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Maybe I can just start up a plain old dungeon crawl for everybody while I'm waiting for 280.
It begins. I won't be pinning this, so if you want to follow along be sure to bookmark my conversation with myself to see the latest votes.
-04] It became clear that your apprenticeship for Keeper of the Dead had ended when the sun refused to rise in the morning...
-03] ...The judges proclaimed you would avoid exile only if you entered the Halls of the Dead to retrieve the shard of the Evercube...
-02] ...concealed on the corpse of the common thief you gave to the silent guardian of the Halls. At night, the Halls change and fill...
-01] ...with horrors to protect the dead. You must break the sacred trust and enter at night so that the sun may rise again...
[00] You emerge from the canyon to see the entrance to the Halls of the Dead. The doorway is even darker than the cursed twilight above.
[01] You speak the litany. None have summoned the guardian in the darkness before. You are met with uneasy stillness as the air grows cooler
[02a Never having looked too closely at the dry riverbed before, you are unsure if the nearby twilit humanoid shapes are merely statues.
[02b Apart from a smooth pebble near your feet you can see little else. The air grows colder, your satchel heavier, the sky darker.
[03] Through your chattering teeth you speak the greetings you know. Human or not, the shapes step silently toward you. There are many.
[04a All Keepers are taught the five signs, but they are just rote gestures, symbols of office. For a sickening moment your mind is blank
[04b Then like a flood, your shaking fingers form the ward so well that you see an afterimage in your darkening vision. The shadows halt.
[04c From behind you it is as if the sun rises. The shadows whither, and retreat. You turn to see the guardian, bearing an anointed torch
[05a Despite the brilliant light from the torch in its gnarled gray hand, its features are largely obscured, as if to look at it directly...
[05b ...is to forget what you have seen. But the sign it forms with its free hand is clear: it is the secret sign, taught only to Keepers.
[05c Crossing the threshold it gestures to you to follow. It turns left, vanishing, flickering torchlight fading. The night again grows cold
[06] You reach a candle-lit room containing stacks of mouldering texts. The guardian gestures for you to wait, pushing past a woven curtain.
[07a The candles are few and evenly placed; the towers of hardbound texts seem seldom disturbed. There are alcoves with urns, piles of...
[07b ...clutter so thoroughly obliterated with dust that they imitate clouds, and tucked away near the curtain a solid bronze cylinder...
[07c ...encrusted with a dull blue gem. Turning to the texts you bump into one of the stacks. It topples, echo booming down the hallway...
[07d ...behind you and exploding into a cloud of dust and ash that snuffs all but two of the candles. Stifling a cough you pick up a text..
[07e ...and try to read it. It has names and dates, some in unfamiliar languages and numeral systems. It seems to be a registry for the dead
[08a There is large white tome free of dust near the entrance. Inside are hundreds of sketches that seem to writhe in the dim candlelight. On the...
[08b left page is a symbol for the sun, on the right, a symbol for night. On the left, a simple earthworm. On the right, a huge, slithering
[08c ...beast with a toothsome, forked maw. This is a bestiary, perhaps pertaining to the Halls themselves.
[09a This entry's sun page is empty. On the night page are drawn inky human forms. Below them is scratched a symbol of a torch. You hear...
[09b ...soft footfalls nearing from behind the woven curtain. You notice that warmth has crept its way back into your limbs.
[10a You turn to the reed bookmark, its deep indent into the surrounding pages lined with dust. There is a faded sketch of a human frame...
[10b ...floating, face in exaltation, arms outstretched, bathed in what look to be rays of light. Yet this is its night page. Its sun page..
[10c ...is a twisted mass of thorns and threads that seemingly leap out at you. At its center, darkness so abyssal that the illustrator...
[10d ...kept drawing deeper, breaking through page after page, bleeding into other drawings. With your free hand, you make the sign of...
[10e ...awareness and feel two visions lashing at your mind, as if trying to possess it. Beyond the woven curtain lies a scribbled darkness
[10f ...that pours from the sun page, whereas beyond the untaken tunnel behind you floats a human shape so filled with warm, soothing light
[10g ...that the very vision threatens to combust the book in your hands, and you with it. In pain, you drop the book with a thud.
[10h ...The guardian stands in the doorway. Despite its unclear form, you get the impression it’s flabbergasted by the mess you've caused
[11] After your respectful display of contrition the guardian seems to relax. It hands you a scroll and an ornate, brass sculpture
[12a The sculpture is an irregular ring of dull brass in the form of interlinking leaves and small pearls of fruit. On one end is a...
[12b ...broken cylinder, as if it were once a key. The guardian gently pushes you out. There is a grinding of stone, then darkness
[13] A quick strike and the candle in your lantern bursts into life, illuminating the ancient stone door behind, and the way ahead
[14] A short walk down the well-worn stone hallway veers left into an intersection, its floor covered in dirt and tiny bones
[15a The dirt shows impressions of many unclear prints. Most of them seem to be the same old pair of shoes or sandals, but there are others.
[15b ...Skittering claws that head east, and a heavy, scraping groove leading north. The little animal bones are discolored and powdery
[16a Kneeling down, you cup the skull of a tiny animal in your hands, easing its brittle frame into your satchel. Powdered bone clings to...
[16b ...your hands. You try to stand but it seems as though the floor is sinking. It quickly becomes clear that the dirt in the middle of...
[16c ...the intersecting tunnels is being consumed from below by a tremendous bladed maw. You have mere moments before you are swallowed!
[17a You manage to roll just as the creature's mouth slams shut. You cradle your lantern such that it doesn't shatter in your hands, but...
[17b ...the candle inside breaks, and the flame sputters out. The hissing worm-thing to the east flails at you but cannot reach far enough.
[17c ...As your eyes adjust to the darkness you notice that above the worm-thing a ray of light trickles down through cracks in the ceiling.
[17d ...Unless you find a way to deal with the creature the other routes are cut off. It seems to be inching its way out of its burrow.
[18a Running from the creature while searching through the satchel to find something of use, you trip over root growing from the north wall
[18b ...your inventory consists of picking up its spilled contents in the dim light, worm creature hissing some steps behind you:
[18c ...7 candles for your lantern, an anointed torch, a little skull, a brass key handle, a scroll, a ceremonial cloth to hold the shard...
[18d ...an igniter, a wooden stylus, 8 days' rations, a waterskin, and a wad of clay. Just as you gather it all, the worm-thing lunges
[19a For a moment you are paralyzed by the notion of wanting both to flee and start a fire to a root near your feet. You manage to...
[19b ...ignite a dry root seconds before it reaches you. It wends its way over the root system, though, and doesn't seem to mind the flames.
[19c ...You run backwards, dodging the thing's lunges, unable to turn. It is several minutes before you realize it has stopped its pursuit.
[20] Your maneuver puts you out of the way of its eyeless, fanged mouth. It lunges its smouldering body into the darkness west. Then silence
[21a The smouldering thing slithers slowly westward into an unlit passageway. It seems to have needed the leverage of its burrow to strike
[21b ...There is a bright flash from deep down the tunnel west, and now silence, but for the crackling of the growing fire you've set
[22a Replacing the candle in your lantern and igniting it (6), you make your way away from the growing fire and smoke behind you.
[22b ...The stone slabs in the walls here are more regular and well-fitted. You follow a trail of ooze to where the creature should be...
[22c ...finding hundreds of writhing worms burrowing into thin, mossy cracks in the floor. After a monolithic wall, he hallway turns north.
[23a The monolithic wall facing the northward passage is at odds with its surroundings, made of different material, and roughly scuffed...
[23b ...next to the smooth-worn stone around it. In its direct center there is a tiny, dark hole.
[24a Sharp, warm gusts stab your eye as you look through it. It is shaped like a keyhole. On the other side is a candlelit hallway filled...
[24b ...with horizontal alcoves, many with skeletons in repose, some with piles of books. You find it increasingly hard to breathe.
[24c ...On your side of the slab, smoke crawls along the ceiling, and the fire you set has now spread to the mossy floor beneath you!
[25] Your waterskin is a third empty by the time you manage to douse the what flames you can see. Choking smoke clouds the hallway
[26a There is no more heat, only smoke. You trod on the ashen remains of the root, then find yourself at the intersection again, a deep...
[26b ...pit lies where the worm emerged. North the air is cold, east there is skittering, and smoke wafts through a crack in the ceiling.
[27] You grab a loosened stone and let it fall. You never hear it hit the bottom; it may have had a soft landing, though.
[28a The light from the ceiling’s fissure seems brighter than it had been outdoors. With work you may be able to make the hole larger...
[28b Curious, too, about the gaping burrow below, you swing the lantern down a bit too quickly, and you lose your grip on it
[29] It falls only a moment before landing next to the stone onto soft soil tilled by the creature. The tunnel it has made leads northwest
[30a You scrape at the ceiling and the crack widens. The light coming from it suddenly recedes at the noise, darkening. With some work...
[30b ...You could widen it enough to peek through, but you're eager to retrieve your lantern and see what's in the warren for some reason.
[30c ...You dive onto the fluffy soil and grab the flickering lantern. Hunger begins to gnaw at the edges of your consciousness, but this...
[30d ...coincides with a sight of what may have been the great worm's provender: rags, bits of metal, and masses of scraped-up human bones.
[31] Amidst the carnage you find a nice tuft of mulchy soil to sit upon. You sip from the waterskin while munching on the tough travel-bread
[32a The metal pieces are ancient, pitted. Two precious, many common and corroded. A few are clearly family symbols. Sigils for the dead.
[32b You make the sign of awareness, but mind still clouded from your receding hunger you forgot to make sure your hands were empty.
[32c Rather than expanding your senses, a high pitched noise emanates from the metal sigils in your hand. Whatever is nearby is aware of YOU
[33] With your gear it's less hopping and more scrabbling, but you make it out in time to see many skittering things charging from the east!
[34a The creatures are the size of rats, and give the impression of rats with their movements, but their faces are skeletal and pointed...
[34b ...like shovels, eyes gleaming in lantern light, all fixated upon you. You position the pit between you and the mischief of rat-things.
[34c Unlike rats, their zealousness seems to override their sense, and most tumble into the earthy pit, tiny claws impeded by the soft soil.
[34d The few that manage to avoid the trap seem uncertain, as if whatever puissance that emboldens them only works when they're together.
[35a Most of them, still confused, fall in easily, and you're able to gently stymie others' attempts to crawl out of the hole, but...
[35b ...One of the rat-things wasn't as witless as it seems, and its spade-like head gouges your leg before you can push it in.
[35c The frothing pit of rat-things fails to leap out just yet, though they are more animated now. You are bleeding (1).
[36a Your waterskin is halfway full by the time the still-bleeding (2) wound is cleaned to your satisfaction. The rat-things are silent.
[36b Looking over the edge you see them patiently forming a ramp. Deep in the burrow are yet more pairs of glowing eyes, quickly approaching
[37a The cloth is the perfect size, staunching the bleeding so well you'd think the taboo against using the cloth for anything other than...
[37b ...holding a shard of the Evercube must have included an exception for helping wounds to heal. Many rat-things, meanwhile, have escaped
[38a Your lantern flickers (6). You escape the skittering creatures into a dark, musty room that is ceiling-to-floor made of compacted dirt
[38b ...The far wall consists of tiny alcoves, like hand-sized boxes with their sides removed, stacked up into a pitch-black ceiling.
[39a A glint from one of the alcoves catches your eye and you draw close, only to see a tiny, bewildered mouse, staring back at you.
[39b Its nest is made of scraps of vellum, one of which has writing on it. You pocket the scrap just before your lantern flickers out.
[39c There's a draft on the back of your neck, see a faint glow from what was a pitch black ceiling, and hear familiar skittering behind you
[40a You hold your breath and hold still just as the rat-things begin scrambling their way into the alcove. With a clear mind you would...
[40b ...have kept still, but your curiosity about that ceiling distracts you just enough that in an absence of forethought you glance upward
[40c ...as the squealing creatures' metallic skulls begin to slice at your feet, you decide the ceiling really is worth checking out.
[40d ...and you jump toward the alcoves, using the holes and hand and footholds until you climb through what you thought was a ceiling...
[40e ...but turned out to be an aperture. You stand now upon a gently curving plain. Massive. Greater than your eyes can perceive unaided...
[40f ...so you light your lantern (5) and see you are inside a gigantic sphere divided into person-sized alcoves, crowned with a dome of...
[40g ...bronze far above. Figures stir in the dark, hundreds of them. A few stand, gesturing in greeting. You have found the restless dead.
[41] They seem relieved. Some return to reading books or etching into the walls. One advances carefully, saying, 'Why are you here, Keeper?'
[42a You unstick your bandage/sacred cloth from your still-bleeding wound, though it's clotted enough that it's an unworring trickle.
[42b ...Despite its own gray, emaciated flesh it takes the bandage using its fingertips, then gives you an incredulous grimace. Another...
[42c ...restless looks up from its book, peers at the cloth, then rasps "Soiled, sacred shields shards, seeks suns." The first nods.
[42d ...You then hand over the scroll the keeper gave you, fumbling the exchange, mumbling an 'oops'. Several restless look up, startled.
[42e ...'Not the keeper' the second rasps bluntly, slamming shut its book. The first doesn't seem to mind, unfurling the scroll to reveal...
[42f ...a map. It's just detailed enough to point you north at the junction, instead of the easterly route you had taken. The second...
[42g ...drops the book and snatches it from the first, seeming less annoyed now, as though the vellum was payment for its disappointment...
[42h ...'I see. Someone here has a shard. That must have caused you a calamity.' It reaches up, strokes your cheek gently, 'I am sorry.'
[43] 'No,' it says, confused, 'it must be one of the new "interns", as it were. Wait here a moment.' It shuffles into the darkness
[44a Your ankle feels sore (1). Taking a quiet moment to look around, you can make out several levels to the hollow sphere you stand in.
[44b The alcoves nearest the bronze dome seem impossible to reach, yet you see a few candles flickering a dizzying distance above.
[44c Farther down are larger apertures, complete with massive, multi-story doors ringed by lanterns and blue aetherial fire. Tombs, must be.
[44d Winding, crumbling stone stairways lead to the next levels, many of which are completely dark. A few restless dead shamble...
[44e up to what seems to be a library carved out of several alcoves. One sits, withered legs dangling over the edge, reading by lamplight.
[44f The lowest levels are the most tightly packed. Many shrines, many small alcoves where "interns" lie. Slang for the interred, perhaps.
[45a Your ankle has begun to itch (2). When you examine it in the light of your lamp you see tiny black threads emerging from the wound.
[45b A nearby restless approaches, peering at your wound. It inhales through dry gray lips, "Rittles, looks like. You get bit?"
[45c You're about to disturb the parasites when the restless waves hurriedly. "No, no! Follow me, bloodling." It shambles toward the library
[45d You'd already planned your way to the top of the stair so the going is easy, if increasingly painful (3). The restless meets you at...
[45e the top, its strange eyes gliding over a disintegrating tome. "This is going to hurt," it says, then reads aloud your options:
[46a Most know parts of the forbidden sign, but if anyone uses it they won't admit it. You remember as a child playing a game where you...
[46b drew part of the symbol to show how tough you were, even if you didn't really know. But as an apprentice keeper you were taught it...
[46c to recognize it, to avoid it. But your exile, alone among monsters and the dead, wounded and infected, the old promises are lost in fog
[46d You form the sign, closing your eyes, imagining your wound gone. When you open them, the wound is gone, and the flesh seems normal!
[47] You rifle through your belongings to give to the restless. These stand out as the most appropriate:
[48] The restless hands you its dusty tome and cradles the skull in its bony hands. It gives you a gray-toothed smile, petting the skull.
[49a A page comes off in your hand. You sit down and carefully page through the tome. Despite the medical help, it is not a book on medicine
[49b Its subjects are eclectic, from botany to epic poems to sketches. Its handwritten scripts vary, suggesting multiple entrants.
[49c No page numbers, no bookmarks, no index. No sense for how the restless found the right page. Your face gives away your confusion
[49d 'It's attuned, sorry,' says the restless, looking up from its new pet, 'I doubt it will be of much use to you. Beyond your entry.'
[49e The term is unclear, but you find 'your entry' doesn't list medical ailments so much as your moments since being bitten, up until the..
[49f page fell from the book you're holding. The page itself is, strangely, blank. Down the stairs, you see the first restless has returned
[50a Its face seems pained for a moment. 'We ask a lot of books here. They feed our minds as we transcend. They tie us to the world, though.
[50b 'Attunement weaves their knowledge back into the world. The book is lost, but it gives of itself fully. I could teach you this sign'
[51] Attunement is an iteration of the forbidden sign! Unsettling. 'Use it only on books' the restless says, receding into the darkness
[52a You rush through the bookshelves, seeing many spines covered in unfamiliar scripts and languages. The restless moves gracefully...
[52b in practiced patterns toward a stair beyond a narrow archway. Lit by sallow, unseen lamplight, the stairs lead to the tombs above
[53a Behind you you see the first restless with a bundle in its arms, its consternation increasing as you let curiosity get the best of you
[53b You hurry up the stairs, which turn out to be the longest, narrowest, most precarious set of stairs you've ever seen.
[53c Your quick decision, though, helps you to reach the retreating restless as it nears an entryway cut into solid rock above you.
[54a You stop before the narrow entryway. To both sides there is an abyss so dark as to cause instant dizziness to gaze into it.
[54b It may be a trick of the light, but the lantern upon the arch above the base of the stairway seems to be floating above the abyss.
[54c At your feet you see the well-worn stone steps covered in blurred carvings. The words you recognize are florid curses.
[54d As if to illustrate what the curses were directed towards, a great bronze door slides shut above your head, locking into place.
[54e Your lantern flickers (5). You feel a strange heat emanating from your satchel. A light, icy breeze licks at you from the abyss.
