Archie and his party—including Alex—left for Waterloo shortly before opening the next day. They didn't want to leave in the afternoon, as it would be nightfall when they arrived. They needed to properly scout out Matt's dungeon before choosing to engage it. Zack, as impatient as he could be, agreed with their decision. Though he felt worry creeping up his non-existent spine, he still took solace in the fact that he had plenty to keep him busy.
The dungeon was once more accepting customers, and there were a lot of them. It turned out that getting blown up by a rogue archmage was remarkably good for business. Enough so that Zack's crew had to rethink how many delvers they could allow in the dungeon at once. They were busier than ever before, and Zack made a mental note to add proctors of some kind to allow groups to participate in rooms simultaneously, while also ensuring that pre-designed encounters—like bosses—were limited to one group at a time.
There were currently three groups of adventurers running through the meadow, having a wonderful time fighting off monsters. For the most part, they used the newly improved room's increased size to full advantage. They kept their distance from one another and focused on tackling smaller mobs that more closely equated their teams in size. A team of three young girls, for example, focused on taking on dire rabbits one at a time, while a party of five office workers found themselves engaging with a trio of deadly flowers. The third group was one that Zack was all too excited to see again.
"M'lady, I require a heal," a familiarly nerdy voice squeaked.
Seth E Ross, along with his classmates Laura Cross and Thursday Smith, were back in the dungeon for another run at it. Zack was simultaneously excited to see how they handled his new challenges, and annoyed they had to wade through the meadow first. All three of them were over level ten, and had the status tattoos to prove it.
There was a fourth member of their party today, a woman that Zack had never seen before. She had dark skin and short cropped black hair, with eyes that glowed a piercing amber colour. She wielded a mace in one hand and a shield in the other, obviously fulfilling the group's tank role. Zack took a quick gander at her status, just to get an idea of what she could do.
[Kara Long]
[Human, Empowered]
[Level 13]
[Health: 130/130]
[Mana: 19/25]
[Stamina: 82/110]
[Strength: 16]
[Endurance: 15]
[Agility: 12]
[Dexterity: 10]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Wisdom: 12 (+2 Empowered Bonus)]
When prompted, Zack quickly perused a detailed statistical breakdown of her abilities. From what he could tell, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She had the increased wisdom stat that came with being an empowered human—humans with natural gifts for magic and inborne supernatural abilties. Of the spells she had, none of them seemed particularly specific to her. Oddly enough, she didn't even have an elemental affinity, either.
[Walking Wall: Level 3]
[Spell, Toggle]
[While Walking Wall is toggled on, unintelligent foes will be drawn toward you and see you as a higher threat. Intelligent foes may be able to ignore this effect.]
[Level 3 Upgrade: Damage you receive from foes affected by Walking Wall is reduced by 5 percent.]
[Cost: 1 Mana per hour maintained]
[Wrath: Level 3]
[Spell]
[Lash out with an aether-infused weapon, dealing increased damage. Enemies hit by this attack may become feared if they are weak-willed.]
[Level 3 Upgrade: The effect of Wrath will spread from the first enemy struck to the two closest enemies, provided they are within melee range of the initial target.]
[Cost: 5 Stamina, 1 Mana]
[Aether Rush: Level 3]
[Spell]
[Charge towards a target within ten meters and in direct line of sight, stunning them upon hit.]
[Level 3 Upgrade: Enemies hit during the charge are carried with you to your destination, but are not subject to the stun.]
[Cost: 3 Mana]
[Holmgang: Level 2]
[Spell, Tether]
[Drag a single target to your location via aether tether]
[Cost: 1 Mana]
[Transmute: Level 2]
[Spell, Healing]
[Regerate one of your pools at the cost of the other two. Mana costs health and stamina. Stamina costs health and mana. Health costs stamina and mana.]
[Cost: 2 to1 recovery rate.]
"Well, she certainly has all the telltale signs of an empowered human," Zack muttered. Normally, people started at level one and didn't have any spells. Those people were often called NPCs—non-powered citizens, much to their own frustrations. It was clear that Kara was filling the tank role in this party, and Zack could never remember seeing a more obvious tank build from anyone. Not even Greg, who often played the role for his friends, was so specifically built around those.
While Zack was studying her, Laura Cross was making sure their whole party was patched up and ready for their next encounter. Her Light affinity allowed her to fill the healer or caster role in any party. With Thursday's entire kit being focused around firing potions from a gun, and Seth being the clear melee damage dealer, Lara was quite comfortable to keep everyone topped up. Once she was done helping Kara recover her mana and stamina through a mixture of healing magic and the Transmute ability, she at last turned her attention to Seth.
"Where are you hurt?" Laura asked.
Seth tapped his acne-scarred cheek. "Here, my lady. I fear only the kiss of a fair maiden could cure what ails me."
Laura puched him in the shoulder, then nodded to Kara. "Let's press on. Do you have a general understanding of how this works?"
Kara nodded and adjusted her grip on her mace. "More or less. Though, I'd like something a bit more challenging than bunnies and flowers."
"I agree," Thursday complained, already loading a fresh potion into his gun—vial and all. "Last time we were in here, they let us skip straight to the manor. Now we're expected to fight through everything just to get to the room that's graded for our level?"
"I'm sure the dungeon designers has a good reason for making us do everything all over again," Laura said, eyeing Zack's nearest wisp.
Zack, of course, didn't answer. As far as they understood things, the dungeon was just an elaborate magical building run by a business. They had no idea that it was actually intelligent.
Once Laura was done patching everyone up, they pressed on. None of the meadow mobs gave them any real trouble, though it was hilarious watching Seth charge his Aria of the Blade power only for Thumper to block it by raising a timely pillar out of the ground. Seth's party members admonished him for building around his one-hit-kill power, and reminded him that those fell off in viability as they went up in levels. The nerdy young man whined but didn't argue.
When they reached the rest stop between the forest and meadow, Zack got to see a real party react to the Walk-Behind. As expected, they tried a few abilities on them—including Seth's instant kill ability. When nothing worked, they did the unthinkable: they stood around and waited. Zack hadn't expected that, and so had only programmed the Walk-Behind to slowly lumber across the room in the hopes of scaring delvers into moving.
Clearly, that didn't work. The group watched the animatronic slip back into the trees, only to reappear on the other side. Thursday laughed and took a selfie with it, before the party finally decided to keep pressing forward. Zack grumbled to himself about fixing the Walk-Behind, but it would have to wait until closing time.
The Woodfolk encounter was far more balanced for this group of adventurers. Not only were they closer in level to the four, the advanced tactics they employed actually made the party consider how best to approach matters.
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"I won't have a chance to charge my Aria," Seth noted.
"Another reason you shouldn't be building your one-hit-kill power? Wow, who'd've thunk," Thursday teased, earning a frustrated glower from his party member. "I think I can take out the back row, but I've only got one, maybe two uses of the necessary potion."
"Only two shots? I thought you could conjure potions on the fly," Seth teased right back.
"I can, but some potions take a lot more out of me than others," Thursday grumbled. "My detonator potion, in particular, is a tough one. I can't hold too many at once or else they explode, and it costs me like half my mana."
Laura shook her head. "I'd rather not risk it. Mana refunds from slaying monsters or not, I think it's better to have a consistent tactic than an inconsistent one."
Kara had so far been silent while the group discussed strategy, studying the mobs from afar through narrowed eyes. "I think Seth's Aria is the way to go," she finally said.
"Um, did you forget that I can't charge it that fast?" Seth pointed out.
"No, however you are forgetting something. I can gather a large group of enemies together at once," Kara pointed out. "I will charge into their ranks and start gathering them using my Aether Rush ability. Once I have a large enough group, Seth can slay them at once with his Super Weeb Powers."
"It's not—" Seth started to complain.
"That's all well and good, but that sounds a bit too dangerous, don't you think?" Laura asked.
"Not if you keep healing me," Kara pointed out.
Laura frowned as she thought it over, before nodding. "Okay. It's not like the dungeon will let you die if this goes horribly wrong."
I won't save her, either, Zack thought. There has to be consequences for stupid actions.
Kara braced herself for what she was about to do, and the rest of her group got into position to help her. Seth stood at the ready, hand on the handle of his sheathed sword, and started singing his theme song. Instead of loading his detonator potion, Thursday opted to load one of his more standard fireball potions. Once she was sure they were all ready, Kara moved in with her group behind her.
The woodfolk were still dancing around the healing flames as Kara made her move. Aether wrapped around her like a shield as she charged towards the farthest possible target, slamming through three more enemies and dragging them along. The sudden impact of her landing stunned them, and before they could get up and react she was already picking another target and charging at them. The original group of enemies got caught in the net of aether around her and carried along for the ride, though it was clear the stun was already wearing off. As she landed again, the first group was already coming to. They started hitting her with clubs or sticks, while the second group was dazed by the stun effect of her charge.
Interesting. It looks like stun powers can't be applied in rapid succession, Zack noted, quickly checking his mobs. Sure enough, he found they gained temporary stun resistance, though it would fall off soon enough.
When Kara grabbed the third group, that was Seth's cue to act. He charged forward, unsheathing his glowing blade, and slashed. Four enemies clinging to Kara's barrier were caught with the blade and subsequently cleaved in twain, the horizontal strike effortlessly cutting through them. Seth had to continue singing his Aria, even though the one-hit-kill nature of the spell was already spent. With the way open, Thursday dropped to one knee and aimed down the sights of his gun. There was a crack like a splintering tree as he fired the potion in the crowd, woodfolk bursting into bright blue alchemical fires.
All the while, Laura was focused on keeping Kara alive and unharmed. Now that Seth had cleared line of sight for her, she could concentrate her spells on their light-aspected effects rather than their dark-aspects—a benefit of her light affinity being the way her spells could swap between the two sides of the spectrum for different effects. Occasionally she would cast bolts of harmful darkness, but mostly she focused on restorative light.
It took the group very little time to clear the woodfolk camp, and Zack was worried he made this encounter too easy after his friends attempted it. He had reduced the number of woodfolk from the original four-to-one ration to two-to-one—two woodfolk for every adventurer instead of four. He would need to carefully rebalance this encounter for future runs, or perhaps just add a couple more mobs in for balanced parties like this.
The rest of the forest proved to be a lot easier than that first encounter. Woodfolk riding spiders were the biggest challenge, mostly because they could stay out of range of Seth's attacks. This forced Laura to serve in her caster role rather than her healer role, as she was the only one who could consistently hit them off trees.
With only ten minutes left in their one hour time slot, the party at last made it to the final encounter of this section. Zack had so far not gotten to see anyone fight this boss, as even Isolde's group had to leave before they reached it. As goofy as this party was, Zack was glad he'd get to see them take on one of his more interesting bosses.
"I don't see anything," Seth noted, his hand on his sword hilt as he stepped into the clearing.
"Me neither," Thursday muttered. His eyes were glowing with blue light, the effect of a potion enhancing his vision in the dark.
"On your guard," Kara warned, cracking her neck.
When the group was nearing the centre of the clearing, the boss finally kicked into action. The heavy clomping of hooves on earth echoed through the trees, followed by an unearthly wail that sent Seth to shivering in fear—or anticipation. It was hard to tell with that one.
"Incoming!" Seth roared, as he open-fired on something in the darkness.
The potion splashed uselessly off something that looked like a log, only for it to begin moving. Clomp clomp huff. Zack's newest boss made itself known, a blood-red eye opening in what had previously looked like just another tree. It lumbered forward and unfolded, revealing its true form to the adventurers.
It had the body of a man with impossibly long arms, not unlike the Walk-Behind. Where it different from that mob though, was everything below the waist. Rather than a pair of legs, the monster fused into the back of what looked to be a horse sculpted from rotten stumps. The horse's mouth was monstrously large and hung open, revealing blood-stained teeth. Both of its heads, the rider and the horse, had only a single blood-red eye in their direct centre.
[Dark Rider, Nuckelavee]
[Level 10 Horror, Boss]
Zack mentally grinned at the sight. He had designed this monster in inspiration from Scottish mythology and pictures in one of Iris's books. It was by far the most terrifying creature he had ever created, and that included the toad-spider hybrids. Nuckelavee dragged its arms through the dirt as the horse stomped forward, its wooden hooves flattening the earth beneath its tremendous weight. It had taken a lot of experimentation to get this just right, but the effect was well worth it.
"Everyone," Kara said, her voice catching in her throat. "Places."
She had to repeat herself twice more before the group finally overcame the fear effect radiated by Nuckelavee. Kara toggled on her Walking Wall ability and jogged up to the horse's head, charging yellow energy around the head of her mace. When she struck Nuckelavee, though, it didn't seem remotely bothered by the attack.
"Try the human body," Thursday suggested, already loading a fresh potion into his launcher. He took aim down the sights, lining up a shot, and fired. Unlike the first potion he used, this one burst into blue alchemical flames upon impact.
Nuckelavee made a horrible chittering noise, the horse mouth grinding its teeth together as the top head turned to face Thursday. The horse head, however, continued to glower at Kara.
"They can focus targets separately!" Seth warned, the first to notice the way the heads behaved.
Before the group had a chance to fully process that information, Nuckelavee reached out with its impossibly long arms towards Thursday. Kara tried to step in front of them, but the horse half kicked her with a front hoof, forcing her to raise her shield in defense rather than intercept.
Thursday was in the midst of reloading his weapon and trying to back away when Nuckelavee's hands reached him. Seth managed to parry one hand while Laura was blasting another with darkness magic. Nuckelavee still had one free hand, despite the attacks arrayed against it. Before Thursday could react, it grabbed the dart gun and squeezed.
"Shit!" Thursday swore as his weapon turned into plastic shrapnel under the monster's grip. The potion already loaded in errupted all its own, and Nuckelavee's hand came away coated in a foul smelling green grease. "Laura!"
From how fast she reacted, she must have noticed the grease too. She rapidly unleashed dark magic at the hand, and Nuckelavee howled in pain as its hand was torn to shreds.
"I'm down a weapon," Thursday grunted, grabbing spare potion vials and filling them with his aether. "I have to mix up some new potions, too. I used up my acid grease!"
"I told you we should have brought a normal caster," Seth growled, shooting Laura a look.
She paid him no mind and sent a quick healing spell at Thursday and Kara in turn. "Kara, can you draw the attention of the top head?" She asked, weaving dark spells in between the light.
"No, it's out of my reach," Kara hissed, blocking a bite from the horse as it tried to clamp down on her head.
Zack had specifically designed Nuckelavee with that in mind. It was big in every sense of the word. The horse half was over six feet high on its own, which put the rider half firmly out of reach of anyone except the caster. Part of his goal with this boss was, again, to force his delvers to rethink strategy and spells rather than simply brute forcing their way through problems.
"I think Aria of the Blade is our only chance!" Thursday called, dodging the Nuckelavee's stump arm as it swung at him again. "Seth, I can hold the big guy's attention, get charging!"
"Are you sure?" Seth asked.
Thursday nodded as he lobbed a potion bottle at the monster. It exploded in a gust of blue wind, which did little more than score Nuckelavee's wooden body.
Seth gritted his teeth and sheathed his sword. "Come, O come, death by my blade," he started singing.
Zack had seen this exact scenario play out one too many times for comfort. In fact, that was the exact reason he had made Nuckelavee so big.
Once Seth's blade was fully charged, he unsheathed it and lunged at Nuckelavee, slicing down on the horse's head with all his might. The strike successfully cleaved the head from the rest of the body, but to Seth's horror, Nuckelavee didn't immediately drop dead. Black goo gushed from the decapitated horse, revealing the hollow wooden body within—and the second pair of impossibly long arms hidden within the horse.
Seth screamed in fear as the hands shot out of the horse's neck stump and grabbed him by the throat, tossing him aside like he was nothing but a ragdoll. Zack couldn't help but cackle to himself.
"The rider is the real body!" Seth called, as he sailed through the air and crashed into a tree. "The horse is a decoy!"
Laura ran around Nuckelavee, hurling healing spells Seth's way to get him standing again. Zack's medibolds were on standby, just in case someone took serious damage, but Seth was hardier than he looked. The hit hurt, but that was all it did.
"Cover me, I'm going for a detonator potion," Thursday called to Kara, crouching behind a nearby broken log. Kara was already fending off the hands that had replaced the horse's head, even as the horse body started to regrow the missing appendage.
Zack watched as Thursday a large glass sphere from his pack. It was roughly the size of a baseball, but empty. He pressed his palm against the glass, and bright blue and orange potion started to fill it up on the inside. To his perspective, aether was pouring out of Thursday and into the ball. When it was full to bursting, it practically shook in his hand.
"I can't hold this thing off much longer!" Kara warned. A quick glance at her status revealed that she'd been cycling her mana and stamina to keep her health topped up. The Nuckelavee was just that strong. Even Laura was running dangerously low on resources, none of the previous encounters forcing her to use this much mana.
"I'm ready!" Thursday called. He ran as fast as he dared, carrying the baseball potion with the care one might a life-saving cup of water. As he drew close, Nuckleavee's head once more snaped to him.
Kara was ready that time. She infused her mace with aether and hurled it at the monster's head, successfully drawing its attention. Now without a weapon, though, she was left with nothing but her shield to defend herself. Her part was properly played, though, and she braced herself for what came next.
Thursday ran up beside her tossed the potion into the Nuckelavee's gaping horse neck, then ducked behind her shield for cover. As expected, the Nuckelavee reached into the hole with one of its many free hands and crushed the sphere, detonating the potion within. The resulting explosion was enough to send Thursday and Kara flying.
Zack bobbed his wisp in approval as the boss died. Nuckelavee was incapable of gently grabbing things, which the potion crafter likely discovered when it had tried to grab his gun. Thursday had risked everything on a gambit, and it paid off. Zack was all too happy to play the victory fanfare and spawn the loot chest for besting this opponent.