Role Playing Fan Fiction ❯ Conjure It At Your Own Risk ❯ Dungeon Crawling ( Chapter 5 )

Dungeon Crawling

I crouched into stealth mode, which seems to make being seen a lot harder. It activates the local Veil spell, only without mana. I suspect it is a mind-control spell, only it is natural rather than dark magic. I crept down the vine covered stairways, finding more of those giant rats. More tails full of mana for use in potions, and some burial urns turned up wedding rings of silver with amethyst or garnet stones. More wealth to pay my expenses, or perhaps use for enchanting? Maybe so, if I can find one that fits a finger. I picked up a magic potion of stamina, still good under my Sight, and went over a staircase, up down, and around to spot a bandit nodding to himself, then reaching for a lever on the floor. Trap? Obvious trap. He was pierced by dozens of what were very poisoned darts and died suddenly, body dropping to the ground. I issued a quiet prayer to God and hoped his soul would find rest despite its circumstances leading to this abrupt end. Sofia bumped into me then.

“Oh. Sorry,” she whispered too loudly. I sighed. I noticed that there were rotating pillars along the left wall, with carved signs on them. There were similar signs on the wall above us and the dead man’s corpse. Rotate a pillar to match the sign, and the fallen one on the floor.

“Wait over there. If this goes wrong I’m going to be jumping that way. If you stop me we’ll both die. Understand?” I asked her in a hoarse whisper. She nodded, then moved to the first landing of the stairs, waiting. I pulled the lever. The gate opened. No darts. I sighed in relief. Entering through the gate I found a table with a book glowing under magic, something about pickpocketing flowed into my mind the moment I touched it. Huh. I also nabbed a couple soulstones, a dagger with electric shock enchantment, and a heavy shield that I passed to Sofia. She hefted it, then frowned and put it back in the chest. Ten septims richer I approached the spiral staircase in the floor and listened. Hmm. I heard angry chittering and skittering, and the stink of animal urine is strong. More of those rodents of unusual size. I crouched above the spiral and shot some fire down the hole. It stuck to the wooden steps and burned, but also activated my Ocato’s Recital spells because the intent ward triggered to the hostile animals. As a personal ward, it was quite ingenious. Well worth the price of 358 gold pieces. Septims, I mean. Someday I’m going to learn why they call them that.

The rats charged and I burned them, one at a time. Pause, again. And again another pause and burst. The sound of animal souls being ripped out by Necromancy and flowing to my petty soul gems was odd. A hissing, sizzling sound that peters out. I cut off tails from the stinking rat things and noted a scroll and bottle of some kind of poison, which both got added to my satchel.

“Is someone coming? Bjorn? Byolene? Help!” called a male voice. I approached, curious, since my wards showed I was still near something hostile. Some septims from a skeleton’s remains, then turn to regard a web-covered archway. And it was a good seven feet by five of webs. And strong. I sprayed it with flames to burn it away and readied an ice spike before sticking my head around for a quick look. Sofia bumped into me, again.

“Sorry,” she blurted out, too loud again. But she didn’t back away. “Shit! Spider!” I returned my annoyed glance from the meat-shield to the open area and saw a Shelob scale beast a good 10 feet across and six feet high descend from a huge hole in the ceiling. I fired my ice spike at it instinctively, and powered up the summoning for my flame atronach. A quick pulse as Sofia pushed past me to attack while I ducked behind the pillar for cover. They spit poison, after all. The two clashed while the elemental threw fireballs at the hissing monster. I peered around and tossed a fireball at it, earning a hissing squeal and its soul evaporated out, captured by another gem in my satchel. I stilled. We both stood and the atronach began to move around the room.

“Cut me down! Cut me down!” demanded the man. I noticed all the dead bodies wrapped in spider thread on the ground and wondered if these had been his former friends? Or his meat-shields?

I approached.

“Evening, sir,” I offered a greeting to a dark elf in hide armor. He was trussed up pretty well in spider silk, probably meant to be the next dinner if we hadn’t happened along.

“Cut me down. You won’t believe what treasure the Nords have hidden,” he promised. I suppose that could be so. I recalled mention of a stolen claw by Lucan, made of solid gold. I peered at him, unable to see anything like that, but maybe it is smaller than Lucan described.

“Know anything about a golden claw?” I asked.

“Yes, yes, the claw, the door in the hall of secrets. I know it all. Now cut me down,” he begged. My sight showed this man had a soul black as night. He’d murdered in cold blood, betrayed friends, and was probably beyond redemption. He was also helpless, and I’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Pa wouldn’t want me to just kill a guy.

“Okay. Fine,” I answered, and hit the webs with a quick flash of fire. He dropped to his feet.

“Thanks kid. Hey, what’s that behind you!” he shouted, pointing. I did not turn, because this is literally the oldest trick in the book. He looked disappointed then as I cooly stared back. He slumped his shoulders and spun around.

“See if I share the treasure with anyone,” he sneered, then booked it further into the ruins.

“Figures,” I announced. Sofia had been clanking around in the debris of the room. She snagged some rings, coins, and a holy symbol for Stendarr from the various containers near the spider’s reeking corpse. She swung the amulet over her head to rest in some serious cleavage, somehow revealed despite wearing armor. I returned to crouching and followed the despicable dark elf into the ruins, noting the footprints in the dust were painfully obvious. Not exactly stealthy.

I followed those steps in the dust, Sofia bumping into me every time I stopped anywhere. She keeps jogging my elbow. The passage descended into a burial chamber where mummies were laid out in alcoves, and many of them had a lot less dust than I expected. At least one of them was standing by the far wall, looking… annoyed? It’s a mummy. A type of undead. I really wish I had some kind of undead disrupting spells, something faith-based and area-effect. AOE spells are sometimes really good, especially if they are ones that can’t hit your allies. I opted for a compact fireball, which did a great job of lighting up the dried corpse like a thatched roof cottage in Helgen. It waved its arms and ran around before falling over and what remained of its soul transferred in a blue hiss to gems I carried. Good for enchanting, so I am told. Another dry howl sounded and I rotated to engage another mummy, with a fast fireball to the torso. Another flaming torch waving its arms and weapons around. It charged me then fell at my feet, hissing soul into stone.

“Disgusting,” I finally said. There was a corpse on the ground, the dark elf who’d mocked us a few minutes ago and a swinging gate with a really OBVIOUS trap trigger in front of it. The floor was bulging up at the trip-stone. I checked the perforated corpse quietly and found a leather bound journal with conveniently English alphabet writing inside, not runes like you’d expect, and a golden claw. Where he’d been hiding that I don’t know, but I have it now. And the instructions in the journal. We edged past the simple swinging trap and I put a fireball into the resting mummy dead ahead. Dead, but not dead enough. Thank you Leslie Nielsen.

There was a stone staircase descending on my right to another floor of alcoves, and more mummies, one of which was already moving. Downside of my soul collector cloak spell is it alerts enemies you are coming. So not very stealthy.

“Ghaoww!” hissed a dry mouthed mummy. I cast my atronach spell and then put a fireball into the nearest one. The atronach threw fireballs around and smashed a very dry flammable mummy with its flailing fists, which then proceeded to burn and howl before collapsing. Four more filled soul stones. This left me to examine a triggered swinging blade trap. There were three. I looked at them, and then looked at the discarded shields and battle axes.

“Hey, Sofia. Try and wedge that old battle axe so it blocks the swinging blades,” I suggested.

“That never works. But FINE. Just stand back. And be ready to heal me. If I get this wrong I’m going to get smashed up,” she complained. A moment later and the haft of the battle axe broke. There was also a screech. The mechanism wound down and stopped, blades right in the middle of the area we wanted to walk.

“Don’t bump anything. It might start up again,” Sofia suggested. She wiggled past and came out the far side. Being shorter and skinnier, this was easier for me. There was a release chain to disable the trap. I pulled it and the blades retracted, all but the first one. I returned to crouching and cast my atronach spell down the stairs in front of a waiting mummy. What did Sofia call these? Draugr? Not hardly. I knew my bestiaries. Draugr were Danish stone-age barrow wights, ridiculously strong and powerful, and quite difficult to fight, impossible to kill, and were serious boss level monsters. These creatures were mummies. And not very strong ones. They may call them draugr, but they’re mummies. And they burn like dried kindling. I descended the stairs and Sofia lunged ahead right as I lit the waiting pool of oil on fire. So she caught fire too, though it didn’t seem to hurt her much. The mummies burned, several more turned up with frost magic, which I reflected with a shield spell from my left hand and then burned them as well. I cast heal on Sofia who quickly recovered like nothing had happened.

“You know, Sofia. I’ve been meaning to talk to you. That pool of oil back there was a really great trap… but you walked into it. I was trying to lure the mummies into it then set them on fire. Sometimes it might be a good idea to wait for me to do my thing before you lunge into battle, alright?” I asked her. She looked at me like I was a space alien. Okay, to be clear, I am technically a space alien. I’m not from this planet. I got here via portal, across who knows how far of the Nevernever. Still, I look human. So I’d like to not get that sort of look from a battle junkie.

“Ah.. well. You know I just get excited and then I’m going to attack. That’s just how it is,” she explained and moved forward. I stared, the stepped over the mummy corpses and wound through more passageway and stairs to arrive next to a waterfall, where an upright tomb lid burst off and a mummy with a rotten steel battleaxe stepped out. Sofia gestured to me, so I set it on fire.

“Go ahead,” I said then. She leapt forward and dealt the killing blow to the creature, which expired. There was a treasure chest, no lock, and I found some gold coins, a copper headband with onyx stones set into it. Onyx is coal. It’s coal. Its been polished and shaped, but it is coal. One small flame spell and it is gone again. I sighed, dropping it into my bag and hope someone would buy it as the jewelry it was meant to be. I pulled the ring where the water drained down and followed it a short distance before finding another waterfall and well lighted cavern. Looking down I heard a moan of undead mummy rage I was coming to find really annoying. I fired a fireball at it, which exploded on contact, igniting the damp mummy despite all the water nearby and blowing it into the wall of the pit, where it bounced and slipped down. I noticed a chest down there, some dead giant rats, a couple skeletons and opted to ignore it. I descended the passage, snagging several glowing fungus plants, clearly magical, and crossed the stone bridge beside the waterfall. Sofia followed, commenting about her sex life and how she teases other Nords when drunk. She talks a lot. A short climb up some passages and we neared a door, guarded by another zombie. I hit him with fire, and he charged. Sofia charged around me and slammed into him with her shield, bashing him off his feet, spun, and decapitated the creature with her sword. I don’t know but maybe she’s getting better? Or maybe the hangover is wearing off and this is what she’s like when she’s sober and competent?

Beyond lay a door. I ignored the locked chest, suspecting only junk was in there, and pulled the door open with a creak. We advanced towards a noise, finding more of those slicing swinging axe blades, and a large room with a staircase at the far wall. I sensed movement and heard steps and hissing from more mummies. I crouched and considered. I opted to fire an ice spike at the wall. The first one smacked into an axe in the trap and burst itself apart, leaving the axe unscathed. I tried again after my mana refilled and timed it to miss the axe trap. It flew true, striking the far wall halfway up the staircase. There was a groan from the mummies. One descended to look down at the fresh ice, confused. I created a fireball, timed it right, and nailed the mummy. It thrashed around, falling down the stairs and landed in an orange puddle, which instantly burst into flames like gasoline. Another mummy descended the stairs and ran into the fire, also burning until it crashed into the ground. No hiss of soul. I think my stones are all full. Now, to get through the traps. If I timed my steps I could just maybe… step, pause, step, pause, and step and I was through. A moan issued from my left and I put a fireball into its chest. It rose anyway, charging, so I doused it in flame and heard Sofia curse as axe blades hit her. I quickly turned to disarm the trap with the handy pull-chain and then cast heal on her. She didn’t seem to need it a moment later, standing up perfectly fine.

“You know, I notice you heal really fast,” I said.

“Do I? Huh. How do we get out of this place?” she asked, eyeing the staircase. I followed it up and around and then over a walkway that crossed the lower area via bridge, then under more leaking lamps and a quick dogleg to a pair of doors. Open that and find… a hall of stories. I dug out the journal and re-read the book, then turned over the golden claw. Are you kidding me? The pattern for the door lock is written on the claw. Matching symbols top to bottom and pressing in the claw to the matching holes let it turn then release. The door spun then sank into the floor. A moment later it stopped and we stepped into the final cavern, a flight of bats swirling past us. There was a huge sculpted wall, with glowing blue letters chanting to my soul… no. That was actually happening. I approached the wall and stared. Yes, sort of like with skill and spell books. It washed over me and I just knew a word of power. You need a lot of soul to use this kind of soul magic. It is fortunate I am Starborn. It is like dragonborn, only I can kill gods and immortal demons and actually ascend if I choose. Daddy has the same burden, just a different holiday.

Naturally, this was the moment that the stone coffin lid burst open and a much stronger mummy rose up, with an ugly enchanted axe and an iron shield and proceeded to curse me with one of those words of power. I did not like that. So I lit him on fire, three times. Sofia finished him off. I found the “dragon stone” tied to his body and hefted the twenty pound rock uncomfortably. I am going to have to carry this back out of this stupid tomb? I looked around and found another set of stairs, leading to an exit, with a convenient pull-handle to open the secret door. It slid up out of the way and we exited into a cave with some worthless junk in a chest and a glaring opening onto a cliff. Oddly, I found a potion for extending the duration of conjurations, like my firegirl elemental. The way down involved some uneasy sliding and balancing to find a section of cliff I wouldn’t just die if I fell off. Sofia easily followed. I noticed some mammoth skulls and used a quick ice spell to shear one off.

“Carry that, Sofia,” I ordered.

“Ugh! Why?” she demanded.

“It’s worth 100 septims, that’s why. It can buy you some mead for the next few nights of drinking,” I pointed out. She brightened at that.

“That’s why I follow you, boss,” she responded.

After that it was a walk down to the lake shore, kill a few wolves, and back to the standing stones, down the river to Riverwood, knock on the door at Lucan’s shop, presenting him with the Golden Claw. His happiness included a payment of 760 septims, and more for offloading several of the bits of jewelry and various other armor and weapons we’d picked up. I watched Sofia sell the mammoth ivory tusk for 95 septims, which she pocketed cheerfully, singing drinking songs in anticipation. I bought a brown leather knapsack and put the heavy stone inside, along with several other items. I sold the less powerful wizards robe I’d previously loaned to Sofia, and various bits stuff, including the copper head-band. All told I was a thousand septims richer. Rather than deal with the long walk, I rented us a room at the inn and got some food and a bath while Sofia got drunk and rowdy. I went to bed. Sofia turned up later, mumbling various things about Nords and bear chests. I don’t care. I’m honestly tired.