Balin had been in Deepcore long enough to make a decision.

He liked the Kinshasan dungeon more than Minnova’s Greentree.

Not that he wasn’t patriotic! Give him some good old Minnovan mushfolk shroomskin or sweet vine any day over all this cursed salt!

But there wasn’t muck everywhere, just good old rock and stone.

Though, to be fair, all dungeons kind of sucked.

“Are you done cleaning all those guts off your shield yet, Balin?” Aishablue asked. Unlike past adventures, the gnomess didn’t have an orb of light following her. In the dark of Deepcore’s Whitehall, that made her a target, and they now had an alternative – so why take that risk?

Instead, Balin’s armor and axe shone with a brilliant inner light that kept the encroaching darkness at bay.

Off to the side, Starshine wielded a large two handed maul that shimmered as well.

The pair of them were impossible to miss in the otherwise dark landscape.

The first big difference upon entry to Deepcore had been their assigned number. Whitehall was an incredibly wide beach that led down to the Sandsea, and adventurers were given a ‘lane’ to head to before delving deeper into the dungeon. This system gave the monsters time to be reborn from the strong mana in the stone, and ensured adventuring parties didn’t accidentally hit each other in the dark. A scavenging team would follow a short way behind the team to take monster corpses back, and you could accept requests to escort salt mining teams.

The ‘sky’ was a black basalt ceiling filled with shimmering salt crystals just a dozen feet above their heads. The effect was not quite at the level of Minnova’s stunning cave starscape – and it was more blueish than purple – but it came close. The beach was also made of salt, though it was contaminated with crushed shells, limestone, and other sediment. Large boulders and stones littered the beach, blocking longer sightlines and creating craggy hallways.

Unlike the first zones in Greentree, Whitehall was wide open enough to see and hear other parties, and even as the team rested they could see the lights and sounds of other adventuring parties in their own lanes farther along the beach.

“I’m sensing somethin’ underneath us.” Raysdotter remarked. As the party member with the highest Perception, she was often the first to notice changes in their environment. “[Dangersense] isn’t going off, though.”

“Must just be an Ironshell passing through.” Flowerpott remarked. “Should we call it up?”

Starshine nodded at Balin. “Your call Balin, are you ready?”

Balin sighed and hopped to his feet. “Aye, may as well. They’re worth more than everythin’ else in Whitehall, and I’m itchin’ to get more practice in. I can clean guts off later.”

“Formation three everyone!” Starshine announced, and the team moved like a well-oiled machine. Balin got ready next to Starshine while the rest moved back. When everyone was in position, and Aishablue had a spell activated and ready, Starshine took her maul and with a cry of “[Basic Slash]!” pounded her maul onto the beach.

Three seconds later, a crab the size of a lounge chair erupted from the sand, spraying rock and salt everywhere. The team was used to this tactic by now though, and they shielded their eyes through the spray just long enough for Aishablue to reply in kind with a blinding flash of light.

The grey, metallic crab monster frothed in agony, scrubbing at its stalk-like eyes. Its shell had a metallic sheen to it, and it was dented and scored in places. Unlike a regular crab, the ironshell had a long scorpion-like tail, which it stabbed out with blindly.

Balin stepped forward to catch the stabs on his shield, and the Starshine flowed around him to crush one eyestalk with her hammer before dodging out of the way as the ironshell swept an enormous claw through the space where she’d just been. Balin moved to place himself in full view of the ironshell’s remaining eye, and gestured threateningly at it with his axe.

The monster, half blind and in agony pulled both claws and its tail back, then dug its multiple legs into the sand and tensed.

“It’s a charge! [Minor Blessing: Strength of All Self!]!” Raysdotter shouted, the black-garbed [Cleric] suddenly appearing from behind the creature. She clung to the tail and anchored herself in the sand. Manny spun out of the darkness and leapt forward to slice one sickle arm through the joint of one of the ironshell’s legs, severing it.

A moment later, the ironshell leapt into the air, attempting to bring its claws and tail and massive bulk down on Balin. However, its missing leg and the extra weight on its tail caused its jump to fall off target, and the monster landed on its side, legs scrabbling for purchase.

“Aishablue! Stun!” Starshine shouted, surging forward.

In a moment she and Balin were on the ironshell, pushing it onto its back. The monster attempted to use its claws and tail to right itself, but Raysdotter was instantly there to deny it purchase with flicks of her mace and kicks from her steel boots.

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“Ready!” Balin shouted, as he ran to the place his large axe – point downwards – on the underbelly of the beast.

“Stunning Light!” Aishablue shouted, and a crackle of light arced from her palm to the ironshell’s face.

The beast went limp for a bare second, but it was enough time for Balin to steady the axe, and for Starshine to drive it through the hard metallic exoskeleton with a [Basic Slash], like a wedge through wood.

The ironshell spasmed one last time as Balin’s axe found its nervous system, its claws flailing a few times before going limp.

“Well, that was easy.” Flowerpott remarked. The grey-haired gnome hadn’t even moved through the entire fight, his attention focused on directing his prized mantis and keeping an eye out for any monsters attracted to the fight with his eye-in-the-sky glassflies.

“Easy for you to say ya old goat, how about you body the beast next time, eh?” Raysdotter chuckled.

“Puhleeze. Have you seen me?” Flowerpott gestured down at his petite gnomish engineer frame.

“Focus!” Starshine shouted. “Ironshells can still fight when dead!”

At that exact moment, the ironshell snapped in a wide arc with its claws, sweeping up Starshine in one, and bouncing off Balin’s shield with the other. Starshine’s plate armor creaked, but didn’t bend or break under the pressure of the monster’s grip, and just as suddenly as it had sprung back to life, the monster fell dead again.

With Starshine still in its claw, now locked tightly shut in death.

There was a moment of silence as the party registered what had happened.

Raysdotter laughed first. “Hah! Maybe you should’ve focused, Star!”

“Aye, looks like she’s feelin’ a bit crabby!” Flowerpott giggled.

The rest of the party broke into varying guffaws, chuckles and snorts at that.

“All of you shut yer traps and help me out of here.” Starshine grumped.

—

One solid day of travel down the dark beach and the party arrived at the shore of the Sandsea. They had several more encounters with ironshells, all just as easily handled, as well as other monsters like sandfleas and shellbacks. The only difficult spot had been when a shellback had come bouncing and spinning into their midst while they’d been preoccupied with a passel of bangshrimp hiding in a rocky outcrop. That had been touch and go until Balin activated [Heroic Moment] and rushed the bangshrimp alone. They’d managed to come out of it with only minor injuries, which Raysdotter had fixed up with [Minor Blessing: Regeneration].

The Sandsea was quite literally a sea made of sand, the brown grains rolling up into Whitehall before pulling back again. The waves traveled slowly, but surely, from the smallest peaks to the largest rogues. The sparkling black roof of Whitehall gave way to a bright blue sky as they crossed the threshold, and birds could be seen flying far overhead. It was very much like walking out of a beach cave to the open expanse of the ocean, and the party was forced to take a moment to readjust their eyes.

“Agh, give me tha’ comfort of a cave again.” Balin grumbled.

“Aishablue, you’re a light mage, turn it off!” Flowerpott complained, his hand sweeping the bright light.

“How powerful do you think I am?” Aishablue tittered.

For her part, Starshine plopped onto her rear in the salty/sand mix that demarcated the zone change and closed her eyes, reveling in the warmth. “Formation two everyone. Let’s take a small break and make our next plan.”

The group circled up, while Manny and the glassflies began moving in an arc around them.

“Any other new Milestones other than Balin’s?” She asked.

After the twentieth dead sandflea, Balin had received a Notification for a new Milestone for killing monsters, and he’d chosen the ever-popular [Basic Slash]. It was basic, but always valuable in combat.

Everyone roundly agreed that none of them had gotten a fancy schmancy Milestone.

“Well, let’s talk about what’s next.” Starshine said, pulling out a notebook. “The Sandsea will be hard to traverse, but it should be a minecart track after that awful lake.”

Everyone shuddered at the memory. The Emerald Lake within Greentree could technically be boated over, as dangerous as it was, but they’d chosen to walk the long way around instead. The trip had been long, muddy, and one they’d sooner forget.

The Sandsea, while certainly viscous, could be walked on as long as you didn’t stay in one place for too long. Of course, any fool that either stood in one spot for too long or died on the lazily roiling surface would eventually sink beneath the swells, food for the shalesharks and other deep-sea dwellers. The party would’ve taken a boat if possible, but there was very little Aether mana in Deepcore and anything as large as a sand skiff would quickly be becalmed. They would have to hoof it again.

“Are we still scheduled to take on the boss?” Aishablue asked.

Starshine nodded. “Yes, I put our name in. We’ll need to dive over the Black Escarpment and get to the next point in the teleportation network before we can challenge it, though. I know several of you, myself included, are waiting to get a rare Milestone from it before Specializing.”

“Aye, not all of us can be as high and mighty as Mr. Big Prefix Goldbritches over there.” Flowerpott said accusingly, glowering in mock anger at Balin.

Balin shrugged good naturedly. “I wouldn’t say no ta another rare Milestone meself, either.”

“Fine. We’ll rest here for an hour, then make our way out onto the sea.” Starshine decided. “There aren’t any more lanes to keep to, so make sure to keep an eye out for any other teams. The Escarpment can be hard to find for first-timers, but Raysdotter’s got [Dungeoneer] so we should be fine.”

“Yup! Just follow me everyone!” Raysdotter said, cheerily.

“When has that ever gone wrong.” Aishablue muttered, earning a kick from steel-toed boots.

The team rested merrily, watched over by glass golems, until they were itching to be on their way again.

Together they stepped out onto the shifting sands, and began their never-stopping journey to the great whirlpool that spun around a jagged abyss – the yawning mouth of the Black Escarpment, where the Sandsea swirled endlessly into the depths of Deepcore.