Before I ended up here… wherever here was, I was just a regular doctor in Frankfurt.

My last memories were a blur, a hectic, awful blur.

I remembered an earthquake, I had only felt one earthquake before it, when I visited the Swabian Alb. But that was nothing compared to what hit the town.

My head hurt thinking about it, the ringing was overwhelming, I think I remember something bursting, or a metal beam crashing… it’s hard to remember, maybe I suffered a concussion?

My head could also hurt because of how I hit the slimy, cold stone wall.

I was pushed into the wall by that blue ball that came flying at me, I am almost certain that was magic of some kind. Unless someone figured out how to make special effects in real space… but that wouldn’t be able to push me like that.

From what I know about fantasy games, tabletop or otherwise, that was a small bolt of magical force, a magic missile? It evaporated into nothing before it hit me, but there was enough momentum to push me.

That again cements the idea that there’s ‘magic’ or something like it, and it stops working when it gets close enough to me.

Standing up, my brain kept thinking about my situation, but I couldn’t afford to do that any longer. I didn’t know if it was day or night outside, but I was gradually feeling colder and colder, hypothermia might get me if I stayed still too long. That, or that might not be an escape anywhere nearby, and I could end up starving if I didn’t move faster. Or, most likely, I’d be unlucky with the next trap and it could maim or kill me, like the ‘backstory me’...

… the ‘backstory me’...

Quickly swallowing my straying thoughts, I started pushing ‘forward’. This time, I focused like I was in a surgery, only focusing on my surroundings and pushing everything else to the back of my head.

There were two directions I could go, left and right. Looking to the right, I didn’t have to look far to see that the corridor led to stairs heading downwards. Given what I could see, with the absolute lack of light and flooding, it was likely we were already underground, so I wasn’t keen on heading deeper in. And so I went left, ‘forward’, as it were.

There were other spots in the carpet where the colouring was different, likely because of the water damage making it more clear where there were holes underneath.

And that’s when I saw it. A body sprawled on the floor before me, leg stuck in a hole like I almost was, skin grey and skin flaky… their chest caved in and wooden armour shattered and rotten.

I had seen corpses before. We studied using cadavers in medical school, I had seen dead soldiers during my service, the earthquake… but not like this. A person just left there to rot, not even maggots to grace their corpse. Truly left to be forgotten.

They wore rags that may have once been clothes, covered by wooden armour that had long failed its purpose, the only items near it being a club and a useless waterlogged torch. It too had no bag, nothing that could identify it, as if someone had come by later and taken what they found interesting, having no regard for the corpse afterwards.

I almost wanted to throw up, but I held it in. This could’ve been me if I wasn’t lucky enough that that magic missile didn’t hit me… I had to move.

Giving the corpse a last glance, I muttered a silent prayer for them, regretting that I couldn’t at least find anything to identify them.

Beyond that, there were a few doors that looked similar to the one I came out of. Glancing inside, there were similar rooms, some with several corpses, and some empty. Each corpse had varying levels of decay, but they were all in the same state, having no other gear other than their weapon and some light source.

There were lanterns, torches, and I found another two crystal balls… but one was cracked, and neither produced any light.

I didn’t understand how multiple people could end up in the same trap given what it looked like. Maybe they were charmed by something? Or maybe I just didn’t have the imagination to understand how it happened.

One especially odd thing though, was the complete lack of insects.

There were no flies, maggots, ants, roaches, whatever bizarre magical bug there’d be wherever we were… nothing. There weren’t even rats.

I didn’t understand it… it was probably some weird magical effect or whatever.

I just kept moving on, taking nothing from any of the corpses, as I didn’t find anything identifiable on them.

There were a few other corpses stuck in the ground, having been decimated by magic missiles… one or two of which were far from any broken holes, likely having broken a leg or two and bled to death.

And finally, I came across something new, a change to the bleak blue scenery.

There was a room of bare stone, with red and brown splatters on the floor. I could see bone fragments in the rotten and stale mixture, and there stood four statues in a semicircle, a closed door beyond them.

These four green copper-like statues were of humanoid shapes… barely.

-One had tentacles that grew from their forearms and shoulders, and their empty hands held out as if beckoning me.

-The second had large eyes bursting out of their head, holding what looked like a shield menacingly, seemingly staring at me.

-The third had teeth that sprouted from various parts of their bodies, holding a staff that looked like it was made of bloated wood.

-The last looked the most normal, if a bit too eerily thin, holding a key.

Well, I needed to open a door, and there was a key…

No, that was too obvious, so many people wouldn’t have died if it was that easy!

Did I need to present an item to each statue in order? There were no items, though… Was that why everyone was looted!? To make sure no one could solve these but the people who had the items?

From everything I’ve seen so far, this place makes me think of a temple to some extent. The carved messages in the walls, the banners, the paintings, all clearly in reverence to something… if the people who owned this place were followers of some kind of god, then it would make sense that they’d have traps that they could get around by doing certain things or holding certain items.

The only hint to those ‘certain things’ I could think of were those writings on the stone walls… at least, what bit of it I could actually read.

The last one I read was “Tread lightly on the path of the sea.” And if that meant the blue carpet, that would make sense as a warning, or a reminder. Unfortunately I didn’t put that together in time…

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Then, the other messages; “And the deep lord blessed us with knowledge”, “The watchful protector offers us salvation”, and “Pay respects before the tall guardian.”

There wasn’t anything here tied to knowledge, and the statues were all roughly the same height. So that second message must have been the hint for this.

“The watchful protector offers us salvation” The second statue, with the large eyes and the shield was the answer. The only issue was… what was I supposed to do with that? Just approach it? Interact with it?

I really didn’t like what all the dried blood, and bone fragments on the ground meant… and the lack of body parts or items meant that someone cleared away these, maybe even spread some viscera to make it so you can’t just see which one has no blood in front of it.

Taking a deep breath, I considered what the danger was… the statues looked quite well made, a lot of definition… they were probably animated, or golems, or whatever the term was, at least from all the fantasy stories I’ve read.

Magic didn’t work properly on me, so I would probably be safe… unless they were mechanical constructs? But no, I haven’t seen anything that hints at that much technology being around!

Also, even if they’re magic, that magic missile from earlier still pushed me back even when it didn’t hit me, because of the air pressure alone… if one of these statues tried to hit me, even if they stopped working, wouldn’t I still be hit by a big chunk of metal speeding at me!?

I took a moment to look around and assess the area.

There was a small amount of blood past the statues towards where the door was, but most of it was on this side… and seemed to stop at a certain line, unnaturally so.

Thinking about the possibilities in my head, there was something that stopped the blood, and likely whoever spilt it too. So, some kind of wall… the question was, was it magical or mundane?

I couldn’t see any signs of the walls, floor, or ceiling having a section that moved, so it might have been magical. In that case, I might be able to run past it? Though I didn’t know if I could.

Not trusting the statues quite yet, I took what I thought was a smaller risk and walked around them, moving towards the door. The air shifted again, feeling completely different when I crossed some invisible line, with this new side lacking a lot of the horrid fumes of rot and filth behind me.

Looking down, I saw that bit of blood on this side end at said invisible line as well.

Putting two and two together… Was this a magical wall? So I could just walk past! Nice!

But it was also just like the feeling when I left that room I woke up in… so they had invisible walls too. Wow, that trap was extra brutal!

While it was a breath of fresher (still smelling like the sea) air, my focus was on the door, which I could now see was stone.

I reached out and pushed it… and once again remembered that stone can get very cold.

It was the only thing I could really feel, because no matter how hard I pushed, it didn’t budge.

At first, I thought there was a lock, but there was no key hole. Then I thought it might have been barred on the other side, but then what was the point of the statue puzzle, how would people cross through, when I’m sure there’s someone around looting the corpses at least. It couldn’t have been magic because that was the one thing I knew I could deal with!

Bringing my face to the crack of the door as I strained against it, I could peek through, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t even because it was being held in place by anything.

It was… just an incredibly heavy stone door. With no handles, so I couldn’t even pull it.

Whatever the statue puzzle was, it was probably supposed to open the door with some magic mechanism.

So I had to interact with the statues to open the door, there was no way without that.

Steeling my nerves, I finally moved towards the statues, taking a deep (but not too deep) breath of the rotting air, muttering to myself that I was safe because I could run through the invisible walls if there was danger.

And I stepped forward, towards the ‘watchful protector’ eyes watching it, looking for any movement, any danger, just looking into those large bloated oxidised copper eyes staring at me.

And… nothing happened. It just stood there, staring forward, above my head now.

Moving closer, holding my sword at the ready, I looked for any kind of this statue moving to strike, or danger from the other statues, or maybe even the ceiling collapsing (never discount the ceiling)… but still nothing.

I even reached out and touched the statue, but it was just cold, moist, slimy metal. Was it broken!? Can magic things just break? They’re always nearly indestructible and infallible when you see them in a book, aren’t they?

And then I realised… I make magic things stop working. That power might have just made this impossible…

Starting to panic, I quickly moved past the statue to the door. The air shifted again, feeling completely different when I crossed some invisible line, with this new side lacking a lot of the horrid fumes of rot and filth behind me.

There was nothing different about the door, it still didn’t budge in the slightest.

So I was stuck. I knew the answer, but couldn’t even use it.

I was safe from being attacked if I got it wrong, thanks to my ability, but I was also screwed from being rewarded if I got it right, thanks to my ability!

The only other way I could go was deeper into this nonsense.

I just wanted to cry.

…

Looking around at this strange place I’ve found myself for some more time, I’d like to try and paint a picture of it with my words.

It’s like I’m in a large stone tomb, one luxuriously decorated, now waterlogged and filth ridden.

So far, the ceiling has been 3 metres tall (about 10 feet), and the walls and floor are completely made of these nearly exactly sized grey stone bricks. The ceiling… is painted black, and I don’t know what it’s made of beyond that. Likely more grey stone bricks, with harsh corners and abrupt doorways, it feels hostile and made for efficiency above all.

On top of this naked layer of stone, are faded deep blue banners, ruined with mould, but depicting symbols I simply can’t make out for the life of me. The ground on the corridors is covered by a once-rich light blue carpet that seemed to fit perfectly along the structure… though now it lies waterlogged and hiding god knows what rot, as well as many pit traps.

Carved words in the stone appear as a wave pattern when observed properly, and those words are often hidden by many many paintings, faded, cracked and forgotten depictions… likely of objects of this place’s worship.

I’ve stared long and hard into them, I have found several that weren’t too badly ruined, but only found a few within those that I could see something I understood.

A grand light emanating from the sea, giant basalt towers sprouting from the sea as if the ribs of an enormous monster, happy villagers holding a festival that seemed to celebrate a large spire.

If I were to draw a map of where I’d been so far, it would likely look like a boxy ‘U’, with me starting on one end, a staircase leading lower to a side, and then the corridor of wet blue carpet, leading to the circular room with statues on the other end, with a few side rooms dotted along the path.

Honestly, there wasn’t a thing about this place I liked.

But I couldn’t afford to just ignore things, not at this point. I needed any hint I could find, and I didn’t find many.

Long story short, no matter what I did with the statues or the door, nothing happened.

I couldn’t interact with any of them, likely because of my anti-magic, and I couldn’t test anything either. I did find out that the key the skinny statue was holding was an actual item and not a part of the statue… and no, there was no keyhole on the door so it didn’t work.

Yes, I’ve also thrown the key at the door from a distance wondering if that would help, and it didn’t.

Warily stomping along the soaked carpet, disgusting squishy sounds accompanying even my lightest steps, I moved towards the staircase near the end of this ‘U’ shaped path, dreading what could be there, and getting annoyed with having to hold my arm out so that the flashlight didn’t get too close to me and turn off, which it did every now and then.

Trudging back through the path I so carefully advanced to reach the statues, it was laughable how quickly I reached the end of it, as if all the progress I made so far was nothing but insignificant.

Before long, I was standing before the staircase. A coarse naked grey stone structure that seemed to lead down to the depths of hell itself for all I knew, the air already so frigid I could see my breath mist before my eyes, and feel it start to seep through my body.

And after a few moments of staring into the abyss, I started descending, placing a hand on a wall to keep my balance on the aged and slippery steps.

The stone was as cold as a crypt.