Chapter 8: That should not have gone boom

General Summary

Ash and Skald are unconscious. "Don't step there, there, there," Alfred pointed to another square, "Or there. If you do, acid comes out of that grate there," he pointed to the floor right in front of me. "It hurts a lot. Also, if you go over there," he pointed down another hallway, "You get hit by fire." "Okay," I said looking around at my friends who are not in good shape. I pour a healing potion down Skald's and Ash's throat and they both wake up. I carefully walked through the room, making sure not to step on any of the tiles Alfred had pointed out. I walked into a laboratory. there were two tables in the middle of the room and two giant vats on both sides of the room. Small air sprites flew through the room tossing things here and there, and generally making a mess of the room. In a corner as far from the sprites as she can get is a young girl trying to clean the mess the creatures are making. I hopped up to the girl and looked her in the eyes, "Are you Katherine?" She nodded, "How did you get here?" "The men took me and they gave me to Morta de Base, a scary lady with pointy ears, but she didn't need me for work, so she gave me to the Mistress because I have small hands that can clean inside the glass jars she uses. My brother was taken by a guy with swirl tattoos on his arm. Will you be able to help me? Can you find my brother?" As I started to answer the air sprite threw a stink bomb at me, coughing and gagging, I reached into my bag and threw a laughing bomb over at the creature to convince it to leave me alone. That backfired It started laughing and staggered across the room towards me, bumping into tables, and tripping over cords and tubes, and the vat in the middle of the room started bubbling seriously as the tubes were pulled out.
Boom!
The vat exploded and the ooze hurtled out of the vat landing on the floor on the other side of the tables from me.
What I didn't know was Skald had started walking into the room on the other side and the ooze that appeared landed on him, sucking him inside the ooze. I threw a bomb at it, causing it to shudder and Skald slides out of it. Ash and DaVinci run over to try and help Skald. They hit the ooze and it shudders some more before exploding.  Knocking all of them out again. Alfred ran over to pull Ash away from the ooze, but it whipped out with a gelatinous arm hitting Alfred, and knocking him out. I ran over and used all of my healing potions I had getting them back up and we slowly backed out of the room keeping the ooze and air sprites away. The ooze couldn't get over the grates, so we are able to back into a new room. "We have to find my brother!" Katherine begged. "We will fair child," Skald reassured her. "Do you know where he is?" "He's with the swirly tattoo man," she said. "Excuse us," I said to her. I pulled Skald away from her. "We cannot go after her brother yet. We need to rest, everyone is too injured to keep going." "But her brother needs to be rescued!" Skald said trying to go back to her. Meanwhile, DaVinci is exploring the new room we are in, he went to the desk and stuffed the parchment in his pack. He grabbed a small bottle and opened it to see what was in it. An ink creature poured out of the bottle and attacked him. He quickly pulled out his sword and attacked it. I hit it with my quarterstaff, and it fought back until it just melted away. "What's in the next room? Ash asked as he walked over towards it.

Giant machine

A giant machine dominated the room, and behind it a woman yelled, "Why can't I find good help? My work is at a delicate stage and if I can't find someone to hand me my tools, I will not be able to find the answers to the universe," there was a pause and a head peaked around the corner, "Bother, why are you here?" She didn't even wait for us to answer, "Darling, be a dear and deal with them!" She waved her hand and a creature appeared from the middle of the machine. The monster ambled towards us, I threw a bomb and it stumbled back briefly. The machine whirred as some of the debris hit it. "No!" She shouted. "Don't do that! It's a very delicate machine and if you break it, we will never get the answer." We looked at each other, "Destroy the machine?" I said. "Destroy the machine," they echoed back. We surged into the room. We all threw every trick we had to damage the monster, but also the machine. Several blows were exchanged and it blew up. Or so we thought. The initial boom was followed by yelling, screaming, and clangs. "Uh guys," Skald said. "I don't think it really blew up." I looked around the room. No one was in good shape. Everyone was bleeding, bruised, and trying to catch their breath. "We need to go back in there and destroy it," Skald said. "What about the girl?" Ash said. "We can't leave her out here." "If we go back to town, the lady will be able to fix the machine and finish it," DaVinci said. "You need to rescue my brother," Catherine said. "You can't just leave him here. I'll be safe in the room. You showed me how to get out." "See! The fair girl wants us to keep going," Skald said. "We can't let her down." "But everyone is almost dead," I said. "We have no healing left." "I'll solve this," Skald said, and he ran back into the room. "Jalapeno!"

It went horribly wrong

Everyone tried their best. Swords were swung, I threw bombs, and bolts were shot. We focused everything on the machine. Her shouts got more and more desperate, and then someone got just the right hit. A bright flash, a loud boom, and something happened. I woke up and everyone was dead. I have no clue how long I was out, but Ash, Skald, Alfred, and DaVinci lay dead in the room. The creature we fought was gone. I stumbled further into the room, and I saw her body laying under more debris. I choked back a sob and staggered out of the room, the girl sat there her eyes wide. "How long was I out?" She shook her head, and the two of us made our way out of the dungeon.

Report Date

07 Jul 2023