Side Story 2: Athena, the Avaricious Rogue

Author's Note: This is the second of (at least two) side stories that come directly from personal RPs with reddit users. These are all considered a separate canon from the main story, and will feature more in-depth description of the main character. This particular story is much different from the main story, set in the future, and so while some aspects and names will seem familiar, it does divulge significantly from the primary storyline. My goal is to publish one chapter a day until the story is complete or I catch up to the RP, at which point I'll move on to the next story- or potentially return to fleshing out the main storyline.

A special thanks to reddit user TriumphantKitty for her contributions. If you'd like to be led through a back-and-forth of this style, send a description of the character you'd like to play to my reddit account.

Your name is Athena, and you're seeking treasure. It's really as simple as that- gold, riches, magical treasures, any kinds of valuables all draw your instant attention. Tall and rather thin, sporting long legs and perky breasts to make up for a bit of a flat ass, you're no stranger to using your sex appeal for material gain. Long, midnight black hair falls straight down to the small of your back, and bookends a pointed face of Asian descent, featuring deep brown eyes. You're wearing standard leather armor, extending upwards to the half-mask the covers the lower half of your face, and have a crossbow and short sword for weapons.

You had heard stories of the Dungeons of Drath'nalak, but never been in person, with good reason. Its renown travels through the land as a place you can enter and never have to worry about wealth for the rest of your life- either you return with a king's ransom, or more likely, you're driven mad and lost in the terrible depths of its twisting halls. Naturally, the call of gold was far more than you could resist, and now you find yourself sliding down a rope, slowly lowering yourself into the mountain that's rumored to host these caverns.

In an instant, everything changed with a loud crack, tension in the rope vanishing. You fought to keep your handhold, but falling was inevitable. When you eventually hit the ground, you're met by quite the surprise, as there's isn't a ground at all, and you fall directly into a large pool of water. When you reach the surface, kicking at the water to rise, you're already soaked, but able to look around the rather large room.

A short ways in front of you, the water seems to change, becoming darker and murkier. Trees rise out of the surface, obscuring the far side of the room from your view, and the vines hanging from their branches ensure that little light escapes into the lower levels of what appears to be a thick swamp. Turning in the water, you're pleasantly surprised to find that you're rather close to the nearby shore, which rises up in a small, rocky beach. The swamp appears to exit back into the open air, but the wall opposing it is a clear sign that the dungeon extends back through the mountain. A pair of large holes are clearly visible, with the one on the right slanting downwards, and the other seeming to climb upwards.