I woke up to a dull buzzing, humming noise. I didn’t notice it yesterday, but it seems to be coming from the portal. I boldly step forward.
I’m suddenly in familiar surroundings. I notice what appears to be a large, squat stone structure nearby. Wait! That looks like the tower of my former teacher, Neferet the Green.
However, things are not the same as when I was last here. Mists and areas of unexplained darkness surround the tower. There is movement in the shadows.
My teacher would never allow such unaesthetic forms to surround the tower… unless something is dreadfully wrong!
I take a moment to get my bearings. The friendly warhorse decided to join me, and I decide it’s time to give her a name. I settle on Satine.
I take a step forward, and see a score of bats between me and the tower. I can see the legs of a few creatures beneath all the beating wings as well. Why did I think this would be easy?
I’m assaulted by a raven, and vampire bat. They take turns swooping in, and biting me. I don’t have any exposed skin, but their teeth sink through the leather armour, into my flesh. The raven looks at me, and my eyes meet his. Our gaze is locked for a moment, then the world around me fades into darkness. I’m blind. I can still see the creatures, in my mind.
A wraith glides over, and I ignore the bats for now, striking out at the ghostly shape. I fire off a stream of magic at the wraith, and after two spells it is gone. The bats are still swarming around me, and I notice that Satine has killed some of them already. Good horse.
I focus on the vampire bat first, and it falls with a single thrust of my weapon. Next is the raven. I wound it, and Satine finishes it off for me. A few giant bats are still flying around, and I quickly take care of them before I turn to the single hill orc, and it’s pathetic attempts at hurting me. I quickly take care of it, and my eyes start working again. I step over to where the wraith had been, and I’m in luck, there’s a corpse. I gobble it down, and feel more experienced. I feel sensitive, and more confident in my skills. I can sense monsters nearby, and a rough idea of how powerful they are. The feeling is a little disconcerting.
The break is short lived, and another wave of bats overtake me. I see a raven among the group and kill it first, but another raven had escaped my notice, and blinds me before I can get to it. The rest of this group are easy to take out. I notice some giant eels in a pool of water nearby, and figure that I should kill them, in case they become a problem later. I don’t trust them, and kill them from a distance with magic.
Exploring this area is difficult because of the fog. I can’t see very far, and I don’t trust running, so I slowly make my way around the tower. I walk behind it, looking for anything interesting. I don’t find any items, but I do see an interesting monster.
It’s a strange looking three legged beast, with three massive arms. Each arm ends in a claw. Instead of a neck and head, there is a gaping mouth with huge teeth. A single eye sits beneath the mouth. It’s skin is leathery, read in colour, with small bulges and boils. It’s a creature known as a xorn, and there is nothing they won’t eat.
I start stabbing at it, aiming for the eye, but I miss and hit the tough body instead. After a few more tries, I give up any attempt at aiming. It’s bleeding heavily, and hasn’t managed to hurt me very much. I have a sore left arm, but nothing that will hamper my abilities. I’m confident that I will beat this abomination when it surprises me. It pulls out a scroll and reads it. It’s a scroll of create monster, and suddenly there are more than a dozen vampire bats around me. I see another xorn in the distance, and decide it’s time for a strategic retreat. I teleport to a safer area, near the portal, and wait for them to come to me. Before I vanish, I see the xorn jump on Satine, and bring her down. Why can’t I ever protect the animals that mean so much to me? Am I doomed to bring death to all those that I love?
It doesn’t take long for a swarm of vampire bats to congest on me, and one of the xorns is close behind. I let out a few blasts of magic missiles at the xorn. Some of the bats fall, and I take out the rest with Magicbane.
I see the other xorn approaching, and decide it’s time to test my new spell. I zap it with cone of cold. A ball of cold explodes on it, another ball explodes beside it. More follow, and the xorn is caught in each and every one of them. Somehow, it survives, and is still coming at me. There’s also a monster I can’t see, but I see it as a red number two. Not weak, but nothing I have to run away from. The xorn disappears from view, and it’s replaced by the number two in my mind. I wonder if both of them are xorns. I fire off a blast of missiles, then turn back to the vampire bats.
I’m about to die, so I run through the portal to safety. Or what I thought was safety. Another vampire bat, and a barrow wight are waiting for me. I don’t even have the energy to blast them with magic. I ready my daggers, and start flinging them like my life depends on it. Which it does. The daggers do their job surprisingly well, killing both creatures easily.
I run around for a bit, until I feel back to full health. I decide to stick around for awhile, until I have some more energy gathered up for spells. I’m running up and down the hall, killing whatever gets in my way, when I’m approached by a nurse.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her.
“Relax,” she says. “This won’t hurt a bit.” She then hits me. It does hurt.
Something tells me that she’s a nurse, for her to do her job, I need to strip down. She hits me while I’m taking my armour off, it still hurts. She hits me as I take off my helmet, gloves, and boots. Each time it hurts. Finally I’m standing in front of her completely nude, and she’s still hitting me. I put down Magicbane, and start to yell at her. I mean, what does she think she’s doing. She ignores my verbal assault and hits me again. This time I feel better afterward. She’s actually healing me now. I’m quickly back to perfect health, but she’s still hitting me. After one strike, I actually feel a little healthier. She’s making me stronger. Wow, the nurse of my dreams.
She eventually vanishes. I knew it was too good to last. I put my armour back on, and grab my trusty Magicbane. Once I’m fully dressed again, a trio of fire giants have magically appeared. I have some trouble killing them, and I don’t want to use magic if I can help it, I’m still trying to save up my energy. I have to retreat after killing two of them, to heal before I go back for the third one.
Close by, I see a number three. I get a bit worried. Those xorns were not easy to deal with, and they are only a two. I try to run, but whatever it is, it’s fast. I come around a corner, and a large beast runs at me. It looks like a rhino, with sharp horns, but it has claws. I recognize it as a titanothere. I don’t know if I can kill it, so I look through my bag of holding for help. I see my wand of death, and my fingers brush against it, about to pick it up, when I see a scroll I had forgot about. A scroll of taming. I wonder if this will work, and pull it out.
I read it, and the neighborhood is friendlier. The monster stops it’s attack, and becomes my newest pet. I really hope it’s strong enough to look after itself, especially compared to all my previous ones.
When I’m finally ready to move on I look for my newest companion. I don’t see it anywhere, so I use some of my carefully hoarded energy, and cast detect monster. I don’t see it anywhere on the level, so I step through the portal, alone.
The vampire bats waiting for me pose no problem. There’s one monster I don’t remember being there before. A gelatinous cube. I hit it with magic, and eat the corpse. It gives me a bad case of stomach acid, but when I finish I feel full of hot air. I continue on to the tower.
I go around the other side, and see a blue jelly. Magic easily destroys it. I eat the blob it leaves behind. There are also a pair of boots. I pick them up, and identify them as fumble boots. I drop them right away.
Now that I’ve walked around the tower, and have made sure there isn’t any other surprises, I realize I don’t see a door anywhere. I remember where the door used to be though, from my previous visits, when things were normal. I immediately see through the spell that had hidden the door, and try to open it. Locked. Of course. I use my key to unlock it, then carefully pull it open.
There’s another locked door immediately behind it. I get that one open too, and step into the tower. An invisible apprentice is waiting for me.
“Hello,” I venture.
“Ah,” He says. “The spell to create the magic portal worked. Outstanding!”
“Um,” I respond. “Yes. It did. What happened?”
“The spells of the Dark One were just too powerful for us to withstand.” He replies.
“What can I do to help?” I ask, worried.
“Would you happen to have some eye of newt in that overstuffed pack, sister?” He asks, with a greedy look at my backpack.
I don’t bother responding, and push past him. The double doors leading to the audience chamber are locked. I open the one on the left, and enter the room. A bunch of apprentices are wildly running around, and Neferet is sitting on a throne, a concerned look on his face. I walk towards him.
“Come closer, wizard, for my voice falters in my old age,” He says to me. “Yes, I see that you have come a long way since you went out into the world, leaving the safe confines of this tower. However, I must first determine if you have all of the skills required to take on the task I require of you.”
He pauses for a moment, and carefully looks me up and down, then continues with a lengthy speech.
“Yes, wizard, you truly are ready for this dire task. Listen, carefully, for what I tell you now will be of vital importance.”
“Since you left us to hone your skills in the world, we unexpectedly came under attack by the forces of the Dark One. As you know, we thought the Dark One had perished at the end of the last age, but, alas, this was not the case.”
“The Dark One sent an army of abominations against us. Among them was a minion, mindless and ensorcelled, and thus, in the confusion, it was able to penetrate our defenses. Alas, this creature has stolen the Eye of the Aethiopica and I fear has delivered it to the Dark One.”
“Over the years, I had woven most of my power into this amulet, and thus, without it, I have but a shadow of my former power, and I fear that I shall soon perish.”
“You must travel to the Tower of Darkness, and within it’s dungeons, find and overcome the Dark One, and return the Eye of the Aethiopica to me.”
“Go now, with Anhur, and complete this quest before it is too late.”
“I will have my apprentices watch for your return.”
I stood there, shocked, and felt fear building deep within me as he told his story. Why did he think I could stop the Dark One? I don’t want to let him down, but I also don’t know if I’m ready for this.
“To enter the tower you will have to pass through many traps,” He adds. “The Dark One may be vulnerable to physical attacks.”
I quickly unlock the chest, and peek inside, hoping that there will be some magic artifact to help me on my way. It is filled with worthless glass. Before I leave, on this most dangerous mission, I need to take a nap. There’s no way I’m going down into the unknown, facing the worst enemy wizards have ever known, and bringing back one of the most powerful items in the world until I’ve had a proper rest. So yeah, I’m getting some sleep.
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