A Weapon Too Free

The Weapon

Essendra woke up in the dark.

At her Skill, she wouldn't have been KOed for long, but it was still terrifying to think that the bandits might have been looking for her while she was helpless. The first thing she could tell was that her health was low and her ankle was badly twisted, perhaps even broken. Given how long the fall had been she was lucky to have got away with only one Condition. The DropDown was still clutched tightly in one hand.

Without changing her position, she struck a match.

She was in a rough-walled cave, deep in the heart of the bluffs. The ceiling was far out of reach above her and thus there was no possibility of climbing back up the shaft. The walls lacked the tell-tale bulges of monster spawns, so she would be safe from monsters unless a patrol found her. There was a tunnel in one wall. She couldn't see far enough down it to have any idea where it might lead. Against the opposite wall sat a rough stone table.

Her pack had been taken but she still had the pouches on her belt. She only had two healixirs left after the adventure and both had survived the fall thanks to their thick bottles and the padding around them. The DropDown went into an empty pouch. She unstoppered one potion and poured the pale, sticky fluid over her ankle. The pain receded immediately. A few seconds later, the swelling did as well. It would only take a short while for it to be as good as new. The other potion she quaffed in one go. It only brought back some of her health. Enough to make her feel less vulnerable.

Her sword had been stolen and her dagger had been in her pack. She had a handful of matches, her light armour and the clothes she stood up in. If this cave was part of a dungeon she did not rate her chances of getting out alive. It wasn't part of the one they'd just cleared.

When she could put weight on her healing ankle, she walked over to the table.

There was nothing on it but a heavily corroded iron trestle, supporting a grossly oversized flanged mace. At that scale, she thought it had to be ceremonial.

When she lit her second match, she examined it more closely. It was a deep, almost copper colour. Presumably it had been plated with orichalcum, because that much solid orichalcum would have snapped the stone table in two under the weight. It was a truly ridiculous item, even if it was just for show. She brushed cobwebs off it. The metal had some intricate etchings. She couldn't make out any people, words or sigils in the design, but someone had clearly put a huge amount of work into it. At key places in the design there were large gemstones. Cheap, low quality ones, from what she could see. Which meant the plating was probably just a copper alloy made to look like orichalcum. The entire artefact was absurd.

It was, to her chagrin, the only thing resembling a weapon she had to hand. If there were any monsters about she wasn't prepared to fight them bare-handed.

It was lighter than she expected it to be. She wondered if it was hollow.

"Why would anyone Skill one of these?" she muttered. Blunt weapons had always seemed impractical to her. All her Techniques were for swords, anyway. Maybe if she threw it at a monster it would trip over the handle.

With a third match lit, she advanced down the tunnel.

The next cavern was much, much larger. There were glowing green crystals sticking out of the floor seemingly at random. The glow from the crystals didn't reach the roof. There was only one passage out, a far wider tunnel with a gentle upwards curve.  There were long grooves in the floor, seemingly at random, as though something heavy had been dragged around the room not once but several times.

She advanced slowly and carefully. She remembered a piece of advice Toolan had given her on her first adventure:

"Always be aware of your surroundings. Ambushes can come from any direction, even above or below."