Chapter 25: Burned Lizard
Shortly after Lupy took control of the situation at the inn, Anne arrived along with a man Lupy didn’t recognize. Anne received an explanation from the middle-aged woman and then thanked Lupy for her help.
“Great job, Lupy. We’ll take it from here.”
Climbing up from the guy she was sitting on, she sheathed her axes as Anne gave her further instructions.
“Take a bit of time off or go adventure at the Guild.” Leaning in, Anne whispered, “We don’t want you getting too notorious. More incidents like this one, in close succession, could be a problem for you.”
Lupy didn’t really get it but she nodded and departed the room in search of snacks.
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Now DM would need to keep an even closer eye on Lupy. He wasn’t sure whether the guys she’d defeated would forget about her, seek revenge, or worship her. When it came to girls like Bandit and Lupy, guys seemed to react strangely after getting defeated…
DM cycled through his other views. Bandit was underway, returning to the Twin Cities alone. She likely had no idea that Thaw recently disposed of all five of those guys who tried to imprison Bandit on behalf of that creepy male dwarf. Well, maybe she had an inkling, at least. Next time DM communicated with Barney, he’d tell Barney to keep an eye out for slaves originating from the Holy State if possible.
As Kat, Shiba, and Vulp continued their training, DM looked further at the remaining groups available to him. Daphne’s party had been training along the route to the Twin Cities, slowing their progress. From what DM could tell, the three other elves from Daphne’s village were actually doing a good job of teaching Daphne’s party and helping them develop their knowledge and skills. Perhaps DM was worrying too much about that looming encounter. Still, he'd make plenty of preparations in his dungeon.
Finally, Sasha’s party was adventuring in the central regions of the Empire. Ardreth would usually keep them out of trouble, so there wasn’t anything exciting for DM to—wait. Was that a wyvern again?
It took DM a moment to orient himself due to the chaos of battle, but yes, Sasha’s party was involved in a battle with a wyvern. The biggest difference from last time this happened was that Sasha’s party was not on their own. The battle involved countless others, most of whom appeared to be the Empire’s soldiers. Looking around further, the battle was one wyvern versus several parties from the Guild and at least a battalion of foot soldiers from the Empire.
DM didn’t really understand wyvern behavior, but it seemed odd the wyvern would stick around and fight against such a large group. The people were even making good use of a stronghold, taking cover behind meter-thick walls of stone. Unlike last time, the wyvern was having a rough go of it. DM would monitor the battle closely but, as of now, he didn’t need to intervene to keep Sasha’s party safe.
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The wyvern was getting blasted by arrows and other projectiles from whichever direction it wasn’t looking. Its fireball attacks were being avoided as soldiers returned to cover, the flames dancing off scorched stone before disappearing. A few adventurers as well as several soldiers were hurling offensive magic as well.
Individually, none of the attacks were doing much damage to the wyvern. Actually, just then, a large spear struck the wyvern, digging into its wing near the root. The wyvern retaliated, destroying the ballista which had wounded it with a powerful fireball. Still, the damage was done. The wyvern was less mobile and now more susceptible to the accumulation of damage from all the small attacks it was receiving.
Even so, the wyvern did not retreat. It was behaving more like a dungeon monster than a wild animal, trying to eliminate its enemies regardless of the odds. As it was distracted with enemies to its left, it took a second spear from the right, roaring as blood trickled from the right side of its ribcage. It turned its head towards the second ballista, only to see the siege weapon slide behind cover.
In a panic, the wyvern jumped back into the air and dove at the nearest wall. It thrashed around, knocking away a couple of soldiers who were too close. Its new position protected it from further attacks from any ballistae, whether it knew that or not. The nearby soldiers didn’t panic. They could see a pool of blood forming below the wyvern.
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A large rock collided with the top of the wyvern’s head, courtesy of Ardreth. It looked up for its enemy, not realizing the druid had attacked from afar. In its distraction, a veteran adventurer from another party closed in and plunged his spear into the wyvern’s largest open wound. He back flipped away, narrowly avoiding the wyvern’s instinctual counterattack.
The wyvern launched another fireball, this time making contact with a couple of soldier who hadn’t cleared out of the immediate area. Still mobile, the wyvern hobbled through the stronghold, just barely outpacing the fleeing soldiers. One ended up in the wyvern’s maw. Just as it pulled its head back to snatch up a second person, a small flying creature flew in front of it, distracting the wyvern.
This bird, a hawk, zigged and zagged in front of the wyvern, drawing its attention. The wyvern tried fruitlessly to catch the hawk with its teeth. While it was focused on the hawk, the remaining soldiers and adventurers in the area cleared out. Once the coast was clear, the hawk flew through a small hole in the masonry, escaping its pursuer.
Suddenly all alone, the wyvern looked around, trying to decide where the nearest enemies were. It trudged through the areas in the fortress large enough to fit its body. No matter where it went, it couldn’t catch sight of any people. Several times, it reached a narrow corridor or doorway, forcing it to double back.
While passing through a narrow alley between two unusually tall walls, the wyvern sensed activity above and looked up. Dark liquid fell down and drenched the wyvern, sending it into a frenzy. Even for a fire-specialized creature like a wyvern, the heat of boiling oil was not something ignorable. As it thrashed, it smashed its body into the surrounding walls several times, eventually causing one of them to collapse right onto the wyvern’s body.
Now trapped under rubble, the wyvern sensed more liquid pouring down on it before it could unearth itself. Sniffing with its sensitive nostrils, it could tell this was a different liquid than the last. Not understanding why it was being attacked by so many liquids, it was surprised when the liquid ignited, bathing it in flames but extinguishing its life.
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“Jeez, what’s with all the wyverns in the Empire?” DM wondered to himself. “There must be some reason…” Now wasn’t good, but when the opportunity came up, DM would ask Ardreth and Sasha about it.
Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t spoken with them in a while. He figured it would probably be a good idea to ask Ardreth about Alenia and the others as well. He was a little hesitant to rely just on Daphne’s opinions for, well, just about any topic.
Finally completing his original goal, he spied on Barney. Barney was sitting on a bench, pretending to read something based on his failure to flip the paper around after a few minutes. It looked like he was still gathering information, so DM would leave him alone for the time being.
Taking advantage of the sudden quiet across all fronts, DM turned his attention to his dungeon for a change. He wanted to implement some ideas before Daphne’s party arrived.
Each floor, other than the first, would have a different theme. The second floor would be a large puzzle that needed to be traversed in the correct order for the path to the next floor to open. The third floor would require completing several smaller-scale puzzles involving moving crates or pulling switches in a particular sequence. The fourth floor was a quiz which required answering questions correctly to proceed. Somewhere along the way would be ritual chambers that required donating equipment or other valuable items to the dungeon in order to proceed. Hey, why not?
Although the plan was still subject to change, DM had a somewhat dubious idea for the fifth floor. What if the cutest monsters DM had available were locked in cages, and the only way to proceed was for the intruders to kill the helpless critters from outside the bars? DM would try to think of other similar ideas to implement on the same floor. Most intruders were more susceptible to atypical mental damage than physical damage, DM had found.
DM hadn’t decided whether his next idea would get implemented on the sixth floor or further down, but he wanted to have an arena-type area at some point. He could call it the coliseum. The intruding party would need to pass through the arena in order to progress. Just as they reached the center, monsters would pour in from all four directions.
Wait, what if he forced the intruders to fight matches one at a time? Could he manually select the monster opponent in each case? He’d give this some further thought.
Of course, there would be a water level at some point. There’d be a level littered with terrain-based traps. Ideally he’d find a way to split up the party, sending each member to a different floor, whether further up or further down.
The dungeon actually offered DM many ways to deal with groups. It just wasn’t that effective at blocking a single enemy that was much stronger than the top level of the dungeon. That was why solo operators like Thaw worried DM so much. They could cut down their enemies, push through the traps, and enter DM’s chamber without much difficulty. He punched above his weight class, as his battle with Barney had shown, and he was certainly cleverer than a typical monster, but there was a limit to how far he could go against a supremely superior enemy.