Recovering first, Kenzie waved her hand to indicate their surroundings. “As much as all of this is fascinating, have you all forgotten that we are standing in a dungeon right now?” She then motioned with her spear in the direction they were originally headed. “Should we maybe keep going so we can get out of here sooner rather than later?”
With agreement all around, the party gathered themselves and continued onward. The maze of aisles continued and as they made their way through the twists and turns, doubling back when they encountered dead ends and fighting small swarms of Chatterwights. The battles were brief but fierce and soon the group found that they had a rhythm when fighting together. Brynn had a talent to basically give everyone a boost to their combat prowess and added Stamina for about five minutes at a time. This proved very beneficial when they got boxed-in several times. By the time they finally made it to the exit, they had all earned enough Aether to level up again.
They sat on the foggy and moist floor, exhausted. The fight to get to this dead end had been grueling as they battled through to the end which had a ladder that led up the rack at the far end and then to a trap door in the ceiling. The party had decided to recoup their Stamina and Mana and allow Shane to heal the worst of their injuries, which were fortunately not very severe. However, they all wanted to be at their best for when they tackled the trapdoor. Brynn was excited at first as she thought it was the way out of the dungeon, but Malcolm threw some cold water on that thought when he pointed out that typically there was a boss monster at the end of most dungeons, and they had only seen the same kinds of creatures so far. So logically, they were probably going to fight the boss next. Or not. Malcolm could only speculate.
The biggest reason for stopping to rest was not the healing or recuperating, but the fact that when each of the group had reached level five, they each received a Fate Quest. Shane had already seen his own Fate Quest; however, he did receive a new spell in his Fatebringer class.
Spell: Twist of Fate
At the cost of 25 MP and 25 SP, you may affect the outcome of the actions of a target being. As an example, if you are being attacked, you may cause the target to fail in their attack. Or, conversely, you may target an ally and create a favorable outcome for one of their actions. This spell has a cooldown of one (1) hour.
Shane began to wonder if his Fatebringer class was designed around luck or some such, but he still had precious little to go on, so he shelved it for later. Their current predicament was not conducive to sitting and chatting about the System and everything that was going on and it seemed that an apprehensive air was beginning to form as they stalled on tackling the next part of the dungeon.
Malcolm was especially disappointed as the loot they received from the Chatterwights was, to him, pretty pathetic. “I know I don’t have anything to really compare it to, but with that many enemies downed, you’d think at least one of them would have something more than coins.” He looked around expectantly at the group, but no one had any comments to make.
It was Kenzie that finally stood up, wiped her hands on her jeans and got the party moving. It was decided that Brom would again go first followed by Shane, Brynn, Malcolm and then she herself would bring up the rear. With a deep breath, Brom steadied himself and climbed the ladder. Shane shimmed up immediately after so that he stayed close enough to touch Brom’s leg, just in case.
Fortunately, there were no monsters waiting to pounce as soon as they entered the next area. After Kenzie had managed the ladder and the group stood together once more, they all took in their new surroundings. It seemed as if they had climbed from a warehouse to a basement boiler room. Malcolm noted that whoever designed the place obviously did not know that the boiler room should typically be below the warehouse. Or better yet not connected at all. “Who the heck has a warehouse with a boiler room anyway? This is all supposed to be like heating and cooling and stuff.”
“Does it really matter?” Brynn asked. “This entire place is stinky and gross, and I just want to go home.”
Harvey, snuggled in Brynn’s arms, patted her hand, “It’s okay, Lovie. We’ll get you home soon.”
The rest of the group murmured their agreement and began taking stock of what they could see of the room they were in, which was not much. There were catwalks, pipes and steam coming from various places. The ever-present mush on the ground continued to squish and smell unpleasant and every surface was damp and mostly covered in the fungus that bled the black ooze. The only light sources were the pale crystals imbedded in the ceiling and in some places, the walls.
Malcolm quipped, “Does anyone else get Freddy Krueger vibes from this place?”
Kenzie shot him a dirty look while assessing their pathway options. Eventually she shook her head, “I don’t like this. The quarters are really cramped. Too much for both Brom and my fighting styles.”
It took the group longer than anyone liked to come up with a plan, but eventually, decided on Shane in the lead, followed by Kenzie, Brynn, Malcolm, and Brom bringing up the rear. With that settled, they moved out from the entryway into the unsettling atmosphere of the dungeon level. It was slow going as they had to step over or duck under pipes that either dripped with goo or vented foul smelling steam-like vapor.
Shane held his shield in front of himself like a talisman, wary of every hiss of steam, drip of slime or other unsavory noises. Occasionally, there would be an odd metallic banging or a screech like nails on a chalkboard. Malcolm continued to compare their surroundings to horror movies until Brynn told him to, “Shut it.”
It wasn’t more than ten minutes, their nerves starting to fray when the first attack came. Shane’s constant paranoia allowed him to repel the attack with his shield, but he recoiled when he saw what confronted them.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Gorehound – Level 8
HP: 90
Resists: Charm, Poison, Cold
The beast was the size of a Pitbull, but it looked as if it had been skinned and its entrails were dragging behind it, leaving a nasty trail of fluids. Its eyes were hollows filled with the nasty fungus that grew on the walls and it brought a nearly overpowering stench of death with it. The attack that had rebounded from Shane’s shield had not been a standard bite attack either. Rather it was something that had spewed forth from the creature’s mouth. Along with a splatter of blood, there was some sort of thick fragment of something that clung to the shield and pulsed like a heart. The thing was supremely nasty, and a casual flick of the shield was not enough to dislodge it. The gurgling growl from the Gorehound caused Shane to refocus.
Kenzie’s spear flicked into Shane’s view from under his shield as she took a literal stab at damaging the monster. The spear hit true and pierced the gorehounds’ shoulder causing it to let out a noise that may have been a yelp of pain but came out as a wet cough instead. It backed up a few steps and reassessed its opponents.
Shane took the moment to call out, “Gorehound! Level eight! Ninety HP! Resists charm, poison, cold!”
There were murmurs of acknowledgement and a louder, “Got it!” from Brom in the back.
The gorehound backed up a few more steps and regarded its opponents, then it leaped with a gurgling roar. In the middle of the group, Brynn screamed in response, clutching Harvey while Malcolm cast a spell and touched the back of Kenzie’s spear. Shane kept his shield up to hold off the leaping beast while Kenzie once more shot her spear forward, this time catching the monster in the mouth. Her spear pierced its neck and a halo of electricity erupted from her spear tip. The beast slammed into Shane’s shield as Kenzie tried to pry her spear free.
The gorehound’s legs twitched and Shane took advantage of its immobility to slash at its neck with his sword. Another hit from Kenzie and a second strike from Shane caused the beast to shudder and die. The stench of the beast seemed to worsen after its death and Shane worked hard to breathe through his mouth. Behind him he could hear the others gagging.
Malcolm coughed, “Aw man, I can actually taste the smell.”
As Shane was looking at the pulsating blob stuck to his shield, Brynn pulled something from the purse at her side. It was a small vial of perfume which she carefully sprayed onto some tissues, also from her purse. “Here.” she said, handing a perfumed tissue to each person. “If you tear up the tissue a little, you can stick some in your nose. It’s not perfect, but it may help.” Brom took a moment to stare at his sister, “What?” she asked rather defensively.
“Nothing.” He quickly answered with a slight shake of his head. “That was a great idea. I’m proud of you.” He finished lamely, obviously not saying what he really wanted to.
Brynn did not seem to pick up on the awkwardness and beamed, “Thanks!” She wore a beatific smile, but it only lasted a moment as their surroundings wore at her resolve to stay peppy.
The group took just a few minutes to stuff tissue in their nostrils and regroup. During that time, Shane used his sword to pry the nasty thing from his shield, it hit the floor with a wet squish. He tried to identify it, but nothing came up, so he assumed it was something related to the gorehound and was not a separate creature. He and Kenzie looted the dead beast and in moments, its body sparkled out of existence.
They moved forward in a tight unit, or at least as tight as they could get having to navigate the close quarters of the myriad pipes that twisted and turned from the walls with no discernable rhyme or reason. The slick ground in conjunction with the ankle and knee-high pipes, constantly threatened to trip them up and the foul-smelling steam that vented from various joints in the piping made forward progress agonizingly slow. The random pops, gurgles and other unsavory noises also did nothing to ease their stress levels.
It was another five minutes before they found a slightly wider opening in the pipes and cramped hallways that they decided to take a break to eat and hydrate. The air caused the food and water to taste like sewage. Brynn declined completely while everyone else choked down the food as best as they could.
“Man, this sucks! Whose idea was this anyway?” Malcolm had perched on a twist of pipes that was less nasty than the rest and rummaged through his backpack.
With an exasperated voice, Brynn answered, “That would be…” She paused, acting as if thinking, “Oh yeah! You and Brom!”
“Well, you went along with it!” Malcolm retorted a bit heatedly.
“That’s because I didn’t have a choice! I can’t very well go running around by myself now, can I? There’re monsters now, so I have to go where Brom, and you all go!” Tears were beginning to form in the blonde teen’s eyes. Harvey hugged her with as much gusto as a teddy bear can muster. Brynn unconsciously hugged him back, taking comfort in the small, living toy.
Brom took his eyes off their surroundings to address the argument as both Shane and Kenzie were also about to comment when a large shape hurtled out of the darkness and fog and slammed into Brom’s back, knocking him into the middle of the group. Everyone tried to scatter, but the close quarters caused them all to trip and flail about as they tried to get away from the gorehound savaging Brom.
Brynn screamed as well as Malcolm. Shane too let out an unmanly yelp, but it was Kenzie who kept her head and engaged the creature. With no one in her immediate strike line, Kenzie imbued her spear with a spell and as she stabbed forward, a flurry of spears seemed to appear and pierce the gorehound all along the side of its body. In a matter of seconds, dozens of holes sprung into being and the beast had no choice but to try and escape the attack. It moved back, gurgling as it did so. Kenzie saw that it was about to vomit one of the nasty balls of phlegm like the previous one had done, but she stepped forward with a lunge and speared it through the mouth.
That was enough to get it off Brom’s back who quickly rolled over and slammed a meaty fist into the side of the gorehound’s head. Something cracked loudly and the beast dropped to the ground. As Kenzie helped Brom to his feet, another monster sprang from seemingly nowhere, but this time Shane was ready and blocked with his shield. Unfortunately, his footing was poor, and he was knocked over by the gorehound that then stood partially on his shield trying to bite his face. Malcolm, standing within touching distance of the monster had recovered his composure and pointed directly at the thing’s head. A bolt of energy erupted from Malcolm’s outstretched finger and impacted right into the gorehound’s eye. The side of the beast’s head blew out and it made a gargling sound and turned its attention on the young mage.
The gorehound shook its head and stepped forward only to have a floating sword slam into it from behind, followed immediately by Harvey wielding his dagger and stabbing repeatedly into the creature’s back. It bucked and spun, much to Shane’s discomfort as it was still standing on his shield. Instinctively, Shane lashed out and grabbed the forepaw of the gorehound and cast Inflict Wound. This caused it to stop in its tracks and look slightly bewildered and then the floating sword slid into the ruined eye socket, finally ending it.