Chapter Three: Allies and Enemies

Tara swung open the shop door quickly. Inside the shopkeeper was waiting next to the door as usual. Tara slammed the door shut behind her.

“Is something wrong?” the shopkeeper asked.

“Gareth has gone missing, my best weapon has been ruined, I’m almost out of darts and to top it all off there’s an army of black ooze things after me. No, this is just another average adventure in Nethack,” Tara complained.

“Ah. Don’t sound so surprised. You should have heard what happened to the last guy to come through here! Apparently he was attacked by three woodchucks on level 7, but then he did seem a bit prone to...” the shopkeeper began.

“Another guy? Who was it?” Tara asked.

“I couldn’t tell you exactly he acted rather secretive. He wouldn’t tell me his name or anything. I got a bit worried about my stock for a while, he looked like a bit of a rogue you know, but he didn’t try to steal anything. He even paid a bit extra as a tip!” the shopkeeper recounted happily.

“An honourable rogue? What kind of screwed...” Tara began, then stopped in mid-sentence, remembering why she came in. “Do you have any teleporting items? Or some kind of ultra-powerful weapon to take out a million stupid oozes? I’m in a bit of trouble.”

“I’m not allowed to tell you what the items we have are. It’s orders from Him. But just between you and me, I’m sure you’ll find your troubles will mange to wave themselves away somehow,” the shopkeeper said. Tara stared at him.

“What?” Tara asked confused.

“I’m sure if you stick with it you should be fine,” the shopkeeper said carefully. Tara still didn’t understand what he was going on about.

“Huh? How am I supposed to be fine when I’ve been cornered by a large group of black oozing things?” Tara complained. The shopkeeper sighed.

“I know, it’s really a shame you can’t wander out there. You don’t happen to have any way to teleport do you?” the shopkeeper said, glancing meaningfully towards the back of the shop.

“I already said that...” Tara began, getting annoyed. The shopkeeper signed in exasperation.

“Oh for heaven’s sake, there is a wand of teleport at the back of the shop there, the curved wand. Have you got an intelligence score of three or something?” The shopkeeper said. Tara frowned.

“Well you could have just said so,” she said. Tara walked down to the back of the store and picked up the curved wand there. Tara swung it experimentally, and was surprised to see a row of items disappear.

“You owe me six hundred and twenty seven zorkmids for those items!” the shopkeeper said cheerfully. Tara checked her pockets to find she only had about forty zorkmids.

“Uh... how much will you pay for these darts?” Tara asked, displaying the six enchanted darts she had left. The shopkeeper strode over and took a closer look at them.

“Sixty-six zorkmids,” the shopkeeper declared. Tara thought for a moment. She didn’t have anything else valuable that she didn’t want to keep. She didn’t want to steal the wand, but it didn’t look like she terribly much choice.

“You don’t suppose I could work my debt of or something?” Tara asked. The shopkeeper shook his head.

“No. You know if you don’t pay me the money I’m going to be forced to call the kops,” the shopkeeper said casually. Tara looked around. If she was going to become a wanted criminal in this dungeon she might as well make it worth it. Tara picked up a second wand, two scrolls, a few items of food, a potion and a the crystal ring she had wanted earlier. She winked cheekily at the shopkeeper.

“See you later then!” Tara said, pointing the wand at herself. To her dismay nothing happened. Tara ignored the calls from the shopkeeper and waved the wand again. Tara became worried, and waved the thing quickly, hoping the thing would work. Suddenly the wand turned to dust, and she felt herself being moved. Tara felt a bit sick, and looked around. She was in an unfamiliar part of the level. Nearby Tara could hear many running feet and the blowing of whistles. She shook her head to clear it, and looked around. There was a staircase nearby leading downwards, so she made for that.

Joe stared at the barbarian. Neither spoke for nearly a minute, until Joe broke the silence.

“What do you want?” Joe asked nervously, glancing at the sword in the barbarian’s hand.

“Drop all of your money and items,” the barbarian said. Joe reluctantly placed all of his items and gold on the floor, then stepped backwards, not breaking eye contact. “And your equipment!” the barbarian yelled. Joe stripped off his armour and placed it down. “The scimitar!” the barbarian yelled. Joe shook his head slowly.

“It’s cursed, I can’t unwield it,” Joe said, trying and failing to drop it. The barbarian stepped forward holding his sword menacingly.

“You drop it, or I cut your damn hand off!” The barbarian said angrily. Joe glanced at Gareth, and noticed that he still had his ring of teleportation on his finger, though everything else he had was gone. Joe stared at it, willing it to activate.

“You wouldn’t dare. If you try anything Tara will come down here and kill you easily,” Joe bluffed hurriedly, stalling for time.

“You wanna bet?” the barbarian said, taking another step towards Joe. Joe glanced around, and saw Bill lurking in the shadows nearby. The barbarian took another step and Joe took a chance. Raising his fingers up, he let out a short sharp whistle. In a moment everything happened. Bill came running up towards the barbarian. The barbarian reacted by throwing Gareth on the floor and holding his sword, ready to swing. Joe ran forward towards the barbarian, lunging forward with his scimitar. The barbarian swung his sword at Bill, and hit his leg, almost cutting it off completely. Bill stumbled and fell forwards, slamming into the barbarian. Joe used this chance to attack, slicing the barbarian and wounding him in the arm. The barbarian roared in pain and anger, throwing Bill off of him. Joe tried to attack again, but the barbarian parried his blow neatly. Joe made a reach for his items on the floor, and the barbarian tackled him, sending him falling down face-first into his lance. Joe screamed in pain and rolled over to see the barbarian pointing a wand straight at his head. Joe froze.

“Not so tough now are we?” the barbarian laughed. The barbarian fired the wand and a beam of ice shot out towards Joe. Joe rolled to the side, barely avoiding the attack, and was showered with ice shrapnel. Joe’s mind raced as he considered his options. In the end all he could think was that he had but one.

“All might Lugh, help me in my time of need!” Joe cried out, hoping that that counted as a suitable prayer for the circumstances. The barbarian laughed at his feeble words. Joe braced himself for the barbarian’s final blow, but was relieved when he saw a shimmering light surround him. The barbarian’s sword smashed into the light, and bounced off. Joe felt his wounds heal and the cuts on his face vanish. With renewed strength Joe lunged forward with his scimitar, striking a surprised barbarian. Joe could see Bill also charging forward to attack again as well. The barbarian could see the odds were less in his favour and reached into his pocket. Joe tried to grab his items back, but the barbarian reached them first. Scooping up all the items, bar the lance, the barbarian grabbed Gareth and read a scroll. He suddenly vanished, along with Gareth and Bill. Joe cursed and thought. Only a cursed scroll of teleport could have done that. Joe considered his situation. He was alone in the level now, with only a lance and a cursed scimitar. Any moderately powerful monster could finish him off... Joe was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound of feet running down the stairs nearby. Joe swung around and readied his scimitar, but was relieved to see it was only Tara. Tara stopped her descent and stared at Joe.

“Is there any particular reason you are walking around in your underpants?” Tara asked. Joe frowned.

“It seems we’re not the only ones in the dungeon. A barbarian held Gareth hostage and demanded all my items. I gave them too him, but he got angry when I couldn’t give him the scimitar. Long story short, he got away with Gareth, Bill, and everything of mine except my lance, and this stupid scimitar,” Joe explained. Tara nodded slowly.

“Uh-huh. So this guy wasn’t an honourable rogue then?” Tara asked.

“No! By the way, how’d you get away from the black puddings?” Joe asked. Tara coughed and look alarmed.

“Puddings!? Those oozing things are called puddings!?” Tara exclaimed. Joe nodded. Tara shook her head and muttered something to herself about crazy names and screwed-up fantasy games. Tara cleared her throat and spoke out loud again. “Anyway, I went into the shop and cleverly deduced which wand was teleport... okay fine the shopkeeper told me. I kind of teleported half the shop’s contents over the level and couldn’t pay for them, so I just grabbed whatever seemed useful and teleported myself out.” Tara showed Joe the items she had taken. Joe took them and looked at them.

“A useful trick for you to remember: try writing stuff on the ground with your finger and then do it again with a wand,” Joe said, doing so with the other wand. As he scrawled in the dirt a few ice cubes dropped off the end of the wand.

“So what is that supposed to mean?” Tara asked, watching as the ice melted into a small pool of water, then vanished.

“It’s a wand of cold. Remember the wand of magic missiles? It’s like that, except with ice,” Joe said. Joe put the wand, scrolls and potion in his back-pack, and handed the food and ring back.

“Hey! I went to a lot of trouble to steal that!” Tara complained.

“Yeah, and I have no items at all and am about to attempt a rescue mission from a barbarian which has mine and Gareth’s stuff,” Joe said.

“Well you don’t have to be so bossy. Let’s go then!” Tara said. Tara put away the food in her back-pack and slipped the ring in her pocket, then followed Joe into the dungeon.

Gareth awoke with a massive headache. He groaned and shakily got to his feet. He looked around and found himself in a very small dark room, with a single door leading out. Gareth looked into his back-pack and found it was empty. He was surprised and checked himself to find his armour and cloak gone as well. In fact further investigations revealed that he didn’t have anything at all on him, not even his ring of teleportation any more. Gareth thought for a moment. His head ached a lot, and his memories were blurred. He could remember going down some stairs, and was going to take some money... but that was it. What had happened to him? It could have been a rock trap, or perhaps a boulder trap, but that didn’t explain his lack of items, or how he got here. Someone must have done this to him, but who, and more importantly why? Joe or Tara wouldn’t have done anything like that, so that must mean someone else was in the dungeon... Gareth cleared his head of these thoughts. For now all that mattered was that he was hungry, and had to find some food quickly. Explanations could come later.

Gareth tried to open the door, but found it was locked. Gareth couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. Whoever had put him in here couldn’t be especially intelligent. Seriously, what was the point of locking a door? Gareth shrugged. Hey, it was his door. Gareth made a few symbols in mid air and chanted the invocation. A second later the door blew up, completely destroyed by the force bolt. Gareth stepped out and looked around. It seemed his mystery capturer was smarter than he thought. The door lead into a medium-sized room, with only one exit out. The room contained a few small chambers with open doors which looked like other ‘cells’. A large chest sat in the middle of the room, where Gareth guessed his items were. The problem was that the room was a virtual minefield. In fact, to be more accurate it was a real minefield. Gareth counted at least a dozen explosives visible, as well as eight bear traps around the chest. Gareth surveyed the area and frowned. Whoever it was that put him there must have some form of levitation, or controlled teleport. The question remained of how he was going to get out...

After a few minutes of thinking Gareth gave up. Without any items or extra magic, there was no way he was going to get past unscathed. Gareth didn’t know exactly how much health he had in numeric term, but all he could do was hope it was enough to withstand a mine. Gareth closed his eyes and stepped forward...

“Wait!” a voice called. Gareth jerked his foot back and looked around. Who had spoken? He couldn’t see anyone nearby...

“Who are you? And where are you?” Gareth called out. Gareth saw movement out of the corner of his eye and spun around. He could see a shadowy figure standing casually in one of the cells nearby.

“It is not of your concern. Catch!” the figure said, throwing something small over to Gareth. Gareth caught the item and looked at it. He was surprised to see it was a familiar-looking ring, a ring of teleportation. This one was a bit more dented and worn, but it didn’t seem to be cursed.

“Thank you. Why are you...” Gareth began. The figure waved his hand to silence him.

“You are weak and foolish at the moment, but I feel you could become a powerful ally. Remember we are fighting the same enemy. Farewell,” the figure said, waving his arms. There was a small poof of smoke and the figure vanished. Gareth stared at the spot where he had been standing for a moment. He couldn’t help but feel that voice was strangely familiar, as though he had heard it before... Gareth retreated into his cell and slipped on the ring.

Joe kept walking, casually slaying a passing rothe. Progress through the level had been slow, since Joe had had to be a lot more careful then before. Tara had been backing him up, but she was weakened without a melee weapon again, and she had run out of enchanted darts. Thankfully they had managed to disarm a dart trap on the level finding nearly fifty normal darts. Joe and Tara had explored what seemed like the whole level now, and had found no trace of the barbarian or Gareth. At the very least Joe had found another scroll of remove curse, and used it to remove the curse on his scimitar. He was now wielding his lance to attack enemies from a distance. With his current lack of armour hits from even weaker creatures became more dangerous.

“Nothing,” Joe muttered to himself. He then spoke out loud. “Do you think we should go down the normal dungeon or the mines?”

“I don’t know! You’re the Nethack pro here!” Tara replied.

“The mines is probably too dangerous for now. That’s exactly why the barbarian might be down there though,” Joe considered.

“Why don’t we go ask that oracle person you were talking about earlier? Shouldn’t she know?” Tara suggested.

“I guess. I’m worried about Gareth though, what if the barbarian doesn’t feed him? What if he just kills him now that we’re defenceless?” Joe said nervously. Nethack was a lot harder to play when there were others involved. If it had been a regular orc it would have been easy, but it was another player. What would he do?

“Then we should hurry. Besides, Gareth doesn’t need his equipment to defend himself. He’s got magic!” Tara said positively.

“He knows a whole two spells, one of which is practically useless,” Joe pointed out negatively. “But you’re right, we need to hurry.”

“Woh! Joe just admitted I was right! Hang on let me get a picture of that,” Tara said, drawing out her camera. Joe became annoyed at this, then brightened.

“Tara this isn’t the... hmmm... Give me that camera!” Joe asked. Tara handed it over.

“What is it?” Tara asked.

“I’ve got an idea. I just hope that barbarian doesn’t have reflection,” Joe said, taking off at a run to the downstairs leading down the main dungeon.

Gareth had been waiting for nearly twenty minutes before the ring activated again. He felt the familiar feeling of movement, then appeared in another small room. It was dark there, and Gareth felt around with his hands to see that he seemed to be stuck in another small cell. He couldn’t feel any obvious door out, but he did feel a scroll laying on the ground. If he remember correctly that was probably a scroll of teleport, and there wouldn’t be any exits out at all. However to his surprise as he went to pick it up he felt a second scroll on the floor. Gareth cast quickly cast light and looked at the two scrolls. One was indeed teleport, but he didn’t recognize the other one. Gareth shrugged and read the scroll of teleport. This time he appeared in a small empty room with two exits. A short investigation proved that the first of these was just another small area with nowhere to go. The other lead into another similar room, but this one had a staircase upwards. Gareth didn’t recognize the area, so he guessed that he was below level three. He was about to go up the stairs when he saw a figure come down. The figure was dressed in armour and wielding a scimitar. Gareth ran up.

“Hey Joe do you...” As the figure stepped down the last step into the light Gareth gasped. Whoever this person was, it wasn’t Joe. While the person did wear similar, in fact almost identical, armour and did wield a similar scimitar, he looked stronger and more barbaric then Joe. There was a look of sentience in his face, and Gareth guessed that this person was another human player, probably an orcish barbarian.

“How did you escape!?” the barbarian roared. While he had suspected it, this phrase confirmed it: this barbarian had been the one who had captured Gareth. Gareth felt angry at this, and began to draw symbols in the air.

“Give me back my items! Force bolt!” Gareth yelled, motioning with his hands. The barbarian was knocked back a bit with the force of the spell. Gareth grinned to himself. He was getting better at this.

“You should have stayed in the cell where you were safe. Now die...” the barbarian yelled, adding several choice cursed words at the end of his sentence. Gareth fired off another force bolt, but missed. The barbarian yelled a rather pathetic war cry and ran at Gareth with his weapon, drawing a long sword which he wielded in his other hand. Gareth stepped back and ducked as the blade went straight over his head. Gareth considered his odds of winning this fight: very low at best. The barbarian attacked again with both weapons, but Gareth managed to dodge the blows easily. Whatever else he might be, this barbarian wasn’t particularly skilled at two-weapon combat. Gareth crossed his fingers that the barbarian wasn’t too fast, and ran down a passage. He could hear the barbarian giving chase behind him.

“Wimp! Come back!” the barbarian yelled. Gareth entered another room and set off for another passage straight away, hoping to find a monster, a wand... anything. Gareth wished he was sitting in his comfortable seat in his room, were he could sit and type keys rather than run, and have a snack while he thought about his next move... Gareth looked forward and gasped in horror. The path he had run into was a dead-end. The barbarian slowed down and laughed viciously.

“Trapped again?” he laughed. Gareth looked around but couldn’t see anything at all that could help him. He quickly took the scroll he had picked up earlier from his pocket. Crossing his fingers behind his back, he read the scroll. Around him the room rumbled loudly. The barbarian glanced around looking worried. He opened his mouth to speak, but Gareth couldn’t hear what he said over the loud rumbling. The barbarian took a few steps backward as the roof collapsed around Gareth. A huge rock crash down on his head and he fell down in pain. Once the noise had calmed down he could hear the barbarian cursing.

“...wait until I get back! You’ll be sorry you ever entered this game you wizard scum!” the barbarian yelled. Gareth waited until his footsteps had vanished and then cast a force bolt. The boulder in front of him shattered into dozens of small rocks, allowing Gareth passage out. He getting very hungry now, but that was of little concern. Gareth scooped up a handful of rocks, and snuck back the way he had came, then ascended the stairs.

Joe walked up to the staircase leading down to the fifth level and was both surprised and relieved to see Gareth climbing them from below.

“Gareth! Are you okay? What happened?” Joe asked. Tara came running up behind, attempting to shake blood off some of her darts. Gareth smiled weakly.

“I’m fine. I need something to eat,” Gareth said. Tara handed a lembas wafer over, which Gareth began to munch on hungrily. Joe waited patiently, Tara less so, while Gareth finished eating.

“Those wafers taste nice. A pity the food rations don’t taste like that,” Gareth said.

“Your story?” Tara prompted.

“Yeah yeah, I’m getting to it. I was just checking down the staircase to this level when I saw some gold! I went to take it, but this barbarian guy smashed me on the head and knocked me out. Next thing I know I’m awake in a small cell without anything at all, not even my teleportation ring!” Gareth began.

“I bet the bloody barbarian used my scroll to do that,” Joe muttered to himself.

“Weren’t you going to uncurse the ring with it yourself?” Tara asked.

“Uh... yeah. Do go on Gareth,” Joe said.

“I busted up the door pretty bad and found this kind of fashioned prison block, with mines all over the floor. I was going to just risk crossing them when this strange guy appears and chucks me a new ring of teleportation, but this one wasn’t cursed,” Gareth said, showing them the ring he still had in his pocket.

“Did he seem like an honourable rogue?” Tara asked eagerly.

“I guess so, sort of. Once I teleported I found a scroll. The barbarian came after me and I got cornered, so I read the scroll. It turned out to be earth, and the barbarian stormed off to get a pick-axe or something. I force bolted my way out there and here I am!” Gareth finished. “So what’s happened to you two?”

“It’s a long story. You just ought to know that you were being used as a hostage, and the barbarian nicked all of my stuff as well. Oh, and Tara stole from the shop and level three is filled to the brim with kops and black puddings. We were just going down to kick that guys ass now,” Joe said. Gareth grinned.

“Well count me in! I’ve got a score to settle with this guy now,” Gareth said enthusiastically. Joe nodded and handed Gareth the camera. Gareth looked quizzically at Joe.

“I’ve got an idea. If you can manage to blind the barbarian then I should be able to lead him up stairs to where the kops are waiting. If he doesn’t know we’re still item-less he’s more likely to go along with the idea. I’ve got a wand of cold to direct him. Meanwhile Tara sneaks behind and grabs all out items back, and perhaps a few of his as payback,” Joe explained. Gareth nodded and slipped the camera’s cord around his neck, leaving the camera dangling. The three listen to make sure he wasn’t immediately downstairs and descended.

Gareth walked cautiously in front, checking the passage before he went down it. Joe and Tara followed behind him. It was kind of nice to be leading them for a change, instead of following behind. Gareth reached the second passage before he saw the barbarian. The barbarian was walking along confidently, hauling a huge mattock behind him. Gareth ducked back into the passage. He held up his hand to stop the other two. Gareth drew back his arm, and threw one of the rocks he was carrying down the passage, over the barbarian’s head. The barbarian heard the crash behind him and swung his head around. Gareth moved into the passage and clicked the camera. To his disappointment nothing happened. Gareth looked at it and saw that the camera was out of film. He jumped behind the corner and glared at Tara.

“Why is this thing out of charges already!?” Gareth whispered angrily.

“Hey, when we get out of this place I need some mementos right?” Tara said apologetically. Gareth heard the barbarian stomping back in their direction. He swung around to face Joe.

“What do we do now?” Gareth said quickly.

“Run. We still might be able to lure him upstairs,” Joe said quickly. Gareth heard the barbarian yell at them, though he didn’t catch the exact words. Joe took off away, and Gareth followed suit. Gareth didn’t the hear the barbarian’s footsteps and he swung around.

“Duck!” Gareth yelled as a beam of cold flew past. Joe ducked and avoided the beam and leapt up the stairs three at a time. Gareth ducked behind the staircase and heard the barbarian run up the stairs. Gareth moved back around the other side and began to follow. He ran after the barbarian, keeping at a distance. As the three ran through the dungeon Gareth saw that the barbarian seemed to have run out of charges on his wand. Joe seemed to have noticed Gareth following, and when he reached the stairs upwards stopped and turned to face the barbarian. Joe drew his own wand of cold and fire. The barbarian dodged the beam and at the same time Gareth fired off a few force bolts. The barbarian looked around to see Gareth blocking off his exit.

“You think you can stop me that easily? Weaklings!” The barbarian scoffed, taking out his scimitar and sword, wielding them both. Gareth glanced at Joe, who seemed to be a bit nervous. There may be two of them, but the barbarian had decent armour and two weapons... not that he could use them very well. The barbarian charged at Gareth, swinging his weapons wildly. Gareth managed to avoid the first blow and darted to the side, hugging the wall. The barbarian followed, keeping himself in between Gareth and Joe so that Joe couldn’t safely use his wand without risking hitting Gareth too. Gareth moved to the side as the barbarian attacked, aware that he was being forced into the corner. He saw Joe run up, and tried to distract the barbarian by punching at him. The barbarian blocked the blow easily with his sword, leaving a nasty cut on Gareth’s hand. Gareth’s idea worked though and Joe managed to strike at the barbarian’s open back with his lance. The barbarian grunted in pain and swung around with his weapons, but missed Joe by a large amount. Gareth used his opportunity to get away from the wall and ran behind Joe before the barbarian could stop him. The barbarian stepped back to catch his breath and was hit with another force bolt. He charged towards Joe, but couldn’t manage to get close enough to attack without being wounded with Joe’s lance. After a few failed attempts the barbarian looked a lot weaker and started to run in fear. Joe ran over to the passage, blocking the barbarian’s escape, while Gareth stepped back allowing him easy access to the stairs. The barbarian smiled at Gareth’s ‘mistake’ and made a dash for the stairs. Gareth watched as he leapt up the stairs and disappeared out of view.

“We’d better follow him just in case,” Gareth suggested.

“And to get his loot! To the victor go the spoils after all, and us being the victor...” Joe agreed, heading for the stairs. Gareth was mildly annoyed to notice him taking the lead again. Gareth followed Joe up the stairs. At the top Gareth looked around. There didn’t seem to be any of the Kops of puddings around, but the barbarian wasn’t there either. Joe cautiously walked down the only passage. The door at the end had been closed, presumably by the barbarian. A neat message was scrawled into the ground, some of which was smudged. The message more or less read: Keep out for your own safety. Joe opened the door anyway and quickly slammed it shut.

“This isn’t good,” Joe said.

“What is it? Can’t we get our items back?” Gareth asked.

“Worse. Yeah there were a few Kops and black puddings there, but not that many. There’s a new hole in the ground,” Joe said hurriedly. Gareth thought for a moment. If the barbarian had had a wand of digging why did he wait until then to use it? And more to the point why there where the Kops and puddings could fall through. Unless that was the point...

“Tara,” Gareth said, and he and Joe ran back to the stairs.

Tara waited until all the sounds had faded into the distance. She had ran into the other room with a group of boulders and hidden there while the barbarian chased the other two. She felt a bit guilty about abandoning them for now, but she was sure the barbarian couldn’t carry all of their items as well as his own. Therefore some of it must be stored somewhere around here. Tara walked back through a few rooms and came up to a closed, and upon further investigation locked, door. Tara tried to pick the lock was various items she had, if a credit card worked why shouldn’t a tin opener?, but found none of them worked. In frustration Tara kicked the door angrily. Though her foot ached for a few minutes afterwards, the door did collapse forwards allowing Tara entry. Tara entered the next room and looked around in awe. The area had been done up like some kind of palace, with squiggly lines forming patterns in the dirt, four mysterious floating balls of stone, three neatly arranged doors leading off at the back of the room and two life-like statues of orc warriors. Tara walked forward, looking around in awe. Something moved out of the corner of her eye and she looked around. Something didn’t seem right... Just in time Tara realized that the statues of the orcs had moved. Tara ducked as a spear flew over her head, and the two orcs, not statues at all, charged at her. Tara reacted quickly, reaching for her weapon. A second later she realized she didn’t have any melee weapon at the moment. Tara frowned and went threw a mental checklist of what she had in terms of offensive items... Nothing except her darts, and they were pretty much useless at close range. Tara dodged another spear from the approaching orcs and thought quickly. Gareth had said something about a minefield in this level. Tara ran towards the left door and swung it open. Behind the door she could see what looked like a sacrificial temple. An altar lay in the middle of the room surrounded by corpses and blood. Tara tried the middle door and looked through. To her delight she saw what looked like a treasure room! The room was small, but had three large chests there. Tara felt a sharp pain in her back and stepped into the passage turning around. The orcs had managed to reach her. Tara grabbed a random item out of her back-pack and hurled it at point blanc range into the face of the closest orc. Splat. Tara was surprised to see the orc slow down suddenly and turn into a real statue. The other orc looked worried and backed off.

That egg must have been really bad! Tara thought taking a step forward. She grabbed a stout spear off of the statue, and charged at the other orc. The orc smashed down the third door and ran through. Tara took chase but was stopped suddenly by a huge explosion. Tara peered around the corner to see the orc all over the room, and the remnants of a mine littering the floor. Tara shut the door carefully and ran back to the treasure room. She approached the first chest and saw something was written on it: ‘Property of the almighty Angelo!’.

So that is the barbarian’s name then Tara considered, checking the chest carefully for traps. After finding none she opened the chest and looked inside. Inside was a few familiar items that Tara recognized: several scrolls of identify, a scroll of earth, a wand of teleportation, a potion of oil and a large collection of food rations. There was also the spell book that Gareth had taken earlier, along with a couple of items Tara didn’t recognize. She scooped them up eagerly and was about to open the second chest when she heard a loud thump from behind her. Tara looked around to see none other than Angelo himself, standing wounded before her. Angelo chugged down a potion and looked fully healed. Tara noticed that the potion looked very similar to one that Joe had taken from her earlier. Tara shut the chest lid quietly, but Angelo heard her and turned around.

“What are you doing here!? Get away from my items!” Angelo yelled, brandishing his scimitar and long sword threateningly.

“Your items! You stole them from my friends!” Tara yelled back, drawing her spear.

“They wont be yours for much longer,” Angelo said casually, starting to walk off. Tara was surprised that he wasn’t going to attack. Then she saw another creature fall from the ceiling: a familiar looking black pudding. Tara took one last longing look at the two remaining chest and zapped herself with the wand of teleport.

“Tara!” a voice called warningly. Tara looked around to see Gareth and Joe nearby at the stairs. Tara opened her mouth to reply, but was struck by something from behind. Tara looked around to see a huge figure nearby, large enough to be considered a giant. Tara groaned in pain and hauled herself up, seeing the giant grab another boulder from nearby.

“Run! The barbarian has a bag of tricks!” Joe yelled, making for the stairs again. Tara had a sudden image of a black cat.

“What kind of...” Tara began, but was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a huge group of assorted monsters. The noise was deafening. Joe screamed something about curses, and ran up the stairs. Tara looked and saw Angelo standing amongst the monsters, reading a scroll. As he did so the monsters around him all became a lot less hostile towards him. Angelo zapped his wand of create monsters again, and another large group of monsters appeared. Tara was about to turn around when she saw a familiar glinting from near Angelo... her crystal ring! She must have dropped it by accident in the treasure room. Tara aimed her wand of teleport forward at the monsters, clearing a path towards her and Angelo.

“What are you doing?” Gareth called out from the base of the stairs worried.

“I’m getting my ring back!” Tara yelled back. She took out the scrolls, food, potion and spell book that she knew about then threw them to Gareth, keeping the unknown loot to herself. Gareth caught some of them, grabbing those that he didn’t.

“It’s too risky!” Gareth yelled.

“I’ll be back in a second!” Tara yelled back, getting annoyed. Like she was going to lose at this simple game. Tara zapped her wand a couple more times and kept running. Monsters nearby struck at her, but she managed to avoid most of the blows. Tara finally reached her ring and grabbed it, slipping it on. She aimed her wand again at the monsters behind her and zapped, but nothing happened. Tara panicked, slicing forward with her spear at the nearest monster, some kind of glowing green ball thing. There was a huge explosion, and Tara screamed in pain. Two attacks from Angelo struck her, and there was nothing.

Gareth stared, not believing his eyes. A second ago Tara had been in the middle of the group of monsters. A couple of gas spores had exploded, and when the cloud had cleared Tara was gone, Angelo grinning evilly. Gareth had no time to think about this however, as the hoard of monsters were now coming towards him. Among them Gareth saw some powerful monsters such as soldier ants, a cockatrice and a gremlin. Gareth ran up the stairs to see a waiting Joe.

“Where’s Tara?” he asked.

“She’s fallen!” Gareth yelled, taking off from the stairs.

“We have to go get her then!” Joe yelled. Gareth stopped and turned to Joe.

“Joe, she’s dead okay! We have to get out of here or we will be too!” Gareth yelled. Joe stood mutely, stunned. They couldn’t go back up while the Kops were still after them, and there was no way they could get down now. The only relatively safe place in the dungeon was mine town. Gareth thought of the scroll of earth he held in his hands, with all the other things Tara had thrown to him just a few seconds before...

“The mines,” Joe said hoarsely, reaching the same conclusion. The three... but it was only two now... Gareth shook his head. He couldn’t afford to get emotional now. He ran and Joe ran as fast as they could through the level, heading for the stairs to the Gnomish Mines nearby. Joe jumped on Bill halfway across the level to move faster. Gareth could hear some of the monsters giving chase behind them. As they reached the bottom of the stairs Gareth dropped all of his items bar one a few metres away, stepped back on the stairs and read the scroll of earth. Huge boulders fell from the cavern ceiling, blocking the staircase. Gareth managed to avoid the falling boulders, then squeezed in between them. He heard a strange sound and looked around back at the boulders. To his surprise none other than Marmalade had appeared from somewhere and had followed the two down. Gareth looked around to make sure no enemies were nearby and collapsed on the floor. He looked around to keep guard as Joe lay in the corner of the area crying. The caverns were lit by some kind of magic, or overhead light.

“What kind of screwed-up fantasy game has overhead lights?” Gareth chuckled sadly to himself. He knew that mine town would be no more than four or five levels away, but it felt like a lot more.

It was going to be a long journey.