INTERACTIVE STORY
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"If that is the case" snapped Lord Fear, "then why have you been traipsing across half of the dungeon wearing the accursed thing?"
Treguard looked around as if he'd lost something.
"My good assistants were really looking forward to taking on the role of my advisors, I didn't want to disappoint them."
Lord Fear kicked the fallen Sylvester Hands, who rolled over and moaned loudly.
"And when, exactly, did you remove the helmet? You were certainly wearing it a moment ago, and I don't see it lying around here anywhere."
For a brief moment, Treguard looked uncertain. For another brief moment he looked puzzled, perplexed, and then confused, before finally settling on a look of plain bewilderment.
"I don't seem to remember."
Meanwhile, Pickle, Majida and Kully found themselves staring at where an image of the dungeon used to be.
[[The damn filter changed "My" and "assistants" into "I disagreeistants" because the stupid thing thought I was referring to my posterior, so I inserted a suitable adjective ]]
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[[The filter is a little extreme. I'm all for preventing bad language on the forum, but it's pretty easy for people to get around it anyway, and it only seems to catch legitimate words by mistake. Is it possible for it to be more lenient?
Don't want to take this off topic, though.]]
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Pickle, Majida and Kully were trying to figure out what was going on when a huge thud came from the entrance opposite the dungeon door.
"What was that?" cried Pickle, as alert as a fox. Another thud came, coupled with manical, gutteral laughter. Kully bravely went to investigate. Majida cowered.
"Thees ees scary! Ees has never happened before!" she cried. Kully came running back.
"Someone's trying to get in!" she shouted. Another thud came. The laughter got louder.
"The door's breaking off!" screamed Pickle.
"We have to get out of here!" cried Kully.
"Where do we go?" warbled Majida.
"There's only one escape," murmered Pickle, gazing at the Dungeon Door.
"You don't mean...?" gasped Majida.
"Yes, Majida," said Pickle, "into the Dungeon."
Another huge thud came and the laughter was almost on top of them. The door was almost off its hinges and would not withstand another attack. Majida, Pickle and Kully ran through the dungeon door just as the other entrance was blasted open.
After a while the dust settled. Standing in the centre of the ante-chamber stood a tall, deathly figure, dressed in black. He strode over to the dysfunctional view-screen. With a wave of his hand he conjured up an image of Treguard and crew.
They all looked up when the voice came. Treguard went white in the face.
"Welcome to Mogdred's Dungeon," he boomed, and broke out into peals of hideous laughter.
[Now we're REALLY rolling!]
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"Oh for my sake - who let that in?" sneered Fear. Treguard shot him a look that words can't describe, and Lord Fear fell silent except for his loud, irritated breathing.
"Look upon Mogdred and QUAIL!" roared Mogdred, and laughed his gutteral laugh again. Fear sighed.
"Gods! He's worse than ME!" Treguard shot him another look, and this time Fear got the picture. Mellisandre and Motely were cowering in each other's arms.
"Treguard!" she squeaked. "What do we do?"
"Gather all our equipment and bodies and move on as quickly as possible! We've no time to lose! It will be harder for him to locate us in level 2!"
"On the contrary, Dungeon Master." Snarled Mogdred. "I should think, thanks to your badly guarded castle and convenient viewing screen, I can tell exactly where you are in a matter of about...oh...lets say...15 minutes of you getting there. That should give you time to panic and me to have a small amount of fun."
Treguard was angry. "And what can you do, exactly? This is all an illusion! Nothing in here can do us harm that will extend to the outside world."
"That's where you are wrong, Dungeon Master."
A sheet of light split open before them, and dulled into a magical viewing screen. It showed Mogdred in the antechamber, hands on hips and grinning at them.
"Are you missing something, Treguard?"
"No, I...oh dear." Treguard realised the peril they were in. Mogdred held up the Helmet of Justice.
"This is the source of your protection whilst you are in the dungeons, Treguard. Without it, as long as you know everything is an illusion, you have no problems. Now here this - the Helm is in my hands and I may manipulate it as I please...I can rid the dungeons of illusion! Live in peril, dungeon dwellers, for what is left of your time..."
With a loud guffaw Mogdred disappeared with the screen. Lord Fear turned to Treguard angrily.
"NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"
In the level one clue room, Pickle, Kully and Majida stared around the room. It seemed much bigger from the inside.
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"I hate this," whispered Pickle, gazing at the table (covered with a fresh batch of objects). "I'd much rather be in the forest."
"Shut your mouth and let's exameeen table!" hissed Majida. The three moved up to it.
Meanwhile, Treguard and crew had sent Hands on his way and proceeded on; stumbled into a set of dwarf tunnels. As there were so many of them, things were rather crouded. It didn't help when ANOTHER band of people, moving in the opposite direction, strode straight into them. Treguard, who was in front, bore the brunt of it, and winced.
"Watch where you're going!" he cried.
"I'm so sorry," replied Brother Mace, "my somewhat rounded personage is not particularly suited to this degree of cameraderie!"
The other group consisted of Brother Mace, Brother Strange, Cedric the Mad Monk, Scarkill, Lissard, Marta, Romanha, Grimaldine, Hordriss, Gumboil and, right at the back, Gibbett, the elusive level two guard.
"Stop messing about in front!" screamed Cedric, who seemed even more agitated than normal.
"Patience, Cedric," boomed Strange. Mace turned back to Treguard and crew.
"I wouldn't go the way we have just come, if I were you, Dungeon Master," he said. "Something rather large is lurking back there."
"I can't STAND them things!" whimpered Cedric. "Especially when they're THAT size!"
"And one must not expend any more magic than one must," declared Hordriss.
"Nor I," said Grimaldine. "At least, not without a goodly number of Arken stones."
A peal of Mogdred's unmistakable laughter rang out in the tunnels, and the distant sound of a goblin horn rang out.
"He's caught up with us!" hissed Motley, cowering at the back of Treguard's group, hiding behind Folly, who was, in turn, trying to hide behind him.
"Who has?" asked Mace.
"Mogdred!" cried Treguard.
"Who Mog..." began Lissard.
"SHUTUP!" screamed Fear, who was beginning to feel out of his depth.
"What are you doing here, your Fearship, er, Lordship?" asked Scarkill.
"Yes, tell us what's going on, Master," hissed Lissard.
"There's no time for any of that," barked Treguard.
"There's only one thing that I can think of to buy us some time," announced Treguard.
"What?" shouted Marta. "I don't like spiders, either!"
"We must split up into groups. Mogdred won't be able to track all of us at once."
"What do we do once we get in these groups?" asked Strange.
"FIND MY DAUGHTER!" cried Hordriss, clearly distressed.
And so, everyone paired off and went off down a different tunnel, save for the one leading back to Ariadne's lair. Mogdred indeed could not track everyone at once and began to get angry.
Meanwhile, Pickle, Majida and Kully were examining the objects on the table way back in the Level One clue room.
And somewhere else, three sorceresses had decided to pool their own resources...
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[Sounds cool but we shouldn't decide yet - wew'll see how the rest of the story goes, the posts will detrmine possible candidates, and basically whoever gets there first will kill off a character near the end, makingit a surprise for the rest of us! So don't tell anyone your candidates for elimination!]
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[Right you are. We should only think about it if the story moves in a suitable direction.
btw, I thought it'd be interesting to pair off all the characters to give them their own scenes; there's a huge potential for comedy there. In large groups, it would be too crouded. The best pairs to use would be Folly and Motley, Lissard and Scarkill, Gumboil and Cedric, Brothers Mace and Strange, Treguard and Fear, Hordriss and Grimaldine, Marta and Romhana, and Mellisandre and Gibbett (the last pair could be interesting, since Gibbett as a character is fairly undeveloped - a possible love interest could develop.]
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Treguard had paired up with Lord Fear figuring that together they had the best shot at defeating Mogdred. They entered what appeared to be a dwarf tunnel that at least seemed like it should be part of Level Two.
"So, are you going to tell me what your amazingly stupid assistants have done then?" demanded Fear.
Treguard sighed and looked at him.
"In the time before I had any assistants, before you came to the dungeon there was a power that was deadly to us all, Mogdred"
"Yes I gathered that, tell me something I don't know!" snorted Fear
Treguard glowered at Fear and continued
"For every force of evil there is a good of equal measure such as ourselves. Back in the old days Mogdred had such a balance, Merlin. They battled for many seasons until eventually Merlin caught Mogdred in an ingenius trap. Mogdred was lured into a special room in the dungeon, one that was never affected by phase shift, it remained constant."
"hmmm", pondered Fear, "how on earth would such a powerful force of evil be tricked so easily?"
"By the ultimate sacrifice" said Treguard, "Merlin challenged Mogdred to a "final duel". Mogdred agreed and appeared for the challenge. However he did not realise that Merlin had cast a spell that changed the appearance of the room, indeed he even managed to change the aura of the room to fool Mogdred. Mogdred appeared and Merlin's plan was to seal the room off the dungeon forever by influencing the phase shift to cut all access to the room. It worked, more than worked as most recognisable traces of the old phase disappeared with them, leaving us with what we have, or had now"
Lord Fear raised a quizzical eyebrow as if to say "oh yes, tell me more"
"It seems that this has stopped working though because my "intrepid" assistants found it when exploring the first rooms of Level One. It appears that curiosity got the better of them because now Mogdred is free, the dungeon is in chaos and very unstable as it cannot cope with the two realms at once, everything is getting mixed up if you will, breaking down at worst."
"so how do we fix in Dungeon 'Master'?" asked Fear, mocking Treguard slightly.
"We can only hope that Merlin escaped the room and we can find him before its too late" replied Treguard.
"And where do you think we can find......what's going on?" exclaming Fear
Indeed something was going on, the corridor was losing its usual red hue and becoming more grey and dank.
"I don't know" replied a perplexed Treguard. Suddenly a strange buzzing sound could be heard ahead of them
"what the devil is that?" Treguard said as a vertical blade came careering down the corridor at them. Suddenly Mogdred could be heard laughing
"Welcome to Mogdred's very own corridor of blades. Deadlier than the original, its certainly a cut above the rest....or should I say through......bwahahahahahahaha" Mogdred's voice boomed throughout the corridor.
Behind the centre blade, two additional blades appeared...
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Meanwhile, Cedric and Gumboil were walking down their own tunnel, arguing as usual.
"Still a fan of the old Dungeon Juice, eh, Gumboil?" teased Cedric.
"Aw, shurrup, you pesky monk!" snapped Gumboil. Suddenly, Cedric stopped dead.
"What's that?" he barked. Gumboil looked around.
"What's what?" he asked wearily.
"THAT, you stupid Dog's Bottom!" he shouted, pointing to some objects on a barrel at the end of that section of tunnel. They went up to it and examined them.
"INVISIBILITY," read Cedric slowly from the label of a potion.
"Hey! And a gold bar!" cried Gumboil triumphently.
"And a torch," muttered Cedric.
"What do you think we should take?" asked Gumboil reticently. Cedric decided to take charge.
"We'll have the potion and the gold," he announced, grabbing them.
"What about the torch?" asked Gumboil nervously.
"Well, you'd better pray that you've ate enough carrets, eh, Pig's Bladder!" scoffed Cedric, and promptly marched on down the tunnel, followed by Gumboil.
Elsewhere, Pickle, Majida and Kully were deciding which objects to take for themselves.
"I think the red gem and the key," said Kully.
"What about thee dagger?" asked Majida.
"No weapons, Majida!" blurted Pickle.
"OK, keep your freckles on!" sniffed Majida. They took the objects.
"Erm, isn't someone supposed to stop us?" asked Kully. "A certain kind of monster, for example?"
"That's a point," said Pickle nervously. The wall remained still. There was no sign of any manifestation.
"Well, at least we have no riddles to solve!" announced Majida. "Come on, we should get out of here soon!"
And so, having taken their objects, and strangely received no visit from any wall monster, the three left the room.
Meanwhile, Treguard and Lord Fear were trying desperately to stay alive...
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"This is all your fault!" roared Fear in angst, shoving Treguard roughly. Unfortunately, being Fear, he didn't think ahead and shove Treguard directly towards the center blade.
Treguard fell rearwards, arms windmilling...
[the blades have been turning for two days - thought I'd give somebody incentive to give them a move on]
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At the last moment, Treguard grabbed the flat of the blade, just inside the point where the razor-sharp saw-teeth began. He held on for dear life, carried backwards by the fast-moving blade, and kicked himself backwards and sideways from the wall, landing painfully.
Meanwhile, as has already been hinted, an improbably alliance was being forged between Greystagg, Maldame and Aesandre...
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"One finds this whole thing irksome!" barked Maldame.
"You can complain all you want but an alliance is the only way we can adequately defend ourselves," replied Aesandre.
"As inconvenient as it may be to some," murmered Greystagg. Maldame huffed.
"Oh, very well," she spat. "What should be do?"
"An army is already mustered and is currently moving through level two," said Aesandre. "May I suggest that we give them some assistance? As things currently stand, they stand little or no chance of making it to level three without our help."
"The thought of actually HELPING Lord Fear," spat Greystagg.
"Nevertheless, the more foes the Dark One has the more his influence will be divided," said Aesandre.
"May I suggest we conduct our little operation in a relatively safer place?" Maldame asked.
"Where did you have in mind?" asked Aesandre.
"Marblehead!" grinned Maldame.
Meanwhile, Mellisandre and Gibbet were wandering down a tunnel of their own. She sighed.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"You haven't said more than two words in over an hour!" she cried. "I can't stand it!"
"What's there to talk about?" he snapped.
"Plenty!" she replied.
"Like what?" he sneered. Mellisandre paused.
"Uhm, well," she began but before she could finish, Gibbet had seen something and was bounding down the tunnel fast. It was all Mellisandre could do to keep up.
In a large T-junction a figure was suspended in mid-air, bathed in a green glow.
"Sidress!" breathed Mellisandre.
"She's unconscious," said Gibbett and looked at Mellisandre rather sheepishly.
"What should we do?" he asked. Mellisandre knew immediately.
"Malefact! Malefact! Malefact!" she cried.
[Great! I get a mention!!]
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There was a blinding flash and blue smoke filled the small area they were all crowded into.
"Who...eh-heh...who dares...khah khah!" Hordriss flapped his arms around, trying to find a place where he wouldn't choke. "What is the...eh-hah...meaning of bringing one into this...stuffy...small...khah!"
They all flapped their arms until the smoke had cleared, Hordriss looked quite embarrassed at his bungled entrance. He turned to reprimand Gibbet and Mellisandre but stopped, mouth hanging open as he saw what was suspended in the air behind them.
"Sidriss! My dear Sidriss!"
Hordriss grabbed for her ankle to use a re-awakening spell on her, which required contact, but his hand passed right through Sidriss' leg. Mellisandre and Gibbet looked puzzled, but a look of pure venom was in Hordriss' eyes.
"What on earth is wrong with the poor dear?" Cried Mellisandre. Gibbet just scratched his head.
"She looks like a ghost, almost."
Hordriss turned briefly to them, but didn't look into their eyes. "Nearly correct, Gibbet. This is not Sidriss...not all of her, anyhow. This is but her soul, captured here. This is the spot where she was apprehended." His voice was full of sorrow. "This mean that Sidriss is wandering the levels somewhere, a phantom, if you will. Most likely thinking she is still alive..."
Melly gasped. "Sidriss? She's dead?"
"Not quite. Mellisandre. We have until fifteen O'Clock strikes to bring her lost body-spirit back to her soul, or she will be lost from us forever. It will be hard, for this is not the work of Mogdred alone."
Gibbet was confused. "Not only him? But who? Why?"
Hordriss gazed into his daughter's soul's eyes, his face black as thunder.
"Damn your mother, Sidriss."
-
Back in the corridor of blades things were not going at all well. Although Treguard and Lord Fear had dodged several sets of blades they now looked in awe at what was ahead, well in the distance.
"A complete blade blocking....the...entire...corridor" stammered Lord Fear, "how in Marblehead do we get past that?"
Treguard took stock of the situation. They'd not yet come across any items or spells in Level Two and looking at the blade, there was really no hope for them. Suddenly he saw a brief flash in front of him. He strained to see what was going on and saw a lump of charcoal that seemed to shimmer as if it contained magic. A look of revelation and joy appeared on his face. He ran to the coal and picked it up and started to draw with it on the wall.
"Treguard what in blazes are you doing? We're about to get sliced for lunch and you take to doing doodles? Have you finally lost your mind?" mocked (and exclaimed) Fear.
"This coal is magic," started Treguard, "We are in Level Two which was Merlin's domain in the old phase."
"Your Merlin has a very odd way of helping out" scoffed Fear obviously understanding his meaning, "so what are you doing with it?"
"Once a quest involved a dungeoneer having to draw a wellway to continue, I'm betting this is the same thing..so I am drawing a portal"
"Well you'd better hurry up, the blade is getting a bit close for comfort" said Fear noticing the corridor conveyer was accelerating.
Treguard continued to make the portal, not even noticing the approaching blade.
"COME ON!!!" shouted Fear as the blade got within 10 metres of them. If they didn't get out of there then, they never would.
"Done" exclaimed Treguard. He grabbed hold of Fear and the pair of them fell through the portal just as blade skidded past where they had been standing seconds before
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