Ch.5: Dungeon
Lorean had been walking now for what seemed like hours, he had yet to encounter any more enemies at the bottom to the ravine he walked along. He stuck close to the side of the rock wall to avoid the blazing rays of sunlight beating down on him and everything around him. Eventually the ravine opened up into to reveal a dead looking valley surrounded by small equally dead looking rocky hills. He scowled as he peered out the landscape, but something caught his eye. On top of one of the rocky hills was a small watch tower. **I guess that's where I'm headed next**. The small watchtower jutted straight out of the rock mass with no visible entrance, but as he got closer Lorean could see a small door at the base of the hill. The large rusty metal door had massive broken chains hanging from the side, a while large padlock lay in pieces before it. To the side where 2 statues carved out of the stone, they where tall and dressed head to toe in heavily plated armor, each with a short sword on their belt and a large round shield, with 2 halve circles cut out of the sides. Lorean looked at the statues and then back at the door, "what happened here boys?, oh don't worry I'll probably know soon enough". With that riveting conversation out of the way he swung the heavy metal door and peered in to the darkness. Inside was a small stone alcove with 2 small chairs on either side of the door, likely where guards would have been posted. A set of stone stairs lead straight down into the darkness below.
He pulled a torch out of a holder on the wall and began looking for something to light it with. There was a small box on a shelf in the alcove, lucky he found a flint and steel inside. He surprised himself by how he instinctively knew how to use it and light the torch, having never even seen a flint and steel till now. **Must be the power of the Rework at play**, with his torch lite he made his way down the stairs. He stopped on the stairs frozen in his tracks, there was something on the stairs about half way down but he couldn't make out what it was. With his shield in front of him he cautiously made is way towards it. A wave of relief Washed over him when he discovered it was only a skeleton. **Only... a... Skeleton...** he thought to himself as he starred bug eyes at the pile of bones. The skeleton was dressed in leather armor and looked like it was trying to crawl up the stairs when it died. It's bones were a sickly purple and green combination. As he stepped over the skeleton he plucked a small leather coin pouch off its belt and continued done the stairs. "That could come in handy". Ounce he had gotten a few feet away he heard some creaking behind him, is blood ran Colder then it already was as he turned around to see the skeleton raise to its feet. Lorean brought his shield up in preparation for a grueling fight, but just as the skeleton lurched foreword it stopped midstep and cocked it head. As if confused by what it was looking at, it looked down at the coin pouch Lorean had jammed into his pocket and then held out its own boney hand as if expecting something. "Umm s-sorry pal" Lorean stuttered as he place the pouch back in the skeletons hand. After he did that the skeleton, turned to stare contently at the wall in front of it. "Well I'm just gonna go this way now".
At the bottom of the stairs, was a large wooden door, paper seals where placed along the edges as of it was keeping something in. After several heavy pushes the door swung open a cloud of purply smoke rushed out. The door lead to a large circular room with a small table and chairs and a bookshelf with several old books and papers on it, the rest of which where scattered all over the floor. Lorean frowned at the sad scene before him, 3 more skeletons were in this room, scattered on the floor. One was leaning up against the door he'd just opened, it had light metal armor and a long sword scabbard at its side. Another was face down in the middle of the room dressed in red and blue robes, judging by the few strands of long golden hair that still cling to its head Lorean assumed it was a woman. The last poor sap was the most interesting he was dressed in heavy Iron Plated armor and was leaning up against the far door. A large double bladed axe was propped up against the door. "Hmmm" he said inspecting the heavy armor "I wonder if you'll come to life if I take your armor? I don't really want to fight all of you". After opting to look else where for gear, Lorean checked to 2 other rooms opposite one another. One was a kitchen with a large hearth against the back wall and dusty shelves full of wooden trays and bowls. The Other was a large room one side held 8 medium sized beds all arranged in disarray some were even flipped over, the other side of the room held multiple weapon racks and armor mounts. All where bare unfortunately. After doing some more inspecting Lorean came back to the skeleton room. After standing for a moment Lorean crosses his arms in protest and hollered "LETS GO PEOPLE, RISE AND SHINE!" as if answering his summons the skeletons began to creek to life, their armor and cloths drooping loosely over there boney frames. They began to shamble around the room, body's twisted In unnatural positions, their bones where a putrid purple and green mixture. That's when Lorean noticed the swirling clouds at their feet. The thick smoke was the same gross color of as the skeletons and swirled at their feet as they shuffled around with no where to go. Then he looked down at his own feet they had been stained the same putrid color as the smoke and the skeletons, "Well shit" Lorean began to panic, he bolted for the stairs, ounce he was above the smoke he hurried to check his status. Under his Statuses he found.
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- Miasma Affliction -
• Afflicted take -10% of health per/sec as poison Damage.
• -10% Max Movement Speed.
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He had completely missed the small {!} in the corner of his vision alerting him that something was going on. "Well I mean I'm not dead sooo..." thinking a few moments "Guess I'll keep er going". Off he went back into the miasma. "I do need some armor though" he said eyeing up the skeleton dressed in the heavy armor. The skeleton stood there slowly swaying back and forth, slowly Lorean slide one of the gauntlets off the skeletons hand. It responded with a low creaking growl. "Hmmm" he said in a whisper, "if I can do it slowly enough then maybe". Slowly but surly he undressed the skeleton piece by piece. "Don't worry man, this is weird for me to" he said as he slipped the greaves off the swaying corpse. Ounce he'd finished he got that strange feeling again, he had no idea how but he knew exactly how to put the armor on. His hands just moved instinctively. The armor was far to big for him but it did the trick. The helmet sat loosely on his head but ounce it was set he felt a warm safe feeling inside the armor. Like he had a metal shell surrounding him. That's when the {!} appeared in the corner of his vision again. "Hmmm, I wonder if there is a way I can bypass this stupid meditate system of access the menu" he pondered this for a moment, then an idea came. "Menu appear" he said in a commanding voice. Nothing, he growled and tried again. "Menu update, Menu open, update appear, system update....." he was running out of options. "Ugh why won't you just show me the update?". The a small message appeared in place of the previous one. {(Hvy)Iron Ar.=+62.1Ar.R/(Med)Wood Sh.=17.25Ar.R} "wait shit! How did that happened? And what dose that even mean?". It took some figuring out but Lorean final figured out that putting a full set of armor prompts a update the can be viewed by simply saying update. The armor update simply says that his Heavy Iron Armor gives him a 62.1 Armor rating and his wooden shield gave him a 17.24 Armor rating. He tried picking up the other skeletons One Handed Long sword, but when he did it felt heavy to the point that he could barely swing it. He growled in frustration, the {!} was back. "Update", {Stat.Req. Missing}. "Laaame, guess I'm sticking with the shield and this torch". He swung open the door across from the one he'd entered through. He slowly made is way deeper, and deeper down till he came to a huge hall way with high ceilings, chains with shackles And hooks on them hung from the darkness above and rows of Iron barred doors covered the sides. "Am I in a prison?" his voice echoed through the haunting place. The miasma was thicker down here, and up to his knees now. As he walked down the hall the clanging of his loose armor awoke more and more undead, skeletons arose from the miasma still locked in there cells. They wandered aimlessly bumping into the bars of there cells. As he looked at each pitiful creature in its cage a wave of sadness overcame him, "no one deserves this, not even criminals" the skeletons stared at him with souls eyes as if to say "help me" he had to turn away. Finally he came to the end of the hallway only to find another set of stairs leading deeper. **How far done dose this place go** he thought, secretly wishing to find its end sooner then later. But no, another hallway full of cells, skeletons and the putrid miasma. 2 more floors like this followed until finally he reached the end. The miasma was up to his waist now and end of the hallway had a massive arch with a green gem stone at the top, there was some sort of invisible force field within the arch that prevented the miasma from getting through to the other side but Lorean was able to step through just fine. It was then that he felt a deeply ominous aura coming from the path ahead. 2 doors where I front of him, both separated by another statue, like the ones at the entrance. "These must be the Guards" he said allowed as he touched the large round shield. "Hmm I wonder why I haven't seen any of them?". He went to open the door on the left but stopped, the ominous presence was coming from the other door the one on the right. Lorean walked up to the wooden door and with one swift movement swung it open. As soon as he did all the torches on the walls ignited all at ounce illuminating the large room, and the beast at the center of it.