“Domains, dungeons, kingdoms, lairs, dens, whatever you want to call them. They are plentiful across the lands. While some people think only their lessers reside in dungeons, beasts and creatures and the like, they are mistaken. All one needs to do is look at the crystal atop a wizard’s staff, or the jewel placed in a crown, to see that these magical regions are as common among the peoples as they are outside of them. Some people think the territories of countries and such are random, but in fact this is not true. Any expansion by its residents is echoed by the domain itself. These domains surrounding these strange jewels. Mana crystals, foci, dungeon cores, domain hearts, whatever they are called, they are little understood for the part they play in influencing the lands…” Excerpt of a lecture on the nature of dungeons by Prof. Arnold Glassin.
The region of forest was little different from any other region of forest. The undergrowth and trees seemed thicker and taller than some might expect, and the animals were slightly off from what a huntsman would recognize in surrounding regions, but aside from that things seemed to be fairly normal. Bird song filled the space beneath the boughs and creatures scurried through the undergrowth.
To the north of this region the forest abruptly turned into a wetland. Ferns and fallen logs were plentiful. Giant frogs and other slimy creatures lurked in the weed filled water. Along the one side was a massive beaver dam that had created this wetland. Trees piled high to stop the flow of a small river that had pooled to create a sizable wetland.
But things in this wetland were quiet. The giant frogs didn’t croak, the fish hid in the shadows. This region that had been created by the beavers had been taken by a young swamp serpent. Looking for a place to make her lair and the serpent had claimed the dam and eaten its residents as a meal. Nestled among her meager horde of rough ore were three emerald eggs. And resting in the middle of these three eggs was a moss green crystal. A pale light seemed to shine from its depths though the light failed to spill beyond its surface. The serpent stared at the crystal almost hypnotically as the light danced like sunlight glinting off the surface of water.
The light suddenly flashed with intensity and the spell was broken, the serpent hissed and slid from the lair into the water. At the same time as the flash a bird had crossed the border between the wetland and the forest. It perched on a fallen log and twittered curiously. The air here did not welcome the bird nor the expansion of the domain it had come from and neither bird nor dungeon had ever experienced the feeling before. The bird didn’t have time to be confused for long as the serpent rose from the water with an explosion of water and weeds. With a startled cry the bird fled back towards familiar territory and the serpent didn’t hesitate to follow with a roar.
As soon as the serpent crossed from the wetland into the forest silence spread across the dungeon’s territory. The dungeon still lacked a clear consciousness but as the foreign beast crossed the boundary the intent of the serpent was made clear to it. It was an intruder. It was coming to destroy it, ripping it from its domain. And it was powerful. This was not the same as the beasts and creatures that wandered into it’s territory randomly, this was an antagonistic intruder.
The animals all called out as one as the stranger creatures of the dungeon came to its defense. Bark-skinned bears roared are they left off their foraging to thunder through the forest in defense of the core. Coin-shith howled and joined the hunt while the forest-kin like leshy, dryad, spriggans, and more seemed to materialize into more tangible shapes and joined the wild procession through the trees.
The serpent slithered between the trunks, tongue flicking out to taste the air, moving unerringly towards centre with the dungeon core. The first to try to impede it were the trees themselves. Roots rose like nets and limbs raked at the passing beast. It hissed in anger but otherwise bore the treatment focused on its distant prize. The next to intercept the serpent made more of an impact, a great six-horned stag crashed from the underbrush, its head lowered and the many points of its antlers stabbing at the scales on the snake’s side.
This attack garnered more of a reaction than the trees as the serpent struck at the stag like lightning. Massive fangs seized the giant deer before hurling it through the forest. Luckily the flying stag missed the trees but messily crashed into the ground in a flurry of hooves and antlers. The serpent didn’t give it a moment to recover, instead striking again at the downed beasts stomach and tearing through its thick hide with razor sharp fangs. The stag bellowed and panicked trying to regain its feet or kick the serpent away, but the serpent shrugged off the blows and quickly wrapped around the struggling creature. Its body was nearly a meter thick and beneath the scales lay muscles strong enough to crush stone. The great stag let out another cry before its was crushed beneath the coils.
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The serpent rose hissing and glared down at the corpse with nothing but distaste. Letting out another roar it continued its path towards the dungeon core. But the stag had accomplished what needed to be done and the beasts from all over the forest were converging on the serpent. Before it could make it much farther there were wolves harrying it from all sides while the bears engaged it from the front. Despite their size and thick natural armour, the bears didn’t match up to the serpent. While not even close to a dragon, serpents were worthy of fear.
It struck like lightning at two of the bears driving them back before wrapping itself around a third and crushing it. The wolves couldn’t get through its thick scales, and more were injured by the serpent’s thrashing movements than the wolves were managing to injure the serpent. Finally, from the forest came the forest-kin. Many like the wolves struggled to injure the serpent, but one of the largest leshy met the beast head on.
Gnarled talons caught the striking snout and held firm. The remaining bears were finally free to attack the serpent’s body and their powerful strikes cracked scales and did some true damage to the beast. On the serpent’s side a pixie had found a splinted piece of the stag’s antler and was desperately trying to shove it deeper into the wound.
Sensing the change in momentum the serpent shook wildly to throw leshy like she had the stag, but the roots protruding from its feet had intertwined with the roots of the surrounding trees and though its limbs and body creaked it managed to hold the beast. A dryad noticed the pixie’s efforts to drive the antlers deeper and pushed a stout spriggan to give aid. The pixie darted out of the way as the spriggan hit the wounded serpent’s side with a punch like a hammer blow.
The serpent let out another roar and stopped trying to free itself, or throw the leshy, and instead brought its body around to wrap around the giant forest-kin. Its barkskin cracked and snapped as the serpent’s enormous coils tightened around it, but still the leshy stood firm. It began to bend beneath the strain, but it had now made the snake a much easier target for the other dungeon dwellers. One of the bears, left eye gouged out from one of the serpent’s opening strikes, found the area weakened by the stag’s charge and struck with ferocity. Snarling and biting it tore open the intruder’s side ripping out chunks and covering itself and the surroundings with blood and gore.
The serpent lost control of its body in the pain that followed the attack and allowed the leshy to shrug off some of the constricting coils. The serpent’s eyes were unfocused for a second and then lit up with the flames of wrath. Letting out an angry roar, it wretched onto the leshy a foul green mist that ate into its bark. A pixie attacking the serpent was caught unawares by the mist and shrieked as its wings melted and crumpled like thin plastic tossed into a fire. It fell between the coils and the leshy, and was crushed between the battling giants.
The other forest-kin mostly drew back after the mist began to cover the serpent, killing or wounding many of the weaker dungeon dwellers. The bear however was enraged, and the burning acid only made it angrier. Now completely blind due to both the serpent’s mist and fangs it bit deeply into the serpent and finally managed to dig deep enough through the muscle to find the spine. The body below that point began to spasm wildly as the bear’s attack finally began to truly shift the odds from even to the dungeon’s favour.
Taking advantage of the serpent’s weakness the leshy twisted and slammed the serpent’s head into the soil. Holding it still by the jaws the leshy began to repeatedly slam the serpent’s head against the ground. As the acid mist was cut off the other forest-kin darted in again. A suicidal spriggan leapt from the low boughs of one of the nearby trees to land in the serpent’s mouth and drive a wooden stake into the fleshy interior of its throat. This was another decisive blow as the serpent choked on the rough weapon. Blood joined acid as it ate into the spriggan’s legs, but it continued to drive the stake deeper twisting it to tear a larger wound in the serpent’s throat.
The battle was over, all that was left was for the serpent to finally stop moving. The brave spriggan died before then, as did several more of the weaker of the forest kin as the serpent’s body continued to thrash as it slowly choked on its own blood and other accumulated damage. Finally, the serpent’s eyes grew glassy and the leshy paused in its relentless head smashing.
The bear continued to bite deeply into the spine and shake its enemy, but the other beasts and forest-kin began to sing and keen in exultation and mourning. They had defeated a mighty foe, but at great cost. The leshy stumbled to where the great stag lay. Its body and limbs broken and crushed, but head and crown of antlers stood mostly intact other than a few cracks and splinters. With a twisting motion the leshy tore the head from the body and then in another motion removed the jaw. Placing its new crown upon its head the leshy let out a great roar which was echoed by all the other creatures. Even the bear raised its head from its dead enemy and roared to welcome the new Forest Lord, Master of the Wild Hunt.