Chapter 154: 8.16 – Descent into Tarin-Tiran

Robin conjured a flaming Ace of Spades, the blue light from the witchfire surrounding it casting the scene in an eerie luminescence. The ghostly figure didn’t react, but the fog around its feet swirled and advanced slowly.

The bard sent the [Lesser Witchbolt] flashing toward the fog, rather than the figure. the card exploded with a snap and crackle of eldritch flame, but the fog around it did not respond. No wild magic surge. Just a bit of swirl to it from the disturbance of the force of impact.

The figure raised one arm and crooked its hand in a beckoning gesture.

‘Oh hells no,’ Jhess muttered.

‘We’ve got wild magic fog advancing on our heels,’ Drev called. ‘I think there’s more of it!’

Classic rock and a hard place. Robin looked around desperately for a hidden third option. A trap with an escape tunnel hidden within it maybe, or a secret door in the walls, floor or ceiling?

But this wasn’t one of the classic dungeon crawls, this was no table-top fantasy. This fantasy was very real, and the dungeon around them was very alive. Unlike a friendly—or even malevolent—dungeon master, the living dungeon of Tarin-Tiran had no motivation to tailor itself to Robin’s party.

‘Savra,’ Robin called, ‘any insight?’

‘Behind us is only woe, ahead is a mix of utterly terrible signs and portents and great rewards.’ The seeress said, flipping her coin several times. ‘I cannot see any more than that.’

‘Great,’ Robin muttered.

‘Forward then,’ Vance said cheerfully. ‘Perhaps new discoveries await! Or great treasure.’

That last was clearly for Jhess’s benefit, though through their bond Robin felt Rerebos perk up at the idea.

The party advanced, slowly. The apparition fell back before them, never seeming to move, always a set distance ahead of them.

‘That’s fucking creepy,’ Jhess murmured, daggers clenched tightly before her.

She wasn’t wrong.

‘Fog behind us advancing faster!’ Drev called. ‘My force disc has run out.’

Fuck.

The fog ahead of them still hugged the edges of the corridor, and they were able to slowly pass through it. Robin hated it, but it was a chance of danger here versus the4 surety of it behind. So the party hurried forward.

Too quickly.

There was a sharp click beneath Jhess’s foot and the floor beneath both Jhess and Vance vanished. Savra, Robin and Drev were far enough back that they were spared.

Robin flung himself forward and grabbed Vance. The librarian was tall and thin but he was still heavier than Robin could easily manage. Robin slammed to his stomach and began to slide toward the edge.

Jhess had easily managed to catch herself on the edge, hanging easily by her fingertips.

‘Let me through!’ Drev rushed to the edge and looked down, conjuring a disc of force beneath Jhess, to keep her form falling further, but the spell was too limited to levitate her up.

Savra had not been idle. She pulled out a length of rope, already knotted for climbing, tossed one end to Jhess and looped the other around herself and Drev, dropping her centre of gravity to compensate for the downward pull.

‘Quick as you can,’ Robin called through gritted teeth. He had a grip on Vance, but he was caught at the very edge of the pit, and there was no way he could haul the librarian up. Vance looked up at him, his easy expression for once nowhere to be seen.

Robin couldn’t blame him. The bottom of the pit was filled with a sea of glittering green fog and a sea of stone spike rose up from those depths. If that fog wasn’t acidic as fuck, Robin would eat his hat. Not that he had a hat. But if he had one, he’d eat it. If that fog wasn’t acidic.

‘I think I’m losing my grip,’ he muttered.

Vance looked up at him, eyes wide. Robin gave him a reassuring smile in return.

‘My mental grip, not my grip on you. I got you. I got you.’

Rerebos flitted overhead, sending waves of alarm through their familiar bond.

That wasn’t helping, but Robin didn’t snap at the little dragon. There’s no way that would help.

Jhess managed to climb out of the pit and Drev relocated the disc of force beneath Vance. Robin almost sighed with relief but the intake of breathe caused his grip to loosen, just a hair, and he clamped down, on Vance, on the edge of the pit, and on the breath in his lungs.

The rest of the party, now with Jhess’s help, lowered the rope to Vance and working together they managed to haul the librarian up.

The party, as one, fell back from the pit, taking deeps gulping breaths of air.

‘That was close,’ Drev said.

‘Too close,’ Vance offered.

Robin couldn’t blame the librarian for his reaction, but he couldn’t help but wish for Vance’s reassuring nonchalance in the face of danger to return. It was apparently more effective than he had realised.

‘Fog’s coming,’ Drev said, between heaving breaths. ‘We need to move.’

Robin groaned and pulled a couple long planks out of here dimensional storage, dropping them across the pit trap. The party moved across quickly. Robin went to retrieve the planks, but the fog reached them on the other side before he could. The boards exploded into a slithering rain of snakes, cascading down into the pit.

Looks like he had been right about the acid!

The apparition was still beckoning them onward. The party moved forward, the fog behind them was spilling down into the pit, slowly filling it and covered the nightmarish sight of hundreds of snakes slowly dissolving as their skin and flesh sloughed off their skeletons.

Robin had just enough time to wonder if the acid fog would eat away t he bones as well or leave them behind, polished clean and sparkling, as a trophy for the dungeon.

Then they were moving again, following the apparition.,

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‘Where the fuck are the branching tunnels? Where are the options?’ Jhess muttered with irritation. ‘This makes no sense. Dungeons don’t act like this.’

Something about that sparked the small voice in the back of Robin’s mind that had been muttering about the pursuing fog. It agreed. Something more was going on here.

Before he could say anything, however, they stepped forward after the apparition and an entire chamber appeared around them. One moment all that was ahead was more corridor, then they were several meters into a large chamber.

Illusion. How many branching passages had they missed for not carefully checking every inch of wall? No wonder the fog had driven them! If they’d had time the party would have probably found other options.

Yet here they were. Where they had intended to be. Robin checked his mental map against the journal just to be sure. Yes. This was the place.

Did the dungeon want them here?

It was not a comforting thought.

The cavern they found themselves in was a vast one, again. And again it seemed to have something to do with water. If it were in Robin’s old world, he’d have guessed it was some kind of water processing centre. There were pools and tanks and pipes running all over. Many still showing the signs of intricate rune-work and enchantment, though time and the actions of the dungeon had long since broken whatever residual magic ran through the lines.

Again, too, there was an elaborate mosaic here, or the signs of where one used to be. The perimeter of the space was scattered with mounds of broken pieces of colourful stone, though a few sections remained intact. These were all water themed, reinforcing Robin’s instincts.

‘Any sign of the fog behind us?’ Jhess asked.

Drev retraced his steps and glanced through the illusion.

‘Not yet,’ he said.

‘I’ll have Riri keep watch,’ Robin offered, sending a set of mental instructions to his familiar.

The party relaxed a fraction, no longer having to deal with quite so many issues at once. Now all they had to deal with was the apparition and the mystery of the room. Hopefully the wild magic fog would stay penned by the pit trap.

‘Savra, could you keep an eye on our misty friend while Vance, Drev, and I check the runic structures in here,’ Robin asked. ‘Jhess will watch your back.’

‘You know it,’ the rogue said, spinning her daggers in her hands.

The magic in this room was by far the most complex that they had so far encountered. Part of that seemed to be because there were multiple areas of magical knowledge involved in the workings. There was more than illusion magic at play here.

‘Conjuration, transmutation, illusion,’ Drev murmured, his eyes gleaming purple-white with mage sight. ‘This is some intricate work!’

‘And of a style I’ve not seen before,’ Vance added. ‘This is ancient.’

‘I’ll trying and mark out what I can of the illusion threads,’ Robin said, conjuring a [Visual Phantasm] of the relevant markings. There would likely be small alterations to try and pick out, things the dungeon had done or changed that shifted the way things works, like in the temple.

The three most magically-inclined members of the party worked in silence while Savra investigated the apparition and Jhess stood general watch. It was the work of hours. Fortunately, there was no sign of the wild magic fog that had pursued them.

Eventually Rerebos got bored and started complaining in the back of Robin’s mind.

Robin suggested his familiar go scout to see what had happened with the fog. The little dragon agreed after a little persuasion and the promise of a shiny to add to his hoard.

‘Anything?’ Robin called at last.

‘The apparition is just moving around the room in the same pattern, again and again, like a cart on a track,’ Savra said. ‘I can sense no ill will, but cannot divine anything about it either.’

‘I think the conjuration has to do with moving water to and from the city,’ Drev said.

‘And the transmutation purified it, both as it flowed in and before it flowed out,’ Vance added. ‘How, I’m, not quite sure, but I can identify the purification bits of this runic structure, at least.’

‘I think I’ve got most of the illusion plucked out and replicated,’ Robin said, gesturing to bring his [Visual Phantasm] into being before the others to illustrate his point. ‘Here, here, and here things look like they’ve shifted, somehow. Probably the dungeon’s work. Not sure what the right changes to the runes are, but here are my best guesses.’

Robin gestured again and a second set of runes appeared, glowing white to the originals’ blue, so the differences were clear.

Drev and Vance studied the structure.

‘You’re the illusion expert,’ Vance said. ‘From what I can see it looks solid.’

Robin mentally checked in on Rerebos. The little dragon reported he was on the way back. There had been no sign of the pit trap or the fog when he returned to the sight on his scouting mission. They should be secure from the stuff for awhile, at least.

I tire of standing watch. Rerebos’s voice was firm. Set another watchman if you worry about fog from that direction. I will seek shinies in this new chamber!

‘I think it should be safe enough to try some repair, and see what happens,’ Robin said, shooting a glance to Savra for confirmation.

‘I cannot see the outcome of this course of action,’ the seeress replied with frustration, ‘nor whether it might bring good or ill.’ She sighed. ‘But from studying the apparition I do not think it will pose a danger in this case. Though we should be vigilant, just in case.’

‘No lie,’ Jhess muttered.

‘Right,’ Robin said. ‘Keep an eye out. I’m going to see what we might get.’

Then he double-checked his work and replaced a few key mosaic fragments, gathered during his examination of the runic structures around the room.

At first, he didn’t think anything had changed, but then Savra gasped.

Robin turned to look, following the seeress’s gaze until he saw what had prompted her reaction: the apparition had taken on greater clarity.

Robin blinked.

Was that Nilsiir?

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