The dark trees of the Jungle loomed overhead, thick leaves of deep green plunged the abundant vegetation on the ground into a dim shadow as the sunlight fought a losing battle to shred through the canopy.

“Whyyyy…” Sally palmed at her eyes. “Why is it even warmer here?”

Theo shrugged and looked off into the dense trees. “You want the actual explanation?”

“I want you to make it stop.” She deflated and turned to the rather heated looking undead Party. “That’s an order for you all.”

Their response wasn’t too helpful. Aside from the vampire stripping down to his undershirt, none of them had any good plans to assist her in changing the climate of the area. Like the dragon had in the Wastes. Perhaps she shouldn’t be so selfish. Rotating through her STAR, she brought up the Map again. Not too much further.

“We can take a shortcut to the first outpost if we go through the more overgrown part.” She pointed an extended finger to the right.

“What do you think we’ll have to fight?” Humphrey deflated, knowing the inevitable.

“Dinosaurs,” Norah offered.

The Shade cupped his misty chin. “Jungle rats.” A question mark appeared beside him.

“Each other,” Theo said, looking off in the other direction, hands in his pockets.

“No time for tussling,” Sally tutted. “Let’s go find out who is correct.” She hopped off of of the path and immediately tripped and fell over some vines into a dense bush.

The Death Knight went over and picked her up by the scruff of her shirt. “Don’t rush to help the lady then, Theo.”

“Hmm?” Theo turned his head to observe them. “There is someone watching us, but they are either too far or too obscured for me to know where.”

Sally spat a leaf out and dusted herself down as Humphrey grounded her. The rest of the Party began to look around the area, but other than the greens and brown of the jungle, there was little else to be noticed.

“Alright.” Sally turned back and almost got her feet stuck in the same vines. “Keep focused, it might not be an enemy… uh, after we decide what side we’re on.”

With the shrug of the Death Knight, the Party followed her through. Theo waited for a few more seconds, his eyes slowly looking around the canopy, before he tutted to himself and caught up.

Sally let Humphrey lead the way, his large sword cutting through any vegetation in the way as Norah used her bandages to pull branches and broken foliage out of the way.

“Doing okay, Norah?” Sally slowed to walk beside the Mummy.

She tilted her head to the zombie. “Slightly envious that some of you can disrobe to some degree to cool off.”

Sally frowned. “What happens when you take the bandages off? Aren’t you just a bodacious zombie underneath?”

“Not that simple, hun. It’s almost like a second skin - part of me.” She gave a smile and returned to focusing on giving the Death Knight help.

With a hum, Sally slowed down further to walk beside Lucius. “What about you? Can you take your clothes off?”

“What?” The Shade jumped physically to the side as exclamation marks appeared beside his head. “Oh, you mean in general? Yeah, I could. I’m essentially a shadow underneath, so I could go without… but I feel like clothing gives me more form.”

“That makes sense.” She nodded slowly. It was a bit like how Humphrey was just a suit of metal with no actual functional body inside. Still had enough of a heart to be soft on the Mummy.

She slowed again to sync up with the vampire.

“No sand to kick at me here,” he said with a grin.

“Give it some time, pup.” She rolled her eyes. “Penny for your thoughts?”

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Theo worked his jaw and sighed. “Mostly trying to decide if the arrow is worth dodging or not.”

“What arrow-“ she began, before a zip through the air slammed into the vampire, causing him to stumble forward.

He stood back up straight, an arrow protruding through his chest having impaled through his back. “Eh, not the worst.” He shrugged, wincing as his muscles moved around the wound.

The Party spun around to look behind them. Sally drew a skull into her left hand and held her right out to use her new curse. There was no target that she could see.

Lucius stepped over to Theo to help him.

“No,” the vampire raised his hand. “Don’t touch, it’s poisoned.”

The Death Knight walked up as Sally continued to look for the perpetrator. “I can remove that for you, then.”

Theo looked up at the skeletal face with impassive eyes, hands still in his pockets. “Sure, just pull it all the way through.”

“Gladly.” Humphrey pinched the metal tip of the offending projectile and pulled it slowly from the wound. With a small sucking noise, the tail end eventually emerged from the wound and the arrow was discarded to the floor. The pair maintained eye contact through the whole process.

Sally leaned back and frowned at them. “What are you two… do you know who shot you, Theo?”

“Not exactly,” he broke his eyes away from the Death Knight. “It’s a Player, I know that much, but they’re being very cautious.”

She rubbed her face and scowled back at the immutable jungle. Being stalked didn’t make the overbearing humidity of the jungle any more fun than it already was. Perhaps this is what they got for being so under-leveled and out of their element. “How did you know they were going to fire at you?”

Theo put his hand on her shoulder. “These sorts of things are predictable. They’ll be going for you next, so I’d advise walking directly in front of me.”

Sally nodded, slightly intrigued by how assertive and aloof he was being since entering the jungle. Perhaps the mouse ride knocked a few things loose in his head. Still, she didn’t fancy getting an unwelcome gift through the back of her head. Theo might like his chances of it hitting him in the torso, but she was slightly more risk adverse. Which was a concerning realisation.

A sweat-drop appeared beside the Shade. “What if they go for me instead, if you’re blocking Sally?”

“Then just dodge,” Theo said with a grin.

Sally nudged him with her elbow as she walked in front. “That a weak poison you can regenerate over?”

“No.” He stretched his neck out as they started cutting their way back through the jungle. “I will die in three days.”

“Ass.” She rolled her eyes. “Cheer up, pup. This area won’t be all bad.”

Theo raised an eyebrow and looked off to the side, but said nothing.

After a few minutes of tense travel through the foliage, Humphrey stopped and held a plated fist up. “Monsters ahead.”

“Ooh!” Sally cooed. “Who won?” She hopped ahead of Theo to go see.

The vampire held up his hand, and it was impaled by an arrow en route to the zombie.

“Gotcha,” he growled, and vanished. Everyone stopped and turned to the empty space behind, as a pained scream rang out. After a few seconds of silence, a body dropped out from one of the distant trees - the dark shape of Theo following soon after. Another couple of seconds and he started walking back over to them.

“That’s better,” he said with a wide grin, his bloodied fangs exposed. “I hate being spied on. Sorry for being so prickly, Humphrey.”

The Death Knight shrugged and grinned at the vampire. “I was egging you on. My apologies, too.”

Sally frowned, not understanding the conversation. The heat was obviously getting to her. She yawned again. “Ugh. Anything good on the body?”

“Some paperwork. It’s nice when the pre-dead write down exposition for us, huh?”

She sighed and shook her head. “Don’t call them that. We need to work on our public relations. And get that arrow out of your hand already.” Her expression turned into a scowl at seeing that his hand was still impaled.

“I just didn’t want the poison to get worse.”

As she grabbed it and pulled it from him, she rolled her eyes. Too humid and sweaty for this.

“Two days now.”

“Shush,” she said as she put a finger to his lips. “No more, only Monster killing now. Okay?”

He nodded slowly as she spun back to the pensive Party. They hadn’t even gotten to the Monster type reveal yet, and she had also just slid right past whatever Theo had found. The heat was turning her brain into a soup, and it was violently close to lapping straight out of her ears.

“Save the reading for when we are safe,” she said as she waved her hand in the air. “Humphrey, what is the Monster, and can we go kill them please?”

“Yes,” he said with a grin. “They are-“

An explosion rocked the treeline over to their right, the groan of trees collapsing amongst the clatter of vegetation causing Sally’s right eye to twitch. The smell of smoke and burned wood washed across the Party as they stood waiting.

“This better be good.” She ground her sharp teeth together. Or at least, full of brains that she could have. Theo hadn’t even saved the would-be-assassin for her to eat - and a little head-jelly would be the perfect refresher for this humid climate.

Five figures loomed out from the shadows of billowing smoke and broken jungle. A giant of a man in plated armor in the middle, two men in leather armor to his right, and female spellcaster alongside a masked individual to his left.

Each of them wore a red tabard over their gear, a symbol of a triangle in white pointing downward on the front, and golden detailing down the edges.

“A Party of Monsters?” The man lifted up the visor on his helmet to reveal bright green eyes. “Well, that is certainly unusual.” They seemed apprehensive, but didn’t immediately go on the offence.

Sally clicked her fingers. “Yeah, you might even say Unique.” She beamed at them for a few seconds as they stood confused, before deflating. “Tough crowd.”

“You must be new to the area. Who are you allied with?” He tightened his grip on his large two-handed hammer. The rest of his group seemed to also tense up. “What do you believe?”

“Depends,” scratched at her chin. “What do you want me to believe?”