Chapter 39
The room was a long rectangle with two large 4 foot across pylons set equidistant from the entrances and each other.
“What's with the pylons?” Jay asked as they crept in to the room.
M'tthew answered without taking his eyes off of the room around him. “You find them in boss rooms a lot. They're for breaking line of sight. A lot of times a monster's ability relies on them being able to see you. Break that line of sight and they can't hurt you.”
Jay nodded, his breathing quick due to the excitement. “Ok, got it. Thanks.”
“No big deal. You won't need to worry about it for this fight but you should know about line of sight for the final dungeon boss.” M'tthew finished as the fight was joined.
C'nthia swung at a red robed skeleton's ankle and sent it crashing to the ground while Jon smacked a blue robed skeleton up side its head to get its attention. Both group members were successful in getting their assigned skeleton to focus on themselves and things were going smoothly when a third monster joined the fight.
“What the hell is that doing here, this fight is only supposed to have two skeletons!” yelled C'nthia.
Jay had been hanging back near a pylon. His plan was to step behind one should either of the skeletons target him with a spell or attack. He was perfectly positioned and got a good look at what appeared to be a bunny skeleton hopping around the room. Or a skeleton made to look like a bunny. Regardless the important detail the rest of the group was missing was..
“The Jade key! I found it! The bunny has it!” yelled Jay.
“What bunny?!” asked C'nthia as she didn't have the time to identify what creature the skeleton had once been.
M'tthew helped her out and yelled, “The third skeleton is a bunny.”
The small bunny skeleton shone with a jade colored light and Jay could make out the key that had been stuck inside of its ribs during its creation. It hopped from place to place and was quite fast. It had big nasty looking sharp fangs that really were its primary feature.
“New plan!” yelled C'nthia. “We fight the bosses while Jay fights the bunny!”
“Git 'em!” yelled M'tthew with a grin but not taking his eyes off the skeleton he was firing upon.
Jay took off after the bunny which led him on a twisting path across the boss room. Every time Jay thought he almost had it the bunny switched directions. The bunny was much better at taking corners than Jay was and the chase looked ridiculous with Jay wandering across the space like he was lost.
Angelica laughed without meaning to but by the time Jay looked over at her she had already become serious again.
The fight was simple but took time and Jay didn't make it any easier as the bunny frequently hopped very close to the bosses making it tough for Jay to follow as he did not want to get within arm's reach of either of the bony bosses.
C'nthia's skeleton started chattering something and Jay was close enough that he commanded his staff to extend to 7 feet and poked the skeleton right in the mouth from where he was standing. It's tough to cast a spell with a staff in your mouth and the skeleton was no exception. The spell fizzled in to nothingness and the skeleton went back to attacking C'nthia with its hands and sharp claws after dislodging the staff from its mouth.
The bunny at one point turned and attacked Jay with long sharp fangs but Jay was ready. He'd been waiting for just such an opportunity and swung his staff with all his might.
He missed and the bunny sailed past him. Jay had put so much effort in to the swing that he had spun around a little after he missed making the motion more comical than violent.
Jay was worried they might fail the quest when Jay swung his staff with all his might a second time and finally connected with the skeleton bunny. The skeleton shot across the room and hit the wall with a tinkle of bone and collapsed in to a heap on the floor. Jay could hear a muttering from one of the skeletons and turned to run to a pylon but was too late.
A ray of bright white electricity shot out of the hands of the skeleton Jon was fighting and flew through the air and struck Jay, throwing him to the ground. Jay lay there unable to move for a moment before Angelica shot a bar of hot white light at him.
Jay marveled as he instantly felt better. He jumped to his feet and quickly scuttled behind a pylon. He waved his staff over his head. “I didn't drop my staff this time!”
Jon laughed, “Focus on the fight!”
C'nthia's skeleton was trying to get around her and walk closer to its twin across the room. It began to chant and Jay ran up to it and swung his staff like a bat. He struck its head and interrupted the spell.
“Good work!” C'nthia yelled to Jay as she ducked under a particularly vicious swing by the red robed skeleton. Jay grinned and hid around a pylon once again for safety.
The fight went as advertised right up until the first skeleton dropped. The group had been hammering away at the lightning mage skeleton and it finally dropped to the ground in a heap of bleached white bone. As soon as it collapsed the remaining skeleton's behavior changed and it began to push, trying to get close to and reach the Jade key.
“A little help here!” C'nthia yelled over to Jon. He ran over to her and with his help they managed to corral the skeleton and keep it away from the key it suddenly seemed to so desperately want. “This doesn't usually happen,” she shouted over the noise of the battle.
“You don't usually have a quest!” Jay yelled back.
No one spoke after that and the group kept up their attack until the blue robed skeleton finally collapsed to the ground before fading in to motes of light. Jay felt a number of notification pings but held off looking at them for now.
The group was tired and just wanted to rest but C'nthia was having none of that. “Perk up friends, we still have work to do. We can rest after this room, I promise.” The groans turned to thoughtful sighs as she spoke.
The bosses' skeletons had been replaced with a single treasure chest. It wasn't a big one and probably held jewelry or something that size if Jay had to guess. It went in to C'nthia's pack, they'd open it back at the Portal House when they returned.
“M'tthew, trap time. Jon, you have perimeter watch. Angelica check for injuries. Jay, come with me.” C'nthia said as the group went to work. After M'tthew had cleared an area C'nthia had Jay show her how his Treasure Sense ability worked. Jay started at one spot and then gradually walked outwards in a spiral pattern to be sure he covered every square inch.
They did this for the entire room and there was a moment of excitement when Jay managed to find a buried coin purse with 80 silver in it. It would only amount to 20 silver a piece, but 20 silver was a decent amount of coin, especially considering it was bonus money, an unexpected windfall.
Finally C'nthia went over to the key and gathered everyone together. “So there is only one key but five of us.”
Jay shook his head, “I'm guessing we only need the one key. Who wants to carry it?” The group voted for C'nthia to carry it as she was probably the hardest in the group to kill and had the highest chances of survival should something go wrong. As she picked up the key everyone received a notification.
You have completed a quest! Jaded Keymaster: retrieve the Jade key! You have been awarded 100xp!
Congratulations! You have been awarded another Dungeon Quest. This is the fourth quest in the Cleaning House series and must be completed in order. Failure of any quest in the series will prevent its follow-up quest from being awarded. You may share this quest with your group in which case it will become a group quest. Personal rewards will still be granted for completion regardless.
Quest: Hidden Treasure
Task: Retrieve the Hidden Treasure. You have found a key, now find the lock it opens! This will not be easy. Take care, for the key will only work once!
Reward: 100xp
“Well that makes sense,” C'nthia said.
“How so?” Jay asked confused.
“Wait until you see the next room. No one touch anything in there, ok?” C'nthia commanded. “Do not touch the coffins, do not touch the treasure chests, and especially important, do not touch the enemies. Why don't we touch the enemies Jon?”
Jon sighed as if remembering an unhappy memory. “Because they suck the experience points right out of you. They can kill you too just like any other monster, but these will suck on your xp points until you're a level 0 nothing again.” Jon said with an entirely serious expression.
That sobered the group right up and everyone nodded in agreement as the party got back in to a line in their correct order and the stack moved in to the next room.
The room was well lit and had six stone coffins along its edges, three on each side. A ruby red colored rug ran down the center of the room towards the exit at the other end of the room. At the foot of each coffin sat a treasure chest. Each chest was different but each appeared expensively made with thick chunky locking mechanisms.
“When I open a coffin a mummy will climb out. Do not touch the mummy. Do not let the mummy touch you. Do NOT touch any other object while we are fighting a mummy. Do not touch a coffin, or a chest, or the mummy. Got it?” C'nthia said as if reciting it from memory.
“What about the rug?” Jay asked with a grin, “Can we touch that?”
C'nthia laughed, “Smartass. The rug is safe. Everyone ready?” The group all nodded. C'nthia walked up to the first coffin and touched the lid, careful to not touch the nearby chest. A moaning could be heard as the lid slid to the side and a figure swaddled in bandages climbed out.
Its eyes were glowing red and the bandages flapped about as if in a breeze. C'nthia focused more on her blocks than her strikes as she tried to keep the monster away from the group. Jay was struck by just how much stronger this monster was compared to the earlier skeletons. The mummy struck at C'nthia with one bandage wrapped fist which she met with her shield.
The mummy pushed C'nthia back a foot and the group behind her went to spread out to make room for her. “Don't touch anything else! Careful!” she shouted as Angelica almost brushed against another stone coffin. She caught herself right as C'nthia yelled at her and pulled herself out of the way.
C'nthia slowly turned the monster as they fought until it was facing away from the group, exposing its unprotected back to the rest of her party.
They took advantage of the opportunity and attacked. Jon struck with dual blades each cutting in to the creature and leaving dark black stains behind. The creature didn't bleed red but instead bled a dark coagulated goop that smelled awful.
M'tthew had switched from explosive arrow tips to fire arrow tips and a coating of flames engulfed one of the monster's arms. The flames seemed to hurt more than the swords and the arm on fire appeared to not be responding to the monster's commands. It flopped about uselessly although C'nthia still worked hard to avoid its touch.
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C'nthia spoke a phrase too low for Jay to make out and her sword suddenly blazed to life, its surface coated in red and blue flames. The mummy pulled back in pain from the sword's flame and C'nthia gained a moment of respite from its furious one armed attacks.
With a final swing Jon managed to cut the head clean off and the mummy flopped to the ground. Jay stepped clear as it fell and C'nthia looked over at him. “It's safe to touch once it's dead. You're alright.”
The fight progressed along those same lines until the six coffins all lay open and empty. The door at the far end of the room clicked open and C'nthia encouraged the group to rest up while still not touching anything.
“This room is probably one of the reasons Walter sent us here. Six coffins, six mummies, six chests. No one has ever been able to open the chests before. The reason will become readily apparent momentarily.” C'nthia said with a smile.
She had M'tthew check the room for traps and he found nothing thankfully. There was a moment of terror when he almost touched a treasure chest but he managed to regain his balance before that happened.
C'nthia caught her breath after the close call. “I swear you're all going to make my hair go white early. Ok, Jay, lets see what you can do. While NOT TOUCHING ANYTHING, I want you to see if you can detect any treasure in this room.”
Jay started along the walls of the room and walked the perimeter while straining to detect even the tiniest goose bump on his skin. He got occasional light hits but they were odd, somehow muffled he felt. Finding nothing worthwhile he began to crisscross the room and finally checked the chests. Walking up to the third chest he felt a wave of goosebumps.
“Oooph. Goosebumps feel weird.” Jay complained. “I'm certain it's this chest. Nothing else was even close.” Jay insisted.
“Ok, now we fight. Everyone ready? Again, and I can not stress this enough, don't touch anything.” C'nthia said as she carefully reached out and touched one of the treasure chests Jay had not picked.
Immediately the chest reacted and opened a crack while flicking out a thick muscled tongue that attempted to grab her arm. C'nthia pulled her arm back and poked it with her sword.
It screamed and threw itself in to the air towards C'nthia. She sidestepped and right behind her was Jon. As the creature landed they both attacked it at once until little remained of it and it disappeared in to motes of light.
The next one started out much the same, touched the chest's lid, tongue flicked out, poked with sword, chest jumped in to the air, and that's when disaster struck. As the chest landed C'nthia lost her footing as the chest struck her at an odd angle sending her sprawling. Her arms went out to break her fall and came down to rest on an opened coffin.
A moan could be heard along with C'nthia swearing. “Goddess! After all that I'M the one that touched something?!”
The rest of the team laughed even though things had gotten serious. C'nthia took up fighting the mummy that climbed out of the coffin. Even though it had been empty a moment ago when C'nthia touched it the coffin had spat out a fresh mummy anyways.
Jon took up the attack against the treasure chest and M'tthew joined him while using his sword instead of his arrows. Jay just tried to stay the hell out of everyone's way without touching anything.
Angelica took a slightly different approach and mumbled something under her breath while opening her arms to the heavens. A bright blue spray of what looked like blue liquid shot from her hands and struck the mummy. It stuck and burned with a crackling sizzle whatever it touched and the mummy made a high pitched keening sound as it thrashed in pain, no longer able to defend itself.
C'nthia took advantage of the opportunity and finally separated its head from its body ending what little semblance of life it had possessed. The mummy fell to the ground in a heap and moments later rose in to motes of light that scattered in the air.
“Four to go.” she said with a huff as the group took a brief monster killing break. The group continued after and managed to defeat the next three treasure chests without much trouble.
“What are these things called anyways?” Jay asked.
“We call them mimics. You know, because they mimic the appearance of something else?” Angelica said.
The entire group turned around to look at her. She had barely spoken the entire dungeon run.
“What? I can talk too!” she insisted.
C'nthia shrugged with a smile, “Point made. Next up is the final chest. Do we unlock it? Do we kill it? Any ideas?”
Jay said, “Can we try to unlock it? See how it goes? If it doesn't cooperate then we can always kill it.”
No one else in the rest of the group seemed to have a better idea so that was what C'nthia went with. The group pulled back to the entrance while C'nthia went up to the chest and inserted the key. She was careful not to touch it otherwise and the key turned easily with a click before disappearing.
“Let's hope that worked.” she mumbled almost under her breath.
A rumbling sound gradually filled the room and Jay was surprised to see that the chest was growing. Two eyes popped out of the top of the chest on long stalks. The chest opened showing row after row of sharp teeth and a fleshy throat dotted with backward facing teeth. The chest grew then grew again until it was four feet tall. A number of small appendages could be seen underneath the chest but whether those were feet or pseudo-pods or something else entirely was a mystery.
“Fuck!” said C'nthia simply as the chest charged her and knocked her clear across the room. Thankfully she didn't touch anything else.
Jon ran up to the mimic and began hammering at it with vicious slices. Muttering something under his breath a sudden noise of hundreds of slashing blades whistling through the air could be heard and Jon's two blades were for a moment replaced with countless ones, all slashing in to the mimic.
“It's like a mega-mimic! This thing is huge!” shouted Jon.
The mimic let out a gurgling scream and Jay shivered in disgust. It sounded nasty. C'nthia had by this time picked herself up off the floor and rejoined the battle. “Get back!” Jon shouted. The group quickly took a step away from the creature as M'tthew let loose an arrow that sped across the room leaving a green glowing trail in its wake. It struck with a wet squelch and the flesh around the spot where it hit began to decay and fall off of the creature.
The mimic thrashed back and forth and the group was forced to run around the room to find safe spots to fight the creature without touching any coffins. C'nthia tripped when the mimic made a sudden unexpected turn and instead of hitting the creature her swing had passed right through the air unimpeded.
Falling on to a coffin a moan could be heard as a mummy popped in to existence and climbed out to attack Jon.
C'nthia screamed in frustration, “Are you KIDDING me right now for Goddess sake?!” as she let out her feelings on the mummy while she continued to try and dodge the mimic. Angelica ran up to the mummy and in direct violation of C'nthia's orders placed one palm firmly on the mummy's chest.
“Holy Word: Banish” Angelica yelled and the mummy burst in to flames right as the mimic ran in to it by mistake.
With a snarl the mimic wrapped its thick tongue around the mummy and dragged it kicking and screaming in to its mouth, the teeth forcing it further and further down its throat until it was gone. The group had come to a standstill to watch the spectacle in horror. The mimic let out a wet burp and the group burst back in to motion, attacking it with swords and arrows.
The decay M'tthew had caused had progressed by this time and the mimic looked lopsided with one half of its body a sickly black and appeared to almost be crumbling away.
The chest turned to Jay at one point but in a fit of terror Jay had swung his staff and knocked the mimic so hard in one eye that the creature had left him alone for the remainder of the fight. M'tthew was putting out the most damage for the group and so it wasn't a surprise when he managed to finally down it with one of his arrows.
The group stood there panting and the smell of the creature was impossible to ignore. The creature's body seemed to collapse in to sand but did not immediately turn in to motes of light. Jay sifted through the remains using the butt of his staff until he found something.
It was a token about the size of Jay's hand and triangular in shape. On both sides of the token was imprinted a single exclamation mark. When Jay tried to Identify it he only got one line.
Mode Token - Hard
He had a few notifications by now but stuck with his habit of saving those for after the run. He handed the token to C'nthia and the group all gathered around to look at what everyone had fought so hard for.
“Mode? What's that about?” Jon asked. No one replied. C'nthia finally looked at Jay, “Care to take a stab at it Traveler?”
Jay nodded, “I can guess? Where I come from we have simulated dungeons, sort of like Dungeon Room. The dungeons themselves sometimes have different difficulties that you have to unlock using a quest, or by killing a specific monster, or using a specific item. I'd guess that this token makes a fight harder. Usually the harder the fight the better the loot.”
Jay brought up his quest notification since it would need to be taken care of before he'd get the next quest.
You have completed a quest! Hidden Treasure: retrieve the hidden treasure! You have been awarded 100xp!
Congratulations! You have completed the final quest in the Cleaning House series and will receive the following:
Quest Starter: Mask - Midnight Series
Reward: 100xp
“Huh.” Jay said pensively, “Not a huge reward for a quest series. I like the idea of a quest starter though.”
“Why not just give us the quest?” C'nthia asked while playing with her mask.
Jay read out the item's description.
Midnight Mask – quest starter
After being equipped this item grants the user the Midnight quest series. The mask must remain within your inventory or be equipped while completing quest steps.
“I mean it sounds amazing but I don't see what you're trying to show me.” C'nthia said only a little hotly.
“You can give it to someone else. It isn't bound to the person it was rewarded to. Meaning you could sell it instead of using it.” Jay replied.
The entire group went silent as they each pondered how much the only quest starter known in existence might go for in an auction. A lot probably. To do so however the group member would have to give up the possibility of the reward, which was a mystery.
Oddly it was Angelica who spoke up, “I'm not giving mine up. I want to see what the final reward is. Besides, we had to do a quest line in a dungeon just to get the quest starter itself. It has to have a good reward, right?”
The others variously nodded or stared off in to the distance in thought. No one was willing to sell their quest starter. C'nthia finally spoke up, “I can always make another copper, this though,” she said while turning her mask about in her hands, “this is irreplaceable.”
Having made their decisions the group all looked at each other as everyone put on their masks at the same time. The masks were made out of a dark almost black wood and covered the entire face with the exception of the eyes. The mask molded to Jay's face as he put it on and stayed put without need of straps.
“How do I look?” Jay asked as he looked at the other group members, all wearing black masks, their eyes too hooded by shadow to make out clearly.
“I can see just fine but you all look like you have no eyes.” said M'tthew. It sounded like he may have been smiling as he spoke.
The conversation hit a pause as everyone was given a new notification.
Congratulations! You have been awarded a Legends quest. Legends tell tales of ancient items brimming with power that were lost to humanity long ago. Search out the required items and creatures to restore this item to its original glory.
This quest is not shareable. You will only be given one chance to complete this quest series. Should you fail a step you will not be allowed to try again. Be advised that the final reward may not be traded or given to another person and will be bound to you.
Quest: Padded for Comfort
Task: Obtain twenty feet of Mummy wrappings
Reward: 100xp
Jon groaned, “How are we going to get that? They disappear after you kill them!”
Jay shook his head, “They used to disappear after you kill them. We don't know what they'll do now that we have a quest.”
C'nthia looked thoughtful at that but shrugged. “I don't think we're slated to fight any more mummies in this dungeon though.”
Jay smiled, “This entire room is one big mummy generator. We can just touch the coffins one at a time until we all have enough wrappings.”
“Can we rest first?” asked Angelica, “I'm a bit low on mana.”
C'nthia nodded, “Take fifteen everyone.”
Jay sat up against the wall away from the coffins and tried to relax. He was exhausted but still having a great time. They'd already gotten a treasure chest and Jay couldn't wait to see the final loot. He was almost more excited about the Legends quest. It sounded like the final reward would be well worth it.
“Heads up, eyes up!” C'nthia called out and everyone once again stood up and arranged themselves for the next mummy fight. Touching a coffin the group heard the typical moaning sound of a mummy rising and in a moment they were once again fighting.