“Honestly!” Tawmis cursed. “Who does this?”
“I –tic- would assume that the Goromorgs,” Blaz’tik began to explain.
“I don’t care!” Tawmis interrupted him. “It was a rhetorical question!” Tawmis stared at the shimmering lights in front of him. This was the first time they had come across something like this. Not trusting magic, he had thrown a stone into it – only to discover it vanished. It had either incinerated the stone, or Blaz’tik seemed to believe it teleported the stone somewhere. Tawmis was in no mood to find out if Blaz’tik was wrong, and that the stone had, in fact, been incinerated.
Tawmis took a step forward and stepped on the tile. All the shimmering lights around him shifted, changing the path that was once clear to him. “Who does this?” Tawmis repeated.
Blaz’tik was about to continue explaining his answer, but a firm hand from Taren Bloodhorn, the minotaur, placed on the insectoid’s shoulder, told the young wizard not to utter a single word as to who possibly created this death trap.
“There’s a button on the wall to the right,” Coy, the Ratling pointed out. The problem was, there was no clear path to that button at the moment. All the tiles around it had the shimmering lights. Tawmis took another stone from his pouch and threw it with all his might to see if it would pass through the shimmering light fast enough to hit the button the wall. The shimmering lights, naturally, devoured the stone as soon as it passed into it. “I hate magic,” Tawmis muttered beneath his breath. Tawmis stood rigid on the tile and looked back, “All right, Blaz, where do I go from here?”
“Judging by the pattern –tic- in which the lights moved, when you stepped forward, -tic- I would say that your best option is left,” Blaz’tik replied. After a moment, he amended, “Although, -tic- a step back might also fit the pattern I believe I am seeing.”
“Which is it, Blaz?” Tawmis yelled.
Blaz’tik floundered, “It could –tic- be either one.”
“Have I mentioned how much I hate magic,” Tawmis muttered to no one in particular.
Blaz’tik was, once again, about to answer Tawmis’ comment, but the minotaur’s hand had gone from the insectoid’s shoulder to his mandible mouth. The insectoid nodded his understanding and whispered, once Taren had removed his hand, “If he hates magic so much, why did he volunteer to go into that room before the rest of us?”
“Because, despite his hatred of magic,” Taren explained, “and despite the façade he places up, Tawmis is truly a kind and generous heart. There’s no way he would allow any of us to risk our lives by his command, unless he was to try it first.”
Tawmis lifted his foot to step to the left and just inches before stepping on the tile – he stopped. He looked at the tile behind him. He turned and stepped on the tile behind him, hoping that changing his initial gut feeling was not going to get him incinerated. He waited for the pain but it never came.
“Interesting,” Blaz’tik said, his mandibles clacking with excitement. The shimmering lights had shifted yet again. “What –tic!- made you take the step back rather than go to the left?”
“Because,” Tawmis said, taking in a deep breath. “To the left would have gotten me to the button faster. I suspect the mages were counting on people thinking with that kind of mentality. So I took a step back, which seems the least logical when it comes to progress.”
Blaz’tik studied the new formation and path of lights. Though there had only been nine tiles – three across, three wide – it had taken nearly two hours of Blaz’tik analyzing the pattern before he had successfully managed to direct – with often times, Tawmis being forced to make a choice between two options – to the button, which opened the door on the far end, to actually reaching the door. Once Tawmis made it to the door, there was another tile that disabled the shimmering lights, allowing the rest of them to safely pass through the room. (Though Blaz’tik complained that he would have liked to have known if the stone had been disintegrated or if it had been teleported).
Blaz’tik had carefully navigated them through a number of magical traps, until they came to a room with one of the shimmering lights in the middle, with nowhere else to go. “We must have missed something,” Tawmis said as he began marching back. “A secret passage. A doorway. Something.”
“I’m fairly certain the lizard or I would have spotted something,” Coy said, tilting his head to Silvertan who was leaning against the wall.
“We go back and double check,” Tawmis demanded. “We look again.”
While they discussed matters, Blaz’tik edged towards the shimmering light. He reached his insectoid arm within the light and felt it tingle. He felt the sensation run down his arm, to his shoulder, to his chest, to his entire body.
Tawmis turned towards where he had last seen Blaz’tik and asked, “Is there any way that magic might have – wait. Where’s Blaz? Where did Blaz go?”
Coy turned his Ratling head, his whiskers twitching, “He was here – just a moment ago! He was here.”
Tawmis looked at the shimmering light in the center and whispered, “Oh no…”
Elsewhere in Grimrock, Blaz’tik felt his body tingle again.
He took a deep breath, as if he had been holding his breath underwater and looked around. “Well, that –tic!- was a most interesting sensation. Like being –tic!- torn apart and put back together again in –tic!- mere seconds! So it would seem –tic!- those shimmering lights are indeed teleporters. Now the question –tic!- begs to wonder, where am I now?”
Blaz’tik heard a hissing sound behind him and quickly spun around. His eyes, if they could have, would have widened in fear at the sight behind him. What appeared to be an enormous lizard, whose skin was ice blue. Cold misty air, came out of its nostrils, like smoke, wafting into the air.
“Oh my,” Blaz’tik stammered as he reached for his spell components. He threw the sandalwood shavings into the air, squished the forioan mushrooms between his fingers, which gave off a burning sensation, then with his fingers, gestured, making a triangle, followed two symbols running parallel, and finally raised his hands over his head. He had never done such a powerful spell before, and he wasn’t sure if he had done it right – and for a brief moment thought his life was over – until he felt the flame building between his fingers, and an enormous fireball launched from his hands, striking the lizard with so much force that it sent it – and him – flying back.
He quickly scrambled to his feet, expecting the lizard to charge him, and was quite surprised when he saw its charred remains lying there, unmoving. “Well,” Blaz’tik said, “I hope –tic!- Silvertan isn’t upset I have killed one of his descendants!”
Blaz’tik began moving through the dungeon, moving slowly, cautiously, unsure what else he would encounter. While he was glad to see he was right – that the shimmering light had been a teleportation device and not a disintegrator – he wasn’t all that thrilled with the idea of being separated from the others.
TO BE CONTINUED?
Tawmis Sanarius – Human (Son of Contar Stoneskull and Yennica Whitefeather) - Warrior
Taren Bloodhorn – Minotaur - Warrior
Blaz’tik – Insectoid - Mage
Silvertan – Lizardman - Rogue
Coy – Ratling from the Isle of Nex – Rogue
And what spell will the new spell components be used to create. 