Eight Era, cycle 1721 – cycle of the squatting dog, season of Unkh, day 221

Amaka wiped a hand over her face, and she waited for the world to stop spinning, for the throb in her temple to settle down and for the crushing self-pity to ease off.

You have been concussed.

All spirit attributes lose 5%

You are dizzy from the concussion.

Lose 2% of your spirit attributes for 2 hours, 1 hour 13 minutes left.

You have been afflicted: dehydration

Due to a lack of liquids, you suffer a 25% deduction of all stats and attributes including health, stamina and mana.

You have been afflicted: hunger

Due to a lack of food, you suffer a 25% deduction of a health, stamina and mana.

With a deep and unsettling feeling of déjà vu, Amaka opened her eyes. All was black.

For a minute, Amaka wondered if she’d died and was trapped in hell, reliving the same period over and over.

‘I think she’s awake,’ a voice said, and the relief that Amaka wasn’t stuck in hell gave her the energy to sit up.

‘Are you alright?’ the same voice asked, and it was soft and kind and feminine.

‘She looks like shit warmed up, Sally; she’ll be of no help,’ a scathing, nasal voice replied.

‘Hey, are you alright?’ the feminine voice asked.

Amaka looked around and struggled to see much in the dark; remembering her all-seeing-eye ability, Amaka activated her magicka and looked around once more. She was in a cage, which was small, so she wouldn’t be able to stand, and narrow, so she wouldn’t be able to lie down straight. There were other cages, a number of them, and three of them were occupied. A squat girl with the shoulders of a dwarf was kneeling down in her cage, looking over towards Amaka. In the cage next to that girl was a pinch-faced man, kicking the heel of his boot rhythmically into the ground. Judging by the face on the man, Amaka took this to be the one who’d made the acerbic comments. The last person was hunched up in the corner of their cage, and Amaka couldn’t make out much of their appearance.

‘I think I’m alive, although I couldn’t tell you if that’s a good thing yet,’ Amaka responded. ‘Where are we? What happened?’

‘We’re in a carok nest; we were captured – I don’t know when any more. I’m Sejal, by the way. These are is Dillan and Costello,’ explained the girl.

‘I don’t remember being caught; I think I fell – again.’

‘We were only caught because Costello fell asleep on his watch,’ Dillan said peevishly.

‘Although Costello said you never woke him,’ Sejal muttered.

‘What did you say?’ Dillan asked.

‘I was just complaining about cramp, Dillan.’

‘Stupid, tiny caroks,’ Dillan agreed.

Amaka ran a hand up and down the bars of her cell. They were cold and smooth, but they didn’t feel like they were metal; they felt like bone. Amaka shivered. ‘What are these made off?’ she asked.

‘No idea; I can’t see too well in this gloom. I can’t even find where they lock the door; I can’t find a key hole,’ responded Dillan.

Amaka looked the cage over, and quickly found a leather thong tying the door closed. ‘They’re just tied closed,’ Amaka said.

‘That was quick,’ Dillan replied sceptically.

‘I have good night vision,’ Amaka confirmed.

‘Shame they took our knives off us,’ Sejal said.

Amaka tapped her belt, then the sheath of her sword. ‘Same here, but I think there’s a table at the far side with some nasty-looking tools on it.’

‘It’s a torture table,’ Dillan stated with a nod. ‘If one of us could get out, there’s bound to be something sharp on it.’

Amaka worried her lip, thinking of how to get out. With a sheepish grin, she remembered her ability to teleport. Looking at the table, she activated her skill and appeared before the table in an instant.

‘Where’d she go?’ Sejal asked, peering out of her cage.

‘Probably fainted,’ Dillan replied.

‘I can’t see her; it’s almost like her cage is empty.’

Amaka smiled at the conversation and picked up the sharpest-looking object, trying to ignore the tufts of hair clinging to the blood on it.

New item: rusted knife

This is a small, old knife, which has mostly given way to rust. This knife is made out of iron and the original quality is impossible to deduce; it deals 0–1 damage, its durability is 1/3, and it weighs 1.3 kg.

‘How’d you do that?’ Sejal asked in amazement as Amaka appeared at her cage door and cut the thong that held it closed.

‘Let’s get everyone out; they might be coming to check on us,’ Amaka said, and she moved to Dillan’s cage.

Sejal jumped at Amaka and hugged her fiercely. ‘We must have been locked up for days! Castello has been questioned; I thought we were going to die in here!’

Amaka hugged her back. ‘It’s okay, you’re out, and we’re going to get out of this.’

Relationship increased: you receive 1,000 relationship points for freeing Sejal; Sejal is now a firm friend.

You relationship with Sejal has gone from stranger, 0 relationship points, to firm friend, 1,000–1,499 relationship points; she will fight by your side should you need it.

Amaka beamed, she’d made her first friend.

‘How have you done this?’ Dillan asked, not looking too pleased at being saved by a woman.

‘How will we find the way out?’ Sejal queried.

‘I think I feel a breeze; we could follow it?’ Amaka suggested.

‘I should take that blade; I’m a tried-and-tested soldier, after all. What’s more, we should leave quickly; they will be arriving soon. Hopefully, we can find the way out by following the disturbed air back to the entrance,’ declared Dillan.

Amaka had the sharp item snatched off her; she rewound what Dillan had said, and realised he’d basically just repeated everything she’d said.

‘We need to be stealthy, stick to the walls, try to catch a few by surprise, steal their weapons and fight our way out,’ Dillan said gesturing to the others. ‘Back, push back against the wall, so you can use the dark to cover your movement. We move slowly, so as not to make a sound. When we notice their torches, we strike!’

Amaka looked at the man with distaste. It was no wonder he’d been caught, as he moved so close to the wall that his clothes made an audible scraping noise. And any hunter knows you need to break your profile up if you want to remain hidden; he stood proud and tall like an amateur.

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‘Wet a finger and hold it out, see?’ Dillan was saying as a breeze tickled the hair on Amaka’s left side. ‘It blows to the right, see?’

‘Is he always like this?’ Amaka asked Castello whilst helping him out of his cage.

‘What do you mean?’ he replied his voice was soft and sounded hoarse.

‘He seems rather forthright,’ Amaka said, rather lamely, by her own opinion.

Castello shrugged, unsure of what she meant. He moved slowly and awkwardly, his body had strange grey things on it, and – after helping him move and watching him wince in pain – she realised the patches were bruises showing up in her all-seeing eye.

‘I think you’ve broken a rib,’ suggested Amaka.

‘Two, according to my interface,’ Costello confirmed.

Amaka worried her lip again and then cast her spells. It wouldn’t mend the ribs, but it would hopefully get him moving quicker. ‘Are you bleeding?’

‘Not yet,’ he replied.

‘What should we do about the others?’ Sejal asked.

‘What others?’ Amaka responded.

‘There are others trapped down here,’ Sejal said.

Quest update: the dying of the light

You have got lost in a dangerous system of caves. Fight your way through or find your way out. Before it’s too late…

Additionally, you have discovered others are trapped here. Continue onwards and free them, or leave them to their fate. The choice is yours.

Rewards: upgrade to your navigation skill, reward for clearing out a cave, other rewards unknown

Failure or refusal will mean spending your life lost in the dark. Failure to rescue the others who are trapped will affect how others treat you, should they find out.

Quest update: held captive 1

You have discovered the location of a slave pen; free the captives before it is too late.

Rewards: the gratitude of all freed slaves and their families

Failure will affect how others treat you, should they find out.

‘They aren’t our concern; we need to return as we have other duties to attend,’ Dillan replied, and he slipped out of the room.

They moved slowly; Castello was sweating and a real hindrance to their party, but their combined luck must have been significant as they met no patrolling caroks. There was the sound of rushing water, and they followed it up, with light slowly invaded the caves – it was the entrance.

‘I’m not leaving,’ Amaka announced.

‘We have no weapons; we should return for swords at least,’ Sejal said.

‘True,’ Amaka grudgingly admitted.

‘Someone’s coming,’ Costello said, leaning around a corner.

‘How could they have got so close?’ Dillan asked, confused.

‘The sound of the river covered their approach,’ Amaka suggested.

‘We don’t have a choice; the only way is back to the surface,’ Dillan declared, setting off.

‘He’s right; we don’t have weapons after all,’ Segal agreed.

‘Fine!’ Amaka exclaimed, with bad grace, moving towards the exit. It took a moment for her to realise Sejal hadn’t moved. ‘What’s wrong?’ Amaka called.

Sejal shrugged. ‘Someone’s got to hold them off, and Costello’s in no shape to run.’

‘We’ll carry him,’ Amaka proposed, moving back.

‘There’s no time; I’ll slow them down. You go and help Costello; I’ll catch up after a few minutes. They hate the sunlight after all. It’ll give you lot time. Take this and give it to my sister; Dillon can tell you who she is.’ Sejal’s attention was then taken as a carok rounded the corner; Sejal’s arm moved in a flash and struck the creature on the head. It slumped, unconscious or dead, and Sejal snatched up its blade. Turning back, Sejal threw a ring to Amaka and winked.

‘Sejal…’ Amaka said, hesitating.

‘Go,’ Sejal ordered, moving a hand and casting some spell that made her body glow with a pale light that slid over her body like a coating. ‘I’ve got magical armour; I’ll be fine.’

Amaka moved back slowly and guiltily, and she turned as she heard the pants of effort from Costello. For a moment, she could forget Sejal and her own guilt by concentrating on Costello and helping him. But there was soon the sound of a commotion, and Amaka turned back.

Sejal was holding off a group of caroks. The space Sejal was standing in was wide enough for three caroks to move at once, but that wasn’t enough for them to overwhelm Sejal. She was able to hold off three caroks with apparent ease. Amaka even started thinking that Sejal would be able to kill enough for her to catch up to them after all, but then a robed carok rounded the corner and watched the battle.

It held up an arm slowly, and a thick spike erupted from its hand and shot towards Sejal. She spotted it late and deflected it with apparent effort. It distracted her long enough for a carok to get past her guard and cut at her thigh. She cried out in pain and smashed the carok in the face with her elbow; it went down in a heavy heap and then a second spike was fired at Sejal.

Caught by a simultaneous attack by another carok, the spike took her in the chest, impaling her between her left breast and shoulder. Sejal staggered back, and the caroks redoubled their attacks. Sejal moved and caught a slash from one, before returning the blow and taking the carok in the neck. Another spike was fired at her, and she deflected it, but was caught again by a carok’s pike, which had been shoved speculatively at her gut, and then the next spike took Sejal in the thigh.

Blood flowed from her gut wound, but the spikes left no sign of their impacts; the pike was pulled out and blood spurted over the carok’s face; it cheered and licked its lips. Amaka growled, taking a vicious joy in thinking about how the caroks defecated themselves after they died.

The mage carok called out to the others, and they stood back. It strode slowly towards Sejal as Amaka started moving, but the scene before her had an inexorable motion and an inevitability that warped time around it so that – despite how fast Amaka ran and how hard she pumped her legs – she hardly moved in relation to the carok mage.

It moved its hand and a thin mist rolled out towards Sejal, but it seemed to have no effect. Then the mage cast another spike, which took Sejal through the eye. Sejal fell backwards, the mist swirled and shapes played within it, and a cloudy figure was pulled out of Sejal’s body.

As the body fell back slowly, the figure moved just as slowly away. The smoke figure cast a look at Amaka before it was sucked towards the mage. The mage held out a crystal, the smoke spiralled and was funnelled into the crystal, and when it had absorbed the smoke figure it turned a deep and utter black.

Amaka’s blood ran cold; she didn’t understand the consequences of what she’d seen, but primal understanding was telling her it was an evil thing that had just befallen her friend. Amaka charged through the caroks. The mage was already out of sight as Amaka burst through the first few caroks; they cried out as Amaka barrelled through them. The caroks reacted, drawing weapons and letting out battle cries, and Amaka was forced to dance back to keep out of reach. Amaka attempt a teleport, but in the feeble light she landed awkwardly and slipped on the slick stone she’d landed on.

The cry of pain that Amaka released wasn’t her own. She moved her head a fraction, and she noticed from the corner of her eye that Costello had joined the fray. He’d taken a sword at some point and fought his way towards Amaka, but his wound was slowing him down. Amaka appeared before Costello and grabbed a sword from a fallen carok. They stood beside an empty blackness, as the ground dropped away into the dark, and a faint sound of running water echoed out of it.

Costello lurched forwards, taking a carok’s axe blow on his sword. He was weak; his arm shook and buckled. Amaka turned and stabbed the carok in the gut; it cried out and staggered back. Costello took a step back, holding his chest, and his foot slipped as it lost purchase on the edge of the drop. Amaka pulled Costello away, but that left her open to the axe aimed for her. She threw an arm out to protect her face, the axe bit into her arm and Amaka screamed. It smashed into her radial bone and the impact shook through her body. The pain that came with it was unlike anything she’d felt before, and, instinctively, she drew backwards, attempting to crawl away from the pain and edging backwards as if the pain was a physical thing she could separate herself from.

But then, suddenly, there weren’t any further steps to take; her foot came down onto empty air, and she started to fall backwards. She had just enough instinct to lurch forwards in an attempt to stay upright, but the rocks were slick and smooth, and she failed to find a grip. She fell, but managed to fall slightly forwards; her arm came down to take the impact, but her damaged arm hung uselessly and hit the ground first. The pain froze her, she landed heavily with her stomach hitting something hard, and the air left her lungs. Slipping backwards, she scrabbled with her good arm, but the floor was smooth and curved away acutely, and Amaka felt the ground rise upwards quickly. In an instant, she realised she was falling, down, down, down, and landed with a splash into freezing cold water.

Amaka struck out for the surface, though her arm was impossibly painful and her lungs burned from lack of breath. Amaka had a large warning icon in her vision, cautioning her of an imminent bleed out, and she tried to cast haemostasis, but the churning water and her desperation made her fail the spell. Her life dropped away, the numbers indicating her health was dropping faster than 1 point per second. She failed the spell again and again, as the numbers were in the teens, the tens, the units.

Finally, the spell took, but the healing spell was hardly more than the bleed damage. Amaka had to stop swimming to cast the spell and dropped deeper into the river; she felt magicka flair in her finger, the ring from Sejal activated, and Amaka found she could breathe easily. She was able to staunch the bleeding before she hit a rock, and white-hot pain surged through her.

She would never be allowed to leave; she knew that now. Attempting to leave the cave had made it react and pull her down into its core. She tried to swim one-handed, but was battered around by the current, and the pain from her arm soon took all other thoughts away.

And then she was swept into a rock; her head cracked against it, but the sounds were lost in the noise of the river, and Amaka once more lost her consciousness to the darkness.