Music: Dungeon 1

Once they had defeated the monsters, the party had a proper chance to survey their surroundings.

They found themselves in a large, roughly circular chamber, the rock of the walls just smooth enough to indicate that it had been hewn rather than being a natural space.

There was just enough sunlight coming in from the entrance behind them to see by, but it only just reached the far edge of the chamber.

On the opposite wall, above another set of grey stone doors, written in a glowing, faintly-blue script were the words: Those who seek to progress further into this crypt must invoke the Kindness of Qind.

Across the middle of the chamber, perpendicular to the way the doors faced, ran a deep, black, chasm, like a long gash in the floor, several people wide.

Horatio wandered over it, taking care not to get too close. He craned his head over, peering down into it. It fell away into darkness, eating up the light from outside. He could not see the bottom.

‘How are we going to get across this?’ said Egea, joining him.

‘Whoever created this crypt,’ said Primus, joining them too, ‘in order to store their treasure here must have had access to very powerful magics. They were able to shape the stone, trap Braxian monsters in here and make use of holy magic. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have just unwittingly made our way into a tetrachamber.’

‘What’s a tetrachamber?’ asked Egea.

‘A tetrachamber, my dear, is a special kind of underground crypt for storing treasure that is designed to only to a band with a particular combination of four different skill-sets, or to someone who possesses all of those skill sets at once.’

‘And what skill-sets would those be?’ asked Horatio.

‘Why, those of a warrior, a magus, a thief and a cleric, of course. The classic composition of a small adventuring party.’

‘Well that’s a stroke of luck!’ said Egea. ‘That’s basically what we are, give or take!’

‘Indeed. Yes, this was an influence at work in my mind when I hired the three of you, though I wasn’t expecting to come across any tetrachambers. I didn’t know that there were any around here. Anyway, young Horatio here has just granted us access to the first door using the strength of a warrior.’

‘Right,’ said Egea, ‘so now you need to do something magical in here to get us over the cavern?’

‘I think not. Qind, while He may be the ultimate source of all noble magics, has a particular variety of magic associated with Himself. I am merely a scholar of magic–I am neither particularly religious, nor a priest, so I am not qualified to solve this riddle.’ He turned and looked behind them. ‘I believe this is your department, young lady.’

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Framed by the light, Ceres, who had been hanging back, now stepped tentatively over to join them at the side of the chasm, brushing back a strand of her azure-blue hair that had fallen across her face and tucking it behind one ear.

‘It’s not even a riddle,’ she said. ‘It’s quite straightforward really. ‘‘The Kindness of Qind” is a particular prayer that Devotees of the Way are taught to recite as novices. It’s quite long, actually. My guess is that if a priest prays it here and invokes Qind, He will create a way over this chasm.’

‘Wonderful!’ said Primus. ‘Why are you hesitating then, young mistress? Pray the prayer and get us over the abyss!’

Ceres was hesitating. ‘I’m… I’m not sure if the invocation will work for me or not. Ever since I ran away from the monastery I’ve had a bit of a…peculiar relationship to Qind in my head… It’s not that I don’t believe in him anymore–of course I do. It’s just that…I’d come to see certain practices of the Order as being…unnecessary.’

I wonder if that applies to the vow of celibacy… thought Horatio.

‘So I’m not even sure,’ Ceres went on, ‘if you can call me a “priest” any more… If this room is designed to work for a priest, I don’t know if it will respond to me…’

‘Well it’s worth a try, isn’t it?’ said Horatio, he hoped encouragingly. ‘What have we got to lose?’

Ceres bit her bottom lip. ‘Okay then… I’ll give it a go…’

She knelt down on the ground. She didn’t bow her head, but she did shut her eyes and hold out her hands.

‘Lord Qind, full of Kindness and Truthfulness…’

Horatio looked away. He felt like he was invading something private by watching her while she prayed. He wasn’t entirely sure where he stood with Qind himself. He probably did believe in him–after all, there was the holy magic which Ceres could do, which was a kind of evidence. But he also had some doubts and some questions. If Qind was really there, why had he allowed Horatio’s parents to split up, and why hadn’t he made it easier for Horatio to get along with them? And weren’t there those who believed that magic actually came from Brax, the Demon God, the Lord of the Monsters? That he was the source of all magic?

As he contemplated these thoughts while he stared into the blackness of the deep chasm that lay before them, trying not to pay attention to the quiet words of Ceres’s prayer…

…a narrow, translucent bridge appeared over the chasm, glowing with the same pale blue light as the writing on the wall above the far door.

Horatio gasped with the others.

It looked like a cross between crystal and glass, but with a blue tint.

Ceres’ eyes were still closed; she didn’t seem to have realised yet.

‘Priestess!’ said Horatio. ‘It worked!’

She opened her eyes. They seemed to glow with the same blue light as that of the bridge. ‘Oh,’ she said softly. ‘So it did.’ She smiled, and Horatio worried his heart might burst. ‘Praise be to Qind!’

‘Nice one, priest-girl!’ said Egea.

‘Indeed,’ said Primus. ‘Now come along, we must be over this bridge. Do you think you need to keep reciting the prayer in order to keep the bridge in place?’

She walked up to its tip and Horatio watched in awe of her courage as she lifted a foot and placed it firmly down on the surface of the bridge

‘It will hold,’ declared Ceres.

‘Excellent,’ said Primus.

They walked across the bridge together, letting Ceres lead. Horatio tried not to look down. This meant that at first he didn’t notice the monsters that jumped out of the chasm at them.

Random battle 3!

Background: Cave 1

Music: SNES_FFbattle.

Battle dialogue:

CERES: Watch out, Horatio, we’re being attacked!

HORATIO: Arhhh!

PRIMUS: Eyes forward, boy!

EGEA: Don’t fall off, anyone!

[Fight]

[End of battle.]