Chapter 1 - Dungeon Crawling
The blade made a wet "Shroomp" as she wrenched it out of the steaming corpse. It was a satisfying sound. One that she had heard countless times already and she still relished it every time. Why? Because it indicated a hunt well done. Another successful kill that would guarantee her one less beast to worry about in her quest for survival.
With practiced motions she shook the acrid blood from the weapon and hung it to her side. While one should never disarm themselves on a hunt, it was simply not practical to always carry multiple kilos of steel in hand. Instead her gloved fingers rested comfortably on the hilt of a throwing knife inside her pocket. This also served to keep her limbs warm in the chilly air of the dungeon.
Tanya raised her lantern with her other arm and checked if she really was alone in the room before she made her way over to the sarcophagus in the corner. Looking over her shoulder out of ingrained paranoia, she slowly pushed the heavy lid from the grave and looked inside.
As usual there rested a ghostly pale corpse that biologically speaking had no right to look as fresh and well-preserved as it did. From what little she had been able to glean from the archaeological reports and research notes scatter throughout the halls, the pthumerian civilization had vanished thousands of years ago. Yet here laid a pthumerian citizen in front of her who appeared as if he had just died yesterday.
The ways of the Old Blood were truly strange.
A quick search revealed a blood gem and a multitude of silver and golden trinkets that she had no need for. The blood gem on the other hand wandered straight into her padded pouch for safekeeping. It would be tragic if they broke before she could bring them back to the workshop. These little red crystals were the main reason Tanya even bothered to spend time in these ghastly ruins.
She pulled out her trusty notebook and quickly drew a rough sketch of the room into her self-made map along with a big "E" for "explored". Various other letters littered the map, but none were as common as the relaxing "E". If no other monsters wandered into these safezones then she could drop her guard around such areas a tiny bit more than normal.
"B" was also a good letter, because it meant "blocked". "H" for "hazard" and "P" for "poison" were less comforting. The worst were "BR" for "bellringer" and "ED" for "extreme danger". Honestly it was a small wonder how the Byrgenwerth scholars had not invented any comparable system (that she could find at least). Making a clearly marked map in a dark, labyrinthine dungeon was just common sense for anyone who wanted to see daylight again.
Perhaps she should end her expedition here? Her fingers had already grown numb from the cold and she was covered in rotting blood. Not an abnormal situation for Tanya, but it was nonetheless unpleasant.
On the other hand she had made much progress today and it would be a long track back here tomorrow if she left the last few nooks and crannies of the map unsearched. Just a few more halls and crypts – what could go wrong?
A lot apparently.
At first it was just more coffins full of more or less useless artefacts and a couple of quicksilver rounds that somehow found their way down here. Her suspicions were on the giant rats that periodically crossed her path. They had to eat something besides millennia old corpses, right? So the only logical explanation was that they got their food from the surface. Perhaps an unlucky hunter had stumbled into an abandoned mineshaft and had been dragged away and consumed by the enormous rodents. Anyway, such speculation was pointless, because the bullets were now hers.
A more civilized land might have frowned upon this finders-keepers-mentality, but it was hardly anybody left who could complain to her about theft or grave robbery. And whoever tried to contest her rightful ownership of these items could be quickly appeased by a gun against their head. Such was a traditional custom in Yahrnam after all.
The final door that she decided to open for today seemed normal at first glance. All the easy enemies and bountiful loot had lulled her into a false sense of security that slowed her reflexes for a split-second. One moment of inattention was all it took for the gate to slam shut behind her and seal her inside the cavernous chamber.
Even without checking Tanya knew that she was not alone in here and that exposing her back in order to pry open the door could prove fatal. Her trained senses were screaming at her that whatever lurked in the darkness was a stronger foe than the rats and shambling husks in the corridors outside.
Indeed she had not to wait for long until her opponent revealed himself. A undead Pthumerian, nothing out of the ordinary. The only problem - there were three of them.
Three, gargantuan, pale men stomped down the stairway while howling and rattling their chains in quite the noisy fashion. It would have been terrifying if not for the fact that they looked so ridiculously disproportionate. Their small, bald heads sat above literal mountains of pallid, unwashed fat. She would have likened their appearance to that of a bloated pig if she didn't exactly know how those beasts looked like.
Despite their undoubtedly considerable weight they were quick to lunge at her with their club like cleavers. Panicked Tanya dodged to the right only to narrowly avoid being hit by a salve of shotgun fire.
If these behemoths remembered how to use a gun then what had they done here in the last couple centuries? The chalice dungeons were a cold, damp and obscenely boring place, so why hadn't they left for the surface? They were probably too obese to fit through the doors when she thought about it. Or insane. Or both.
The third giant had used the moment she was distracted by the gunfire to close the distance and attempt an overhead swing with his blade. He was unfortunately too slow and received a shallow cut along his belly in retaliation.
She could already see the one with the musket try to reload his weapon which made him a priority target. Focusing on the power of the old hunter´s bone that she had absorbed long ago, Tanya managed to turn herself into ashen mist temporarily and get behind him. Her poisoned knife slammed heavily into his back and through his spine.
With a howl of vengeance he lashed out with his orange lantern and hit her painfully in the shoulder. Another nice bruise to add to her collection. Nonetheless did Tanya not let go of the handle and jerked it right, opening his flesh until she was sure that his spine was severed. Now the poison would hopefully do its job and kill him while she fought the other two.
Her sawspear unfolded automatically and she couldn´t help but grin as she stared her prey down. The range of her weapon would work well against these melee-fixated brutes. Silent as a shadow she backed up in the direction of the stairs to lure the giants into an unfavourable position. They did not seem lucid enough to consider such a strategy.
One of them suddenly jumped forwards in hopes of catching her by surprise which would have slightly impressed her had he not so clearly telegraphed his attack. Instead of hitting her with his full force he opened himself up for counterattack. And Tanya, ever the economical person, of course didn't let the opportunity go to waste.
Spiked steel ripped the back of his leg apart without trouble and tore pale flesh to ribbons. The giant let out a rather undignified scream as he toppled over and she drove the spear´s tip through his neck into his brain.
This manoeuvre, while a success, had occupied her fully and as a result she was unable to dodge the incoming blow from the third man. The best Tanya could do was to block the edge of his blade with her spear which was still stuck in the corpse on the ground. His superior strength hammered her small body hard into the stairs. If the pain in her chest was anything to go by then she had possibly broken a few ribs from that.
"Hold it together. Move, move, move!" she thought to herself as she rolled to side just in time to avoid the next strike. In spite of her protesting bones she jumped up and drew her pistol to shoot her attacker blindly in the face. Due to the short distance between them aiming was wholly unnecessary.
"Boom" thundered the quicksilver bullet as it embedded itself in his eye. She savoured his cries of pain and confusion, because they granted her a small time window to inject herself with a blood vial. Near instantly a pleasant warmth flooded her system and her wounds mended themselves.
He was still holding one hand to where his eyeball had been when she yanked the sawspear out of his comrade, collapsed it into its smaller form and shredded his throat in one strike.
"Two down. One left."
The one she had left crippled and poisoned was not dead yet even if the toxin had been potent enough to kill any normal human. Such was expected from a being that was not only neither alive nor dead, but also had undoubtedly partaken in the communion of the Old Blood.
Despite his jittery fingers and without his legs to support him he had been able to reload his weapon and was training it on her. Tanya waited until the very last moment when she saw his face morph into a triumphant sneer before she dashed to the side and avoided his blast. Fire illuminated the chamber for a heartbeat and the man was able to see his demise closing in on him.
"Krcct-tch" made her blade as his skull cracked sullied the steel with white and red.
Now that the adrenaline of the fight was running out she could feel how the blood echoes of the fallen entered her body and became part of her. The phantoms of their skills, their memories, the remains of their thoughts and emotions all raced through her blood and she did not hold back her laugh at the overwhelming feeling of power.
Was this what freedom tasted like?
