Chapter 6 – Dungeon Water
“Uki. Ib web readie tu gu fur de quezt? Da urkz ur readie. Dat ib ull web realie neeb. De rest ib juzt panzee breedurz next tu urkz.” Scratching his bottom, the large orc yawned in boredom.
“Oh do be silent, Gnark’Dul. Yes, I believe this is everyone. Well, if you orcs think you are so great, I hope you can swim. Our next quest will lead us into a monster infested underground lake. I hear the sea serpents like the taste of orc.” As any man who’s been married more than a month will tell you, all women are born with the inherent ability to come within an inch of killing someone on the spot with a single glare. Dread Lady Lucia was especially practiced at this art, and put it to good use at this moment as she glowered at the offending orcish warrior.
“Do they like the taste of witches? I shall continue to hope so,” spoke the armored knight that joined them, his voice laced with disdain. “We doth not have all the years in a century to wait for thee to address this army. If thou canst not do this then perhaps I will lead the attack for you.”
“Not on your life, Galad,” spat Lucia. “We want them to rescue the guardian, not die in a miserable failure in the first battle because they were following a tin-can nincompoop.” Refusing to give Galad even a moment to retort, Lucia immediately spun around and stalked towards the strange assortment of adventurers, warriors, and mages which milled around before them. There were orcs in their barbaric armor and armed with their clumsy but brutal weapons, Savages who made their armor of the bones of those they had slain as a warning to all whom would fight them, Vikings clad in the hides of beasts, and armored Knights. There was even an Undead woman, ghostly eyes bleeding shadow and death from her gnarled and bony face.
“ATTENTION!” roared Lucia, and immediately the oddly assorted crowd turned their gazes towards the dark sorceress whom addressed them. “I have located what I believe to be a second place where a handmaiden of the Forest Queen is imprisoned. If we are to locate the second fragment of the prophecy, we must face whatever dangers lay within these halls and free her from the foul fate which my former master condemned her too.
I must warn ye again, my army, for it is imperative that though some of you may be enemies on any other battlefield, for this one cause you are united. If any is found to violate the treaty that has been made between all guilds in this army, you will rue the day that you placed yourself in the path of my wrath… Now, let us make war upon the Dungeon Water!
The moongate was drawn amidst the shouts and battlecries of the army, and the adventurers began the quest to rescue the second guardian of the Prophecy.
Stepping into the watery depths, orc and human alike were amazed at the dungeon into which they now tread. It seemed strange to see a place of such beauty as the work of such a heartless and terrible god. But the beauty of their surroundings did not lessen the ferocity of the creatures which they fought. Sea serpents, water dragons, and elementals fought to bar their way, keeping with the task they were assigned long ago by the renegade god.
Each level of the dungeon was guarded by new horrors. Upon descending the second stairway, the party was faced with what seemed nothing less than a tragedy. Humans and orcs alike saw their own races enslaved by darks spells, and ordered to guard the Handmaiden which had been imprisoned there.
Further into the dungeon lair, they faced mighty dragons that were serpentine in shape, and unleashed stormy tides to destroy the would-be heroes. Creatures half man and half snake attacked with poisoned blades.
Battling through the assault of scaled creatures, the party finally reached the lair of the dungeon master…
In the final hall of the cavernous dungeon, the makeshift army faced a loathsome creature which seemed to be made of nothing but a gaping maw seeking to devour them and countless tentacles to squeeze their very breath out. The slimy Triaquidon seemed to hardly feel any blows that he was dealt. Though Triaquidon possessed the life force of 30 dragons, the fighters continued to hammer him with blow after blow, till eventually it was the aqueous creature’s death cries that echoed across the cavern.
As the victors scoured the hall looting whatever treasures the fiend had collected in his long life, Lucia stepped up to the circular field of energies in the farthest corner, which appeared to encase something. Smiting the field, the swirling mists appeared to shatter like glass, revealing the fairy maiden trapped within.
“Blessed be the gods, for at last I am free!” the lovely winged woman exclaimed. “I have dreamed of being released from these chains. My gratitude to thee knows no bounds! Cursed forever be the name Robin, and cursed are his works which remain on this earth. Vile thing, he, that would bend the elements to his will.
All elements of the world were wrought by the gods to give this land its shape. One fallen god who dared, would enslave these elements, and through them, the world. Though the glorious god Ryan did halt his work before its completion, it was not before some had already been enslaved. Water is but one, Air you have freed and more yet remain. Alas, that I do not know where to lead you in this hunt. But I will share with you my quatrain:
Four ages will then come to pass upon the remade land.
The First will see the new land rise and flow with life anew,
The Second is the golden age of peace and glory to the gods.
The Third will be the advent of the taint.
That is my quatrain, but I must warn ye that – “ and her last word was barely more that a gasping cry of pain, as the blade of dark energy sliced through her, severing the poor creature’s life force.
“By the gods!”
“WUT DA SKAH!?!?!!”
“My LADY?!”
“What in the name of Odin?!”
“Stand back, all of you!” roared Lady Lucia. “At the ready!”
But the malicious laughter that echoed through the halls did not seem the least perturbed by the shocked and angry orcs and humans.
“I thank thee, little fairy, for thine pretty speech…” an insidious voice spoke from the shadows, and then what appeared to be a creature of dark elven descent stepped into the light. “My master will be pleased when I bring him the second quatrain of the prophecy!”
The Shadowspawn Magus’s eyes widened as he heard the taunts and challenges being cried out by the heroes below him.
“Fools! You mock
me?!?! Prepare to die!”
And so, just when the adventurers thought they had won, so began the second battle for victory in the halls of the dungeon water. The Shadowspawn Magus was swift, teleporting from one side of the hall to the other, unleashing his wicked spells. But the small army outnumbered him by too much.
“Grrrr….. You’re stronger than I thought.” growled the fiend as he teleported to another side of the dungeon to unleash a volley of fireballs.
“Bah! I do not have time for this! My master awaits the quatrain! I will kill you before this is over…” And with a cloud of poisonous smoke, the dark man vanished from sight.
“Skah! Wut ib dat?!” snarled Gnark’Dul.
“I don’t know…” Lucia panted. “But I don’t doubt he works for that Morkai creature who appeared at the house of the hermit. Remember? He claimed would try to beat us to the prophecy for his own means.”
“That fiend! To slay a creature of such exquisite beauty and grace as the maiden, he will taste the wrath of my righteous blade er our tale meets its end. I shall quell the fire of his wretched evil with the just hand of virtue, and avenge this fair daughter of the forest’s untimely demise, this I swear! By all that is good and holy, our gentle companion shall not go to rest without the—“
“GALAD. SHUT IT. You’re going to send
me to an untimely demise if you don’t stop rambling…”
“Yub! Meb tuu!” agreed Gnark’Dul the orcish warrior whole-heartedly.
“I should be so lucky…” muttered the knight under his breath.
Though the heroes were victorious in their mission to locate the second quatrain of the prophecy, it was with rage and disappointment at their failure to save the maiden that they picked their way over the corpses of their fallen enemy to return to their homes and await the next quest.