Descending ropes through a crack, To a world lost in black.
At last the desperate and diminished party descends to level 5 of the dungeon.
We see them do this by rope through a crack in a layer of the earth deep below ground. I wrote it this way to speak to how I see dungeons in my fantasy games, which I referenced in part 1.
Like layered cake beneath the ground, Lie ancient halls to be found.
Time varies deep these worlds of yore, one atop the one before.
From days of glory long ago, way down deep where a few dare go
Watch a few documentaries on excavations of ancient cities, temples. Empires rise and fall, but we generally build on top of the ruins of the one that came before. Like layers of a cake stretching back through the ages.
This is how I see dungeons and dungeon delving. Eon upon eon of civilizations building upon the remains of the ones that have come before. Creating an endless labyrinth of caverns, catacombs, ruins, and sunken cities.
Returning to our hero, we find that they are resolved to the fate the party now faces. Lost in an alien world deep below, they encounter a creature of nightmares.
Behold the beast of many eyes, In madness I flee as companions die.
Our doomed hero fleas for their life seeking any crack or crevice it offers refuge. And then they speak directly to the reader, as if these words had been found carved scratched into stone.
Did our hero live? If so, what became of them? Did they escape? How long were they lost In the deep dark ?
I leave that up to the reader.
But there is an NPC that players occasionally encounter in my world. They never learn their name, though locals might refer to them as Bug or Bob. A blind mad wreck of a man who rambles incoherently about a vast and ancient treasure deep in the earth. And of an expedition lost to the horrors that lurk deep within the earth.
And that brings us to the end of the Deliver’s Rhyme. Is for now. Hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it.
-DF
