The Temple

The way was completely black as I stumbled down the stone stairs. The musty smell of mold and rancid water filled my breath. The walls were slick and it was obvious that the moisture from the swamp had indeed seeped into these ruins. I wouldn’t be surprised if various parts of this underground structure were flooded in.

I saw light further down as I came upon the end of the steps. The source was Marrienne’s globe of magic which was floating above her head as she waited patiently by the steps.

“Where’sh Lee?” I asked her.

“He went further ahead to scout out the way,” she replied.

Why would he do that? Unless he had a torch, the way forward was completely dark. It would have been foolhardy to scout around an unknown area blindly.

As we went further into the ruins to find him, I saw that Lee wouldn’t be completely blind in this situation. Growing from the wet walls was some type of fungus which softly glowed a green light. These simple stalks provided enough illumination to find one’s way down here.

“Handy,” I said. I reached over to the wall and pulled out a handful of the glowing stems to use as a make-shift torch, but sadly they stopped their illumination as soon as they were removed from the wall. I tossed the now useless clumps onto the floor and wiped my hand on my coat.

Marrienne and I walked further down the passageway, both her magic light as well as the light from the fungus illuminating our way. We soon came to a fork in the passage, with it branching off to the left, right, and straight ahead.

“Lee!” I shouted. “Where the hell are you?”

“Is it wise to bellow like that?” Marrienne asked me. “There could be troglodytes in these halls.”

I grunted in annoyance, but she did have a point. Might as well trust enough in Lee’s abilities at not getting himself killed and continue onwards.

“Which way?” I asked.

The dark-haired woman frowned as she looked down all three passageways. “I’m not sure. I’ve only been told about the outside of these ruins. I know nothing about its interior.”

“Great,” I muttered. I was about to head into the left-side passage when Marrienne spoke up again.

“We should split up,” she said.

“Serioushly?” That was the dumbest idea I’d ever heard.

“We would cover more ground that way.”

“We could also get killed while we’re separated.”

“Nonsense,” she insisted. “There are no dangers down here except for some troglodytes. We’re both skilled enough to take care of any that we might come across.”

I could see that she had made up her mind about the matter.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

“Of course,” she gave me a dazzling smile before turning away to walk down the right-hand passage. “I’m an adventurer, after all. I’m used to the danger.”

Humph. Hopefully, she won’t end up dead at the end of this venture.

I frowned, then took the left-hand passage.

I continued down that corridor with only the light from the fungus illuminating my way. It wasn’t long before I came upon another divergence in the passage. I looked down the left, center, and right-hand passageways in annoyance. This place was going to be a maze, wasn’t it?

I moved to the wall of the hallway that I had just traveled through and began to scratch an “X” onto the muck that covered it. I stood back and admired my work; the “X” was large and quite visible, even in the dim light. I could easily backtrack now if I had to.

I continued my way further into the underground complex, this time taking the passage straight ahead. It wasn’t long before I came to another fork, and after scratching another “X” onto the wall, I took the right passage. On and on it went, with me walking down the corridor to find another branch, and I would mark the way I came before choosing a random passage to move forward.

After what seemed like hours, I suddenly came to a fork and found on the left-hand passageway an “X” carved into the wall.

“Damnation,” I muttered. I’d just gone around in a circle. How big was this place?

I was looking around, deciding whether to continue forward or backtrack a bit, when a foul stench assaulted my senses. It was utterly vile, like a mix between body odor and putrid flesh. It reminded me of my younger days, the days I spent in the war, smelling the stench of hundreds of other men marching in the hot sun as well as smelling the foul stink of lingering death coming from the medical tents.

I looked around my dim surroundings, trying to find the source of this sudden odor. I didn’t have to wait long, as a short, squat creature emerged from the right-hand tunnel. I couldn’t make out many details on the thing due to the low light from the fungus on the walls, but what I did see sent shivers down my spine. The creature was short, about three feet tall, and looked like some type of dwarf lizardman. It had squat legs, short hands, a stubby tail, and a large, bulbous head. What made this being truly monstrous was the caricature of a bloated, human face that it sported. It was wide and stretched out to fit its large head, and from its thin lips, I could see rows of sharp, needle-like teeth.

So this was a troglodyte. No wonder the archeologists ran the second they saw these things.

The creature screeched when it saw me, raising what looked to be a primitive stone hatchet in my direction. It suddenly lunged forwards, coming at me with frightening speed.

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I let out a swift kick which connected with its body, sending the small monster tumbling to the ground. Before it could get up, I drew my short sword and skewered it through its large head. The dome popped like a rancid pimple, splattering me with foul-smelling black blood and gore.

“Disgusting,” I muttered, trying to wipe away the stinking sludge that had spilled on me.

At least the monsters proved easy enough to take down. I could see a problem with them coming at us in large numbers, but one-on-one it was no contest.

I decided to backtrack through the complex using my marked passageways in order to find my way back to the entrance. Hopefully, Marrienne had found Lee (or vice versa) and they were waiting for me there.

I moved through the dark corridors at a swift pace, taking care as to keep an eye out for the various “X’s” along the walls. Left, straight forward, another left, right; on and on the passageways lead with me following each mark. I was turning a corner to go down a left-hand tunnel when a familiar stench assaulted me. It was the smell of troglodyte, only much worse. I looked around for the source of the odor when my eyes caught some shadows shifting in the dim green light. I quickly made out the forms of numerous troglodytes (I counted about a dozen of them) making their way down the passage. I quickly shoved myself backward, trying to hide my presence from the monstrosities, but I was too late. The lead trog opened its stretched out mouth and screeched out an inhuman scream. The other trogs, alerted to my presence, quickly lifted their weapons, which were composed of sharpened sticks, stone daggers, and other crude instruments. They then began rushing towards me, moving much faster than their stumpy legs should have allowed.

Seeing as I didn’t have enough bullets in my gun to take them all down, I ran. I rushed down the slick stone passageways, a hand holding my hat to my head so it didn’t fly off. The way was dark and illuminated only by the dim green light of the wall fungus, so I wasn’t sure how many forks in the passageways I ran through. All throughout my dash, the little monsters kept pace, chasing after me with mouths drooling and savage weapons held at the ready.

Just as I thought that I would have to stop my run to turn around and fight, I saw salvation. In the distance, I could see light up ahead. It wasn’t the dour green glow of the fungi either, but bright white sunlight shining through the darkness. I increased my pace, rushing forwards ahead of the pack of troglodytes, intent on getting to that glorious sunshine. The further I ran, the brighter the light became until suddenly, there was no stone passageway anymore and I found myself out in the open. I looked around and saw that I had emerged from the ruins and into a vast, underground cavern. It reminded me of the one Tycho and I found when we recruited the wolfmen back in Heaven. This one was similar in scope, with the same type of crack in the ceiling letting the bright mid-day sunshine down into the cave. There was one distinct difference between caverns though; instead of a forest, this one had a huge pyramid at its center. I’m not talking about the pyramids in Egypt, mind you, but those from South America. The giant structure here had the same blocky, step-like features as those built by the Mayans.

I turned my attention back to the passageway I had just exited, finding that it was one of many holes in the wall of the cavern. There was no sign of my pursuers. I didn’t see any of their deformed shapes in the opening, nor did I smell their disgusting stench. I guess I was safe, for now.

I took a moment to catch my breath. The air in the cavern was much fresher than the staleness found in those passageways. A cool breeze blew in from the crack overhead, bathing my overheated body with coolness.

I turned my attention to the pyramid. The huge structure was seated at the very center of the cavern, its apex almost towering above the crack.

Heading back the way I came didn’t sound too appealing, so I made my way towards the pyramid. The floor of the cavern was made up of various sized rocks and pebbles, which made it difficult to walk on in my bare feet. I wondered if I could maybe commission a cobbler into making a set of boots that would fit over my clawed lizard feet; it would certainly make traversing the world much more comfortable.

The gigantic pyramid had a set of stairs that ran from the base all the way up to its apex, where a roofed platform lay. I set my foot onto the first dark stone of the stairway, looking up and cursing under my breath. This was gonna be a long climb.

Up I went, my claws clattering onto the stone stairs with each step. The incline of those stairs was steep so I had to take care not to fall over backward with each step up. Thankfully, having a tail balancing you out helped tremendously during such an activity.

I was about two-thirds of the way up when I felt myself step on something sticky. Looking down I saw that the stone step I had just trod on was covered in a soft, white substance. I reached down to touch it with my hand.

“Cobwebs?” I muttered, looking at the sticky threads that were stuck to my fingers. I looked up further and saw that most of the top of the pyramid was covered in webbing. The material was thin and very hard to spot from far away, but now that I was close I could see the shimmering white threads almost everywhere.

Great. I hated spiders. They were disgusting little bastards, with eight thin, creepy legs that always caused the hair on the back of my neck to rise. Well, when I had hair. Regardless, I still hated the things. And there must have been a lot of them up here to make all that stupid webbing. I drew my short sword and continued my trek up the pyramid. I used the sword’s blade to push away the webbing as I climbed. The threads seemed to get thicker the higher I went, and soon the end of my blade was covered in reams of the sticky webbing.

I continued climbing the stairs, getting closer and closer to the enclosed platform at the top of the pyramid. The stone here was absolutely covered in webs, and I had to hack at some of the silk in my way in order to pass. The white threads parted with enough force from my blade, though I had to use all my strength to get through some of the thicker strands. And the higher I went, the heavier the blanket of webbing was. Soon I couldn’t even see the stone of the pyramid since the webs covered so much of it.

I still hadn’t seen a single spider. With these many webs, you’d think the place would be crawling with the disgusting things.

As I neared the pyramid’s apex, a soft, skittering noise reached my ears. I stood stock-still and listened. The sound, like a gently swaying breeze, was emanating from the entrance to the enclosed platform. I was close enough to the structure to see the thick strands of webbing covering the outer edge of the entrance. The entrance itself was pitch black, my eyes unable to penetrate the shadows within.

“Who goes there?” a loud voice bellowed from inside. It was shrill, like an old woman’s scream.

I held up my sword towards the sound of the voice. Its blade was covered in thick strands of spider web, making me doubt its effectiveness.

“What’s this? What’s this?” the shrill voice asked. “Do my eyes deceive me? A lizardman? Here? Well, well. What a pleasant surprise.” I heard numerous clicks coming from the entrance of the platform, and saw the shadow of something large moving from within. “Normally the lizardmen keep away from my temple. Cowards! Because of those cowardly, cowardly lizardmen I have had nothing to eat but foul, disgusting troglodytes! Yuck! Phooey!”

I moved my shortsword from my right hand to my left, its web-covered blade still pointed at the entrance. I reached down with my right hand and placed it on the grip of my revolver.

“But now… now I have you. A nice, delicious feast for Mordia!”

Faster than I could react, strands of white shot out of the entrance and splattered against my front. I gasped and backed away, looking down at my chest and finding thick strands of webbing glued to me. What was worse was that several strands of the sticky web had splattered onto my right hand, thus immobilizing it (and my gun) to the holster.

“Sweet, delicious little lizardman,” the shrill voice cooed. Slowly, something black and large began to pull itself out of the entranceway. “Come to Mordia, little one. Let me drink of your sweet, sweet insides!”

Mordia, as this creature called itself, was a massive gigantic spider. Its body alone was easily as big as a horse. Add to that it’s eight thin, spindly legs and we were talking about something truly enormous.

“Lizardman, sweet sweet little lizardman,” it muttered as it slowly stalked towards me, it’s eight legs finding easy purchase on the webbing covering the top of the temple. I saw its large, sharp mandibles twitching in eagerness, dripping some sort of green goo that just had to be its venom.

I yanked harder on my gun, yet I still could not break the webbing around it.

“Shit,” I muttered. Looks like I just landed headfirst into a heap of Grade-A trouble.