Haley and the Spooky Dungeon (Haley and Nana 3)

A Girl, a Great-Grandma, and a Dungeon!

Having found the town of Refuge a trainer, Haley is tasked with the system's newest quest: to set up a starter dungeon for her local adventurers in time for Hallowe'en! Haley's not sure she's the girl for this task, since she's not into creepy things. Fortunately, she has some unexpected (and enthusiastic) help, and of course, guidance from Nana... and maybe by the end, she begins to see things in a different (and creepier!) light.

Join Haley for this third installment in the adventures of a post-apocalyptic world with a game system imposed on it by magical aliens. It contains yet another recipe, because (once again), that's the kind of story this is. Break out your pans and make some pumpkin bread and then watch Haley design her way through another quick read!

Genre (setting): gamelit fantasy
Tags: cooking, baking, family, gaming, litrpg, religion, calligraphy, halloween, monsters
Rating: G

Excerpt from Haley and the Spooky Dungeon

As soon as she’d waved goodbye to her friends, Haley darted back into the woods to retrieve their guest. The woman accepted her arm and tottered cheerfully into the kitchen. “Nana,” Haley said, “we’ve got one more visitor….”

“One more? Where, little comet? Who’d I miss? Is it Mumps?”

The woman on Haley’s arm cackled. “No, Lily Landry, it’s me!” She cast off her hood. “Voila!”

Nana gasped. “Mavis Broussard! As I live and breathe! Why, your lower half is missing!”

“Oh that, that’s just my cloak here. Help me with this, child, won’t you.”

Baffled, Haley helped the missing widow of her long-standing quest out of her cape. Once it was in her arms, it was revealed as a [Cloak of Invisibility]: ‘Now you see me, now you don’t! May be pierced by certain meta classes.’

“Ah, this is lovely, lovely. Thank you, Lily, you remembered my favorite tea. You always had a knack.”

Haley sank back into her chair across from Mavis, who had taken a seat on Nana’s rocking chair. For a woman purportedly in her mid-90s, she looked not much older than Nana, with mischievous brown eyes, rumpled brown skin, and a shock of tight white curls, cropped close to her scalp and decorated with a purple kerchief. Accepting the cup of peppermint tea, the widow drank and sighed. “Ah, it’s good to talk to people.”

“Where have you been, Mavis?” Nana asked. “Why, everyone’s been wondering about you! All alone in that big house of yours, and then the aliens swept through and God knows what happening to everyone, and possums and squirrels with fangs running around everywhere….”

“Well!” Mavis said. “You will never guess. I was dead!”

A long pause in which both Haley and her grandmother found themselves speechless and the widow, from her expression, greatly pleased by their reaction. Mrs. Mavis lifted her brows, waiting.

“Were you really?” Haley asked, obediently.

“Very nearly, at least! You see, when the strange happenings started, I was so startled I got to my feet to go to the kitchen—where the phone is, you know—and I fell.”

“Oh no,” Nana murmured.

“Oh yes! You know, Lily. Falling at your age is bad enough. Falling at my age! I thought I was done for, sure and certain.”

“What happened?” Haley asked.

“The aliens spoke to me! They said that I was dying, and if I wanted to go on to my eternal reward they wouldn’t interfere. But that if I was willing, I was just the right person to help out in this new world! And I said, ‘Goodness, what good can I do, I’m barely mobile’—” Here Mavis paused to grin. “No use denying that! And they said that if I wanted to, I could make sure that our children and children’s children had the skills they needed to fight monsters! So I said—well, of course I’ll do that, because who wouldn’t? And they said I should come here. To you, dear.” Looking directly at Haley. “To Lily Landry’s granddaughter, who would help me create a dungeon.”

[Meta Quest Discovered: A Dungeon for Refuge!]

[Help Mavis Broussard design and launch a starter dungeon.]

“Ohhhh,” Haley said. “I am so not ready for this.”