Author Games: Path of the Guildpact

Task Four: Dimir-Rakdos

Mars

(LATE: -3 POINTS)

Mars stood in darkness.

It was the first time he truly felt unworried about being burnt to a crisp outside. Stretching his arms, he drank in the smell of the underground of the complex. It smelled like chemicals and blood, as well as being extremely musty. Grey walls were covered in scratches and scortches, and the pitch blackness made it impossible to see. Every few minutes, another noise would sound in the distance, making him shiver. Long story short, the place wasn't overly pleasant.

The vampire traipsed down the hallway he was in slowly, watching the shadows shift around him. Admittedly, there was some light, but it was hard to count the soft green glow as such a thing. In fact, he had a feeling it was more likely caused by something toxic. Why they even thought it was a good idea to send them down here, he was uncertain. The sound of a claw scraping slowly against the wall sent a shiver down his back.

His footsteps echoed hollowly, uncertainly. He rubbed at his tattoo on his arm, trying to not think about whatever was lurking behind or in front of him. Mars was just as brave as his brothers, or at least that's what he told himself. It would be fine. All he had to do was find the door.

"Marigold, where do you think you're headed?" an unfamiliar voice crept into his ear.

Panicking, he swatted at his own head, stumbling into the opposite wall.

"Are you sure this is the right way to go?" it came again on the left side.

His heart beat faster as his pace increased. None of the other candidates were around, so who was making the noise?

He turned left hurriedly, the exit hall managing to get even darker. There was no light, his hands fumbled against the wall beside him as he tried to continue forward without tripping over.

"Do you really think you'll make it out of here alive?"

"The Simics are just trying to get rid of you."

His eyes widened to take in more blackness. His breath grew shallow. The shrill voices grated his ears. They said something would be down here, but voices, he hadn't expected voices. He tried using his hands to plug out the noise, but it left him with no way to know where the wall was. Walking forward at a snail's pace, he squeezed his eardrums harder. It didn't help.

"You think we killed those Simics that came down here didn't you?"

"You think we murdered them?

"They killed each other. Chop, chop, chop."

"We just gave them a little nudge," the last voice was followed by a giggle that broke Mar's entire body into a shiver.

He gave up on tuning them out or on knowing where he was going. All he did was run. faster, ignore them, don't listen, he told himself. Dimirs were used to playing mind games, he wasn't used to someone doing the same thing the other way around. Then an idea struck him.

He waited until they started again, whispers, pleading for him to use the little knife in his pocket, to cut his heart out. He zeroed in and tracked it. A right, then a left, then two more rights. He broke out into an open area, a door sitting at the other end. Resting on the doorknobs was a green glowing parasite, roughly the size of his palm. He squished it in one go and opened the door.

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Iracun Rumpig

On his third signet, Iracun traveled to the Simic research center, where he had gone down to the lowest level, unlocked the door to the Undercity, traveled through the Golgari territory, collected his signet, and went on to the next task. Not much is known of the Simic tasks, other than the fact that several did not return from them.