The card showed an old lady in slightly furry hide clothing, tending a hearth fire, with injured people in beds behind her.
Loowitlatkla The Fire Tender
Unique Rare Equivalent, Tier-1 equivalent Mortal/Fire [Civic] Creature
1 Mortal or 1 Fire Power, 1 Any power
Health: 11
Attack: N/A
Defense: 3
Magical Attack: N/A
Magical Defense: 3
Special: Tender to the Arch of Fire: While this card is on the field, no enemy deckbearer cards may cancel, control, or auto-kill any Fire type card.
Special: Healer [5]: When this creature enters the field it may fully heal one other creature card or restore 5 Health to a deckbearer
Special: Dungeon Exchange: This card may be exchanged at the end of Loowitlatkla’s Fall
“Loowit was once an old woman of such heart and kindness that the god’s granted her eternal life.”
“That’s a pretty solid card, hun,” Shel said. “I think this dungeon must be crazy old, since that’s an old Amerind spirit according to some other card information I’ve seen. A pretty minor one in the grand scheme of the releases.”
“Old it may be, but it’s also batshit insane,” Wolfe said. “We’re not even remotely in the right place geographically if it’s referencing Mt. St. Helens. Let’s move forward though—prizes are prizes, even when handed out by a schizophrenic old dungeon.”
Miriam giggled. “Deck sets, dungeons, and monsters are released in sets around all people that have a connection. So you get stuff that isn’t near where it references. I mean, that one chosen lady that Shel fought in the Rat Arena last year had monsters that were only seen in overland monster form in Iraq, but have been released as cards here in the U.S.”
“Thanks for the impromptu history lesson,” Wolfe muttered.
“What about the card pack?” Shel asked.
“We’ll open it after the next boss,” Wolfe said. Might as well make deck decisions with more than a single pack.
Wolfe moved to the passage forward, which was blocked by a stone gate. As he approached the stone gate, it shattered.
Wolfe raised an eyebrow. “Subtle.”
Miriam giggled. “What gave you the impression anything would be subtle? The lava bats flying at your face, or the twelve-foot-tall stone giant?”
“Heh,” Wolfe offered, his only commentary as he moved forward.
Shel and Derek chuckled as they followed, and Miriam giggled. Wolfe swore she did it as an affectation.
The passage was short, with smooth rock walls. At the end it turned into a beautiful cavern, with glowing mushrooms and rivulets of water going nowhere. It sloped gently upward, and Wolfe followed it, his muscles clenched as his head tracked, waiting for an attack. But none came.
At the top of the beautiful cavern, a door looked out. Wolfe first saw a beautiful, star-filled night sky and crescent moon. He stepped out into a forested mountainside with a single owl hooting. Beneath him on the mountain, he saw a cluster of huts in a large clearing, near a pond. A single fire kept the night at bay.
Wolfe shivered. The night and the cold air. I’m sure I’ll adjust in a moment, but I still have sweat from the volcano on me.
Shel came out from the cave and glanced around as well. “I don’t see anything besides the village. Should we search around or just head for it?”
“Let’s just head for it,” Wolfe replied. “I think, based on the little I know about dungeons, that unless something immediately presents, we should just head for obvious lead.”
Miriam emerged from the cave. “Yeah, everything I’ve read on dungeons supports the idea that they rarely hide the ball. They may have hugely challenging and complicated puzzles, but they rarely have anything that is particularly hard to find. Checking a drawer for a prize is about the limit.”
“I keep forgetting that under all the crazy you’re actually a learned individual. In law school, even,” Wolfe said.
Shel laughed.
“First in my class in law school,” Miriam replied, and touched her finger to her lips, way too coyly for what she had said.
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Wolfe gave up the conversation with an eyeroll. The only winning moves in conversation with Miriam were not to play.
Instead, he turned down the mountain side and headed to the obvious next location in the dungeon. As he got close, he could see that the village was composed of five longhouses, he assumed of Cedar, matching the trees around. Each was close to the others, making five narrowing paths into the fire in the center, where the single woman worked the fire.
As they approached, the woman glanced up from her fire. She was wearing the exact same outfit that Wolfe’s card, Loowitlatkla, had worn.
In fact, she looks exactly the same, Wolfe thought.
The old woman spoke in a language that Wolfe didn’t know, but the meaning of her words somehow penetrated.
“Who comes to the village of the Cowlitz?” she asked. “I, Loowitlatkla the Hearth Keeper, ask as is my right.”
Wolfe stared at her, and a ‘card’ popped up.
Loowitlatkla The Hearth Keeper
Dungeon NPC
Mortal/Fire [Civic] Creature
Health: 11
Attack: N/A
Defense: 3
Magical Attack: N/A
Magical Defense: 3
Special: Healer [5]: Every thirty seconds, this card will heal one other creature card or restore 5 Health to a deckbearer. It will chose whomever is nearest.
“Loowit was once an old woman of such heart and kindness that the god’s granted her eternal life.”
She really is the same person as the card we just got.
“Is this one of those situations where they only have a few responses?” Miriam whispered while staring at the old lady. “Like that sheriff in the werewolf dungeon?”
“Don’t know,” Wolfe said, then waited.
Loowit did nothing.
Wolfe stepped forward. “I, Ethan Wolfe, come before you.”
“A good name,” Loowit said. “A strong name. You could continue on to the meeting, the safe path.”
She paused dramatically. “But we have need of you here, Ethan, if you’re brave enough.”
Wolfe grimaced—his name reminded him of his father, whom he hated.
“Will you defend us, Ethan?” the woman asked, picking up some sticks and tossing them into the fire.
“From?” Wolfe asked, crossing his arms.
“Will you defend us, Ethan?” the woman repeated, again picking up sticks and tossing them into the fire.
“From?” Miriam asked, laughing. The woman repeated her entire spiel.
“Stop that!” Wolfe replied. “Obviously, she’s gonna loop till we say ‘yes’ or—”
A notification appeared. You have begun a special level twenty-four group encounter. Defeating this encounter will grant the reward for the second floor, as well as an extra award.
“Son of a…” Wolfe trailed off as Miriam giggled maniacally.
Loowit turned and smiled at him. “I’m glad you’ll defend us, Ethen, because the Stonecoats are almost upon us. If you can hold, Chief Tyee Sahale comes here to gift me. He can defeat them. We just have to hold here.”
“Well, that—” Wolfe began.
But Loowit wasn’t finished. “The braves at this village will help defend us, but we must survive. If you are strong and powerful enough to keep us all alive, I’ll have a great reward for you as well as what you’ll get from the chief.”
“Tower Defense,” Shel said, and Miriam nodded.
Wolfe had looked up enough dungeons to know what they were talking about. Before he could say anything, two men, dressed thickly in hide and carrying a stone hatchet, came out of each of the five huts and took up a position in the spaces.
Five ways in, and two braves in each.
Wolfe stared at them.
Tyee Sahale Brave
Dungeon NPC
Mortal [Civic] Creature
Health: 20
Attack: 6(9)
Defense: 6(9)
Magical Attack: N/A
Magical Defense: 5(8)
Special: Ally of All: This card, so long as its within 250’ of another card, counts as on the field, allied, and in the deck for purposes of gaining any beneficial effect from a deckbearer or their cards.
“A brave that served the legendary first chief of the Cowlitz.”
Snapping sounded, and Wolfe glanced up from his examination. Multiple Stonecoats were coming through the woods. Each appeared the same as the Stonecoat scout, although their Health was lower. But there were a lot of them.
“The braves are getting the bonuses from Sorenia and Liurenia,” Shel reported. “They’ve got nines in most of their stats now.”
“Good, because we get a bonus prize if we keep them alive,” Wolfe replied. “I’d really like to do that, since I doubt we’ll get another chance at this. And it’ll still only take two hits for the Stonecoats to kill one. That’s way better than the one it would have taken before, but…”
Wolfe examined the field again. “Let’s try and fight forward against what we can. Shel, do you still have the Guiding Light card?”
She nodded.
“Try and get that out, to give the braves a third buff, and then keep healing them if you can.”
Three Stone Coats moved up, crashing their way out of the forest. Each was a twelve-foot-tall stone man.
Wolfe moved out into the space between the buildings where they were headed. He brought forth Cerberus’ Home for Wayward Hellhounds along the forest edge, to give him a constant supply of monsters to block and empower.
Cereboo went on the attack, barking madly from all three heads and charging past Wolfe on the right. He sped up dramatically as Malviere boosted him, biting madly only slightly effectually at the Stone Coat. The angels fired light beams. Shel played Guiding Light—it had apparently come up for her in the first draw. Miriam dropped a vampire Wolfe hadn’t seen before, and Derek put his mantle over himself—the same Imp Lord mantle that Wolfe had gotten him two years ago—the one that empowered imps.
Wolfe pulled Brimstone and started plugging away as the fight went on. His pistol ignoring type advantage gave him a significant advantage as he fired away.
The fight last for a good two minutes—two exhausting minutes. The Braves, now at an eleven attack, joined the fight as well. They occasionally got hit, but Shel just healed them up. Cereboo was slain, but Wolfe got his second Obsessive Infernal Cultist out and brought forth two Angry Hellhounds and a spare Lost Hellhound Pup. Imps and vampires appeared, did chip damage, and were slain.
But they kept both braves alive without taking any damage to the actual deckbearer’s on their team.
Wolfe was glancing around as the last Stone Coat went down.
A notification popped up. Combined level of encounter is twenty, more than ten below current level. No experience gained.
Wolfe frowned, but before he could get really angry, he was interrupted by Shel’s whoop of joy.
“I made Level Twenty-Five off the three kills,” Shel reported.
“Nice!” Wolfe said, glancing around. He felt brief elation, an emotion that didn’t come to him all that often, that they had emerged victorious. That wasn’t that hard for a team of four. Although we are quite over level since I think this is the start of the second floor. Well, me and Shel at least.
“What options did you get?” Wolfe asked.
Shel was staring off into space. “I only got Five. I got—”
Three more Stonecoats came crashing through the undergrowth in front of them, interrupting Shel. At the same time, Wolfe heard another set of crashes one ‘land’ between the Ceder longhouses over to the side.
“Shit,” Wolfe said, just staring for a second. “That’s what I get for thinking something might be easy.”