Chapter 11: What Lies Beneath

As the party of adventurers traversed the stone corridor into which the staircase from the upper world had led them, Lexi was continually staggered by the fact that everywhere she looked, despite the somewhat decayed state of things, the passageway bore the clear and unmistakable signs of having built by some intelligent race. With walls made of cut stone blocks, broad paving stones underfoot, and a uniformly slightly vaulted ceiling above, the corridor was no more naturally occurring than the temple from which the group had so recently come.

Luella had been confident that this corridor was the correct one to take from the central foyer-like room in which they had initially began their exploration of the subterranean world. However, although the foyer had presented several such passageways, this corridor had yet to yield any side passages, adjacent rooms, or much of anything at all except the odd alcove with the uninterpretable ruins of what was once a statue. Despite this early monotony, the sense of dread that Lexi felt upon their initial descent did not abate. Rather, it built slowly with each step the paladin took.

“Who built all of this anyway?” Lexi whispered, wincing as her voice echoed unintentionally through the passageway’s hard stone.

“No one knows for sure,” Luella answered softly, her subtly inhuman register not creating quite as much resonance as Lexi’s. “Everyone has their own pet theory, and you’ll find that some of the races with large settlements down here will make claims to being the builders. But, none of it really holds up under close scrutiny. The dungeons are older than any civilization currently living down here, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably just trying to pad their claim to a chunk of territory.”

“What kinda races do live down here?” Danica asked excitedly. “I’ll bet there’s all kinds of weird stuff creeping around these spooky dark halls. Maybe we’ll meet a lamia! Or a mind flayer! Or a dark elf! Or—”

“Hope that we meet none of those denizens, little one,” the mothgirl said sternly, cutting Danica’s exuberant imaginings short. “I have been unfortunate enough to encounter many such foes in the decades I spent in the world below. There are precious few races who haunt these corridors who would be remotely friendly to us. And, even fewer still would be foes with whom I would wish to cross blades.”

“Is there a particular reason that this section is devoid of such inhabitants?” Samantha asked pointedly. “It would seem to me that an entrance into the upper world would be a coveted region by any of the evil races who might be interested in conducting raids on the surface.”

“Yeah,” Lexi agreed. “We’ve been walking for like fifteen minutes down here already, and we’ve seen nothing moving except our own feet.”

“There are two reasons for that,” Luella answered, a slight catch in her voice perhaps indicating that this was something she was unhappy discussing, but nonetheless powered on through. “The first is that the portal through which we entered does not operate in both directions. It can, under the precisely correct circumstances be used to enter into the dungeon world, but it does not function as an exit. There are many such ways to leave the labyrinth,” the mothkin continued, hoping to assuage any rising fears about being completely trapped in the corridors. “However, I am not aware of any portals which are bidirectional — which tends to make such places not particularly desirable for most underworld races.”

“The emphasis you placed on the word ‘most’ makes me wonder who does find this to be an advantageous locale,” Lexi said.

“Well, the way entrances work here,” Luella continued. “Is that each one will almost always have a guardian. I don’t know for certain if this one does, since I’ve never entered through this passage. But, unless the portal guardian has already been killed by some other adventurer, then it’s likely that we’ll find this way in to be guarded by something Danica might describe as interesting.”

“So, these interesting critters just ... what... hang out in these areas like it’s their job or something? I mean, that just seems weird, right? Like, unless something else is making them stay in place, what’s to keep them from just getting up and going literally anywhere else?”

“That is one of the mysteries of the dungeon world which all but refutes any claims to manufacture or ownership by any of the natural races,” Luella answered.

“Natural races?” Lexi asked.

“Y-Yes,” Luella replied. “Guardians will never belong to any of the humanoid, goblinoid, or even beastkin races. Invariably, they come from the stock of supernatural races which most of us would term monsters.”

“Fuck me gently with a chainsaw,” Lexi muttered. “I figured we’d be seeing some action pretty soon down here, but I was kinda hoping that we’d have some kind of break. Can’t be helped though, I guess.”

“Will we have any forewarning before encountering this guardian?” Samantha asked. “It would be good if we were not caught unawares by whatever this creature might be.”

“Actually, it’s funny that you should ask,” Luella said. “See that vaulted arch at the far end of the tunnel, with the big set of double doors?”

“Whoa, yeah, I do now, ” Lexi said, so absorbed in the conversation that she had not noticed the structure some hundred yards ahead until prompted by the mothgirl. In the low light of the twilight vision provided by the Starsight Gem, it was visible. Although, at such a distance, it was just barely so. This bit of information told Lexi that mothkin likely had significantly better night vision than that which the gems provided.

“Even I can just barely make it out from here,” the mothkin continued. “But, there’s an emblem on the keystone with a pair of crossed keys. Those always identify guardian chambers. So, if we’re going to find anything at this juncture, it’ll be behind those doors.”

“Alright then,” Lexi said, drawing her enormous broadsword from across her back. “Tits up, girls!”