//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: Dungeoneering Lore // Story: A Buggy Game // by Bucking Nonsense //------------------------------// I can keep going? Okay. The staircase led down a fair ways, and surprisingly enough, the dust and cobwebs stopped about halfway down. The transition between undisturbed for ages and so pristine that you thought that someone had just polished it was startlingly abrupt. When we reached the threshold, I immediately mentioned it to Hiro, who remarked, "Probably some sort of magic in place, to keep the dungeon intact. If this place is as old, or older, than the palace above, it would likely have collapsed upon itself long ago without some sort of supernatural assistance." "You've used that word again," I observed, a little confused. "'Dungeon'. Why do you call it that?" "Ah, well," he began, then seemed to think for a moment as we continued walking. After a few seconds, he said, "Years ago, two guys named Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created a game together called 'Dungeons and Dragons'. It's... I guess you could call it a very formal game of 'Let's Pretend'. Players create a character that they control: Fighters, mages, healers, rogues, or other types, and working together as a team, they explore a 'dungeon'. The word is used as a generic term for everything from ancient ruins and tombs to the lairs of powerful wizards and nightmarish monsters. The game can range from a basic 'Dungeon Crawl', where a group of adventurers search the 'dungeon' for treasure while fighting off hordes of dangerous monsters, to an extended campaign that can cover anything from a search for lost friends or loved ones to a battle for the fate of a nation, or even the world itself. Forty years, and four editions later, it's still being played, and its basic framework has spawned a thousand variations the world over." "Interesting," I admitted, more than a little surprised. Admittedly, it sounded a little like something that was for individuals with a great deal of free time on their hands, but... Well, we had nothing better to do, asides from talk, while we walked down the steps. I asked, "And you've played this game?" "Yes," Hiro answered, immediately. "A group of my friends and I get together once, sometimes even twice a week and play. We've been doing it... just about every weekend since I was fourteen, so I guess it would be almost ten years now." I can do basic addition just fine, thank you very much. "So, you're, what, twenty-four years old?" Chuckling, the orb replied, "Exactly right. I... hold up, there's a door up ahead." Hiro raised the concentrated beam of light up ahead, and lo and behold, yes, there was a door. It looked... fairly ordinary, to be honest with you. Admittedly, it didn't need to be that impressive: It was a door at the bottom of a staircase behind a secret passageway. Decorations would be wasted on it, if you think about it. It was stout, made from oak wood bound in iron. Picking up my pace a little, I advanced on the door, and checked to see if there was any sort of locking mechanism. Nothing that I could see. A gentle push and the door went open as if it weighed nothing. I peeked at the chamber beyond, and... What I saw took my breath away. The chamber beyond was tall, and octagonal in shape. Straight ahead, there was another door, over which hung an odd mosaic. Upon the walls on the left and right, more mosaics, depicting a series of scenes. In the center of the room there burned a brazier, lit with blue flame. Before I could get a better look at the room, I was interrupted as Hiro abruptly zipped into the room, shouting, "LORE!!!" The orb began immediately zooming about, apparently studying the walls of the chamber. A little nervous, I approached the only other light source in the room, the brazier. I looked around, trying to get a better look around, but the light from the flames was not very good. Meanwhile, Hiro was zipping around happily, chanting 'Lore' over and over in a sing-song voice. Yes, this was my first experience with one of Hiro's infamous 'Lore-gasms'. It would not be the last that I would see on this little adventure. Eh, we all have our little personality quirks. Being avidly interested in video game lore to the point of distraction isn't anywhere near as bad as some of the things that I've seen. You want to talk about fucked-up shit, I could tell you stories about the aristocracy of the changeling swarm that would give you nightmares. Yes, even you, Agent Smith. Yes, I know you've seen some shit. I assure you, I've seen worse. When you're considered practically invisible, you can see things you would pay money to unsee. Anyways, I figured that, whatever Hiro was doing, it was important, and I needed a little pause to rest my legs after that stairway, so I gave him a few minutes. Once I was rested, I called up to the floating orb, "Anything worth sharing?" This broke Hiro out of his little 'moment', and he cleared his throat, and said, sounding embarrassed, "Yeah, I found something interesting. Let me show you." Hiro directed his beam of light to the mosaic directly over the door first, and said, "This one, I think, is a sort of general map of the 'dungeon'. Fifteen floors, each one denoted by a small icon. I can't say this with absolute certainty, but I expect that each icon notes what we can expect on each floor. Since the icons repeat every five floors, I expect that, once we clear floor five, we'll have a rough idea of what to expect for the remaining ten." Looking at the mosaic, I saw what he was saying: The fifteen tiles, if they truly represented the floors, had a pattern: A book, a block, a boot, an eye, and a skull. That order was repeated twice more, for a total of fifteen. The skull worried me a little, but I kept my concerns quiet for the time being. A small dot next to the book at the very top seemed to imply that we were on a 'book' floor. "The other seven mosaics, on the other hand, tell a story, or at least the start of one." Turning the light to the next mosaic, the one of the right, he illuminated an image showing a group of strange, difficult to identify creatures. They seemed to be some manner of fox, but I couldn't be sure. They were certainly in trouble, seeming to be beset on all sides by monsters. The fox-folk all seemed to be reaching up towards the sky, as if in supplication. The sky in question was a starry night, with one incredibly large star at the center. "The beings who built this place faced danger on all sides," Hiro began, giving narration, "but lacked the means to protect themselves from their attackers. In desperation, they begged the heavens for aid." Turning his light to the next mosaic, I saw that the creatures below were suddenly jubilant, and the monsters surrounding them were retreating. The foxes were gazing in teary-eyed adoration at the skies. Looking up, it was clear why: The largest star had changed, becoming a fox like them, and was descending from the sky, a crown upon his head. "The heavens answered their wish. One of the stars in the sky came down, taking the form of one of these fox creatures. He would be their leader. Their savior. Their king." The light turned to the next scene, showing the crowned fox leading his new subjects somewhere: A great expanse of forest. It took me a moment to realize that this was the forest surrounding the plateau atop which the palace sat. The plateau itself was strangely absent. A starry sky was still visible overhead. "The king led his subjects to a new land..." The next image was illuminated, and the king was, with an imperious gesture, causing the massive escarpment to rise from the ground, with a fully formed palace, as well as a city surrounding it, already clearly in view at the peak. In the starry sky above, it seemed that there was a blank spot where one of the brighter stars once shone. "...Where he built for them a city, one where they would be safe from harm. However, doing so expended a portion of his strength, and if what I am thinking is right, it seems like there was a finite limit to how much he could do..." The next image in the sequence revealed a path, the one leading up to the palace, with scores of monsters advancing upwards. Some sort of barrier, likely the force field or some precursor to it, blocked the army of attackers, but the monsters seemed to be making camp at its boundary, preparing for an extended siege. From a vantage point atop a tower in the palace, the king looked down upon the monsters in anger. Another star was missing from the sky. "The enemies of the foxy ones pursued the pilgrims up the path leading here. While they could not enter the city, due to the king's power, the monsters would not leave. They intended to starve the foxes out." Another mosaic, this one showing the king summoning... creatures from the very stone of the plateau. In the starry sky above, three stars more stars went out. The creatures were abstract, but recognizable. "In order to clear the path and break the siege around his city, the king created three champions, golems made from solid stone, to do battle with the monsters. A wolf, a panther, and a ram." The final mosaic in the sequence revealed a scene of brutal battle. The wolf, panther, and ram were doing battle with a seemingly endless sea of monsters... and were clearly winning. The wolf's savage bites, the panther's swift claw swipes, and the ram's mighty charges were cutting through monsters as if they were made of tissue paper. Those portions of the attacking army not locked in battle against the three golems were clearly in the beginnings of a full retreat. "The golems could fight endlessly, without need for food or rest, and since they were not living things, fought without fear of injury or death. Moreover, since they lacked hearts and were but mindless automatons, they could fight without mercy, which the attackers discovered to their horror. Without flesh to rend or blood to spill, the monsters had no means by which to overcome the three champions of the foxy folk, and were quickly routed." "That... may explain a few things," I admitted, after finally taking all of that in. No wonder there were so many monsters around: Their ancestors had likely decided to camp out in forests surrounding the city, in order to wait for a chance to attack the city again in revenge, and when the city finally fell, they took up permanent residence in the region. It also explained why such an unnaturally extreme escarpment sat in the middle of a region that, otherwise, was mostly flat. Most important of all, however, it explained why there would be a wishing star here... Some portion of the ancient fox king's power remained here, at the bottom of the 'dungeon'... Bobbing up and down, as if nodding, the orb said, "Yes. I think we'll find more answers on the next 'Book' floor." He hmmm'ed, then said, "It's oddly reminiscent of the story of Fou Lu..." Confused, I asked, "Fou Lu?" "Ah, sorry," Hiro said, then explained. "Where I come from, there's a series of... stories, collectively called 'Breath Of Fire'. The stories mainly involve dragons. In the fourth installment of the series, the tale involved how a tribe summoned a being from beyond their own world to become their leader. The... summoning didn't go as well as this one did, but it did succeed in calling forth a very powerful being, even if said being was incomplete. That being, named Fou Lu, established an empire that lasted for ages, but ultimately exhausted himself, and was forced to slumber until his missing half emerged, so he could become whole and lead his people for all eternity. Fou Lu's story was, ultimately, a tragic one. He... well, I shouldn't bore you. Time limit and all that." Clearing his throat, he said, a little awkwardly, "We should get moving. We have four more floors to clear before we'll see what happened next." I nodded, then moved towards the exit. Once opened, the doorway revealed another stairway, leading further down. Hiro in tow, we descended. I admit, though, I was a little curious, at the time, what happened to those three champions: If they weren't protecting the mountain pass from the monsters camped outside, like they did in the past, then where were they now? They were stone, not flesh and blood, so it wasn't as if they could die of old age or illness, and given that the three of them were a match for an army, it wasn't as if just any old thing could have defeated them. Those questions would be worrying me at the back of my mind for some time... ...At least until we reached the fifth floor, where we would learn the answer the hard way.