The Tower in the Shadows

Ten days of thinking had not given me concrete ideas on incorporating Puck into my dungeon. I had a few thoughts, but I was unsure about their practicality. Larry was snoring in the rafters as Puck flew around the tower base. All the doors on the surface were open as it flew around the dungeon.

It was another usual day. The only difference was I had closed all the shutters and the front door. I had been trying to lure new creatures in but with no luck.

According to its INT score, Puck was smarter than Larry and listened to my verbal commands. For the last ten days, that was mostly to leave Larry alone. Puck seemed to get far too much pleasure out of tormenting him.

"Tunnels, that's all I can think of. Using Puck to…"

Someone opened the front door.

"Fuck. Puck, get downstairs now!"

Puck shot down the stairwell but was most likely seen from the main door. An arm entered my dungeon holding… a crystal in its hand. It began glowing faintly pink. I sensed some type of magic. I could make out a humanoid figure on the edge of my aura with another just behind it. Larry was awake and alert, now sensing my surprise.

The arm then withdrew and the door was closed.

"Right. Did not expect that at all."

I was unsure of what was happening. The door opened a few minutes later and I could now make out a larger group. Five men entered my dungeon. The alert that was expected popped up, and I ignored it.

They were cautious as they moved through the entrance room. Blades were drawn, looking for signs of danger. They were using the little light that was present in the room to check all angles of possible attack. The blades looked like Cythian short swords but were a little thinner and longer.

"Larry, you stay hidden."

He did not need my encouragement as he used his abilities to blend with the shadows in the rafters. The man who had first entered had now reached the other side of the room and was looking through the open door.

"Aldric!"

Suddenly, they all turned. This came from the outside.

"Shadow Wolves in the trees!"

I think the man is Aldric, who is the furthest away from the entrance door. What are Shadow Wolves and where can I get one?

"God's damn them! Get the donkeys in here and close the doors!"

Wait! Donkeys!

"Oh, fuck me! Not those bloody animals again."

They returned to the door and several vanished from my sight. Soon, there were six men and three donkeys in my entrance room. As soon as they entered the room, their agitated state did not abate. They knew the danger was inside as well as out. The men closed the doors and locked them.

Their packs, however, were very interesting to me. Most adventuring groups, I think, do not carry picks, shovels and other mining equipment, but I could be wrong.

Aldric drew my attention when he pulled out a lantern-shaped object. It was different from what I was expecting in one regard: the crystal where the flame should be. It suddenly flared to light, producing a white light- not harsh or glaring, but able to illuminate most of the room.

"Hell, yes! Bhaldor wants!"

The men discussed the donkeys and explored further. My focus was on how to get that lantern.

"Mana Sight. Activate."

"Fuck that's bright!"

Yes, magical. I had to confirm it. It had a Mana type I did not have.

"Mana Sight. Deactivate."

My sight returned to normal. They were well on their way to starting a fire. It did not take long; the flames consumed the wood in the fireplace, and the lantern was "switched off."

The men were arranging who would explore the rest of the building. One took a pack from a donkey and slung it over his shoulder as the five men entered the tower base. The four torches were acquired and lit to help illuminate the area.

One of the men was on the other side of the stairwell with his back to the rest. I sensed the earlier magic and noted the crystal he was hiding from the others.

"Something fishy is going on here, I think."

After a brief discussion, two entered the basement while the rest explored the other rooms. I wanted the lantern that Aldric carried, but the two descending the stairs were acting odd.

Watching and listening to them, it was clear what they were after. They thought Puck was a pixie. The second had the pack on his shoulder, stopped to assemble a net and had Pixie Lure to the other.

I discovered their names were Randar and Justim. This was going to be too easy.

"Puck! I need you to lure these two down the stairs to the third floor and the first boar room."

Puck was hanging around the second at the moment and quickly made his way to the stairs. The two men continued down but stopped at the first floor. Randar was confused by the ongoing steps down.

They were enticed to go further by Puck moving far enough to have his glow seen. At first, they were unsure, but it seemed greed won out in the end as they continued their descent.

"My turn. Where's that boar."

I found it sniffing around near the entrance to the second room. I prodded and moved it to the corner on the same wall as the entrance. I focused on holding it there.

Puck was doing well, luring them to the room. Arriving first, I had to give them further instructions.

"Go into the next room and hide. If you want, you can join in when the boar attacks."

Puck flew away and I got the sense of mischievous laughter. Not the playful kind, but someone is about to get fucked up kind. I did not get long to process that when I saw the light from their torches on the wall. The boar knew something was coming and I sensed a building desire for violence from it.

"Come on. Just a little further."

The two men entered the room, not seeing the boar due to the torch's light radius. They stopped with Justim just inside the room with Randar further in. They were both looking down.

"Randar……Why is there grass on the floor?"

It's time to get started.

"Go!"

I released the boar and it charged forward with an angry squeal.

The two men did not have enough time to react. The boar collided with Justim and I heard a sickly crack as he screamed, collapsing. The impact was just above the knee and shattered the bone. It ripped through his trouser leg and blood was oozing. The boar did not stop and continued to gore him.

Randar was holding a sword and a torch. He began attacking the boar to distract it from his friend. This is when Puck returned to the room. Justim's health bar was dropping fast. The boar's health bar was as well from Randar attacking it but very slowly as its hide protected it. Justim was not just screaming but begging as well.

Puck, crossed the room, casting its Dazzle spell at Randar. A small ball of pink light shot from it towards Randar. He was facing away and did not see it coming. The spell exploded an inch from the back of his head. There was a bright flash and a loud bang.

Randar dropped both the sword and torch to cover his ears. The boar tore Justim's guts out and the man's health bar emptied as he died. I felt the essence rush to my core. Turning its attention to Randar now, the boar attacked.

Randar had recovered somewhat from Puck's spell and was kneeling to retrieve his blade. Unfortunately, he looked up and got a face full of charging boar. It did not go any better for him than his companion. I watched as the boar mauled him to death. Screams echoed and blood splattered around. It's not a pretty way to die. His essence flooded into my core and I enjoyed the sensation.

"Damn, that's the closest thing to sex for me now."

I checked the notifications. Two dead human level 12 (Miners).

"I was right. They are not adventures."

Ignoring the fight's aftermath, I sought out the others who had entered my dungeon. Aldric and the two others with him were standing at the stairs leading down to the first floor.

"Are you sure you hear screaming Sotum?"

"Yes. It sounded like it was echoing from a lot deeper."

"That's not possible. These towers only have a storage basement."

There were a few seconds of silence.

"We need to check."

"Are you sure, Aldric?"

"Yes. If we can, we leave no man behind."

They nodded to each other and began to descend. They were tense and gripped their swords tightly. Fear was evident on their faces and they were all sweating. Aldric was leading, carrying a torch, with the other two coming behind. The one called Sotum held another.

They reached the first floor and halted.

They broke out into a discussion on the stairs continuing to go down. It seemed this was the final straw, and the men started showing signs of freaking out. Aldric was the most composed, but from the looks of things, not for much longer.

"Aww. Come on, get going. Explore the floor and go down!"

Their feet dragging was annoying me. The logical part of me understood why, but the hunger just wanted to be fed.

They continued talking and did something that surprised me. They retreated. Yes, back up the stairs they went and back into the entrance room. There, the four men discussed what to do.

Listening in, they were torn. They could not spend the night and risking not knowing what was there. They would have to fight the Shadow Wolves outside if they left now.

"Oh! The dilemma."

They continued talking until Aldric made the choice. All four would explore the first floor and what lay on the second.

"Finally!"

Two more torches were made, and all four slowly descended the stairs to the first floor. They were nearly jumping at every shadow. Walking along the corridor, they tried the exit door from the floor guardian room. Discovering they could not open it, they went into the first room. They explored the room until Sotum called out.

"Copper!"

He had found the vein in the wall. This caused the four men to gather and inspect it; their fear was momentarily lost. This would be interesting for me. How would they react to the vein? Was it too little or too much?

The conversation they were having gave me two crucial pieces of information. First, they were confused as to how the vein was here and second, it was a vein they were thinking about mining.

"Well, then, I will leave it alone."

I have considered removing it after someone eventually discovered it and rated it poorly. I had been second-guessing it a lot since its creation. In truth, I had been second-guessing a lot during my inactive periods. But these miners had told me it was an excellent addition to my dungeon by their reactions.

They seemed more confident and pressed on into the corridor and the pitfall trap. The wasps knew intruders were near but were not making any noise yet.

Aldric was a tall man who stepped over the trap with his stride. The man behind him was not so lucky. His foot went straight through the covering and was impaled on several flint-tipped spikes below.

He howled in pain and surprise. Three spikes had punched right through his foot. They were sticking up through his boot and blood flowed freely from the wound. He had dropped the blade and torch to grab hold of the trapped foot's attached leg. His screaming was quite loud and he was now down on one knee.

"Maybe the pitfall trap is a bit overkill this early in the dungeon?"

I asked myself this as the men rushed to the injured aid. It did not take long to free him, but he still had spikes in his foot. He was thrashing in pain, colliding with the men trying to help him. I watched him knock the lantern with the light crystal from Aldric's belt. He did not notice as they carried the injured man back up to the entrance room. They had tried to bandage the wound, but he leaked a trail of blood all the way there.

"I will need to clean all that up."

The lantern was still there and I was eager to absorb it.

In the entrance room, they placed the injured man on the table and tried to treat his injuries. At Aldric's instructions, additional medical supplies were pulled from the donkey's packs.

"Fucking donkeys have shat on my floor again!"

I was going to have to clean that up.

The injured man was screaming still and Sotum was holding him down, trying to pour something from a flask down his throat. Aldric ran back and sealed the door to the tower.

"I wonder what that is?"

Some of it spills on the table as he manages to get most of it down his throat. He continued thrashing for about a minute before he started to relax. He was still grimacing but was much calmer now. This allowed the others to inspect the wound.

I was down there looking, too. His foot was messed up badly. The spikes had ripped it up as they passed through. They were talking and all agreed to remove the spikes. They set about setting up some bandages and other medical supplies.

They went about and removed them. Two held him down and forced a gag for him to bite down on into his mouth. His screams were muffled as they pulled them. The two holding him strained but held him.

It took ten minutes, but they did it. The guy on the table had passed out by then. The foot was smothered in herbs and bandaged. He was sweating and very pale from blood loss. His breathing was shallow and steady.

"We need to leave."

"It's getting dark. The Shadow Wolves will rip us apart."

"Sotum's right, we cannot stay here."

"Are you sure, Aldric? Sydar's injuries will slow us down and attract the pack."

"Do any of you want to spend the night here?"

That pretty much ended the discussion. One donkey had its packs removed, and what they thought necessary was moved to the other two. This consisted of what I believe are food bags and water skins. They gather up materials and make more torches.

"God's damn it!"

"Aldric, what's wrong?"

"I have dropped my mage lantern."

"Where do you think it is?"

Aldric said nothing and looked towards the closed door leading to the tower and the stairs. The look on his face was one of torn desire. He wanted the lantern back but was too afraid to risk going to get it.

"You know we cannot go back even if it's been in your family for generations."

"I know. Let's get going."

He let out a deep and resigned sigh and together, they loaded the wounded Sydar onto the donkey. They lit the torches they had made and opened the front door, leading the donkeys into the falling night.

I watched them leave.

"At least they could have closed the door."