RuneScape Forum Archive | SotD2: The Cycle Breaks

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Chapter 8

“And then the wolves attacked Raylin and bit me. Raylin was eaten alive, but I escaped. I’ve been wandering ever since,” Krystal finished. She exhaled slowly, blowing knots of hair from her eyes.

“Wow,* Lance murmured. “That’s…that’s incredible. So…this isn’t a contest at all?”

“Nope,” Krystal returned flatly. “It’s a death trap. I’m the only survivor, so far as I know. You’d think that after living in this place for five years, you’d meet up with anyone else who made it. Then again, who knows? This dungeon isn’t normal, that’s for sure.”

“So what do we do?”

“Live as long as we can.* Krystal shrugged. “I’ve survived a heck of a lot. There were quite a few times I could have fallen in a spike pit, gotten eaten alive, smashed to smithereens, the Gods know what else. Theonalios made quite a dungeon.”

“Theonalios?” Lance blurted. The name was slightly familiar.

Krystal glanced oddly at him. Her eyes narrowed. “The…the necromancer,” she explained slowly, uncertainly. Her look suggested she thought he was as crazy as she was.

“The fellow who started our contest is named Dramen Naar,” Lance replied in the same tone. “Theonalios…the name rings a bell. I think he died about five years ago.”

“A staged death to clear his name and allow him to start over, you think?” Krystal wondered aloud.

“Or two entirely different people working for a greater cause?” Lance suggested. Krystal shrugged.

“Does it matter?” she replied simply. “I doubt we can do much about it.” Lance sighed.

“I guess you’re right,” he agreed. Krystal’s eyes flickered to his arm, which was bleeding and pulsing painfully.

“So what happened to you?” she questioned. Lance launched into his tale, explaining how Amy had saved him from the gnomes, and then describing her horrible death on the spikes. Krystal’s eyes were shadowed with memory of her own lover’s death to a spike pit and she murmured sympathetically. Then she looked up at him and a smile stretched across her face.

27-Jun-2011 20:16:47 - Last edited on 28-Jun-2011 01:05:57 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“You look familiar…Tyell? Oh, Gods, it’s you!” She jumped to her feet and threw her arms around him. “I can’t believe you’re alive! After the assassins got you – seven times, they stabbed you! I’m so sorry I left you for dead…” Lance blinked. She was losing it again. He sighed. He’d just have to wait it out.

She released him and looked around. “But where am I?” she murmured. “What is this place?”

Lance fought a brief mental battle with himself. Finally, he made his choice. “Krystal,” he said slowly. “I’m not Tyell. You’re in the necromancer’s dungeon.”

She laughed. “Don’t be silly! Don’t tell me your brains were addled when they attacked you too!” She flung her arms around him once more and he groaned with the pain.

“I’m not Tyell,” he echoed. “I’m Lance.” She only giggled again and gazed up at him with her clear yellow eyes. “Krystal, snap out of it.”

She stood on her toes and kissed him gently. “Lance? Who’s Lance? Come on, Tyell, don’t play games with me,” she whispered against his neck. Lance grunted and tensed.

“I’m not Tyell,” he repeated more firmly. He decided to try a different stance. “I’m Seth.”

It was the wrong thing to say, though it had much more effect. She wailed and hugged him tighter than ever. "Oh, Seth!” she murmured. “I’m so sorry for what’s going to happen.”

“What?” Lance blurted, even though he knew. He had to play the part.

“Gods, oh Seth…Something’s going to happen to you. You – you have to know that I don’t want it to happen. I don’t want it to. I’m going to hurt you, just know that it’s an accident, Seth. I love you, I don’t want to hurt you…” She pulled away from the tight embrace and captured him once more with her bright eyes.

Suddenly, those eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed on the floor. “Krystal!” Lance shouted. He slapped her face as it turned deathly pale, trying to bring some color back to her cheeks. Her eyes fluttered open once more.

27-Jun-2011 20:17:03 - Last edited on 28-Jun-2011 01:06:18 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Wha -- what happened?” she stuttered thickly.

Lance sunk to his knees, breathing heavily with relief. “You…you thought I was someone else,” he replied simply.

“Oh,” was all she said. Her eyes caught on his arm again. “You should bind that,” she suggested. Lance winced.

“I can’t, not one handed. Can you help me? Here, use my shirt.” Krystal picked herself off the floor and crawled to him on her hands and knees. He groaned in agony as she gingerly picked up the useless arm and set it in her lap. Then she gently tore a wide strip from his shirt and bound the top of his shoulder. Blood stained his clothing, but no fresh crimson joined the old.

Lance stood shakily. Krystal grabbed his sword and set it in his hands. “I’m sorry,” she told him sadly. “I did*’t mean – “

Lance shook his head. “I understand. It’s all right.” In mutual silence the two traveled back down the hall.

***

Matthew trudged aimlessly through the hallway. He had no idea where he was going and did*’t care any more. It had been hours since Amy’s death and his encounter with the wolves. Something was wrong with him, he could feel it. His skin itched and prickled, and when he gazed down at his forearms he could have sworn the skin was writhing.

Then it got worse. He reached a hand up to his nose and it came away soaked in blood. Terrified, his hands searched his face until he found the slowly receding edge of his skin. He staggered against the wall in shock. What had happened the werewolf was happening to him, only much slower. He stumbled blindly onward as the peeling got worse. Bits of his flesh simply fell to the floor like fruit peels. As this strange disease began to reach his neck and his skin crawled away under his shirt, he reached a door.

***

“Z-Zamorak?” Katherine stuttered. Zamorak leaned comfortably against the chair.

“So, it looks like we have another ‘contest’,” he sighed. “Tell me, are any of you Armadylist?” His cold crimson eyes scrutinized each adventurer in turn.

27-Jun-2011 20:17:18 - Last edited on 28-Jun-2011 01:06:45 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The four shared a look, mutual agreement between them. Finally, Glevea nodded. “Yes. Some of us.”

The Chaos Master grinned. “Oh, good, that means I can get rid of that,” he said with a pointed look at Ellya’s mangled entrails. He snapped his fingers and the entire structure went up in flame. Eventually it guttered out, leaving nothing but ash.

Exile glared at him. “Tell me, what in all Hells is a god doing in this hole? And what did you mean in the way you said contest? Like it wasn’t one? And what was the thing you just burned?”

Zamorak’s eyes flashed. “Don’t be rude, mortal,” he snapped. “I’m a god. I could kill you in an instant. Look what I did to her.” He gestured to the heap that had once been a loving, cheerful, innocent girl. “Melted her skin off, put her back together, and fried her in an instant.”

Exile snorted. “You wouldn’t, though. You obviously need us, look what you did to the girl. I would guess she was Armadylist. You need an Armadylist. Why, I have no idea. But you don’t know which one of us is Armadylist, so you can’t risk killing any of us, can you?” Katherine clutched his arm.

“Easy, Exile,” she murmured.

Zamorak cackled softly. “Oh, how cute,” he drawled sarcastically. “You two love each other.”

“Maybe,” Katherine snapped defensively. “What’s it to you if we did? Answer his question.”

The God’s eyes narrowed. “Clever thinking like that, man, could make you an outstanding follower of mine. You’re obviously not going to, though.” He paused a moment in thought. As he opened his mouth to speak, however, the door burst open, and a terribly disfigured figure almost dripping flakes of skin flung itself inside.

“Matthew?” gasped Glevea incredulously. “What –“ she couldn’t finish. She could only stare at his mangled body.

27-Jun-2011 20:17:42 - Last edited on 28-Jun-2011 01:07:07 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

His skull was almost entirely bare. Bits of cheek and jaw muscle clung tightly to the bone by stretching sinews. His eyes were nearly falling out of the sockets, trembling with each step. Past his head, his neck was peeled to reveal his twitching spine and neck muscle. Matthew, however, only had eyes for the god that presided in the room******-Zam-Zamorak!” he spluttered in recognition, remembering what the angels had told him. His mouth was almost unable to form words, having lost the shape of his lips. There was some flesh remaining beneath the skin, however misshapen, and it worked. He turned to the adventurerss, collapsing weakly to his knees. “Trap…death…Zaros…Staff-Armadyl…” each word was separated by gasps for air and moans of pain. His shirt had fallen away in tatters as he clawed madly at his chest. His lungs, visible behind his bloodied ribcage, clenched and unclenched with each strangled breath.

“Careful…Trap…Kill…Armadylist…safe…staff…out…” he croaked. A foul, rotten smell descended upon the room, emanating from the rapidly decomposing body of Matthew. Zamorak watched intently for any flash of emerald – he knew the cause of the warrior’s death and how the gas worked. All of the gas, it seemed, was used up in shredding Matthew’s body. It was slowly expended and used up until there was none left.

Finally, Matthew’s body lay on the floor beside the remains of Ellya. His blood leaked to the stones and spattered across them, seeping through the cracks and inching toward the rug where the five other occupants stood. He no longer had the strength to resist what was eating at him. Before he had struggled to stay intact and it wore him down slowly. Now it consumed him at a rapid rate until there was almost nothing left. His lungs filled with air once more.

“Alyson…” he whispered, and then he lay still.

27-Jun-2011 20:18:02 - Last edited on 28-Jun-2011 01:07:28 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The name hung suspended in the heavy silence as everyone took in what had happened. For Glevea’s stomach, it was too much to digest. She threw up violently on the floor. Some spattered nearly to Zamorak’s boots and he wrinkled his nose in disgust. Then he smiled coldly at the four.

“Well, it looks like I did*’t half to explain after all,” he sneered.

Exile snorted. “You call that an explanation? I think we all need you to clarify. What I heard was a bunch of a dying man’s babbling.”

Zamorak chuckled softly and steepled his fingers. “I’m sure you all know some basic history? Back when Zaros had the staff of Armadyl, he was unbeatable. He more or less took over the world and ravaged it. It took all four of us other gods – Saradomin, Armadyl, Guthix, and myself – to wrest it from him. Without the staff, he was no longer immune to Armadyl’s magic. With the rest of us keeping Zaros under control, Armadyl decided to hide the staff. He created this dungeon, a fine labyrinth, to conceal it. It is guarded with all sorts of magic. Zaros would be able to conjure up an image of the staff in the dungeon, get all the maps he wanted of it, but one spell prevents one from teleporting to a specific point. He would be hard-pressed to survive if he did*’t land close to the staff. You see, another spell prevents teleporting within the dungeon. And I’m sure by now you have discovered that there are more than a few dangers in here to keep him busy.

“Let us say that Zaros was able to get to the staff. If he dared stick his hand within the barrier surrounding it, he would feel some immense pain, be knocked out for a time, and have gotten nowhere. None but a pure Armadylist can touch the staff. So, Zaros, defeated, would try to teleport himself out. Nothing would happen. There is only one way out of this dungeon – the staff.”

At that second, the door clicked open and two figures entered. Zamorak glanced at them. “Join the storytelling,” he offered brightly.

27-Jun-2011 20:18:27 - Last edited on 28-Jun-2011 01:07:58 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Who are you?” gasped one of the new occupants. The voice was feminine. The figure was short, with tattered clothing and a head of hair tangled so much that it was almost impossible to see the face. The figure clawed the hair aside to reveal a female face, with blazing golden eyes and a frowning mouth. Odd patches of fur covered her body.

“Lance?” asked Exile as he stared at the bloodied figure beside the werewolf.

“It looks like introductions are needed.” Zamorak clapped his hands for attention. “I am Zamorak.” The girl let out a startled yelp. The master of chaos laughed. “I won*t kill you, don’t worry. I actually haven’t found out the names of my companions here, though I have told them quite a bit. Are you members of the latest contest too?”

“I’m from the one about five years ago,” Krystal explained. “I’m Krystal.” As she waited for others to speak, she ran her fingers through her hair to comb it out. It appeared a foolish attempt, the knots were too large for fingers to free.

“What?” blurted Exile. Zamorak laughed.

“I haven’t gotten to that part of the story yet. Krystal, I’m sorry to say your friend Ellya is dead.” He offered a mocking expression of grief, then continued speaking. “I can continue as soon as I know your names.” He pointed to Lance.

“Lance.”

“Exile.”

“Katherine.”

“Glevea.”

“Larvald.”

“Good, good. Now I can continue,” the god said cheerfully. “To recap for our latest guests, I was explaining the point of this. It’s not a contest.*

*It’s a death trap. Theonalios, or Dramen, or whoever that necromancer is – he wants to kill us,” Krystal informed them flatly.

Zamorak frowned. “Not quite. It seems whoever visited you was not fully informed.”

27-Jun-2011 20:19:03 - Last edited on 28-Jun-2011 01:08:18 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Allow me to bring you to the point where I was in the story,” Zamorak offered with mock generosity. “In a brief version, of course. Armadyl’s staff is in this dungeon. Zaros wants it. He can’t risk coming in here because magic around it makes it impossible to teleport out. Plus, he can’t touch the staff anyway, only an Armadylist can. The staff is the only way out.”

“So clever Zaros devised another way to get the staff. He holds contests. They are not death traps, though. He doesn’t want to kill you. Those of you that aren’t Armadylists are merely…expendable. Although, he doesn’t know which of you are Armadylist. Only Armadyl does. But the contests are held in hopes that an Armadylist will enter, find the staff, touch it and be teleported out straight to him. From there he can take it and go wreak havoc,” Zamorak finished.

“And how did you get here?” Lance demanded suspiciously.

“How? I teleported in.” Zamorak grinned wickedly at his own joke. “I believe you meant why am I here? The last contest was about five years ago. Krystal is from that one. All your friends are dead, I’m afraid. I saw what happened to Seth. Terrible mess, that.” Lance had to grab her arm with his one good hand to restrain her from leaping at him. Her swords flashed in her clawed hands and she struggled against his grip, but he managed to calm her.

27-Jun-2011 20:19:24 - Last edited on 28-Jun-2011 01:08:39 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Anyway, there was only one Armadylist left. She was relatively close. We couldn’t risk letting her get the staff. I wanted to kill her. The rest of the gods objected, but I went anyway. Now before the contest five years ago, the last one was about a century before that. He stops every once in a while to let things die down, you see. So I had plain forgotten how this place worked. I went into the dungeon, killed Ellya, went to teleport out, and was stuck. None of my fine brothers bothered to tell me that that would happen, of course. So I had to piece Ellya back together – I need to perfect that new spell, it’s a little messy. Sort of like what happened to your friend over there,” he gestured to Matthew, “—but anyway, I put her back together and I’ve been wandering for five years, hoping I would find the staff and she could get me out. I still haven’t found it.”

“Wow…” Katherine gasped. Exile leaned against her for support and patted her arm.

“Maybe we can all look together?” suggested Lance.

Zamorak laughed. “We will. I’ll admit, I need at least one of you. I know one of you is Armadylist. I don’t know which. But you’re all sticking with me. One of you will get me out of here.”

“And if we don’t want to go with you?” snarled Exile. Fire flared at Zamorak’s fingertips.

*Exile, you really don’t have a choice.”

End of Chapter

27-Jun-2011 20:19:43 - Last edited on 28-Jun-2011 01:08:58 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Chapter 9

Exile wrinkled his nose in disgust, but did not reply. Zamorak grinned, knowing he was in complete control again, and looked around. There were three doors in the room. He said as much. “So if you all came through those two doors,” he pointed to the doors behind Lance and Krystal, and then the group of four, “we know the staff isn’t back there. I came through one of those doors myself. I was stopping here to rest and see if I could conjure up a bite to eat. Can you spare some food for me? I don’t think I’ve eaten in about a week.”

“You have to eat?” blurted Lance. He was surprised that a god needed food.

“Well, technically, not eating wouldn’t kill me. I’m really just a spirit. But I assumed a human shape, and the human body needs food. I cannot be just a spirit on Gielenor, only in Heaven. Normally though, I assume the human shape in Heaven too. They’ve got good food up there, and I can’t appreciate it if I can’t eat it,” Zamorak explained wryly.

“Heaven?” echoed Glevea blankly. “I thought you had your own separate Hell.”

“Well, mine and Zaros’ really,” Zamorak corrected. “When we first came into existence, we were all in Heaven. But Zaros and I, we got sick of the good folks, so we created a Hell that was more to our evil liking. But it’s just as bad down there with him. It’s a touch choice between Guthix’s mindless prattle and Zaros’ constant plotting. I don’t see how he does that; all that thinking would give me a headache. Anyway, I choose Heaven, better food. That and I blew up all the slaves down there – put there just for that purpose – over a good thousand years ago. So there’s really nothing for me in Hell anyway.” He shrugged. “Now, some food?”

“Why should we help you?” snarled Katherine.

“Ah, well, your choice,” Zamorak replied nonchalantly. “As I was saying, I was going to go through this door.” He flourished a hand toward the oaken frame behind him. “So, shall we go? I think we may be close.*

27-Jun-2011 20:20:50 - Last edited on 28-Jun-2011 01:09:29 by Crystal Smee

Forums

SotD2: The Cycle Breaks