The Dungeon: Treasure Hunter, Floor 2.1 (non lucid)

[Praetorum]

Timestamp: 5th of Ymiden, Arc 721

[[Equipment: Leather Armor, Dual Daggers, Acrobat's Boots]]

Floor 1

Oh, Praetorum hated this place already. 



The last floor had been all small rooms and tight corridors, perfect for a sneaky little cat like Prae. But this floor seemed to consist almost entirely of one room—a massive banquet hall, lined with benches and tables, lit by a trio of massive chandeliers, and filled entirely with laughing and feasting Biqaj, each armed to the teeth. Prae had been lucky that the stairway from the first floor had opened up into a dark, mostly empty corner of the hall—but it did mean he was now stuck, hiding behind a bench as he tried to chart a course across the room that didn't end in a dozen pirates spotting and descending on him to hack him into fish chum. 



Fates, this treasure had better be worth it. 



The problem, Prae decided, was that the biqaj were pretty evenly distributed around most the banquet hall. Oh, there was barely anyone on this south side, or on the far north side of the room, but aside from that, the damn pirates were bloody everywhere. Prae had thought at first to skirt around the edges, but peeking out from over his hiding table, he could see there were biqaj lining the east and west walls, so even that idea was a bust. 



Sighing internally, Prae flopped onto his back to think. Was there really no way across? Maybe he could hide under the tables and try to make it through like that, just crawling on the floor... 



His eyes landed on the rafters.


Or maybe... Maybe he could go in the complete opposite direction. Sitting up, Prae scanned the ceiling, noting how the rafters, while narrow, webbed all the way across the room. If he was careful....


Yes, perhaps that would do it. 



Leaping to his feet, Prae snuck over to the nearest support pillar. Looking around, he carefully found an angle where no one could see him from, and carefully popped out a claw. Experimentally scratching at the pillar, he was satisfied to find it was wood soft enough for him to dig his claws into easily. Good, good. Now all there was left to do—


—was climb. 



Flexing his paws, Prae extended his claws, sank them into the pillar, and started to slowly climb up the pillar. At first, he tried to keep himself as hidden as possible, with his paws gripping just above his head—but it didn't take long for him to realize that that was too difficult. In that position, all of his weight was being put on his claws, and they were already starting to hurt. He wouldn't make it halfway up the pillar like that. 



So he shifted his grip, and started wrapping his arms partially around the pillar instead. It was risky—it meant his paws would be visible to the biqaj—but it a chance he had to take. There was just no other way to get the leverage he needed to haul himself up to the ceiling. His hope was that his dark orange fur would blend in with the brown stain of the wood, and no one would look too closely at a dark corner of the hall.

[Praetorum]

With his paws gripping the side of the pillar, and his feet bracing against it, Prae managed to carefully clamber his way up into the rafters. It took longer than he would like, and by the end his claws were aching, but he was up in the rafters, perched on a wooden beam as he recovered from the climb. 



From here, he could see that there was actually two layers of rafters, which seemed somewhat strange, but Prae wasn't a builder, so who was he to say what was strange or not in an ancient ruin from fates knew when? Still, he thought optimistically, it might prove useful in navigating his way across the hall.



After all, this place was, as he'd said, ancient. Prae had been lucky once again that the place he'd started was relatively safe and sturdy, but he could see that some beams were rotten, while others were missing entirely. He'd hoped that making his way to the other side of the room would be as simple as walking or hopping across a handful of beams, but no such luck. He was going to have to do some careful exploring to find a safe route across. 



Still, Prae was in no particular hurry—so he went slow, backtracking when he needed to, slowly, but steadily pressing forwards. The beams were wide enough for him to walk across with no problem, so it was just a matter of testing the beams to make sure they were solid, and backtracking when he hit a dead end. Two or three times, Prae had to climb up to the higher level when there was no path available lower down, but between his claws and his acrobats boots, he found he had little issue scrambling up and down the pillars. 



It took some time, but Prae made it about halfway across the hall without encountering any major issues. When he did run into a problem, though...


Prae climbed his way up to the upper rafters for the third time, frowning heavily. The rafters were growing more and more dilapidated as he went on, he found, and he'd reached a point where all of the beams he could reach had a section of rot or gaps too big for him to jump. He couldn't just walk across the rafters anymore, and that was troublesome. Sitting down on the banister with his legs dangling over the edge, Prae considered his options, scratching his whiskers. He couldn't just give up, obviously. So he had to get across the room somehow. But he was about halfway across the hall, paws dangling right over the highest concentration of pirates. If he couldn't get down, couldn't go back, and couldn't go across....


Prae looked up. 



There were no more rafters above his head, but the pillars that supported them did still rise up to the roof.  Normally, Prae would never consider something so stupid, but this trial was different. This trial, Prae had his boots. 



Clambering up the pillar, Prae climbed and climbed, until he reached the highest height where he thought he'd be able to land safely on his feet. He couldn't jump some of these gaps, not from the rafters. But the more height he got, the further he could fall. If he was lucky, and got his jump just right, he should be able to land on the other side safely. It was something he'd never have considered trying if he didn't have the acrobat boots, but with them on, he was confident—sort of—that he could make the jump. And besides, a cat always landed on their feet. 



His claws flexed, digging into the wood, as he took in a deep breath to calm himself. Here goes nothing, he thought, and leaped. 



Twisting in mid air, he fixed his eyes on a solid looking beam, heart pounding in his chest as his whole body reached for it. For an infinitely long moment, he was suspended in the air, feeling the rush of wind in his fur, vision consumed entirely by the beam he was laser focused on, pulse racing like a sohr kahl.


Then he landed, and the boots on his feet glowed briefly, cushioning his fall and helping him balance as he dropped to all fours on the beam, nearly face planting on the wood, but still catching himself before he fell into the throng of pirates below. Fates, that had been terrifying. But Prae was across. Grinning from whisker to whisker, Prae pumped one furry fist in the air, and scrambled to his feet. 



After that, making it to the other side of the hall was a piece of cake. And even better, there was a gap in the wall that meant he wouldn't even have to drop down to the floor to get to the next room.


Squeezing through the gap, Prae was gratified to see the stairs to the next floor in a corner of the room. Standing and stretching, Praetorum began to pad across the rafters towards the stairs. 



"Well well well, what have we here?"


Letting out a yowl of surprise, Prae whirled around, just in time to see the shadows shift a few feet to his right. Out of the darkness came, first a fluttering cloak, then its wearer, a biqaj with a cutlass in her hand and a tricorn hat on her head. Zinya the Scourge, dread pirate of the seven seas. 



"Cat got your tongue?" She mocked, brandishing her weapon. 



Prae didn't justify that with an answer. Instead, he pulled his daggers from his belt, and lunged.

[Jackalope]

]

Experience: +10 xp

Magic xp? No.

Collaboration: No.
Renown: N/A
Injuries/Overstepping: None.
Loot: No.

Skillplay: N/A

Knowledge:

None.

Comments
I was a bit confused at first by the scenario, but when I realized that Prae was a cat in this dream it made sense, as well as conjuring up an amusing image. Imagining how a Prae-cat would move through its environment was interesting. I notice the pirates carried over from the world into the dream.

I was slightly confused by the acrobat boots and the reference to a belt and a dagger in the latter post; I suppose Prae is an anthropomorphic cat, then? I had been picturing him as a cat cat up to that point. But, hey, it’s a dream, right?

Enjoy your rewards!