charged in here before we even came up with a plan, and it’s not like you have a map or anything.” She let out an annoyed sigh. “And now we’re blindly trudging into an endless maze of smelly caverns that’s probably filled with demons or something.”
“There are demons in here?” the cat-woman asked as she clutched her onyx tail to her chest.
“Probably,” the auburn-haired fox said as she gave the cat a sly grin. “Hideous demons and goblins and spirits.” She wig
gled her fingers like a spider’s legs. As she spoke, I held back a chuckle. Those things actually were in my dungeon. The question was, which would I use first?
“Really?” the cat squeaked, eyes wide with fright.
“Don’t worry,” the fox continued after she heard the cat gasp. “If something attacks us, Annalíse will hack it to pieces with her sword.” She gestured to the human in front of her. “And if that doesn’t work, then Morrigan’s crows will peck out their eyeballs and eat them.” She pointed to the last woman. The emerald-eyed cat nodded slowly though she didn’t look convinced.
“Fea and Macha are not crows, they are ravens,” the ivory-skinned elf said. Not a hint of emotion dripped from her voice. “And they do not eat eyeballs, they feed on the souls of the damned,” she added as she stroked the beak of the bird on her right shoulder.
“What?” the feline’s squeal echoed throughout the dungeon.
“Rana, stop teasing Carmedy,” the one called Annalíse said without looking back.
“Hey, she decided she wanted to go on an adventure so she should know what kinds of things could be in here,” Rana the fox said with a shrug.
“Somehow, I don’t think that’s why you’re doing it, Rana,” Annalíse said as she spared a quick glance back toward her companions. “And Morrigan, you’re not helping matters. That business about eating souls wasn’t funny. This is no time for jokes.” She nodded back toward the tunnel ahead. “We need to be ready for anything.”
“I do not make jokes,” the elf said flatly. “My ravens do eat souls.”
“Of course they do,” Rana sighed.
I followed them as they trekked deeper into the caverns. These women seemed inexperienced, but interesting nonetheless. I would start them off easy since they seemed a little out of their depth. Besides, I wanted to enjoy my fun for as long as I could make it last. I’d conjure up a few monsters and then sit back and revel in the entertainment.
As the women entered into an expansive cavern, so I sealed off all the other tunnels that stemmed from it except for the one from which they had come and watched as the women spread out in search of their next route. The human and the fox had torches, and the cat’s luminescent eyes seemed to be capable weapons against the inky cavern. But the elf… how was it that she was able to maneuver through the darkness with such ease?
“I don’t see any other tunnels,” Rana called out to the others after she examined one of the walls. The others in the party echoed similar responses. “Maybe we missed something?”
“Either that or we took a wrong turn,” the elf said, and though Annalíse bristled at the comment, I doubted she’d meant it as an insult.
Not that it mattered because it was showtime. With an effort of will, I summoned my chosen monsters and sat back to watch as a chorus of blood-curdling shrieks pierced the uneasy silence.
“Umm, what was that?” Carmedy asked as she wrung her tail in her hands.
Before anyone could respond, four goblins burst from the darkness. The gangly creatures’ talons scraped against the stony surfaces as they crawled along the cave’s moist walls and floor.
“Goblins!” Rana cried as the snarling monsters crept closer. They licked their lips hungrily and spread out so that each one crawled toward one of the women.
It had been a long time since they had been fed, and their ribs poked through their sickly gray skin.
“Carmedy, we’re going to need some light,” Annalíse called out. Her freckled face was scrunched up with determination as she circled her voracious opponent.
“You got it!” the cat-girl said brightly. The fear vanished from her olive-toned face as she fiddled with a series of small pouches tied to a belt around her narrow waist. “Let’s see,” she mumbled. “Rash ointment, chamomile, arsenic, ah here we go!” She quickly untied two of the pouches, poured the contents of one pouch into the other, gave it a shake, and flung it into the air. Suddenly the shadowy cave was filled with a brilliant blue light.
As the luminescent presence extinguished the darkness and bathed the cavern’s surfaces in a radiant sea of blue, I gazed at the impressive and oddly hypnotic glow. What an unusual trick. Was it magic or something else? Either way, one thing was certain. This battle would be very interesting indeed.
The goblins reeled back and screeched in protest as their spindly arms came up to block their eyes from the abrupt flash of sapphire.
“Perfect!” Annalíse called as a smile filled her features.
“It’s only going to last a few minutes, so please hurry!” Carmedy called to the others, but her attention was already back on her pouches.
“I’ll only need one,” Annalíse said with a twisted grin. The brown-haired warrior hurled her torch at the goblin in front of her. The creature leapt back in surprise, but that must have been what the woman wanted because as it moved, she sidestepped and swung her greatsword in an arc that caught the retreating goblin in the side of the head. Her efforts were met with a resounding crack that flung the goblin across the room in a spray of blood and thicker bits. Not the most impressive display of swordsmanship that I’d seen, but effective.
I set my sights on the she-elf with the pet ravens. To my surprise, her attacker’s limp body was suspended in the air before her with its mouth agape, and its eyes rolled back into its ugly head. The mage marking on the elf’s forehead glowed with blood-hued ferocity. The whites of her eyes were drowned in unmerciful blackness, and she gripped the air as though she had the goblin’s neck within her grasp. Her face was expressionless. The markings on her hand grew brighter as she closed her hand into a fist. Suddenly, the glowing ceased, and the tortured creature fell to the ground in a bony gray heap.
Dark magic... could this elf possibly be one who could free me?
The white-haired elf whispered something to her pets, and the ravens flew from her shoulders and landed on the body. Wisps of white soul energy began to leak from the elf’s victim as the birds eagerly opened their beaks to receive their sustenance. How curious. This woman whom they had called Morrigan was an elf skilled in death magic, and she really had been telling the truth about her birds’ eating habits. I had never heard of such a being. These women were proving to be more adept than I had thought.
But then again, these were merely goblins.
I turned my attention to the fox woman called Rana. She seemed to be about finished with her adversary, who was now a bloody swollen mess. The goblin staggered back as its chest heaved in distress, but the red-headed woman showed no mercy. With unexpected swiftness, she unleashed a series of perfectly executed punches at the miserable creature’s broken nose, bruised jaw, and finally its fleshy gray throat. The last punch caused a choking gasp to erupt from the tormented beast’s mouth. But the fox-tailed female didn’t stop there.
With alarming speed, her bare fox foot slammed into the creature’s stomach. As the creature bent over in pain, she flipped over its head with surprising ease and grabbed the creature’s jaw with one paw and its head with the other. The feeblest of whimpers emerged from the doomed goblin’s ashen lips right before Rana executed the sharp twist. Her eyes showed no trace of remorse, and I observed her white-tipped tail swishing through the air. She actually seemed to be enjoying herself.
The creature slumped down at her feet as she tossed her curly red ponytail over her shoulder with a satisfied sigh. She didn’t appear to have magical abilities like the elf, but she was quick and skilled in hand to hand combat.
That left the feline woman with the strange pouches.
I looked around the blue-lit room searching for the cat called Carmedy and found one of my goblins had her trapped in a craggy corner far from the other women.
“Please go away,” the black cat whispered as she backed more into the corner.
The goblin bared its jagged teeth and slunk across the ground as it hissed and gurgled. When the cat’s hands met with the rigid wall behind her, fear filled her face as she realized she had been cornered.
; The goblin narrowed its yellow eyes before hurling its body at the cowering cat woman. Only as its feet left the ground, Carmedy plucked one of the small pouches from her belt, pinched her eyes shut, and threw it at the dreadful creature. As the bundle collided with the beast’s face, it exploded in a blazing cloud of crimson that engulfed the creature in scarlet flames and caused the scent of burning flesh to fill the air.
“Ah! I did it!” Carmedy squealed with delight. She jumped up and down and clapped her hands as the creature roared with anguish before it finally collapsed to the ground in silence. “I’m sorry.” She looked down at the corpse. “I don’t like violence, but you were probably going to eat me.” She closed her eyes and pressed her palms together. “I hope that your soul finds peace, so it doesn’t get eaten by Morrigan’s ravens.” She opened her eyes, nodded to the body with a kind smile, and jogged off to rejoin the others. By the time she had reunited with her companions, the intense cobalt-hued light that she had created had begun to dim.
How fascinating. What was in that bundle that she had used on my goblin? Each of these women had made short work of my goblins in a way I hadn’t ever encountered before. I was surprised and intrigued, but far from impressed. After all, this was only the opening gambit, something to let me know how to best come at them. If they’d lost to these monsters, it would have been truly pathetic.
I silently watched the women discuss their next move.
“So no one saw any other tunnels, is that correct?” Annalíse asked the other women. Her companions shook their heads no in reply. “Alright then.” The female warrior sighed as she placed her hands on her hips. She frowned at the goblin blood that had splattered onto her once pristine cream tunic and fitted black pants, and she grimaced at the stains on her shined boots. “The only other tunnel that I can see is the one that we came out of. Let’s just camp here for the night and figure out what to do in the morning.”
“Sounds good to me,” Rana said and walked toward the center of the cave. The other women voiced their agreement and followed suit. They formed a circle in the middle of the cave and began to unload the small packs from their shoulders. The satchels were filled with provisions, small blankets, and other necessities. They lit a fire using another one of Carmedy’s bundles and then began to cook their meals and talk amongst themselves.