Low-risk dungeon for team building exercise.
Lucifer Ashenford looked out over the shattered archway, the shattered stone teeth of the entrance yapping open like the half-munched corpse. Something was amiss with the magical energy here. Not just dangerous but twisted.
Rotten memory and shattered concepts clung to the stones like death's pointless shadows that refused to move on.
"Are we actually wasting our talents at this babysitting level?" Mira complained, crossing her arms, scowling at nothing. "This dump stinks of stale regret."
"Stale regret was the perfume you wore," Velra said as a matter-of-fact, then tore a piece of dried meat off the front of her jacket and munched on it as if on a park hike.
Neron, ever smooth, continued on. "Let's just get this over with. The sooner we're finished with it, the sooner I can go back to not pretending to have fun with any of you."
Lucifer smiled.
A hundred dead soldiers sprang to life under a flick of his wrist, static and ready, their skeletons groaning with obedient restraint. They pushed through wreckage, clearing the way like a wave of rotting order.
The air inside was thin, etched in odd, asymmetrical lines. Glyphs marched up the walls. Some were broken, some whispering.
Lucifer tilted his head. "These runes… are necromantic, but from another time frame."
"Of course you'd be interested in creepy necro languages," Mira growled, keeping close on her heels, her hand on the staff.
"Compared to someone who sleeps with a knife under the pillow?" he fired back.
"Because I have enemies. You merely have soldiers who just so happen to already be dead."
That did manage to make Velra laugh.
---
They made their way through three twisting halls before a trap was sprung. The ceiling groaned, giant slabs dropping off it.
"Down!" Neron shouted, reaching out. Time froze but not entirely, just to slow the slabs halfway down.
Mira leapt aside, pulling Lucifer with her just before the spell broke. A massive stone slammed down right where he'd been standing.
"You're welcome," she said, tossing her hair back, cheeks flushed from exertion.
Lucifer dusted himself off. "You saved my life."
"Don't make it weird."
"I wasn't. You just tend to be more the sort to rescue someone accidentally."
Velra cut through the next row of dark monoliths with a sweep of her spatial knife, clearing the way to a locked vault filled with throbbing puzzles.
"Alright, necro boy," she said, pointing to Lucifer. "Your turn. Figure out this dead man's puzzle."
Lucifer bent to examine the bizarre, spiral glyphs.
"It says: 'Only he who walks with forgotten fate may claim the tomb of memory.'"
Everyone stared.
"What does that say?" Mira insisted.
Lucifer laid his hand upon the sigil. The runes began to radiate light under his palm.
The vault groaned open, stale air exhaling like the last gasp of a dying man.
A small, dark ritual room was inside.
---
The walls were inscribed in black bone. A circular altar stood at the center, and over it, a whirling skeletal crown spun slowly, in anti-gravity suspended by deathly magical energy.
Lucifer heard the voice immediately.
"Ashen One…
Child of the Unbound Oath…
You carry the scent of He Who Defied the Heavens…"
He froze.
The others noticed him stiffening, Mira tilted her head.
"You okay? You're doing the 'haunted' stare again."
Lucifer made no move. The whispery voice persisted.
"Awaken the Gate, bearer of Behemoth's breath…
We have slept long enough."
And then, silence.
The others scanned the room, chuckling softly;none of them heard the voice.
Lucifer kept quiet.
—
They camped outside the shut door after they swept the vault clear and made sure there were no more traps.
Undeads of Lucifer brought logs to set a fire. Another brewed tea. Undead tea fetchers; just so on brand.
Velra collapsed with a sigh. "Wanna hear how I swiped my first spellbook?"
"No," said Neron.
"Yes," said Mira and Lucifer at the same time.
Velra smiled. "Well, I was twelve. There was this creepy merchant who couldn't stop leering at my—"
"We'll believe you," Neron cut her off hastily.
Mira smiled. "I never thought I'd ever say this, but… this team isn't entirely useless."
"That sounded suspiciously close to a compliment," Lucifer said, taking a sip of his tea.
"Don't get used to it, bone boy."
Lucifer gave her a look. "You can just call me Lucifer."
Mira blinked.
Then, with reluctance: "Alright… Lucifer."
Her lips curled into a tiny smile. She couldn't suppress it in time.
Velra saw. Neron saw. Lucifer saw.
Velra arched an eyebrow. "Aw. Cute."
"Shut up," Mira growled, turning away.
---
They crumpled up, fighting their way out of the tunnel. Neron defused the last trap with a sweep of his chrono-rune.