Starlit Library 1

“You got everything?” Jessica asked Vance and Riley, her partners in crime. The three teens had found the door the night before, exploring the steam tunnels beneath campus after class. The starscape scratched onto the door had caught Vance's attention, but if Jessica hadn't had the [Identify] skill, they might have left it as just another piece of graffiti.

“I’ve got my shit.” Riley replied, giving his bat a practice swing and tugged on his catcher’s vest nervously. “But are you sure about this? Shouldn’t we, I dunno, let someone with actual experience check this place out first?”

“What, and let them take all the loot? You worry too much, man.” Vance replied, armed with a hiking stick and a work backpack. “This is a brand new dungeon, how strong can it be?”

“Don’t jinx it, Vance." Jessica sighed. "You're not wrong, though. However strong this dungeon is, it’ll only get stronger as time goes on. This is our best chance.”

She checked the combat knife strapped to her thigh and added: “We need money and some actual equipment for you two. You think we'll get that working at the mail room? Or do you want to grind more sewer goblins?”

“Ugh, don’t even bring those up.” Riley muttered, scrunching his nose up in disgust. “But we need to be extra careful. Nobody’s been in here before, we have no idea what we’re up against.”

“Then let’s find out!” Vance said boisterously, pushing open the door before Riley could stop him.

> You have entered the [Starlit Library]

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“Woah...” Vance uttered, staring at the vista before him. Two endless rows of bookcases stretched out before him, as if he were standing at the bottom of a canyon made of shelves. Far above, a pitch black sky, empty save for a single shining star, mocked the very concept of a ceiling. “We’re... still underground, right?”

“Some dungeons are just like this.” Jessica answered as she walked in after him. “Like they’re whole other worlds.”

“Damn that’s cool.” Vance murmured in awe. “So much better than the [Goblin Sewers].”

“Didn’t I just say not to bring that place up?” Riley complained. “So this dungeon is called the [Starlit Library], huh... I guess I can see why.”

“Oops!” Vance exclaimed.

“What?” Riley asked, eye twitching in annoyance. “Don’t tell me you forgot something.”

“I forgot my library card!” Vance replied.

“Oh my god...” Jessica and Riley moaned at the same time.

“Ignoring that,” Riley continued, “Can you [Identify] anything yet, Jess?”

“No...” Jessica replied as she walked up to a nearby shelf. “Nothing’s standing out.”

She picked one of the books up off the shelf and leafed through it. “Completely illegible. Just a mess of symbols and gibberish. Any of this mean anything to either of you?”

“Nope.” Vance and Riley replied.

“Never seen anything like it it my life.” Vance added. “Not even in that spell scroll I found.”

“Damn.” Jessica muttered, putting the book back. “Would have been too much to hope for, I guess. Keep your eyes peeled, though. One of these books might be valuable.”

The three teens started walking down the canyon of books, Jessica taking point as she checked for traps. Vance and Riley stopped every so often, examining a nearby book for anything of value. After a couple of minutes of walking, the three stopped sharp, a strange feeling shivering down their spines.

> You have gained the [Watched] condition

“What the fuck?” Vance whispered. “Do either of you feel that?”

“Yeah, like something’s staring at me.” Riley replied. “Jessica, do you see who’s watching us? Nothing looks different to me.”

“No... I can’t see anything either. With or without [Identify].” Jessica whispered back. “Backs together, everyone. Let’s keep going and see if we can’t draw this thing out.”

Forming a circle with their backs pressing together, the three teens slowly progressed deeper into the dungeon. After five minutes of slow, careful movement, the feeling passed.

> You have lost the [Watched] condition

“What the fuck was that?” Vance asked, releasing a breath he’d been holding. “That was really fucking creepy.”

“You’re telling me.” Jessica replied, letting the tension out of her shoulders. “I’m glad it’s passed, whatever it is, but I'd feel way better if I knew the cause.”

“We’re not out of the woods yet.” Riley cautioned. “Do you hear that?”

Once said, Jessica and Vance also noticed the soft shuffling sound coming from deeper in. Slowly, a humanoid figure walked into sight, a pale being dressed in robes like a medieval monk, its head dripping like molten wax. It carried the stub of a candle close to its body, the wax from its head occasional dripping into the flame, making it sputter.

“[Identify] says it’s a [Starlit Ghoul].” Jessica whispered. “Sounds like an undead; my knife probably won’t do much to it. Riley, take point. Vance, charge a force bolt. I don’t think fire would be good to use with all these books around.”

“Got it.” The two boys replied, taking up their positions.

As the monster drew closer, they sprung into action. Riley’s bat made sound contact with the ghoul’s head, sending spatters of wax flying and causing the monster to drop its candle. Vance followed up with an energy bolt, crashing into the ghoul’s stomach and sending it sprawling to the ground. Once grounded, Riley hit the monster again and again until it finally stopped moving.

“How was that?” Riley asked Jessica, panting from exertion. “You think we can keep this up?”

“Hmm...” Jessica pondered. “You dropped it easily enough, but it took a while to actually kill. If there had been another one, we would have been in trouble.”

“I might be able to keep another one occupied with magic.” Vance added. “But I cant cast very quickly. It wouldn’t be reliable.”

Jessica nodded. “Okay. Vance and Riley, you focus on them one at a time. I’ll try and keep the rest occupied. It didn’t seem that fast, so I should be able to do that safely enough. And Vance, once you knock one down for Riley, keep watch and let us know if anything goes wrong.”

“Can do.” Vance replied. “And see? This is why you’re the boss.”

Jessica shook her head with a self-deprecating smile and the three continued into the dungeon. Following Jessica’s plan, they had no trouble with the next ghoul the encountered, though the encounter after that was more difficult.

“What’s that? Another ghoul? Or something different?” Riley asked, looking at the two monsters before them. One had the same melting head they were familiar with, but the other had melting legs, the two limbs fused together, leaving the creature squelching along the floor like a slug.

“Still a [Starlit Ghoul], apparently.” Jessica answered. “I don’t think you’ll be able to knock it down, though. Not when it’s already lying on the ground like that. Take out the standing one and I’ll keep the slug-like one distracted. Then we’ll play it by ear.”

Following the plan, Riley and Vance took out the standing ghoul without much issue, while Jessica was able to easily avoiding the slug-like one’s swinging arms. But after finishing the standing ghoul off and moving over to the slug-like one, the teens’ inability to immobilize the monster lead to Riley getting solidly smacked in the chest.

“You okay, Ri?” Vance asked, a small amount of worry in his voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Riley replied. “We need a better strategy for these ghouls, though. I’d rather not get hit, if I can help it.”

Jessica nodded. “The slugs seem slower than the others. Let’s try more of a hit-and-run strategy against them. Get a single hit in, then back off and wait for another opportunity.”

“Sounds good to me.” Riley replied while rubbing his chest. “At least this time one of them dropped something.”

“Barely.” Vance sighed and picked up the blob of wax the slug-like ghoul left behind. “I doubt this is worth anything, but into the pack it goes.”

Another patch of [Watched], two slug-like ghouls, and another blob of wax later, the three teens came to a curtain of mist blocking further progress into the canyon.

“This... Do you think this is the boss door?” Vance asked the other two, a nervous expression on his face.

“[Identify] seems to agree with you.” Jessica answered. “What do you think? Should we call it a day?”

“That... I don’t know.” Riley muttered. “Compared to the [Goblin Sewers] this has been easy. Sure, the goblins are weaker than these ghouls individually, but they attack in much larger numbers.”

“Mm, if the boss is a ghoul, we could probably use our hit-and-run strategy to stay pretty safe.” Jessica agreed. “But it *is* a boss. It could easily be outside of our expectations.”

“The smart thing to do would be to go back.” Vance started. “Take our two blobs of wax and go home, no better than when we began.”

“Wow, when did you get a brain transfusion?” Riley chuckled nervously.

“Shut it, man.” Vance continued. “If we leave, we’ll be able to sell some info to the Divers Association and be good for like a month. And that’s it, we won’t get any stronger, we’ll been the same useless shits we’ve always been.”

“And if we risk it, we might die, but we might actually start pulling ourselves out of this shithole we’re in. That’s what you’re saying, right Vance?” Jessica said, determination and worry playing across her face in equal measure.

“God, if you say it like that, I guess we have to risk it. Fuck you two guys.” Riley complained. “Let’s do this.”

All together, the three teens pushed their way through the mist and into whatever lay behind. The found themselves in a large circular chamber, the shelving that formed the walls interspaced with damp rock. The floor of the chamber was rock as well, rough and irregular, unlike the smooth wooden floor of the rest of the library. And in the center of the chamber was a massive, barnacle-covered snail shell lying on its side, utterly still.

“That’s not a ghoul.” Riley whispered. “What the fuck is that?”

“[Identify] isn’t saying.” Jessica replied. “The boss is probably hiding inside.”

“Shit.” Vance added, pushing on the mist wall behind them. “Looks like we can’t back out. Should I try and wake it up with a spell?”

“That’s... probably a better idea than walking up to it.” Jessica responded, staring at the shell’s opening. “Everyone split up, we’ll have an easier time if it can’t try and target all of us at once.”

Vance and Riley nodded and stepped away from Jessica. Vance prepared an energy bolt while Riley and Jessica prepared themselves to strike whatever emerged from the shell. With a shout, Vance released his bolt, sending it crashing against the boss’s shell.

> You have gained the [Illuminated (1%)] condition

Awoken by the bolt, a humanoid figure emerged from the shell. Even paler than the ghouls, completely naked, and dripping with slime, the boss stretched her head, arms, and torso out into the open, leaving the rest of her body hidden inside her shell.

“[Starlit Snail Queen]!” Jessica shouted as the monster dug its hands into the ground and threw itself at Vance. He just barely escaped to the side, letting the monster’s body crash into the mist wall behind him. Riley rushed to strike the boss while it was distracted, but his blow bounced off the shell. Digging its hands back into the ground, the three prepared themselves for another lunge, but instead of pushing itself, the snail queen swung its shell-covered lower body right into Riley, sending him slamming into the wall, armor and skin torn by the barnacle-encrusted surface.

“Riley!” Jessica shouted again as she ran to Riley’s side. Vance struck the queen with another energy bolt, his spell rewarded with a spurt of pale blood from the monster. A spurt quickly overcome by the tide of red blood pouring out of Vance's chest where the snail queen's claws pierced through it.

Hearing Vance's gasp, Jessica turned only to be knocked to the ground by Vance's body, the snail queen having carelessly tossed him at her. Before Jessica could push Vance off, the queen produced a tentacle of iridescent light from the tips of her fingers, sending it plunging into and through the pair.

As pain blossomed in her stomach, Jessica found herself sitting outside the door to the dungeon, back in the steam tunnels, Vance and Riley lying next to her. A burning pain filled her stomach, and both Vance and Riley were out cold, bleeding slowly from their various injuries. Before she could figure out just what had happened, she too collapsed.

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Eyelit watched the three divers make their way through her first floor. Seeing the difficulty they had fighting her [Starlit Ghouls], she doubted they would make it past the [Starlit Snail Queen]. And indeed, the queen had crushed them in short order.

Or she would have, had Eyelit not stepped in. She wasn’t entirely sure why she had saved the three. Perhaps it was because they were her very first divers. Firsts were important after all, even to a Great One such as herself. She did hope they’d do better on their next dive, though. While Eyelit wanted to watch them grow, she had no intention of saving them again.

Shrugging, Eyelit looked over the rest of her dungeon. She had only just put the finishing touches on her 2nd floor, so perhaps it was a good thing those divers didn’t beat the queen. But now that it was done, she couldn’t wait for someone to see it. Her children had assured her she had done a good job, but you never knew with divers. If they didn’t like it, she wouldn’t hestitate to kill them. Of course, she wouldn’t hesitate even if they did.

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[Starlit Ghoul]
A waxen humanoid undead dressing in monks robes. Some [Starlit Ghouls] have melting heads, while other have fused legs and squirm across the ground like slugs. They are quite weak; easy to kill and easy to replace, and are the first enemy one encounters in the [Starlit Library]. Occasionally, they drop [Starlit Wax], the properties of which are not yet known.