Death Of An Author: A Middang3ard Novella Read online

  “After you got out of the room, the tour guide finally let you in on the joke. The house wasn’t haunted. Whoever built it had decided to slightly distort the angles of all the rooms. There were very slight variations, only noticeable if you really got up there and looked. If you were just walking around or living in it, you never would notice. It still affected you, though. Same with the bricks. They look like they’re uniform, but if you look closely, you can see that all of them are a little off. Probably like that for the whole room.”

  “Why would this room be like that?” Dakota asked.

  “To make us dizzy. I don’t know why it would want us to be dizzy, though.”

  “Maybe the whole dungeon is designed to irritate us,” Dakota quipped.

  Robyn laughed and stepped in. As soon as his foot touched a brick, there was a mechanical click somewhere in the dull-white room.

  Dawn instinctively reached out and grabbed Robyn, pulling him back through the doorframe. An arrow whizzed past where Robyn had been standing. If Dawn hadn’t grabbed him, the arrow would have passed straight through Robyn’s chest.

  “Holy fucking shit,” Robyn yelped. He leaned forward and started hyperventilating. Dawn and Dakota rubbed his back until he calmed down and stood upright. “Thanks, Dawn,” he managed to wheeze out.

  Dawn knelt and inspected the stone Robyn had stepped on. She lightly touched it and waited for the sound of a gear turning, but there was nothing. She pressed a little harder and felt the brick’s mechanism being triggered. Then came the click they had all heard, and another arrow went by. If Dawn had been standing on the brick, it would have gone straight through her throat. She looked up at Robyn. “Lucky you’re so tall,” she said. “We could probably pull an arrow out of your ribs. If Dakota had been on this, though, it would have cut straight through his jugular.”

  Dakota pouted as he crossed his arms. “Why are you using me as an example?”

  “Just to fuck with you. So, now we know why the room wants us to be dizzy.”

  “Do we have to keep referring to what the room wants?” Dakota asked. “I think it’s really weird.”

  Robyn rolled his eyes. “Okay, now we know why the creator of the room wants us to be dizzy.”

  “Hmmm. That’s not that much better.”

  Dawn looked up at Lindsay, who was scrolling through the HUD menus. “Where do we go from here?”

  “You know,” Lindsay said, “we all have different classes, and every class has a different set of skills. We’re a pretty balanced party. There might be something in your skills list that could help with this. You are a thief. I found this…tutorial thing in my HUD. It has a list of spells I can use. It reads kind of like stereo instructions, but I’m kinda getting the point. You probably have something like that, too. If anyone would be able to find traps, I’d assume it was the thief.”

  Dawn pulled up her HUD and started scrolling. She opened any menu that seemed like it would be of any help. There weren’t many. The HUD menus were extremely confusing. Most of the folders or options were written in military jargon that meant nothing to Dawn. Stuff like Directive Protocols or Introduction to Nodule Hierarchy. After a few minutes of searching, Dawn was ready to give up and just wing it. She opened one last folder, and the document that popped up seemed much more promising. It was titled Parameters of Thieves and Striders, a Primer.

  The document was not so much an explanation as a list. The list included passive and active skills. Dawn didn’t concern herself with any of the passive skills. She was looking for something specific to deal with traps. There were a lot of active skills concerning laying traps, which she wanted to come back and read. She wasn’t certain how long she was going to be in Middang3ard, but who knew, there might be time for some light reading.

  After a couple more minutes of frustrating searching, Dawn found what she was looking for—detailed instructions on how to search for traps. Detailed was what she had been hoping for. The document was anything but detailed. It basically boiled down to, look for traps with your eyes. Remember where they are. Dawn sighed as she closed down her HUD. She looked into the room. Even though there was nothing to be seen, the HUD read 11% chance of success.

  Dakota paced, waiting for something to happen. He finally stopped pacing and turned to Dawn. “Did you find anything helpful?” he asked.

  Dawn forced a laugh and then pulled the hood of her cloak over her head. “Yeah, this’ll be a piece of cake. Super-easy. I got the eyes for this, remember?” Dawn knelt so she was closer to the bricks, then closed her eyes and focused on the idea of finding traps. When she opened her eyes, the bricks were still there, plain as day, but there was something else. Some of the bricks were different colors. Dawn looked at the walls, which were also multicolored. In the coloration of the floor bricks, Dawn could make out a pattern, one that could be easily walked.

  “Got it,” Dawn said. “All you gotta do is follow me, and then we’re done with the room.”

  Lindsay smiled and clapped Dawn on the shoulder. “Sweet!” she exclaimed. “You can see all the traps?”

  “Uh…sort of. I can see which bricks will trigger a trap. I don’t know what the traps are, but I figure we should stay off those bricks. You catch my drift?”

  “Gotcha. I’ve never been an extremely curious person when it comes to things that can kill me.”

  “Yeah, I wish I could agree with you on that. Everyone ready?”

  This was the first time they were going to have to all trust one person, which was the kind of stuff that made or broke a party. Dawn hoped this wasn’t going to blow up in her face. Even though she had only just gotten to Middang3ard, she was already slowly being infected with a love for the journey. She hoped this was setting a good tone for the rest of what the Wordsmiths were trying to accomplish. She hoped this was a step in her hero’s journey.

  Chapter Seven

  Dawn looked closely at the multicolored bricks and tried to commit them to memory. There was just enough space in the pattern that she and the Wordsmiths could walk single-file through the room. She wasn’t sure how far back it went, though, and from where she was standing, it seemed like the room stretched on forever.

  Maybe there was another mechanism that was responsible for that illusion.

  Either way, it wasn’t something they were going to figure out standing around. It was time to start moving. “I’ll take the first step. Follow me, and try not to step anywhere I don’t,” Dawn directed.

  The Wordsmiths nodded their understanding, and Dawn stepped into the room. The brick her foot pressed down on didn’t click; it was safe. She stepped on another brick the same color. No arrows fired. I got this, she thought. Just gotta make sure to stay on the yellow bricks. like following the Yellow Brick Road.

  Lindsay followed Dawn closely. She didn’t seem to have the same trepidation as Dawn, most likely because Dawn was the one taking the biggest risk. If an arrow fired, it would hit Dawn. If that did happen, though, the Wordsmiths would be in deep shit. Without Dawn, they could end up stranded in the middle of the room, not knowing which bricks were deadly.

  And they only knew about the arrows.

  There could be a wide variety of other traps in the room.

  “Are you sure you can’t see anything else?” Lindsay asked, practically breathing down Dawn’s neck.

  Dawn looked over her shoulder at Lindsay. “Yeah, all I got are the bricks,” Dawn replied. “I don’t think we need to try to figure out what the rest of the bricks do. Probably kill us. Let’s just leave it at that.”

  Robyn and Dakota followed Lindsay, Dakota smiling widely as he took the rear. He looked at the bricks they were treading upon, trying to figure out how they were different than the others. He was slightly jealous that Dawn had the ability to see traps, but after scrolling through his own HUD looking for the same skill, he hadn’t found anything.

  That being said, he was slightly relieved that Dawn was taking the bulk of the risk at the moment. Dakota would have g
ladly stepped up to the plate if he had to, but he was painfully aware of how nervous he would have been in that situation. At least Dawn wasn’t freaking out about anything.

  Or she didn’t look like she was freaking out.

  That was the part that mattered.

  Dawn raised her hand, signaling for everyone to stop, then knelt and looked at the bricks in front of her. They were (Dawn hoped, at least) a third of the way through the room. The bricks in front of Dawn had changed colors. There were no more yellow bricks or any of the other colors that she had seen. Instead, they had been replaced with white, black, pink, and green bricks. There was less of a path between any of the bricks as well. They were going to have to jump to the safe bricks, but first, they were going to have to figure out which ones were safe.

  Dakota peeked around the queue and coughed to get Dawn’s attention. “There a problem?” he asked.

  Dawn didn’t bother looking around, but she gave Dakota a thumbs-up. “Not a problem,” she called back. “Just an interesting situation. The pattern’s changed, so we’re going to have to figure out what these new bricks do.”

  “Couldn’t that—”

  “Result in us getting killed?” Dawn replied. “Yes, I am very aware of that. But if we figure this out now, we can make sure we don’t walk on anything that’s going to get us dead.”

  Dawn unsheathed her dagger. There was a brick directly in front of her of each of the different colors. She pressed on the green one with her knife. The tile depressed slightly, and Dawn could hear a mechanism click. “All right, guys, get ready, and stay low!” Dawn shouted. Just as Dawn had assumed, an arrow shot by at about head-level. She prepared to stand but heard another click. “Stay down!” Four more arrows fired. “All right, that’s one down.”

  Dawn pressed on the white stone and heard the same click. This time, a mechanical arm descended from the ceiling. At the end of the arm was a buzz saw that would have sliced Dawn in half if she had been standing.

  Once the buzz saw finished its arc, it returned to the ceiling.

  Robyn sighed heavily as he squirmed in his spot in the queue. “Are you kidding me?” he whined. “Now we have buzz saws coming down from the ceiling to deal with too? Why do I have to be so friggin’ tall?”

  Dawn was still focused on the tiles in front of her. “Arrows, saws, and one last thing.” She sighed as she prodded the pink brick. There was another mechanical click. Somewhere in the room, a door could be heard sliding open. “Fuck, that doesn’t sound good.” Dawn sighed.

  On the left side of the room, a door had opened in the wall. It was difficult to make out because it was so dark, but there were glowing eyes beyond it.

  All of the Wordsmiths turned to face the door, very aware that their situation had just gone from bad to worse. Dawn scrolled through her menu, looking for something to help. She couldn’t find anything and was growing frantic as a handful of roars came from the newly opened door. In frustration, she screamed, “Reveal all traps!”

  Her HUD hummed, and all the stones in the floor vibrated.

  Lindsay squealed in excitement. “Oh, I can see the colors,” Lindsay exclaimed. “Which one’s the good one?”

  “Black! Stay on the black tiles!”

  Just as Dawn shouted, the creatures from the new door poured into the room. They were goblins, and there were at least ten of them. They were heavily armed and screamed as they ran into the room, completely oblivious to the color-coded stones.

  That was when all hell broke loose.

  As the goblins stormed the room, they set off the traps. Arrows flew through the air and buzz saws lowered behind and ahead of the goblins, who were brandishing their swords and axes.

  Dawn jumped to one of the black tiles and pulled out her bow. She took aim at the closest goblin and fired. The arrow hit the goblin in the chest, but it didn’t seem to care. It was still running at Dawn. The goblin tackled Dawn, knocking her onto the brick behind her. She heard it click as she reached for her daggers. A buzz saw dropped from the ceiling as Dawn stabbed the goblin. The buzz saw ripped through the goblin as Dawn used her feet to push the goblin into the saw, its body ripping down the middle and covering Dawn with its guts.

  Across from Dawn, Lindsay leapt to one of the black bricks. She pulled out her wand and aimed it at the goblin closest to her. A fireball erupted from her wand and scorched the creature. As the goblin fell to the ground, it triggered the stone in front of it. Lindsay jumped to the closest black tile as five arrows flew past her, one of them nicking the back of her neck. As she landed on the black brick, another goblin tackled her, knocking her onto another stone.

  Another door opened, and the more goblin screams could be heard.

  Lindsay stared at the new door and the goblins rampaging out of it and cast another fireball in their direction. “Are you kidding me?” she shouted. “Every one of the tiles opens a new door? Are they just sitting in there waiting for us? How is that even possible? Have they just been cooped up, waiting to kill whoever happens to step on one of these traps? What do they do in their spare time?”

  Three goblins were coming after Robyn. He had his shield up and was trying to reason with the slavering monsters. “I’m pretty sure we can work this out. You know, you’re probably really grouchy from having been…imprisoned for so long. If anything, we did you a favor. We released you, so you can go on and live whatever kind of life you want to live outside this dungeon.”

  One of the goblins threw his axe at Robyn. “We been waiting to kill whoever was dumb enough to come to this dungeon,” the goblin screeched. “Dumb, like you!”

  The goblin flung itself at Robyn, who took a step back, careful not to trigger a different brick. He raised his shield and deflected the goblin, then he drew his sword and buried it in the goblin’s back as the other goblins approached. Robyn managed to handle the other two, blocking their attacks and ducking to avoid the arrows that were now filling the air. One of the goblins was struck by one such arrow. Robyn saw his chance, and he ducked and brought his sword up in between the goblin’s legs, splitting the creature in half. Half the creature full to the right, and the other half fell to the left, unfortunately falling onto one of the white tiles.

  Another door of goblins opened up.

  The room had quickly become a place of pure, unadulterated chaos.

  Magic choked the air as Lindsay cast fireball after fireball, trying to stay in one spot while avoiding the attacks of goblins and the traps which were being triggered all around her.

  Dakota was taking a different route. Rather than standing in the same place, Dakota was making his way through the room, staying on the black bricks Dawn had indicated as being safe. He picked off goblins that were too close or harassing his party members.

  Dakota’s aim was unnervingly good.

  Dawn saw him out of the corner of her eye and was deeply impressed that Dakota was hardly taking time to aim. He just nocked his arrows and drew, then let fly, and the arrows nearly always found their mark.

  Must be some kind of passive skill, Dawn thought. Honestly, I’m surprised I’ve hit anything with my bow. And where the hell does he think he’s going? Better not be trying to jump ship already. Then it clicked. Dakota was doing the only thing that could be done—trying to fight the goblins in this room was obviously the trap. Everything else could have been easily avoided if you knew what you were looking for, but once you threw a couple dozen goblins into the mix, it didn’t matter if you knew which brick set what off.

  The goblins are going to be setting everything off, and the only thing to be done was to run.

  Dawn took off after Dakota. As she ran, she shouted back toward Robyn and Lindsay, “Come on, we gotta go! There’s no way we’re going to be able to keep fighting them off!”

  Robyn kicked a goblin and beheaded it with his shield, then wiped blood from his face and nodded his assent. He sheathed his sword and tried to follow Dawn as quickly as he could, being careful not to step on any other stones bu
t the black ones.

  Lindsay wasn’t far behind him. She jumped from brick to brick, levitating slightly before gently touching down on each black tile.

  The horde of goblins was drooling and screeching, beating their chests with their weapons and running after them, their teeth sharp and waiting to sink into flesh. The goblins didn’t care what color stone they stepped on. Arrows continued to fly as buzz saws fell from the ceiling. Doorways emitting more goblins could be heard opening.

  Dawn had finally caught up with Dakota. They were both noticeably faster than Robyn and Lindsay. It must have had something to do with their classes. Robyn was probably stronger than both of them combined, but that wasn’t important at the moment. Speed was.

  That and Dawn could see the end of the room.

  There was a huge door, not unlike the one they had passed when they’d first entered the dungeon. In front of the door, there was a massive stone that wasn’t color-coded like the other bricks Dawn had unlocked. The doorway and the stone brick reeked of a trap, and the two Wordsmiths avoided stepping on the brick as they tried to figure out what their next course of action should be.

  Unfortunately, Robyn had not seen Dawn or Dakota stop. He had been too busy trying to remove a goblin that had latched onto his back.

  If he had seen Dawn and Dakota halt, he would have done the same.

  He would have spent some time trying to figure out how to get around the obvious trouble, or he would have guarded the two bow-wielders as they tried to understand the nature of the puzzle.

  Instead, Robyn ran right past Dawn and Dakota, only barely stopping before his foot hit the tile, and barely catching himself as he realized Dawn and Dakota had chosen not to go forward for a reason.

  And because Robyn was not a ranger or a thief, he lacked the dexterity and grace of either Dawn or Dakota and lost his balance after teetering back and forth for a few seconds. He fell onto the stone brick, which clicked with heavy finality as it depressed and slowly sank into the floor.