This Used To Be About Dungeons полностью

“I can’t take a threat seriously when you’re wearing that,” said Verity. “I’m sorry, I just can’t. It makes you look tiny.” She stifled a giggle and bit her lip to keep from smiling, and Mizuki didn’t think she should look that amused.

“Well, I personally think that she looks adorable,” said Alfric, grinning at Mizuki.

“Like a newborn fawn,” said Isra, nodding.

“Does no one take my threats seriously?” asked Mizuki. “I have fireballs.”

“Like a puppy barking at you,” said Verity. “I’m sorry, it’s probably the fit of those clothes. We’ll get you something better when we’re in Liberfell, something that’s not so silly. This isn’t working.” When she said ‘this’ she gestured vaguely in Mizuki’s direction.

“Kill you all,” said Mizuki, pointing at them. “I mean it.” She knew, of course, that this would only make her look more ridiculous, but that was part of the fun.

“There there,” said Alfric, patting her on the helm. She grinned up at him.

“Well, let’s not play a game of who could kill whom,” said Hannah with a laugh. She turned to the dungeon. “We’ve got a dungeon to explore.”

The entrance to the dungeon was the same as it had been before, a tube of packed earth, but when it opened out into the first room, there was nothing like a house or building. Instead, it was a little grotto, with stalactites hanging from the ceiling and a trickle of water coming down. The only path forward was through the stalactites, where the light from the lanterns could barely reach.

said Alfric.

said Verity.

said Alfric as he slipped his off and onto the ground. He drew his sword and shield, getting comfortable with the grip of them and changing his stance. He was always rather serious, Verity thought, but here, it seemed to suit him more.

Verity slipped her own bag off and placed it on top of a rock, where she hoped it would stay relatively dry. There was practically nothing in her pack aside from her waterskin, some eggy bread Hannah had baked that morning, and some nuts Isra had brought. Her lute was already in her hands, with the finger flute tied tight against the calf of her left leg, giving her as many fingers as she pleased. The lute itself was tuned and ready to go, with a few tests of it before they went in.

Verity was wearing a helm, the same as Mizuki, and had practiced singing with it on. She didn’t look nearly so ridiculous though. In the mirror, she’d thought that she could pull off the look of a battle bard.

said Alfric. He turned to the others and made sure that they were ready.

Verity had prepared a few songs and chose one of strength in the face of the foreboding, whose lyrics fit with the dark, cavernous dungeon better than the other songs she had on hand. It was a song of mythology, harking back to a very old story of the first person to ever delve a dungeon, Helgi of Amanth, though told in a somewhat more whimsical way than was orthodox. Helgi was almost certainly apocryphal, so Verity felt no shame in making changes.

They heard the first monster before they saw it, as Alfric was making his way beside the small trickle of water that went along the tunnel. It was a sound like a thousand crickets in the night, a buzzing that was so loud it was almost painful. The light affixed to Alfric’s chest illuminated only a larger cave with a pool of water and two more tunnels coming off it, and he crouched low, shield forward, until he was at the edge of the pool. Moving carefully, as though not to disturb the ground, he touched the tip of his sword into the pool and sent electricity arcing over the surface of it.

Almost at once, a creature rose up, breaching the water and roaring with the same buzzing sound, now even louder and higher-pitched. It looked almost like a man but covered in tiny black mussels, which vibrated to generate the sound, which changed in timbre as it surfaced. The room of the cave they were in was fifteen feet tall, and he stood nearly ten, even with his legs down in the water.