"So let me get this straight." I mused as the door snapped shut at my back; I headed for Dil, who stood impatiently in the narrow hallway before me, his sword already drawn, "Who's Mutanim?" I asked pointedly. It was cold and dank, and aside from the muffled reveling of the tavern-goers upstairs, I could hear all sorts of other little noises…unpleasant ones. There were live things here, and lots of them at that. Dil and I stood in a long corridor, the inside wall lined with chambers doors; on both ends some hundred-odd feet off, the corridor turned off.
Dil sighed and looked down the corridor distractedly, "He owns the tavern. He's a friend of Vengual's and was supposed to be hosting the auction tonight." He answered, "But that's not gonna happen if we don't find Vengual." He added and started off.
"Dil!" I barked and lunged for him as soon as he moved. I had questions, dammit.
Dil whirled on me and scowled, "What?!" He snapped, "We don't have time for chit chat, Malkat!"
I narrowed my eyes and held his arm, "If Callik has Vengual down here somewhere and is really the bastard you make him out to be, then there's a good chance your captain is already dead." I scolded and released him when he roughly pulled his arm away, "Now take a breath and answer my questions, lest you want me to do something to you that will make things easier for me." I furrowed my brow.
Dil raised an eyebrow, "You're threatening me?" He asked; the question was more of a comment. He took a step closer to me and held my gaze firmly, his gray eyes rhadamanthine now, "Look…I don't know where your loyalties – if any – stand, but I know where mine do." He warned, "Pardon me for being unbearable right now but understand that a lot of good people have died over this mess and I don't care to see it drag on for any longer. I owe it to my crew, to Vengual, and to NeverWinter to rid us all of the likes of Callik." He drew back sharply, "Now if you want to cooperate, fine. If not, I'll not waste your time any further."
There was a moment of silence where I just stared at him, open-mouthed. Oh my God…I just wanted him to answer my questions! Perhaps I could have been nicer about it, but…he was so strung-up! I examined him a moment, searching his eyes for some of the answers I craved. Such a sense of loyalty and duty…how odd for a street rat like him. Was Vengual really such an inspiration? I suddenly wondered what would happen if we found the rogue captain dead…
Dil broke the silence, "I'll answer all your questions later," He pleaded, the edge gone from his voice, "I assure you." He nodded encouragingly to me.
I nodded back to him and waved us on, "Fine." I mumbled and we strode off down the lengthy corridor, our boots crunching on the gritty stone floor. When we walked by the first chamber door along the wall, there came a chittering sound from inside; it seemed we had disturbed something. I frowned, "What's this Challenge anyway?" I asked, unable to stop myself from asking more questions, "What's in here and how does it work, do you know?" I continued moving, so as to keep my companion from hyperventilating at the momentarily slowed pace.
To my relief, Dil didn't freak out at me, "Well, Mutanim once showed me some old floor plans and explained to me that the tavern here was actually a warehouse as well as something of a docking bay." He motioned to the area we were currently in, "When Mutanim bought the place, he remodeled the top floor—" He paused and smirked, "—okay, so he added a couple chairs and tables –" He corrected himself, "and the bottom floor here he pretty much left as is. This floor's basically just a huge corridor that goes around the room, with storage compartments in the middle." He shrugged, "He used to rent the storage compartments, but after being robbed a couple dozen times and suffering a slew of various infestations, he decided to turn the place into this – his 'Challenge'. Don't ask me what he's got in here, because I don't know…and nor do I care."
We came to the end of the hallway and turned right; the corridor looked exactly like the one we had just walked. I blinked and fumbled through my robes for Aribeth's coin, suddenly curious to see whether any of the other summoned folk had had any luck finding the Waterdhavians, "So how does the Challenge work? Do you just come in here and open up all the doors and kill everything that moves?" I asked, finding the smooth copper coin and holding it up to examine it. All four engraved creatures remained. I put the coin away again and looked over at Dil.
"I guess." The half-elf replied, stoic, "Mutanim says that there are four crystal items scattered amongst the storage compartments. If some guy finds them all and brings them back to Mutanim, that guy gets the money and Mutanim rethinks his Challenge." He laughed and grinned over at me, "I'm ready to bet my life that those crystal things don't even exist. Mutanim loves his gold, you see."
I chuckled and shook my head, "Nice man, him." I commented dryly and Dil elbowed me.
"Hey!" He snapped, "He's a very nice man. And don't you forget it, woman." He winked at me and immediately picked up again before I could complain, "But…we're not here for that." He piped brightly. Confusing. That's what Dil was. Confusing.
I felt lost again, "If we're not here to whip open all these doors and ask the things inside if they've seen Vengual or Callik today, then what, pray tell, are we here for?" I asked idly.
Dil chuckled, "Oh, we'll probably end up 'whipping doors open', as you so glibly put it, but what we're looking for is an entrance that'll lead us one level down from this one." He looked at me, the sparkle of adventure returning to his eye, "Remember how I said that this place was once a docking bay as well as a warehouse? Well, Mutanim had also informed me that below this floor there was a small canal that connected with the city sewers before emptying out into the sea. He said he sealed off the entrance to the underground so that people attempting to master his Challenge wouldn't stumble across it by mistake and wander into the sewers."
"So you think Callik's gone into the sewers." I stated bluntly, sounding unimpressed despite the fact that I was only minorly displeased yet intrigued. I had a brief mental image of us trudging around for hours in the sewers and emerging at last, soaked and reeking of excrement, right back at the district gates. Oh man would the nutcase by the fire ever take off then…
Dil nodded gingerly, eyes wide, "Well…yes." He peeped and shrugged, "We've looked everywhere above ground and neither Vengual nor Callik have been found. I say we take a peek below and see what we can find."
"Brilliant!" I acknowledged him approvingly, "Now have you any idea where the entrance to the sewers is?" I looked over at Dil and stopped walking as he did the same. He flushed and rubbed the back of his neck before peering at me apprehensively.
"No." The rogue replied, avoiding my eyes, "That's the catch." Silence fell.
My shoulders slumped, "Damn." I drawled. A few feet away from us, behind the nearest chamber door on the wall, something chittered angrily.
* * *
After circulating quickly around the perimeter of the room, we ended up with a total count of 16 doors – four on each wall of the loosely-rectangular room. The doors presented various effects when walked-by or banged-on; a few doors greeted the intrusion with the high-pitched chittering, others made no sound at all, one offered a sloshy-wet sound and responded to a hit on the door with a hit of its own, and others still gave an anonymous groan. It felt to me like a large game of cruel jack-in-the-box.
We finally decided to start with one of the quiet doors – the ones that didn't register our presence with audible displeasure.
"Can't you cast something that'll let you see through the door or something or the sort?" Dil asked me uncomfortably as we stood before the door in question; he looked over at me, "You're a mage, yes?" He pressed.
I nodded quickly and pulled my crossbow off my back, "Yes, but I can't do anything like that, Dil." I said with a small smile and started fumbling about for some magic bolts, "I'm specialized in necromancy...all of that divination nonsense is out of my reach. My apologies."
Dil shot me a dull look, "Well it's not nonsense now, is it?" He shot back.
I scowled at him and strung up a cold bolt, "Should we just kill each other now or wait a bit longer?" I asked seriously, "Because I'm getting restless."
Dil made a rude gesture, "Let's wait a bit. You might have your life to throw away but I'm worth something." He smiled wickedly and raised his sword, "Now let's get back to business." He turned back to the door and grasped the handle. I positioned my weapon. Dil pushed open the door with a hiss and a click.
There was nothing inside the storage room. Well…nothing alive, rather. Along both sides of the room were stacked a bunch of old crates and barrels, and at the back was a rusted chest; in the very center of the room lay the body of a man in soft leather armor.
"What the hell happened?" I asked, my voice sounding like thunder in the thick silence. I lowered my weapon.
Dil turned to face me and grinned, "Probably a trap, I guess." He shrugged and moved back out into the hallway, "Mutanim's fond of them. Thinks they make him look clever." He chuckled. He started off back down the hall, towards the other quiet door we had found.
I followed after him, "Doesn't Mutanim come down here and clean up the corpses?" I asked, wondering how long the Challenge had been going on and just how much of a biohazard the place could have become in that time.
"Ask him next time you see him." Dil called back.
I cackled, "That's a gamble."
The next quiet door was on the next wall. We approached it much like the last and tentatively took a look inside. There were no dead bodies in this one, for one thing; the floor was covered with a matrix of pressure plates and in the far wall was an alcove in which sat a small bag. The alcove was protected by a shimmering barrier of energy that bathed the room in a metallic blue glow. Curious at the game, I stared at it for a moment.
Dil immediately left the doorway and headed back down the corridor, "No entrance there." He called back to me when I didn't follow him.
I have to admit that I had the biggest urge to just skip ino the room and try the game. It looked like fun, after all, and I figured that the object was to enter a kind of code-pattern by pressing on certain plates that would ultimately dispel the barrier protecting the alcove at the back. Useless to me at the moment, yes…but fun.
"Hey!" Dil shouted irritably from the end of the hallway, "Let's go!" He motioned for me to follow him and I regretfully sighed and left the puzzle-room behind.
When I caught up to him, Dil shook his head at me. I frowned, "Shut up." I grumbled as we came to a halt before our next mystery door of choice. I remembered this one! It was the one that had something inside that made a squishy sound when we disturbed it…and pounded on the door when we did.
We took our usual positions and Dil pulled open the door.
Right in front of us was a man suspended in mid air; his eyes were open, but he wasn't moving. His sword hung about as well, a few inches from his outstretched hand. I tried to look past the man and found my vision heavily blurred. Then the familiar intestinal gurgling noise sounded and the air around the suspended man appeared to ripple like water. The air – which obviously wasn't air at all, as I quickly realized – undulated out towards Dil and the rogue slammed the door shut and whirled to face me.
"I never thought I'd ever see one of those." Dil declared, his eyes wide; he looked genuinely amazed. Behind him, the door rattled under the impact of a push from the creature inside.
It took a moment for me to register what I'd just seen, but I was eventually able to identify the thing I'd just seen through the door. It was a gelatinous cube. A great big organism, much like a type of fungus, that fed on carrion and whatever else it could trap, digesting the lot with its exceptional bodily acids. The cubes could get big…very big; like their name suggests, they fitted themselves to a certain space or room and expanded accordingly.
I grinned and let out a laugh, "That has got to be the funniest thing I've ever seen!" I cried despite myself and Dil's incredulous expression. I laughed again, imagining the man in the cube running right smack into the jelly and getting stuck there. It was funny...admit it.
Dil frowned, "Well…you're killing it. I am not losing any of my gear to that thing." He grumbled and rested his hand on the door handle.
I couldn't stop grinning, "Sure. But you didn't see through the cube by any chance, did you?" I asked, mentally going through my memorized spells to see which had the best chance of downing the queer jelly creature.
"No." Dil snapped, grimacing, "I was kinda busy looking at the dead guy, actually." He shook his head and tightened his grip on the door handle, "Ready? I don't feel like being digested today, so make this quick." He urged.
I ignored the pseudo-command and raised my hands, "Ready. Open the door when I reach the climax of my incantation." I ordered and resisted the urge to giggle. I couldn't stop thinking of stupid cube-jokes.
Dil had the look of a man silently praying for a miracle, "How will I know?" He asked.
I shrugged, "You'll know." Was all I replied before closing my eyes and launching into an incantation. It was a long one, too – one of my favorites. The Horrid Wilting spell would be especially effective, sapping all moisture from a chosen target in an instant. The cube – that terribly comical, gelatinous blob-of-an-oddity – would promptly die under its effect, I was sure of it.
When my voice rose, Dil tore open the door and dashed off to the side like the nutcase by the district gates. Good thing I didn't see it, because my spell would have been lost to hysterical sobs of laughter. I opened my eyes as I executed the final semantics; the cube's viscous surface undulated towards me, arcing out through the door as soon as it opened, then it rapidly pulled back. I watched as the unseen force of my spell gathered the cube into the center of the room and pulled it upwards and inwards, like a great invisible hand squeezing its girth. The cube speedily shrunk then, air bubbles within it popping like boiling toffee; the corpse of the man within shriveled along with the creature. Within seconds, the cube was no more. The grisly husk of the corpse, along with the other assorted weaponry and trinkets once trapped within the ambulant stomach, dropped to the ground.
"So it's dead now?" Dil asked from the side, making his way back to the door.
I examined my work merrily and looked around the empty room, "Yes. And there's unfortunately no entrance in this room either." I replied. Dil appeared beside me and slipped into the room on cat-feet. He made his way over to the remains of the dead man and poked around until he found a few coins to content himself with. That done, he walked back to me with a smile.
"I like gold." He cooed calmly and winked, "Don't you?" He disappeared back into the corridor.
I rolled my eyes and followed him out.
