Calista emerged from the wall and found Lefty’s shadow. Then she closed her eyes and rubbed them with her fingers as she released her [dungeon sense] ability and left the ethereal.
Lefty sat up from the wall, “Oh hey, you’re back.”
She let out a long breath as she sat down. The lone torch was still burning and it sent flickering shadows against her face. “Yeah, I found where they went. Severin’s there too.”
The mage almost looked tired, “Where did they go?”
“There’s a big cavern that connects to this level somehow. I don’t think we can get there using the way they went. Neera used a mask to open a doorway in the wall and I think if we don’t have that mask, we can’t use it.”
“Well that sucks,” Lefty looked up at the ceiling. “It’s almost like they’re cheating.”
“They are,” she said. “I can pretty much confirm that now.”
“How’s that?”
She opened her hand to reveal the key made of bone. “I found this.”
Lefty stepped away from the wall to lean over her as he looked at the key. “And so that’s six?”
“Correct,” she replied. “But that’s only counting if we can steal our gear back. I had the rest of the keys stored in my pack slots.”
“So, if we’ve found six keys now, that means one of them is an extra.”
“I mean, this is a dungeon and a tricky one at that. The only way we can figure it out is to keep going and maybe see if someone can help us figure things out.”
“You think we need to find the old lady?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we do. I’m kinda regretting we didn’t find her earlier.”
“Hopefully we can get by without.” Lefty looked at the hidden doorway, “Do you think we need to go back in there?”
I doubt that. She looked down the corridor. To her right was a dead end, but to the left was the dark of a tunnel. She knew the end of any dungeon was usually something of a funnel. So she pointed left and said, “No, I think we need to go that way.”
Lefty glared at the darkness as if it had offended him. He looked tired and beaten down. “Are you sure? What about our gear?”
Calista shook her head. “The only other way is full of lava and trolls. And I didn’t see where they put our gear. So I can’t pinpoint just how we’re going to get out of this mess, I only know that from where we are right now, there is one option that makes very little sense and there is one option that makes almost no sense. And I’m all for choosing the one that makes very little sense because very little sense is better than no sense at all.”
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Lefty put his hands on his hips and stared at the ceiling for a long while. Finally, he said, “You know, for once I agree with you.”
She got up, “Alright?”
He nodded, “Alright.”
She was a little woozy when she got on her feet. The healing potion had healed the damage in her body, but it hadn’t healed her stamina. Though she was no longer wounded, she felt very drained and worn. It was like she had been up for three days studying and had just crashed.
But this test isn’t over.
The corridor led them gently down, shifting from rough rock to smoothly carved walls reinforced with brick. There were no torches, only an all-encompassing darkness that swallowed everything around them. Finally, the tunnel ended at a long red curtain with gold trim. Peering through the curtain’s edge, she found a dark room with only a sliver of light shining through a half-open door. Cautious, she checked for movement, found none, and fell to a crouch as she crept into the room.
The place felt familiar. The tables and chairs, the bar stools next to the bar, the tankards, and barrels and wine casks against the wall. Then she spotted an outline near the bar, so she stopped to watch it, but it didn’t move. Staying low, she made her way between the tables and chairs until she reached the bar where she raised herself to its height. It was Inujack, the Imp bartender.
He was standing behind the bar with a beer glass in one hand and a wash rag in the other. She stared at him, but he didn’t move. It was as if he were an automaton that had been frozen in place. She relaxed then and walked around behind the bar where she found the water in the sink frozen as well. Its stream was running out of the faucet and over the beer glass where it was frozen in mid-splash. She ran her fingers through the water, broke the stream, and sent a splash that froze in mid-air. Drops of water just hung there in the darkness like tiny stars.
Behind her, Lefty was slinking his way around a table. “Hey,” she whispered, “can you come over here and look at this?”
The mage appeared at her side and looked the frozen bartender up and down. He then looked at the water in the sink and ran his finger through the frozen stream the same as she had.
“Is this still all just a bug?” She asked.
Still looking at the imp, Lefty shook his head, “I don’t know. If I were to guess, someone has cast a really powerful spell.”
“Like what?” she asked.
“Uh … I would say something that’s way, way above my level for sure.” He scratched his head. “If I had to guess, it would be something like Time Stop.”
Time Stop. She took a nervous look around the room. Severin knew he had to fight soon. He had followed Neera and Vevic through the ethereal and had frozen his entire dungeon while he dealt with the threat.
Lefty pointed at the bartender. “Who is this guy, anyway?”
“He’s a bartender named Inujack who doubles as the game master for the dungeon. I talked to him early on before I met you. I had thought he was independent of Severin’s control.”
Lefty shook his head. “You’re sure he’s a game master?”
Calista shrugged, “I mean, that’s what he told me.”
Lefty’s eyes traveled up and down the imp, “This is really weird.” They both looked at the imp for a while until Lefty finally added, “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. Keep moving?”
“I guess that’s as good a choice as any.”
At the door, Lefty stopped. “If this guy is strong enough to cast Time Stop all by himself, then I don’t know if we have any chance against him.”
Calista’s eyes blazed. “We do if I can get my sword back.”
Lefty seemed to consider this for a moment, “Yeah, I suppose. I guess I can throw myself out there as a sacrifice and you can stab him in the back.”
Calista looked at him suspiciously, “That’s not very cowardly of you.”
“Oh, I fully plan on screaming like a little girl the entire time. Don’t you worry.”
She laughed and slapped him on the back, “Okay, I guess we have our plan then.”
“So what now?” Lefty asked.
Calista reached into her pocket and pulled out the bone key. “I guess maybe we look to see we can find anything this key might work with? I don’t really know.”
“I guess if they’re here, they must have a use for something, right?” Lefty asked. “Have you used any of the keys to open anything yet?”
“Just two,” Calista replied. “The first little silver key I found way back at the beginning opened a door for me. And then I think we used the kobold’s key to open a door. So who knows? Maybe this is the one that gets us out of this gods’ forsaken place.”