IWUAaDNW: Initiative 6.1

They encountered two boss rooms in a row––another stabbing vine, this time with four stingers and about three stories tall, and a mass of dried and broken grass that must have covered the whole floor––and then they were in the core room.

Karjn walked in… and then she stopped.

The other adventurers did, too, as did my two contracted minions. Puck actually landed for once.

The core room was wide, about thirty feet a wall, and octagonal. The floor was white marble at three levels of elevation; in the center, a taller octagonal section. Four stair steps separated that section from the middle walkway on four of the octagon’s sides, and the middle walkway was framed on both sides by the lower level of the floor, about one foot deep. Holes ran under the walkway, and the marble on the lower section was duller than elsewhere, indicating that, at some point, it had been submerged. Fish heads hung from the walls, their mouths open. I could imagine that gentle fountains must have once flowed through these mouths.

The core’s pillar sat, alone, forlorn, in the middle of the room. Two grey stones were sitting on the pedestal; combined, a sphere. A pale, melancholic light shone from above, in defiance of the depths in which they were finding themselves, and illuminated the room.

I was struck by a sense of profound sadness, and very nearly told Puck to get them out of there, to leave this thing alone.

For a few moments, no one moved, and then Karjn grit her teeth, clenched her fists and stepped forward.

Her boots sounded like a thunderclap.

She walked up the stairs, went straight for the dead core, reached out… `

…hesitated…

Then growled at herself and took the core away.

She turned back to her party. The look on their faces was unreadable. The look on her face was conflicted.

“There! Done! Now let’s get the fuck out of here.”

They did so.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but as Puck turned around and I lost sight of the core room for the last time, it felt like the light was fading out for good.