Bujilli: Episode 2

Previously...
The Gem whispered to Bujilli. It told him of other places, places where he could make a good life for himself. Places where his parentage wouldn't be an issue, nor a source of shame and cruel taunting like he had grown up enduring. The Gem taught him things, showed him visions and opened his mind to possibilities. Like being respected. Becoming a person of dignity and means. It promised him these things and more besides, as if it could read the deepest desires within the young Half-Almas' heart. Perhaps it did just that.

Bujilli had followed the Gem's instructions, heeded its admonitions, and gave himself up to its promises of adventure and knowledge and power. It wasn't as if he had anyting to lose. He left his mother's people, climbed down the great mountains and traveled half-way around his world to come to this place. It was here that he would find the Synchronocitor. It was here that Bujilli would find a way to escape the wretched life and a world that didn't want him. He would have the means to create a new life. Such adventures he would have. The Gem led him onward...

The Secret Doorway is Discovered
Bujilli the half-almas has found the secret doorway that he was led to believe would be there. The Gem had not misled him after all. He breathed a sigh of relief. It would have been a cruel joke had he come all this way only to find nothing. Only now he realized that he had half-expected such a dashing disappointment. He had gotten used to such things living amongst the Almas.

But no more.

Using the glimmering gloom-light of the Lurm-glyph that his uncle had taught him, Bujilli took a quick look around the small antechamber, a former corridor, really. He could hear the sleet falling more insistently outside. It was cold here, almost as cold as home. No. Not home. Not any more. The place where he had been born and raised. The mountains of his mother's people. The place he would know all too well to ever forget, but would never be really welcome. He didn't belong there. They all knew it. He knew it. Someday he would find a place where he could belong. He would find or make a home away from his mother's people. Away from the old mountains. Beyond the reach of his father.

The narrow space was thoroughly unremarkable, but Bujilli had grown up learning the harsh lessons of the harsher mountains. One ignored the little things at their peril.

But this place seemed clear of any immediate dangers.

So he made his way to the section of wall where the concealed, secret door waited for him. The old plaster was falling off of the wall in heavy, damp chunks. None of the old paintings that had once adorned the surfaces had survived their partial exposure to the elements. For a moment Bujilli wondered what the place might have looked like back during the reign of Zormur the Airlord. But it wasn't important. Not any more. Zormur was long dead and the war-zeppelins would never fly again. Not from this place.

Bujilli took three soft, almost sliding steps back from the wall, as quiet as he could manage. He gauged the distance and the height of the wall before him. It seemed safe enough.

He put forth his right hand, the one where most of his hair had been burned off by one of his cousin's stupid pranks. The hand that looked almost human. Most like his father.

He uttered the lilting chant and felt the surge of power rise within him, spread out through his arm and swirl into a shimmering matrix of eldritch light before him. His uncle had called it a spell for opening things like chests or doors. The Drilg that had taught the spell to his uncle had called it a 'Knock' spell.

Bujilli had only ever used it once before. He used it to open-up the chest in his uncle's yurt so he could steal the three little brown journals and the leather case of scrolls with the little skull-hilted phurba that were the property of his father. By rights it should have come to Bujilli when he came of age, but because no female would have him, he would never be considered an adult amongst them. He suspected his uncle of having some sort of influence over matters. If Bujilli never got picked as a mate, he would never come into his inheritance, and his uncle would get to keep it all to himself. But Bujilli had out-smarted his uncle. He had his inheritance after all.

The spell sizzled in the cool air of the little ruined hallway. Plaster groaned. Cracks rippled through the wall. Green light began to seep out from under the surface. The facade gave way and Bujilli jumped backwards to get out of the way of a great deal more plaster and rubble than he had been counting on.

White dust swirled into the little hallway, momentarily blinding Bujilli. It settled quickly. Things were too wet and too cold for the cloud of dust to linger too long, and the wind coming in from the opening behind him dispersed it quickly.

He didn't think anyone would notice the dust, but they would almost certainly hear the noise he had made.

A lifetime's conditioning to fear of detection seized him in its grip.

Should he run away? Perhaps he could find a place to hide and wait to see if anything came to investigate the noise?

The way was forwards was open.

Bujilli drew himself up. He brushed off the dust that covered his fur and his armor. He sneezed. The sound echoed horribly down the newly exposed space before him.

He drew his tulwar, renewed the Gloom-light and stepped through the exposed doorway...

---

Here's the Map, so far...
...more will be revealed as Bujilli explores farther.

The big square area past the 'S' is the newly revealed space.

---

So now what?
Should Bujilli investigate the room beyond?
How should Bujilli examine this space that has been closed-off for a long, long time?
Should he edge around the walls, walk right in towards the center of the room, or is there a better option?
Maybe he should go back outside and cut down a sapling for an almost ten-foot pole?
Should he run away? Go hide? Yell loudly until some predator comes running?

You Decide.

---

Previous                                 Interlude                       Next

---

Series Indexes

One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six

---

Starting Page  |  Central Index

---

About Bujilli (What is This?) | Who is Bujilli? | How to Play

---

Bujilli's Character Sheet | Leeja's Character Sheet | Cast of Characters

Bujilli's Spells | Little Brown Journals | Loot Tally | House Rules

---

Episode Guides
Series One (Episodes 1-19)

Series Two (Episode 20-36)

Series Three (Episodes 37-49)

Series Four (Episodes 50-68)

Series Five (Episodes 69-99)
Series Six(Episodes 100-ongoing)

---

Labyrinth Lord   |   Advanced Edition Companion