“The Lopertitanus Sidarane, also called the Dark Titan Cave Spider or more commonly known as the ‘Deep Spider’ is a subspecies subjected to the unusual mutation of gigantism despite being devoid of any natural onus to have provoked this change. While archeological remnants unearthed in the deeps so far have shown indications of some geological change that affected the inhabitants of the caverns. None would likely have caused such drastic changes. That then leaves the remaining possibility of genetic manipulation or even arcane tampering, to be the root cause of such mutations.”
- Pathfinder Darrick Greyhammer, Biologist, Exploration Guild, “A Study of the Flora and Fauna of the Deeps”
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She had been tempted to eat the mushroom in her hand, but in lieu of a lantern or magelight, it was the only real light source that she had. It wasn’t as if she was completely blind, she had enough low light vision and there were a relatively small amount of glowing mushrooms that a path could be seen. It’s just that having one made her feel mentally more in control. Her body had barely recovered from the earlier ordeal, and judging by how the oversized rodent continued lurking nearby, she suspected she was radiating signs of collapse at any moment. Definitely feel shitty enough.
Sophie coughed and staggered, holding onto the shroom for dear life as she leaned against the cavern wall. Goddess, maybe that rat is right. I can feel my strength running out already. She sighed, her shoulders sagging heavily as she forced herself back to her feet. I’ve got to get to shelter.
Sophie had tried to orientate herself back at the lake. But the dizzying array of swimming lights under the surface had continuously captured her attention, forcing her to tear herself away lest she simply walked into the lake. She had only sensed the faintest trace of magic due to the familiar sensation that tickled her mind when the Meltonian commander performed druidic magic on her. That there was something lurking far beneath the surface of the darkened lake capable of latently using psychic magic terrified her. It was the inherent sense of helplessness that she had learned to loathe, the very same that currently stirred uncomfortably within her.
No blades, my armours fucked, my pack… is with the other’s at least. Damn. Sophie snarled and clenched her fists, the mushroom dangerously close to being squished out of existence. Great going idiot, tumble down with the spider why don’t you? She cursed herself and dropped to one knee, the exertion slowly catching up now that the adrenaline was fading. Her head ached as a thousand wounds slowly emitted their pain once more, her adrenaline fading as she walked. She opened her mouth to let out a silent scream, the only catharsis she could grasp in the moment.
Reluctantly, she forced herself forward, navigating the strange landscape with little regard for her own safety. Every time she brushed past a rock wall or two, she would wince as another scrape or wound was added. She would bite her tongue after every small drop, for the tiniest of impacts would rattle her weakened body, almost guaranteeing a bruise on the morrow. It was a gruelling trek towards the direction of the buildings she saw, the distance having seemed far more doable when she first examined the path. Each step soon proved to be a struggle in the cavern’s rough terrain, every dozen feeling more like a battle, and she was losing the war.
Sophie grew short of breath as she ascended a small slope, pulling herself up with her one good hand as her legs wobbled underneath. The tattered clothing covering her was wet and cold, the lack of a sun making it all but impossible to dry through simply walking it off. Her boots too, were soaked to the bone and she wore a permanent scowl at the added discomfort to her journey. What didn’t help her peace of mind was the rodent that seemed dead set on consuming her, perhaps having decided that her blood would be a delicacy for it.
With one final heave, she hoisted herself up a small bluff, landing on a small rocky surface with a dull thud. She let out a heavy grunt, the weight of her body sinking down to the ground the moment she made contact. Exhausted, she spared one glance back down at the rodent to see it scurrying away. Sensing no immediate dangers, she laid on her back and closed her eyes, taking a short rest to regain her strength.
Though her body was in pain, she knew that it was healing. She had little clue of how much time had passed but considering how the spider did not smell distinctly of death and decay, she reasoned that they were still within the same handful of days as when the expedition began. Compared to her wounds before, she reckoned that she had healed amazingly quickly, at least when compared to other times that she had suffered grievous injuries. Yet, most curious of all was how sluggish she now felt, almost as if it had reverted back to normal. I wonder… is it because most of my body got shattered? Usually it’s just being run through so maybe… ahh, a problem for later.
Gotta… keep moving or I’ll just sleep here for a damn long time. She groaned in annoyance, but pushed herself off the ground nonetheless. A part of her found it almost disappointing that the rodent hadn’t climbed up to join her. Not only was it a small constant, but it was a good warning indicator for if anything was about to sneak up behind her, considering the rodent didn’t look like as much of a fighter as the ant things were. Her eyes crawled across the terrain ahead of her, the slowly growing sense of dread only now beginning to fully solidify. Whatever town she was headed to was not in good shape. She could see no lights or real signs of life from where she was. Granted, she estimated herself to be about an hour off, but to not be able to see much of anything from here, had her worried. Great, another dead and abandoned town. Way to go, Sophie, it’s always some decrepit old place. Let’s just hope it’s not overrun with the dead. Though given what I’ve seen here so far, maybe the undead wouldn’t be that bad, at least they die easy enough.
Her attention drifted over to the city once more. Even from here, she could feel a sense of eeriness that emanated from the ruins. A monument to a once thriving people, now nothing more than husks inhabiting a cavern that even the Gods have forgotten. No stars, no sky, not even the strange orange light that pulsed infrequently back up where she had fallen from. Coupled with what looked like an ethereal haze that blanketed the land. To add to her woes, her gut told her that she would likely not be alone, a feeling amplified by the hostility she felt from the caverns in general. It’s like I’m not welcome here.
She sneezed, the unexpected noise making her jump a little. Shit. Biting her lip, she dreaded the journey ahead. She was already lost and if she were to run into more trouble, she might end up even further away from civilisation. It was a thought that made her shiver, to be lost in this darkness was a scenario she hoped to avoid. Ary’s waiting for me as well, Sophie allowed herself a tiny smile, and I can’t let her down, can I?
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The longer she trekked, the less certain of her choices she got. It was the same feeling that had haunted her in the caverns above, a strange sense of being watched from the darkness, just beyond what she could see. Worse, strange growls and shrieks now filled the air once more, their cries reverberating throughout the cavern walls. Her nerves frayed even further as the once pleasant looking mushrooms grew darker in color. Here, their natural luminescence became more of a dull gray red that seemed more oppressive than before. It not only made the environment harder to see, but also held more secrets in the shadows.
Sophie cursed the darkness and sent a small prayer to Astralis, hoping that perhaps the Goddess would protect her. She crouched behind a rock and nursed her wounds, steadying her breathing as she examined her broken arm once more, musing about how useless she’d be in a proper fight. Saddened, she closed her eyes and sighed, clenching and unclenching her free hand before pushing herself back up. Can’t rest now, I need to keep moving. Sophie was close now, about half an hour before she would reach the town’s outskirts.
The buildings looked time worn and empty. Polished blackened granite buildings sat stoic in the misty haze of the cavern, their empty facades offering a haunting reminder that this place used to once hold life, and that all of it was gone now. Goddess… there’s at least enough for thousands to have lived here. She shuddered, let’s just hope they aren’t still around. She sucked in a breath and coughed, the heavy hazy air leaving an acrid taste in her mouth. Great, even the air’s shit down here, fantastic.
She continued her silent advance until she spied something odd. A boundary of sorts. It wasn’t a permanent structure or anything physical, but the moment she stepped past it, she felt the air being taken from her lungs. Beside her, the ant humanoids seemed to also avoid this ‘boundary’, most of them having skittered alongside her with curiosity up until she crossed the threshold. She clutched at her chest and dropped to her knees, the sudden pressure feeling almost like something was trying to hack away at her soul. A blanket of darkness had coiled tightly around her, strangling her in its embrace. Terrified and annoyed in equal measure, she roared in defiance and felt that shadow that wrapped around her loosened its grip slightly, allowing her to push forward. The hells? It’s… such a heavy feeling… shit, I have to be faster. Shelter, it seemed, was a hope that just became ever more distant.
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Battered but not broken, she pushed forward and waded through the darkness, pushing her way towards the city in a vain attempt to find some form of hope. She didn’t know what she would find, or that she would even discover anything worthwhile, but she felt drawn to the place, like the darkness was beckoning to her, telling her that answers lay within. Yet equally so, she found the mental strain hampering her advance, forcing her to fight her way forward step by step.
After forcefully pushing her way forward for a few minutes, she felt faint. The miasma surrounding the town only seemed to grow thicker in her presence and she could barely sneak in a breath before the foul taste of darkness tainted her tongue. She hacked and coughed as her lungs expressed their distaste, her physical being recoiling from exposure along as pain wracked her form. Still she persisted, moving ever onwards as a sense of despair hung heavy over her.
By the time she reached the city gates, she was thoroughly spent, her will having faded the more she walked. But it was also here that she felt it, the call of the dark, itself pulsating like a beating heart. A rhythmic cry that was calling out to her from the center of this dark miasma. Sophie spat out a globule of spit, her eyes wrinkled with concern at the somewhat dark substance that came with it. She frowned, reaching up to feel her head wound, the still moist opening making her grimace. Damn, nothing’s healing. This… ugh, this isn’t good.
She steeled her heart, taking one more fateful step forward, putting herself past the ruined stone archway that once comprised the city gates. Almost instantly, she felt a jolt of unbridled mana wash over her. The sensation was akin to a thousand ants crawling all across her body, biting at her skin as they did so. Her insides churned in discomfort as she recognised the feeling. It was the same as what she felt when she had tried draining the Myndiri crystal, but on a far greater scale. Its presence permeated the air itself, intertwined so heavily with the darkness that it was like they were one and the same. Sophie railed against her fate, staying the course as she continued taking laboured steps forward.
Like an angered demon, the being at the center let loose a rage filled pulse. This one carried forth the miasma that coated the town and sent it flying high, blanketing the city and dimming almost all light sources. Sophie hacked in agony as more of the mist entered her body, tearing her apart from the inside. She clutched at her sides and kept her mind focused, set upon the goal of reaching the center of this desolate place.
The world around her seemed to recoil from the cry of whatever lay at the center of the city. Dust and rocks rained down from above as the ground beneath her trembled. Her vision blurred as the world shook under its fury, her desperate struggle to stay standing reaching a head as the darkness began squeezing at her soul. Incensed, she raged against the presence, calling upon nothingness to shield her from its wrath. For a moment, the darkness crept closer, battering her wounded form with another bevy of attacks. A fury arose from the shadow as it sensed her plea, and she felt dread as the screeches of undead monsters within the city echoed into a thundering cacophony. This time was different however, for the shrieks and screeches were no longer random or instinctual. They were a guttural battlecry, directed solely at her. For whatever taint laid here now knew for certain she was present, and didn’t seem to like that very much.
Her situation only grew more dire when she instinctively reached for her blade. Only to find her hand still shaky and barely responsive, and her blade missing. Despair settled soon after and her lips quivered in pain and disappointment in equal measure. Not only had she gotten lost, she had ruined royal armour and lost a royal blade as well. The memories of a prince who died for his people are now lost in the depths forever. As an aspiring knight, it pained her even more than the physical damage she was suffering, her throat tightly choking up as she fought the sorrow of this realization.
Time, however, would not be given to her to grieve for this loss. From behind one of the ruined buildings, a figure emerged. It stood on three legs, two relatively humanoid ones and a third crooked animal leg, covered in bits of rotted flesh and bone, elongated its portly form to her height. The creature’s dwarven torso possessed a maw of sharpened teeth where its belly was, and sprouted one misshapen arm that morphed into a claw, its other looked withered and hung limply off its side. Seeing its face made her almost vomit again. For where the nose was, two fleshy eyeballs dangled loosely from there, while where its eye socket was, a cluster of smaller eyes sat in rotted glory, each straining in agony to simply blink. Two holes remained where its cheeks were, strange darkened black liquids pouring out from within. Where the mouth was, Sophie could only see rows of fangs instead of teeth. Fuck, it is the undead!
But, it's a hybrid undead, could this mean… her thoughts were interrupted when it looked directly at her, and roared.
It was a guttural yet strangely high pitched screech that almost deafened her, the creature’s voice a mixture of the low tones of dwarf mixed with the ethereal cries of the demons from her nightmares.
As she recovered, it practically flew at her as it used the strangely humanoid legs to leap inhuman distances. Sophie barely recovered enough to dodge out of the way as the singular claw slammed to the ground, penetrating the rock below and leaving a hole where it was embedded. Saint damned hells, what the fuck is that? How can a- shit! She ducked as it pulled back for a jab, sending little bits of rock flying at her as Sophie now tried to run away. The creature’s belly roared in anger and it used its animal leg to pivot on the spot, facing her once more as it ripped its claw out of the ground.
Sophie tensed up as she ran, predicting when the creature would leap and barely tumbling down in time to avoid its next pounce, its claw missing her by a hair’s width. She scrambled away towards an alleyway, only to stop as a twitching creature emerged from it. It slowly turned its form towards her before letting out a roar and leaping. Sophie jumped out of the way in a panic, landing on her chest with a heavy thud that knocked the air out of her lungs. Looking up, she found the two creatures recovering and getting ready for a combined attack. Shit, I need to move. Pushing her beleaguered body forward, she ran into the town, the creatures hot on her tail.
Hearing the start of another screech, she shuffled sideways as the creature leapt forward and smashed against one of the granite houses. Catching a glimpse of it howling in frustration, Sophie had an idea. They liked to leap and pounce, she needed to reduce that capability, and the winding city streets and buildings could help with that. It didn’t help however, that the majority of buildings were made of stone or granite, meaning that simply finding weak points to enter from would be difficult. Thinking fast, she skirted past the first creature and stood in front of a door, baiting the second one to attack. It shrieked and jumped at her, Sophie dodging out of the way last second as it smashed claw first into the doorway.
She watched in horror as nothing happened, the creature had merely embedded itself but the doorway was no closer to opening. Cursing her ill fortunes, she rammed herself into the creature, hoping to destabilize it long enough for her to escape. Not expecting the attack, it reared back in a panic, letting out an ear piercing shriek. Sophie collapsed from the sound and could scarcely crawl away when the first creature struck.
This time her luck ran out as she felt a searing pain radiate from her leg as muscle and bone burst under the blow of the claw-like appendage. Perhaps just as surprised or shocked as her that it had landed the blow, it hesitated for a moment and Sophie used her free leg to boost herself away. Unable to contain her pain, Sophie howled in agony as she ripped her leg out from under the claw, ripping through more skin and bone as she freed herself, leaving a horrific see through gash where the creature had struck. Panicked, she lashed with a punch towards the creature’s head, aiming it high above where the maw of the mouth was. Her fist connected with a squishy membrane and she seized the chance. She grimaced as she opened her hand to wrap around its eye cluster and squeezed as hard as she could. Gooey egg like pustules popped under her grip, releasing a foul blackened liquid that coated her fingers.
The creature shrieked with pain, the sound almost making her ears bleed from sheer volume and proximity alone. With the second creature still preoccupied with its embedded claw, Sophie took her chance to limp away, landing one more weakened punch to shove the first creature away.
Adrenaline returned to fuel her veins as she made her escape, her eyes desperately scanning all the nearby buildings in hopes of some shelter, but finding all seemed like blackened maws of granite with their entrances sealed shut. Her hope landed on a slightly slanted two story building that had its roof caved in, busting out one of its metallic windows and creating an opening. With a final burst of speed, Sophie began limping across the street just as the second creature had freed itself, letting out baleful cries that signaled its anger. She shuffled just out of reach and avoided its strike. She leaned backward, allowing the creature’s smaller mouth to bite onto her shoulder as her free hand reached behind her. Following her first attack, she wrapped her fingers around the slimey eyes and squeezed as hard as she could, popping them into another ichor filled pile that now bled down her back. In a rage, the creature tore a chunk out of her shoulder, leaving blackened ichor to taint her wound as it released her from its grip to recover.
Gaining what might be her last chance, she kept going and reached the window, clambering over it with reckless abandon as she crumpled onto the floor inside. She cried out with a raw scream as all the pain seemed to catch up upon impact. Her eyes unfocused for a moment as her vision grew blurry, blinking profusely to try and make sense of all that had happened. But as she crawled forward, she looked up to find a shadowy figure looking down at her. Horrified, she tried to scream but was too late, the next wave had hit. Another wave of rage pulsed out from the center far stronger than before, this one carrying the tortured cries of ten thousand souls as they wailed in unimaginable agony.
Sophie writhed, choked, and cried as her body began shutting down, her mind frantically trying to keep her from passing out. A titanic struggle erupted within her, the dark infiltrating every pore, wound, and opening, whilst her own soul and body rioted against the intrusion. A million hammers smashed against her mind, the overwhelming crush shattering her fragile mental state. In response, something within her snapped, her mind launched a final counterattack against the overbearing darkness. The war waging within her engulfed every fiber of her being as her body broke and bent at strange angles, her soul convulsing alongside her physical form. With a guttural roar of her own, she drew in the darkness in its entirety, and as her world stilled, she found herself surrounded in the nothingness. Only her sense of self remained, and yet, when she looked around the empty void, she could feel the reverberations of something deeper. Of a soul crushing understanding that she now stood in the vaunted realm between life and death.
Motes of light flickered in the darkness, and when she reached out to touch them, to resign herself to her preordained fate, her eyes twinkled. No, not light, Sophie mumbled, mana. Her eyes lit up at the realizatdion; the pain, agony and suffering now turning into greed, desire, and rapture. Her single bloodied outstretched palm reached for one of the motes, caressing the outside ever so gently before she grasped it in its entirety, and when she did, she felt the power within. Making the connections, her shock and surprise faded soon after, her face breaking out into a maniacal grin.