6 adventures walked through the entrance tunnels of Jorteg’s dungeon, lit torches in hand. The torches had been lit by Rum’s Channel Bio-Energy spell, the one that in simplified terms converted stored bodyfat into free energy, like fire, and gave Rum a very good reason for having an excess of said bodyfats on hand – or within hand one should say – at all times.
Speaking of Rum, the wizard was last in their file. Ahead of him was Amez, and ahead of Amez was Elrith, Gilda, Rulli, and finally the tank was at the front of them all, ready to receive the first blow. It’s kind of nice to know that I can rely on others to be the shield in this group. Being a meat shield was seriously taxing the last time. The elves really could’ve used a proper tank like Darmon, instead of the mage tank that was me. Darmon’s solid plate armor clacked and clinked in the weary silence within the rock and dirt tunnel.
“There is something I’ve been wondering about” Amez said, and a few heads glanced momentarily back at him.
“Yeah?” Rulli replied.
“What is a dungeon?”
Ahead of the group, Darmon stopped. So did everyone else in front, and they all turned to look at the man.
“You came here, with us” Darmon asked sharply, “and you ask that?”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like I don’t have some ideas” Amez looked around into their faces, and also at Rum, suddenly acutely aware of how everyone, except perhaps for his brother, was judging him. Internally he felt his own stress shoot up at the sudden onslaught of faces mentally designating him with an idiot-label.“It’s just” he defended himself, “that I’ve never had anyone actually explain it. It’s always kind of just been hinted at, or glossed over in stories. And” he glanced at the walls around them, “this dungeon seems a little more simple in construction than I had imagined.”
Darmon’s helmet continued to stare at him. Of course if the human was making any facial expressions, those expression would be hidden, but Rulli at least had visible facial expressions, and lowered one of his surprised eyebrows at him to make a less alienating question-mark instead.
“Well” Rulli said, “this is Jorteg’s dungeon, he’s an upstart, I believe he built this hideout from scratch. Not many dungeon lords do that. I think.” The dwarf went silent for a second as he looked to be thinking about the dungeon lords he knew. “Nah, most of them took over existing places when they got started. At least the ones I know of. The Ormar Dungeons are a natural cave system, Luk’s Twin Dungeons is the same just smaller and shorter. And all the great dungeons further south used to be the homes of different kins. Hmm.” He looked to be thinking for another second, then met eyes with Amez. “Does that satisfy your curiosity?”
Amez hesitated to respond, looking uncertain for a second.
“Maybe I can help?” Rum offered, and the others looked behind Amez and at him. The younger brother too turned to face his elder, his mouth still open with uncertainty.
“A dungeon is created by a dungeon spell, and there are many different kinds of spells.” Rum raised an educating finger. “However, what the spells usually do in any case, is to create a deep and permanent connection between the mage and a piece of land.” He vaguely gesticulated from himself to their surroundings. “In the dungeon, the lord possesses increased powers, because the whole area becomes a reservoir of mana for them, and also, the dungeon often becomes an extension of the lord. Many dungeon spells have associated spells that are called mageland spells. Those spells only work for a mage lord residing in their dungeon. So a dungeon, little brother, it can be anything. I suppose in theory, a dungeon could be as small and simple as a barrel standing on the ground, and as large as the mage is capable of extending their magic. The dungeon lords of The Ormar Dungeons, or the three lost cities, and not to forget the dungeon lord of The Great System or Bright Star Fortress, they are lords of huge areas of land. I don’t think anybody quite knows just how big this place is, but I have a suspicion that Jorteg’s Dungeon is on the smaller side.” Rum stopped and looked at Amez. “You understand?”
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“Yeah“ Amez looked away from Rum and ahead of them. “So” he glanced into the eyes of the others, “does Jorteg have any of those... mageland spells? – I should be aware of?”
Rulli looked at Elrith, Elrith looked at Rulli. Gilda looked at Darmon, and Darmon looked at Gilda. Nobody looked at Rum, and Rum looked at nobody in particular.
“Not that we have heard” Rulli answered.
“If he does” Darmon answered from his helmet, “then he doesn’t use it often enough for us to have heard of it. Things like that tend to get out once it’s discovered.”
“Unless the one who discovers it dies from it” Rum offered. The others looked at him with uneasy faces.
“There have been some high-level adventurers who’ve tried to defeat Jorteg himself” Elrith said. “All of them died, of course. Or else he’d likely be dead, or at least not running this dungeon still.”
Their torches flickered and sparked in the ensuing silence.
“No” Rulli said and shook his head. “Not the time for worry or brooding over such things.” He gestured with his axe. “That thick wooden gate is not far off now. Let’s smash that, blast open the vault, take his treasures and get the damned out of here! We’re here for treasure, not glorious death!” He comradely gave Elrith a soft fist to the shoulder and nodded firmly at Darmon to continue.
The suit of armor with a man inside turned around, and so on they went, deeper through the tunnel.
“So, how do we want to do this?” Rum said when nobody else spoke in front of the large wooden doors.
Amez was busy getting close and studying the carved pictograms of dancing skeletons, his eyes watching them with equal fascination and bemusement.
“Uhm” Rulli started, then went quiet. He glanced over at Elrith. So did Gilda. And Darmon’s helmet too appeared to be aimed at the short human with the explosion-making body enchantment and oversized crossbow.
“Ehm” she said, then turned to Rum. “You must have some spells that we can use to get this door open?”
The wizard returned her gaze, hands on his hips. He’d been thinking about that as well. His eyes went back to stare at the double doors and the metallic handle. “We can try and open the door” he nodded towards the metal.
“I seem to recall that this door was locked” Rulli said with a minor bit of sarcasm.
“Well is it locked now?” Rum raised an eyebrow.
Rulli rolled his eyes, and dropped his axe to the ground. The longbearded dwarf went over to the handle, pulled it down, and tried to push the door open. “Seeh?” he let out between striving breaths and a rapidly reddening face.
Rum stepped over to the door, stroking his beard. The dwarf let go of the handle and stared at it, like it was his mortal enemy.
“Hmm” Rum said, and took another step forward. “Muscle Grow” he spoke, and his arms bulged slightly. Then, instead of pushing, he tried to pull the door with the handle down.
The door, with a long and slow squeak of effort – opened up.
Everywhere else among their group there rose a dead silence...
In his innocence, Amez let out the first thought that came to mind. “Did nobody ever try to pull the door open?”