I woke up alone. Such a strange and unsettling feeling. Aurora hasn’t been part of my life for very long but I miss her. Fritz has been an even shorter time, but it is strange not having him jump up on my chest as soon as I open my eyes. I will get them back.
I decide to focus on finding the stairs, I can fully explore later.
As soon as I leave the room, I’m accosted by a giant ant. It’s still rather small, but it’s a lot faster than I am. I try kicking it, in the hopes that I can hurt it more that way. I was wrong. It’s sharp fangs easily prick through my shoes, and it manages to bite me a few times before I have a chance to do anything. I decide to go to my usual route, and blast it with magic. The bolt hits the ant, and something behind it. I don’t manage to kill either. I tighten my grip on Sting, and swing the blade downward. It works, and the and collapses. Before I can even see if it left a body behind, another ant is in front of me. I try the same maneuver, and wound the ant, but it retaliates by biting me. I try one last time, and success.
I step over, and see the two dead ants, as well as an elven cloak on the ground. I quickly make a meal of them both before moving on. You would think that by now I would be used to the taste of strange things. You would be wrong. Everything still tastes terrible.
I enter a room and my attention is immediately drawn to a fountain. I look over, and see a scroll. I start to walk over to pick it up when something moves in the shadows. It’s another golem. This one is made of leather. The gold golem had looked like a statue, and the rope golem looked like a large children’s doll. This abomination is something entirely different. Most of the body and limbs are worn brown leather. There are no cracks or holes, it almost looks like a suit you would be able to wear. The head is something from nightmares. It is a shiny black leather, like a sex fetish mask. A bright red glow comes from two holes where eyes would normally be.
It swings both club-like arms at my leg. I feel something give, and immediately drop to my knee. I struggle to get enough leverage to hit it with Sting. It responds with another bashing. This time it hits my back. I manage to strike at it twice before it comes at me again. It hits my head, but thankfully my helmet protects me from the worst of it. I shake my head, and blindly thrust out. It responds by battering my arm, thankfully not the one I’m holding a weapon with. It’s now just hanging uselessly at my side.
I get another two quick jabs in with Sting, and manage to get up on my feet. The golem once again goes for my leg and down I go. I swing wildly, and connect. Finally, out of desperation I cast my spell again. It hits the golem, but isn’t enough to kill it. The golem comes at me with renewed aggression. I fire off another stream of magic.
It worked. The golem turned a bright white, then crumbled. I crawled over, and saw that it left behind a number of suits of leather armour. I picked one up, took off my cloak and tried it on. It fits snugly over my sweatshirt, and I’m glad to have some real protection finally. I start to put my cloak on, and a kitten runs over to me and starts biting my leg.
By the time I finish with my cloak I’m lying on the ground, ready to die. I manage to reach into my pack for one of my precious food rations. I weakly throw it towards the dangerous orange ball of fur, and the cat devours it, then promptly disappears.
While I wait on the ground, trying to recover, I look at where the kitten had been. I see a teleport trap on the ground. Well, that’s one mystery solved. I finally feel well enough to move. My bones feel like they are whole again, and I’m no longer leaking blood. I decide I’m ready to move on.
I find a dark room, and when I cast my spell for light I see a fountain, and some stairs heading further down. I ignore both, and I’m about to go over and light up the rest of the room when a stalactite drops from the ceiling onto my head.
It bounces off my helmet, and my new kitten friend clamps down on it. It takes me a moment to realize what happened. It’s not a piece of rock, it’s an actual creature. It’s roughly my height, and about the width of my thigh. I notice a large mouth, full of sharp looking teeth. I don’t see any actual eyes, but there is a red glow above the mouth of the beast. I decide to call it a rock piercer.
It is unimpressed by my cat’s attack, and bites back. My kitten and I team up and beat it. It tries to bite us, but it is obviously blind, and doesn’t connect. We quickly manage to finish it off, and the kitten eats the body it leaves behind.
I finish the job of lighting the room, then move on. I find a large box in another dark room. After my previous success, I use Sting to force the lock open, and take a look at the spoils. Empty. Again. A blob of acid slides along to floor out of the darkness. I don’t want to risk sticking my dagger into it, so I blast it with magic. It leaves something behind, but there’s no way I’m touching it.
I light up part of the room and see an altar against the far wall. I revise my decision to touch the corpse, and carry it over to the altar. It’s a neutral altar, but I decide to try a sacrifice anyway. I drop the body of the acid blob, and begin the ceremony. I feel a conflict between my God, Anhur and the neutral God, Thoth. Unluckily, I feel Anhur’s power decrease. The altar remains neutral.
There is nothing more I can do about it at the moment. I decide to empty out most of my pack onto the altar. My possessions tumble out, and fall onto the holy shrine. There are some flashes of black or amber as some items hit. At least I know what is blessed or cursed now, if I need it.
I don’t have the energy I need to finish lighting up the room, so I walk against the wall. A cloud of gas envelopes me, but I feel no ill effect. I come to the conclusion that it was sleeping gas. Thankfully I’m immune. I continue my search, and hear another guard.
I come to another dark room, and decide to save my magic. I come across a whistle, and blow it. It produces a high whistling sound, and a few minutes later my new friend walks in and drops a white gem at my feet. I pick it up, and move on. Further along the room is another large box. I repeat the procedure with Sting, but get interrupted by a fucking jaguar. It is amazingly fast. It swipes at me multiple times before I can react, leaving deep red scratches across my breasts.
I’m glad I saved my magic, the first thing I do is fire off a bolt at it. I miss, and the jaguar continues it’s assault. I try again, and hit it this time. It keeps swiping at me with it’s sharp claws. I’m now bleeding profusely. I try once more, and manage to kill it.
My kitten drops a gem, and eats the body before I get a chance. I go pick up the gem, and feel wise. I go back to the box, and resume my attempts to force it open. When I get it open, I find two green gems inside.
I continue my exploration, and get attacked by a scorpion. I should have let myself heal before I moved on. It’s really fast, and manages to get a number of hits in with it’s claws and stinger. After one hit, I feel poisoned. I rely on magic, and eventually win the battle. I find a scroll it had been guarding.
Further into the room I see a short wand. I pick it up, and tell myself I’ll figure out what to do with it later. The last room on this floor has an altar, this one is already chaotic, like me. And finally, the stairs going up.
I wait for my new friend. I decide to name her Glasnosh. We take a nap, tomorrow we will go up and find my old friends. Tomorrow.
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