Zeni found herself pushing her Ka to their absolute limit. With a swift blast from Breath of Shu, she managed to vanquish the stone golem that had been summoned from the depths of the dungeon to ruin her fun time. The creature's sluggish movements had worked to her advantage, as she was much faster in comparison. However, her growing frustration with her enigmatic companion, who she’d decided an hour ago was now called Speechless, had become impossible to ignore.
While she fought off one monstrous adversary after another, the armored colossus seemed content to merely watch from a safe distance.
As the golem crumbled to the ground, Zeni leaned against a nearby wall, her chest heaving with exertion. Her eyes narrowed at her companion, and her frustration boiled over.
"Okay, seriously, what's the deal?!" she demanded, gesturing at the fallen golem. "I've fought five of these things already, and all you've done is stand there and watch! Are you planning on helping at all?!"
Speechless, predictably, remained silent, his helmeted head tilted slightly to one side as if studying her.
Zeni threw her hands up in exasperation.
"I mean, really! It's like you're just along for the ride or something! What, do you have a front-row seat to the Zeni Show? The least you could do is applaud!"
She paced back and forth, her energy only slightly diminished by her exhaustion.
"I thought we were in this together, you know? Especially after that spectacularly dramatic nonsense with the collapsing rock face. A team, fighting our way through this nightmare of a dungeon. But no! You're just…loitering. Lurking, even! What? Are you some kind of dungeon…tourist?! Do you think this is funny? That I enjoy fighting against one terrifying monster after another while you stand there like a creepy, silent statue?!"
She glared at him, her chest heaving as she caught her breath.
"Listen, bub. I don't need a bodyguard, or a babysitter, or whatever it is you think you're doing. If you're not going to help, then what’s the point in traveling together? How about you just…go away! Git! Leave me alone!"
With a roar of frustration, Zeni collapsed against the wall, her energy finally spent. She hung her head, her shoulders slumped in defeat, as she waited for a response from her silent companion.
But, as always, Speechless remained just that—silent.
“I’m changing your name again,” she breathed, on the cusp of passing out into unconsciousness. “You’re not Speechless anymore. Now you’re Useless. Or Worthless. Whichever is funnier—or hurts your feelings more.”
With a groan that echoed through the dungeon, Zeni attempted to stand. She still hadn’t fully healed from whatever the dark power was that assaulted her…was it a day ago? She couldn’t even tell down here. She had to admit that she likely wouldn’t have been as salty about the whole issue if the residual effects of the encounter hadn’t sapped her in a way she was yet to understand. Even the Ka Letting hadn’t seemed completely effective, something that was more aggravating than anything else. She’d taken time out of their dungeon adventure to focus on the fantastically uncomfortable process, and still, something remained within her, as though hiding. What was more, there were additional changes that had happened that she hadn’t even gotten a chance to fully delve into due to the pace they had set.
For one, her thoughts had become clouded and increasingly…angry. She knew she shouldn’t be lashing out at her companion, but something inside of her burned—red hot and wrathful. Every time she fought an enemy now, this seemed to be the case, as though her blood was fueling some deep seated rage within her. Once her adrenaline began to fade, her mind became a little more clear, and she immediately regretted the outburst. That hadn’t been like her, not really. It had come out all wrong.
Zeni felt bad. The big guy didn’t deserve that…but, well, she didn’t know what was happening.
As she pushed herself off the ground, attempting to move to apologize, it became abundantly clear that her legs had decided to take a vacation from their primary function—supporting her body. They buckled beneath her, and she crumpled forward, bracing for impact.
But before she could taste the dusty dungeon floor, Worthless—or was it Useless?—intercepted her fall. His armor-clad hands, which until now had been purely decorative, gripped her shoulders with surprising gentleness, preventing her from taking a nosedive.
"What the hell?" Zeni managed to sputter, her confusion momentarily overpowering her fatigue.
However, her question was abruptly cut short as the colossal man hoisted her into the air like a sack of particularly disgruntled potatoes. It seemed that her silent companion had finally decided to participate in the adventure—albeit in the most unpredictable way possible.
And so, she found herself perched on his shoulder in a fireman's carry. There was something deeply nonsensical about this, and she giggled a little at the absurdity. Here she was, the formidable Zeni, carried by the very person she had just inappropriately labeled as Useless or Worthless—she couldn't quite remember which one she'd settled on.
She opened her mouth to make a—no doubt witty—remark, one that would have been so hilarious it would have echoed through the annals of history. Alas, her body had other plans. The exhaustion that had been nipping at her heels throughout the last handful of hours finally caught up with her, and her consciousness slipped away like a greased weasel down a slide. With that, she was down for the count.
As Zeni's head lolled to the side, her unfinished quip abandoned and forgotten, one couldn't help but wonder whether Worthless or Useless would take offense to his new moniker—or perhaps, in his silent stoicism, find it somewhat amusing.
—
Some indeterminate amount of time later—because really, who could keep track of time in a dungeon with no discernible day or night cycle—Zeni stirred, roused by a sound that was equal parts grotesque and intriguing. Her eyes fluttered open like a pair of extremely confused butterflies, and through her bleariness, she beheld a sight that would have been awe-inspiring if she weren't so sleepy.
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She found herself in a chamber that could only be described as cathedral-esque, with lofty ceilings and an air of holiness that seemed entirely out of place in this hellish dungeon. And there, some distance away, stood her armored companion—Worthless, Useless, Speechless, or whatever he was calling himself these days.
In a display of brute strength that would have made a professional wrestler weep with envy, the silent warrior grasped the sides of a monstrous creature that looked like it had been conjured from the fever dream of a mad zoologist—a half-demon, half-gigantic alligator hybrid. With a casual ease, he tore the beast apart as though it were no more than a beaded curtain separating a teenage girl's bedroom from the rest of the house.
Zeni, still only half-conscious, took in the scene with a fuzzy sort of detachment. She became vaguely aware of several other similarly dismembered creatures littering the floor around her. Objectively, this should have been a comforting sight—proof that her silent companion had finally decided to contribute to their little dungeon-crawling escapade.
She mustered enough energy to mutter, "About time you started pulling your weight," before allowing herself to slip back into the welcoming embrace of slumber. After all, it's not every day you get to take a nap in a dungeon, surrounded by the mutilated remains of demonic alligator chimera. It was, one might say, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
—
Later, as the improbable and slightly ridiculous awareness lurking deep within the dungeon felt its minions falling one by one like so many dominoes, it grew increasingly irate. How dare these impertinent intruders penetrate so far into its domain? The sheer audacity of it all! It was enough to make a creature of unspeakable darkness question the purpose of an elaborate lair in the first place.
But every defeated minion only served to whet their appetite, for it knew that with each victory, the meal it would eventually devour would be that much sweeter. It was all about delayed gratification, you see. It had read a self-help scroll once that stressed the importance of patience, and it had taken those words to heart.
The interlopers were getting dangerously close to the point of no return, which the awareness had marked with a tasteful yet menacing signpost. Yet, to its tremendous surprise, they were undeterred. In light of this, it thought that perhaps it was time to release her.
Yes, it thought, that seems quite appropriate given the circumstances.
The intruders had their fun, and now it would have its fun—and, with any luck, a tasty meal at the end of it all.
The consciousness was no fool; it understood the importance of saving the best for last. After all, what good was a main course if one had already gorged oneself on appetizers? And so, with sinister glee, it prepared to unleash its secret weapon, its pièce de résistance, the proverbial cherry atop the macabre sundae that was this dungeon.
As it prepared, it could almost taste the sweet satisfaction of victory—or was that the taste of fear? It could never quite tell the difference. In any case, it was positively salivating at the thought of what was to come.
Soon, it thought, very soon, the trespassers will know true despair.
They would discover that in this dungeon, the house always wins.
And in the end, they would be little more than a delectable morsel to savor, a fitting reward for the clever and cunning creature that ruled here. A creature, it should be noted, that prided itself on its culinary prowess—especially when it came to preparing dishes best served cold.
—
Zeni awoke with a start, the sound of a campfire crackling beside her.
“Really?” She muttered. “Another one?”
She couldn't help but muse on the fact that her companion—whom she'd now decided would be dubbed Charlie Chaplin, in honor of the silent film king (a name she found wickedly and delightfully apt)—seemed to have an unquenchable fetish for pyrotechnics. However, as she glanced around this new environment, she realized that ol' Charlie was conspicuously absent.
“Huh,” she said. “He’s off again.”
She considered the scene she’d partially awakened to earlier—the big man tearing some crocodile ghoul apart. Had it been a dream? Wouldn’t something like that typically have been too much to sleep through? She wasn’t exactly a light sleeper, in any case—those damn desert birds woke her up every morning in Kephri’s Rest, and if she was being honest, they weren’t really that loud. If that had been real, how hadn’t she woken up all the way?
It was most likely a dream, she decided. Especially considering where the vision had taken place was dramatically different environment she now found herself in. Sure, Charlie Chaplin was inordinately strong, and she assumed he was capable of handling himself in this place…but, she thought perhaps she was seeing what she wanted to see: a towering hulk of pure might that could easily vanquish foes like whatever that monster was. It was, despite the imagery, comforting to think he was someone to rely on—especially when he’d been content to let her deal with the bulk of the baddies.
She sighed, considering she’d thought too much on it and it was giving her a headache. Instead, she decided to take a peep at what lay around her.
The dungeon chamber had taken on the guise of an eerie forest, with gnarled trees stretching their limbs towards an impossibly high ceiling that mimicked a star-studded night sky. The dungeon, in its infinite and somewhat twisted wisdom, had clearly decided that a touch of nocturnal ambiance was precisely the mood it sought to create.
Yawning and stretching, Zeni's stomach rumbled its discontent, reminding her that it had been quite some time since she'd last eaten. She spotted a neatly cut portion of cooked meat by the fire, and her earlier irritation with her silent companion abated a bit. Perhaps the big galoot wasn't a complete write-off, she mused as she devoured the meal he'd thoughtfully left for her.
It was at that point, she felt she finally had an opportunity to take a gander at her new advancement in Heket Enchantress. So, with nothing else to do for the moment save for eat (for she could do both at the same time) she opened up the details and took it all in.
Heket Enchantress - Fourth Level
Prowess Marker Bonuses:
* Vitality: + 2
* Potency: + 2
* Deftness: + 1
* Intellect: + 1
* Clarity: + 1
* Perception: + 1
* Attunement: + 1
* Adaptability: + 1
Prowess Markers:
* Vitality: 4
* Potency: 4
* Deftness: 5
* Intellect: 7
* Clarity: 6
* Perception: 5
* Influence: 1
* Attunement: 4
* Adaptability: 3
This wasn't bad at all, in fact, save for her Influence Marker, she was becoming quite the well-rounded individual. Though, she was disappointed she hadn't gained any cool additional benefits, like a new Curse.
Hunger no longer gnawing at her, Zeni stood up and surveyed her surroundings. She couldn't help but wonder if other pre-Rahhalah—like she considered herself—had faced the same maddening push-and-pull dynamics with their own loveable dungeon pals. Was it always this infuriatingly hot and cold, or was she just uniquely blessed in that department?
Despite endeavoring to avoid the topic (on account of her headache) thoughts meandered back to her companion. Chappy—she’d nicknamed him once again (short for Chaplin), was the strong and silent type and seemed content to carry her when she was unconscious but was infuriatingly passive when it came to helping her in battle. It was a perplexing conundrum, one she was struggling to unravel, like a knot that became more tangled the more you fiddled with it.
As she pondered this, a sudden distant noise erupted from within the trees and sent shivers down her spine. It was a guttural growl, like that of a beast awakening from an extended slumber, echoing through the dungeon-forest. The hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood at attention, her senses on high alert. Her instincts were screaming at her that this was no ordinary sound, and the timing of her companion's absence only added to her anxiety.
“Hey! Big guy!” she hissed, hoping for the fortifying presence of the huge and intimidating specter.
But her call was met with nothing more than the echoes of her own voice, bouncing off the gnarled tree trunks and fading into the gloom.
As Zeni's heart raced, she tried to steady her breathing, to remind herself that she was not entirely alone in this eerie, otherworldly place. Chappy was out there…right?
And then, emerging from the shadows cast by the twisted trees, something stirred. A presence that seemed to carry the very essence of the dungeon with it, a weighty darkness that made the air itself feel oppressive.
Zeni gasped.