Chapter 17: Tentacles Everywhere
Four adventurers searched the Lower Gordu Forest for the entrance to a beginner dungeon. DM was eavesdropping, of course.
“It should be right around here,” their leader, a small female elf archer announced in a high-pitched voice.
“Our first dungeon!” a teenage swordsman declared. He was a fair bit larger than the elf, but given their race differences, they could easily be the same age.
“I hope the Guild doesn’t mind that we took a detour,” said a female fighter as she adjusted her hair with the tips of her metal knuckles.
“There!” The elf pointed at the entrance to a dungeon.
“Let’s take it slow. I don’t have much practice healing a whole group yet.”
The other three turned to the white mage and nodded. As they stepped towards the entrance, the elf looked reluctant, which was a considerable change from her demeanor a few moments prior.
In formation, the party entered the dungeon, descending some stairs and ending up in a moderately large room.
“Spider straight ahead!” the swordsman announced.
“Leave it to me!” The elf released her arrow, damaging the spider.
“It’s not finished yet! Make sure you don’t hit me with your sword!” The swordsman and fighter hadn’t figured out how to fight side-by-side very well yet.
The spider stopped just outside of the swordsman’s range and spit out a small web, anchoring his feet, as well as the fighter’s, to the floor.
“Don’t panic! You outrange it with your sword!” the mage reminded his teammates.
The spider closed on the party, only to get easily struck down by a descending blade. “Got it!”
“Teehee, sorry about that!” the elf called out cutely while making a face like she did something naughty. “My aim was a bit off.”
“Anyway, what do the spirits tell you?” the fighter asked.
“The spirits?”
“Can’t you commune with the spirits? I heard all elves receive hints about their surroundings that way.”
“So you knew about that…” The elf was unusually gloomy. “Ever since I left my homeland, the spirits have told me I should return home to my family. I tried to ignore it, but it’s a constant nagging feeling.”
“I had no idea…” the swordsman admitted.
“Is that normal for elves?” the mage asked next.
“No, I don’t think so. It’s just that I was pretty young when I left.”
“You’re still pretty young!” the fighter shouted, clearly a bit frustrated with her traveling companion’s usual attitude.
“Okay, okay. That’s not what the spirits are telling me now, though.”
“What is it? Are we in danger?”
The elf shook her head at the mage. “Once we entered the forest, the nagging feeling stopped. Instead, I heard whispers that we should proceed to this dungeon.”
“Oh? Did the spirits finally come around?” The swordsman’s conclusion was an obvious one.
“I’m not sure. I don’t think it’s normal for the spirits to lead you to places to adventure. I’ve heard they only warn you of what to expect on the path ahead, and only vaguely. Especially when you’re young.”
Her three companions looked back and forth at each other. The mage asked, “Could this be some type of a trap, using the spirits against us?”
“No way! I’ve never heard of the spirits getting subverted like that! They may miss the mark, but they’ll never betray an elf. At least, not unless it’s a really bad elf, I think?”
“Perhaps there’s a mirror somewhere in this dungeon.”
“You!” Of course, she knew the fighter was just teasing. With the mood lighter, they decided to proceed further into the dungeon.
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“I see a treasure chest down that hall and a door just beyond it.” With the swordsman leading the way, they carefully approached and looted the chest.
“Judging from that spider and this loot, this floor is definitely either equivalent to LVL 1 or LVL 2 at the most.”
“Obviously,” the swordsman replied to the mage. “Here we go.”
They proceeded through the door into another room. The trailing member, the mage, pushed the door closed and then re-opened it as a test. “The return path is clear.”
The party looked around the large square room, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. There were no monsters, loot, or anything else for that matter. “A dead end…” the elf muttered.
“No worries, let’s go back and search for another path.” The warrior led the way back through the door.
Once they were all through, the mage pulled the door shut and tried opening it. “Hm?” He pushed harder but the door wouldn’t budge. “Uh, the door won’t open anymore.”
“That’s strange… If it was a trap, it would have locked us in the other direction, right?” the fighter remarked.
“Maybe that room had a secret in it that we missed, and now it won’t let us go back a second time?”
“That’s probably it!” the elf excitedly agreed with the mage. “Oh well. Onward!”
As the foursome backtracked through the hallway, their guard considerably lowered compared to their previous trip in the opposite direction, the swordsman suddenly stuck out his arms and stopped.
“There’s a monster ahead.”
“It wasn’t there before…” the fighter noted.
“Let’s take it down!” the elf cheerfully declared. “What type is it?”
The swordsman creeped forward to peer around the corner. “It’s… Huh?”
“What is it?” the elf asked impatiently, leaning forward to try and see for herself.
“I don’t know.”
“Whatever. It doesn’t really matter at our level. Let’s get it!”
The mage and fighter smiled at each other, unable to hate their companion despite all the trouble she’d put them through the short time they’d been a party.
The four ran out into the open area of the large room and heard a grinding sound, followed by a loud boom behind them. A hidden door had dropped down from the ceiling, blocking off the path back into the hallway they were just in.
“Another trap! We just need to defeat this monster, I bet!” Such were the words of a confident elf.
They assumed their usual formation and approached the 2-meter tall gray monster. The monster seemed to rotate in position, as though turning to look at them despite not having a face.
“I think that’s a tentacle monster,” the mage observed. “I’ve seen a couple of pictures.”
“Hey, what’s the minimum level of a tentacle monster?” the fighter asked, sounding somewhat worried.
“I can’t remember exactly. It was higher than goblins, so it can’t be LVL 1. Oh, it was higher than mimics too, I think. I thought it was a funny monster but we’d have to worry about mimics first, so I stopped reading about it.”
The swordsman at the front had been listening while slowly closing on the monster at the head of the party. “…What’s the minimum level of a mimic?” he asked without taking his eyes off the target.
“Hm, that I should remember. It was… 4.”
The four adventurers froze in place. The tentacle monster creeped towards their position.
“Now, now,” the elf began to reassure her party. “I think I heard tentacle monsters are docile. So long as we work together, we can defeat it, even if it’s LVL 5.”
“What do you mean by docile?” the fighter asked, as the other female in the party.
“They rarely kill adventurers! Lucky for us, huh? We would have been in trouble if it was another type of LVL 5 monster.”
The fighter was not satisfied with that answer. “What do they do with adventurers, then?”
The elf wasn’t paying attention to the question. She had just noticed the same thing as the mage. A moment later, the fighter and swordsman noticed too.
“Damn you spirits!” the elf shouted. “Why did I ever listen to you!?” The party was surrounded by approximately 20 tentacle monsters who had slithered out from behind various cover.
The party made a last-ditch effort to force their way to the dungeon exit. Two or three footfalls into their escape, the original tentacle monster they encountered launched its tentacles at the swordsman, bypassing his defensive stance and latching on to his extremities. He was pulled towards the monster then lifted off the ground.
In the split second his allies were distracted by his capture, the nearest tentacle monsters approaching from the side reached out, successfully grabbing the fighter and the mage.
“Everyone!” The elf spun around in panic. Her vision was filled with tentacle monsters in every direction. Her ears were inundated with cries and screams. Before she could attempt any type of action, three tentacle monsters reached for her from three different directions. All of them succeeded in latching on to her, but mercifully, they didn’t pull on her hard enough to stretch or injure her body. They each creeped closer and lifted her off the floor.
Although her companions had originally been captured by one tentacle monster each, more had approached and latched on to the adventurers with additional tentacles, wrapping them up. As was the case with the elvish prisoner, the tentacle monsters did not tug on or fight over their targets.
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“So the tentacle monsters aren’t hurting them. Good. They don’t seem to be using absorb equipment either, though.”
DM wondered what would happen if he just left the adventurers captured like that. Would they get held indefinitely? Would the tentacle monsters mix it up somehow or try to accomplish something? He was kind of curious, but thought that was going too far for these generally-innocent adventurers.
He decided he’d rescue them now. Well, first he’d check up and see how the beast girls were doing. Then he’d rescue this party.
The girls were making camp following a light day of monster hunting and gathering in the Narrow Cliff Forest. It would likely take more than half a day for the girls to get to the Lower Gordu Forest, so he probably wouldn’t see them until early evening the next day. The current situation would surely be resolved by then.
“Oh, while I’m at it, let me check and see if the bat found anything interesting." He shared vision with the bat and glanced around at the Lower Gordu Forest. “Nope, nothing to see out here.”
He ran out of ways to stall. “Okay, I’ll save them now.”
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“Put them down!” A male voice echoed into the room where the four adventurers were struggling against their slimy cocoons.
The tentacle monsters released their prey. The elf landed on her behind, then looked at the source of the voice.
“Ardreth!?”