The Morg Saga Part 3 - 10m below ground

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10 meters below ground



He heads down the stairs into a dank dungeon. This is a big and deep dungeon as is shown on Morg’s map below. The blue square is Slaeter’s Sea that Morg entered through the Vortex earlier. The plane in the middle of the tree is Midgard where the humans live and is shown as a green square to the right. The grey plane below should be Niflheim, where Hela holds Balder’s captured soul. The rainbow bridge to the left of the tree leads from Midgard to Asgard. Here lie the homes of the gods and the Great Plain Vigrid, the prophesied site of Ragnarok, the final battle for the existence of the universe. The first section of the dungeon is shown down on the bottom.



There are a lot of planes and worlds and Morg doesn’t know how to access them yet so he focuses on the dungeon he is standing in for now. "The size of this dungeon is unknown but rumors have filtered back of the existence of a large crypt, a temple, and even a strange bazaar." (from the manual) Morg checks his inventory:



The sounds of chirping birds from the forest are now changed to the dark foreboding sounds of the dungeon. In the first room there’s a Ranger being attacked by a Bandit. Morg pierces the Bandit with the Trident. Some Elgars show up, there seems to be a lot of friendly creatures down here.



Morg enters a dark room and zaps a Wand of Light. He finds 86 gold lying on the floor. In the third room he fells two bandits and finds a Plate Mail. He returns to the surface and drops some unidentified items and armor and goes down again to collect some more. Now he meets a Viking, Gylfi. This is an allied Norseman and Morg can exchange items with him. Morg takes a Topaz Ring and a Boomerang from him but promises to give him some armor in return. He heads for the surface again and identifies all stuff.



Aha, the Boomerang was magical! (+3) Morg also has a ring of Regeneration and a ring of Genesis. He puts on the Ring of regeneration, it will speed his natural healing. The armor was normal. He picks up the Plate Mail to give to Gylfi. He goes down the stairs again and Gylfi is standing there waiting. Morg gives and tells Gylfi to equip the Plate Mail but notices that Gylfi now lacks a weapon. Morg runs up the stairs again and fetches Gylfi a Mace (+0). It’s not a Boomerang (+3) but it’s a weapon.

Down in the corridors of the dungeon Morg notices that the wall is missing in a couple of places There’s only empty space. Morg decides to wait to enter empty space until he can fly or something.



In the next room a Cockatrice attacks. Its gaze can turn a man to stone. Morg has a couple of Clay Lumps to counter that effect. He manages to slay the Cockatrice without meeting its gaze. A Summon Monster Trap blocks the next corridor. Morg uses his skill of relocation to teleport and his Ring Of Locust Mastery to control the teleportation and materializes on the other side of the trap. In the next room he finds the Red Bag. The Red Bag stores an almost infinite amount of items without getting any heavier because all the items are in another plane and thus it also protects its content from damage. Morg transfers his loot to the bag, besides a few important scrolls and potions that could be needed in a hurry.

Morg meets another Norseman named Kormack and takes a ring of Regeneration and a ring of Agility (+1) (AC -4). With two rings of Regeneration he will heal pretty quick. The section is now cleared, and Morg goes east.



Morg encounters a Pelgrat, an ethereal creature that feeds on the power of wands and breathes dangerous rays. Before Morg has the time to engage the Pelgrat it steals charges from his Wands and "changes shape slightly and disappears from sight". Morg wonders if it became invisible or teleported away.

Morg encounters a Vampire and incinerates it with a Wand of Fire. There’s a skeleton close by, perhaps from an unfortunate adventurer. He had a Ring of Famine, so he might have starved to death, but as there is a Food Ration by the skeleton he was probably a victim of the Vampire.



He reads the diary:



Morg meets a friendly Lacunar and in the next corridor there are two dead Lacunars and one dead Elgar. Morg is wondering if they are new victims of the Vampire, but a surprise attack from the Pelgrat disturbs his thoughts. Once again the Pelgrat draws charges from Morgs wands and disappears. Morg angrily places his wands into the Red Bag.

The Pelgrat once again makes a surprise attack and fires an orange ray at Morg that takes away half of his health. Morg engages and three times they exchange blows before the Pelgrat falls (33/105 HP). But with two Rings of Regeneration he regains his health fast (2 HP/turn) so he will be fully restored in no time.

Morg continues and fells three Womeras with his Boomerang. There are Elgars and Lacunars turned to stone in the corridors, presumably the victims of the Cockatrice that Morg dispatched a couple of rooms earlier.

He finds a vortex leading once again to Slaeter’s Sea. He uses the pocket-sized ship, Skidblanir, to sail over the sea and explores the land on the other side. A Bandit zooms in from nowhere but Morg kills it quickly and finds a Ring of Relocation on his body. A Hrygar swoops in and hits Morg and swoops away again but Morg stops it in the middle of the air with his Boomerang.

Some Giant Squids and Hatchet Fishes come to close for comfort and Morg decides to return to the dungeon. The Giant Squids are dangerous with their eight crushing arms and best be taken out from a distance.

Morg finds a scroll of Blessing and decides it’s time to return to the surface and identify the loot. He turns out a magical Grey Cloak (+3), a Ring of Crystal (acid resistance) and a scroll of Knowledge. He reads the scroll and learns the art of Alchemy, way before he has reached mastery as an alchemist apprentice. He learns how to mix three special potions.

Morg continues to explore the dungeon and gets surprised by an Archmage. They are very dangerous and can destroy entire classes of objects. Morg zaps the Wand of Cancellation to cancel the powers of the Archmage and then enters a long clash with him. The Archmage has inferior armor and loses the battle. Morg searches his clothes and finds an enormous amount of items.



Later, in another room Morg and his illusion encounters a Red Ooze. The Red Ooze consumes the illusion while Morg is keeping the distance and throwing the Boomerang. Something invisible is beginning to attack Morg, draining him. At the same time a Phausq, an eyeless creature that shuns light, enters the room and everything gets black. Morg zaps the Wand of Light and the room fills with light again and the Phausq is destroyed. The Red Ooze moves close to Morg and he panics, attacking the Ooze with his Trident (+1) that is instantly consumed by the same. If Morg should attack the Red Ooze again it might consume his Gauntlets and maybe even his hands. It’s really nice in a situation as this to be a Master Conjurer and have the ability of Relocation instead of relying on scrolls of Travelling. Morg teleports away and leaves the section to identify his loot. Luckily one of the Archmage’s rings turns out to be a Ring of Third Sight, which enables the user to see invisible things. Morg, with a firm grip around the handle of his Silver Sword, heads straight back to the place of the last engagement to seek revenge on the invisible thing draining him, and of course on the Red Ooze that ate his Trident. As an extra precaution he wears the Archmage’s Holocaust Cloak (+3) and a blessed scroll of Lava Strike.

The room of the last engagement is empty, only the body of the Phausq littering the floor. Morg continues down a corridor and spots, with the help of his acute senses from wearing the Ring of Third Sight, the Shadow that was draining him of health. He slashes the phantom with his Silver Sword until it disappears into thin air. Now where is that Red Ooze.

The rooms in the area are darkened, supposedly part of the Phausq’s lair. No sign of the Ooze. Some Gas Balls comes floating and explodes near Morg, making him deaf. Morg reads a scroll of Soul Seeking and senses all creatures in the sector, but can’t find the Ooze, it might be dead and the Trident gone forever. The dungeon section is empty of creatures so he continues exploring a new section, Silver Sword in hand.

In a corridor Morg encounters a Migdnart, a devil-spawned being from Niflheim. They exchange a couple of blows and Morg is down to almost half of his health.



Panicked he zaps the devil with a Wand of Sleep and it falls asleep. Just as Morg is about to finish the devil off, another one turns up. He makes that one fall asleep too and then finishes both off with 2-3 slashes at each.

The entrance to the next room is blocked by yet another Migdnart and when Morg engages it a crimson ray hits the Migdnart in the back and continues to hit Morg but without any effect. The ray kills the devil in the next round and Morg takes a quick peek inside the room. The source of the crimson ray is a Sorceror, and there’s also another Migdnart further into the room.



Morg teleports out of the situation, wears his Silver Mantle (magic resistant) and conjures forth his illusion. They together take on the enemy.

Morg charges the Sorcerer and the illusion takes on the Migdnart. Morg and illusion hits their foes three times in a row and the Sorcerer perishes. Morg steps to the side and gets a clear line of sight to the Migdnart and takes it out with the Boomerang.

A Migdnart attacks from the next corridor. His first hit causes heavy damage (-33 HP). Morg is shaken and zaps a Wand of Fire at the devil, but it is unaffected. Of course, it’s a devil from Niflheim and resistant to heat. Morg teleports out. He has to rearrange his equipment to get better protection. Maybe the Wand of Ice works better on the fiery devils? He doesn’t want to zap his Wand of Sleep too often, it hasn't many charges left.

Back in the next room there’s a body of a dead Migdnart and some Gas Balls and a Red Ooze comes toward Morg. The Ooze is frozen in its track with a ray of ice and killed by two more. In the last room of the sector Morg finds a stairay leading down. The toughness of the Migdnart convinces Morg that it’s best to explore the 10-meter depth before going deeper.

In another sector Morg encounters a Magician. He gesticulates and Morg's backpack quivers. Morg puts the Magician to sleep with a Wand and puts on the Silver Mantle to resist magic. He then slays the Magician with his Silver Sword. Some items in the backpack were polymorphed into something else.

Two Yapoks attack. "They are aggressive and can call others to their help."



Morg dispatches one and the other retreats. Morg quickly kills a Secitt, a small creature which rapidly multiplies when near its next meal, before it has time to multiply. A few steps later he meets a Breeder, a creature that clones other creatures. This sector seems to be a breeder’s heaven and Morg’s nightmare.

A Kalvin attacks ripping out one of Morgs four eyes.



Morg puts the Kalvin to sleep but then a Stun Worm comes from behind. This is a dangerous situation; if the Stun Worm stuns Morg the Kalvin might wake up before Morg and rip out all of his eyes.

Morg decides to quickly read a scroll of Lava Strike. The resulting streams of Lava kill the Stun Worm and Morg can kill the sleeping Kalvin. Morg was lucky to have a scroll of Lava Strike ready.



Morg kills a couple of Migdnart devils. They are dangerous, having two attacks and making heavy damage but Morg’s pair of Rings of Regeneration helps him to quickly recover after each battle. He kills a Wraith and eats it gaining experience and goes up to Level 14, learning three more potions to mix.



He finds an amulet. Then he sees a ring floating on the surface of a pool of quicksand and when he gets into the pool the ring sinks. Morg gets out of the pool using the Grappling Hook.

Beneath a scroll there was a vortex and Morg was teleported to Slaeter’s Sea and almost surrounded by Glards, but he made it back by jumping into the vortex again. Later he finds two skeletons and some equipment, and reads their dairies. He learns that "A disperser helm protects against psionic attack and that:



12000 turns has passed and all but one sector is explored of the 10m dungeons. There’s no visible way to enter the last sector. Time to make a permanent backup.



To be continued...


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