Creep

Alone

In the low lights of the room, only the table is illuminated fully, a 20-sided die clatters its way past intricately carved brickwork and fallen monstrous enemies until it stops on a 15, "18?" The rogue asks with bated breath.

Eddie claps his hands together," Juuuuust got in there. Sure enough, you find the treasure you came here for, an ancient bejewelled dagger."

"I take it", the rogue snaps and Eddie hands them a slip of paper with a drawing of the dagger and its stats. Your rogue takes it with glee and starts getting pats on the back and congratulations from the others. You offer them an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Eddie raises a finger in the air and tilts his head to the side and back "-but...hmm, let's see here...Cleric!" Eddie gestures an open palm towards the party's cleric, who has their smiling cut short, and freezes. "An odd feeling creeps into your mind. It's familiar. A tingle runs along your arms, reminiscent of goosebumps. Roll me a perception check."

Another multi-faceted die rattles its way down the table until it bounces off the screen, which Eddie, who is literally perched on the edge of his seat, schemes behind.

The last few turns of the object until it finally rests on 20. The table cheer.

"27!" The cleric barks back at Eddie.

"Outstanding", Eddie says with glee, "You notice light peeking into the room, the minuscule beams of light bouncing off all the dust you unsettled whilst battling the goblins, but this light isn't coming from a window, or a light source in this room, strangely it's coming from under the floorboards.....What do you do?" Eddie bounces back down into his seat, leaning back into his throne. The way the low light shadows his face, he truly looks at his most wicked.

You look around the others. You are all low on hit points, but this is way too intriguing, and Eddie knows it. He is tapping his fingertips together and grinning maniacally.

"We go down there, right? Anything down there will have definitely heard us fighting up here," the mage offers.

"I mean, what if it's something worse than what we faced up here? We cant handle that," the cleric retorts.

"I can probably take a hit or two still," you say, tracing your finger over the character sheet. As you look up, all eyes are on you "de...pending...on the hits....obviously", you gulp, immediately regretting saying anything. You look back to Eddie as a potential safe place. He has his mouth open wide, making a face of mock surprise and mouths, "Really?".

You look around at the rest of the party for affirmation.

The Mage's face lights up, "Let's find our way down. I'm just gonna have a look around. Rogue with me."

A few dice rolls and discussions later, a trap door is found and assessed as safe to open, "Wish me luck", you say to the table.

Eddie looms over the screen and pulls up one end of the current map, sliding all his beautifully crafted architecture towards the end of the table to reveal a new cavernous illustration, a web of tunnels. The table is agog, no one saw this coming, and Eddie looks very pleased with himself and absorbs the awe directed at him. His posture straightens up a little.

He vividly describes your character jumping into the depths: "Both your feet land with a thud meeting a hard surface, you can hear the occasional drip, drip, drip of something echoing through the tunnels surrounding you. Just up ahead, you think you can see a small flicker of light, but it quickly disappears and, in the air, the faint smell of a freshly snuffed out candle. On the ground, several discarded hooded cloaks, some books and markings."

He pauses and returns to his dungeon master, pensive and slightly predatory pose.

You are again pinned down by his gaze, but the other sets of eyes boring into the side of your face help you snap out of it much more quickly than earlier. You check over your sheet again, "I don't think my character will be smart enough to decipher these objects, so can I pass them back up to the others?"