Fiction | Game | Medium Adventurers League ⚔️

Into the Depths

A Primatria quest, continued

This is part of a story that works as an interactive game. You’ll need to have dice and a notepad at the ready! Click here for the beginning of the Medium Adventurers League, here for the beginning of this quest, here to return to Rebel Bar, and here for the previous chapter.

As the villager departs, you make up your mind. She may have been unfriendly, but there is no way she’d risk giving an adventurer of your status false information.

The tunnel must be a shortcut.

You climb the steep slope to the abandoned tower and look into the tunnel entrance. It is musty smelling… clearly many years have passed since it’s been regularly used. All the same, it looks sound, with smooth stone walls and a high ceiling. It must cut right through the outcropping of cliffs.

You step inside. The ground slopes down fast below you, and your boots splash through water that is trickling from somewhere. You pause, and light a torch; it’s quickly going to get dark.

Remove one torch from your character sheet.

(If you don't have any torches, then you are immediately attacked by monsters and die. Oops! Perhaps you shouldn't have walked into the dark tunnel 😅 Click here).

The way ahead flattens for a spell. The walls are ridged, like huge half-pillars. What could have tunnelled this? It’s a mystery to you, but hey, whatever… as long as you are making progress.

But then, as you go a little further, your heart sinks. The way ahead is marked by thick spider webs that look a little too familiar. This could be really dangerous. Perhaps you should go by the lake’s edge, after all.

Then you turn, only to hear a grinding noise behind you… A great panel of stonework is dropping down to block the entrance. You rush forward, hoping to roll under before it reaches all the way to the ground, but you slam up against the solid rock.

You are trapped.

Taking a minute to look around the edges, you try to figure out a way to open the moving wall again. To escape.

(Here is a link to a dice-rolling app!).

Encounter: Trapped.
Challenge rating: Hard (roll 19+).
Roll using wits.
Roll at -5 if you don't have a torch.

If you succeed, you are able to find and open the mechanism. The door grinds upwards. You can now choose to go by the lakeside, if you prefer. If so, click here.

If you fail (or if you choose to give up on the search), you find nothing. The moving panel might just as well be solid rock. Read on.

With a heavy heart, you move deeper into the tunnel.

You are able to slash through the spider webs at first, ducking low to avoid getting tangled. Using your torch, you burn back any low-hanging strands.

But then you spy movement from both sides. A knife slashes out towards your face. You pull back just in time, and make yourself ready to dodge the next blow. Goblins! They were waiting in the shadows to ambush you.

Encounter: Goblin ambush.
Challenge rating: Medium (roll 14+).
Roll using brawn or magic.

If you succeed, you hit one goblin. Roll to figure out which one you hit (odd number – goblin 1; even number – goblin 2). They are tough and armored – each one needs to be hit twice. Keep a note of how many times you hit them.

If you fail, the goblins hit you. Remove one point from health.

If you die, click here. But if you defeat the goblins, read on.

Victorious, you press on down the tunnel, feeling a little better about your recent life choices.

So far, there is no sign of where the goblins came from. They were simply lurking in the shadows, and you haven’t seen any side tunnels… but they must have come from somewhere! You wonder if they have a base around here. Perhaps some treasure, too?

Almost before you have had time to think about this, you see a glow ahead, and an arched doorway. Slashing and burning at more cobwebs, you continue. Yes — there is a room up ahead!

You step closer, peering cautiously through the archway, wary of more attackers.

But as you advance, you almost fail to notice a very large shape moving down from the cobwebs above you… A gigantic spider.

Encounter: Spider (large) attack.
Challenge rating: Medium (roll 15+).
Roll using brawn or magic.

If you succeed, you hit the spider. It's a tough beast; you need to hit it three times.

If you fail, you are hit. Subtract 1 from health each time you are hit. Then roll 1d20. If you roll 1–5, you are poisoned.

If poisoned, next time you rest, you do not recover any points of health, and can only do so via healing potions.

If you are killed, click here. Otherwise, you proceed safely. Read on.

To your surprise, there are no further giant spiders — or goblins — in the round chamber itself. Someone has been here, though. There are five torch brackets, evenly arranged around the area, and each is aflame with a misty and pale light.

Between each one is a further tunnel like the one you came from. Perhaps this is some kind of hub area. None is a direct continuation of the one you came from.

Which way now?

You cautiously venture a few steps down one of the tunnels. At first, you are excited at a glittering at one side of the tunnel. Then you realise that a dead goblin lies there, coins spilled from his outstretched hand.

You find 20 silver coins.

You walk on, but still, no sign of a base. Instead, the tunnel leads back to the central hub! You try another, but the same thing happens. You pause, feeling very confused.

Will you ever get out of here?

Just as you are ready to take a rest to think it over and have a bit of a cry, you hear a scraping sound. You get ready to run, remembering the way that the entrance slid shut before. But this time there is no sign of movement at the tunnels. Instead, an ethereal silvery hand rises up from the floor near your feet.

You leap back, ready to fight. But when a full figure of a ghostly knight emerges, it does not attack, but instead stares at you thoughtfully.

“Where are you from?” the knight asks in a voice as cold as ice.

“Westport, originally,” you reply cautiously.

“And your goal?”

You shrug, thinking about the question. “Fame and fortune, I guess,” you say at last, patting your coin pouch. “Say, can you tell me how to get out of here?”

The lights dim, and you realize that the ghost must control the torches. Perhaps he controls the tunnels, too.

“Please?” you say. “I was told this was a simple shortcut. I have no business here. I want to go to a nearby village, to… uh… help their noble ruler manage her lands.”

The ghost stares at you, entirely still. Or did you see it raise one eyebrow?

Encounter: The ghost of the tunnels.
Challenge rating: Hard (roll 18+).
Roll using charm.

If you fail, you feel an icy chill run through you. You lose two poits of health.

If you die, click here.

You can keep trying, but from now on, any failures result in a permanent loss of one point of health.

If you succeed, you persuade the ghost that you deserve to go free. Read on.

Something you said must have struck a chord with the ghostly figure. At last, it raises one spectral hand, and points to one of the tunnels. “That way, wanderer. And return not to my unholy chamber. If you do, you will meet an untimely death.”

“Thank you,” you say, beginning to hurry off.

“I am not sure if you are worthy,” the ghost muses as you depart. “Traveller, it is time for you to consider the damage your actions can do…”

But you barely hear the end of the statement. You are already running up a rocky, uphill slope. And at last, after what seems like an age inside the tunnels, you burst out into the dim twilight at the lakeside.

The villager didn’t lie — the village is just up ahead, a single guard at the gates.

Continue…

Thanks for reading — and playing! ⚔️

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