Oz, Tarka, and three other delvers entered the dungeon. Sif and Sig were joined by a young man with black hair and pale, freckled skin whose name was Kian. They all wore cloaks and held large, flat shields. They waited at the entrance while the dungeon decided if it would attack. After a couple of minutes, Tarka let out a derisive laugh.
“All this extra preparation and it’s not even going to attack. What a waste.” He said. The others grumbled a bit also. Kian dropped his shield on the ground and pulled off his bow.
Over the past couple of weeks, Oz had learned it was futile to respond directly to criticism from Tarka. Oz treated himself to a mental sigh before turning around and addressing the group. “The dungeon creatures will act the same as natural creatures now. We don’t know if the dungeon will change its mind later, forcing us to fight our way out. Kian, strap your shield to your back if you move with your bow out.” Oz turned back away from the group. Kian gave a shrug and slipped his shield onto his back, with a longer strap across his chest.
The group walked cautiously through the main worldlet and the delta worldlet without incident. The four with shields out held those shields high as they stepped into the Oasis worldlet. The light in the worldlet was transitioning between ‘night’ and ‘day’, and was dimly lit. The many butterflies flapped aimlessly through the air or perched on vine flowers.
Sig unfolded some large bags as Sif pulled out a fishing net. They had practiced this a few times to avoid the need for a discussion while being attacked by dungeon creatures. Oz moved ahead of the group and stabbed his spear at a bright green butterfly. The butterfly died quickly but let out a small puff of acid. Oz stepped backwards and held out his spear so Kian could get a clear look at the acid aligned butterfly. Kian hadn’t been in the dungeon before and so was not familiar with the different types of creatures. After looking between the bright green butterfly and the other butterflies in the air, he grunted to Oz and pulled back an arrow. Oz flipped the dead butterfly off his spear and stood ready to defend the archer. Tarka drew idly in the sand, clearly not paying attention.
Kian shot half a dozen green butterflies. When he saw no more potentially acid aligned targets, he said, “Done.” Oz and sift stepped forward for the next stage. Tarka was meant to advance with them, but he had been the most vocal delver in opposition to plans with more than two steps. Sif half spun and threw the fishing net high in the air. The net expanded above a group of butterflies and dragged them down to the ground. Sif and Sig pulled the net and butterflies back to the group and began moving them to the bags. They repeated this a couple more times before the bags were full.
“That went well.” Kian said. He stepped cautiously around on the sand, retrieving his arrows. Tarka snorted and turned towards the exit.
“It’s brighter in here now.” Oz said. “Like the sun is rising.” The others agreed with this observation. Oz walked to the pond and looked down in. He saw a few fish in the clear water. He considered asking Sif to throw the net in the water to catch the fish, but Tarka might just leave without them if they delayed any longer.
The group left the bags in the delta worldlet to be picked up on their way out. They each pulled out a curved piece of dark glass and tied it around their eyes. A bit of padding kept the glass from slipping and blocked light from the sides. Oz took a deep breath and stepped into the acid rain worldlet. The light through the dark glass was still bright, but it was similar to a clear summer day at noon and didn’t cause much discomfort after a moment to adjust. The other delvers followed after Oz with shields and weapons out. Sig swung her axe at something on the ground. A snake head tumbled across the peat a short distance. Kian gave startled yelp but quickly refocused on scanning for targets.
They group killed a couple of salamanders which were nearby, then paused to adjust their cloaks and glass. The sideways rain weighed down their shields and leaked around the padding for the glass eye protection. The group wore waterproof cloaks and the raindrops rolled across them and dripped off the far side. Sif got a surprise as he wiped water off his glass to see a jellyfish drifting right in front of his face. With a startled curse, Sif stepped back and got his shield in between him and the jellyfish. The jellyfish slowly bounced off the shield and drifted away.
“Well done, Sif!” Oz said happily. “The sting on those things burns like dragonfire. Better using the shield than your rotting hand.” He chuckled as Sif grinned widely. Oz turned to fully face the group. “Now we explore a floor we know little about. It looks to me like a straight walk following the vine.” Oz gestured around and then towards the vine, which grew straight along the direction the rain fell. “Kian, shoot as you see targets. Sig and Sif, keep anything from coming up on our sides. I’ll take the front and Tarka guards Kian from the rear.” Oz paused to see if Tarka would object or ignore Oz’s orders. To his mild surprise, Tarka didn’t object and just positioned himself with his shield facing into the rain. Oz walked to the front and slung his shield onto his back so he could use his spear with both hands. They proceeded to move towards the far end of the vine. As they walked, the rain pushed a few jellyfish to drift into their backs. Tarka slew the first two with his sword, but then decided to just hold his shield up at an angle so the jellyfish bounced off and over their heads.
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The group slew a fair number of snakes and salamanders as they walked. They only saw one frog, which Kian shot before it saw them. At the end of the vine, the group paused again. Oz spoke with a grin. “Easy walk through a goblin’s garden. Next floor we have no burning idea what to expect. Might still be bright, might be pitch dark. I’ll step through and right back to see if we need the glass. Then we’ll all step through in this same order.” He unslung his shield and crouched behind it. He stepped through and immediately back. “No glass.” He said and removed his eye protection. He squinted fiercely and stepped again into the portal.
Oz’s eyes went wide as he got a good look at the stony worldlet. He nearly turned and ran, but Sig came through the portal and bumped him to the side. She swore and raised her shield. Oz belatedly raised his own shield above his head. The rest of the group stepped through and had a similar reaction. Kian fumbled with his bow and shield as he desperately tried to swap.
Hundreds of jellyfish floated around the group. In the grey light they appeared as a fog made of tentacles. Nothing was visible beyond the jellyfish and the group could only see the ground for a few yards in front of them. The jellyfish fog pressed in around them. The delvers swore again as a large spray of acid washed over the shields. They crouched down and pulled their shields tight in a sort of dome. The shields managed to keep out most of the acid and the group caught it’s breath for a few moments.
“I saw something on the ground.” Sif surprised Oz by speaking up. The large twins didn’t typically speak much.
“Scales! Everyone alright?” Oz asked the others. They all grunted or spoke a brief affirmative. “How far was it?” Oz asked Sif. Sif shrugged. Oz tried to peak between the shields but couldn’t see. “Fine. We move slow and low. Try to go straight ahead, we don’t want to get lost.” Oz shuddered at the idea of crawling for hours under the jellyfish fog. The group moved forward slowly. A few strides away from the portal, they all swore again as a wave of water rushed over their feet. A few strides further the water receded and Sif picked something off the stony ground.
“It’s a sword.” Sif said. He had hooked his axe to his belt and held a bronze sword. Oz thought the sword looked very similar to Tarka’s sword. Tarka seemed to agree.
“Give me that!” Tarka snapped at Sif. Sif handed the sword back to Tarka. Tarka put his own sword away and glared at the found sword. Oz waited for a long while but decided that Tarka wasn’t going to be offering any insight aside from his unhappy expression. Oz ordered them back to the portal and out of the stony worldlet.
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Back in the main worldlet, the delvers lost their willingness to obey Oz’s orders as they prepared to leave the dungeon. They hadn’t found any treasure other than the sword, and Oz figured the trip was worthwhile experience but not something they would repeat soon.
Tarka stood in front of the exit and glared at the other delvers. “There’s two other floors we can access from this one.” He said. Oz wasn’t sure if Tarka meant to threaten them, but the extra sword was still in his hand by his side.
Oz felt very unsure about the other floors, He hadn’t even seen the one on the right. He tried to explain. “The one in the back doesn’t have much to stand on. This one,” He gestured to the right side of the dungeon. “I haven’t seen, they said it was too hot or something.”
Tarka glared harder. “You just don’t want us to find the treasure. Want to keep it to yourself.”
Oz glared back at Tarka. Tarka had been receptive to Oz’s suggestions at first, but the man became more abrasive with each meeting. Oz huffed in irritation, then rubbed his chin in thought. He didn’t want any of the delvers to harm the marvelous dark rainbows, but there was enough room for two to stand at the entrance. Perhaps barely enough room. Oz stuck his spear into the ground. He took off his shield and cloak and hung them on the spear. “There isn’t much room, so one person can come with me to look. Don’t-“ Oz paused as he realized how suspicious Tarka would be if Oz said not to bring any weapons. “It’s just… There isn’t much room.” He turned and walked towards the back. Tarka dropped his shield and tossed the extra sword on it before following.
Oz rolled his eyes as Tarka hesitated to follow into the shadowed area in front of the portal to the dark worldlet. When the man finally joined him, Oz turned and stepped through the portal.
Oz carefully stepped forward to the edge of the pile of pebbles near the portal in the dark worldlet. He looked up in anticipation of having his breath taken away. The worldlet was even more striking than he remembered.
As far as he could see above, Oz saw rainbows illuminating floating patches of pebbles. Mushrooms and small vines grew out of many of the floating patches. The rainbows colored each and every mushroom. The rainbows stretched across the black space between the floating patches and colored a few drifting jellyfish. Oz realized that a few pebbles in each patch glowed and provided the source of light to make the rainbows.
Tarka stepped through the portal and gasped in astonishment. He stared into the silent black-and-rainbow dungeon floor with his mouth wide open. A bat fluttered swiftly in and out of the rainbows. The bat flew into the tentacles of a jellyfish and squeaked in surprised pain. “Gods…” Tarka said and took a step forward.
“Wait!” Oz shouted, but it was too late. Tarka’s foot slipped down the side of the patch of pebbles they both stood on. He flailed his arms and awkwardly tried to fall backwards onto safe ground. The pebbles shifted under his other foot and he fell into the darkness. He jerked to a stop as Oz wrapped two hands around his ankle. Oz had thrown himself to his stomach just in time to catch Tarka’s ankle. He dug his toes into the pebbles to avoid sliding off the side as Tarka had.
“Pull me up!” Tarka screamed in full panic. He waved his arms and kicked his free leg, trying to catch onto anything. Below him there were only a couple floating patches hanging in the pitch black.
“Stop kicking me!” Oz shouted angrily down at Tarka. He tried to pull the man back up onto the pebbles, but his leverage wasn’t right. “Reach up and grab onto my arm!” Oz had to repeat the instruction twice before Tarka seemed to hear it. The man struggled to “sit up” while hanging upside down but managed to reach high enough to grab Oz’s forearm. Using Oz’s body like a barely adequate ladder, Tarka clambered back up onto the pebbles and threw himself through the portal exit.