Our way down to the surface of the Green Sea was a path of iron spikes driven into the wall at odd angles. It was easy to tell that more spikes had been added piecemeal as Old George continued to eat its way ever downward. The oldest looked a good deal more worn and rusty than the ones I could make out further below.
They were set in to protrude enough for a solid hand hold or to rest a goblin sized foot across, and were laid out to serve as a rough ladder. It made me wonder how the round little shopkeeper fared during the precarious climb down. Though it wouldn’t really surprise me if he handled it just fine. The agility of a properly motivated Goblin, no matter how round, was not something that should be underestimated.
I had no doubt Gig at least was certainly capable of snaking her way down the cliff face with practiced surety. Nevertheless I saw no need to take on more risk than necessary, not until I got a spawn sorted at least. So, I used some of the rope we’d acquired for Gig’s kit to rig up a tandem climbing harness and line for the pair of us. She didn’t complain, but I could tell She was a bit perplexed by all the extra fuss I was making over what was a fairly routine activity for her.
I affixed a Stop Box to either end of the tether before securing it to Gig’s harness. Rigged with a sinch that would slide over the rope freely when there was slack but would snap tight quick if Gig started to fall. For myself I was just tethered directly to Gig’s harness with a decent length of cord to catch me in case I slipped.
From there Gig took care of the climbing while I rode on her back and managed the safety line.
We made our way down in stages, pausing to alternate anchors whenever we neared one end or the other of the safety line. It was just a matter of releasing the Stop Box above us with a poke at my attunement once the other was safely locked in place. Then taking a moment to coil up the loose line so it could be fed out again as we resumed.
Let me tell you, I was sure glad of the extra precautions when an innocuous section of wall exploded outward without warming.
~~~~~
We were only a couple dozen feet away from reaching the waterline and I was just getting ready to do a final reset of the anchors when it happened. Above us and off to the side something had burst out through a small opening that had been stopped up with rubble. Near enough that we caught the edge of the shower of skree as it rained down. It was accompanied by a plume of rockdust that momentarily obscured our view of whatever may have been responsible. Still I knew exactly what we were dealing with the second I heard the weezy cry that sounded like the dry hiss of sand over stone.
Just my luck to run a fowl of a fucking Rock-Biter while precariously suspended above a ever hungry uber slime.
I called a warning of “Weapons up!” to Gig as I unslung my shield and readied my own blade, not that they were going to do much good against what we were facing.
Gig managed to fumble an axe into her hand by the time it was upon us.
It clung to the wall like a spider as it charged clear of the dust cloud it had created. It hammered its broad stony head into Gig, knocking the goblin free of the wall into open air. The safety line snapped taught as we swung in a wide ark before colliding back into the cliff face. The impact was tooth rattling but it at least bought us some space.
Our ambusher was in clear view now and seemed quite agitated that its usual tactic of dislodging targets to meet whatever crunchy fate might wait below had somehow failed. Though in this case it's easy meals would just end up a donation to Old George more often than not.
It had a thick tubular body about the size of a terrier, but loomed a good deal larger thanks to the four long spindly limbs with far too many joints sprouting from its trunk. An eyeless face was split by a maw of protruding teeth like ivory shovels. Its hide was like a patchwork of stone that looked as if it fused with its flesh.
Ugly. Nasty. Tough.
In the circumstance It was a hell of a rough matchup for us. My weapons would be all but useless against its rock armour and it didn’t even have the courtesy to provide eyeballs which I could stab. Going head to head was gonna have to fall on Gig who could at least put some weight behind her hits. The only thing going our way was that one of its forelimbs looked to have been mangled at some point and had healed poorly. It held the withered and twisted appendage close to its body. It would make swiping at us a good deal trickier for it at least.
I flashed [Delver’s Insight] during the brief moment of reprieve.
[Monster type: Shovel Jaw Crawler ]
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[Level: 8 ] [Hp: 12/26 ] [Mp ??? ]
[Title: Mob ]
[Perks: Clinging Grip, Rock Skinned, Rumble Sense, Stone Chewer ]
[Drawbacks: Blind, ???, Maimed, Territorial ]
[Dungeon Points: ??? ]
Besides learning its proper Dungeon name and that it was thankfully already short a good chunk of [Hp] it was all old news to me. They were ambush predators that chewed burrows out of the walls, concealed the entrances with rubble, and waited for tasties to toddle by. The worst of the lot set up in the ceiling and drop right on your head like a mini avalanche. Annoyingly sturdy bastards but easy enough to counter if you can spot the burrows and ambush the ambushers with a heaping helping of blunt force trauma.
Our reprieve ended with another rasping hiss and another ponderous clomping charge. My mind whirled trying to grasp at a plan beyond the classic anti Rock-Biter strategy of ‘Hit it fucking hard’. We ran out of time well before I could come up with anything.
“Hit it fucking hard!” I called out to Gig as I braced for impact.
A wild eyed Gig screeched a challenge as she met the rampaging monstrosity with a vicious axe swing. She caught it right on the neck. A few chips of stone went flying along with Gig’s axe, jarred from her grip by the rebounding force. Joined by a resounding “Shit!” from my Goblin compatriot.
Gig managed to dodge a retaliatory snap of the Rock-Biters jaws.
I shouted “Jump!” into Gig’s ear as the monster turned for another attempt. She didn’t hesitate in slamming her heels against the wall, sending us spinning away on the end of the tether.
This time her back was the point of impact. I felt the wind get knocked out of me as I was abruptly sandwiched between the Goblin and the cliff face. I idly noticed that it had cost me a point of [Hp]. Oof.
I kept my grip as Gig rolled to keep our adversary in view. The Goblin girl was breathing hard but otherwise seemed no worse for the wear as she drew her spare axe in preparation for round three. The Rock-Biter was clearly getting annoyed by our ability to seemingly teleport out of its reach, thrashing and stomping as it re-oriented to face where we’d landed. I was just glad it hadn’t managed to perceive the safety line itself yet. If it switched to targeting that we would’ve been well and truly fucked.
Thinking of the safety line finally handed me the idea I’d been groping for.
“Got a plan!” I informed Gig as I sheathed my blade and started to gather up the loose end of the safety line.
“Lay it on me Boss!” was her shouted acknowledgement.
“Swing for its joints and jump when I say jump.” I told her. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
Gig nodded and grit her teeth in the kind of wicked goblin grin I used to dread finding myself on the business end of, but was finding surprisingly heartening to see at the moment. I gave a wicked rat grin of my own in return and prepared for the scrum.
Hiss and charge and here it came again.
As Gig engaged her swings were as wild as ever but this time were managing to hack whole chunks of rock from the comparatively light armour on the limbs, further enraging the beast. With a bouncing hop she even got in behind the creature, striking a few blows against the hind legs before it twisted to face her again. Gig was proving herself a slippery brawler and I liked it.
However she wasn’t having it all her own way. When she tried to go for a hop a second time the Rock-Biter responded by blindly thrashing its head in an attempt to intercept her mid air. A splatter of blue Goblin blood hit the wall as she gashed her arm across one of the monster's jutting shovel-like teeth. The shock of the wound mucked her landing, sending her face first into the wall with an unpleasant sounding ‘thunk’.
The failed manoeuvre still managed to provide me the opening I’d been looking for. As the monster was thrashing towards Gig I had been leaping for its back, the loose end of the safety tether gripped in my teeth.
As soon as I landed I stuck myself inplace best I could with Entrenched Footing before pressing the Stop Box on the end of the safety line against the creature’s stoney hide, immediately activating the item. It wouldn’t have work against a more fleshy opponent as a Stop Boxes adhesion was notably poor on any kind of pliable surface but the Rock-Biter armour was real honest to goodness rock and that’s exactly what the items were made for anchoring to. After two quick test tugs just to be sure I flung myself free, letting my line to Gig take hold as I fell.
Battered but still defiant, the Goblin girl had found her footing again by the time I’d leapt clear to dangle a few lengths below where Gig had planted herself.
As the Rock-Biter started its final charge I gave the word.
“JUMP!”
She did. With an echoing cry of effort, clearly giving it everything she had left. Between its useless mangled arm, the weakening wounds it Gig had inflicted on its remaining limbs, and the fact we caught it off guard with only two feet planted while running, it was enough. The safety line I’d strung between Gig and the monster pulled taught under the force of Gig’s jump. Overcoming whatever hold the Rock-Biter had remaining, we plucked the fucker right off the wall, out into open air below us.
As we reached the apex of our swing I released the Stop Box’s hold with the smallest effort of will and let the trusty duo of momentum and gravity do their thing.
The nasty bastard was flung well away, straight into the Green Sea. I watched as its struggles in the water were quickly replaced by a sucking vortex as Old George took its due.
Yeah, the Rock-Biter clearly missed the advice about not wriggling like you were tasty.