The grassen goat cavalry charges at the group with the kobolds brandishing their spears. Except instead of clashing with the party, they all go to the left of the group and get a few strikes in. Then they continue onward in retreat, crossing into the square behind the group before swinging to the left and vanishing into another space.
Zach points towards the ground, “Look, the checkerboard pattern is broken there.”
Jim nods, “And back that way the same thing happens. If I had to guess, this area is actually two rooms that are interlaced with one another. Though that does mean those goat riders can come at us from any direction now. Sammy, how did you hold up against their attacks?”
Sammy scoffs, “They hit nothing but shield. While the run by was unexpected, they’re just copying the last room so I was ready. Though they definitely hit a whole lot harder. The axebeaks might have had a slight advantage in speed, but the goats overall are way stronger and certainly tougher.”
Zach sighs, “That is certainly true enough. While I was keeping an eye on everyone, I did try to trip one of them. The goat walked right through a piece of wood that would have stopped the axebeaks dead in their tracks. Only the fancier axebeaks even come close to that kind of power.”
Susan clicks her tongue, “I managed to nail one of the goats with a dagger and the damn thing only went halfway in. Even then, the dagger was pushed out before it even left this square. Those goats are not only stronger than us, they are tougher than us as well. Of course, there is going to be a little bit of them having naturally tougher hides and such compared to us. If I had to guess, though, then at the very least, their strength is above 25. That and their Con should be slacking either. I just don’t have a good way to judge that.”
Doctor looks over, “And how did you judge the strength in the first place?”
Susan tosses her retrieved dagger in the air and catches it by the blade. Doctor cringes, yet the dagger doesn’t even leave a mark on her skin. “See this dagger? Without any strength behind it besides your basic gravity assist, the thing can’t hurt me. Of course, the thing is still tougher than my skin so if I tried to squeeze it, I would still end up with a bloody palm, but that would be using my strength.
“So, after throwing it with most of my strength it only went into the goat halfway. I can’t be certain of the specifics, but to me that indicates the goat’s strength should be around 25 or greater to counter the amount of strength I used to throw the dagger. Though that is as specific as I can get. While I’m certain strength means about the same thing across the board, factors like having a naturally tougher hide or potentially even a skill that improves the toughness of their hide could mess with that. They might not even have 20 strength and instead have multiple skills that improve their defenses.”
Jim is about to say something when they hear hooves again. He turns his head around quickly and pinpoints the direction. “To the right!”
Sammy and Jay reposition themselves just in time to meet another charge by the goats and kobolds, only this time there are six pairs coming at them.
Jim isn’t happy about that, “Zach! You need to pull down at least one of the kobolds or we might end up overwhelmed.”
Without thinking, Zach dumps a large portion of his mana into a wood summoning spell. This causes a large block of wood to appear in front of the last two cavalry. One of the goats has enough time to react and jumps right over it, though it does lose its rider. The other goat isn’t so lucky and runs right into it, stunning itself for a moment.
That moment is more than enough as Susan gets in there with her knives and starts opening up wound after bleeding wound. Sure, some of the shallower ones do seem to stop bleeding just moments after they are made, but the deeper cuts on the neck don’t show any signs of stopping.
And the two kobold riders? They suffered a more humiliating fate. The one that fell off at least fell to a swift strike from Jay’s poleaxe. The kobold on the goat that ran into the wooden wall died from a broken neck it acquired slamming into said wall. Of course, while this is happening the five goats and four kobolds ride off around an invisible corner to vanish once again.
Jim points towards the direction they came from, “Let’s find out where they are coming from!”
As one the group starts to move, leaving the fallen monsters behind. They move from one square to the next until the checkerboard pattern switches and suddenly they find themselves staring down 11 grassen goats charging at them, ten of which are being ridden by kobolds.
Jim shouts, “To the left!” and the group dodges while the goats in turn move so they pass on the right.
When they pass though, Jay turns back as Sammy shields him and he takes a wide and low swipe. Three of the goats get taken out as their legs are sliced off. One of them was the goat that had escaped, so didn’t have a kobold. The other two however pitch their kobolds who prove once again that if they can’t dodge, the kobolds are currently quite fragile.
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The remaining eight riders guide their goats towards another transfer point but Zach isn’t going to let them escape so easily this time. If last time he had put a good chunk of his mana into the wood summoning, this time he dumped it all.
It took longer to charge this time so none of the goats ran into the giant wall of wood, however none of the eight attempted to jump over. What with the wall going all the way to the ceiling. Zach had meant for the wall to cover the entire square area, and he had done a better job than expected.
The wall looked like a normal enough wall to everyone except for the two watching from the core and Jim. At the edges of the wall, there were micro fractures in space itself. Though even Jim missed that it wasn’t just the dungeon’s space that was warping. Whatever realm the wood was being called in from wasn’t taking to the spatial shenanigans either.
Good thing this wasn’t the first time even within this universe that such things had happened. Not only did the system have an answer, but dungeon instincts had an answer as well with both acting as things are stabilized. This took but a moment, but in that moment both Doyle, Ally, and even if unknowingly Jim managed to get a glimpse into one of the pseudo realms that tends to pop up around any magical universe.
Then the goat cavalry turns and takes a second run at the group, breaking the moment. Jim shakes his head before shouting that everyone should, “Target the kobolds!”
It wasn’t needed though as at this point everyone had noticed the relative weakness of the riders. While the goats themselves have a decent Agility score, they didn’t have enough to protect their riders nor the skills to make up for it.
Susan is the first to claim a kill, her daggers doing a much better job when turned towards the riders.
Jay, on the other hand, continues to focus on the goats as he was the only one able to take them down without magic. Though the goats were on to him by now and so he only manages to take out one of them as they charge past.
Jim and Sammy however make up for it. Jim fires off arrows at a rapid pace, taking down three kobolds one by one.
Sammy, on the other hand, just makes sure they stay behind. As the kobolds strike out with their spears, she uses her shield, reinforced with a skill, to bash them off their goats. All but two of the remaining kobolds end up on the ground.
All around the group, there are now a handful of lamed goats as well as a bunch of dead kobolds.
Jim frowns as Susan goes around and frees the goats from their pain. He looks around and sighs. “I have to wonder if the goats will be tougher to fight without the kobolds.”
His question is soon answered as the herd charges in again from a new direction. Without the kobolds there to guard with their spears, the goats are wide open. Sure, as the floors have gone on it has become harder to hurt them, but they certainly aren’t impervious. Not only that, but once the last two kobolds are taken out, the goats stop running off to re-engage from another direction.
From there, it was just a matter of cleaning up. Though once that was done, the party still ended up in the room for a good half an hour. While from Doyle’s perspective it was a simple enough set up, it is quite hard to figure out a maze when you can’t see the walls. Something that Doyle is quite happy about.
Besides that, Ally has one little thing to say about the room. ‘So, maybe add some seat belts to the goats?’
Doyle laughs, ‘That would improve things a bit. I guess I hadn’t really been paying attention but the kobolds probably have less than 10 Strength and Constitution. I’ll need to work on that if I want them to continue being a threat.’
Ally shrugs, ‘Remember our conversation about going mono stat. The kobolds have been getting by so far because their Agility is making up for their fragility. After all, it doesn’t matter how weak a sandcastle is if nothing ever hits it.’
Doyle nods his core, ‘That is true enough. However, I don’t really want my kobolds to go in that direction. They have scales! Scales shouldn’t tear apart like wet paper. Sure, bashing into a wall head first at great speed is going to kill many things. On the other hand, I don’t want them to continue to die just because they get knocked off their ride. After all, mounted kobolds are doing quite well.’
Ally rolls her eyes, ‘We both know those aren’t actually scales. Your kobolds aren’t actually directly related to lizards or as the common myth goes, dragons. Sure, out in the universe, that isn’t exactly the rarest of kobold variants, but you have the monotreme style. While the scales of a common lizard and the modified spines on your kobolds tend to be made of the same material, it is also the material that a human’s fingernails and hair are made of. The scales on your kobolds are more for environmental protection instead of any actual defense.’
Doyle sighs, ‘Well, I guess I better figure out a saddle for the goats. It is going to be hard because I want them to still blend into the surrounding grass.’
Ally snorts, ‘That boat has sailed for this room. You could place some grass mounds to trick the delvers, but there isn’t really all that much going on besides the maze. Just saddle up the goats and keep the kobolds from flying off every which way at the lightest breeze.’
Doyle sighs again, ‘You aren’t wrong. I guess if I want them hidden I can just have them around the corner as it were. Now moving on, what was up with that dimensional nonsense when Zach’s summoned wall messed with things? I felt something in my core flex.’
Ally shrugs, ‘Eh, spatial anomalies and summoned things can interact in interesting ways. What happened there was Zach summoned in a chunk of wood within a portal that was actually bigger than said portal. If it had been a creature being summoned, the spell would have likely failed as there are more safeguards on that kind of thing.
‘With just a chunk of wood? They get thrown together and let the universe sort it out. In this case, you are that universe, though I’m sure the system provided a helping hand. Though now that it has happened, things will likely be taken care of. Kind of like riding a bike.’
Doyle shakes his core, ‘Fair enough.’