The Mountain’s Call (https://youtu.

be/ibufSTLNQrU)
Level One
The looming mountain stared down at Fallon as she drew closer. Even through the thick coastal
fog, its massive silhouette could be seen for miles. The sound of wood on submerged sand cut the silence
as the boat approached the beach. She dropped the single rope she was holding and the tatters of a (the)
sail that propelled her boat went slack. Fallon jumped out of the boat and grabbed it by its point. Wading
through the beach shallows, she dragged the boat ashore. Hidden amongst the silence and the water and
the sand, the siren call trickled into Fallon’s ears. The simple melody that drew (had drawn) her here. She
looked towards the mountain peak far above her, the faint notes seeming to grow slightly louder as she
focused.
Eventually, her boots found dry sand. With a final toss, she heaved the boat onto the beach. She
came alongside the boat and opened the storage box inside. She first withdrew her armour and began to
put it on. The thick brigandine chest piece was the best her small village could make. She paired it with a
larger metal pauldron on her left shoulder, and leather bracers and greaves. Together they should keep her
relatively safe, but there was no knowing how long it would stay together. Next, she pulled out her
greatsword. She gave it a quick once over, to ensure it had not been damaged on the trip. The basic iron
blade was blandly complemented by the wooden stick she called a hilt. She placed the blade onto the sand
beside her then pulled the last thing from the boat. The dirty haversack was a mismatch of different
leathers but functionally held her rations and supplies. Fallon slung the bag over her shoulder and began
to trek towards the mountain base, with her sword braced against her shoulder. As the sound of boots on
sand transitioned to boots on dried grass, she began to think about setting up camp somewhere. The trip
was long, and the sun would disappear behind the horizon soon.
         However, it did not take long for Fallon to make out shapes in the distance. As the fog faded, so
did the light, but she could faintly see a village just ahead. She began to run towards the civilization,
eager to avoid camping in the wild. But she did not find civilization, the buildings were collapsing and
rotten. While they were clearly victims of time, the town seemed to not have been much to begin with.
From a small hill, Fallon could see all 8 (eight) buildings, one of which did appear to be significantly
larger than the others. Abandoned villages like these were perfect homes for a scavenging crook or
monster, but it would serve better than just being out in the open. Fallon drew her sword and cautiously
made her way down into the town. The largest building was near the edge closest to her, so she went there
first.
Moving around towards the front of the building, she could see no sign or markings designating
the building, but the door was closed. With her boot, she pushed the door open and stepped away from the
doorway. After nothing flew out to attack her, she peeked inside. The inside did not betray the dishevelled
look of the village and did not help her in deciphering the purpose of the building. Stepping inside her
nose was immediately assaulted by rot and decay. Planks and piles of wood were sprinkled across a large
opening room, but their intended forms were indistinguishable. There appeared to be an upper floor, but
the stairs were either elsewhere in the building or completely destroyed. She noticed a door in the back
and a door on the right side. She made her way towards the back door and slowly pushed it open. She was
smashed by an intense smell of rot and quickly saw the source. Flesh still mostly attached, a corpse sat on
the ground in this small room. Fallon quickly slammed the door and waited a moment. She slowly re-
opened the door and saw the corpse had not moved. Sliding her sword through the door, she gingerly
poked the body and found it unresponsive. Carefully she entered the room and tried to survey her
surroundings without smelling. This room seemed slightly more intact than the rest of the house,
resembling an office. The body was sitting in a pile of rubble behind a broken desk. Looking at the
carcass itself, it appeared to be an older man. There was a large peeling gash across his neck and a rusted
dagger in the ground near his hand. On the desk sat a piece of paper in remarkably good condition.
         To whoever finds this, leave. I know why you have come. The kingdom under the mountain is only
a tomb now for all the fools like yourself seeking your fortune within its decrepit walls. Turn back, spare
yourself the fate of them, this town, and the forgotten ones who sealed their destiny long ago. I am tired
of watching the people of this village disappear within that massive pile of bones. I’m tired of seeing face
after face stupidly charge into its catacombs. Please heed my warning, return home, there is someone
waiting for you, I’m sure. A loved one, or maybe someone who will become that for you. Do not waste
your life away on this. If not for yourself or for me, for him them.
         Fallon placed (put) down the paper and began to make a grave for the corpse outside. The town
had no graveyard, or perhaps it did and had since been vacated. During the hour it took to dig and drag
the body, she investigated the rest of the village and found nothing of worth. While standing above the
simple grave Fallon looked at the note again, then gazed up towards the summit. The notes danced into
her head. “I’m sorry sir, but I must go. I’m needed up there, for something. Perhaps I’ll find a way to fix
all of … this.” She placed the paper on the dirt and made her way back inside the building and slept for
the night.
         The next morning, she awoke and got herself prepared for the day. The rotten wooden floors were
far from comfortable but were an improvement from the tiny boat. She ate of her dried travel rations as
she stepped outside into the early morning sun. She began to walk towards the edge of the town nearest
the mountain when she looked over towards where she had laid the body to rest. The dirt was disturbed,
and the grave dug up. Fallon immediately readied her sword and approached the robbed grave, finding no
corpse inside and still fresh tracks leaving (heading) towards the mountain. Greatsword leading the way,
she followed the trail.
Only about half a mile outside of the town did she see the corpse again, shambling on its rotting
bones. The neck bones cracked as the lifeless head turned to face her. The vacant eyes shined a faint
sickly green. It opened its cracked jaw, but no sound came out. Fallon charged towards the standing
corpse. With a quick and powerful slash, she brought the sword down across its neck and clavicle. The
peeling flesh and decaying bones easily snapped, and the head clattered away from the body. Leaping
from the chest cavity, an ill-green sludge attempted to land on her face. Fallon reflexively dodged and
slammed her metal pauldron into the ooze, knocking it away from her. The small gelatinous creature
bounced to the ground then turned to face Fallon despite not having one. Fallon readied her blade to face
the Corpse Snatcher. It once again jumped toward her head, to which she reacted with an upward slice.
She felt her blade cleave through the viscous slime and watched as the two pieces of ooze flew past her.
She turned to find the two pieces had landed behind her, then reformed back together into one slime. Not
waiting to allow the corpse snatcher another lunge, she charged forward and plunged her sword into the
slime and the ground below it. This time she felt the magical pulse of life leaving its form, and the ooze
began to go black. Withdrawing her sword from the ground, she grabbed a rag from her belt and began to
wipe down the blade of the rapidly decaying sludge. She looked over towards the now slashed corpse of
the old man, then back towards the village. “I’m sorry, but I must go.”
         Fallon spent the better part of the morning hiking towards the mountain. As she got closer, the
forest that surrounded the base came into view. She estimated that she could make it well into the woods
by nightfall, but unless she was lucky in finding an entrance into the mountain, she would need to camp in
the woods. Fallon quickened her pace and within a few hours found herself beneath the tree canopy. The
woods were old, roots twisting and turning, leaving no clear path to travel. The leaves clung to the
branches in bright autumn colours. No leaves littered the ground, and the bark was a sickly grey.
Eventually, the sunlight began to fade behind the trees, and Fallon decided to find a place to camp. The
mountain base was a short walk away now, so the next morning would begin the search for an entrance
into the kingdom inside. She cleared a small space with her greatsword and used twigs to create a small
campfire. After a few tries with her old flint and steel, the fire sparked to life. She took some of her dried
rations and heated them by the fire, hoping that the flavour of smoke would add something to the bland
meal. Once she finished, she kicked out the flames and curled into a ball to sleep, the sword resting
nearby.
         That night a dream visited her. It was blurred, quick, and seemed to jump between multiple paths
and decisions, but eventually, it led her to the cave entrance. The roughly cut stone still portrayed the
elegance of the lost civilization. She felt her dream step through the entrance into the shadow, and void
consumed the dream for a moment. The siren song still sung, slowly seeping into her dreaming ears.
Suddenly a sharp, burning pain ran through her chest as flame engulfed her, and she shot awake to the
morning light.
         Within an instant, Fallon was upright with her sword drawn, but no foe showed itself around her.
She looked down to see her chest piece unharmed and let out the breath she was subconsciously holding.
The silence around her was only broken by the soft chorus of the ambient song. Rising to her feet, she
cleared away what remained of the camp and thought about her path forward. The smart idea would be to
head straight for the mountain then follow the base until she found the entrance. Yet the dream lingered in
her mind, telling her to cut to the northwest, (that) there she would find the entrance. She looked in both
directions, debating the silliness of following a dream, only for her brain to retort that she was here
because of a song. She set off through the forest to the northwest.
         Fallon trudged through the still and quiet forest. As she grew closer and closer to the mountain
base, the ground became rockier and coarser. Used to the faint sounds of morning birds or at least the
squawks of ravenous gulls, the only sound to comfort her was the call from the peaks. She tried to focus
harder on it, to seek guidance or answers, but the only guide now was the faint dream that still burned the
back of her mind. Eventually, she arrived at the sheer mountain base. The cold grey stone seemed to
curve upwards forever; the song from above cascaded down the jagged slopes. Quickly examining the
vicinity, Fallon did not see any signs of an entrance or an easy way to climb up. She pressed her hand
against the stone, searching for familiarity.
It was then she heard movement behind her. Spinning on her heel, sword in a forward guard, she
turned to face the noise. Around the brush and tree bases, she saw nothing. Suddenly some of the tree
bark began to move. Skittering up the trunk a camouflaged creature ducked within the bright leaves.
Fallon kept her sword pointed in the creature’s direction. Suddenly it leapt down and charged. Scaled and
the size of a large dog, it bared its teeth and swiped with its front claws. Fallon brought her sword down
and blocked the sharp claws then quickly twisted her blade around them to cut its wrists. Small bits of
flesh and scales came off the Grey Drake (with all creatures, try naming then describing), yet no blood
was drawn. Instead, it lurched back and swung its spined tail. Fallon tried to duck under the massive
weight, but the lizard still caught her in the arm. Pain surged through her arm and into her shoulder as she
stumbled with the momentum. Seeking an opportunity, the drake lunged forward with its teeth. Fallon
raised her sword in time to catch it inside the monster’s mouth. Its ill-green eyes stared pupillessly into
Fallon as she pressed her sword in and down. With a pained gurgle, the drake’s lower jaw fell to the
ground. It reared back, coughing up green sludge. Not to waste a moment, Fallon drove her sword down
onto the creature’s neck, severing its spine. With a wet thud, the head and body fell to the ground a few
inches apart.
         Fallon quickly stepped away from the carcass as ill-green sludge pooled around it. She followed
the mountain wall west, wiping the slime and scales from her blade as she did. About thirty minutes later
she noticed a change in the terrain. The trees parted slightly, going away from the mountain. The large,
gnarled roots filled the open space that at one time must have been a path. Following the line of the path
back towards the mountain, she found a large pile of stone rubble. While it matched the stone of the
mountain, some chunks seemed unnaturally smooth, as if it was at one point part of a carved structure.
Stepping away from the mountain base to get a better angle, she saw a ledge about 10ft. up the mountain.
Fallon began shifting the stones to make a somewhat stable pile which provided enough of a boost to
allow her to climb up. The landing went about 20ft. in before it reached an archway in the mountainside.
The song almost seemed to grow louder, as if confirming this was the entrance. Matching what Fallon had
seen in her dream, she could now more clearly make out the runes that were carved into the arch. She
examined the markings as best she could but could not derive any meaning. She turned her focus beyond
the arch, to darkness that consumed all past the entrance. Memories of the flame flashed in her mind but
were overcome by curiosity. She stepped through the entrance, letting the darkness surround her. Wincing
and waiting for the flames that never came, she finally stood within the mountain.
Notes for Revision:
Establish stronger background for Fallon
Establish Fallon’s Character better
Reexamine Drake Encounter
Reexamine Corpse/Village Encounter
Level 2
Fallon opened her eyes after a few moments. The darkness around her was only broken
(illuminated) by the sunlight that trickled in behind her. The dark tunnel went forward a bit before
seemingly opening into a larger area. Sword at the ready, she pressed forward into the opening. Before
her slowly adjusting eyes was a large open cavern. The floor was hewn and tiled while the ceiling loomed
above beyond the darkness. She could make out the vague shapes of structures in the distance.
Fallon began to walk towards the seemingly closer building when she heard a loud crunch
beneath her boot. She jumped back in fear but managed to stifle her instinct to yelp. Looking down, she
saw she had stepped on bones. Getting on her knees (crouching down) she noticed the floor was littered
with bones. There were dried stains across the floor, but the darkness choked out any colour. She gingerly
picked up a nearby skull, it was human-shaped, but not exactly the same, it had somewhat sharp and
angular features (run-on sentence). There was a large crack across the temple, and it was missing several
teeth. Fallon placed the skull down and reexamined the room; this was the site of a massive battle.
She continued towards the structures, more careful to avoid the ever-increasing piles of corpses.
The building finally came into view (it’s already in view, maybe clearer view or something). The large
block-shaped building was carved from the stone and was conjoined with a fence. The fence had a large
gate adjacent to the building and seemed to enclose an area against the wall of the cavern. She tried to
look beyond the gate but couldn’t see past a large mound that sat not far past it. Slumped against the
building was another corpse, but this one still had some flesh on his bones. He wore leather armour and
had a cloth mask covering his face. Clutched in one hand was a gnarled dagger and in the other was a
pouch. Curiosity drew Fallon to the pouch, but she felt uneasy around the body. The flesh and clothing
were enough to hide (mask) if a slime was hiding inside the body. She uttered a quiet apology under her
breath then brought her sword down on the corpse’s head. It gave no resistance as the long-dead body
crumpled and clattered. Fallon paused, waiting for the ill-green slime to emerge, but none came.
Feeling slightly safer, Fallon grabbed the pouch and looked inside. Clumped in the bag were
several shiny coins and items clearly too fancy to have belonged to this raider corpse. She stashed the loot
in her bag; while she had little care for valuables, it could prove useful should she encounter this body’s
living friends.
Fallon turned her focus to the building and entered inside. It appeared to be some sort of office or
official building. Upon entering she was greeted by an abandoned welcome desk as well as a table to sort
one’s belongings. Across the welcome desk were several scattered papers, partially rotted and ripped,
their original purpose long lost. Vaulting over the desk she found her feet crunching against more bones.
She quickly stepped away from the bones that were hiding behind the desk. It appeared to be two almost
intact skeletons, embracing each other. A twinge of sadness pulsed through Fallon like a heartbeat. She
looked over the bodies in a vain attempt to find some identification on the huddled couple. After a
moment, she stood up once more and looked around the room. There was a doorway that led into a
second chamber and a stack of boxes in the corner. She quickly searched the boxes to only find more
ruined paper. Moving into the second chamber, she found a collection of holding cells. Most of the barred
doors were either opened or off their hinges. One, however, was still sealed and inside Fallon could see a
skeleton chained to the wall. In the prisoner’s lap was a chest in seemingly good condition. Fallon pulled
open the cell door, wincing at the loud screech of the old metal hinges. She knelt and examined the chest;
a large metal lock kept it closed. She put down her sword and tried to break the lock, no luck. She placed
the chest on the ground, grabbed her sword, and brought it down on the lock, yet it remained stubbornly
intact.
Eager to not make any more noise, she left the chest and the building entirely. She would return if
she found the keys, but for now, she moved past the gate to investigate the mound. It didn’t take long to
discover the massive pile was made of bones that stacked up against the fence and cavern wall. Beyond
the massive mound of moulding corpses, Fallon could see an archway with stairs leading upwards. The
excitement of finding a way up to the next level was immediately undercut by the reality that she would
have to climb through the skeletons. Fallon tested the waters by pushing aside a few bones and skulls.
The clattering of the bones echoed in the cavern, but fear struck through Fallon as the sounds continued
even when she stopped. She jumped away from the mound and readied her sword as she saw two faint
green lights move throughout the pile. Two corpse snatcher (capitalize?) slimes oozed out of the pile,
collecting bones as they did. Instead of forming full, proper skeletons, the slimes formed a protective shell
around themselves with whatever parts they could gather and charged Fallon.
The first rolled forward and swung a skull on the end of a leg bone at Fallon. She brought her
sword against the bone club and shattered it. She quickly swung the sword against the second as it tried to
bite her with a pair of femurs. The lower bone clattered away, partially exposing the slime behind it.
Pressing the advantage, Fallon cleaved away more of the bones that protected the sludge. The corpse
snatcher recoiled as it became more defenceless. Fallon was about to bring her sword down on the
vulnerable slime when the first one slammed her in the gut with a pelvis. She stumbled back then thrust
her sword into the shell of bones the first slime had created. While she did, the second slime retreated to
the pile to collect more bones. Fallon withdrew her sword from the first slime then slashed at the second
slime’s bone shell. Before she could thrust into the slime itself, it leapt into and disappeared within the
bone pile. Fallon instead swung again at the first slime, who was also now very exposed. With a fearful
squelch, it too retreated into the bone pile.
Fallon decided that she should also retreat and fled beyond the gate and the building. She looked
back and saw she was not being pursued by the slimes. If she were to take these stairs to the next level,
she would need to find some way past the bone pile. She looked down and noticed a slight difference in
the stonework leaving the building. It appeared to denote a pathway, which split into four directions. One
way led back to the gate and another the way she had entered the mountain. The other two paths led
towards the edges of the chamber in different directions. Fallon decided to follow the left unknown path,
which eventually led to an archway in the cavern wall. As Fallon walked, she could make out other ruined
structures but decided to focus on the path and the archway that it led to. Inscribed at the top of the
archway was a word, but Fallon could not read it. The archway seemed to lead into a tunnel that curved
and travelled a bit before reaching another opening.
Fallon walked through and found another large cavern, this one filled with small, scattered
buildings. The shadowy hamlet was much more foreboding than the village outside, despite the buildings
themselves having similar designs. As she approached, Fallon could see that the architectural design was
almost identical, except these buildings were carved from stone. Fallon drew closer to one of the most
external buildings, noticing the trail she was following went into the village and towards another location
on the cavern edge. The building itself was small and plain, and while the trails and archways seemed to
show ancient beauty, these homes looked as if they had always been simplistic. A feature that struck
Fallon as odd was the inclusion of chimneys. Surely that would just pump smoke into the rest of the
hamlet since the cavern was almost completely closed off from the outside air.
Fallon eventually found an entryway into the building. Stepping through the doorless doorway,
she found a plain and empty living area. No more than maybe 15 square feet, it featured some old straw
carpets and a fireplace. Resting in the long-dead coals was a small cooking pot still with some liquid
inside. In the back of the room was a wooden partition, hiding a small section of the room. Pulling it aside
she found two stone beds with ruined straw blankets resting on them.
Seeing as there was nothing else in the small home, Fallon left and ventured further into the
hamlet. She did not bother to search every home, despite curiosity and a sense of completion compelling
her to. She did, however, stop at one home that had the faintest trail of smoke coming from the chimney.
She paused briefly before drawing her sword and approaching the door. With her boot, she slowly pushed
the wooden door open. This building was like the last, except the faintest glow emerged from the coals
and straw in the fireplace and the corpse huddled next to it. This ancient corpse still had flesh on its
bones, but the flesh was ill and green. In the places where the bones peeked through, she could see the
corpse snatcher slime, its ooze replacing the long since rotted muscles. Barely still intact, an old worn belt
was suffused with (fused to) the slimy flesh and attached to the belt were (was) a pair of keys. Instinct
told Fallon to strike now; slay the monster while it was unaware. She could take the keys and find
whatever they would open. Yet, she hesitated. Why was a corpse snatcher huddled by a dying fire? All
she had ever known them to be were ravenous monsters that desecrated the dead to use as shields and
clubs. They had no desire, no end goal, all they wanted was to consume. And yet this one laid here, sad,
and unmoving like a child in the cold. Fallon stood in the doorway, there was no way the slime couldn’t
see her, could it? Fallon lowered her sword and stepped inside.
The crunch of her boot on dried straw was like thunder. The corpse snatcher spun in place and bit
down on Fallon’s thigh. She felt a surge of pain as blood trickled down her left leg and stained her pants.
Fallon roared as she kicked the monster away and cleaved its head with her sword. The corpse snatcher
reared back for another attack, but Fallon swung her blade clear through its ribs. Bisected, the slimy flesh
that puppet-ed the legs retreated into the upper half as it began to crawl on its arms. Fallon put weight on
her bleeding leg then brought her other foot down on the creature’s spine. The bones shattered and
scattered, leaving the slime open and vulnerable. She drove her sword downwards and felt the life burst
from the slime.
Fallon fell back against the wall as the green slime disintegrated into crumbling black mulch. She
slid down into a sitting position and unslung her backpack. She quickly retrieved the small roll of
bandage cloth she had packed. Examining the wound, luckily the slime hadn’t bitten off any flesh. All
there were several puncture marks slowly trickling blood. Fallon began to wrap the bandage tightly
around the wound. After the bandaging was complete, she let out her held breath and looked at the corpse.
Now a clean but broken skeleton sat in a pile of black sludge, the piece of the belt with the keys resting
free on the ground. She snatched them up and placed them in her bag along with the remaining bandages.
Rising to her feet, the pain still lingered with every step, but she would manage. Fallon grabbed
her sword and before leaving her eyes fell on the fireplace once more. There resting amongst the dead
charcoal and straw was a softly glowing gem. Cautiously, Fallon knelt and picked it up. The rough amber
stone was warm to the touch, like soft sunlight after rain. The heat was not painful or dangerous, so
Fallon also stashed it in her bag.
Fallon decided to leave the hamlet and go back to the building with the chest. However, when she
entered back into the corpse-filled square, she heard the faint sounds of movement, of bones being pushed
aside. Walking slowly, out of caution and pain, Fallon moved towards the building while looking towards
the sound. She was not far from the officious building when she saw something move. Fast and low to the
ground, a creature dashed between two piles of bones. Fallon continued to sidestep the hidden monster;
she just needed to get the stuff from the chest then move on to the next area. She eventually made it inside
the building and by the chest once more. She knelt and retrieved the keys from her bag. There were only
two keys on the ring, but of course, it was the second one she tried that would open the chest. The box
clicked open to reveal three palm-sized stones. Made of somewhat spherical black glassy stone, each one
had a small clear brown gem embedded into it opposite of a glassy orb also embedded into the gem.
Halfway between both was a smooth surface with a symbol inscribed into it. Fallon had no idea what
these things were but decided to put them in her bag as they seemed valuable.
Fallon turned to leave when she saw the source of the noise standing in the exit to the building.
The wolf-sized lizard scanned the room with its attached head off-axis. A line of green sludge around the
neck bound the incorrectly oriented head to the body. The Grey Drake dripped green slime from its mouth
due to it lacking a lower jaw. Its vacant ill-green eyes locked with Fallon, and it charged.
 Leaping off the welcome desk, the drake let out a gurgling and guttural growl. Fallon quickly
dodged out of the way, pain surging through her leg as she did. The drake landed in the cell by the corpse
and the chest. Thinking quickly, Fallon slammed the cell door closed and used the first key to lock the
cell door (it). The cage (lock) clicked just as the monster snarled and thrashed through the bars. Pride
swelled within Fallon, but just for a moment as she heard the bars giving way.
Fallon ran out of the building, briefly stopping to look beyond the gate towards the mound of
bones. The glow of three corpse snatchers shined making their way out of the pile, likely alerted by the
noise. She quickly and quietly dashed down the path she had not travelled. It too led to an archway in the
cavern wall. As Fallon began to pass through into the new area, she heard a loud metal crash behind her,
causing her to pick up the pace.
Through the tunnel, Fallon found herself under a light blue sky with soft dirt beneath her boots.
The ceiling of this cavern was covered with scattered bunches of some glowing blue substance. While not
nearly as bright as day, the bioluminescence made seeing the large fields that filled this area was much
easier. This section seemed to be some sort of farmland, maybe at one point it may have even been well
kept and organized. Now all varieties of plants grew wild in the once domesticated plots. Fallon
approached the closest one, a labyrinth of tangled vines and stalks. Hidden amongst the brambles,
however, she spotted a cluster of small round fruit. Fallon harvested the somewhat ripe tomatoes, her
stomach gurgling, crying out for the taste of something not dried and preserved. Fallon caved and bit into
one of the tomatoes while she stashed the other two. While somewhat bitter, the fresh juice was a gift to
her senses. She spent the next hour scavenging the bounty of foods in the abandoned fields. Many were
either already fallen and rotting, and others barely even formed, but Fallon managed to collect a good
bunch of a variety of fruits and veggies. All the while she kept her ear trained on the way she had come
from; however, the next threat didn’t come from that direction and didn’t alert her with sound.
Fallon had just pulled up a bunch of carrots when her eyes caught a flash of light in the distance.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Fallon slung her bag now full of food over her shoulder and drew her
sword. The flash came again, a travelling burst of light near the edge of the cavern. A second burst
followed shortly thereafter. The almost golden light was unlike anything Fallon had heard of or seen so
far in the mountain. Part of her brain said to ignore it but seeing as she still had no way up to the next
level, this was the only lead she had. Keeping to the overgrown fields, Fallon moved towards the random
bursts of light.
Fallon eventually arrived near the edge of the cavern by the light source. Built on a ledge partway
up the cavern wall, hidden amongst several loose stalagmites, was a ramshackle shelter. A portion of the
ledge looked to have been broken off just recently. A small bunch of loose rocks and pebbles were
scattered on the ground below the ledge. There standing in the rubble, back pressed against the wall was a
person. He wore simple dark clothes but seemingly had no armour. A somewhat oversized cloak failed to
hide this guy’s frailer form. A pair of round spectacles bounced upon the trembling pale skin. His blonde
hair was a mess with dirt and soot. One hand was outstretched with a fist-sized stone clenched in it. He
wore a panicked expression that scanned the wild farmland for threats. His eyes landed on Fallon, “Watch
out!”
Fallon braced herself as the mage spoke some word she did not know. The stone in his hand
shined and a burst of light flew towards her. The light bolt sizzled past her head and struck the true threat.
Landing on the ground behind Fallon was a large bug creature. Its body was a large, armoured shell in the
shape of a wheel. Symmetrically and evenly spaced spikes with tiny orbs inset in them lined the
segmented chitin. Two large insectoid arms stuck out of the only exposed flesh on the sides of the wheel.
Its hands were thick with buckler-like armour on the back. After using its hands to balance itself, it
lunged towards Fallon. One hand pulled the Wheel Drone along the ground, its round body spinning like
its name’s sake. With the other, it reached its finger-like mandibles towards Fallon, revealing the
insectoid mouth set in its palm.
Fallon swung her sword in fear and disgust. The blade batted the insect’s hand mouth away but
harmlessly clattered against its hard wheel shell. It rolled past Fallon, getting between her and the mage,
who fired another bolt of light at the bug and missed. The wheel drone began to arc back around, picking
up speed as its hands dug into the ground to launch itself forward.
“Aim for the sides!” the mage called. He spoke the ancient word again to fire a bolt of light into
the creature. The light liquidly splattered against the armour-plated hand.
Fallon focused her sights on where the mage had suggested, readying her sword in an upward
guard. When the wheel drone leapt at her again, she stepped out of the way and thrust her sword towards
the exposed flesh. *CLASH!* She missed (the weak spot or something), and her sword scraped against
the armoured shell. However, this knocked the drone off-balance as it landed at an odd angle, leaving a
clear shot for the mage. The light burned into the bug which let out a burning screech before toppling
over.
“Thank you for your help, quickly, this way.” The mage approached Fallon, stuffing the stone
into a pouch on his side and fishing out a different one.
“Hold on!” Fallon brought her sword around to face the mage and entered guard position, “Who
are you and where are you taking me!?”
The mage held his hands up, giving Fallon a clear view of the purple gemstone he now held.
“Woah, no need for the sword!” Panic quivered in his voice, “I am Bruse, I am a researcher. My camp is
right there,” he pointed to the ledge above. “It’ll be safest up there; more wheel drones will show up
soon.”
“And just how do you plan to do that?” Fallon asked, looking at the sheer cavern wall.
“With this! Allow me to demonstrate.” Bruse held up the gemstone in his hand. He spoke an
ancient word then pointed at the ledge before speaking the word again. Two small orbs on the gemstone
glimmered a faint pink. Bruse then spoke a second word and the air around him began to warp. Suddenly
he was upon the ledge and one of the stalagmites was where he originally stood. “See? Now don’t resist
this, I hear more coming.”
Fallon turned back towards the farmland and did indeed hear the rumbling sound (emphasize
large number coming) of the wheel drones against dirt. Before she could answer Bruse, she felt a twinge
in her brain and suddenly the world began to shift. The air sizzled as it felt like everything turned inside
out. She lost her balance and fell to one knee but found herself on the ledge beside Bruse. “What the
Hell!?” Fallon shouted.
“I’ll explain in a bit. Let’s get inside first.” Bruse stepped into the makeshift shelter, gesturing for
Fallon to follow. Seeing no other option, she stepped inside. It was almost no different from the outside
except it had a single sleeping bag and a small cooking pot. Bruse sat down on his bedroll and let out a
sigh of relief.
Fallon did not sit nor (did she) drop her weapon. “How did you do that?”
“I’ll explain but first calm down. We are safe here.”
“Everything here has tried to kill me. I need you to prove you are different!”
“Well, as you can tell I am no physical match for you, and I’ll put my spell stones over here.” He
took off the pouch on his belt and placed it just out of arm’s reach.
“Spell stones?”
“Ah well, you see our world is full of magic. Many creatures and things are innately connected to
magic in different ways. But humans like you and me don’t have any super strong magical connections.
So, the people of this ancient civilization developed spells. They took minerals and other natural
ingredients and fused them with arcane runes to allow their people to do magic. The spell or magic is
dependent on the stone: what it is made of and how it was made.” Bruse cautiously reached for his pouch
and emptied out four gemstones. “This is a torch spell stone.” He held up a smaller flat piece of amber. A
symbol was engraved on its flat face. “When I press on the rune and speak it, it will produce a flame in
front of here.” He pointed to a charcoal bead embedded into the rounded surface. Bruse did as he
described and a twinkling red flame burned into existence an inch away from the spell stone, which he
then used to light a small fire under the pot. “Hungry?”
Fallon prepared to protest but the loud growl of her stomach overruled her concern of this figure.
Bruse began to cook a vegetable stew using some of the ingredients Fallon had gathered. As he did,
Fallon watched his movements carefully, both to ensure he wasn’t trying to poison her and so that she
could learn how to prepare this meal herself.
Bruse must have noticed her staring as he asked: “So you come from someplace where people are
trying to kill you, miss ….?”
“Fallon, and no. Before coming here, I was warned of the dangers.”
Bruse gave an affirmative grunt, “Same here, but from my time here I have learned that the only
danger here is (dangers are) the dead. If something is still alive, it’s an ally in my book.”
“What about those wheel drones? They seemed alive.” Fallon glanced out of the shelter and into
the wild farmland, noticing the shift caused by those bugs’ movements.
“Keyword is ‘seemed’, they are dead bodies controlled by the corpse snatchers. In a few hours,
that one we killed will be found by another slime and re-animated again. That’s part of the curse of this
place. Everything in it is stuck in an endless cycle of torment and grief.” Bruse’s eyes grew distant as he
spoke.
“Then why come? Why set up a base here?” Fallon gestured to the shelter.
“For most, it’s the promise of treasure. This is a progenitor civilization, there is no telling how
many priceless artifacts are here. For me, I’m looking for something specific. I need to get further up the
mountain, but I’m stuck as to how. I have an idea, but I am reluctant to try it.”
“What’s your idea?” Hope stirred in Fallon; he could be her key upwards.
“Well, you see this spell.” Bruse picked up the stone he had used to get himself and Fallon up to
the camp. The disk-shaped amethyst had a groove along its rounded side. Set in the groove were two
small pearls. “It allows me to switch the places of two objects of similar size. Near here is an ancient
checkpoint they used to track those who travelled between the levels. There are actually two on this level.
The other is on the northern side, but the stairs are completely collapsed. The stairs in this nearby
checkpoint are not, however it is blocked by a mound of bodies infested with slimes. You can see the
stairs from the other side of the mound, so if I could get something to the other side, I could cast teleport
and be on the stairs. I think I could use a skull, maybe take a skull from the mound, and chuck it to the
stairs. The main problem is that disturbing the mound caused the slimes to attack, so I don’t think I could
get the spell off before getting attacked.”
“I thought you said the spell swapped similar-sized objects. Do you have some body-sized skulls
in that mound?”
“Oh, well it’s more complicated than that. The spell works by targeting the two object’s center of
mass. Theoretically, you can swap any two objects, but if you were to swap a large object and a small
one, say a person and a pebble, there are some problems. The person’s center of mass is a good bit off the
ground, but the pebble is right next to it. So, when the person’s center is swapped with the pebble’s, the
person will be stuck in the ground and the pebble will be midair. From what I’ve researched, being stuck
isn’t just like you fell in a hole, no. Whatever part of you that gets teleported into the ground becomes
fused with the ground. As you can imagine it would not be a pleasant or survivable experience. However,
if that pebble was airborne when the teleport occurred, the person’s center of mass would be whatever
height off the ground the pebble was. By doing that, if the pebble was high enough, you could safely
swap with it.” Bruse had a look of excitement Fallon had never really seen before while he described the
science and physics of magic.
“So, you just need someone to hold off the slimes while you cast the spell?”
“Exactly.”
Fallon thought to herself as Bruse finished up the stew. Unless she wanted to wade through the
skulls or find an alternative path, this wizard would be her best shot. Additionally, Bruse seemed to have
extensive knowledge of this place, which would prove very helpful. Bonus, he was a great chef. The
smell of the now served stew was intoxicating. “Bruse, listen. I need to get to the peak of this mountain. If
I promise to keep you safe, will you help me in my quest?”
“Why do you need to go to the peak?”
“I, uh, this will sound strange but, something is calling me there. I hear this song coming from the
peak.”
“Do you know what is calling you, or why?”
“N-no…”
“Then do you really need to go? This place is dangerous, and it will only get more dangerous the
more we move upwards. Is this siren song worth it?”
“You’re trying to get up too!” Fallon shouted. “Are you saying that I’m not strong enough to
survive!? Why do you need to get up if you think it’s so dangerous!”
Bruse jumped back and his face went flush with embarrassment, “No! That’s not what I meant. I,
uh,” He paused for a moment, a solemn expression shrouding his downcast face. “Someone I care about
is stuck up there. I promised I would do everything I can to set them free.” An awkward silence fell upon
the camp. Fallon felt her brief anger swallowed by the shame of yelling at him. “No, I don’t think you or I
are strong enough to survive, but I need to save my friend. If all you have is this call, I don’t want to
encourage you to throw your life away for what could be nothing.”
“Then maybe if we work together, we can save your friend and find who is calling me.” Fallon
met Bruse’s eyes. He looked hopeful, with a twinge of sadness.
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Great!” Fallon jumped up and grabbed her sword, her bowl clattering to the floor, “Let’s go!”
“Well, I can’t just yet. The stones can only be used so often before needing time to recharge. The
teleportation spell only has two charges.”
“Oh…” Fallon sat back down, awkwardly picking up the bowl.
Bruse chuckled a bit, “ya, it’s also late so I’m probably going to try and sleep soon.”
“Right, wait, that light bolt spell you cast a lot? Why doesn’t it need to charge?” Fallon asked as
she tried to quietly pour the remainder of the stew into her bowl.
“Photon Blast is a very simple spell. The ancients classified it as a cantrip. They require very little
time to recharge. A well-crafted cantrip can almost be cast within less than a second of the first cast.”
“Interesting,” Quiet fell once again as they ate. Curiosity churned in Fallon’s head, so she decided
to ask Bruse a few more questions before resting. “So, did you know all of this before coming here?”
“Not most of it. In my village, there is a man who has a lot of old books. Most of them are
illegible due to the damage, but there were enough pieces that I was able to craft the Torch spell. The rest
I learned and have made in my time here.”
Fallon finished up the last of the stew and went into her bag when she remembered the stones she
had found in the chest. “I found these in the building near the bone pile, are they spell stones?”
Bruse took the stones and looked them over, “They are, not super well-made but they look like
they should be functional one-offs. Fascinating, I didn’t think they would have had any magic at this low
level.”
“What do they do?”
 “Well, they are made from obsidian, which is the core for spells that fuse, freeze, or ground. This
topaz is a simple amplifier, and this drone eye looks to be used for target designation.” Bruse put the
stone down and retrieved some old books and a notebook from his main backpack. While he flipped
through the pages, Fallon set up her bedroll next to the entrance of the camp. “Ah, I’ve theorized a spell
like this. By pressing the rune here and saying ‘Halt’ in the ancient language, it will cause a target to
freeze in place for some time. They must have had these in the office to stop criminals from running
away.”
“So, you can just force something to stop?”
“Yes, although it can potentially be resisted, and each stone can only be used once. The poor craft
on them means that by casting it will break the stones.”
“Spells can be resisted?” Fallon asked as Bruse passed the stones back.
“Yes, any spell that tries to connect to something can be resisted. Non-intelligent objects
obviously can’t resist but if something has a mind strong enough, they can prevent the spell from
connecting to them.”
“Good to know.” Fallon saw Bruse looking very tired and decided to try and find rest. Still very
cautious of the situation, she began to lay on her bedroll. She wanted to stay half-awake in case Bruse
tried anything, but with a full and happy stomach, sleep found her quickly.
The night was uneventful, and Fallon awoke before Bruse. She searched all her belongings and
found nothing was stolen. Looking over at the sleeping Bruse, who had taken off his coat further
revealing the simple and dirty clothes he wore, Fallon felt the last of her reservations fade. She stepped
out of the camp and stood at the edge of the ledge. The chaotic farmlands seemed to spread for miles, all
softly growing under the light of whatever was causing the light in this underground cavern. The siren
song (was) still softly swaying somewhere up above. Fallon heard stirring behind her and saw Bruse
waking. “So, those spell things ready to go?”
Bruse rubbed his eyes and looked towards Fallon. She swore there was a quick smile on his face
before he turned to the spell stones. “Yup, see, they will give off faint light when they are charged.” He
held up the purple stone which did seem to twinkle with light.
“Great, then let’s get going.” Fallon turned and placed her sword on the ledge. She would need
both hands free to climb down. Part of the way down some stones came loose and slammed into her
wounded leg. A stinging pain surged through her, but she managed to hold and finish the climb. “Bruse,
can you toss down my sword?”
“Um,” Bruse looked down at the pretty decent drop and the large metal blade of the sword. “Are
you sure?”
“Ya, just try not to point the sharp end towards me.”
“Ok,” Bruse grabbed the sword and carefully dragged it, as he was only able to barely lift it, and
dropped it near Fallon. The sword clattered down until it landed on soft dirt. However, the metallic
sounds of the fall echoed throughout the cavern, ah, that’s what Bruse was worried about. Fallon grabbed
the blade and Bruse climbed down to join her. “We should go before the drones come.”
“Agreed.” The two of them dashed through the fields, Fallon quickly grabbing any fresh-looking
foods as she did. The running was a little extra hard on Fallon as every few steps her leg would wince at
the pressure being applied to it.
The pain must have been obvious because Bruse slowed down, “Are you ok?”
“Yes, just got bit yesterday. It’ll heal soon.”
“Okay, there are also healing spells that can be crafted. If we keep an eye out for some emeralds,
I can try to make one for you.”
“Thank you, but again, I will be fine.” After the brief pause, they began moving again, but Bruse
set a slower pace that felt much better on Fallon’s leg. They eventually made it to the archway that led to
the checkpoint. As they left the soft blue light of the farm, Bruse pulled out his torch spell and activated
it. Now with actual light, Fallon could see so much more detail in the area. The stone paths had mosaic
designs that were either cracked and broken or covered with a layer of centuries-old blood. The pair
slowed to a walk to carefully avoid the scattering of corpses.
“What do you think happened here?”
“Whatever calamity that befell this kingdom, it started here. The farmers who lived here tried to
get to the next level to escape but were stopped by their own.” Bruse stopped to point out several
skeletons that showed signs of weapon damage.
“Why would they want to stop people from getting higher?”
“I don’t fully know. My theory is that it was a combination of simply not wanting the lower-class
farmers up and an attempt to stop this calamity down here so that the higher levels could just wait it out.”
“Well, it clearly didn’t work, and even if it had they would have backed themselves into a
corner,” Fallon commented as they arrived at the gate and the large bone pile.
“Ok,” Bruse switched the torch spell stone to his left hand and pulled out the teleportation spell.
“To review, you need to take a skull and chuck it over the mound. It’s better to aim too high than too low.
Too high and I just have to brace for the drop, too low and I’m stuck in the ground forever.”
“Well, if it would make you feel better, I could cut (off) whatever got stuck off.”
“Thanks, but I would prefer to stay in one piece.”
Fallon chuffed a little, “and you think grabbing a skull will draw the slime’s attention? Then why
don’t we grab something from somewhere else?”
“Based on the last time I tried, just getting in range was enough. You ready to hold them off?”
Fallon raised her sword into a mid-guard and smiled at Bruse. She reached down and picked up a
skull as they approached the pile. As the light fell on the mound it began to shift as two slimes emerged.
Fallon quickly threw the skull and moved between Bruse and the corpse snatchers. He began to speak the
arcane words as the two slimes lunged with bone clubs. One clashed immediately with Fallon’s sword,
but the other tried to get past her towards Bruse. Fallon quickly swung her blade around and batted the
slime away. The first slime tried to come at Fallon again, attempting to pinch her leg between two thigh
bones but she swung herself out of the way. The second took this opportunity to launch itself into Fallon.
The body slam sent her stumbling backwards as she heard the sound of Bruse teleporting behind her. The
light that illuminated the field disappeared and now backlit the mound. Fallon looked over the bones and
saw Bruse stumbling against the stairs, but not stuck. He turned towards Fallon and grabbed a skull from
the pile.
A loud garbled growl filled the chamber as Fallon turned to see a now-familiar Grey Drake. The
two corpse snatchers also seemed to pause and look at the new challenger. However, the fighting resumed
quickly as the drake charged and the second slime swung a sharpened femur. Fallon met the femur with
her sword before twirling it around to slash into the lizard’s side as it charged past her. The first slime,
surprisingly lunged towards the drake, piercing several ribs into the lizard’s open wound which dripped
with green sludge. The second slime prepared itself to lunge at Fallon as she heard the air sizzle around
her. The cave turned upside down and backwards as she lost balance. She landed on her back against the
rough cold stairs. Bruse stood next to her and helped pull her to her feet. The sounds of the drake and the
slime’s fighting grew quiet as they dashed up the stairs.

Notes for Revision

More Fallon thoughts to establish character
More Fallon fear to establish her fear of the unseen
Review Drake encounters
Remove Raider encounter
Level Three
Eventually, the sounds of the fight at the base of the stairs grew quiet. Fallon stopped on the step
she was on and waited, sword ready for the sounds of their pursuers. Yet none came.
Bruse let out a sigh of relief from behind Fallon, “Sounds like we’re clear. Are you okay Fallon?
I didn’t expect a drake on this level. Those things normally keep to outside the mountain.”
“Well, uh.” Fallon lowered her sword and turned to Bruse, “I know why. I killed it outside, it’s
been chasing me ever since.”
“Killed it? So, it’s a corpse snatcher?”
“So, it would seem. Sorry, I should have told you about it sooner. Actually finding a living person
here was a bit distracting.”
“No, that’s understandable, but why would it follow you? Corpse snatchers either wander
aimlessly or stick to a general area. I’ve never heard or seen them actually pursue a target over such a
distance.”
“Maybe it has a grudge? I sure wouldn’t like it if someone cut my head off.”
“But these slimes aren’t that complicated. They know how to hunt, hide, and scavenge, but they
don’t have proper minds. I mean, they’re slimes, basically just gelatinous magic.”
“Strange, perhaps the mountain has some effect on them? Yesterday I found one huddled by a
fire. He’s the one who gave me this,” Fallon gestured to the wound on her thigh.
“Well, unless you want to go back down there and ask it, I think we best keep going.” Bruse
pulled out his torch stone and began to lead the way back up the stairs.
The flickering firelight danced against the roughly hewn stone steps. The stairway curved as it
rose, cutting off sight ahead and behind after only a few feet. As they neared the top, the light began to
cast shadows against bulges in the walls and floor. Fallon motioned for Bruse to bring the light closer to
one, clearly defining it as a tree root. The stairs eventually ended as the entire tunnel became covered with
roots and plant matter. A green glow trickled around the final bend in the tunnel, clashing with Bruse’s
red and orange torchlight. He deactivated the spell as they stepped into a wild overgrown tunnel
illuminated with verdant light that reflected off every vine, leaf, and bush. Amongst the plant life, Fallon
spotted the remains of civilization: upturned cobbled paths, broken crooked streetlights, and scattered
bones amid the bushes. Fallon froze in amazement, her ears finding a faint hum hidden behind her siren
song. It was the sound of hundreds of distant bugs, going about their lives hidden within the ever-present
foliage.
“Fascinating!” Bruse finally spoke, having gone forward to examine some exposed construction.
“This was a neighbourhood district split into two levels. Homes were built into the walls, leaving the
tunnels themselves as the streets.” He stepped over to the tunnel wall, clearing some vines to reveal a
carved-out window in the rock.
Fallon looked up to see the upper portion he had mentioned. On the edges of the tunnel and about
10 feet above the ground were upper walkways that seemed to provide access to the second layer of
buildings carved into the stone. The upper way, however, was in major disrepair, with some sections
completely collapsed and others hosting cascading falls of plant matter. “Where did this overgrowth come
from, and why here?”
“These plants seem different from the wild crop downstairs, so I doubt they came from there.”
Bruse paused for a moment as he rejoined Fallon in the center of the street. “As for why here, well there
doesn’t seem to be much light elsewhere, perhaps they were drawn by whatever plant or bug provides
that. Or maybe there is some other resource like nutrients or water within the stone here.” Bruse began
travelling down the tunnel, head twisting around to look at all the flora around him. “Sure is pretty
though. Didn’t think there would be this much life in the mountain.”
 “Me neither,” Fallon concurred as she followed behind Bruse. “My village always spoke of the
mountain as a forgotten tomb with long-lost treasures and traps.”
“Well, I guess one’s tomb is another’s birthplace.”
The tunnel varied slightly as they travelled, gradually sloping upwards or downwards. The streets
and structures that filled these tunnels seemed teeming with lore, but it all seemed hidden or consumed by
the pervasive plant life. It wasn’t long before the tunnel widened again and split into several paths. At this
point, all the tunnels were at an upward slope, and with the dense overgrowth, it became very difficult to
see down the streets.
“So, which way do you want to go first?” Bruse turned to ask Fallon.
“I was about to ask you the same,” She responded. “I’ve only been in the mountain for over a day
at this point, I assumed you would have a better sense of direction.”
“Oh, well, I just kind of picked a random direction and followed it. When possible, I tried to read
the signs, but I think finding them will prove difficult here.” Bruse gestured to the walls covered in green
and streetlights now decorated as mossy pillars.
“Well, we should try to get as much info as we can.” Fallon scanned the intersection, finding
nothing that would indicate the nature of any of the paths. Until, however, her eyes fell on a thick patch of
vines that dangled from a portion of the upper level. Due to the angle of the slopes, the upper level would
give her a better line of sight down each path. “Bruse, hold this.” She turned the sword to offer the hilt to
him, “I’m going to get a better vantage point.”
“Um, ok.” Bruse clutched the hilt with both hands and tried his best not to let the blade hit the
floor once Fallon let go.
Fallon walked away as she heard the metallic thud on plant fiber. She stepped up to the hanging
carpet of vines and firmly tugged at it. Much to her surprise the vines didn’t snap or give way, instead,
they stalwartly stood to aid her climb. The climb proved easy as she heaved herself upwards. However,
when her hand found the top and she lifted her head to its level, she was confronted with a fluttering flock
of insectoid wings. Fallon yelped with shock as a grouping of crow-sized creatures flew past her, causing
her to lose her grip. As her boots began to fall, however, she managed to bring up her other hand and pull
herself up to the upper level.
“Fallon! Are you ok?” Bruse called from below.
Fallon looked down to see him reaching into his spell pouch before noticing she was fine. “Yes,
just some, uh.” She looked towards another surviving portion of the upper section where the flock had
flown to. Perched on the remains of a toppled streetlight was a collection of large insectoid birds. Their
bodies were wrapped by their slightly opaque bug wings. Resting between them was a triangular head
with a beak-like set of mandibles. One or two seemed to rub their serrated mandibles together to create
part of the faint hum. Two large round compound eyes looked vacantly back at Fallon as she pointed
towards the flock, “those things.”
Bruse followed her finger to see what she was referring to. “Oh, those are Aviansects. They’re
harmless, herbivores by nature, and too small and frail for the corpse snatchers.”
Fallon let out an annoyed sigh, then turned back to the ledge she was on. The thick vines turned
what was once a smooth polished walkway into a series of ridges and knots. The adjacent wall was
covered in hanging moss, which she pushed aside to see what may have once been a billboard, though no
notes or pages were posted to it. She looked beyond the platform and saw a fair distance down the three
paths. One path had a deeper damper green colour to it, but turned left and downwards about 200 ft. in.
The second path was covered in large red brambles that popped out against the verdant backdrop. The
thorns lined the floors and walls, progressively choking in on the path until it appeared to seal it entirely.
The final path was much like the one they had travelled, with a gradual upward slope. Fallon relayed the
information to Bruse, “I think it would be best to stick to the familiar path, upwards should lead to the
next level, right?”
“That makes sense. I don’t think we would be able to make it down the thorny path anyways.”
Fallon carefully climbed back down, feeling a twinge of pain in her thigh as she did. She
retrieved her sword from Bruse as they journeyed down the third path. As they travelled, Fallon couldn’t
help but gawk at the beauty of the area. It was almost unsettling. The floor below seemed so devoid of life
or personality, even the crop fields were just chaotic shambles. Fallon thought about the lands beyond the
mountain; the world was a harsh and unforgiving place. Villages separated by chaotic wastes, patrolled by
monsters and slimes. Yet this place seemed somehow serene. Despite the plant life’s consumption of this
ancient civilization, the fusion of the two was somehow beautiful. The at first droning buzz of the
aviansects and other bugs was now a pleasant rhythm accompanying the siren song that had brought her
here. The plants glistened in the light, some with the aid of damp dew. She looked over to Bruse and saw
he too was basking in the glow of the local flora. However, she sensed an uneasy-ness to him as she
noticed his hand in his spell stone pouch. Movement caught her eye beyond Bruse; a large bush shuffled
along the wall before stopping once again.
Fallon readied her sword and turned to face the movement. “Bruse, watch out. I think something
else is here.”
Before Bruse could answer, her uncertainty was clarified as a bush leapt from the wall behind her.
She sidestepped it, letting the animated shrubland in front of her. The one she had noticed on the wall also
jumped down to join the fight. Fallon brought her sword down on the one next to her, cleaving several
branches clean off, revealing a corpse snatcher slime inside. It recoiled and redistributed its collected
branches to reform its shell. Fallon made a short hop back to dodge a large bramble branch the shrub
swung at her. Fallon reposted and cleaved the brambles off. The slime took what was left of its shell and
formed a dense shield towards Fallon. She made a downward swing, bisecting the bush buckler. Before
the corpse snatcher could retreat or gather more branches, Fallon turned her downward slash into a thrust,
piercing the slime, then finished it by drawing the greatsword upwards. The slime shrivelled into a
mulchy black pile. Fallon was about to let out a breath of relief when she looked to see Bruse still locked
in combat. He stumbled back, firing a burst of light into the bush. Some of the leaves burnt and withered,
but most of the blast seemed absorbed. Fallon moved forward as it swung some thorns at Bruse’s legs.
Flanking the slime with Bruse, Fallon swung her sword through the core of the bush. The weight of the
blade sliced through the brambles and bisected the slime itself, killing it instantly.
“Thanks,” Bruse said as he pulled a few thorns from his clothing.
“Why were slimes using bushes instead of corpses?”
“Despite lacking a brain, they are fairly resourceful. Most likely, most of the corpses here have
rotted away or are trapped behind the plant growth. So, while it is fairly weak, the plants make a decent
substitute with the added bonus of camouflage.”
“Seemed pretty resistant to your magic.” Fallon gestured to the burn marks in the branches.
“Yeah, perhaps it’s best if I stay behind you.” Bruse gave a shy smile of embarrassment.
“Perhaps,” Fallon responded, matching his smile.
They pressed forward, watching as the terrain below the overgrowth became more polished and
intricate. The streets became more defined, as they noticed several smaller streets starting to branch off
the main one they followed. Most were blocked by plants or collapsed stone. However, there was the
occasional street or building that was mostly open, but they decided to press onwards and see where the
main street led. After only an hour more of travel, the street opened into a large square. While still littered
with roots and vines, the intricate mosaic pattern peeked through the green and brown. Deep dark orchid
and gold colours danced along the tiled floor, the tunnelling root breaking and distorting what pattern may
have been. The roots all led back to a central fountain, now devoid of water. Instead, a thick and twisting
tree sprouted from the fountain’s core. Its roots burst from the center of the square and probed the
buildings on the edge. There was no discernable upper portion to the square, but it was unclear if that was
always the case or if it was due to the plant-based destruction. As Fallon approached the tree, she could
better see its full canopy filling the upper air of the chamber. Bruse immediately got next to the tree and
began examining its bark. The slight shifting caused a few aviansects to burst from the branches, fleeing
to a nearby fence. The fence caught Fallon’s eye. She followed it to a building separate from the chamber
wall and a gate leading to a shrouded place.
“Bruse, see that building? It looks like the checkpoint from before.” Fallon pointed it out, already
moving towards it.
Bruse had pulled out a book and had begun writing in it, but he quickly put it away to follow her.
Fallon skipped the customs building and went straight past the gate. However, the exit to the next
level would not be so easy. In place of the large bone pile, the path to the stairs was clear, but the stairs
themselves were completely blocked by a tightly packed nest of roots and vines. Frustration rose within
her as she ran forward to the natural mesh barrier. She began to hack away at a root, damaging it enough
to pull it away, but behind it was only more plant growth.
“Fallon, I don’t think we can get through this way,” Bruse called from behind her.
“But we have to, who knows how long it will be before we find another.”
“There is no way we will be able to hack all the way through that, not before something here
finds us and makes quick work of us. There was more than one last floor, there’s bound to be at least two
here.”
“What about your fire spell? We could burn it.”
Bruse reacted with a look of shock and concern, “We can’t burn it, the fire will spread throughout
the cavern. The whole ecosystem will collapse.”
“But we need to move forward, and besides, you said this place was in a cycle of torment. Maybe
razing it would break the cycle.”
A familiar solemn expression shrouded Bruse’s face. “Perhaps you are right, but this bit of life
could be the last in this mountain. We can’t just let it die.” He paused and thought for a moment. “Perhaps
if I could empower my torch stone to be able to control where the flames go, or maybe a spell that could
stop the fire or rapidly regrow the plants. But I don’t know those spells, so making them would be
guessing in the dark.”
“Ok, then let’s keep moving, by now we should be reaching mid-day, so we need to explore more
before we need to rest.” Fallon moved out of the gated area and began to move (head) towards one of the
streets that exited from the square.
“Wait, let’s not move on from this place yet. If I am to make a new spell, I’ll need ingredients and
the buildings here would be a good place to look.”
Fallon stopped and looked around the square; there were quite a few exposed buildings and nooks
that could hide something.
“Plus, we should probably stop for lunch soon,” Bruse added as he came up behind her.
“Lunch?” Fallon cocked her head at him, unfamiliar with the concept.
“Lunch. It’s a meal we eat around now to help us keep up the energy for the rest of the day.”
Fallon’s eyes widened at the thought of an extra meal in the day. “Maybe we should focus on
finding a place to set down for this lunch.”
The two of them looked at each other for a moment before being overcome by a surge of
chuckles. They set about searching the area. The square was small enough that Fallon felt she would be
able to get back to Bruse should any slimes attack. Fallon started by looking at the more covered
buildings. Most seemed to have once been commercial, with long worn and destroyed signs denoting their
name and business. One stood out as it was clearly at one point two stories, with a window peeking
through the brambles. She hacked some of the vines away from the door and stepped inside. She found a
long-abandoned dining area. Stone tables sat chipped and broken, plants attempting to hide the disrepair
like tablecloths. Chairs were tossed about the room and were similarly broken and tied to the ground by
plants. A door in the back of the room seemed to lead back outside and next to it sat a staircase curtained
by hanging moss. She pushed the moss aside and climbed up the stairs. The second floor was a tight
hallway of hanging plants, shrouding the multiple chambers that lined the walls. The window sat at the
end of the hall, letting the verdant bioluminescence inside. Fallon peeked in the rooms and found them
only lightly consumed by the plant life. The one closest to the window didn’t even appear overturned. A
wide stone bed sat pushed up against the wall, next to a small stone writing desk. Against the opposite
wall was a place to start a fire, with a channel that took the smoke into a hole in the ceiling.
A loud rumble rattled the building. Fallon immediately readied her sword, which she had rested
against the wall. When nothing came to attack her in the room, she rushed to the hallway. Out the
window, she saw the plaza as it was, but a faint cloud was dispersing from an alley. She defenestrated
herself out the window, tucking into a roll as she hit the mossy floor. Moving straight into a sprint, she
dashed to the alley. At the entrance of the alley was a fresher corpse, bloated with sickly green sludge.
Halfway down was Bruse, who had his back to the entrance corpse, instead with his spell stone pointed
towards something at the end of the alley. The entrance corpse began to stir.
“Bruse watch out!” Fallon swung her sword down towards the slime.
“Fallon, wait!” Bruse called a moment too late.
Fallon’s sword beheaded the corpse and penetrated the slimy membrane. The sludge began to
expand rapidly and burst. A deep rumble echoed through the area as a caustic gas filled the air. Fallon’s
sword was blasted out of her hands as a burning sensation embraced her arms. She stumbled back, falling
to her knees as the gas drifted upwards and dispersed.
“Oh no! Fallon, hold still.” Bruse called as he dashed to her side. He stuffed the spell stone into
his pouch and searched through his bag for a rag. He poured water out of his water skin onto the cloth
then offered it to Fallon. “Rub your arms with this, it should clean it off.”
“What were those?” Fallon grunted as she took the moist rag and rubbed down her arms.
“Bloated corpse snatchers, a common variant where I’m from. The slime grows within the corpse
to the point where it gets stuck. They set themselves to explode when attacked. A friend discovered that
moisture negates the burning particulates they expel.”
After a moment the burning pain was replaced by the cool dampness of the cloth. Fallon relaxed
and put her back against the wall. “Are you ok?”
“Yes, I was trying to detonate them remotely to see what was back here.” Bruse gestured to the
end of the alley, “looks like an old campsite. These bodies were likely raiders. This could be a good spot
to set up.”
“I found an old inn, seems pretty clear, only one way into the room, so like this place but it has
less space for things to hide.”
“Sounds better, there’s some stuff here, let’s move it there.” Bruse went back and grabbed an old,
rusted cooking pot. “I, uh, forgot mine downstairs. This will take a bit to clean so you may want to start
lunch without it.”
Fallon nodded and led him back into the inn. Fallon picked up her sword as they left the alley,
which was luckily unharmed by the blast, and gave Bruse back his cloth. He began to use the cloth to
clean the pot as they entered the inn. Fallon showed him the room and he began setting up the cooking pot
while finishing up the cleaning. Fallon sat on the bed and pulled out some carrots to have for her mid-day
meal.
“Bruse, the friend that discovered the rag thing, are they the same person you are looking for
here?” Fallon asked between bites.
 He looked up from the pot with distant eyes, “uh, yes, she was. She and I would um, discover a
lot about the monsters and slimes of the world.”
“Why did she come here?”
“Well, she and I have been here before. She was curious about the mountain and its secrets. And
to be fair, I am too, but she is much braver than me, so I would encourage her to stay on the lowest level.
I, unfortunately, was unable to stop her curiosity. So now I need to find her.”
Fallon pondered for a moment, thinking about the mountain and how massive Bruse described it
to be. “But, why? She could be anywhere in this mountain; it’d be impossible to search the entire thing.
She could be dead, or maybe she’s doing just fine and doesn’t even need rescue.”
Bruse thought carefully about his answer, putting down the pot and moving to stand beside the
bed. “It’s, it’s not really a rescue. It’s more, I guess, about finding that answer, the answer to what has
happened to her. I don’t think I could live with myself if I just stayed in my little village without the
answer. So, I’ve got to keep moving towards the peak. That’s where she always wanted to go, so I’m
hoping I’ll meet up with her somewhere on the way there.”
“Do you think she also heard the siren call?”
Bruse looked like he was about to say something but then pivoted to a simple shrug. “Anyways,
I’m going to see about making something for myself to eat,” he said as he moved back to the still dubious
cooking pot.
“Ok, I’ll head out and look around some more.” Fallon finished the last of her lunch and picked
her sword off the ground.
“Wait, by yourself?” Bruse looked at her with concern.
“I’m not going to leave this level without you, don’t worry. You’ll be safe in here. I’m just going
to scout ahead and report back what I find.”
“Ok, be safe.”
Fallon raised the large greatsword to her shoulder, “I’ll be fine.” Back out in the plaza, Fallon
started down one of the side streets. A vibrant hum lingered in the air. The siren song trickled down
amongst the insectoid vibrations. Hidden amidst the sound, a part of Fallon’s brain questioned her
impatience, why not just wait for Bruse? His concern for her was endearing, and his company and
knowledge were very helpful, but Fallon felt that she just needed a moment to do some work on her own.
Besides all that, there was something about him that felt, off. Like he was hiding something, even though
he seemed forthcoming with his backstory.
The scenery around her began to shift as more brambles began to peek from the bushes. Stark red
thorns stood out amid the verdant foliage, allowing her to easily avoid them, but it was becoming more
and more unavoidable. It soon became like the path they had seen early on, with large thorn-covered
vines choking in on the small tunnel. It got to the point where Fallon thought to turn around, report back
as Bruse would likely be done and ready to explore. But, through the tight spiralling vines, she saw
something at the end of the path. Atop a ledge stood a building on its own. Seemingly still covered in
plants, enough of its original design peeked through to convey its importance. Between her and the
building was a small distance beyond a constrictive coil of vines. She could fit, but the teleportation stone
would probably be better, but she hadn’t checked with Bruse if they were even finished charging yet. No,
she could make it on her own.
She would need both hands free to climb through, so she would either need to leave her sword
behind or toss it ahead. She spun the sword in her hand and threw it like a javelin through the tunnel. It
softly clattered amongst the moss on the other side. She began to carefully move through the thorny
pathway. The large thorns were easy to avoid, however as she moved, she could feel the pricks latching to
her clothing and armour. The wound on her thigh strained but held as she pulled herself through the tight
coil. Falling into a roll, she found herself in a more open space leading to the ledge the building stood on.
The thorns were in thick bunches, but she could easily walk around them as long as nothing pushed her
in.
A familiar sound filled the area as three creatures emerged from hiding. Two of the bushes
sprouted from the ground, revealing themselves as corpse snatchers. The third pulled itself from a hole
with its two long arms. The wheel drone gripped the vines and began to roll towards her with great speed.
Fallon dived out of the way, grabbing her sword as she rolled back to her feet. The wheel drone charged
past her but one of the bush snatchers flung a branch of thorns at her. She shielded herself with her metal
pauldron, but the other animated bush got behind her and rammed her. She stumbled briefly before
slashing down at the slime’s foliage shell. The bush snatcher recoiled, and Fallon looked up to see the
drone was poised for another charge. Directly behind her was one of the thorn pits, and the two slimes
were on either side, ready to swipe if she dodged in their direction. She instead braced her sword for the
wheel drone. It spun forwards and used its arms to launch itself off the ground and towards Fallon’s
center of mass. She caught the bug with her sword, batting it with the flat to the side. The drone clattered
to the ground and began to right itself while one of the other bushes lunged towards Fallon’s ankle. She
twirled her sword and cleaved the slime in half. Fallon took the opportunity to step away from the pit of
thorns. The remaining enemies cycled around the edge of the area, trying to line her up with a new pit.
Eager not to allow them the chance to prepare, Fallon charged towards the drone. It tried to roll like a
compass away, using one hand planted to a spot, but Fallon brought her sword down on its shell.
Unfortunately, the blade barely even scratched the carapace as it rolled away. A small pain pierced
Fallon’s back as she saw the bush retracting a thorny vine whip back into itself. She pushed towards it,
thrusting her greatsword into the mess of vines and brambles. The slime gurgled in pain as it tried to
retreat, but Fallon wasted no time in taking a second slash to finish off the monster. However, in that
time, the drone was in a position once more to charge and slammed Fallon in the back. She fell on her
face, thankfully not into a thorn pit. Shaking away the bruising pain, she got back to her feet and faced the
wheel drone.
The two paced around the area, watching each other’s defences. Fallon knew she couldn’t break
through that shell, and last time she only defeated the bug because of Bruse’s shot to its side. The drone
saw an opening and dug its hands into the stone before launching itself forward. An idea manifested in
Fallon’s head as she rushed to meet the drone’s charge. Just before it would have collided with one of her
legs, she sidestepped it while doing a downward arc with her blade. She cleaved one of its arms clean off.
It spun past her and used its remaining arm to turn around, but quickly lost balance. It fell over, leaving its
exposed side open for Fallon to thrust her sword down into.
Fallon stepped back and caught her breath as the wheel drone’s slime oozed out and began to
disintegrate like the others. She turned her focus now to the ledge atop which the building sat. The wall
was covered in brambles, and behind it seemed to be a completely collapsed tunnel. She could try to
climb up the wall, but her hands would likely not be happy, or even intact. She looked around to find
some other way but saw no other portion of the upper section available. However, on the edge, or rather
hanging slightly off it was a piece of architecture. Akin to a gargoyle or some other type of statue, it was
broken at the base and was only held up by vines that wrapped around it from above. If she could cut the
vine, the stone would fall to her level, and she could use it to boost herself up. The only question, how to
cut it? She looked down at her large heavy greatsword. She’d better hope it would land somewhere she
could reach. She stepped back and flung the blade like a boomerang. The weight of the weapon cleaved
through the vine and brought the statue to the ground while the sword clattered somewhere beyond. The
structure hit the ground with a heavy thud. Part of it broke and crumbled, but enough of it remained to
give her the boost she needed. She climbed on top and leapt the final distance to reach the top of the
ledge. However, as she pushed herself up onto it, she felt a sharp pain in her thigh as her wound reopened.
She flung herself the rest of the way and grabbed her leg as blood began to seep out again. She scooted
away from the edge and quickly undid the bandage to try and reapply it.
The pain surge lingered even after the bandage was reset, but it was good enough for now. She
stood up and looked around the new area. The building sat in the center of a circular space. The roof was
domed in the back, showing no sign of forward progress from here. Her sword had landed against the
building. Fallon limped towards it, finding it slightly damaged but still usable. The building itself was
clearly at one point a blacksmith’s forge. A large open doorway with only a partial bit of overgrowth
showed the large workstation inside. The furnace sat cold and quiet, and rusted and broken tools lay
scattered about various tables and stands.
What caught Fallon’s eye though was a sword in a scabbard atop the main worktable. The long
sheath was made from dark leather and had unfinished design work done along one side. Strangely about
less than one-third of the way up the scabbard, one of the sides was open. Fallon would have thought the
slit was the result of unfinished work, but a stiff leather “wing” that protruded from the same side seemed
to suggest otherwise. Attached to the scabbard was a long belt that ran parallel to it. Due to that and its
size, Fallon knew this wasn’t meant to be worn around the waist like most scabbards. Instead, this seemed
designed to be worn on the back with the belt going across the torso.
Then Fallon’s eyes fell on the hilt of the blade inside. The pommel was a dark grey metal with a
round red agate stone embedded in it. The leather-wrapped grip was long enough for two hands before
reaching the two slightly upswept quillons made from the same dark metal as the pommel. Fallon drew
the sword to reveal an ageless, single-edged silver blade. The two-handed falchion blade curved faintly
towards the point. Along the blunt edge of the sword were intricate runes inlaid with deep red bloodstone.
The carvings seemed almost liquid in design, which in combination with the gemstone evoked the idea of
blood. She dropped her old makeshift greatsword to the ground and gave the new sword some test swings.
The falchion felt perfectly weighted in Fallon’s hands and seemed untouched by time. Fallon put the
scabbard over her head, careful to make sure it wouldn’t interfere with her bag. It was as she moved to
sheath the blade that she realized the purpose of the slit and “wing” guide. Normally a blade this length
would be impractical to sheath and draw from the back due to the lack of visibility and the need to
overstretch to fit the tip of the blade into the scabbard. The slit meant she wouldn’t have to stretch too far,
and the stiff slate helped guide the blade in snuggly. With the falchion sheathed, Fallon spun and jumped
a bit to ensure the scabbard would still hold the blade. Pleased with this discovery, Fallon made her way
back to the plaza.
She jumped down onto the statue then to the ground, her leg wincing with each impact. When she
reached the tight coil of brambles, she was able to climb through with the falchion still on her back. The
rest of the trip back was uneventful, but she tested her new sword on some vines as she went. The ancient
blade cut clean through the brambles, perhaps better than her great sword. The question still lingered in
her mind, however, about how this blade could have remained in such good condition. Surely it was
forged by these ancient people, and yet it looked as though it had been freshly polished. The gemstones
embedded along the blade and in the pommel reminded her of Bruse’s spell stones, perhaps this falchion
had some magical properties. She decided she would ask Bruse when she got back and moved to sheath
the blade. While the slit and guide made it possible to holster the weapon painlessly, it was still a bit
awkward, but Fallon felt she would get used to it in time.
The plaza was as quiet and still as she left it. She thought to call out to Bruse but decided against
it so that she wouldn’t alert anything that may have made its way into the area. She stepped back into the
inn and immediately noticed the back door was now ajar. Concern rose in Fallon, so she slowly drew the
falchion. She cautiously made her way up the stairs and into the room Bruse was in. But he was not there.
Half a serving of food lingered in the cooking pot, but no other signs of life were in the room. She rushed
back downstairs, her heart beating fast with worry for Bruse and the pain in her leg. She swung the back
door open to see an alley that turned into a backstreet travelling out of sight.
She pressed forward into the back road, keeping an eye to the ground for tracks. While she found
none, she noticed increasing dampness to the foliage as she travelled. A faint trickling sound joined the
ever-present hum and siren song. Soon she noticed tiny streams of water between the roots and
cobblestones. The tiny water flows began to grow as Fallon worked her way up them until she turned a
corner to see a full river going down the center of the street. The water seemed to drain between the
cracks in the stone. Small trickles of water fell from the ceiling, some first hitting the remains of the upper
level before joining the main river. Fallon stayed out of the water and weaved between the miniature
waterfalls. Eventually, the street met a similar end that the bramble path did. The base level ended in a
wall while the second level continued onwards. Unlike the bramble path, however, this path ended in a
wide waterfall that fed the main river. There was enough room on either side of the fall for Fallon to
climb up, but her curiosity drew her to the fall itself. By the blacksmith’s there had been a tunnel in the
wall, collapsed and overgrown, but a tunnel, nonetheless. Fallon pulled a branch free from the wall and
used it to poke the waterfall. It parted the water long enough to reveal a dark hole before the current
ripped the branch from her hand. Fallon took a step back, looking to see if there were any gaps in the
waterfall at the edges, but no. So, she got a running start and leapt through the waterfall to find the hidden
chamber beyond. The fast-moving water stung as she passed through and the wound on her leg stung as
she landed.
On the inside of the fall was a small space of damp, plant-less stone before a dark tunnel. A faint
ill-green light trickled from inside the dark cave. Fallon shook herself dry and stepped inside. In the dark,
she could just make out the vaguely circular room. The sources of the light were sickly green crystals that
clung to the walls. Trepidation filled Fallon as she walked amongst the darkness. In the back of the room
was a hole about a meter from the ground. Fallon approached the hole and looked inside. Two ill-green
points of light looked back. Fallon’s heart beat into her throat as she stumbled back and looked about the
room. The darkness was oppressive and masking. Even in the small room, she began to lose her sense of
place. Fallon fled.
Back outside the waterfall, she took a moment to regain herself and her surroundings. She turned
to the climbable walls beside the fall and made her way up to the top. On the upper portion, the mossy
overgrown path continued along the river. The slightly uphill walk went on for some time before reaching
a very large chamber. Consuming most of the area was a large lake. The massive body of water pressed
against the cavern walls on all but one side. Between her and the glistening pool was a small field of
overgrowth. Amongst the overgrowth were several corpses that stood out from the typical skeleton. Clad
in rusted metal full plate, each body was half consumed by moss. Clearly, at one point they were meant to
be protecting something, but now they littered the field of green bisected by the river. Some had spears,
others had swords, and many had bucklers or shields of various sizes. All were fully or mostly rusted and
degraded.
Fallon moved to the closest one. Its armour may have once been regal, but now was just a broken
tomb. Fallon reached down to try and remove its shield, causing the armour to clatter loudly. Several
groupings (swarms) of aviansects fled from the noise as the armour shifted more. Fallon hadn’t moved
that time. Clattering also came from elsewhere in the field. Fallon jumped back and drew her falchion as
two moss-covered knights rose from the ground, the eye holes in their helmets shining a sickly green.
The mossen knights raised their shields as they moved to flank Fallon, while she raised her
falchion into a high guard. The knight on the left thrust forward with its spear; Fallon parried it with the
flat of her blade. As she did the other took a wide slash with its rusted arming sword. Fallon brought the
falchion around in time to clash with the ancient blade. From the bind, she twisted her sword around its to
slash towards the chest. While the maneuver was successful, her blade only met unyielding metal. The
spear knight thrust (jabbed maybe) towards Fallon again, missed, then slammed her gut with the shaft of
the polearm. Fallon stumbled back and immediately had to bring her sword up again to block a second
thrust. The sword knight cycled around Fallon and slashed towards her back. She tried to move her body
to place her metal pauldron in the way of the slash but was too slow. An immense pain rocketed through
her as the rusted blade cut deep into her flesh. Blood spilled down her arm as she attempted to back away.
The sword knight took a second swing which Fallon deflected with a perpendicular slash from her blade.
She put some distance between her and them but looked back to see the other knights stirring. Blood
dripping from her elbow to the verdant floor, Fallon retreated.
The knights pursued her only for a bit before returning to their resting place in the ground. Once
Fallon was sure they were far enough away, she sheathed the falchion and pressed her hand over the
wound. When she reached the waterfall, she stopped briefly to hastily apply bandages over the wound.
The cloth was almost immediately soaked through, but it would hold for now. She leapt down to the main
level, instantly reminded of the wound on her leg. Pain all across her body, she limped back to the plaza.
When she got back inside the abandoned inn she heard stirring upstairs. In too much pain to care
about attracting unwanted attention, she called up, “Bruse?”
“Fallon, you’re back,” Bruse’s voice came from upstairs. Fallon marched up and found him
preparing dinner in the cooking pot. His expression immediately turned to concern as he saw Fallon’s
wounds. “Oh no! What happened?” He asked as he began digging through his bag.
“Where were you? I came back and you weren’t here.” Fallon growled through the pain as she sat
down on the bed.
“Sorry, after you left, I finished my lunch and decided to explore some myself.” He pulled more
bandages and moss from his bag then turned to Fallon.
“What’s that for?” Fallon pointed at the moss with her good hand.
“Special moss, it grows back home too. It helps with bleeding and infection wounds (preventing
wounds from becoming infected). It’s not a permanent fix but it will help. If I may?” He gestured to her
wounds.
Fallon’s instincts were to refuse his help, pain and adrenaline still pulsing through her body. But a
small voice in her head told her to trust him and so she began to undo her pauldron to give better access to
the wound on her arm and undid some of the leg bandages.
Bruse went to work, carefully unwrapping the blood-soaked cloth and pressing the moss in its
place. The moss stung against the open wound, causing Fallon to wince. As he worked to apply the moss
and fresh bandages, he spoke about what he found. “So, I left back down the way we came, back to the
first major intersection. Unfortunately, I did not find any other ways of progressing to the next level of the
mountain, but I did find some supplies.” He finished with the arm then moved back to his bag. Along
with more moss and cloth, he showed a collection of other materials. “With these, I should be able to
make a healing spell, but I am still missing an emerald. This is also where I found the moss.” He put the
spell components away and moved to treat Fallon’s thigh wound. “I also made a small discovery about
the corpse snatchers. They make nests. Small collections of slimes will designate an area, typically with
abundant supplies to use, as their nest. The slimes won’t likely travel far from their nest and interestingly
will fight other slimes not part of their nest community. I think that’s what happened downstairs. The
bone pile was a nest for a few slimes, and they attacked the drake slime because it wasn’t part of their
group. Slimes like the drake then are wanderers without a nest. While this doesn’t explain why it chased
you, it may explain some of their more coordinated behaviours.”
Bruse finished treating the wounds then stepped away. Fallon gave them a look over; it was
certainly better than before, although still very painful. Some of the moss poked out between the
bandages. “Thanks, Bruse, but I think I’ll need a bit more moss before I can blend in with them.” She
joked, pulling out a loose clump.
 Bruse responded with a shy chuckle, “Well, maybe we’ll find more later. In the meantime, I made
some dinner when I got back here.” He poured her a bowl of stew and passed it to her, the smell alone
numbing the pain. “So, what did you find?”
“A sword and a lake,” Fallon summarized before recounting her expedition in detail while she
ate. She took off the falchion and scabbard and gave it to Bruse to examine. This one was actually light
enough for him to hold on his own.
Bruse pointed to some ancient lettering along the belt of the scabbard. “If I am translating this
correctly, it says ‘Shabbard’.”
“Shouldn’t it be scabbard? Why would it just have that written on it?”
“I don’t know, perhaps it was the name of the owner or designer. As for the falchion itself, this is
a Gem Set sword. I had read tales of weapons like this. Enchanted like a spell stone, these weapons have
magical properties activated by either a condition being met or by speaking a command word. The magic
was also said to protect it from the effects of time.”
“Can you tell what the command word or conditions are?” Fallon asked as she finished her stew.
“Unfortunately, no, but I may be able to reverse engineer its activation conditions if we can find
some similar symbols elsewhere. Even without the magic, it’s still a very good find.”
Fallon took the Gem Set Falchion back and looked at her reflection in the blade. “Sorry for being
a little, hostile earlier. I got very worried when I returned, and you were gone. I began to fear the worst,
and so finding you here just cooking after getting hurt trying to find you was,…”
Bruse had a soft smile, “insulting? Don’t be sorry, I appreciate that you were concerned. I’ll try to
let you know should this happen again. But it’s good to know that if I do get taken somewhere you’ll
come for me.”
“Got to keep the only living friend I’ve made here alive, don’t I?”
The two chuckled, “You’ve got nonliving friends here?”
“The drake seemed interesting,” Fallon joked. The two laughed a bit more before silence fell
upon the room. Bruse finished up the last of the stew (after serving Fallon seconds) and began to set up
his sleeping bag by the desk. Fallon turned and set up her own on the stone bed and tried to find rest
through the numbed but still present pain in her arm and thigh.
In the night, a dream came to Fallon. She saw a root, simple and small, dangling over the edge of
a stair step. The dream followed the root back, almost as if it was retracting or reversing time. It passed
through the fields of moss and brambles, diving in and out of the stone and water. Eventually, it coiled up
along a familiar waterfall. It traced the river back to its source then dove into the lake water. It reemerged
at the far end next to a large tree. The tree awkwardly jutted out between the stone and water. The dream
focus shifted to an odd element in the wall. A pile of loose stones with roots and vines packing them
together. Fallon saw hands digging away at the stones to reveal a short tunnel. The dream entered the
tunnel and was consumed by darkness. The dream lingered in the lightless location for a moment before a
gout of flame swallowed Fallon whole.
Fallon shot awake in the bed. She let out an instinctual yelp as she patted out the nonexistent
flames. They felt more real than the previous dreams had. Bruse, who was seated at the desk writing in a
book, nearly jumped out of his skin. His book flew upwards, causing Bruse to scramble to catch it before
turning to look at Fallon.
“You ok? What’s happening?” Bruse shoved the book into his bag and moved to Fallon’s side.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Fallon’s voice trailed off.
“Okay,” Bruse still gave a closer examination of her bandages which were still holding up fine.
“Your hair looks like a wildfire though.” He moved his hand to attempt to fix it, but Fallon beat him to it,
smoothing the hair down to tie back once more.
 “It’s fine, just, uh, stiff bed. But I think I have an idea where we should go next.” Fallon stood up
and began to collect and equip her gear. “Back to the lake, I think there may still be something there.”
“But I thought you said there were no branches from the lake, plus there are those corpse
snatchers there.”
“I also didn’t get much time to look around because of those slimes, who I think I have an idea on
how to deal with.”
Bruse cocked his head slightly in confusion and/or curiosity then shrugged. “Well, it’s the only
lead we got, and it’s always better to check and find nothing than to move on and miss something. Let’s
go.” Bruse picked up his stuff and the cooking pot at Fallon’s reminder and they left out the back door of
the inn.
Once they reached the river proper, Bruse stopped briefly to refill his waterskin. Fallon decided to
do the same and knelt beside him. “What was that book you had?” She asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Bruse stood up from the water almost as soon as Fallon knelt. “Just a notebook to
keep track of what I learn.”
“So, what were you writing in your diary this morning?” Fallon teased.
“Notebook, and nothing, just more notes.”
Fallon squinted up at him but decided not to press further. She got up from the river and guided
Bruse onwards towards the waterfall. Along the way, Bruse would stop to examine some of the small
trickles of water or changes in the stone behind the overgrowth. Fallon agreed that this place was
beautiful and interesting, but she felt that it was a bit of a waste of time to stop and smell the proverbial
roses here.
Eventually, they made it to the crashing waterfall ledge that led to the lake. Fallon was about to
begin the climb along the side when Bruse stopped her and pointed behind the fall. “You mentioned a
cave behind here?”
“Er, yes, there were weird crystals inside, but I think that was it.” Fallon felt anxiety rising in her
chest.
“I have a theory if you wouldn’t mind stopping here for a bit.”
“Uh, no, not at all.” Fallon saw a flash of the faintly glowing green eyes in her mind. Before even
passing through the fall, Fallon began to feel nervous about entering back into that space. No way to see
where the next attack would come from.
Bruse jumped through first, and when Fallon followed after she found him already shaking off
the water like a dog. She decided to do the same, enjoying the brief levity. Bruse pulled the torch stone
and ignited it before stepping inside. While the crystals refracted the firelight, throwing it in weird places
in the room, the light was very comforting to Fallon. Bruse knelt beside a collection of crystals and began
writing in a book, a different one from earlier. Fallon moved back towards the hole in the wall. Where she
had previously imagined pure stone around the hole, the light revealed that below were instead tightly
packed dried vines. The hole had been a doorway, but its lower half was sealed by the dead overgrowth.
She looked in the hole and did not see the pair of lights, but with the help of Bruse’s torch, she saw a path
leading into the darkness. Fallon drew her falchion and began to clear away the foliage. She did not
intend to travel far down the hidden path, not without Bruse’s light at least, but she figured she would
clear the way while he nerded. She pulled away the roots and vines then took a step into the tunnel.
When her boot hit the stone, the floor gave way and she fell. The light behind her vanished as she
tumbled down the rockslide. Fallon let out a stifled scream as the fall pulled the wind from her lungs.
When she finally found the bottom, she just laid there for a moment. Her whole body hurt, but as she
began to slowly check in with herself, she didn’t feel any fractures. She finally got up from being prone
and looked around. The direct area was in complete darkness although she could sense the tunnel
progressing forward. She looked up and could just make out Bruse with his torch, frantically looking
around.
“Bruse, I’m down here.” Fallon weakly coughed up.
“Are you ok? I’m coming down!” Bruse began to get on his knees to climb down the rockslide.
“No stop!” Fallon cried as she saw more loose rock tumble with each movement. “It’s not safe.
It’s dark but I think I see a potential way back up (I’m going to keep going and see if there’s a way back
up).”
Bruse stopped attempting to climb and instead sat near the edge of the new hole. “Ok, but if you
aren’t back up here soon, I’m coming down to help. And be careful, your sword landed up here.”
Fallon looked around, realizing that she had dropped her sword at the top. She gazed down the
dark path, sightless and defenceless. Anxiety rose in her chest as she brushed the dust off of her and
pressed onward. Every few steps she would hear the cracking of glass beneath her boots. The tunnel walls
were ragged and oppressive. They pressed in more and more, eventually forcing her to slide sideways
between them. Her metal pauldron scratched against the stone, occasionally causing a spark to briefly
light the prolonged coffin. Finally, it opened up, releasing her from its tight grasp, but into a circular dead
end. In the center was a large crystal, almost as tall as her. It was the same colour as the other crystals but
lacked the faint glow from within. But what was strangest of all was that it appeared to have been burst
open. The center and top were exploded open from the inside. Fallon’s heart beat into her ears, leading
her to begin nervously scanning the room for danger and freedom. Up! The cylindrical chamber
continued up. The hole in the ceiling was large enough that Fallon could push herself up through it. She
boosted herself off the large crystal and scrambled up the shaft. She briefly looked back down into the
darkness and saw two ill-green points of light looking back.
Fallon made it to the top of the cylinder, which seemed to spit her back out on the path she had
seen previously. After a few steps, she could see Bruse’s light flickering around a corner.
“You’re safe! Thank goodness,” Bruse said as she came into view, a look of relief flooding his
face.
“Not yet.” Fallon looked down and saw the hole she had created and all the loose rock around it.
“I think I could make this jump, but I don’t know if the rock will hold my weight.”
Bruse kneeled and examined the stone, giving an unfortunate nod of confirmation. “It’s risky but
doable. We should try something else.” Fallon saw Bruse light up as an idea formed in his head. He put
the torch stone down beside him and shed his backpack.
“Care to share this idea?”
“With all your equipment you would be much too heavy, but I don’t have as much, I could make
the jump.” Bruse began fumbling through his spell pouch.
“What good would having both of us over here be?”
Bruse pulled out the teleportation stone and Fallon caught onto his plan. He cast teleport on
himself and Fallon. The air sizzled around Fallon as everything went topsy turvy. She stumbled forward,
just narrowly missing the torch stone Bruse had placed next to him. She turned and now saw him on the
other side of the hole. Without a moment’s hesitation, Bruse ran and leapt over the hole. Fallon moved to
catch him as she saw some of the stones crumble beneath him. However, he safely made it over, and
instead, they stumbled into each other. After a brief awkward moment, Fallon pulled away and moved
towards where her sword had landed. She could feel herself trembling as she picked up the blade and
decided to sit down to catch her breath.
Bruse took notice after he had picked his things back up and stepped over. He looked as though
he wanted to say something, but instead just sat down beside her. Fallon appreciated the gesture of
support as she found it very comforting and strangely familiar.
“So, what did you learn?” Fallon eventually spoke as her nerves settled.
 “I think this is or was a slime nest.” Bruse pulled a piece of crystal from his bag to show. “But it
seems the slimes have entered some sort of chrysalis phase. This could be because it had died, but that
doesn’t really line up with what seems to happen when they are killed. No, I think it’s more likely that
they become a crystal to begin transforming into something else, like a butterfly. However, the what,
why, and how I have no clues towards.”
Fallon felt some of the fear return as the large busted open crystal flashed in her mind. “Maybe
we should get going,” Fallon suggested as she stood up and exited the room, Bruse quickly following
behind. Outside the waterfall, Fallon boosted Bruse up to the ledge and then climbed up after him. As
they followed the river to the lake, Fallon explained the layout of the knights. “They only moved to attack
after I tried to take its shield and made noise. So, I think if we avoid touching them or making too much
noise, we might be able to sneak past them.”
“Do you think it would be smart to try and only wake one, lure it away to fight it? It would help
us better identify its possible weaknesses.”
“I only started touching one, and yet more rose. So, unless you can think of a way to quietly wake
only one and convince it to also be quiet, we’ll be at a number disadvantage no matter what.”
“Okay, so we get past them, then what? Can we search around the lake for clues?”
“Only the edge we approach from is exposed to the shore, the rest goes until it hits the cavern
wall. There did seem to be the remains of a walkway that circled the edge of the lake, but it was in heavy
disrepair.”
“Well, then what are we looking for and where?”
“I, I think there is a tree on the far end of the lake, I think I saw something hidden amongst the
roots.” It was about then that they arrived at the lake cavern. The moss-covered knights were back
slumped against the ground in the exact same spots as before. This time Fallon looked across the lake and
saw the old tree just like in the dream. From this distance, however, there was no sign of any hidden path.
“Well, unless you want to swim in the centuries-old lake in the mountain full of ancient monsters,
I think our best shot is to hop across the broken path.”
“At least if we fall off, we should be able to quickly climb back up.” Fallon began to march
forward, crouching down to be as quiet as possible. She was about 10 feet from the first carcass when
Bruse grabbed her shoulder. Fallon looked back to see him pointing ahead. She followed his finger and
saw a small flock of aviansects gathered between two knights. Bruse made some hand motions that
looked weird and nonsensical, but she inferred that he was trying to suggest avoiding the aviansects as
they may alert the overgrown guards. She nodded then moved back to find a different route.
The process was painstakingly slow. The corpses were spread enough that one could feasibly
walk between them without concern. However, the addition of the aviansects made picking a path
difficult. They were small enough that they would sometimes be completely hidden by a clump of large
grass or by one of the suits of armour. They had made it past the two that kicked Fallon’s ass last time and
were between a group of three, with aviansects everywhere. One was very close to them, and it cocked its
insectoid head at Fallon. She felt the urge to grunt or shoe the bug bird away but instead settled on a
cutting glare into its compound eyes. The large bug hopped away and began to peck at the moss once
more. Bruse and Fallon slowly shifted between two of the mould-crusted knights and they were almost
home free. Carefully stepping past one last small flock of bugs, they were past the field of bodies and at
the lake itself.
Fallon looked down into the water; it was somewhat murky, the visibility only penetrating a few
feet. The surface was perfectly still except near where it fed into the river. The lake itself, though,
seemingly had no source, except for the occasional drip from the hanging moss along the ceiling. Bruse
motioned to the path that led clockwise around the lake, pointing out that the path was slightly more
together than the other way around. They began shifting towards that path, but Fallon’s eyes were stuck to
the water. Something could be in the lake, watching them, preparing for them, and she would have no
way of knowing.
They eventually reached where the solid ground transitioned into the carved path on stilts above
the water. Bruse took the lead, using his relative lightness to test the stone. What little remained of the
stone path was held together by moss and roots. They made it only a few steps and a loose pebble
scattered into the water. Bruse and Fallon froze as the ripple travelled outward, but when nothing
responded they kept going. After a few minutes, they reached the first break in the path. A large portion
of the path had collapsed into the water, although the remains were not visible through the murky depths.
There was about half a foot’s worth of stone still left stuck to the overgrown stone wall. Bruse went first,
clutching tightly to the vines as his feet pressed into the tiny remains of the path. He made it to the other
side and gave space for Fallon to land when she crossed. Heart beating into her spine, Fallon crossed over
the water, her eyes stuck between the vines, her destination, and Bruse. She cleared the gap and they
slowly pressed onwards. They had to cling to the wall a few more times, pausing whenever anything hit
the water. At one point a leaf fell from a vine and gently landed on the water surface. Fallon watched it
slowly drift away, but nothing came of it. A few moments later, Fallon looked back and could no longer
see the leaf.
After nearly an hour, they had made it within one gap of the tree, but this one had only moss on
the wall above the footholds. This was a jump. Bruse again went first, gingerly testing his foot against the
stone. It seemed to hold fine. There wasn’t enough space to get a full running start, so he got a tiny bit of
build-up then jumped. Part of the stone collapsed into the water as he leapt. He did still manage to land
but about a foot was added to the gap and a massive splash was made. The ripples echoed across the
water and Fallon swore she saw a shift in the water beyond. She would not wait to confirm her fears.
Fallon sprinted forward, her boots digging into the soft mossy carpet. She hurled herself over the gap and
landed with a stumbling step but landed, nonetheless.
The area around the tree was a small circular outcropping. It looked as though it may have been a
small scenic seating space. Now any seats were long gone, consumed by the large, mangled mess of roots,
or collapsed into the water. Bruse looked back across the lake while Fallon drew her falchion and began
to search for the tunnel entrance.
“Here it is!” Fallon called as she pulled back a moss-covered root to reveal an archway hidden
behind it.
“Good eye, I would have never seen that from across the lake.”
Fallon thought to correct him but decided to focus on clearing away the stones and vines that
were packed into the entrance. Bruse drew the torch stone as they entered the dark tunnel. The
passageway immediately stood out from the rest of the level. In place of roughly hewn stones, there were
intricately carved patterns and filigree. It did not take long for the tunnel to open into a barely lit garden.
While every other chamber had been a rounded cavern, this one more closely resembled the buildings
with its precise corners. As Bruse’s light flickered over the garden plots, it became clear that all the plants
here were dead and decaying. Wilted and dry, the plants here clearly died due to being starved of light
and nutrition. The plots were restrictive and curated, meaning that whenever this place was abandoned
some of the plants were trapped inside their pots. Occupying the center of the room was a large square
column that effectively split the room in two, with archways on either side. Built into the wall of the
column was the only source of faint light, a large stained-glass window. Lit from behind, the window
depicted a woman in divine, deep orchid clothing, surrounded by golden rays of light. Hovering just
above her head was a smooth rose gold crown. Her face was featureless, but even in silhouette the regal-
ness and femininity of the form was unmistakable.
Fallon stood in awe while Bruse seemed to be intentionally averting his gaze from the window.
“What is this place?” Fallon asked as her eyes traced the woman’s form.
 “Well, that is the Queen. She was the ruler of this kingdom when it still existed. I’ve seen similar
depictions and notes about her below. She was referred to as a goddess with immense power. Some say
that she was even the one who raised the mountain from the earth.” Bruse finally joined her in front of the
window. “This place, then, was likely a shrine to her.”
“This is where the plants came from!” Fallon exclaimed as the theory materialized in her head.
“Without the proper care the plants were going to die here, so they must have grown out towards the lake
and light outside. They then set new roots there and left all of this to wither away.”
“Then perhaps there is a way out!” Bruse pointed to a collection of long-dead vines that travelled
away from the entrance they had found, instead of towards the other chamber.
Bruse began to follow them, but Fallon lingered with the window. She took a step towards it and
reached out to touch it with her hand. The glass was slightly warm and smooth, showing no signs of the
decay that the rest of this lost kingdom showed. An uneasy feeling, however, stuck with her in the beauty.
The room had grown eerily quiet, not a sound beyond her slightly staggered breaths. It was then her eyes
fell upon a small metal hinge, hidden beyond some vines. Fallon pressed on the window, and it moved,
offering passage to the room behind it. A well-kept grass plot housed several orchids and other purple and
red flowers. The centerpiece among them was a simple stone slab. The tombstone was wreathed in vines,
with the ancient script written (engraved) into the dark grey rock. Sat gently at the foot of the grave was a
small emerald, sitting on some kind of offering plate. Fallon looked up and saw the light trickling down
from above but could not see how high the ceiling was nor the source of the light.
“Fallon, I found the-” Bruse rounded the corner and froze at the sight Fallon had discovered. He
joined her inside the room and looked around like she had. He knelt by the grave and read the ancient
inscription, “Here lies the inheritor.”
“Who is the inheritor?”
“I don’t know.” Bruse stepped back from the grave and noticed the emerald offering.
“Bruse, I don’t like this place, it’s, I can’t describe it.”
“Then let’s get moving.” Bruse grabbed the emerald from the ground and exited the memorial
garden.
Fallon quickly joined him and closed the window behind them. As they stepped away from the
stained glass, Fallon began to hear the siren song once more. She briefly looked back at the window,
curious as to how it had suppressed the song from her mind. The beauty of the Queen made a shiver run
down her spine as she ran to rejoin Bruse in the other room. It was much like the previous, but with no
stained glass. Like the last room, it had an archway leading to a set of stairs, but this one seemed to travel
upwards. With Bruse in the lead with his torch stone, the pair made their way up the stairs to the next
level.
Notes for Revision
Review Dialogue and Character interactions
Level 4
The stairs didn’t travel too far upwards before expanding into a small chamber. The flickering
light from the fire cast shadows across the root-covered floor. The room formed a semicircular shape,
with what appeared to be a curtain forming the main flat wall. The roots pressed through the curtains,
allowing a little light the peak in from beyond. Bruse moved towards the curtain while Fallon ran her
hand across the curved stone wall. Occasionally she felt small holes with wind quietly whistling through.
Although she was curious about these holes, she knew better than to try and investigate, less a snake
comes out and bites her. She turned back to Bruse who had pulled back the heavy curtain to reveal the lit
chamber beyond. Bathed in verdant bioluminescence, they entered a small auditorium. Immediately after
the curtain was a small wooden stage with a podium in its centre. The old wood creaked as they stepped
out to look down upon several rows of wooden pews, most consumed by the plant life. At the back of the
chamber was a tunnel coated in vines and brambles but looked to still host enough space for them to pass.
As the two of them stepped down and moved amongst the empty audience, Fallon swore she could hear
the distant quiet sounds of a crowd. It was sourceless, seeming to permeate the entirety of the space.
Bruse also seemed to notice the noise, as he turned in his space searching for a direction.
“What do you make of this?” Fallon asked.
“This space? It looks to be some sort of theatre or church, someplace where someone could
preach or perform for an audience. The sound? I have no clue."
Fallon moved to the edge of the room and examined the walls, more holes were scattered
throughout the chamber, small and often obscured by plants. Bruse moved towards the main exit of the
room and Fallon soon joined him, feeling around the walls of the chamber.
“It looks like there are other paths here, behind the brambles.” Bruse pulled back a vine near the
exit tunnel showing faint signs of light beyond.
“We can check those if this first path leads to nothing, for now, let’s press forward, I feel like
we’re getting close,” Fallon said, the faint melody feeling stronger in her ears. She crouched down
slightly and pushed through the vines down the tunnel. The tunnel felt plenty wide, but the vines pressed
in like a constricting throat. Bruse followed closely behind her, stopping to check the walls occasionally
for further branching paths. Not after too long the ghostly sounds of audiences past faded and all that
could be heard was the siren song and clothing on plant fibre. A bit further and the tunnel opened back
into another larger space. Here it seemed most of the plants and roots came to an end, revealing the
smooth stone floor once again. Just beyond the plant line was a wall that sealed off the chamber. Unlike
the stone and fibre that had covered or composed everything so far, this wall was metal, built hastily to
block off this room. In its centre lay an open archway, just beyond an even larger chamber loomed. The
bioluminescence was weak here, but Fallon swore she could see large structures in the darkness beyond
the gate. More pressing, however, was what sat in the gate. Slumped against the arch was an old dark suit
of armour, without a helm revealing the bleached bone and green sludge that inhabited it. In one
armoured hand, it held a long-rusted battle axe and in the other, it seemed to clutch a rope.
Fallon slowly began to draw the falchion when Bruse put an arm out in front of her. “Should we
fight this? Maybe it’s best to go back and try a different path, or we could try using the teleport stone to
get past it.”
“This may be our only chance to fight one of these things by itself. I have no doubt we’ll run into
more of these things too, so if we are to find a way to safely kill it, now is our best chance.” Fallon
finished drawing her sword and motioned for Bruse to stay back, “keep at a range, see if you can find a
weak spot while I keep its attention.”
Bruse let out a sigh and drew the light bolt stone before nodding.
Fallon cautiously stepped towards the corpse knight, watching her footing to avoid making a
sound. The armour remained motionless, though the sludge seemed to shift slightly. While it was partially
exposed around the skull and neck, striking it wouldn’t kill it, she would have to go for the chest. She got
within 5 feet of the body when there was a sudden flash of movement. Within moments the corpse
snatcher knight was on its feet and weapon drawn. The hand that held the rope gave it a swift yank,
causing the rope to go taught and then snap. The sound of metal against metal filled the room and Fallon
leapt back, expecting some sort of trap to fall on her. Instead, she watched as a heavy metal slab dropped
down behind the knight, consuming the entirety of the gate and sealing off the exit with a ground-shaking
slam. A burst of light from Bruse slammed into the knight’s armour, knocking it slightly but seemingly
not doing any damage. Fallon took the opening to move forward and sweep her sword towards its legs. It
brought its axe down to meet her blade then quickly bounced it back around towards her neck. Fallon
dodged back again as the knight pushed toward her with a second swing. A burst of light slammed into
the axe head knocking it off course. Fallon lunged with her blade but only met the stiff metal of the
knight’s armour. It raised its leg and pressed it squarely into Fallon’s chest, pushing her back with a
surprising amount of force. Stumbling to regain her balance, the knight raised the battle-axe high, looking
to bring it down on her head. Fallon caught the axe with her blade against its belly. In this bind, she
quickly slid the falchion up the haft, so it was behind the beard of the axe. She tried to leverage this
position to pop the weapon out of the knight’s hands, but it simply pulled the axe parallel to the blade and
freed itself from the bind. Fallon swiftly followed with two strikes against the corpse knight’s chest piece
but again found too much resistance to breakthrough.
“Fallon, I don’t think this is working!” Bruse called as he fired another bolt to stagger the knight.
“There has to be something, we just need to crack open its armour.” Fallon strafed to the side and
tried to lunge towards the shoulder joint in the armour. The knight brought its arm down and blocked the
attack then followed quickly with a wide swing at Fallon’s midsection. She parried with the Falchion then
tried again to sweep at the knees. This time it connected, and the knight’s leg buckled, giving Fallon an
opening to strike at the neck. She plunged her sword down through the skull, which clattered to pieces,
but was still unable to penetrate into the chest cavity. The now headless corpse knight gut-punched Fallon
then rose to its feet once more. She stumbled back, recatching the air she lost, then raised her sword to
block another downward swing.
“Wait, the halt stones! Fallon, toss me a halt stone.” Bruse called, moving into her line of sight.
Fallon pushed back the knight and then quickly unslung her bag. Not wanting to try and search
through it, she tossed the whole thing to Bruse and then returned her focus to the knight. The corpse
snatcher rushed forward with a flurry of light blows that Fallon managed to block, bracing the flat of her
blade against her palm.
“Halt!” Bruse called in the ancient language. A dark line shot from him and the stone and collided
with the knight’s armour, then it split and crawled around into the inside of the breastplate. The knight
suddenly locked up and froze in place.
Not wishing to waste a second, Fallon rushed forward and leveraged the sword into an opening to
pop off the front piece. Inside, resting between the ribs of the knight, was the sickly green slime, its
pseudopods extended down each of the limbs. A dark jagged line laid on the corpse snatcher and travelled
down each of the pseudopods. Fallon raised the falchion and drove it into the core of the slime,
immediately causing the black line to shatter and the corpse snatcher to disintegrate. Within a moment,
the corpse knight clattered to the ground.
Fallon relaxed her guard and watched as Bruse brushed the crumbled pieces of the black spell
stone off his hands. She turned her focus towards the now-closed gate, the harsh metal slab seemed to fill
the whole arch. She rushed over and tried to cram her fingers into its base and lift but found no purchase
and too much weight. Pressing across parts of the slab immediately confirmed that to knock this slab
down the whole wall would have to collapse, a feat she felt incapable of doing.
“Fallon, I don’t think we can get through this way,” Bruse said, walking up behind her.
 Fallon gave the door one last punch in frustration, but it remained stubbornly still. “It’s just
beyond here, I can feel it.”
“There were other paths back in the auditorium, there is bound to be some other way through.”
Bruse put a hand on her shoulder and surprisingly it did much to dissuade her frustration. She pulled away
from the door and sheathed the falchion on her back. The two of them moved back through the tight
tunnel, this time with Bruse in the lead. Once they emerged on the other side Fallon drew her falchion
again and used it to cleave through the vines covering one of the side paths. This tunnel immediately
turned into a set of stairs that travelled downwards into darkness, with very little foliage clinging to the
walls. Bruse reignited his torch stone and led the way down the stairs, Fallon keeping her sword drawn
and following behind.
The stairs didn’t go down very far and thankfully didn’t feel like it took them all the way back
down to the previous level. Instead, they emerged into a lightless chamber that reminded Fallon of the
initial village area. This similarity was immediately supported as the torchlight illuminated several small
stone buildings. These had a slightly different aesthetic to those of the entry-level and were touched
lightly with dried and discarded plant matter. They were slightly larger and had more space between
them, but Fallon still felt uneasiness moving between them.
Bruse approached a sign near the edge of the village that still had lettering upon it and translated
it to say: Monastery Grounds. Fallon looked across the buildings and noticed some faint engravings that
were reminiscent of the markings in the queen’s garden shrine. “This could be a good place to search,”
Bruse said bringing the light back to her. “It looks like it goes not too deep though.”
“If this was meant for monks or priests, why would they have a back way into the next area?”
Fallon contested, listening to the faint plinking of water droplets somewhere in the cavern.
“Why not? It doesn’t hurt to check.” Bruse moved deeper into the small hamlet and Fallon
followed behind, deeply scanning the buildings as they passed. The torchlight hindered as much as it
helped, casting odd shadows against the dead plants and building corners.
As they passed one building Fallon saw the light reflect off of something within and into her face.
She signalled for Bruse to stop and motioned to examine this building closer. Structurally it was like all
the others, but now with the light focused on the building it was clear that something was reflecting the
light back through the window. Fallon got right up to the windowsill, weapon drawn, and poked inside.
There clustered a meter away from the window, climbing up the wall and almost clutching the ceiling,
was a dull crystal. The same sickly green as before, but without light of its own and its central portion
appeared shattered or burst open. Fallon felt her heartbeat rise as she stepped back from the building and
instinctually began to search the abnormal shadows.
“What is it, Fallon?” Burse asked as he moved to see for himself.
“A crystal, larger and broken, I saw one when I fell down in that cave.” The inconsistent yellow
light made the corners seem to dance and weave, but Fallon saw no sign of the green points of light she
had seen in the cave. Fallon heard shifting behind her and instantly turned around towards the doorway of
the building. Stepping out, covered head to toe in ill green sludge, a slime stood, humanoid in shape. The
torchlight refracted as it passed through the nearly translucent entity. Despite her confusion, Fallon’s
heartbeat steadied as the threat came into sight and she swung wide with her blade. The humanoid corpse
snatcher ducked, then raised its hand cowardly and spoke. Fallon froze as the ancient words entered her
ears and her eyes looked down upon the trembling creature.
“Wait! Fallon, it’s speaking,” Bruse said coming up and placing a hand on her arm to try and hold
her back from swinging again.
“Can you translate?” Fallon stepped back and lowered the falchion but remained within a quick
slashing distance of the creature.
“Roughly, right now it’s just saying ‘Mercy’ or ‘spare me’ or something to that effect.”
 “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Bruse stepped closer, while remaining behind Fallon, and spoke in the ancient
language to the slime creature. It looked up, despite having no features or eyes, and stopped trembling. “It
says it is a memory?”
“A memory?”
“Kind of… there isn’t really a direct translation for what it is saying, but it’s similar to the word
memory or echo.”
“But of what?”
“I don’t know the word they are saying, but the context seems to imply something about this
place or this civilization.” The Memory slowly rose, clearly cautious of Fallon’s blade still ready to
cleave through the creature at a moment’s notice.
“Ask it why it’s different from the other slimes?”
“Huh, ‘Through time and time, we remember and grow and learn. Restored, echoes of the past.’
Pardon the sing-songy nature of the ancient language, but I think that’s basically what it said.” Bruse
waved the torch stone slighting, illuminating more of the creature and observing how the light reveal
nothing within the sludge.
Fallon kept her eyes locked on the Memory, but her thoughts retreated into her head. There was
an element of similarity between this slime and the one that had bit her thigh down at the entry hamlet.
There was something else though as well, a distrust that seemed to funnel in on every note of the siren
melody. That feeling alone was unnerving, but that song has only been helpful so far, guiding her here,
and the slimes had proven to be a major threat.
“I’m going to ask it if it knows what is up ahead and if there are ways to it… Ok, it says that the
area we saw before was The City, emphasis theirs not mine. They say it surrounds the Queen’s Summit.”
Bruse paused for a moment as the Memory continued to speak. “Its tone has shifted, it doesn’t want us to
progress. ‘We echo, everlasting, to prevent the memory from repeating’.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I, it’s strange, in that instance, it referred to itself as a grand collective, as it if was referring to
itself and the corpse snatchers at large.” The Memory continued to speak as Bruse paused before turning
to look at Fallon with strange sincerity in his eyes. “Are you sure we should keep going? This creature, it
seems to imply that the slimes are only trying to stop things from reaching the summit.”
Fallon lowered her guard and turned towards Bruse, “I, I think we have to. What about your
friend, she could be up there?” A surge of conviction flowed through her as the ancient song wrapped
itself around her. “No, we need to keep going.”
The Memory shifted, positioning itself between them and the path leading deeper into the cavern.
It spoke once more, ‘Go back, nothing will be found here’ Bruse translated. The featureless sludge held
its arms out in a blocking motion, and the torch light seemed to illuminate the forming of points at the tips
of each finger.
Fallon looked towards the Memory and then back at Bruse, a subtle pleading in his eyes. Why?
He seemed so convicted to find his friend, why turn back now? She felt a slight burning sensation at her
neck as she swiftly swung the sword at the slime, slicing it in two. Despite its sludge-like nature, a
shattering sound filled the room as the sickly green colour faded from the Memory and it almost seemed
to deflate before disintegrating like the rest of the slimes.
Bruse stepped forward as if to try and stop her, but simply stepped aside as the black powder spilt
onto the ground. He turned to look towards Fallon, but refused to meet her gaze, “Ok, then we keep
going.”
Fallon quickly cleaned her blade and then followed after Bruse as he marched deeper into the
cavern, pondering his actions. That slime said something different to what he translated, she could feel it,
but why hide that from her? They grew closer to the edge of the cavern when something dawned on her,
causing her to stop in her tracks. “It said that your friend died, didn’t it?” Bruse froze as she spoke. “It
mentioned how someone like us was killed recently?”
Bruse lowered his head, “Something to that effect, yes.”
Fallon stepped forward and turned Bruse to face her. “I’m sorry,” and she pulled Bruse into a
hug. “I’m sorry, if you want to turn back you can. I can help you get part of the way, but I need to keep
going. The song, this queen, I can’t leave here without knowing.”
“I know,” Bruse reciprocated the embrace briefly then pulled away. He locked eyes with her, and
a surge of determination and tears swelled in him. “And so will I.”
“Thank you,” and Fallon pulled him in again tightly before releasing him and patting down part
of her armour that was being slightly burned by the torch stone. She took the lead as they reached the end
of the cavern, which unfortunately held no clear tunnel beyond. Instead, the torchlight refracted off of the
dripping water droplets and cast shadows against thick straight roots partially embedded in the wall. Why
did the Memory try to prevent them from continuing on this way if their goal was to stop them from
reaching the summit? She moved closer and ran her hand against the damp roots. Their texture was unlike
wood, more like metal, smooth and cold. Parts were crumpled and bent, and every few meters a ring with
bolts seemed to keep it together. She knocked on the metal tube and heard the sound echo hollowly
inside.
“Pipes,” Bruse said moving the torch closer. “A friend back home was theorizing a way to funnel
waste away from people’s homes using these. It seems these ancient people already had the idea.”
“A large city inside a mountain would need something like this wouldn’t it?” Fallon moved just
below one of the pipes that were large enough for them to crouch through.
“It’ll likely smell awful, be damp and gross…”
“But it could get us into the city.” Fallon grabbed onto a broken portion of the pipe and tried to
pull it from the wall. With a loud metallic clatter, it broke away to reveal the moist tunnel beyond. Fallon
climbed up into it and then pulled Bruse up after her. This portion of pipe seemed to have been built large
enough for people to walk only somewhat hunched over. Along the centre of the pipe was a channel,
damp but didn’t seem to be funnelling much water now. On either side of the channel were flattened
walkways, still caked with a layer of grime like the rest of the pipe. Bruse was right, it didn’t take long for
a foul stench of centuries-old faecal matter to fill her nose. The torch began to act irregularly too, as they
walked it would occasionally burst, igniting a puff of gas before settling back to its original size. Bruse
eventually decided to turn off the torch stone, plunging them into pure darkness but preventing them from
causing any more flash fires.
After about 30 minutes of walking through dark foul grime, the pipe opened into a larger
chamber. There was light cast by small gemstones securely placed in the wall, illuminating the square
room. Their pipe entered the room at a higher level, as it seemed to descend downwards for a few meters.
At the bottom was a still pool of water, resting atop a series of machines or devices that lay old and
unused. Several pipes entered this chamber, most down at the water level, but there was another that
seemed to slope upwards on the level they were at. Fallon wasted no time moving across the platform to
get to the other tunnel, but Bruse seemed to linger a bit in the room. He pulled a rag from his bag and
cleared a bit of grime off a portion of the wall. It revealed some text he translated to say ‘maintenance
hatch ’ pointing in the direction Fallon was heading. This at least confirmed that they were on the right
track.
Walking up the sloped pipe proved problematic, as the grime and moisture threatened to cause
them to slip and slide back down towards the bottom. Luckily, the designers of this system had thought a
bit about that, as running the length of the slope was a metal rope bolted into the wall to provide a
handhold, although it too was covered in a layer of grime. After what felt like ages, they reach the top of
the slope and a new source of light. Filtering down from above, a ladder climbed up into a branching
pipe. Fallon looked up to see a large metal disk partially ajar, allowing the faint white light to trickle
down. Along with the light, Fallon could hear the ancient melody beckoning her up, she wasted no time
clambering up the ladder. The metal disk was extremely heavy, but she managed to leverage it to the side
and climb out of the waste-filled pipes.
And enter into a sprawling city. Immediately she felt the overwhelming presence of this immense
cavern, with no edge or ceiling in sight. Instead, tall spires of blackened stone and metal pressed in
around her. Faint white lights sprinkled the city, peaking from windows and dotting the streets. In her
direct vicinity appear to be a small square, centred around a 5-meter-tall statue. The radiant woman
carved from purple stone stood in a regal pose before several androgynous bowed subjects. Coiled around
her feet was carved a scaled beast, resting but seemingly protecting the queen from the subjects that
worshipped her. Bruse emerged from the pipe behind her and was similarly taken aback by the vastness
of this city. From this small square, Fallon felt this city could easily hold thousands of people from the
height of the towers alone. Yet there was an oppressive silence to the city, as if it laid uninhabited, as if
everything in here had met its end. Fallon spun around, feeling a weight of anxiety over searching the city
for the next step when her eyes fell upon a spire in the distance. Even from a distance, its importance
could be felt as it stood alone and stood tall, eventually reaching the very top of the cavern and seemingly
going beyond. As she gazed upon the top of the spire, the siren song grew stronger than it ever had, that
was the Queen’s Summit and the source of her call.
A new sound did join the mix, however, as a metallic thumping marched down a nearby street.
Bruse immediately pulled Fallon into a narrow street nearby as they saw the source walk past shortly
thereafter. Nearly as tall as the statue, clad in thick dark metal armour, a knight patrolled the street, the
signature sickly green glow emanating from its helmet. Once it passed, Bruse and Fallon emerged from
the alley again, watching it march down the street before turning out of sight. Fallon listened closely and
heard the distant footsteps of more.
“We need to move; it looks like the corpse knights patrol the city even in death.” Bruse urged in a
hushed tone.
“Do you think we can beat them? We do have those halt stones?” Fallon suggested already
drawing the falchion.
“One, maybe, but I doubt a city of this size will only have one. We should do our best to avoid
them, save the stones for ones we have to face.”
“Ok, then follow me.” Fallon resheathed her sword and carefully made her way down the street
towards the Queen’s Summit. The streets were smoothly cobbled and lit by evenly spaced posts with
white gemstones in them. Some appeared to have gone out or have been broken, but the ones that
remained provided enough dim light to travel by. The streets were, however, littered with corpses. It
seemed every tower or building had at least one pile of bones clung to its exterior. The ones that laid in
the street proper were ground and broken by the marching of the heavy corpse knights, their bone meal
plastering between the cobblestones. Bruse and Fallon moved swiftly through the streets, ducking into the
tight spaces between the buildings whenever they heard the heavy-set patrols approaching. Some of the
heavy knights were accompanied by others, more lightly armoured knights like the ones they had faced
prior. Eventually, they came to their first intersection, of which none of the paths travelled directly
towards the Queen’s Summit.
Fallon was about to just begin down a street at random when Bruse pulled her arm to stop. “If we
just keep running through the city, we’ll get lost, or worse, backed into a corner with one of those patrols
bearing down on us. We need a plan.”
“Then what do you suggest we do, stop and ask one of the locals for directions.” Fallon joked
looking at a couple of crushed skulls in the gutter.
 “One of these towers is bound to be taller than the rest. If we can get to the top and look down,
we might be able to get a layout of the streets and patrols. Also, we’ve been going for a while now, we
should stop for lunch. Also also, I can try to make a healing spell stone with the emerald we found. If
we’re going to try fighting one of these things eventually, it would be good to have.”
“Ok, lead the way.” Fallon gestured, finally noticing the gurgling of her stomach.
Bruse moved back to the centre of the intersection and looked down each path before pointing
down the one opposite of Fallon’s choice, “I think I see a possible spire down this way and no patrols,
let’s move.” They quietly dashed down the path a short way before coming to the spire Bruse had pointed
out. Looking up it did appear to stand a few stories above its neighbours. Bruse tried the door and found it
unlocked, giving them quick access to the inside.
Like so many other buildings, the first chamber appeared to resemble a waiting room or front
desk. The semi-circular room had old, tattered chairs lining the curved walls while the flat portion hosted
two doors and a desk behind a windowed wall. Bruse sat in the fairly open space and began to prepare a
simple salad while Fallon moved to the two doors. The first seemed different to any of the other doors
they had encountered so far, resembling a gate that looked to be able to fold into a space to the side.
Fallon gave it a quick tug but found it rusted and resistant. She decided to try the other door before
breaking this one, as the other door opened without resistance. It provided entry to the other half of the
circle, which curved around a centre column towards the other side of the front desk. About the room
were several cabinets and shelves, all of which were tossed and broken. Two skeletons lay in the room,
one just behind the desk and the other seemed to have tried for cover behind the cabinets. What stood out,
in the end, was the centre column, it seemed to be where the folding gate would lead, yet it seemed to go
nowhere. Furthermore, she didn’t find any signs of stairs, and the centre column was too thin to have a
staircase within it. Defeat crept up behind Fallon, but she managed to shake off the feeling, this tower
wouldn’t be tall and have no way up. Perhaps the centre column housed a ladder or something of the like
that would provide them upward access.
Fallon rejoined Bruse who had finished the salads and had begun setting up to craft the spell
stone. Fallon took her bowl and sat to eagerly watch the spell-making process. Bruse set out a small
tripod atop a square piece of fabric and then placed the emerald into a holding spot atop the tripod. He
then pulled out a small chisel and began to carefully chip the emerald into shape. He occasionally stopped
to collect the fragments, putting them in a small collection bowl to the side. Eventually, the emerald took
on the shape of a hexagonal cylinder that was hollow in the centre. One of the flat ends had a hole open to
the hollow core while the other did not. Next, he pulled out a small clump of the moss he had used to help
Fallon prior, a thin strip of reptilian skin, and a small newt tail. He tore up the moss and shedded skin and
mixed it with the emerald fragments he had collected. Then with the help of a pestle, he ground up
everything in the bowl further and then poured it into the hollow core of the emerald. Finally, he grabbed
the newt tail and used it to cap off the hole and seal the moss, skin, and emerald powder inside. After
ensuring the seal was tight, he flipped the stone over so the flat end with no hole was facing upwards and
procured an intricate engraving tool. He spent the end of this hour and a half procedure carefully
engraving a rune into the face, and while doing so a faint glow began to emanate from the deep green
gemstone. Finally, with one last satisfying hit, a ripple of colour pulsed through the stone and the spell
was complete. He stood up to stretch and put the leftover powder into a small pouch before giving the
stone one last look over.
“So, did it work?” Fallon asked as she polished off her third serving of salad.
“I believe so. It should be able to repair surface wounds, cuts, bruises, as well as restore a bit of
energy to whoever it is used on.”
“How do you use it?”
“Mind if I demonstrate on you?” Bruse gestured to the moss bandages on her arm and thigh.
 “Sure,” and Fallon undid part of her armour and bandage to expose the wound on her arm.
Bruse knelt next to her and pressed the flat end of the stone against her skin, “All you have to do
is place the newt end against the skin of the target, press down the rune end with your thumb and speak
the command word, heal or regenerate in the ancient language.” Bruse did so and Fallon felt a warm
sensation across her body. She felt the wound in her arm and thigh tingle as her body began to accelerate
its healing process. After only a moment, Bruse pulled away and all that was left were scars.
“That’s incredible!” Fallon exclaimed as she flexed before putting her pauldron back on.
“As with all spells, there are limitations. Firstly, it can only be used twice before needing a good
bit of time to recharge. In addition to that each time it’s used it consumes some of the powder and will
need to be refilled eventually. How much is consumed is based on the severity of the wounds. Then there
are some limitations to the healing as well, it can’t heal major damage like broken or dislocated bones,
ruptured organs, or lost limbs or digits. Also, while it can restore some energy, it can’t save someone
from dying, this stone is simply not strong enough.”
“Well let’s avoid those then,” Fallon rose to her feet and looked towards the folding gate, “Any
idea on what that might be for?”
Bruse shrugged then moved up to investigate. He tried to pull the gate open but clearly did not
have the arm strength to do so. Fallon moved up behind him and with her added strength they were able
to break through the rust and fold the gate to the side. Behind was a small dark closet with a ladder on one
wall and some thick ropes on another. As they stepped in and looked up, they found the room stretched
upwards. Bruse moved over to the ladder while Fallon examined the ropes. Besides the ropes there
appeared to be rails of some kind that ran up the shaft. Fallon gave a tug on the thick cords and heard a
snap from above. The cord went loose, and a thick metal scream echoed from above. Urgency surged
through Fallon as she tackled Bruse out of the shaft. As they landed on the ground outside a loud crash
rocked the ground behind them and a brief cloud of dust and debris filled the room. After lying on the
ground together for a moment, Fallon carefully got up and looked behind them. A large metal room had
crashed into the ground of the shaft. It looked to have originally taken up the full space of the column and
was likely suspended by the cord Fallon accidentally snapped.
“Are you ok Fallon?” Bruse coughed, rising to his feet and brushing off some of the dust.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Fallon said as she finished helping him up, “sorry about that. I didn’t expect
there to be a trap inside this random building.”
“I don’t think this was a trap, at least not intentionally.” Bruse moved over to the now crumpled
metal cage and looked inside. “I think this was how they moved up the tower, some sort of pully system it
seems.”
“Well, I think we’ll have to use the ladder,” Fallon said as she climbed on top of the metal lift.
She helped pull Bruse up and then led the way up the ladder. Luckily it seemed that the rails the cage sat
on kept it from damaging the ladder, although it had also seen better days. The occasional rung was either
loose or missing, so Fallon made sure to call them out to Bruse as they appeared. Fallon also made sure to
be careful where she placed her hands and feet, as some of the parts had grown sharp and rusted over
time. However, even without those hurdles, the ladder proved to be a test of endurance as the tower
seemed to rise for ages. There were other folding gates in the shaft that seemed to provide access to each
level, but without teamwork and strong footholds, Fallon was unable to force them open. By the third or
fourth floor, they gave up on trying each door and instead focused on reaching the top.
At the top, they found the folding gate already open, or rather, broken off. They climbed inside
and were greeted by a small hall with 6 suits of armour standing to the side. Fallon and Bruse initially
froze, waiting for them to come to life, but they remained inanimate. There was a royal elegance to this
hallway and the chandeliers that still shined a light on it. A long regal red carpet led to a door at the other
end of the hall.
 Bruse and Fallon began to walk towards the door, but when they got about halfway there, they
heard a squelching noise behind them. Spinning on their heels, they saw two corpse snatcher slimes
emerge from the shaft. Bruse began digging for his light bolt spell while Fallon quickly drew the falchion.
However, rather than charging them, the slimes instead bolted to the closest armours on either side and
hopped inside. Within moments the two halberd-wielding knights were animated and began to approach
with their polearms readied.
“We should go!” Bruse said ready to turn and head for the door.
“No, if we flee, we’ll have to fight these things and whatever could be waiting beyond. We know
how to beat these things we should face them now.”
“Are you sure we should use the last of the halt stones?”
“What other option do we have?” Fallon asked as she shed her bag and moved forward to engage
the knights. The two immediately raised their halberds to bring them down against Fallon, but she
managed to bring her sword up in time to brace against the attack. She shifted her weight and pushed both
polearms to the side then tried to thrust towards an exposed elbow joint. Unfortunately, her blade glanced
off the metal, doing nothing. One of the shafts of the halberd swung towards Fallon, but she managed to
jump back and out of the way. However, she was unable to avoid the second one, which sent her
stumbling back. When she looked back up the two corpse knights were between her and Bruse, and one
was moving to engage him. “Bruse watch out!” Fallon cried as the knight facing her lunged forward.
Fallon spun to the side and smacked the polearm away from her. She looked up to see Bruse cast the halt
spell on the knight approaching him and the crackling black energy shoot from the stone and into the
knight’s chest piece. Fallon disengaged and ran towards the now frozen corpse snatcher knight. Just like
before she used the falchion to pry off a piece of the armour, exposing the stunned slime inside. However,
before she could execute it, the heavyweight of the halberd caught her in her gut, sending her sprawling to
the side. Struggling to recapture the air she lost, Fallon clutched at her stomach. The armour held, but the
weight of the hit still hurt like hell. She looked back up to see the mobile knight positioning itself between
her and its frozen friend. There was then a light-shattering noise as the black lines of paralysis broke from
the slime and the spell faded. The armour collapsed to the ground and the slime leapt out and skittered
over to a fresh suit.
Bruse fired two bolts of light to stagger the knight bearing down on Fallon then rushed to her
side. “Are you ok!?”
“I’m fine, but is that all the time the spell gives?”
“I said these stones were fairly poorly made, I’m sorry, we’ll have to find some other way
through this.”
Fallon looked up at the two knights, also regrouping together and moving towards them. Then the
light of the chandelier above caught her eye. “Bruse! The chandelier! If these things came for a loud
noise, then we should give that to them.” She looked back at Bruse and smiled before moving forward to
hold the knights’ advances. Making sure she wasn’t also underneath the large rack of wired metal; she
raised her sword into a defensive guard as the corpse knights moved to lunge towards her. She parried one
while dodging the other as a bolt of light flew over her head and collided with the single chain holding the
light source. The metal snapped and collapsed on the two knights with a satisfying crunch. The two suits
of armour lay crumpled beneath the large light source; however, the fight was not yet over. The two
slimes popped out of the armour and dashed towards some of the remaining ones on the side. Fallon
chased after one while Bruse fired towards the other. Fallon leapt forward to try and slash at the corpse
snatcher, but it managed to enter the leg of the armour just in time. From within it swiftly rammed the
armoured boot into Fallon’s face.
A flash of white consumed her vision as she felt blood burst from her nose and some fly from her
mouth. Her vision returned in time to roll away from the fresh corpse knight’s downward thrust. Jumping
back to her feet Fallon felt a lightness in her main hand and instantly grew worried she had dropped her
sword. However, when she looked, she saw the sword still in her hand, but the red gemstones embedded
in the blade were glowing as they absorbed the blood that had spattered onto the blade. The knight in
front of her quickly moved to thrust the halberd into her chest but Fallon brought her falchion about much
quicker than she had expected. Adding to her surprise was the reaction from the knight, who responded as
if his halberd had been knocked aside by a much heavier hit. Not wishing to waste the opportunity Fallon
rushed forward and brought the sword down onto the knight’s main arm. The armour crumpled and broke
away with the weight of a much heavier strike, and the halberd fell to the ground. The knight responded
by shoving Fallon with its remaining arm and drawing a shortsword from its belt. Swinging wildly Fallon
parried the first strike but then followed it quickly with a thrust against her off-hand. The blade drew a bit
of blood, but the cut wasn’t significant. Stepping back, Fallon watched as the blood flowed up her hand,
against gravity, and into the bloodstones embedded in the sword. They began to shine even stronger, and
the blade felt even lighter in her hands. She moved to simply bat the shortsword away in retaliation, but
her falchion instead cleaved through the knight’s hand. Now completely disarmed, Fallon suspected the
slime was preparing to flee into another armour, Fallon charged forward and drove the empowered
falchion into the chest piece of the knight. The armour caved inwards, and the sword pierced through the
metal and into the slime. With a gurgle and a squelch, the armour fell apart as the slime controlling it
disintegrated.
Spinning around, she saw Bruse across the room, firing fruitlessly into the front of the knight as it
swung its halberd towards him. She rushed forward to his aid, swinging the blade low to buckle the
knight’s knee. Instead, the weight of the lighter blade broke the entire leg piece off causing the knight to
fall onto its side. She followed swiftly by driving the falchion into the back of the knight, once again
piercing through the armour and slaying the corpse snatcher inside. Fallon drew her sword back and after
the armour clattered to the ground a silence fell over the room. She looked down at the blade then up at
Bruse, whose gaze was also drawn to the sword.
“How did you do that?” Bruse asked, reaching towards the falchion to examine it.
“I don’t know,” Fallon responded, still clutching the blade. “Some of my blood got onto the
sword and then the gemstones started to glow then draw it in. After that the sword felt, lighter,
somehow.”
“Lighter?” Bruse echoed, “It feels significantly heavier to me.” He tried to pull the sword from
her unable to cause it to budge. He then pulled away and Fallon could see the spark of idea go off in his
head. “That’s what the magic does! Fascinating. The spell enchanted onto the blade by these bloodstones
makes it lighter for the wielder but heavier for everyone else when it absorbs blood. If this were to be
used on creatures that bleed it would make it a devastating weapon, because the magic effect would
compound on itself, getting stronger with each strike as long as it drew blood.”
“A shame that the only things here that bleed are you and me,” Fallon remarked, looking down at
the faint blood stain on the back of her hand. “How long do you think it lasts?”
“I doubt it’s indefinite,” Bruse took a closer look at the sword and then pointed towards the
bloodstones. “It looks like the light is slowly fading, so I suspect it’ll return to its normal proportions
gradually.”
“Then let’s keep going so I don’t have to bleed on it again if there is something through this
room.” Fallon pushed forward, motioning for Bruse to stick behind her, as she made her way towards the
door. Beyond the large doors, they entered an open study. Part of the wall was lined with bookshelves
teeming with ancient tomes seemingly untouched, but not for long Fallon felt. The rest of the wall was
comprised of a wide window that looked over and down into the city, even hosting a telescope pointing
downwards. In the room itself were several desks, some clearly meant for tinkering and one by the
window meant for writing and several glass boxes on pedestals. Inside three of the boxes were corpse
snatcher slimes, but rather than a sickly green they appeared almost clear with only a faint hint of yellow
to their form. Fallon moved up to the small slimes, which seemed to recoil and deflate slightly to her
presence. Bruse meanwhile went straight for the bookshelves and immediately began pulling tomes from
the wall to find which ones had been well enough preserved to be legible. Seeing that the slimes were of
no threat in the glass boxes, Fallon moved to the window and looked across the sprawling city. She
almost felt the air leave her lungs as the true breadth and scope of the city presented itself before her.
Towers large and small, buildings, squares, she even saw a park or two in the distance all collected under
the dark lightless sky of the cavern roof. The only structure daring to breach these terrestrial clouds was
the regal spire that stood at the centre of it all. The buildings almost seemed to curve into a bow in its
proximity, and as Fallon dared to look to where it passed out of the cavern, she could feel the ancient
song as if it were right in front of her.
“Bruse, do you have a spare piece of paper?” Fallon asked as she turned to find him sitting at a
desk with 5 different books sitting before him. Strangely reflexively he produced a clean sheet of paper
and pencil for Fallon. She took them then turned back to the window and telescope and began to sketch
out a map to the Queen’s Summit and the patterns of the patrols.
When she finished, she gave it one last look over before turning back to Bruse, “So, did you find
anything?”
Bruse looked up sharply from the 7th book, “Oh, ya, I think so, but there is still a lot more here to
read.”
“If you try to read this whole study, we’ll be here for 100 years.” Fallon joked as she checked the
falchion, seeing that it had returned to its initial proportions and was no longer glowing. “When this is all
said and done, we can come back here and grab as many books as we can on our way out. What have you
found so far?”
“Well, quite a bit actually. This study and tower belonged to a royal mage or scientist. From what
I can tell from the most recent entries in this book and this book, it seems that the Queen had tasked the
royal mage with developing some kind of magic to create empowered fighters. There are some references
to a conflict within the empire that the Queen wanted dealt with quickly. So, this researcher did as she
asked and began experimenting with all kinds of different spells, magical creatures, and even on a few
volunteers. In the end, this mage created the corpse snatchers,” Bruse said gesturing towards the slimes on
display. “Originally conceived as a way to turn inanimate objects into soldiers and therefore being able to
save the lives of the citizens.”
“So, the ancient people made the corpse snatchers to help people?” Fallon moved to look over
Bruse’s shoulder despite being unable to read the text.
“Initially, however, the slimes needed to consume magic to operate and based on her calculations
the magic expenditure vastly outmatched their ability to produce it. Not to mention the experiments began
to develop mutations that the researcher refers to as abominations. In the end, however, the Queen took
those monstrous corpse snatchers and released them against her adversaries.”
“And that’s when things went wrong wasn’t it,” Fallon looked out the window towards the
Queen’s Summit and the siren song that slithered from it.
Bruse gave a grim nod, “sometime later the mage notes the slimes mutating and multiplying and
eventually taking on the sickly green colour, and then they began to turn against the Queen, with some
ability to resist her will. The Queen returned to the scientist and ordered her to develop weapons against
the slimes, to which she created a magic pommel that could be attached to various different types of
weapons. If you spoke the command word Usurp, it would make the next strike extra effective against
slimes to the point where simply touching the slimes will kill them instantly. The catch is that you had to
speak the command word moments before the strike else the energy would fade.” Bruse pointed down at
a page that featured diagrams of the pommel and the gemstone embedded in it.
 Fallon looked down at the pommel of the falchion then over to the diagram Bruse had pulled
from one of the pages. “Don’t the slimes already disintegrate if you strike them? How is that different?”
“If I am understanding this correctly all it has to do is simply come into contact with the slime.
Your strikes have been major cuts or thrusts through the slime’s core.” Bruse pointed towards the
falchion’s pommel, “I think this might be the same as mentioned here.”
“Wonderful,” Fallon gave the falchion a further examination before sliding it back into its sheath.
“Learn anything else?”
“Well,” A grim look overtook Bruse’s face. “These last entries talk less scientifically, and instead
the mage describes how she feels betrayed. The volunteers were sent against their will by the Queen, the
aggressing forces were revolutionaries, and now almost everything had been consumed by the slimes or
eviscerated by the Queen’s will. It seems the mage’s final acts were to inform the rebellion about a back
entrance into the throne room through the crystal mines and to aid in getting the Inheritor to safety.”
The reveal made Fallon’s hands grow cold and a shiver run down her spine. She had expected the
Queen to be some form of opulent and egomaniacal ruler based on the statues and goddess-like depiction,
but this was something worse. With her back now to the tower, she felt the ancient melody attempting to
caress and console her, like a mother to an upset child.
Bruse looked up at Fallon and grabbed her hand, “The last reported location of the queen here is
in her throne room at the top of the Queen’s Summit, at the peak of the entire mountain. If the song is still
pulling you there,” Bruse trailed off, his unspoken implication as clear as the notes of the siren melody.
Fallon could already tell where he was going next, “No, we need to keep going. If she is still alive
and is the source of this call, then we must kill her. She has no right to survive while her city is haunted
by the abominations she ordered. If it’s not her, then we need to find out what it is.”
“Fallon, this isn’t just some noblewoman who was vial and snooty, there are signs that she has
true, powerful control over the people and objects around her. Going to face her could be a one-way trip.”
Fallon squeezed Bruse’s hand, “I didn’t come here expecting a return journey. I can’t leave
without knowing for certain what is up there. This story needs an end.” They stood there together for a
long moment, the silence even seeming to overpower the queen’s song to a small extent. After some time,
Fallon gave him a final squeeze before letting go, “I’m going to go downstairs and get ready to move
towards the summit, you can stay here and keep reading if you wish, or you can join me downstairs when
you are ready.” Fallon stepped away as Bruse remained in silence, his head downcast. Fallon moved out
of the study and was turning around to climb down the ladder when she saw Bruse exiting the room to
join her. They gave each other a silent nod before descending the ladder and entering back into the ground
floor of the massive city.
At the base of the research spire, they peered through the door back out into the streets. They
froze as a larger patrol marched past not moments prior, then moved out once they saw it turn a corner.
With the help of Fallon’s map, they were able to very quickly make their way through the city and even
dodge the patrols effectively using hiding spots she had spotted with the telescope. Within an hour they
were at the base of the Queen’s Summit. The elegant spire was surrounded by a wide-open plaza with
only scattered corpses on the ground and the occasional flower patch to provide texture and obstruction to
the flat plane. The metal spire twisted like a serpent as it climbed upward, a set of grand purple double
doors marking the entrance. Standing before the entrance, however, stood one of the heavy corpse
knights, its rusted rotund armour a bastion against those who would dare confront it. Bruse and Fallon
moved up to the largest bush they could find and crouched down in it.
“So, how are we going to deal with that guy?” Bruse asked, keeping an eye out for passing
patrols.
“Well, he looks a lot tougher than the knights we’ve fought before, but with the blood strength of
the Usurper, we might be able to take him.”
 “Usurper, so you’ve named the falchion?”
“Ya, given the command word and how things have turned I felt it a fitting title.”
“Well, you might be able to take it, yes, but the patrols seem to frequent here, so a prolonged
battle could lead to reinforcements arriving, which even with the sword could prove difficult. Especially
if you let them get some cuts in order to empower the sword, then I don’t know how long we’d last.”
“Then maybe we could use the last halt stone on it. Lock him in place, peel off some of the
armour then give the slime-killing enchantment a test on its exposed core.”
“We could, but then we’d be out of all the halt stones, are you sure we should use it here?”
“All we’ve got left is to scale the tower and confront whatever is at the peak, given how we faired
in that hallway I think we can take on most things as long as there aren’t reinforcements. And then if it is
the Queen at the summit, I doubt a faulty halt stone would hold her for long.”
“I guess,” Bruse reached into the bag and pulled out the last onyx spell stone, “Ready when you
are.”
They remained crouched in the bush as a patrol passed into and out of the plaza before they
emerged and rushed towards the heavy corpse snatcher knight. They got within 5 meters of the knight
when it reacted to their presence by raising its massive tower shield and lance. Bruse stopped as he
prepared to cast while Fallon continued forward, Usurper drawn and ready. Bruse called out the arcane
words and the black line crackled forth into the knight’s chest. It tried to raise its shield in defiance, but
the magic arched through, and the massive suit of armour froze in place. Fallon slid behind its shield and
searched for a place to pry the chest piece off but found none. Panic rising, she quickly scanned the rest of
the armour for an opening. The knees, this knight had very short legs that were much more lightly
armoured than the rest. With her off-hand, Fallon grabbed the kneecap armour and pulled. With a loud
snapping of the leather straps, the leg was exposed, revealing the ancient bone and the green sludge that
puppeteered it. Fallon drew back the sword and called the word Usurp in the ancient language. The
pommel shined with an orchid light that soon raced up the blade, tainting the natural silver with a faint
purple. Even as her blade swung towards the slime, she could see the magic fading quickly. Just as the
last of the light faded, the falchion made contact with the sickly sludge and with a ripple of purple light it
instantly began to disintegrate. Fallon had to quickly roll out of the way as the heavy armour and shield
collapsed towards her. She made it out as the clattering metal sounds filled the open plaza. Within
moments, Bruse was by her side, helping her to her feet and usuring them towards the doors. Fallon
grabbed the large door handles and with all of her strength, she managed to force it open slightly. She
held it as Bruse slinked inside and as sounds of other patrols drawn by the noise approached. She slipped
in after and brought the door closed behind her.
Upon entering into the dark interior of the spire, even before Bruse ignited the torch stone the
main content of the room was obvious. Corpses seemed to cover every space of the room. Whatever this
room had originally been was replaced by the remains of an intense battlefield. The only structure that
remained clear was a curved staircase at the edge of the room. The rush Bruse and Fallon had entered
with vanished instantly as they scanned the bones for movement. Aided by the flickering torchlight it was
clear that nothing was stirred by their entrance. With extreme caution, they waded through the sea of
bones towards the stairs, finding they too were littered with corpses. The trousling of bones and the
alluring melody were the only sounds to comfort Fallon as they made their way up the stairs to find the
next floor in a similar state. As they made their way up floor after floor along the curving external
staircase, the corpses only seemed to grow more and more damaged. They came across one section of
bones that seemed to imply that the people were sent flying at once from a singular point, and all died
upon impact with the ground. A flight later they came upon a room filled with headless skeletons and
bone shards. Each room and floor was filled with scenes of battles Fallon could not imagine, but as much
as she and Bruse wished to stop and examine each, she could feel the siren song pulling her upwards. The
general caution over each batch of bones faded with each flight of stairs and it became clear that not even
the slimes entered this spire. Soon their hesitance turned to a rush as Fallon could hear the song growing
louder and louder. Exhaustion from the climb and general fatigue from the day became mounting and
consuming, but Fallon would not let that get between her and the song. The song soon became all she
heard and thought as they reach the final steps. Then there it was, she could see up the flight of stairs, a
solid ceiling, surely that was the last floor. Moving to a full sprint, skulls and bones went flying as she ran
past.
She arrived in a grand room atop the stairs. While bones still littered the area, much of this room
appeared intact. A royal purple carpet stretched from the top of the stairs, across the room, to… a final set
of stairs completely sealed by a wall of metal and bone. Fallon rushed forward, the song carrying her legs
as she ran. Her hands slammed against the barricade that separated her from the summit, but it stood
unforgivingly still. The volume of the song was nearly maddening, this was it, she had made it, and all
there was between her and her goal was a single wall. She began to claw at the bones and metal, trying to
pull at loose threads where she could find them.
Suddenly she felt something grab her shoulder. With a feral ferocity, she wheeled around to strike
at the figure when her eyes fell on Bruse. Bruse, she had completely forgotten about Bruse. Suddenly the
energy that possessed her lost its grip as the exhaustion took her.
“…Fallon, can you hear me?!” Bruse called as Fallon fell to her knees. Bruse knelt down with
her, hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes.
“I’m… sorry, I don’t know what came over me, but…” She turned back to the barricade and the
queen’s melody almost tried to pull her to her feet by her ears. “It’s just beyond there, I can hear it, we
just need to get past this barrier and fast!”
“Hold on Fallon, there is no time limit here, take a break and look around. This building isn’t
stable, clawing at that wall could break it from the ceiling and cause it to collapse.”
In confusion, Fallon looked about the room and saw what she had missed. The walls of the room
were laid deeply with cracks and missing chunks, revealing that they were just below the ceiling of the
cavern. “Then, how will we go further, the siren is right up that last flight of stairs we cannot turn back
now! Do not say we should turn back again!”
“What we need to do is rest, the song is clearly affecting you and the stairs are affecting me. Let’s
go back down a flight or two and set up camp. I’ll make you a sandwich and we’ll get some sleep. When
we wake up, we’ll come back up, and assess the situation with a clear mind, ok.” There was a calmness
and assuredness to Bruse’s eyes that pierced into Fallon. Despite her brain screaming at her to press
onward, to not waste any more time, to find what they had spent so long searching for, she put her faith in
Bruse and walked with him down two flights to eat and rest.
Level 5 (not really but the leveled chapters are basically going to be scrapped so)
Fallon did not find sleep restful that night. The siren song grew loud and demanding in her ears.
The Queen’s Summit just meters away. When sleep finally took her, the song followed her into her
dreams. It was dark and empty, only an orchid light before her. The song came from it and drew her
close. The light grew as she found herself closer to it, until a figure became clear in the light. It was
almost difficult to look, her form was brilliant and mesmerizing. The Queen stood arms outstretched,
mouth open and singing the melody that pulled Fallon here. The Queen continued to grow larger as
Fallon began to pick words out of the angelic vocals. “Come, child of inheritance.” Each and every note
and octave seemed to pull Fallon like chains closer to the gargantuan royal. Suddenly the dream began to
shake and rumble as a darkness rose between Fallon and the Queen. The ginormous creature loomed over
Fallon as flames soon engulfed her. Pain and fear rocketed her system as she tried to wake up, but the
dreams and the fire would not end. It encircled and consumed her. She felt her flesh sear and sizzle.
Falling to her knees she could see the light of the queen behind the monster that arose, yet her melody
was drowned out by the roar of the fire. Yet a softer sound snuck into her ears, a voice calling her name.
Fallon awoke being softly shook by Bruse who was sat beside her. She instinctually rubbed her
hand across her face to try and erase the tears stains. Bruse’s expression was soft and concerned, but he
didn’t say a word. Raising herself to a seat position, Fallon said, “I know, this was a horrible idea. You
were right from the beginning; I should have never come here. Now not only have I put myself in danger,
but I brought you here too.”
“But you were right too.” Bruse spoke quietly, “This story needs an end. We’ll get to that queen
and put an end to her reign. Come now, lets get to the base of this tower before that song gets into your
head again.” Bruse stood and offered a hand to help Fallon to her feet. Hesitantly she took his hand and
continued to hold it as they slowly walked back down the massive spire. The siren song was still loud in
her ears, but either her morning grogginess or something else kept it from her mind. Instead, at the slower
walking speed she took more careful examination at the rooms they passed through. Now she noticed the
large cracks in the wall, some even large enough to be considered holes. She also began to notice that, of
all the skeletons in the rooms, none seemed to have died fighting the others. Instead, they all seemed to
have been rushing up the stairs but stopped and killed by some other force. Now there was no doubt in her
mind that this was the queen’s doing. Then her focus shifted to Bruse. He was quiet, one hand on what
remained of the stairs rail and the other in hers. It was strange, it wasn’t like he was leading her or even
like he was trying to stop her for going back up the stairs. Fallon couldn’t describe how it felt, but it was
comforting to finally having something beside the siren song.
To her surprise the trip down didn’t feel as long as they came to the bottom floor. Bruse released
Fallon and moved to look out the door. “While we could sit here and think, I’d rather not around all these
bodies. Let’s dash across the plaza to the alley we came from.”
“Ok, let me get the door.” Fallon pressed her shoulder against the heavy door and forced to a
crack open. Bruse slipped out first with Fallon falling in right behind him. They weren’t able to linger
outside the door for long as Fallon heard the sound of approaching armour. The two of them quickly ran
towards the nearest dark corner and waited with held breath. When the sound of the patrol didn’t come
near, they relaxed and moved to sit in the alley. Bruse began pulling out his cooking supplies while Fallon
kept her eye on the plaza.
“Thank you, for everything. I don’t know what got into me.” Fallon apologized, turning to meet
Bruse’s gaze.
“It’s been my honour to be here with you, and its not your fault. That siren song, this queen, its
more powerful than anything either of us could have foreseen.”
“But how are we going to get up there? That tower is on the verge of collapse, I don’t think we’d
be able mess with that barricade without causing structural damage.”
 “That researcher’s notes mentioned a secret entrance into the throne room from the crystal mines.
The crystal mines run along the outside of the kingdom, just below the surface of the mountain itself. The
main issue is, I’ve only ever seen or heard of entrances at the very base of the mountain. Given the social
hierarchy here I doubt the people who lived in this city would be going to the mines often.”
“But if we just climb all the way down then we might as well leave. At that distance I might be
able to resist the pull of the song and we can leave the queen here to rot.”
“I don’t think she would let you go that easy, unfortunately.” Bruse had a grim expression on his
face as he finished the basic breakfast and served it to Fallon.
Fallon ate in silence, searching her mind for anything, be it the strength to resist the song’s pull or
a to get into the crystal mines. Despite her best efforts, the song had worked its way back inside her mind.
While it wasn’t as loud as it was at the top of the town, it was still unignorable. She found her eyes staring
blankly into the small fire Bruse had made, watching it dance and flicker. An anxiety built itself at the
sway of the flames, flashes of the night terrors jumping at the opportunity to cause fear. She followed the
fire upwards as it turned into smoke that drifted into the air. Wait, the smoke! “Bruse!” Fallon exclaimed,
startling Bruse slightly. “The smoke, these people would have used fire to cook things and would have
needed some way to vent the smoke. Otherwise, the cavern would just fill with it. I remember seeing
small tunnels in the homes of lower levels, they must vent the smoke to the outside, and if the mines are
the layer between the kingdom and the surface!”
“Then the tunnels pass through the mines!” Bruse finished. “If we can find one of these tunnels,
while I doubt they’d be wide enough to climb through, I might be able to use the teleport stone to get us
through.”
Fallon stood up and began to look out of the alley, “The ceiling is probably perforated, but there
might be a house on the edge with a close enough hole.”
Bruse stood up and gathered his supplies back into his bag, “Then let’s not leave the queen
waiting.”
The two of them darted from the alley and down a street that Fallon’s map said would lead them
to the closest edge. She hadn’t made a fully complete map, but it would at least be able to guide them out
of the area of highest corpse knight patrols. As they moved further from the city center Fallon felt the
queen’s melody grow slightly weaker, but she swore it was still stronger than it had initially entered the
city. They eventually passed the point where they had first entered from the sewers and Fallon began to
notice the towers getting smaller and the roof of the cavern getting closer. At this distance travelling
became less about dodging the patrolling knights and more about finding the right road that would lead
them to the edge of the city. Bruse led the way, seeming to have some sense of direction but also
occasionally leading them to a dead end. He was the first to spot the cavern wall and what appeared to be
one of the entry ways to the level. This end was walled as opposed to gated like the one of the very first
level and even had battlements facing towards the stairs. Fallon had no doubt that on the other side of the
wall would be mounds of corpses and probably slimes. On either side of the walled entrance where
shorter buildings that Fallon recognized as barracks. Squat and sturdy, they were built into the wall and
part of the roof was conjoined with the cavern.
“This will probably be the best place to look.” Fallon said leading Bruse towards the barracks on
the left side of the wall, which was less collapsed than the other. She drew the Usurper and slowly moved
towards the entrance with Bruse behind her. There was no door, granting them a glimpse inside before
crossing the thresh hold. It appeared like the barracks Fallon lived in at home, very basic accommodations
with a large space for eating meals. Moving fully inside she began to see past the mess hall into what she
suspected was the kitchen. She moved towards it while Bruse checked around the storage and bed area of
the barracks. The kitchen had utilities Fallon was unfamiliar with, including some contraption that
seemed to hold the fire inside with while the cooking was done on top of it. In the back there was a tube
that ran the height of the room before connecting with the ceiling. This must be to funnel the smoke out of
the room. She placed her hand around the tube and gave it a swift yank, pulling it and part of the wall
free. Where it had connected with the ceiling was a hole about 30 centimeters in diameter. Looking up it
Fallon saw it went on farther than she could make out, however there was a very faint pink-ish light
wherever it ended.
“Find it?” Bruse asked entering into the kitchen.
“I believe so, are the crystals pink and glowy?” Fallon stepped aside to let Bruse take a peek up
the hole.
“Yes, from what I’ve read, but that looks like quiet a distance. I don’t think the stone would be
able to link with something up there with any precision.”
“And too far to throw something up, plus it would fall back down again so it would have to be
extremely well timed.”
“Not if it doesn’t fall…” Bruse trailed off before fishing through his spell pouch to procure the
light bolt spell. “I’ve never tried it before… but I think the light bolt spell has some mass to it, maybe the
teleport stone can link to it.”
“But how would we know when it hits the top?”
“We can fire it up a few times and listen for the sound of it hitting something. If we can time that
then we can make the teleport happen a bit before it hits.”
“Maybe we should look for another option,” Fallon said with worry in her voice. “There are a lot
more variables to this than I initially thought.”
Bruse looked her in the eyes with a strange level of certainty, “This will work, it has to.” He then
got back below the hole and fired the spell up it. He waited a few moments before reacting to a sound that
Fallon couldn’t even hear from a few steps away. He repeated the process a few times, consistently
signalling about 30 seconds after firing. He then looked back to Fallon, “You’ll have to go first so that I
can teleport myself up. I know this will be risky, but you have to trust me.”
Fallon looked at him for a moment, staring through his eyes to try and find where this confidence
was founded. Anxiety mounted inside her, imagining all the possible ways this could go poorly,
suffocating to death by teleporting into solid stone being a recurring one. But Bruse was confident, “I
trust you with my life.”
Bruse took a deep breath, “Then let’s do this.” He got below the hole and held the light bolt stone
in one hand and the teleportation stone in the other. He linked Fallon to the teleport then readied the light
bolt. He fired it then instantly linked the bolt to the teleport, which seemed to take hold. He then turned
and looked at Fallon as the bolt traveled up the tunnel. Just before time he seemed to mutter something
under his breath then spoke the command word.
The entire world shifted as Fallon felt like she was suddenly flung from a cliff before suddenly
slowing down, but not impacting. Her insides revolted and began to rush out of her. As she felt herself
land, she vomited to the side. Opening her eyes, she found herself surrounded by glittering purple-pink
gemstones. Large crystals the size of a chest protruded from the walls around her. She was on a small
ledge, and to the side was a significant drop off which her vomit splattered down. She looked onto the
ledge she found herself and saw the hole directly below her. Slowly moving each limb, she found all free
and still attached to her. Moving onto her knees, she let out a quivering breath before shouting “It work!”
Muffled and distant, she heard Bruse respond with cheers, “Wonderful! I’ll be up in a moment.”
Fallon moved away from the hole as best she could in order to give Bruse space to land. She waited but
could feel a sense of dread welling inside of her, what if he doesn’t make it. All her life, her mind has
been fixated on her own survival, now she had a worse feeling as she watched her friend attempt
something dangerous from her own safety.
 A light emerged from the tunnel and in a brilliant flash, Bruse lay on the ground before her,
unharmed. He too hurled some of his internal fluids down the mine shaft before looking up at Fallon.
They stared at each other for a moment before laughing and pulling each other into an embrace. They
remained in each other’s arms for a solid minute before finally breaking away to assess where they had
landed.
Like Fallon had noticed, they were on a small ledge that was a part of a mostly vertical mine
shaft. She now noticed the various metal rails that ran along the cave walls and at various points hosted
platforms. A few meters below their ledge Fallon saw on of these platforms host a few metal boxes
without lids, some holding tools while others held broken off gemstones. Around there were only a few
sections of stone that appeared to have been harvested from, so Fallon suspected that this shaft was
relatively untouched. Looking upwards she saw the shaft shift and become more horizontal and possibly
open into a slightly larger chamber.
“So, how’d you suppose we get up there?” Bruse said breaking the silence.
Fallon followed the wall they stood beside and saw it did curve to form the floor of whatever
chamber was above. Carefully, as to not knock herself or Bruse off the ledge, she unslung her backpack
and pulled out the rope and pitons she had packed before she knew about the mountain’s interior. Using
the hilt of the Usurper, she set in the first pitons and began the long process of scaling the rocky wall.
After a few hours Fallon had pulled herself and the rope up to a point where she could sit without
fear of sliding off. The landing hosted scattered boxes and equipment liked used by those who originally
used the mine. It seemed this space was used as a mini base, likely because of how it sat between the
mostly vertical shaft and what appears to be 3 somewhat inclined shafts. Overall, it did feel unfinished,
perhaps only the very beginning of mining operations made it up here before the major conflict. Before
she could investigate further, she needed to tie off the rope so Bruse could climb up. She spotted a fairly
large crystal in the center of the landing that was thick enough at the base that she felt safe tying the rope
to it.
“Ok,” Fallon called when the knot was secure, “You should be safe to come up now.”
“Right, on my way.” Bruse called as Fallon saw the rope go taut.
She began to examine some of the equipment left behind, although she suspected most everything
would be completely rusted away. The first few boxes confirmed her assumption; however, she came to a
box that was slightly different to the rest. Inside she found not rusted pickaxes and mining equipment, but
rusted weapons and armour. The box sat right next to the entrance of one of the shafts that when upwards,
but not the others. Looking up the tunnel it appeared to have a basic level of set up built but didn’t seem
harvested. She knelt down to examine the ground for tracks when she heard the sound of an exhausted
nerd reaching the landing. She turned and moved over to help him to his feet.
“Thanks, so… what do we have here?” Bruse asked, taking heaving breaths.
“It looks like a staging area, but this tunnel sticks out: it doesn’t look very harvested yet it’s the
most outfitted with weapons and armour.”
“Could mean there was a threat up that way.”
“Or it could have been where they staged to attack the queen.”
“That could also be true…” Bruse took a deep breath and examined the surroundings for a bit in
silence. “Where do you feel the song pulling you? It seems to have some inclination as towards how to
get to the throne room, at least until we get to a certain proximity.”
Fallon closed her eyes and tried to focus on the siren song. It was louder, but not nearly as
demanding as it was in the tower. She moved towards the tunnel in question and did feel it grow slightly
stronger, with a feeling in her gut saying this was the right way. She looked back towards Bruse and
nodded.
 “Well, lead the way.” Bruse dusted himself off and followed behind Fallon as they traveled up
the slightly inclined tunnel.
Fallon wanted to walk slower through the mines because there was an ever-present beauty to the
large crystals and gemstone imbedded rocks. However, the queen’s melody pulled her feet into a faster
pace, not so far that it exhausted her or left Bruse behind though. Fallon still managed to make out some
details around her; the crystals were all the same large pink to purple, while the smaller gemstones
seemed to be a wide variety of different stones. At one point she heard Bruse mention this must have been
where the kingdom got the materials it needed to create spell stones. She could tell he wanted to stop, to
try and harvest some to make something, but they both knew the song would not let them stop for long.
The tunnel occasionally joined into small caverns along with other tunnels, at which point Fallon
and Bruse would pause to try and divine which would lead them upwards towards the queen. With each
new fork in their path, the difference in strength of the song grew, making it easier and easier to figure out
the path to the summit.
Eventually they reach a very small conjunction of tunnels where the one the song pull them
towards could barely be regarded as a tunnel. The large crack in the wall was clearly carven out slightly
in order to let people through, albeit by sliding sideways. However, there was no question that this would
lead to the summit, Fallon had to keep herself a good distance in order to avoid being overwhelmed by
the song. Bruse instead went forward and examined the crack in the wall while Fallon tried to sit down
and eat some food. It was difficult, the strength of the song was making her antsy and it was only the
gurgling of her stomach that seemed to keep her at bay.
“Ok, it looks like this may be our last chance to stop and rest before we go forward. So, let’s take
a moment and think about a plan.”
“That sounds smart yes,” Fallon mumbled with a mouth load of bread.
“So, I’ve still got my light bolt and torch spell, but the teleport spell only regained one charge
during our climb. So, unless you think you can hold off the song for a few more hours I think we’ll just
have to go in with the knowledge that we can only teleport once. You’ve got Usurper, although I don’t
think either spell attached to it will be useful against this queen.”
“If she truly is a godly being, I don’t know if either of our weapons will do much to stop her.”
“That could also be true, however if she was truly all powerful, then she probably wouldn’t just
sit around the top of her mountain calling you to her, so there has to be something we’re missing.”
“I think at this point we’ll just have to see what happens on that front.”
“Ya, the other main thing is how are we going to make sure she doesn’t just force you into doing
what she wants. If that song was enough to drive you madly against that blockade at the tower, who
knows what she can do if she’s in the same room as you.”
“This will sound silly, but I think as long as you’re there with me I’ll be fine. Your presence
grounds me. So, just stick with me and I’ll protect you, then we’ll make it through this.”
Bruse’s face contorted at Fallon’s words, trying to hide his instinctual reaction. He landed a
solemn nod and slight tears in his eyes. “Otherwise, lets stay on high alert, there may be stuff protecting,
or I guess imprisoning, her. Even if want her defeated like we do, I suspect it won’t wait long enough to
ask our intentions.”
Fallon polished off the last of her meal and stood up. “Then let’s not keep them waiting.” She
moved forward and got in front of Bruse, leading the way through the tight crack. Behind her Bruse lit the
torch stone, which both illuminated their direct vicinity, but also made long shadows out of the roughly
carved passage. It seemed to wind in on itself as it traveled upwards, however it didn’t take long for
Fallon to spot the passage widening ahead. She swiftly slid through and pulled free her sword as she
stepped into the wide chamber. Bruse was a few steps behind her, so the room was mostly filled with
darkness. However, Fallon could make out the signs of destroyed architecture and a large glowing set of
double doors on the other side of the room. It was strange, the bottom of the doors was blocked by
something, however Fallon had no doubt that these were the doors to the throne room.
Then Bruse’s light entered the room. Slowly rising to its feet in the center of the room, blocking
line of sight to the door, Fallon saw the monster of her dreams. Emerald scales glistened in the torch light
as four powerful legs straightened and flexed. Two grand wings brushed against the ceiling of the
chamber as the Dragon’s long neck look down upon them. Its tail thrashed against the rocks on the
ground as Bruse and Fallon stood before it, frozen in fear. And then light crackled in its maw.
Fallon swiftly ran to the side and shouted for Bruse to do the same as a gout of flame flew from
the mouth of the dragon. Fallon looked back to see the crack they had come from glow red and melt, they
were sealed in. Bruse fired bolts of light against the emerald scales to little effect as the dragon turned to
follow Fallon. It reared back slightly and brought down a heavy claw. Fallon rolled out of the way and
brought her sword against its scales. She felt it cleanly slice through the draconic hide, however no blood
was spilt. Fallon tried to follow quickly with another thrust but found the Usurper not strong enough to
pierce the dragon’s flesh. The dragon flicked its wrist and sent Fallon flying around the room and into the
cavern wall. She felt the air fly from her system as she collapsed to her knees. Looking up the dragon had
turned around to breathe another gout of flame towards Bruse, who was cycling around the chamber
blasting the beast repetitively with his light. Fallon looked down on the falchion and looked back at the
dragon, she needed it to be stronger. She placed the sharp of her blade against her off arm, just after the
elbow and dragged the blade across it. Blood flowed from the cut then immediately jumped to the blade,
trickling down to the bloodstone gems. Fallon felt the blade grow lighter in her grasp as she charged
forward towards the dragon. The tail swung low towards her, but she jumped over it, swinging her blade
down as she did. The blade cut a bit deeper this time and she saw the monstrosity recoil slightly. Fallon
then continued running until she was underneath the dragon. She thrusted the blade into the beast’s
underbelly and ran forward dragging the blade through as she did. The hide was thick and resistant,
slowing her run into a march. Unfortunately, the dragon wasn’t so distracted with Bruse as to let her cut a
line from tail to chest, as it beat its wing and pulled itself off the ground slightly. It didn’t stay off the
ground too long before it slammed back down, mashing Fallon into the stone. She managed to roll to the
side and got out from underneath the dragon.
Bruse got to her side and helped pull her to her feet, “We can’t keep just swinging wildly into this
thing. We need to find a weak spot or something,” Bruse shouted before diving to the side. Fallon did the
same and dodged another burst of flame that torched the ground and snaked around the rocks.
“I’ll hold its attention, see if you can get on its back side!” Fallon slashed the blade into the front
leg of the dragon and looked up towards its face. It seemed to track Bruse for a bit before turning to face
her again, the flames licking the outside of its mouth. Fallon ran along the edge of the cavern opposite the
direction Bruse was and the dragon rotated in kind. She felt the flames scorching the floor behind her as
she dived and slashed twice more into the leg. Each cut sunk in a few inches, yet no blood was drawn and
the dragon only seemed to become more enraged. It bellowed deeply before swiping its claws towards
Fallon. Despite the size difference, Fallon managed to parry with the added strength of the blade, which
was slowly growing as more blood trickled down her arm.
“I can’t seem to cut deep enough, how thick is this thing!” Fallon exclaimed as she vaulted over a
collapsed rock.
“Wait! I see something!” Bruse called.
Fallon looked to see him straddling the base of the dragon’s neck, clutching on tightly while
holding two spell stones in his hands, strangely neither were the torch stone.
“The skull is exposed on the top; we can strike there!” Bruse shouted before attempting to climb
the monster’s neck.
 “Ok, I’ll try to--” Fallon felt an immense weight hit her chest as the dragon pinned her to the
ground with its claw. Fallon swung wildly with the Usurper at the claw, cleaving chunks away but still
not seeming to do anything to deter the beast. With her blood soaked off hand she tried to pry the
dragon’s grasp off her enough to wiggle free, but the pure strength of the creature was overwhelming. She
looked up and saw the dragon looking down on her, its mouth the primary source of light in the chamber.
On its back Bruse stood silhouetted around its neck, seeming to shout towards her but his voice was
drowned out by the dragon’s roar and the siren’s song. The flames grew wider in the beast’s mouth as the
fire flew towards her. The dreams that plagued her since her arrival flashed in her mind, the searing pain
to come was here.
Yet instead, she felt the world tumble. No flames entrapped her as she found herself tumbling
down the back of the dragon. Reflexively she stuck the falchion into the beast in order to stop her fall.
Fear gripped her heart as she looked to where she once was and saw Bruse pinned beneath the dragon.
His face was serene, but his voice was lost in the chaos. Fallon tried to focus on his lips when the flames
engulfed him. No longer in sight, the world went quiet as Fallon screamed all the air out of her body.
Tears flew from her face as she pulled away, instead looking up the murderer’s neck. Stabbing the sword
and her nails into the dragon’s scales, she climbed until she could see the top of its face. The skull was
indeed exposed, revealing the ill green sludge that puppeteered the draconic corpse. Grief and pain surged
as Fallon pulled herself atop the dragon’s head, which was now flailing from side to side. She drew the
blade from its neck and held it high above her head.
“USURPER!!!!” She cried and she plunged the sword into its skull. The orchid stone shone
brilliantly as the sword pierced through its skull and slime. Instantly the thrashing stopped as the corpse
snatcher slime disintegrated. No longer supported, the dragon’s corpse collapsed to the ground, forcing
Fallon to leap off and stumble against the rocks.
She laid prone on the ground for a moment, hearing no further fight from the dragon’s body.
Fallon’s body heaved and she sobbed uncontrollably into the dirt. Eventually she found the strength to
crawl towards where Bruse laid. He was barely recognizable. Blackened and charred, Fallon tried to hold
his hand only for it to disintegrate in hers. She frantically searched for something, anything! She grabbed
the healing stone from his pouch and pressed it against Bruse’s charred flesh. She pressed the runes and
spoke the command word, yet nothing happened. She tried again, and again; her tears running dark as
they collected on his burned corpse. Yet the body remained still and unaffected, Bruse was dead. Fallon
looked down to his other hand and saw the teleport stone clutched tightly in it, no light within. Fallon
didn’t know how long she sat there crying into the burned corpse, but eventually the siren song dared to
raise its notes. With hate and anger, she turned sharply towards the radiant double doors, now open. With
a stumbling step, Fallon rose to her feet. Fist clenched tightly around the hilt of her sword, she moved
towards the door.
Fallon entered an opulent throne hall. Seemingly carved from glowing gold and orchid stone, a
grand carpet ran from the door towards a purple throne, upon which sat the queen. She was nearly 15 feet
tall seated, wearing radiant robes that were almost difficult to focus on. Her eyes were closed, she seemed
almost asleep or waiting. Fallon moved closer and the queen’s eyes opened, bathing the room in purple
light.
“Ah, so you arrived, took him long enough.” The queen almost seemed bemused.
“Silence! I am not here for whatever purpose you called me. You are a monster! You destroyed
your own people! You are the reason my friend is dead! And I have come to defeat you.”
The queen seemed un phased, “Oh, so he died this time. I supposed it only took him 100 years to
figure out.”
Fallon froze in place, “what do you mean?”
 “I suppose this time he didn’t tell you. Dear, this is not the first time you climbed this mountain.”
The queen snapped her fingers and Fallon fell to her knees as memories rushed through her mind. She
saw herself and Bruse adventuring through the mountain, taking different paths, saying different things,
discovering new places, and fighting different monsters. But they all ended the same, with that massive
beast burning her alive, one way or another. Fallon felt the searing pain surge through her as she stared
into the ground.
The queen stood and took a step forward, “You see, the first time, it was you who met your end
by that traitorous beast. Almost instantly in fact, and Bruse defeated it on his own. However, I did not call
him here, he did not bare my spark. No that died with you, which for someone who was less prepared
would mean the end. Even as my power waned, I made sure to keep enough to send your mortal friend
back in time, with the memories of his past failures. He would guide you to me, and I would grant him a
second chance with you. Yet time and time again, no matter what he tried or what he learned, you were
fated to meet your end in those flames. Or at least, someone was.”
“YOU MONSTER!” Fallon shouted, trying to rise to her feet but struggled to do so due to an
oppressive invisible force.
“Silence! I am Queen Imortaya and I will not be spoken to by a mortal like you in this way. You
may have the inheritor’s blood in your veins, but you are no god. You are a means to prolong my power,
and the fact that you nor your ancestors could successfully get here until now shows just how weak you
beings are.” The queen now stood directly in front of Fallon and the queen forced her to look up at the
goddess. “Besides, it was not I who refused to believe him when he told you. There were many attempts
where he tried to warn you, to double cross me. But your curiosity was too strong, and he either told you
too early for you to believe him, or too late for you to turn back. It was entertaining to watch.”
“Why… what do you want with me…?” Fallon sobbed as the queen forced her off the ground.
“You see, being the mother of all mortal beings is a tax the other gods did not pay, and thus with
time my power weakened. I created the inheritor to prolong me whenever I needed, yet those insolent
mortals stole her from me and turned against their creator. They instead chose to flee into the accursed
lands trampled by my siblings, but I made sure that the divine blood would always draw the inheritor
back to me. Now that you have returned, I will be able to wipe that slate clean, start over and rebuild my
glorious kingdom, this time with no will to fight against me.”
Fallon struggled in her divine grasp. There was no song in her ears, yet she could barely utter the
words to speak in the vicinity of this entity. The queen forced Fallon to look into her deep purple eyes.
The vary stars seemed to all be gathered within them, beckoning her to give up.
“This is a gift, you will become a part of me, you will have my power, and we will rule this
world. Any wish you could ever ask will be at your fingertips.”
Fallon continued to struggle as the queen drew her closer. Fallon could feel the divine power
begin to course around her. The essence was immense and overwhelming, and Fallon could feel her will
begin to be stripped from her. As the power grew stronger, Fallon found the will to make a wish.
Epilogue
There was a sudden knocking at the door that caused him to nearly fall out of his bed. Confusion
rushed through his mind, and he stumbled to his feet and to his desk, this had never happened before. Non
the less, he got to writing down the basics of everything he remembered. It took him a good bit, but he got
most of it written down. He suddenly remembered the knocking at the door and rushed over across his
small home to open it. On the other side was a young woman, around his own age wearing basic
brigandine armour with one large shoulder pauldron. She had fair skin and fiery red hair and seemed
rather muscular. She clutched a bag in one hand and a ramshackle greatsword in the other but didn’t seem
hostile. In fact, she had a wide smile on her face.
“Hello, I’m Fallon, I’m moving into town and thought to introduce myself.”
“Oh, hi Fallon, I’m Bruse.”