by Phoenix Grey
Defeated Level 11 Door Spirit. 88XP rewarded.
“Well, that was surprisingly easy.” Azure hadn’t even broken a sweat.
“Don’t complain.” Lonnell sliced him with side-eye.
“That was definitely not a complaint considering that I almost died last time. Actually, I think it’s rather fair.”
“I don’t know about that.” Lonnell knelt next to the wilted spirit and began rummaging through its robe for the key.
Janine was already busy flipping through her bestiary. “I don’t see a listing for door spirits in here.”
“The key isn’t on it.” Frowning, Lonnell stood.
“I suppose we have to search the room then.” Without reservations, Azure walked over to start pulling the sheets off of the furniture. All they found were a sofa and an old piano. “I’m not sure what I expected,” he admitted, crossing his arms over his chest and stroking his chin as he looked at the furniture.
“Well, the key has to be in here somewhere.” Lonnell began inspecting the sofa, then he turned to Janine. “Check behind the paintings. Azure, you look inside of the piano.”
Azure wasn’t thrilled with what he’d been tasked with. He knew nothing about pianos. Still, he approached the instrument and lifted the top.
There were lots of strings and pegs and absolutely nothing that looked like a key...unless one of these things was the key? After scrutinizing for several seconds, Azure confessed, “I don’t know what in the hell I’m looking for. Someone trade me spots.”
Lonnell’s head popped up. “I don’t know anything about pianos either.”
“I’ll look,” Janine offered. “There wasn’t anything behind the paintings anyway.”
The sound of ripping filled the room as Lonnell took out a blade to slice open the sofa cushions.
Damn, he's going about this pretty hardcore, Azure thought as he stared at his friend.
“Don’t dawdle,” Lonnell paused to chastise him. “Cut the canvas off the paintings. There might be something inside.” He gestured with his knife toward the portraits.
“Are you sure we’re not going to piss off any more ghosts doing this?” Azure scratched at his face, hesitating to do as he was told. Somehow, it felt wrong to deface the portraits.
Lonnell gave him an incredulous look. “What does it matter? We have the amulet now.”
Shrugging, he got to work taking each painting from the wall and cutting them from their frames. A boy and a girl around the same age, the portraits of the children were unsmiling, both sitting with their hands folded in their laps like proper little dolls. Azure could only assume they had been Digsby’s children.
Coming up empty-handed only made him feel worse about defacing the paintings. “I’ve got nothing.”
“I don’t see anything in here either.” Janine’s head moved around as she continued to peek inside of the piano. Now that he thought about it, she was probably the last person that should have been inspecting it. Due to her shortness, she was on her tiptoes, having to move around the whole piano to see everything. Even then, he was sure she had missed a few spots.
As if in sync with his thoughts, Lonnell went to give the piano a final look over. Janine glared at him as if he thought her incompetent. “It has to be in here somewhere,” he insisted, walking back to the sofa. “Azure, help me lift this.”
They turned the sofa onto its side, but there was nothing beneath it. Then Lonnell began checking the floorboards for cracks or weaknesses. When that produced no results, he ran his hands along the walls. He was, Azure thought, impressively thorough.
After about thirty more minutes of searching, Lonnell surrendered with a sigh. “It’s not here.”
“Then where else would it be? It’s not like there’s much on this level,” Azure said.
“Maybe the protector is supposed to give it to us?” Janine suggested.
“It’s the only other viable option,” Lonnell agreed, leading the way to the door.
They exited the room and walked down the hall, fully expecting the protector to materialize from the mist. But there was no mist no matter how close to the door they got.
Azure placed his hand on the door handle. “Maybe he’s on the other side.”
Opening the door led to another set of stairs going down to the next level. There was no protector.
“Well, that sucks.” Janine sulked.
Lonnell blew out a breath and pressed his fingers to his temples. “We have to be overlooking something.”
Words hesitated to leave Azure’s mouth. “I don’t think we are. We literally just tore that room apart.”
“Then it has to be back in the room with the chest.”
“Oh!” Janine perked up. “Or maybe we don’t need a key at all. Perhaps defeating the door ghost unlocked the chest.”
“Of course!” Lonnell seemed to renew instantly. “That has to be it.”
Feeling triumphant, they hurriedly strode to the room with the chest, eager to discover the prize inside. When they entered, the first thing they noticed was that the lock was still attached. A good tug didn’t open it. Nor did trying to pry it off.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Lonnell stomped his foot, his stress coming back full force.
“I don’t get it.” Janine shook her head.
“Let’s check the walls and floor in here. We might have missed something.” Azure tapped lightly on the floor with the ball of his foot, then moved a few inches over to the next wood plank.
Thirty more minutes of searching produced nothing. Defeated, the Adventurers reconvened in the middle of the room.
“All right,” Azure began. “I don’t think the key is on this level. If it were, surely we would have found it by now.”
“It just doesn’t make any sense.” Lonnell continued to stare at the chest as if searching for something he had missed.
“I don’t know how any of this dungeon stuff works,” Janine confessed. “But are we sure that what’s inside of this chest is important enough for us to be spending so much time on it?”
“There’s really no way to know until we see what’s inside,” Azure told her.
“She’s right.” Lonnell walked over to the chest. “There could be nothing worthwhile in it. We should just forget about it for now.” He turned back to them. “It’s late anyway. We should get some rest before moving on to the second level.”
“I don’t know if we should sleep in here.” Janine hugged herself. “There are perfectly good beds upstairs.”
“If we leave the dungeon, it will reset. Won’t it?” Azure looked to Lonnell for confirmation.
“More than likely. I know it’s not ideal, but we should stay down here.”
Janine’s eyes fell to the holes at the base of the wall. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep knowing that we’ll probably have to fend off rats all night.”
Azure followed her gaze, quirking his head slightly. “I’m not so sure that’s true. Technically, we should have been attacked by rats again when we re-entered this room.”
“That’s right,” Lonnell acknowledged. Now all three of them were staring at the holes. “Maybe this dungeon is a little different than other ones.”
“It’s definitely different.” For one, it wasn’t in a cave. They also hadn’t had to walk forever to reach the next level. Everything was fairly compact.
“Maybe that means we can leave and come back.” Janine sounded hopeful, desperately wanting a bed.
“I don’t think we’ll be that lucky.” Lonnell stared at the door.
“Then maybe we can at least sleep in the room without the holes in the walls. I’m sorry, but if you expect me to sleep, it won’t be in here.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Let’s go to the other room.” Azure nodded his head in the direction of the room they’d just destroyed. His eyelids were growing heavy, and he was more than ready to sleep.
“What if t
he door spirit respawned?” Lonnell gave him a serious look.
“Then we’ll beat it again. That couch fluff looked like it will make a decent bed.” A lazy smile lit up his face.
“All right,” he agreed, and they filed out of the room.
The fact that there was no blue light streaming beneath the other door was a good indication that the door spirit hadn’t respawned. However, when Azure opened the door, he still gave pause and gasped.
“What is it?” Janine leaned around him to see.
Everything they had vandalized had been restored and was now back in its original place. For some reason, Azure found that incredibly creepy. It almost made him want to take his chances with the rats. But that sofa was just calling his name.
“Yay! Janine pushed past him, tearing the sheet off of the sofa and throwing herself onto it. “This is probably a better reward than whatever is in that chest.” She quickly made herself comfortable.
Lonnell and Azure shared a look and a grin. To some degree, she was right.
While Azure thought that Lonnell would argue that Janine should take the first watch since she’d done the least amount of work, her Stamina was the most depleted from fighting monsters on their journey to the mansion. In the best shape of them all, Lonnell settled down in a corner to take the first shift.
Janine was snoring before Azure was even able to get settled on the floor. He cast an annoyed look in her direction, hoping he’d be able to sleep through it. Never had he ever heard someone snore so loudly before.
“The joys of traveling with a dwarf,” Lonnell whispered to him with a small chuckle.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE REALM – Day 74
Being gentlemen, they allowed Janine to take the couch for both of her sleeping shifts. Azure got it once, and Lonnell seemed content on the floor. For as rocky as things had gone during the day, they had approached the guarding and sleeping arrangements with no drama.
When they left the room in the morning, they were happy to find the hallway free of rats. There was no protector to greet them as they made their way to the door at the end of the hall, and The Amulet of the Underdead was still securely around Janine’s neck which meant they had passed the protector’s test.
Descending the stairs brought them to another hallway, this one with three doors on each side. The Adventurers stopped when they poured out onto the level. Standing before them a few feet away was another ghost, this one that of the little girl from one of the portraits in the door ghost room. Drained of all color, her long hair fell over her shoulders, held away from her face by an oversized bow pinned to the back of her head. The volume of the skirt of her dress made her look like a doll.
Cautiously, Janine lifted the amulet toward the girl. Just like with the protector, nothing happened. “I wonder if it’s broken,” she mumbled, shaking the amulet for good measure and trying again.
“Spirit,” Lonnell began in the voice that made Azure stifle a chuckle, “what do you want?”
The little girl said nothing. She simply stared at them.
“She’s creepy,” Janine whispered to Azure, clutching onto his side.
Azure took a few steps forward, and the ghost ran into the first room on the right, disappearing through the door.
Janine shuddered. “Should we follow her?”
“I think we’re meant to.” Lonnell’s gaze was fixed on a grandfather clock at the end of the hall. It was the only piece of furniture, and there were no wall hangings.
“This level has a different feel to it,” Azure noted.
Divided in half with a thick white line, the top of the walls were an off-white color while the bottom was painted in checkered tiles of blue. The floor was made of gray stone slabs, giving the place a more dungeony feel. Blessedly, there were no holes in the walls, so the Adventurers shouldn’t have to worry about rats.
“Who cares? Let’s go.” Lonnell pushed past his comrades to follow the girl into the room.
“Be careful.” Janine reached up a hand as if she wanted to pull him back, then stopped.
They stood in front of the door, drawing their weapons in preparation for whatever was inside. Lonnell threw open the door only to find the room empty save for some furniture covered in sheets. The little girl was nowhere to be seen.
Janine blew out a breath of relief, and they all filed into the room to inspect it.
“There's nothing here.” Azure peeked under one of the sheets.
This particular room appeared to be a bedroom. The only furniture inside were two wooden beds and a chair in the corner, none of which were as luxe as the rest of the furniture they’d seen in the mansion.
“Are we going to tear this room apart, too?” Janine was already pulling her dagger from her belt.
Lonnell cast his gaze down on her. “No. Let’s wait. Though I’m already getting a strong feeling that we’ll be coming back here. It’s rare that there’s a room in a dungeon for no reason.”
“But it does happen?” she asked.
“Yes. It’s usually meant to throw people off-track or waste their time, but it does happen.”
“Like that chest.” Azure’s eyes widened.
Lonnell shook his head. “I still don’t feel good about that chest.”
“None of us do. It was too fancy to not be important.” He sighed. “But there’s nothing that can be done about it for now. Unless we’re supposed to be looking for the key, we have no more business in this room. Let’s check the rest and then decide what to do from there.” Azure turned to lead them out of the room.
As soon as he did, the girl materialized again in the hallway. She was turned facing the entrance to the level, which he found to be incredibly unsettling. It was like she was staring at something they couldn’t see, her expression joyless and blank.
“Uh, guys. That ghost just appeared again.” He flicked his finger toward her.
This time, Janine stomped around him, placing her hands on her hips in exasperation. “What do you want?”
The little girl turned to her for half a second, then darted into the room across the hall. Janine’s whole body slumped as she sighed.
“I’m pretty sure she just wants us to follow her,” Lonnell surmised.
“This is kind of annoying.” The dwarven woman walked over to the next door.
“At least she’s not scared of them anymore,” Azure cast back to Lonnell who nodded in agreement.
Janine waited for the boys to catch up. Though she didn’t seem to be afraid of the ghosts anymore, she also didn’t seem willing to take point in entering any of the rooms.
Since none of the rooms seemed particularly ominous—no fog or light coming from beneath any of the doors—Azure didn’t hesitate to open the door. This room was the same size as the previous one, but instead of furniture, there were three piles of skeletal remains on the floor, each with their own weapon.
“Well, those are about to come to life,” he predicted only seconds before the piles began to move. As Azure drew his Bergen’s Glaive and prepared to attack, he quickly Analyzed each one.
Level 5 Rickety Skeleton.
Level 5 Rickety Skeleton.
Level 5 Rickety Skeleton.
This will be easy.
“I've got this,” he told the group, stepping in to make short work of their foes.
“I want to help!” Janine pushed past him with all the enthusiasm she had exuded during their trip to the mansion.
Swinging her ax like a lunatic, bone fragments flew into the air as she connected each hit. Azure was barely able to take one of the skeletons down before she was done with her two.
Defeated Level 5 Rickety Skeleton. 35XP rewarded.
“You should have let me get all three of them.” She frowned at him. “I’m the one who needs the experience.”
He thought for a moment and decided that Janine was right. The lowest level of the group, Azure should have just left the skeleto
ns to her. “I’ll tell you what,” he said as she pulled out her bestiary to see if anything else was lootable besides the weapons, “if we encounter anything below a level 8, it’s all you from now on.”
She nodded in approval before slamming the book shut and stuffing it back in her bag. “Just the weapons. If one is unarmed, it should leave bone chips behind.”
All three skeletons had weapons, so there were no bone chips to collect. Azure knelt to pick up the blade his skeleton had been brandishing.
You have received the following item:
Rusty Longsword
Attack: +2-6
Type: Two-Handed Weapon
Durability: 27/28
Item Class: Common
Quality: Poor
Weight: 7.5 kg
It was worthless to him as a weapon. Probably nothing he picked up would top his Bergen's Glaive for a while. Azure stuck the Rusty Longsword in his Bag of Holding and joined Lonnell outside of the room.
As soon as they had all exited, the little girl appeared again. They didn't bother trying to talk to her this time. It was no use.
When they approached her, she ran into the room on her right. It seemed as if she was going in order.
Opening the next door revealed a similar room to the one on the first level with just a chest inside. Except this one was far less impressive, and there was no lock on it. Made of wood with a rusty metal latch, the chest gave no resistance as Azure flipped the top open. At the bottom of the chest lay a small gold ring with a pink stone in the shape of a heart. Picking it up displayed a notification.
You have received the following item:
Burst of Health Ring
Type: Jewelry
Mana Cost: 0
Range: 100 feet
Durability: 15/15
Item Class: Uncommon