Shackled, p.34
Shackled, page 34
“That stuff looks sticky as Hell,” Korrash said. “How did you get it off your sword?”
“I didn’t want it there,” she said. “The sword is a reflection of the user; nothing can stain the blade that does not stain the soul.”
“This apprentice bows before his teacher.” Korrash pressed his hands together in front of his chest and inclined his head with a smile.
“The practice of the sacred art of Cultivation is not to be mocked,” she said with a scowl.
“I’m not mocking. That was actual respect. It was a little weird hearing you spout wisdom instead of sarcasm, though.”
“Har har har. I wouldn’t be a Sage if I couldn’t spout some genuine wisdom.”
Korrash was speechless.
“You’re a Sage?!” He was incredulous. Being a Sage meant having a skill all the way up to eleven, and that wasn’t a matter of just putting points into things. It required deep understanding, an almost supernatural insight into every aspect of the skill.
“Of course. Yamamoto Hime-san, Kensei of the Sword and Sage of Blades.” She smiled benevolently at him.
He threw himself to his knees, narrowly missing the puddle of ick on the ground. He kowtowed before her, touching his forehead to the cool marble three times.
“Noble Sage, this humble supplicant begs you to teach him!”
Hime spun away from him, her kamishimo swirling out and slapping him across the face.
“Hey! What are you—” His words were interrupted by the sound of her sword clearing its saya once again. A moment later, another skull and splatter of ooze joined the first, though this skull was from some sort of canid, rather than a human.
“Sorry,” she said. “Where are these things coming from? We can talk about my teaching fees while we clear out this place.”
Korrash stood and brushed off his robes, and together they walked cautiously into the wall of darkness that, somehow, defeated even his Abyssal Sight.
Passing through the open doors was like walking through a giant soap bubble. It felt as if something was clinging to his skin as he passed through, and the smell of the sea and gentle movement of the air vanished, to be replaced by the same half-pleasant, half-revolting smell that the ooze outside had exhibited.
Korrash found his Abyssal Sight working once more, but Hime seemed to be blind. He reached out gently, placing one hand on her shoulder and leading her down the hallway, which was carved from the same white marble as they had seen outside.
A few steps from the entrance, the heavy, iron doors swung closed behind them with a clang that indicated they would not be opening again soon. As the sound echoed down the corridor, ghostly flames erupted at regular intervals, as if invisible torches had suddenly flared to life. They burned a deep blue and cast long, navy shadows through the hall.
Hime pulled a torch out from somewhere (presumably the same place she kept her rope), and Korrash lit it with a simple spell. She held the torch in her left hand, which made her look awkward. Korrash considered a spell that might hold the torch aloft before being struck by a much better idea.
“Aurrie, can you hold that for us?” He turned his head in an attempt to look at the golem while he spoke. Looking inside his own hood while he was wearing it proved to be rather difficult.
“Na,” said Aurrie, climbing out from his usual spot. “Na, na na?”
“Yeah, just don’t catch my head on fire.” The little golem took the torch from Hime. It was twice as long as Aurumvorax was tall, though the golem’s density and relative strength made up for the lack. He held the torch at an angle, bracing the base against his foot and the “ground” of Korrash’s shoulder.
“Never trust magical light,” Hime said. “This dungeon turned it on. It might turn it off again.”
Korrash had never thought of that, but it seemed like good advice. They set off down the tunnel, and he was careful to keep his gait even so as not to disturb his pet-turned-torchbearer.
Twenty meters in, the hallway took a left turn. Korrash heard a faint sound, like stew bubbling in its pot (Perception 5 critical success). He motioned for Hime to stop, and together, they prepared to ambush anything that might be waiting for them.
As one, they leaped around the corner, weapons at the ready. They saw the source of the noise, and it saw them. At least, it looked like it did. It was hard to tell, really.
A bubble of dark, transparent gel quivered on the marble floor. At the top, the round sphere tapered to a soft point that reminded Korrash of whipped cream. From the smoky depths, the skull of a rodent peered lifelessly at them.
“That’s it?” Hime looked annoyed. “A slime?”
Korrash took a moment to inspect the creature.
Least Supplicant Slime
This is all that remains of a creature which came to this place in search of whatever secrets are buried here. Perhaps it found some of those secrets before it became what you see before you, but it cannot reveal them now. Instead of a Slime Core, this creature has a skull. Destroying the skull will kill the creature, while harming its gelatinous body will have little effect. This creature has no special protections and can be harmed easily by any weapon of Mortal Tier or higher (Lore 6 succeeded, but became a critical success due to Tier differences).
“He’s kinda cute,” Hime said, just before a quivering pseudopod lashed out at her face.
She dipped her shoulder and spun to one side, then swung her sword at the extended tentacle, severing it cleanly. The black mass hit the wall behind them with a squelch. The slime just sat there, wobbling. It seemed no smaller for the loss of mass.
Korrash stepped forward and jammed his rapier into the top of the thing. The tip passed through effortlessly, as if he were stabbing water, and skewered the tiny skull within (Blades 6 succeeded, but became a critical success due to Tier differences). The tension left the jelly, and it collapsed into nothing with a flatulent sound. The black stuff clung to his sword, and no amount of effort would remove it.
Hime scowled at the rapier, and the goo slid from the blade in an instant. Sages, he thought.
They eliminated another twenty-eight slimes and looted another twenty-eight random bones as they walked down hallways that seemed increasingly shorter and turned in random directions until, an hour later, the corridor ended abruptly. They turned yet another corner to find that where the floor should have been, there was simply a three-meter-wide opening. Iron rungs glinted from the far side of the hole.
“Welcome to level two,” Hime said as she glanced over the edge, then jumped into the pit, floating down with one hand touching the wall. Korrash was forced to carefully reach out for the ladder and climb the ten meters down. Hime waited for him at the bottom, exaggeratedly tapping her foot even though it had only been about ten seconds.
“Get the lead out, Slowbie,” she said.
Korrash sent a blast of silver energy down the tunnel. It impacted the slime which was currently hurtling toward Hime’s unprotected back, knocking the thing out of the air but otherwise doing little damage (Aetheric Projection 8 critical success). This one had a horse’s skull, and it was much larger than the ones they’d encountered above.
“I knew it was there,” Hime said.
“Sure you did,” he countered as he examined their new foe.
Minor Supplicant Slime
Though still weak, this creature is stronger than those above. It can be harmed easily by weapons of Heroic Tier and above, though it has a chance to absorb energy attacks, taking no damage and gaining a short boost in power (Lore 6 success).
Three tentacles emerged, then rushed toward Hime, their tips sharpened into needle-like points that glowed with the faint silver energy of his freshly-absorbed magic.
Hime dodged to one side, avoiding the first blow, ducked under the second, and brought her sword up to sever the third even as her movements brought her within striking range. She cut the horse’s skull in two on the downstroke, and the slime was no more.
Korrash wiped a bit of black from his face, hoping it didn’t leave a smear, and they continued on.
This level was much like the first; its corridors were all of uniform width and height, the same three meters by three meters, and the turns seemed to be random, but always a simple ninety degrees. Something was bothering him, though, so he began to mentally mark the turns and pay closer attention to his internal chronometer.
The slimes here were more varied, though the Adventurers met the same number as they had on the floor above. Some, like the first they had encountered, were made from the skulls of larger animals. Others were composed of multiple smaller skulls, often those of rats, and a few were humanoid, though these invariably had some distinguishing feature. From one, an eyeball still stared, untouched by time. Another had a pink, fleshy tongue inside a jaw otherwise devoid of flesh.
The passageways were now only a meter or two in length by the time the last slime met its end, its three feline skulls clattering to the floor. Around the next corner was what he hoped was another version of the same pit.
Hime jumped down once more, and Korrash stayed to consider for a moment.
Definitely faster this time, he thought, and until the end, each section seemed shorter. The passage to Level Three, though…
He counted the rungs. Thirty-nine, evenly spaced. A quick estimate put the rungs at a third of a meter apart.
The slime that came to meet them as the deep blue not-torches ignited broke them both out of their complacency. Instead of a simple pseudopod of slime, this one had goo-covered, skeletal hands at the end of two five-meter-long tentacles. The two appendages darted in, one going low and aiming for Hime’s legs, the other coming in high and swerving to catch Korrash by surprise.
Hime jumped to the side, kicked off of the wall into an aerial somersault, and sliced the tentacle in two. Korrash ducked and swung his own staff at the ooze, which had worked remarkably well on the previous floor. This time, though, the Elder-tiered staff simply bounced off of the outstretched limb.
Supplicant Slime
The process that converts those who enter The Twin Locks of Ligios into the plasmodial horror before you allows those with a specific level of power to maintain certain aspects of their previous identity. While they are still non-sentient, each individual creature will have different capabilities for attack and defense. This one is immune to bludgeoning weapons of any tier below Draconic, but is vulnerable to all other weapon types, as well as energy attacks (Lore 6 success).
Korrash tossed a Manabolt at the slime. The ability’s homing feature could not target weak points, so the mana only managed to blow a small bit of protoplasm away from the body.
A ripple went through the still-outstretched tendril and it began to retract. Before Korrash could dodge, he felt bony claws dig into the back of his neck (Defense 5 failure). With another pulse, the dark muck of the tentacle closed up around his neck. While it couldn’t squeeze hard enough to choke him, it could (and did) begin crawling up his face, intent on covering his mouth and nose.
Hime was having her own problems. Though she had cut through the slime’s attack, the portion with the hand inside had not lost cohesion. As she had advanced on the leering skull, the black hand had attacked from behind, fastening itself onto the small of her back where both her sword and her hands were ineffective.
He felt the oozy touch of the blackness against his cheek and knew he was running out of time. He almost summoned his Aura, but remembered at the last moment that his golem friend was perched on his shoulder; Korrash couldn’t bring forth that power without hurting him, too.
Not wanting to trust a spell with the ooze so close to his mouth, Korrash simply shut his lips as tightly as he could and fired another Manabolt — this time at the claw digging its way into Hime’s back.
The bolt swerved and shifted as it flew, keeping up with Hime’s frantic gyrations as she tried to bring her sword to bear against the monster.
“Glorpblorp psshgluk,” the slime said. It followed this comment with an extended raspberry.
Was it mocking them?
Korrash didn’t see his bolt strike home. He didn’t see much of anything, in fact, as his vision was suddenly obscured by an orange so bright it hurt his eyes. And burned his nose.
“Naaaaaaaa!” Aurrie’s war cry rang out in the tunnel as he swept the torch he carried down onto the membrane slowly inching its way onto his master’s face. Korrash heard a screeching sound as the disembodied slime hand caught on fire. While he appreciated Aurrie’s help, this was kind of a problem.
“X-Slash!” Korrash heard Hime’s shout and saw a bright flash of white, though his preoccupation with spinning around and slapping at his neck while trying not to catch seriously on fire prevented him from seeing the attack itself. A moment later, the slime oozing up his face went slack, then began to drip down his body.
It was still on fire. After a panicked intake of breath, he realized his mouth was free.
"Ifris. Zoza. Ro. Din. Ba." The words spilled from his mouth quickly, though he tasted burnt blackberries on the smoke in the air (Primordial Vocabulary 10 success; Primordial Magic 10 success).
The magic erupted around him, quelling the flames in an instant. He felt overly warm, as if he had a sunburn; evidently, he had avoided any significant damage.
His mouth felt unpleasant, and the taste of charcoal wouldn’t go away.
You have gained a new Attribute: Corruption. Nature can adapt to many things, creating forms and abilities both wondrous and terrible. Some are not content to wait for nature. This attribute measures the extent to which dark and powerful forces have changed you. The first visible sign of such effects will occur once Corruption reaches 10%.
I could really use a bath, he thought. Maybe even two. He knew that to vocalize his desire would reinforce hurtful elven stereotypes, and it would make him look less rugged in front of Hime, so he chose to remain silent (Looking Cool 0 critical success).
Chapter Sixty-Five
Fourth Floor, The Twin Locks of Ligios, Krakensport, Kingdom of Eastmere
“There’s definitely a pattern here,” said Korrash, driving his staff into the skull of a slime.
“Yeah, a slimy pattern,” Hime quipped back, slicing through a spine that had twisted into a scorpion-like stinger.
“Not what I mean. We just climbed down thirty-nine steps, and the passage down to level three had the same amount. They were spaced the same distance apart, too.” The pair took position at the next corner as they spoke, the remains of the previous slime still twitching behind them.
“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the sound of how boring you are. Get to the point. Or is this all just normal nerdery? Three, two, one: go!” They both leaped around the corner, striking at the Greater Supplicant Slime before it could form into the humanoid shape that was the hallmark of the monsters on the fourth floor.
“I’m just saying it took us about an hour to get through the first floor, and it’s not like the slimes up there were hard.” A quick blast from his staff pushed back a hastily-formed maw made from rib bones that threatened to grab onto one of Hime’s legs. “Floor three took us thirty minutes, and all the hallways were shorter. About half as short, I’d say.”
“So carving these tunnels got boring,” Hime said as she slashed thrice with her sword. The blade missed the slime by half a meter, but the whistling crescents of air she created with her Seishin made short work of the discombobulated skeleton inside its gelatinous skin.
“How about this? Exactly thirty-one slimes per floor. That was the last one, and we’re going to go around that corner and find the passage down. Once we start getting close to the end of a floor, all the hallways are exactly one meter long.” Hime was already positioning herself, readying the first strike in what had become a predictable pattern for taking down the increasingly-powerful slimes quickly.
“Oh, why didn’t you start with that?!” She whisper-shouted at him as she pressed her back to the wall at the corner. “I completely believe you now; there must be something… three-two-one-go!”
Hime jumped out and charged around the corner while Korrash held back. He was quite sure he was right about the pattern. Hime vanished around the corner, and no sounds of battle were forthcoming when Korrash revealed himself a few seconds later. The way Hime had taken that corner, she’d be slow-falling her way down to Level Five.
A strong hand grabbed the front of his robe and yanked. He had just enough time to see Hime laughing at him as she stood balanced on one foot atop the first rung on the ladder, before he tumbled down the hole (Athletics 7 failed due to Tier differences and other factors).
He tucked his head into his chest to avoid an inconvenient concussion, then woke his Aura (Inviolate Aura 4 succeeded, but became a critical success due to Tier differences). As it filled the space around him, sparks lit the air. He kept his focus pushing outward, and the friction from the effect on the stone slowed his fall enough that he didn’t break anything when he landed. Like the floors above, a small room enshrined the stairway.
The floor here was not marble, but rather a dark stone Korrash did not recognize. As deep blue light flared around him, he could see that this was no hallway. Instead, it was almost circular. Counting the flames, he noted that the room had exactly thirteen walls—a tridecagon.
Grooves were carved into the floor in a frenetic pattern over lines that bent at right angles seemingly at random. Each time they turned, the next channel was shorter.
“A map,” he whispered to himself, heedless of the dark liquid that poured through the stone channels.
“Boring, but at least this looks like a boss room.” Korrash whirled as Hime’s voice sounded behind him, echoing in the small space.
“Don’t scare me like that! Besides, this is really interesting! I think the theme of this dungeon is actually —”
“Slime,” said Hime, drawing her sword.
