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Duskwood Cavern

Marius

The skeleton’s eyeless, black sockets were staring at him. A dim intelligence was in there, probably screaming – an echo of its last moments in this damned hellhole. He couldn’t prove it, mind you. But he didn’t need proof. This was The Everloft. You can’t dispute something operating on logic you don’t even know the parameters of.

Such philosophical meanderings were not normally the domain of Marius, but all the same he cocked his head at the skeleton in the tunnel that led towards light – thin strips of flesh still clinging to this unfortunate soul’s bones.

He looked around at the rest of them that lined this increasingly narrow expanse. They were dripping still with the sinuous, mustard saliva of the Crocarachnids. His best guess was that this substance was some kind of stomach fluid they used to digest their pray. Maybe they were like birds – had to coat the captured corpses of their enemies with it before ingesting their meat.

What was causing Marius grief presently wasn’t the inevitable onset of mortality that the dead represented here, however. Instead, he was much more concerned with the indisputable fact that at least five of them (incidentally, the fresher looking corpses) bore the same prison rags that Marius once wore. And, try as he might, he couldn’t shake the thought that these were men whom he once knew – the men who had heard his last stories. Lucky sons of bitches that they were.

At least, he consoled himself, they had heard some raunchy tales from a skilled orator before they died. That was something, right?

He shimmied through the narrow slit that presented itself to him at the end of the tunnel – the place where light was streaming through without barrier. As he snuck through, he struggled to avoid the spikier parts of the wall, and eventually squeezed his way out into the largest arena he’d ever seen in his life.

He barely had time to even recognize it for what it was – having to shield his eyes from the blaring light of the desert sky above that was streaming through an oval opening in the ceiling. The room looked like the famed colosseums of Yevua – a massive circular structure of hollowed out earth with ten other openings that looked like they led off into different tunnels. Evidently, all paths in the Duskwood Cavern led to this place.

Marius peeked over the rim of the arena and was glad for his forbearance. The bottom floor was littered with more skeletal corpses – the shattered remains of men and Crocodilian alike. Some of the Crocodilian looked quite a bit bigger than those he’d been accosted by on his mission, with scythe-like pincers instead of the feelers characteristic of their brethren. A quick scan confirmed his suspicions:

Appraisal: Success

Morphology: Crocarachnid Warrior

LVL: 2

Status: DECEASED

"Hm," Marius mused. He tossed a pebble nonchalantly into the hole while he kept crouched, keeping to the shadowed mouth of the entrance he’d emerged through. The tiny object hit the ground without much fanfare at all and, pleasantly surprised, Marius straightened his back and gave a nice big stretch. It was entirely possible the battle that had taken place below was good and done.

Then at once he felt something slice through the air. Something light, something that cut through the darkness of the cave and found its mark faster than his eyes could possibly register. What did register was the distinct feeling that something had just landed in front of him, knocking off the stone at his feet and echoing throughout the grim hall.

As his eyes slowly lowered, he saw a broken arrow mere inches from his feet.

"Step forward, slowly," a voice echoed from above.

Marius gladly obliged. In fact, he raised his hands as a show of good faith. He was certain he’d entered the arena in ‘stealth mode’ and no creature he’d seen yet had been able to detect him when he’d really set his mind to staying hidden. But, recalling the timbre of the voice, he knew right away that this was another man, hiding somewhere in the room.

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"You have me at a disadvantage, sir," he said as he stepped towards the rim of the hollowed out room’s center. "Might we exchange pleasantries?"

"Quiet!" came the same howl from the dark, and this time Marius could pinpoint the sound. Looked like the ears of a thief were just as well trained as one’s eyes down here. He shifted his gaze to the general direction of the voice, making sure he didn’t move his head one inch.

Uncanny Danger Sense: Activated

There, just above the fifth exit clockwise from where he’d entered, a shadow was slowly descending from a small nook set into the eastern wall.

"Step into the light," the shadow’s voice demanded. "No bullshit."

Marius did as he was told. He stepped till he was directly above the den of the deceased. The smell was vile, and now he was starting to curse his enhanced senses. But out of the corner of his eye he could still make out the shadowed figure descend further, and he focused just enough to get what he wanted:

Race: Human

Class: Thief

LVL: 2

HP: 15/20

Everyone has more HP than little ol’ me, he thought with a scoff. But at the very least this guy had been weakened. Then again, he had range on his side, and that warning shot probably wasn’t his last projectile. The thing that confused Marius more was why the guy wasn’t presently filling him full of every arrow he had.

Then, just as quickly as the thought formed, he heard hard footsteps to his right. He kept perfectly still.

"Into the pit," the voice commanded.

Marius heaved a heavy sigh and jumped down, landing amidst the dead with a slight crack of his bones. What he hadn’t noticed before was the gaping hole across from all the bodies that must lead further into the bowels of the cave.

He stiffened. Someone had just jumped behind him.

"Alright," the voice said from his back. "Hands behind your back. Kneel down."

Again, Marius sighed.

"Do we really have to do this, sir?"

He heard the tightening of a bowstring.

"Do it!"

Marius did it.

Finally, his interlocuter stepped around to see him, scanning his body and keeping his shortbow high, one arrow aimed right at Marius’ sweating brow. Marius was surprised to find that he was little more than a boy – a short, stocky one at that – clean shaven head and the beginnings of a beard, with a face covered in cuts. His sunken eyes betrayed the fact that he probably hadn’t slept in days, and it was only when these details blended together in Marius’ eyes that he cast his gaze down the boy’s torso to see the same prison tatters he’d worn on his way down here.

"Well fuck me," the Sharpshooter said, as the same sense of recognition touched his features. "It’s you – the bloody storyteller."

Marius managed a smirk. "Guilty as charged," he said. "But forgive me, even after our long journey together, I didn’t catch your name?"

"And you ain’t gonna," the boy replied, tightening his hold on his trembling bowstring.

Marius’ smile never faltered, but he was now thinking back: this one hadn’t flapped his gums once in the long journey from Lucent to The Everloft. Not a peep outta this young one, Marius remembered. He was just a sad, dejected looking lad probably in his late teens. Those were the ones you always had to watch: the quiet young ones.

"Sir," Marius said. "I’m so glad to meet another cognizant being down here. I am currently engaged in a noble quest for a charming mushroom who holds sway in this place. If my wits serve me, the reward for its completion shall be quite lucrative. I’m more than open to a 70-30 share in the profits, should you allow –"

"I know why you’re here you piece of shit!" the lad cried. ‘That’s why we’re all fucking here! You get it? We all got the fucking quest!’

Marius double blinked.

‘Fucking mushroom,’ the bowman snarled. "I’m gonna torch the bitch soon as we find the way out."

"You mean to say you were asked to do the same thing?" Marius asked, slowly unclasping his hands from behind him.

The lad laughed – a maniacal sound devoid of mirth.

"Look around you!" he said, gesturing to the dead that surrounded them. "Bitch knew what she was doing. She sent us here to die. But I ain’t dying. Me and the Boss are gonna make it. We’re gonna finish the quest and then go back and torch that bitch."

He seemed to be musing to himself, and so Marius took the moment to nod his head in understanding, whilst slowly rising from the ground.

"Of course," he said. "I understand. You have to look out for yourself. We all do. So-"

"Stop!" the lad cried, almost losing his grip. His hands shook, and Marius could see the despair that must have seeped into his eyes long ago. Who knows how long he’d been down here for, amidst these corpses.

"Just. Stop," he said again. "I – I don’t wanna kill you."

Marius sighed as he obeyed once again. "I believe you."

The boy twitched, and then nodded at the ground. "Right. Take off the armor, toss any weapons and herbs this way."

Marius sucked in his teeth and thought about it. He had no weapon anymore. And here he was, clearly prostrate, in a position of surrender.

This isn’t ‘combat’, right, Everloft?

Looking at the kid now, he realized he could call his bluff. But he’d clearly killed something to make it to level two, so why the trepidation? Could it be that he’d seen enough, already? Was that why he’d been left out here, keeping watch, while this ‘Boss’ character went forward?

Marius hunched his shoulders as the thought passed over him like the lightest of breezes: he’d seen how this trick was pulled. He’d been on the other end of that bow countless times, and he knew that the pretense of mercy didn’t matter a jot to a man who held all the power in any situation. When the boy had him stripped, he’d probably just end him right there. For the ‘experience’.

It didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. None of It did – not this boy’s feelings, or his own. The boy’s mistake was not shooting to kill already. Maybe there was hesitation behind those eyes. Maybe it was something else. Either way, Marius already knew someone like him wouldn’t survive long in here.

He sighed again. There was only one way he was getting out of this.