Nachtfuchstiefen I - Day Two

By morning I'd worked up the courage to show my face and chat up some of folk in the tavern. Maybe it was the lingering alcohol that loosened my tongue or sheer foolishness. If I hadn't done something soon, I might have died of boredom making my limbs feel like they were full of ants. I had to find out what was going on with that dungeon.

Over breakfast, I met the Goose Knight who wasn't really a knight and an Alchemist I mistook for a scribe. The not-Knight said he was a squire working to become a Knight but he'd lost his Knight on the road. I laughed, thinking he was joking. He wasn't. I can only guess that his knight had died and he'd failed to save him.

I saw the pretty woman and her guard again, too. Turned out she wasn't a princess at all but a priestess of a so called Order of the All-Seeing Star. Some religious humbug. The types that claim to help the poor, then steal your money and make you thank them for it. Common opinion around the table seemed to disfavour them. Their faith and practises were eagerly interrogated and poked fun at. If it affected them, they didn't show it, holding steadfast to their believes, eagerly spreading the good word of the All-Seeing Star.

There was a mage, too. A mage! Blue dress, decked in stars. I can only assume that magic in these lands is common occurrence or she's a charlatan with cheap parlour tricks. Everyone present must regularly witness whole fireballs being cast to spawn a whole array of jokes. I remember the one and only time I saw a high priest of the Saint on the walls of Zenith castle. They're one of the few sanctioned mages. I felt his gaze wander of me. Despite the warmth of a late summer night, a chill came over me until my bones were so cold, I could barely move, my vision became blurry and my breaths heavy. I sank to my knees. It was only when he turned away that my body returned to normal. Magic scares me.

After exchanging a few barbs with the Priestess, she had an offer for the dungeon. Said she could help. Of course I was interested. All I'd heard about the dungeon 'til then was that the door that was supposed to be open could not be opened.

"It does open. Just only when it feels like it," she said. Typical cryptic bullshit I'd expect from a mage.

I decided that we should at least hear her offer.

She took us in her tent to talk in private. I didn't think it weird that— deals are rarely made in the open. Never know the kind of ears that might perk at the mention of gold. 

So there we were in her tent. The table was covered with trinkets, cards, gems and other oddities. I have no idea what it's all for. I gave Sixt a look. I'm sure it's all familiar stuff to him and we sit.

"So, you want to explore the dungeon?"

I nod.

"Have you talked to anyone else, yet?"

We hadn't. This was all news to us. I just wanted the treasure.

"There's something in the dungeon I'm looking for." She held up a caved stone between her fingers. "If you bring me them, I'll reward you. Gold if you want, or something else?" She looked to Sixt.

I don't really know what his deal is still. I know he's got an affinity for magic unlike me. I couldn't tell a sham from the real thing. He claims to not know what he's capable of. But I'm not sure I believe that. Maybe he's an agent of the Saint, sent to spy on me.

"I'll take the gold. And... an education for him." Sixt doesn't speak the language, so I was trying to be helpful.

"Alright. You've got yourself a deal."

About the mage— I know what you're thinking. Why should I trust her? All those stones, what do they do? Are we putting power in the wrong person's hands? I don't care. Don't look at me like that. As long as I get paid, I'll stab the man next to me right here. We all have to eat.

We shake hands on it.

I really did think it would be that easy. Go into the dungeon, evade some crafty traps or other, get the stones and get paid. I know you can tell it's my first gig as an adventurer and perhaps I should have stuck with the thieving. It's straight forward and what you see is what you get. 

The dungeon did open not much later. Whether mage had a hand in it, I can't say. A group of adventurers assembled, preparing to go inside. I didn't want to be first. Let's see if they get eaten. If they get the treasure, we'll just take it from them on the road. Let someone else do the hard work.

The day goes on and it's puzzles, traps, and taro cards. Adventurers go in, they come out and the scribe records what they saw. I can't make heads or tails of most of it and, annoyingly, it takes many adventurers to make progress. By lunch we've worked out that whenever the dungeon opens, it's only for a short time, a ticking starts before the door closes. The next time it opens, it will be to a different room. The rooms seem to stay the same. We don't know what happens if you don't make it out before the doors shut. I'm not keen on dying in a dark, stuffy dungeon.

What we assume to be the first room, is a room with a cupboard full of candles, a large animal skull under which someone found a tarot card. On the way there's a side door that only sometimes opens to a room filled with lava above which there's something stuck in a net that so far no one's been able to reach.

One of the times I ventured inside, we came to a room we hadn't seen before with several locked bundles hanging on the wall and their keys placed just out of reach behind a puzzle. We were on the last puzzle when the ticking started. I was trying to solve it. Despite common belief, I'm not so dumb and felt a sense of overwhelming pride urging me to prove it against all better judgement. I almost had it. I was so close. I wouldn't let anything interfere until that nord woman practically dragged me outside just in time. I knew I should be grateful but I was mad I'd been robbed of the chance.

So Sixt and me go inside. There's a room I'd heard no one mentioned before. Two cups on opposite sides, the judgement card below one of them and a knife besides it. Yeah, that was my first thought, too. Sixt didn't want me to do it but I did it anyway. Cut my hand and poured blood into the cup. I wanted to know what would happen. Something clinked behind me. I found five, real cold coins in the cup. Not bad for a little blood. It's going to feed me for a while. But what if I poured some more...?

Here's were things got spooky. Sixt tried to give his blood, too but nothing happened. Then something grabbed by hand over the goblet I'd fished the coins out of. It pointed at me and then into the cup sand demanded, "All!". My life in exchange for whatever lay on the other side. No way. Why me? ... What if? Can I die a second time?

Judgement. That was the card in the room by the cup. Was this my reckoning? My final judgement? And at the end, would I be found wanting? I know I would. I've never tried to better anything. A life of thievery and full of greed. If I don't give it willingly will it come for me? Did I deserve it? Was I meant to be here? Is this why...? Was this my purpose?

I ran out of the dungeon. Dazed I stumbled into the light, the midday sun high on the horizon. I didn't tell people that the cup demanded blood or how much even before the mage advised us to keep this to ourselves. I was ashamed and I thought— if I don't tell them, maybe I can trick someone else into doing it, find a gullible fool, get the stone and take my reward.

A small group of people had gathered around the entrance of the dungeon looking at us expectantly. I really wasn't up for talking. My thoughts were circling. The guard from the Order of the All-Seeing Star pulled up my hand. What did he say?

"That doesn't look too good," he repeated.

"It's fine," I pulled it back and it stung.

"I can heal it, if you want."

I caved and nodded. A small part of me wanted to talk to him. About judgement. These folks should know something about atonement and changing your life for the better. Now, try and admit that out loud.

The guard treated my wound and told me about how he used to be part of the city guard until he realised that his ways were wrong and wanted to do something better. He told me, most of all, the Order of the All-Seeing Star helps people. They provide food and shelter to those who need it guided by this All-Seeing Star that lives in all of us. He offered me food and drink and for a moment, I think I felt it. A warmth radiating from his touch spreading through me like I'd never felt before. A comfort I'd never known out in the wood, always looking over your back. It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

We eventually found out what happens when you don't make it out of the dungeon in time. A whole group disappeared. No sign of them. The doors shut. An unsettling quiet settled over the camp. Were they dead? Would the dungeon remain closed? Among the missing was the scribe, the northern woman and a little girl.

Hours passed without any sign of them until finally the dungeon spit them back out like an unpalatable meal. The story they told sounded like humbug, straight from a writer's quill. An entity called the Groundskeeper lives in this dungeon. Tanks of spirits filled to the brim to power it. The Groundskeeper was bored so he created a game to entertain him and we were the pieces on the board, waiting to be sacrificed to the machine.

As the day drew to a close, we hadn't gotten any closer to solving the Groundskeeper's riddles. No stones, nothing. Just more questions and a madness spread by the mysterious stars stuck to the first chamber's ceiling.

The mead flowed freely in the tavern. Adventurers gathered around campfires outside to relax, to celebrate, to stir. The night was warm. A clear sky dotted with stars above us. Laughter filled the air.

Liquid courage made me seek out the Order guard once more.

This is embarrassing.

Okay.

Well, here's where I tell him about the judgement card, how whatever lives in this dungeon wanted only my blood. The dam broke and everything came spilling in a desperate bid for absolution. How I used to run with a band of thieves, robbing caravans passing through our forest turf. I robbed merchants and markets and regular people. I lied and cheated my way through life and that's all I've ever known. And then I died. Death by hanging after I'd been caught me one too many times and this time the King's son's bed. How, somehow Sixt brought me back to life.

And even now I can't help the lies.

I told him I'd felt empty ever since. That maybe this is my purpose, why I got another chance at life; to sacrifce myself in the name of something good.

He said it's not too late to change my life. 'Let in the light of the All-Seeing Star into my heart and feel it's warmth.' Or something like that. I was too drunk to remember but it left an impression. I believed him. I wanted it. I know.