Things weren't looking good for Gwenwen and his band of brave hirelings, when last we visited his adventure! After narrowly avoiding conflict with a band of orcs, the novice wizard's party advanced through the Dungeon's long, empty corridors. They paused to rest in a strange room with a hole in its ceiling and, soon after, came to a massive hall filled with tall Dwarven-made pillars.
While the rest of the group lost themselves in their awe, Swipe tensed. He recognized this place... Before he could warn his companions of the danger waiting for them, a terrible roar echoed through the deep reaches of the hall.
This narrative is based on a play session of the solo RPG system Four Against Darkness. It's designed to simulate the experience of an adventuring party exploring a fantasy dungeon. A PDF copy of Four Against Darkness can be purchased at DriveThruRPG. I will continue to ask you to forgive my poor drawing skills!
A split-voiced shrieked rent the air as a vision of death bounded out from the shadows to charge us. I had read of such creatures before, but I could never have imagined the fear of beholding one in sight. It had three heads: one a lion’s, another a dragon’s, and a serpent’s face hissing from the tip of its tail.
“Chimaera!” Swiped yelled, his daggers clenched tight in the grip of his white-knuckled hands.
I can admit that I’ve never been an especially courageous man. I’d never gone looking for trouble prior to my time in the Dungeon. Schoolyard scraps, youthful fights, tavern brawls; these common conflicts were as foreign to me as the mysteries of the arcane are to the common dullard. I avoided violence like the proverbial plague.
You can imagine my surprise then, when I felt my feet carrying me forward -willingly!- into the beast’s dire path. I moved my hands in the air before me, drawing runes with my fingers while arcane words spilled instinctively from my lips. I was casting the most powerful spell I had at my command.
I could hear my compatriots calling me back, their voices tinged with panic. I paid it no heed. The ancient words boomed on my lips, growing from mere utterances to a mounting clap of thunder as electricity crackled on the tips of my fingers. I thrust my hands forward and a bolt of lightning arced out at the chimaera, filling the massive hall with a flash of blinding light.
It might have slain the beast if my aim were better. The spell drifted too far to the left and crashed into the side of a stone pillar, scorching its surface black, but doing no harm to my intended target.
The chimaera paused its advance for a few seconds, shocked by my blundered spectacle. All I could do was sway wearily as my body recovered from the drain of the spell. I would have died then if I’d been alone. Of that much I’m certain. But I wasn’t, and my allies streamed forward to challenge the beast.
Nanoc came first, leaping past my stunned form, greatsword raised overhead, howling with a reckless abandon that put my own courage to shame. Swipe and Lem followed shortly behind, the former still wielding his daggers and the dwarf lumbering forward with hammer and shield. All I could do was gawp at them all like an addled fool.
Nanoc took the chimaera head-on, dodging the creature’s claws and jaws as he slashed at it like a wildman. Swipe and Lem, meanwhile, laid into its flanks, pummeling and stabbing its motley hide with a flurry of brutal strikes.
Pressed on all sides, the predator seemed to realize it had become the prey, and began to retreat from the bout. It backed into one of the hall’s giant pillars. Nanoc, Lem, and Swipe now stood before it in a row, bleeding from shallow wounds earned in the melee, but strong and resolute. The chimaera’s fur puffed up like a cornered cat’s and its dragon-head reared back with a reptilian screech.
“Move!” Swipe yelled, before darting away.
Nanoc followed suit, but Lem was too slow. The chimaera’s dragon-head swept low, belching out a gout of red-hot flame. The dwarf would have been set ablaze, but he raised his shield in the nick of time. I could still hear him scream as the fire licked the edges of his exposed flesh, even as his battered targe took the worst of it.
The chimaera’s fire died out and, for a moment, it stood there unmoving, almost as though it were surveying the damage it had expected to inflict. I can only imagine its disappointment at seeing not a single charred corpse waiting in the aftermath. A disappointment that was doubtless compounded when Lem strode forward and brought his hammer down on top of the dragon-head’s skull.
“You almost burned my beard!” He yelled, before raising the hammer again for a second blow.
The chimaera struggled to move away but the dwarf kept pummeling it. Nanoc and Swipe quickly rejoined the assault. The barbarian carved a gash into the face of its lion-head while Swipe plunged his daggers over and over into the soft parts of its flesh. After a moment more of desperate struggle, the monster lay dead and bleeding at their feet. Lem stood over its defeated body panting and sweating, his body and clothing still smoldering.
Nanoc walked over to me and placed a blood-stained hand on my shoulder.
‘That was impressive, lad.” He said, his mouth curling into a chip-toothed grin. “Maybe next time though, don’t miss.”
