The only change I ended up making during my watch was to max out Embrace of Shadows and Mythcaller. While I didn't have as much need to keep progression points in reserve for crafting, I was still trying to maintain flexibility so that I could make changes and adapt on the fly if I needed to.
The rest of the time I spent reading my new book and converting spirits into crystals. I was reading about actual Soul Forging right now, and as I’d half expected there was no mention of progression points anywhere to be found.
I was increasingly convinced that System had added progression points as an option when it originally was not one. I wondered if he was converting them to something like spirit crystals behind the scenes, or if progression points were a legitimate source of fuel for Soul Forging. They did seem to make your spirit stronger, so perhaps it all came down to the same thing.
Either way, I was convinced the book I was reading was written before System existed. In my own tests it seemed like spirit crystals worked for crafting exactly the same as progression points, just in different quantities.
There were no day and night cycles in this strange world, the black sun hung in the sky unmoving at all hours of the day. We rested long enough to call it a night, then packed up. We were now in unknown territory, but as a group we felt more confident than we had ever been.
Yesterday’s trials had failed to break us, and we’d come out stronger for it. Dawn gave a short sermon before breakfast, taking a moment to acknowledge the patron deities of this expedition and their shared interest in such trials.
I listened avidly. I knew little of the doctrines of the gods, and Dawn framed her sermon in the form of a parable. The others had clearly heard this before, but each listened as if for the first time. Tavi had certainly heard this too, but she had been largely ambivalent about the gods and rarely attended any religious ceremonies, so I only had a few vague and fragmented scraps to start with.
“In the beginning, Astraea the Star Maiden was alone, for she could not stand the injustice she saw in the world of her birth. She wandered the stars looking for a place she could call her own, but each place she came to was hopelessly corrupt, and neither knew nor valued justice,” Dawn said.
“After a time, she met another amongst the stars. Valera the Wanderer found the much younger goddess drifting aimlessly and offered to give her company for a time, so they might not walk the long road alone. Valera was ever loath to stay in one place for long, but she loved the company of fellow travelers, and for a time the two goddesses wandered the stars together, seeing many strange and beautiful things.
“One day Astraea asked Valera where she expected her wandering to end. Valera was confused by this, as she had no destination in mind, nor ever expected to cease her wandering for long. Hearing this, Astraea proclaimed that her own wandering would end when they found a place of perfect justice, where all could live in harmony expecting to receive no more and no less than their due. Valera found this very funny and laughed at her friend’s naivete.
“Astraea, you are a pure soul with a great heart, but such a place does not exist. I have traveled many years and many worlds and never have I seen perfection in anything. Look even to yourself in this, as justice is one of those ideals which can only be defined by the existence of its opposite, and both require free willed people to choose between them.
“Astraea was angry with her friend for the first time in their long travels. ‘If no such place exists, then what point in searching? If justice cannot exist without injustice, what point is there in trying? I may as well not exist, for all the good I do,’ said the younger goddess.
“Seeing that her words had caused her friend pain, Valera sought to make amends. ‘Never think that you have no purpose, for the pursuit of an ideal has meaning even if the ideal is itself unobtainable. You cannot fail until you cease to try. Come with me, and I will take you to meet an old acquaintance of mine, who’s lands I traveled many years ago, he is wise in these matters and may make your path clearer for you.’
“The two goddesses set out again, but this time with great purpose. Soon they came to a place of fire and ash, populated only by monsters and fiends. It was a terrible place where all struggled just to survive, and only the strongest and most cunning prospered. Astraea was horrified that her friend had brought her to such a place, for there was no justice here, but Valera bade her travel onwards, saying ‘He who rules here lies ahead, would you not learn why he permits his creations to live so?’
“Astraea was full of wrath, but agreed to continue, determined to bring justice to this place if none at all was to be found here. Valera led her friend deep into the depths of that place, and what horrors they saw there cannot be imagined by mortals, yet they persisted, Astraea becoming ever angrier at each new mockery of that which she held dear.
“They came then to a man seated on a black throne at the heart of all darkness, and Astraea marched up to him and demanded he submit to her justice for his crimes. The man rose from his throne and bid them welcome, introducing himself only as The Adversary. He immediately agreed to submit himself to the goddesses justice, but only after a fair trial where he might argue his case before her.
“Astraea agreed to this, for she was both fair and just by nature, and bid the man make his case. The Adversary told her that he was among the oldest of gods, and that once he had been as she was, a god of light and law who sought to punish the wicked and protect the weak.
“Though he launched great campaigns against the forces of evil, over and over he found that they were always corrupted and turned against his purpose. Yet he persisted since always amongst the forces of good heroes would emerge, burning with brilliant purpose, and each final battle seemed one step closer than the last.
“To one such hero, first and best of their number, he gave command of a great army of the light. He commanded this hero to liberate a world that had been all but consumed by evil, while he did battle with the world’s dark gods.
“It was this act that broke him. When The Adversary - who at that time had another name which is no longer spoken - returned from his own battle, he found that his hero’s army had scoured the fallen world of all life. When the god demanded to know why his great hero had done this, the man was confused.
“‘Lord, you bade me cleanse the world of evil, and among the people here I could find not one who lived up to your strictures. They would surely have done more evil had we let them live. I have merely done as you asked of me,’ the man told him.
“It was at this point that the god realized his people had no true concept of the nature of good and evil. The gods had taken these concepts for themselves, and now mortals saw only factions among the divine. They had lost the ability to see the good within their foes, or the evil in their own hearts.
“In horror, the ancient god finally saw where his road had been taking him. Mortals were to be free to choose between good and evil, yet their agency had been largely taken from them. Distraught, the god withdrew for many ages and simply observed, looking for a solution.
“He watched as mortals fought amongst themselves, both claiming to represent the side of good, and both believing it. One side’s hero was the other side’s villain. To his own shame, he realized that he had been guilty of this as well, calling evil that which he simply disagreed with.
“He began to make a study of the nature of evil, looking for that which could be named objectively evil. While he found that certain things were almost certainly always harmful, he eventually decided that it was irresponsible to call anything good or evil without context and perspective.
“For a time he despaired, but then he realized he had missed an important fact all these years. Good and Evil were complementary forces, you couldn’t have one without the other. Even should he manage to eliminate evil from all the worlds he would only replicate his old general’s feat and scour them of life itself. Yet evil was responsible for much growth and adversity made people stronger. In a strange way, great good could come from great evil, not just the other way around.
“Evil had forced even the old god himself to grow and change, and he was wiser for it. Might it not be the struggle itself that was important? His beloved heroes would never have existed if not for the adversity that caused them to rise to the challenge. Where great evil existed, always great good would rise to counter it.
“The god began a series of experiments to test his theories. He no longer sought to eliminate evil, but to harness it for the greater good. He would challenge his people and encourage them to overcome those challenges. At the same time, he wished these challenges to be constructive, and evil was often far too wasteful and destructive. He would need to keep a careful hand upon it. He could not trust another with this task, so he took it up himself.
“‘I have made of myself the enemy of all, so that they might fight me rather than each other,’ he told Astraea. ‘This is the first of my trials, I wished to see what a world of purest adversity would produce. The answer was a hard people with little room in their hearts for love, and much capacity for cruelty. This was not the answer, yet they are strong. They aid me in my efforts by bringing strife into other worlds at my direction, testing the people there and teaching them to surpass themselves.‘
“Hearing these words, Astraea was full of doubt, for she had the gift of hearing the truth when it was spoken in her presence. She turned to her friend Valera and asked for her thoughts, for she valued the older goddess’ wisdom.
“Valera said to her, ‘This is the old acquaintance I spoke to you of, who I thought could help you with his wisdom. He has walked the longest and hardest road I know of, yet he walks it still, even as so many others fall by the wayside.’
“The Adversary spoke then, asking the Lady of Justice why she had come to find him. ‘I sought a world with perfect justice to make my home, for the sight of these broken worlds where the good suffer and the evil thrive is unbearable to me. Valera tells me such does not and cannot exist, but that I should strive for it anyway.’
“The Adversary pondered this for some time before speaking. ‘I think that you have missed the true question at the heart of your problem: Would it be just for you to reside in a place that has no need of you? The denial of justice to others is, by definition, injustice. Were you to reside in a place of perfect justice your justice would be squandered there. Could you stand to know the cosmos was a less just place due to your inaction, when even the barest effort on your part would make it more just?’ The ancient one asked.
“Astraea was horrified, for she had not considered this before. Could her own actions be unjust? In pursuit of perfect justice had she denied any justice to others? Most places she had seen had their own gods or goddesses of justice. Surely they were working to increase justice in their worlds. She had thought them failures, but now she saw herself as the failure, for she helped no one.
“Seeing her dilemma, The Adversary spoke. ‘I have done great evils and intend to do many more, but I swore to submit myself to your justice. Allow me to help balance the scales by helping you with this.’
“Then he showed her a new world, one who yet had no gods, and offered her the keeping of it. The Adversary planned to use this world in his trials, but he knew he could not be both its enemy and its protector. Valera too offered to help, she would stay for a time and pause her wanderings, for to her the experiences and trials presented along the road were the point of the journey.
“Astraea considered this, then spoke with new wisdom. ’Justice is giving to those that which they deserve. Often this is taken to mean punishing those who do wrong, but it also means rewarding those who do right or compensating those who have been wronged. Let our new world be one of trials, those of good versus evil, and the trials of everyday life, as well as those before the law. However, let it also be one that justly rewards those who endure those trials, that none may be tried in vain.
“The Adversary agreed, saying, ‘I will try them, so they become greater than they were.’
“Then Valera said, ‘I will try them, so they may discover who they truly are.’
“Finally, Astraea said, ‘And I too will try them, so they get that which they deserve.’
“With these words the three created the Divine System which governs this world, challenging us and rewarding us in equal measure.”
Dawn let her words hang in the air for a time. Then smiled and popped some hard bread in her mouth and began laboriously chewing on it. “The first trial of the day…” Lucus said, looking at his own bread with distaste. We all chuckled, and with that the serious mood was broken.
We all got down to breakfast. I was spared the indignity of the bread, chewing on jerky instead. Being a carnivore had its perks, but the meat had about as much flavor as toast, so I didn’t feel particularly privileged.
I thought about Dawn’s sermon while we ate. Astraea’s role in this world had long bewildered me. It didn’t seem to be a very just world, or at least its legal system was lacking. Now though I saw it from a different perspective. In this world, hardship was immediately rewarded with measurable and tangible benefits. That was a form of justice, just not the one I’d been expecting.
The moral of the story was somewhat confusing. Astraea had gone looking for something that didn’t exist, and in the process, she’d gone counter to her own purpose. The Adversary had pursued a goal that couldn’t be obtained, and in the process his purpose had become self-defeating. Valera seemed to be mostly just along for the ride, possibly the only one of them content with her situation.
I would have thought that the message would be that pursuing an ideal was fruitless, and you should learn to settle for good enough. None of them seemed to have taken it that way though. Instead, each of them had continued to pursue their ideals, just from a different direction. The Adversary had even commented on the inseparability of good and evil as concepts.
The more I thought about it, the more I saw multiple ways to interpret this. From Valera’s perspective, simply trying to accomplish something was its own reward and so the impossibility of success didn’t matter. From The Adversary’s perspective he had discovered a way to create true heroes by making it necessary for them to exist. From Astraea’s perspective, she had created a world where there was an inherent balance for the unfairness of life.
Tavi had never been very religious. She knew her mother had worshiped Ishtar, a minor goddess popular with goblins in this region, but Ishtar had no following in Altria, so she’d never practiced her mother’s religion. I knew a bit about how religions tended to work though, so between bites I ask Dawn a question that I was pretty sure I already knew the answer to.
“Dawn, was that story you told the commonly accepted creation story of this world, or one from your church specifically? I feel like I’ve heard it told differently in the past, but my memories are still pretty foggy.” For once, I wasn’t even lying.
Dawn was mid-chew, so Arven answered for her. “Each church has its own take on the tale and their god’s role in it, but she told about as neutral a version of it as could be told. A longer version of it also goes into the recruitment of the rest of the pantheon, for they all had their part in the making of this world and the System.”
Dawn managed to swallow. “My church’s version tells it from the perspective of The Lord Adversary, and to be frank takes considerably more credit for the whole idea. It also frames the Trial of The Adversary in a much different light. In it, he more clearly wins and admits no wrongdoing. I’m sure the others all do something similar with their versions.”
“There are actually two versions from Astraea’s church that I’m aware of,” Arven said. “One is considered heretical though. In that one The Adversary’s power of lies is able to deceive Astraea, and she’s tricked into creating yet another flawed world instead of the utopia she had dreamed of. In that one Valera is portrayed as a simple patsy, easily fooled and who delivers Astraea into her enemy’s hands in the moment of her greatest doubt.”
Dawn nodded at that. “I’m all but certain The Lord Adversary himself ordered that version to be spread. He likes to be seen as without any specific allies amongst the gods, and the fact that he and Astraea are such close collaborators in many areas has always been a sore point for some of the others.”
We finished breakfast and packed up. We had a long day ahead of us and nobody was completely sure what to expect. Still, Arven made sure to tell us what he knew of the places we’d be visiting as they were in the real world.
“We have one more guard bunker to clear out, then the wall intersects with battlements around the castle. These tunnels run through those as well but are likely to be more heavily guarded and fortified. The castle walls are thicker than the inner-city walls, and there will be more room to move about.
“They are also usually regularly patrolled, so I expect nearly constant combat unless we can find places to hole up once we hit the area around the castle. Tavi, we’ll probably need your tricks to bypass at least some of the security measures unless they have fallen into decay.
“Once we’re in the castle proper I’m not sure what to expect. Normally the place is awash with more courtiers and dandies than guards, but the Duke and his family reside within, and he keeps a very powerful court wizard in his employ.
“I imagine that we’ll need to fight whatever passes for a duke, and possibly his wizard within. I don’t know much about the Duke from when this dungeon opened, but this may be a problem as the current Duke is over level 100, and some of his family are close.”
“He was, by all accounts, a decent sort.” Dorian said. “His family helped settle this area many years ago and he was an elected mayor before the King raised him to the nobility. Altria prospered under him, but I’ve heard his brother’s side of the family always felt slighted by their continued status as merchants and eventually left the city.”
“This reminds me, I should tell you what I saw while I was running around out there yesterday,” I said, remembering the raid boss I’d seen while exploring.
I spent some time bringing them up to date on the state of the city, and my discovery of the boss that lived directly above our exit to the dungeon. That made everyone unhappy, particularly Dorian. Arven mostly seemed thoughtful.
“I swear this damn dungeon was made specifically to be infuriating. Of course its core is in a place where almost no one can get to it.” He shook his head in exasperation.
“What is a raid boss anyway? And what’s the core?” I asked. In my experience a raid indicated more than one group, fighting together, but so far as I could tell each group that went into a dungeon got its own instance.
“Every dungeon has a place where all the versions of the dungeon’s reality collapse down to a single point. It’s the only place you might go to meet up with another group, and if you’re there when the dungeon resets you won't be kicked out. It’s a constant, and we call it the dungeon’s core. They vary in size and are usually attached to some specific landmark, but it’s common for them to not be casually accessible.” Dorian said, happy to distract himself by recounting a bit of lore.
He continued. “The core also nearly always generates a raid boss. The older a dungeon is, the more powerful its raid boss becomes. Just like everything else in the core the raid boss will persist through a reset, but if you kill it - that’s it, no more boss. Raid bosses are generally very strong and so it’s usually necessary for multiple groups to fight them at once. A lot of coordination goes into assaulting them.”
Arven took back over. “A dungeon without a raid boss is called a conquered dungeon. Most dungeons in populated areas are conquered, with Altria’s being a major exception. I don’t think anyone’s even seen its core before now. When a dungeon is conquered it can be controlled to a degree. Demonologists can manipulate or even close a dungeon entirely from within the core.”
“Does it help us at all that I can get to it?” I asked.
“Not unless you’re secretly a demonologist, and have some way to remove the raid boss.” Dawn said, then paused. “You aren’t secretly a demonologist are you?”
I shook my head. “I’ve unlocked a few of their skills but haven’t learned anything that sounds useful to this situation,” I told her, then I also paused, thinking. “I’m also pretty sure I don’t have any way to remove the boss short of luring it away and making it chase me.”
Since it seemed unlikely we’d be going to the core we set that aside for the moment and began planning for our next move.
“We’re going to try assaulting the next guard post without Dorian’s silencing chant. We were able to clear out this tower and escape from the previous one without it, and I’ve started to believe it may be a crutch we’re better off learning to work without. We’ll still likely use it for some specific cases, but we also need to learn to work better as a team and that requires communication,” Arven instructed. “I doubt we’ll have an issue with the next guard post, but it’s an opportunity to practice with everyone here.”
The island the keep sat on wasn’t small, and from outside I’d been able to observe how things generally seemed to be laid out. The wall didn’t run directly to the keep, instead it went inland a bit before turning at the next post and heading up the length of the island. Only then did it connect to the keep walls, which were both older and thicker looking than these ones were.
The island was rocky and sloped upwards, with the keep built into the highest point. I could see what the city planners had been thinking. There was really only one good way to assault the keep with an army, and it would involve marching up the length of the island between the walls, taking fire from all three directions from a fortified foe that had higher ground. Here though, the keep was below us.
I wrapped myself in shadows. My newly maxed out Embrace skill essentially sucked the shadows out of the room as soon as I activated it. The room actually seemed to get brighter as all the shadows ripped themselves from their normal positions and flowed to me. This continued for some time, as new shadows were created by movement or over time as older ones seemed to regenerate only to once again flow to me.
I sucked in an almost physical mass of shadow and shaped it into the open-front cloak design I’d been using. Eventually I took to walking through a few more rooms, sucking the shadows out of those as well, until the hunger of my cloak for more material finally seemed to slack off.
Black smoke seemed to leak off my cloak, which was the only hint I could see that it wasn’t real. I could still see through it, but I could also now feel the ethereal fabric against my skin. Between the new ranks and my signature skill assignment, I now had a staggering 44 dodge while Embrace was active.
I was looking forward to fighting again, as I’d spent nearly all my time yesterday simply running away. I wanted to see what I could really do with my new skills.
***
As Arven had predicted, we were able to sweep through the final guard tower with no issues. The place had no elites, just simple skeleton guards, and not even a Nightstalker to support them. Dorian tried out a few different songs, including the recovery song he’d used in our first elite fight and a song which provided a haste effect, but which was quite costly to maintain.
Dawn also tried out some new tactics, providing targeted boons instead of just healing. During her watch the previous night she’d distributed some points from her own level ups, choosing to pick up some preventative protection skills. Such skills were efficient, but only if she timed things correctly.
For my part, I switched over to almost exclusively using the Gray Watch Spear. I kept the loaded crossbow in my soul-space for the time being, just in case, but I was finding that the spear worked well for my hybrid attack style.
I had a tendency to move in and out of melee, and the spear let me cover people at range while using hit and run tactics the rest of the time. I did some experimentation with Embrace of Shadows and Hands of Night as well, allowing shadows to swirl around me like normal, but also do things like make me appear to have extra limbs or feint for me.
We each fumbled a bit, particularly as we got used to responding to commands from both Lucus and Arven. It was harder than I thought it would be to wait for someone else to make a call before acting. Even so, we blew through the guard post much faster than we had previously.
We were coming up on the castle battlements next, and we had very little idea of what to expect. I volunteered to scout ahead and report back, which turned out to be very wise.
The structure of the battlements was different from the guard posts. There were no locking doors, and the interior space was much more open. The room had been designed as a death trap for an invading army, but in its upside-down state it was mostly useless in that regard. The arrow slits in what was now the floor couldn’t hurt us, though the place to throw rocks and boiling oil on intruders was now an effective but obvious pit trap.
The real issue was the small army of skeleton archers and pikemen stationed at the closed gate leading down to the castle itself. This was like a smaller version of the river gate we’d climbed across, but it was made of iron and was going to be quite effective at keeping us out. The mechanism for raising and lowering the gate was not on this side of the gate of course, and the latches holding it in place were inside the stone wall and far too heavy for me to disable with a shadow.
I returned to the group without being seen and briefed them. Lucus was confident that he could take down the gate, but it would take some time.
“I’ve studied locking mechanisms for gates like this,” he said. ”These sort of locks are simple, meant to keep an invader from raising the gate with brute strength. The weight of the gate itself is supposed to aid in keeping in place, not fight against it. It will take me a few moments, but I’m sure I can weaken or disengage the lock sufficiently that gravity will take care of the rest.”
“That’s going to make a gods-awful racket,” I pointed out. “Do we want to go in under silence until the door is down?”
Arven nodded. “I want you to get behind them too. Sneak back in there, teleport behind the gate, and wait for us to show up. Normal procedure in this sort of situation would be for the guard to send a runner up to the castle at the first sign of attack. Who knows if the undead will do that, but if they do I want you to take them out.”
I looked at Arven. “How do you know all this anyway?” I asked him. “Were you a member of the guard?”
“Yes.” Arven answered simply.
Dorian chuckled. “Don’t sell yourself short my friend.” He turned to me. “Arven here was a captain of the royal guard before his little ‘accident’.”
Arven didn’t bother to respond further, but I was beginning to get an interesting impression of the man. A captain of the royal guard, cursed by the duke’s own wizard and thrown in jail for accidentally killing a man in a duel to first blood. The man he killed must have been very important. I wondered just how accidental it had been. Arven seemed driven to escape this prison, yet simultaneously there was a feeling of hopelessness about him that was hard to reconcile with his actions.
I gave Arven a cheeky salute. “Yes sir! Give me about two minutes to get into position.”
He sighed and gave Dorian a long-suffering look. “Alright, everyone knows their jobs. We move in two minutes.”
I plastered myself to the ceiling and spider-crawled my way back into the battlement tower, singing a little song under my breath as I went.
“Spider goblin, spider goblin. Does whatever she fucking wants. Doesn’t spin a web, ‘cause that’d be gross. Look up! Here comes the spider goblin…”
I reflected that Tavi’s personality, and my knowledge were combining in weird ways. Her personality traits seemed to come out a lot more when I was stressed or nervous, unless I intentionally withdrew into my soul gem.
Ah well, sanity was overrated anyway.
It was easy enough to hide on the ceiling. The shadows were already thick there and I had no issues shadow stepping to the ceiling on the other side of the gate. In a weird way traveling upside-down in this dungeon was easier than walking on what was now the ground.
Once I was on the other side, I wedged myself into the angle between the wall and ceiling, looking down onto the backs of the guards below me. Then I pulled out my loaded crossbow and waited.
Lucus appeared first, shield raised, marching in eerie silence. He made it half-way into the room before the skeletal guard noticed him. Archers immediately raised their bows, and pikemen prepared to stab through the gate.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Arven waited for the pikes to be thrust before revealing himself, then he moved quickly. His blades glowed softly as he sliced the tips off the weapons with clean strikes. This bought Lucus the opening he needed to reach the wall by the gate.
I watched the guards for signs that one or more would pull back but it seemed less and less likely that would happen. I got ready to start taking shots from hiding, but I noticed sounds coming from behind me. I was outside the range of Dorian’s silence effect, and I was hearing something coming from further up the hallway.
These hallways were wide enough for five people to stand side by side, but they were angled downward and slightly curved. Every so often there would be a set of stairs, currently located on the ceiling, that would form a sort of terrace until the next set.
The ceiling-turned-floor was sloped instead of having stairs, but the slopes were at very random and occasionally quite harsh angles. This all followed the curvature of the hill the castle was built on, so it wasn’t consistent and at points it leveled out. I thought it had also been designed to provide strong points against any invaders that managed to get inside the walls, but not for fighting on the ceiling.
From my elevated position, I could see a patrol walking towards us along one of the level areas. Right now, they couldn’t see what was happening up ahead of them, but they’d be able to soon. Probably by the time they got onto the next terrace. I likewise couldn’t see far past them and didn’t know what else might be behind them.
We were about to pull multiple groups and I didn’t see anything I could do about it. The patrol wasn’t large, but I was worried it might chain into a third group further in. It seemed to consist of a single armored ghoul and two dog-like animals. Scan told me the ghoul was called a Houndmaster Ghoul, and that it was an Elite, something which I couldn’t make out from this distance. The two dog-things were called Kennel Cadavers and were normal monsters.
I crawled closer, staying on the ceiling. I couldn’t take out an elite on my own, but I wanted to get a better look at them. I wouldn’t have risked this without Embrace’s signature skill bonus, but with it providing cover from special senses I was pretty sure it worked against things like smell and hearing in addition to Lifesense.
This patrol was obviously set up to find sneaky people like me, but what I wanted to know was if they had some way to sound a general alarm other than whatever passed for barking from a Kennel Cadaver. If I had to, I’d try and kill the dogs before they could react, which might prevent the alarm from being raised.
As they got closer, I stopped moving, letting them slowly approach my position. Unfortunately, now that they were this close, I saw that the Houndmaster had a horn attached to his belt, and Scan was picking it up as an item named “Call to Hunt” - that didn’t sound good.
I let them walk past me. This was going to be absurdly dangerous, but I didn’t see a better option. The moment they walked past I teleported into the shadow of the Houndmaster and activated Snatch, trying to steal the horn right off his belt. I wasn’t going for a Strength based Snatch this time, but instead relied on my Dexterity to try and slide it off his belt pickpocket style. The dogs were walking ever so slightly ahead of him, so maybe…
I slipped the horn from its loop, then just stood there, unmoving. The patrol kept moving up the tunnel. They would be able to see the fighting ahead any moment now. I quickly planned my next few actions. I was going to need to execute this perfectly or I was fucked.
The horn had a loop of leather for a handle and I quickly stuffed that into my mouth and bit down on it. Once it was secured, I silently prayed to whichever god watched over fools and madmen in this world. Then I activated Burning Bolts and shot one of the dogs in the back of the head with my crossbow at close range.
The kennel cadaver’s head detonated in a shower of rotten flesh, and there was a pregnant moment while the Houndmaster and the other dog seemed utterly baffled as to what had just happened. I used that moment to toss my crossbow aside and pull out the Gray Watch Spear, putting my storage on cooldown. I immediately drove the spear into the neck of the other dog with a quick throw, then scampered up a wall before either undead could pinpoint my location.
The Houndmaster reached for his belt and wasted several moments trying to find his horn. The dog charged after me, and actually managed to bite my foot, sinking teeth into me and dragging me back down. That hurt like hell and I screamed into the leather loop between my teeth as I bit down harder.
I activated Unrestrained and suddenly my foot was free, if bloody. It still hurt like hell, so I withdrew into my soul gem a bit to distance myself from the pain. This time I was able to climb the wall without any issues and I reactivated Hide to conceal my exact position. The Houndmaster was now drawing a longsword from his waist and was looking up towards me with grim consideration.
A moment later, the spear turned to mist and returned to my hand. From my position on the wall I gave it a sharp toss straight down and skewered the dog that had just bit me. Fortunately It didn’t seem like they had much health.
The elite hissed up at me in anger, then turned and took off running towards the gate my friends were fighting at. He got maybe five steps before coming to a halt, obviously seeing the ongoing silent conflict. I glanced that way as well, wondering what was taking so long.
Lucus was at the other corner now, and the gate was visibly listing to one side. As I watched, something gave way, and the gate vanished, shearing through some of the spears being poked through it in places. The next moment Arven was among the pikemen, fearlessly cutting them down as he was simply too fast for them to fight back once he was inside their reach.
Seeing all this, the Houndmaster turned and began running in the other direction. I couldn’t allow that. Not waiting for the spear this time, I activated Blades of Twilight and Burning Bolts, slamming all three blades into the elite. His armor deflected one of the blades but the other two sank home.
I noticed that the fire from Burning Bolts seemed not to diminish the blades as much as it had previously, and wondered if it might be because of some interaction between Blades and Embrace of Shadows but didn’t have time to think about it.
As with all the ghouls, a solid hit with fire magic did wonders, and he went up like a torch. Unfortunately, just like all the others, this did nothing to slow him down. I launched myself off the wall at the fleeing ghoul, spear reappearing in my hands as I did so. This time I didn’t throw it, instead I ran behind the ghoul, jabbing at its feet, trying to slow it down and really working my new ankle-biter skill.
Without any warning the ghoul whirled around, blade flashing, and damn near took my head off. I managed to duck at the last moment, and the blade only cut shadows. Then I was suddenly on the defensive as the ghoul came at me with sword and claw. I reactivated Hide and let my shadows spread out to encompass both of us, content to delay as much as possible while my friends caught up.
We danced around in the dark for a bit, and I made no move to attack. The ghoul became visibly frustrated with my dodging, but as soon as it moved to run away again, I used the opportunity to drive my spear through a poorly armored spot on the back of its knee, causing it to stumble. Then I rained blows on it, hoping to convince it that it couldn’t leave without dealing with me.
Unfortunately, it was not slowed as much as I had hoped by the spear through its knee, and it seemed to have decided I wasn’t worth fighting. It hobbled away from me at nearly jogging speed, and I was left wondering how the hell I was going to stop it. Then I had a fantastic idea that made me grin like the grinch about to steal Christmas.
I teleported ahead of the ghoul, causing the area in front of it to go pitch black. It drew up short, but then charged forward again a moment later when it figured out I’d simply moved in front of it.
That is, until I fired the miniature ballista I’d pulled out of my soul-space directly into its chest, caving in the armor and sending the ghoul flying head over heels back up the corridor in the direction we’d come from. The ballista made a loud twang and snap as it was fired, but I’d intentionally filled this part of the corridor with shadows that had the ability to provide cover against sensory perceptions of all types. I was hoping it would be enough to keep the sound from traveling far.
The new abilities I’d gotten from Soul Vault were really doing work here. I left the ballista where it was and jogged off after the tumbling ghoul. The ballista bolt was still lodged in its chest when it slid to a stop.
Thanks to the slope of the tunnel, I hadn’t knocked it back too far, just about to where we’d started, but the angle and force of the shot had arced it through the air briefly before rolling to a stop. As I approached the ghoul got to its feet drunkenly, its sword missing completely, and began trying to free itself from the bolt still piercing its chest.
I got a funny feeling as I ran towards it. It took a second, but then I realized that my “Smite!” skill was activatable. I was getting a bit low on resources, but I couldn’t let this chance pass me by. For some reason the others still hadn’t caught up with me, and I was getting worried.
So, I activated Blades of Twilight, Smite, and Burning Bolts all at the same time, pointing the resulting conflagration directly at the ghoul’s chest, not wanting to miss. Some quick math told me I was making an attack with effectively a twelve times multiplier, but the wording of these skills made a few things unclear. Was the weapon damage multiplied in addition to the spell damage? Did Smite change the full damage of the attack to holy, or just its own spell damage?
New Achievement! “Solo Artist”
These calculations flashed through my head as the Houndmaster’s torso exploded with the force of a pipe bomb. Fragments of bone and the metal of its chest piece embedded themselves in the walls, floor, and ceiling. It was a mess, and it made more noise than I would have liked.
Well, however it worked, it turned out I’d been wrong, I could solo an elite. It just took a personal siege weapon. Not that this elite seemed particularly strong, but maybe that would have changed if he’d had his horn or dogs for more than a few seconds.
The Houndmaster’s spirit had joined what little remained of the other ghoul spirits in my soul-space. It was tangibly different from the other spirits I’d stored so far, somehow more full and real. If I hadn’t previously eaten the reality seed this spirit would likely have made me feel full, like I’d eaten a meal too big for me. Now though, it was just a drop in a vast ocean. I was curious to see what skills it had though.
Now what the hell was taking my friends so long?
I climbed back onto the ceiling and made my way up the tunnel. As I got closer I realized I could hear the fighting. Dorian had dropped his silencing effect and had switched to his recovery song, and Lucus was frantically shouting out orders.
As soon as I could make them out clearly, I started benefiting from their skills. That was great because it turned out they were fighting enemies on two fronts. Our team had brought down one gate as planned, only to have the other gate that led to the front wall of the keep blasted open.
Arven was fighting off the skeletons I’d snuck past earlier, while everyone else had their attention focused on the skeletal dragon that had crushed the gate in its mouth before tossing it at my friends. I hadn’t been paying attention to the party interface, but I glanced at it as I scurried across the ceiling.
I winced, seeing that Dawn of all people was badly injured. Her health was recovering, but I spotted her against the far wall, covered in blood, an arrow sticking out of her shoulder. She was healing herself one handed, while the other arm was limp. Savas was standing in front of her, knives out, trying to shield her with his body.
Lucus was tanking the dragon, the Bastion was doing its work and the dragon seemed very frustrated by the shield’s ability to resist its strength. The dragon was currently chewing on it, head held sideways, as Lucus pounded on it over and over with his mace. I was regretting spending my ballista on the ghoul, but I couldn’t take it back now. Also, now that I thought about it, I might have a better solution for this anyway, I just needed a few more seconds…
I crawled above the dragon, then called down to my friends. “Lucus, point your shield towards me, and reinforce the floor if you can! Dorian, when I say, swap to silence for a second - this will be loud!”
I pulled my shadows in close so Lucus could see where to point his shield. The dragon was still chewing on it like a dog with a bone, but the nature of the shield meant the dragon couldn’t really stop him from moving it, just slow it down. Lucus slowly rotated it in the dragon’s mouth, taking advantage of every chew and gnaw until it was at a forty-five-degree angle from the floor. Meanwhile, I extended a shadow tendril where I needed it, I called out to Dorian to silence the area.
“Now!” I shouted. Then I dropped my pet rock right on the dragon’s head.
The massive egg-shaped boulder crushed the dragon’s skull between itself and the shield, then bounced and crashed into the rest of the dragon before shaking the floor with its final rolling impact. Bones and bone shards flew everywhere, and I felt yet another elite spirit flow into my soul-space, taking up the slot I’d been using to hold the ballista.
New Achievement! “Rocks Fall, You Die.”
Your companion “Pet Rock” has gained the achievement “Between You and a Hard Place.”
Your companion “Pet Rock” has gained enough experience to become a level 7 Boulder.
Dorian ended the silence effect, but the quiet persisted as everyone, including the few remaining skeletal guards, just stared at the boulder as it rolled to a stop.
Meanwhile I was staring at the messages telling me it had leveled up and gotten an achievement.
I still couldn’t figure out if this was supposed to be a joke item, but apparently it could level up? How could I even see what its achievement was? Maybe if I dropped another rank in Devil in the Details I could view all this from its perspective? Did rocks have a perspective? Now that I considered it, technically I was a rock with a perspective, so maybe it was something similar?
I had so many questions.
Arven was the only one that didn’t stop to stare. He took advantage of the opportunity to smash the remaining skeletons mercilessly while their guard was down. Dorian resumed his regeneration song a moment later, and I saw that Lucus was already healing the cracks in the floor.
I had to wait for a bit before I could put the rock back in storage, so I went ahead and used Identify on the horn I’d stolen off the Houndmaster. It hadn’t faded when I’d killed the ghoul, which was interesting.
> Call to Hunt
>
> Instrument (Tier 5, Ethereal)
>
> The sound from this enchanted horn pierces mundane barriers of metal, stone, and wood with its haunting call. Anyone who blows the horn gains the temporary service of two ghostly wolves with a level equal to their own. For every 50 levels, an additional wolf will be summoned. The wolves last for 1 hour or until they are killed, and follow the commands of the horn blower or any others they designate.
>
> Once used, this item loses its power and will crumble to dust after an hour, or when the last wolf is defeated.
After another thirty seconds had passed I pulled the pet rock back into my soul-space. I’d been a little concerned it would smash right through the floor and keep going, which is why I decided to bounce it off Lucus' shield first to redirect the momentum. The fact that the dragon’s head was there just made it better.
I pointed at the corpse of the dragon, which had started glowing with a soft purple light. “Nobody loots that until Dorian gets a chance to examine it,” I told them. Dorian kept up his song but nodded happily at the thought of possibly uncovering some of the dragon’s skills.
Arven had finished off the last skeletons and rejoined the group. He gave me a questioning look, taking in my mangled foot. “What took you so long to get here? Did they send a runner?”
“A patrol walked up on us from behind.” I handed him the horn, sharing the item info with him. “There were two dog things, plus an elite ghoul carrying this. The ghoul didn’t like it when I stole his horn and killed his dogs, but couldn’t catch me, so he tried running for help. I lit him on fire and shot him with the ballista. Going to need some help reloading that, by the way. I was trying to figure out what was taking you guys so long when I got back and saw the dragon.”
Arven examined the horn. “Interesting, not an elite item. Not terribly useful here though since it will bring the guards down on us. I’ll hold onto it for now just in case.”
I nodded. It made sense for Arven to hold onto. I wasn’t sure what level he really was, but it was pretty obvious he was higher level than the rest of us even if his curse was somehow artificially lowering it.
Next, I checked on Dawn. She had healed herself but was still covered in drying blood and an arrow was still sticking out of her shoulder. The other woman was more disheveled than I’d ever seen her, but still managed to look stunning despite everything. Savas was helping her to her feet, and she looked pretty shaken up.
“What happened?” I asked her. “Are you going to be alright?”
“I’ll be okay, I think,” she said. “I was the only one that saw it coming, but I wasn’t able to warn anyone because of the silence. I managed to throw up a shielding spell on myself just in time before it bashed that gate open and threw it at me.”
She looked down in distaste at the arrow sticking out of her shoulder. “This is going to need to come out before I can heal it properly. Would one of you…”
She trailed off as I extended a shadow tendril and wrapped it around the arrow, then simply moved it into my soul-space for a moment, before dropping it on the ground again. She sighed in relief as she healed the spot. “Thank you, that was much less painful than what I was planning.”
Arven walked over. “That’s the issue with relying on that silence skill. Lack of communication hurts us more than it hurts our enemies here. We knew that, and had to take the risk, but it nearly cost us dearly.” He shook his head. “Sometimes there are no good options in battle, just the least worst ones.”
Then addressing Dawn, he nodded and said, “I’m glad you’re okay, since we seem to have avoided detection, let's take a few minutes to recover.”
Dawn nodded, then went around healing the worst of our injuries. When she finished with my foot I pulled out another scarab token and handed it to her, causing her eyes to go very wide again as she realized what I was holding out to her.
“Here, don’t spend this one please, but use it to visit the Fair Deal. There are bathrooms in the back, you’ll feel better if you wash all that blood off.”
She took the token gingerly and nodded. “Thank you for your trust.”
She was gone longer than Dorian had been, but only by a heartbeat or so. Then she reappeared fully healed and with full mana and stamina, her clothes appearing fully laundered and her hair freshly washed. She’d even stitched up some of the rips in the fabric of her clothes. As soon as she reappeared, she gave me a radiant smile and reluctantly handed back the scarab.
“That is a benefit of earning one of those tokens I was wholly unaware of… I hope you’ll let me use it again in the future? Until I get my own at least.”
I grinned and bobbed my ears at her in ascent. “Of course. I think I’m going to try and convince System to add something like that anyone can get access to. Preferably with showers instead of just sinks.”
“Do that, and I think you’ll have half the population demanding you be made a saint.”
I laughed at that. “I’ll work on it.”
Dawn turned to Dorian, “Your girlfriend seems lovely, I hope you manage to get a token of your own soon so you can go visit her.”
Dorian was left sputtering as the rest of us laughed.
Even though Dawn was now fine, the rest of us needed a few minutes to recover our resources. I also wanted to see what taking a bite out of this dragon and houndmaster spirits would give me. Dorian had tried examining the dragon already, but hadn’t uncovered any skills, so we’d looted the dragon’s body and gotten a sweet Dragon’s Tooth Dagger. Savas was now wielding it and grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.
I warned everyone what I was about to do. I wasn’t sure what would happen when I took a bite out of an elite’s spirit, let alone a dragon, and I didn’t want them to freak out. I stood in the middle of the room as everyone else watched.
First, I tried the ghoul. It was humanoid at least, so less of a potential change. I activated Devour Essence and got the standard slew of ghoul abilities, plus two more, and also something a little different.
New temporary trait gained! “Elite”
> Creature Commander (Kennel Cadaver)
>
> Passive Skill (Tier 2)
>
> Prerequisites: Ghoul (Houndmaster)
>
> Rank: 0 / 6
>
> PP: 0 / 4
>
> You can command one Kennel Cadaver per-rank in this skill. Commanded creatures will aid you in battle with unwavering loyalty.
> Create Undead (Kennel Cadaver)
>
> Active Skill (Tier 2)
>
> Prerequisites: Ghoul (Houndmaster)
>
> Rank: 0 / 10
>
> PP: 0 / 4
>
> Activation Cost: Mana (High)
>
> Activation Type: Channeled (1min)
>
> Cooldown: 1 Minute
>
> You can target the corpse of an animal, or a loose collection of biological material of sufficient size, raising it into a Kennel Cadaver, a type of animalistic undead creature. Kennel Cadavers are unintelligent, but excellent and relentless trackers. Their hooked teeth are ideal for digging into unprotected flesh and hanging on, preventing prey from escaping.
>
> Each rank in this skill increases the level of the created undead by 10% of your current level, up to a maximum of your total level.
>
>
> Note: This skill grants you no ability to control a raised Kennel Cadaver, but undead created with this skill will not be automatically hostile to you personally.
The skills were pretty useless to me, but there was a side effect I wasn’t expecting. When I drained the elite’s spirit, I gained a small attribute bump in every stat. It was only one or two points in each stat at most, but this hadn’t happened previously.
Apparently munching on an elite would convey some of their inherent strength as a general stat boost. The trait it had given me didn’t mention the stat bump, just saying that I counted as an elite and nothing else.
Arven looked me over with interest. “Tavi, just so you know, you’ve gained the elite tag when I examine you,” he told me. “And you’re distorting the air a bit. It’s hard to see with all the shadows, but it’s there.”
I turned off Devour Essence, returning to normal a moment later. “I didn’t feel any different than when using that on a normal ghoul, but I did get a tiny stat bump to every attribute. Does the elite tag do anything besides let me use items that have the tag effectively?”
Arven shook his head. “Not that I know of, but I don’t think it’s something people are supposed to get, only monsters.”
“Good to know… I guess let's see if the dragon is any different,” I said, taking a bite.
There was no pain, which was good because I felt like there really should have been. I’d gotten all the undead skills again, per usual. Like with the Houndmaster I’d gotten the Elite trait and accompanying across the board stat boost. The stat boost was more significant than with the ghoul, but not by much.
Oh, and I’d also grown boney wings, a tail, and a draconic jaw.
“I uh, may require healing after this,” I said through even more of a mouthful of teeth than I was used to.
I experimentally flexed my wings. They were raw bones sticking out of my back, no skin on them at all. I opened my character sheet and saw that my new jaw had essentially ripped my face off, the boney jaw erupting outwards without bothering to reshape my skin. Weirdly, even without skin my wings seemed to be able to provide some lift, which was interesting.
I was pretty sure my Undead skill was responsible for most of my current state, but it was also keeping me from panicking about it so that was good. I looked over the skills that were unique to this spirit and none of them had any undead specific connotations, so I assumed they were generic to all dragons.
> On Leathery Wings
>
> Passive Skill (Tier 6)
>
> Prerequisites: Dragon (Any)
>
> Rank: 0 / 3
>
> PP: 0 / 12
>
> You have a pair of draconic wings that are able to propel you through the air. You have a flight speed equivalent to your walking speed with a poor maneuverability rating. While flying, your stamina does not recover. Each rank in this skill above the first increases your maneuverability rating by one stage, and your fly speed by 15%.
> By Tooth, Claw, and Scale
>
> Passive Skill (Tier 6)
>
> Prerequisites: Dragon (Any)
>
> Rank: 0 / 3
>
> PP: 0 / 12
>
> You have draconic features which can be used to make attacks with startling effect. You can use your jaws, claws, or tail to make attacks and use skills. When you use your draconic features to make attacks you get a 10% damage bonus per-rank in this skill.
>
> When you use a skill that originates from one of these areas, that skill is treated as though it is one rank higher per-rank in this skill, so long as the tier of that skill is less than this one. This can raise the rank of the skill beyond its normal maximum.
Damn. Dragons were overpowered. Like literally overpowered. Ranking up that skill was essentially ranking up every skill of Tier 5 or less simultaneously. There were some skills that wouldn’t work with it, sure, but most attack skills could probably even double dip on it.
I looked over at Dawn, who visibly winced. “I’m about to let this drop, get ready.”
My next several minutes were full of blinding pain. My health took a sudden sharp drop to just under 50%. For the first time in a long time my consciousness retreated completely into my soul gem, seeking to preserve whatever remained of my sanity as I felt my bones reshaping themselves, this time without the benefit of the undeath skill.
Dawn healed me through it, literally gluing my face back on. When it was over I was left gasping and feeling my face, trying to make sure everything was attached properly. That had been remarkably disturbing, even with the protection afforded by my soul gem. Tavi’s brain and body had still gotten to experience it, and remained unhappy about it even after it was over.
“I think I’ll pass on learning those skills…” Dorian said, looking a bit green.
“Don’t make too hasty a judgment on that,” I told him, still breathing heavily. “When I do that, I don’t get a choice in what skills activate, it’s all or nothing. I’m pretty sure that was a bad reaction between the Undeath skill and the draconic skills. Here, learn the wings skill and try it with Mythcaller, I suspect it will work much better for you.”
Dorian looked extremely uncertain about this but learned the skill from me. “Oh, don’t forget to take your shirt off first. Those things are going to pop out from your shoulder blades.”
Arven interjected at this point. “Tavi, can this wait? We’re exposed here and we’re supposed to be recovering.”
Dorian looked hopeful and stopped unbuttoning his shirt, awaiting my response. “This should be quick if I’m correct and might save Dorian’s life if he were to fall into the sky. It’d be better to know now than to need to find out in combat.”
Arven reluctantly nodded, and Dorian sighed, stripping his shirt off and obviously mentally bracing himself. A moment later, wings burst from his back, and unlike the ones I’d just had his were fully fleshed over.
Dorian was wearing an expression like someone who expected to get punched in the face, but the punch never came. He experimentally flexed his wings and laughed in delight as they pushed him lightly off the ground. I unabashedly took a mental screenshot of the moment, both because of the joy on his face, and the fact that he looked good without a shirt on.
“You’ll need to try turning it back off too, but I don’t think you’ll have any issues,” I said, grinning at him. “I strongly suspect the other skill will work the same way. The Undeath skill is strong but has some real unfortunate downsides. I never plan to permanently acquire it because of that. If your partially undead subspecies ever gets the option for full undeath I highly suggest you avoid it - it messes with your mind as well as your body.”
Dorian deactivated the skill, and the wings sucked back into him like someone slurping up spaghetti. It was disturbing to watch but didn’t appear to cause him any discomfort. “I can’t wait to make spellsongs for these. Think of it… ‘Dragonflight’ by First Loresinger Dorian… It will go down in history.”
Arven just shook his head ruefully. “Yes, well, we need to get out of here first. One thing at a time.”
Dorian put his shirt back on, and I had him sit down on the ground. I had a single sharpened claw on the last finger of each hand, and I used them to cut slits in the fabric so that he could manifest the wings without having to undress. Since they visibly grew outwards from his back it should allow him to avoid hulking out and exploding his shirts.
I’d been very aware since the moment I’d grown my wings that I’d dodged yet another “Tavi can’t wear shirts” moment thanks to my new chest wrap and immaterial cloak fashion choices. I’d gotten lucky with the tail, as the pants I was wearing were built to be able to accommodate one, and I just hadn’t needed that feature yet. Likewise, my claws on both hands and feet were already accounted for, so I hadn’t lost my shoes or anything like that.
I taught Dorian the other skill but cautioned him against using it without appropriate clothing. That one was probably going to be of limited use to him, but no reason he shouldn’t have it available.
I wasn’t sure what I would be doing with it either. Learning it permanently would probably make me something more like a Kobold than a Goblin, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be reptilian. I was going to give it a try later with Mythcaller but currently I wasn’t planning on learning it despite how overpowered it was.
I did also have the promise of getting a different body at some point in the future. Depending on how that worked I might start working on a draconic body of some sort. Perhaps I could keep Tavi’s body in my soul-space and swap between them? It did seem to involve storing bodies in my soul-space, so it seemed plausible.
I’d never really been comfortable with the idea of being a body snatcher. It had worked out with Tavi because in a very real way I was her and always had been. Going forwards I would need to think about how I was going to approach that aspect of my species. Now though, the fact that I was acquiring species skills from a variety of sources was making me wonder if I’d be able to mix and match them to make entirely new types of creatures.
That idea appealed to me more than just wholesale assuming someone else’s form. It seemed like all the other Travelers had gotten to build bodies of their own, so why not me too?
Tavi’s body was ok. While it didn’t perfectly represent me, I was comfortable enough in it for now. If I could customize it, then I could really make it my own for the first time. I was looking forward to that, but I had more important things to think about at the moment.
The bodies of the skeletons faded around us as we finished up our break. None of the others had carried any special loot, but we’d gathered up the odd bit of gold and silver. Arven was impatient to keep moving, but he let us take our time to fully recover.
No other patrols snuck up on us, likely because we’d killed the only ones in both directions. We briefly talked about going the way the dragon had come from, but Arven couldn’t think of any benefit to doing so. That way would result in us trying to cross the inverted courtyard.
Instead, we continued on our original path. This way would lead us up to where the wall met the castle proper. According to Arven the next guard post we encountered would be an entrance to the castle. It was gated similar to the ones we’d just passed through, but normally would be manned by royal guards.
“That said,” he told us. “The castle didn’t have a dragon the last time I was there. Unless maybe you count the Duke’s wife.”
I agreed to scout ahead again, once again crawling on the ceiling under cover of darkness. The hallway ended with a single gated entrance directly into the guard station. To my surprise, the gate was already open, and there were no guards in sight. That was worrying.
I got closer and checked out the guard post. It was a simple defensive position, and just beyond it I found a half-open door. It led into a largish room with a grand staircase at one end. Pale light cast uncanny shadows on the ceiling, from what would have been high windows if the castle had been right-side up. There was quite a drop right on the other side of the door as the floor fell away, leading into the much larger room.
Scan wasn’t picking up anything, but all my gaming senses were screaming boss fight at me. I was fully expecting the door to slam closed behind me if I walked in there, so I backed out and headed back to rejoin the party.
Arven listened to my report calmly. “It’s obvious my knowledge of the castle isn’t going to be as useful as I’d hoped,” he sighed. “The grand staircase leads to the throne room. If there’s a boss, it will be there. The entryway is intended to be a place for petitioners to wait and socialize with other petitioners while awaiting the Duke’s summons. There are side rooms where more important visitors can take a seat and be served food and drink while they wait. All of them join up in the hallway to the throne.”
He paced a bit, thinking. “Normally when you enter the castle you give your name to the seneschal or one of his assistants and get placed in a queue, they call your name when the Duke is ready to receive you. There are also doors on the ground floor that lead deeper into the castle through the servant work areas and living quarters. The kitchens are back that way, and there are routes to the throne room and even the Duke’s residence.”
Arven stopped pacing and looked up at us. “The lack of guards is concerning, but I don’t think we can pass up the direct route to the throne room. I’m all but certain that the dungeon boss will be there. If we kill the boss, the event should end, and there should be a way to exit the dungeon without needing to backtrack.”
“It feels strange to be plotting to kill the Duke,” Savas said. “Everyone that wants to beat this dungeon basically has to kill Altria’s nobility.”
Arven gave him a small smile. “Never thought about it like that. Still, it’s not the real Duke. The only repercussions for killing this one will be that we might save some of our fellow inmates from a fate worse than death.”
“So, we just rush the boss and pray for the best?” Lucus asked. “If we take out the leader do all the other monsters die?”
“Not that I know of, no. They may become less coordinated without a leader, but I wouldn’t count on them dying just because the leader does. As for the plan, let's keep it loose. Adaptability will be key here, be ready for anything and keep your eyes and ears open. Remember to protect Dawn and Dorian. Oh, and Tavi, if you have any more tricks up your sleeve now would be the time to let us know.”
I thought about that for a long moment. “You know, I think I do.”