Silver Blade took a deep breath. The others grew curious, craning their necks to peek over her shoulder.
"Stuffed animals?"
"Ew, it reeks!"
"Is this a hunting lodge?"
"What's painted over there? Is this blood?"
The friends discussed, somewhat on purpose to disperse the tense atmosphere. After a second, Silver Blade dared to take a step forward and the others followed her.
Bang!
The door shut heavily behind Balm who entered last, prompting the healer to do a startled jump. No one was in the mood to tease her as they scanned the large room in front of them.
A comfortable carpet, luxurious sofas, a crackling fireplace. And yet they couldn't create a comfortable atmosphere. Not as long as the walls were decorated with the heads of dead beasts and runic symbols painted in blood.
Suddenly a creak could be heard as a door was opened. The friends shivered, staring with narrowed eyes. A black boot stepped out. Landing on the dark wooden floor it made barely any sound. A body followed, entirely clad in black, hiding the person's identity.
"Dust…"
Silver Blade couldn't help but whisper quietly. However, she was surprised that the person was not alone. Behind them someone else stepped into the room, the tall figure bowing their head to get through the door. The second person was also clad in black, with a mask on their face. The form of their head below the black hood was rather strange, clearly not human.
"We have guests…", spoke the first figure, supposedly Dust, their voice strangely distorted.
"Adventurers!", snorted the unknown person.
"It seems our plan didn't work out. The trap caught the wrong rat."
"To Hell with them! Damned adventurers. Scourges. How dare they interfere with our plan?!"
"Just a small setback. Although we won't be able to kill neither a guardian nor a mage on the level of one, our original plan can still commence. Getting rid of a guardian would have only been a… delightful extra."
"Hm. But after so much planning to only kill a few lowly adventurers. Quite the waste. We had to alter the plan for this!"
The two black-clad figures talked as if the friends were already dead. Cyclone gritted her teeth and crossed her arms, shouting in annoyance:
"Hey, you! We are right here! Calling us lowly but you don't even dare to reveal yourself. You coward! Loser! Idiot!"
The taller figure stiffened for a moment, directing their black mask at Cyclone. An invisible pressure spread as the figure's black cloak began to billow. However, Dust quickly stopped their partner.
"Don't get provoked by dead people. We have a mission to complete."
"Right…"
The two figures stopped talking and approached the rear wall smeared with various bloody runes. Kneeling in front of the wall the two figures began to recite incantations in deep voices. A cold breeze was birthed, blowing through the room, ruffling the curtains, causing the candlelight to flicker.
Shivering from the eerie atmosphere Cyclone decisively took out her wand. With a light swing a sphere of magic shot at the two kneeling figures. However, before it could reach them, the eyes of the dead bear head lit up, and the magic sphere was reflected.
"Ah!"
Cyclone managed to lower her head just in time. Her own attack caressed her hair as it passed her, crashing into the wall behind. The mage scrunched her face as she realized that they were forced to watch.
The two black figures knelt on the ground, continuing their incantation. Their voices seemed to reverberate for a long time, becoming louder and louder, the words fusing into a chaotic mess. They turned into a headache-inducing rumble assaulting the players.
At some point Dust finally moved. Her retrieved a bunch of black leaves, throwing them against the wall, where they stuck to the bloody runes. The leaves slowly dissolved. The red blood turned a dark, eerie black. The voices reached a crescendo. Ghosts suddenly appeared from all over the house, sobbing bitterly as they bemoaned their misfortune.
The ghosts rushed around the room for a moment before they drove into the bloody pentagram. The pentagram began to revolve. An invisible pressure spread. The world outside seemed to be devoured by darkness. The party was pushed back, unable to retaliate, standing with their backs against the wall. Increasingly disturbing noises battered their ears.
Yet suddenly… everything stopped. The room fell silent. The friends felt as if some entity had casted its gaze at them. They didn't dare to move, their bodies frozen from the eerie sensation. The two dark-robed figures stood up and bowed their heads towards the empty space.
"Lord!"
"You have summoned me…"
A voice echoed through the room. It was tinged with disappointment, not at all like a master praising the success of his subordinates. But the two black-robed figures didn't seem to care. They remained silent, bowing, until the master finally showed himself.
At the centre of the room a person suddenly appeared. They had a tall, humanoid figure, but with six arms. They wore pointed shoes, puffy trousers, a thick jerkin, and a cloth cap with three spikes. Little bells dangled from the tips of his shoes as well as the tips of his cap. They rang with each of his movements. However, instead of a crisp, joyous ring, these bells produced a sound more akin to sobbing ghosts. Coupled with his black and white striped clothes the newcomer made for quite the tragic appearance.
"Ha, after so much preparation I am finally able to send a clone, but all that I find is a group of adventurers? No, no. Don't say anything. I am not angry. I am just disappointed. Yet I know that this is not your fault. This is just my usual misfortune."
The newcomer threw two of his six hands up, sighing, as his black-painted mouth turned into an exaggerated crescent moon pointing downwards.
Meanwhile the two black-robed figures shivered. They knew that it was entirely up to chance whether their boss meant what he said. Thus, they were immensely relieved when the newcomer gestured them to leave. Like criminals granted amnesty Dust and their partner got up and fled from the room. The door shut with a loud bang and the newcomer concentrated his attention on the party.
"Adventurers, adventurers. Was it fun interfering with our plans? Couldn't you have annoyed someone else? Because of you everything had to be brought forward. Now I only have this flimsy clone. Barely worth the effort. Ah, my misfortune… Just as well. If there is one thing I have learned, then it is how to make the best out of a bad situation. So, adventurers, let me invite you to play a game…"
Before the friends could react, the strange figure floating in the air raised his six arms. Suddenly a pure, horrifying darkness spread from him in all directions. There was no escape. In a flash the friends were engulfed by darkness. And when their vision returned, the world around them had changed greatly.
The party stood amidst a large, round platform. Beyond its wooden edges there was only a murky grey hiding the entire world, spanning a magical dome over the platform. The ground below everyone's feet was a soft green, like a carpet. The green created a large circle. Beyond it there were alternating fields of black and red, numbered from zero to sixty-three, with another green field showing two zeros.
"Is this…"
"… a roulette table?"
Looking around, the friends couldn't help but feel amazed. The eerie feeling from earlier had already disappeared. Now they were curious how the NPC brought them here. And what was up with the strange layout? Did they NPC really want to play a game with them?
With a poof, a smoke bomb seemed to go off at the centre of the roulette table. When the smoke dissipated, the NPC appeared, shoulders slacking, arms hanging down without motivation.
"Literally the worst clown I have ever seen. Could put at least some effort into his show…"
Cyclone made a comment, and the NPC instantly fixed his eyes on her. A single tear seemed to well at the corner of his eye, but it didn't come out.
"Adventurers. Time to play. I don't have all day. Pick a number and we will see if you can be even more misfortunate than me…"
Those words echoed through the air. The NPC turned his body and suddenly appeared high above, floating while looking down on the players.
The friends suddenly found that they were able to move freely. However, they were still bewildered. Silver Blade turned towards Liam:
"Mirage, what is happening now? Is this a fight?"
"Of course! This is the opening! Cyclone, quick, give us ten random numbers!"
Cyclone was taken aback as Liam suddenly turned towards her. Stammering, she blurted out whatever came to her mind:
"21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30!"
The others slowly understood what was going on. Quickstep felt incredulous:
"Ten consecutive numbers? This is never going to work!"
However, while she was complaining, Liam was already summoning his trusty basilisk Reen and jumped on his back. The others realized that the situation was urgent. They brought out their mounts and the entire group scattered. But how could it be so easy to find the numbers called out by Cyclone among the randomly placed fields? Quickstep and Bloody Edge felt they were too slow after searching for a few seconds and randomly settled on fields number 13 and 4.