Tag: dungeon

#Lore24 – Entry #326 – Fantasy Month IV #21 – Bandits and Brigands, To Plunder a Dungeon

From the journal of Angeliqua “Goldeneyes” Cartacustos

Our captors transported us quickly through the woods, no doubt having become quite familiar with them during their time hiding amongst them.  I could hear when we cleared them and approached their camp, for there were shouts alerting the others that they had “prizes aplenty, ripe and pretty”.  Though I was blindfolded, I could hear quite a few people coming out around us as we were brought to what I assume was the center of the camp and dropped none-to-gently upon the ground.  Risai was certainly vocal in her protests, however garbled by her gag they were.

The excitement around us died down quickly once a commanding voice called out from nearby, sounding very much Imperial in its way of speaking, and quite angry that we’d been brought to the camp.  Our captors made no secret of what it was they sought from us, saying they’d have to work to “crack that one’s shell if we want the sweet meats inside” in reference to me.  I heard the name Garri mentioned, who I figured was their leader, chastising our captors again for stupidly bringing us here.  When he asked about whether they’d dealt with the rest of our party, there was some nervous silence, then one of the orcs, I think, blurted out something about not even checking.  Garri, the leader, ordered us taken to the “cellar”, and the guard to be doubled, on the lookout for any other adventurers who may be lurking around looking for their missing women.

With the camp in an uproar, we were roughly picked up again and taken elsewhere, somewhere nearby and underground, for the sounds changed again, and the air grew cooler, and we were deposited upon cold stone, a door shutting behind our captors, the sound of wooden bar being thrown into place outside. 

We wasted no time in escaping from our bonds.  Though my hands were growing rather numb by this point, the moment we were left alone, we struggled and scooted our way together, somehow managing to coordinate our efforts to free one another, with Gresilda being the first to wiggle her hands free, making short work of the bonds upon Risai and I once she had done so.  It was dark here, only a sliver of light coming from the floor at the base of the door, so I called up a small orb of arcane light so that we could see our surroundings.

It seemed we were indeed in something of a cellar, though the architecture was decidedly draconic in nature, leaving no question that this was once part of the ancient city that once sprawled across this area.  The door was new, and relatively stout, likely from a carpenter amongst the bandits, for Risai couldn’t budge it when she tried to break it down, and only succeeded in earning more bruises.  There were barrels and boxes within the room, some broken, many empty, others with flour, wheat, and the other foodstuffs that would keep for a while.  As Gresilda calmed Risai from her insistence upon busting down the door, I studied the ancient carvings upon the walls.  As I came to a particular carving, I noticed a particular seam in the worked stone that seemed out of place behind some of the boxes containing some woodworking tools.  Upon closer inspection, I determined it to be a well-concealed doorway, and with a few more minutes of study, found the release mechanism.  The ancient door swung inward with barley a rumble, still smooth upon its ancient hinges, revealing a narrow set of stairs leading further down into darkness.

We debated for a few moments about whether to stay or go, and of course, being the bold adventuring types we are, decided to take the stairs, though we would do so cautiously.  We first made sure we could reopen the door from the opposite side, then proceeded carefully along, Risai having taken up a stout, cut board as a makeshift weapon to lead the way, with me following close behind with our light.  I had not mentioned the lack of signs of rats in the food containers in our makeshift prison, meaning that either the bandits were keeping them at bay, or perhaps more likely, something else was.

The passages below were on the cramped side, leading me to think that this area was perhaps once primarily used by the drakonae.  The damage was relatively light compared to other places, though there were signs that the roots of the trees above were inevitably working their way through the stonework.  We avoided any additional stairs, instead looking for another way to reach the surface, hopefully perhaps outside the area of the bandit camp.  After perhaps an hour of searching, we came upon a larger chamber, some of the ancient stone benches still intact around the periphery, along with scraps of wood and cloth of other furniture that had mostly rotted away.  More curious, though, were the weapon racks built into the walls between the benches.  Most were empty, though four remained that still held some metal weapons that looked, aside from dust and cobwebs, to be in usable condition.  As I looked more intently upon them, Risai approached one and reached out for the double-edged sword that stood there. 

I realized a moment too late that she was in danger. 

It clicked in my brain that two of the weapon racks were identical, down to the pattern of the cobwebs and their contents, even the broken nub that remained of a larger peg.  As I called out for her to stop, the rack she approached seemed to rapidly melt like candlewax, shifting into a mass of slimy tentacles and teeth.  Risai cried out in surprise, but was already too close, the tentacles striking out to seize her, wrapping tightly around her limbs and body.  Even Gresilda screamed in startlement, having not expected the mimic. 

Already suspecting such a thing, I was the first to respond, quickly chanting a spell to call forth slicing blades of fire upon the monster.  Careful to avoid Risai, I targeted the central mass and largest tentacles, getting a satisfying screech from the creature as it panicked and released Risai for the moment, the large warrior stumbling backward as fast as possible.  With the creature’s ire upon me, the flames quickly dying upon its singed flesh, I danced around its flailing tentacles as Gresilda chanted a prayer to Erisaya.  A moment later, holy fire spewed downward from the heavens upon the mimic, making it scream as its flesh boiled and melted, though it still had fight in it.  Risai snatched the blade from the real weapon rack and snarled a battle cry as she hurtled back into the mass, slicing smoking tentacles easily with the ancient blade, her strikes leaving burning cuts across the creature, before driving its tip deeply into the creature’s central mass, again and again until the mimic stopped moving.

Taking a few moments to recover, Gresilda healing the scrapes Risai had from her close encounter with the tentacles, I threw weaker fire upon the other weapon racks and stone benches, but thankfully found no other mimics hiding within.  That one was either young or perhaps sickly from a lack of food, for it seemed to have died rather easily in comparison to what I’ve read of them.  Of course, those stories could have simply made the encounters seem much more deadly than they really were.  Regardless, now that we had a few moments, I examined the weapons we had collected, and soon determined they were dragon-blown steel, attuned to the element of fire.  The other weapons we retrieved were of similar make and would prove quite useful, if not extremely valuable, upon our return to the party.

The rest of the “dungeon” was not nearly as exciting, for we found the remnants of the mimic’s past victims, a handful of humanoids, but mostly animals, in the next chambers, and found another pathway that led upward.  Soon enough, we had located a partially collapsed exit from the ancient draconic structure, but we were able to shift the fallen rock around enough for us to squeeze through.  The night was deep by now, morning approaching, though we had little trouble seeing due to the fires in the nearby bandit camp.  It didn’t take us long to hear panicked screams departing into the woods, and soon enough we were reunited with the rest of our party, who had managed a most deadly attack upon the bandits whilst we made our way through the dungeons.

There was a bounty on them, but we were days away from Vindinium, so did not immediately collect.  Shassk handled the grim business of collecting the heads, which he stored in a sack dedicated to just such a purpose, its enchantment making the load lighter while also preserving them.  With dawn approaching, we collected our missing gear and stowed the dragon-blown weapons that we weren’t immediately using, redressed ourselves, and headed off back toward the course we had originally been upon. 

#Lore24 – Entry #84 – Fantasy Month #24 – Capture Cubes

 

From the journal of Angeliqua “Goldeneyes” Cartacustos:

Strange creations, these capture cubes, and quite effective if employed strategically in sensitive places, so I gather.  Though I cannot say for certain who is responsible for their creation, I would hazard a guess that their origins lie with the Houslin family’s ancestry; admittedly this is pure speculation on my part, but it would fit with what I know of Lady Regina, certainly.  She did briefly toy with the idea of instilling within her most vexing staff the ability to summon such a creature, after all.

I may have been a little too vocal when I refused to be her test subject for those experiments.

I am not sorry.

Capture cubes are a form of artificially created creature, not unlike a basic homunculus in their basic makeup, with practically no intelligence and little in the way of mobility.  They are essentially massive blocks of nearly transparent jelly, after all, between six and ten feet on each side, if not larger, and quite malleable like a normal ooze, though they somehow retain their overall cubic shape.  Some of these creatures reportedly have the ability to replicate themselves, if they are somehow cut into two or more large enough pieces without damaging them significantly enough to dissolve their form.  Most often used as a security emplacement to trap those unfortunate enough to come into contact with them, the cubes nonetheless are capable of movement, albeit slowly, giving them the ability to effect something of a patrol route within the areas they are placed. 

As their name suggests, capture cubes are meant to incapacitate intruders who stumble upon them and keep them alive until they can be properly secured by the more intelligent guards.  The fact that they are nearly completely transparent, at least initially, makes detecting them difficult unless they have recently “fed”, so those who would sneak through an area guarded by these creatures must be especially cautious.  There have been accounts on record that have reported these creatures placed at the bottom of pit traps or placed in specialized slots above corridors, waiting for the traps to trigger for either the victim or the cube to drop, resulting in an easy capture.

Unlike the more dangerous oozes that can be found within the dank and dark dungeons of the world, capture cubes don’t consume their prey, rather, only the clothes worn by them.  Any non-living animal- or plant-based material is dissolved, and any metal, glass, or stone material is expelled, though items of sufficiently strong magical enchantment composed of matter it normally consumes will likewise be expelled.  The victim is held in place by the sticky nature of the jelly, being guided somehow to the center of the cube, which, as it dissolves the victim’s clothing, turns entirely black, blocking out light and leaving those captured suspended in complete darkness, somehow able to breathe (reportedly with some difficulty), but unable to speak or struggle free in any but the most exceptional cases.  It is possible for larger cubes to absorb up to two victims, perhaps more in the case of smaller beings, placing them in decidedly close conditions within itself.

Typically at this point the cubes will begin returning to a designated point, bringing their captured prey with them to be disgorged into the waiting hands of the guards or whoever may be in charge of the area they have been set to patrol, or, if there are other active threats and no more material to consume, will disgorge the victims from itself, leaving them covered in the completely black jelly, which is extremely sticky and clingy, proving most difficult to remove without magical aid; usually those thusly disgorged will be completely disoriented and unable to see and barely able to move, so they are only slightly less secure than if they were still inside the cube.  Within a few minutes, the creatures will resume their nearly transparent nature and continue to hunt.  Eventually the material on the disgorged victims will dissolve, usually after a few hours, if left unattended.

There have been varying accounts of what happens when these creatures are killed, possibly hinting at variations in their makeup or construction.  They are difficult to damage by non-magical weaponry, as such strikes will result in the weapons sticking to the creature and being pulled into it, though magic can be effective, especially fire and cold.  Some simply dissolve into a puddle of slightly sticky slime, while others reportedly remain much more sticky, enough so as to potentially trap those who would try to cross through it, or at least, hinder their movement for a time.  At least two accounts of combat with these creatures mention that they exploded upon death, showing their attackers with their slime, resulting in damaged or completely dissolved clothing and armor and severely hindered movement until removed or until it later dissolved on its own.

I would rather not ponder on the nature of the person who originally conceived the capture cubes.  While effective at what they are meant to do, undeniably so, the idea of trapping someone inside utter darkness, covered in sticky slime, unable to move or struggle free for hours, just makes me shiver.