The house settled with a groaning thump as I deactivated the plates to reserve power. It had taken seven hours to arrive at the clearing, a small hill surrounded by sparse trees and wilted vegetation. The area smelled of sulfur and we had spotted a few bubbling pools in the distance.

Ska was the most affected by the smell, sneezing every few minutes and growling angrily.

While annoying I couldn't blame him, the smell was getting to my nose as well.

"Let's make this quick, I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Martin said, holding his nose closed.

"The foul beasts hide behind the smell, so we are not able to destroy them," Ska growled.

It made sense. If their main enemy was the Grimalkin, why not use their highly developed sense of smell against them.

The entrance to the dungeon turned out to be hidden in a tangle of fallen logs and branches. How Fiona came across it was confusing until I spotted one of the jackals run through the treeline and disappear into the opening. These definitely weren't normal four-legged jackals. They looked more like four-foot-high thrift store werewolves.

The first thing I heard was the distinctive laughing, right before six of the creatures rushed out of the entrance and straight at us.

Ska was the first to act, leaping at one of the creatures. The surprised jackal missed slicing Ska with its spear as it was knocked to the ground. The creatures were fast and I took a slash across the cheek as two came at me. I hissed in pain as my staff blocked the other blow.

The creatures may be fast but so was I. As I blocked the next blow, I slid my staff down the spear, connecting with the creature's fingers. The jackal howled in pain and dropped its spear as it reached up to its now blind eyes.

I smashed my staff into its throat eliciting a wet gurgle before kicking it away. My second attacker laughed and tried to strike me under my arm, only to have its spear glance off my shield. Our weapons clashed a few more times before I crushed their skull with a swipe of my staff.

I looked around and saw that the rest of the creatures were dead or almost there. Ska sported numerous cuts and was covered in blood, most of it from the two jackals he had nearly torn apart. The last jackal was trying to fight off Martin's summoned monster while he peppered it with blasts from his mana pistol. A lucky strike from Martin's weapon hit the creature in the eye, melting its brain. Belatedly his summon smashed its oversized fist on the jackals head with a large crunch, ending the fight.

I healed Ska and Martin. Apparently, the latter didn't have time to put his shield up before taking a spear to the side. It was a good thing Martin was quick-witted and managed to roll away from the blow, leaving only a deep gash instead of a fatal wound.

My wound was almost healed naturally, so I left it to heal on its own to save mana.

"Everyone good?" I asked.

"Yes," Fiona answered back. The other two nodded in assent.

I scratched my chin, "well, we know they are fast and aggressive. Let's use that against them... pull them into a kill zone."

"Ska, can you taunt the creatures and lure them back?"

"Hmmm," he rumbled, "I would rather kill them outright... but I understand trapping. I will do this."

"Good, Martin, Fiona, and I will be ready to ambush them."

The entryway was clear and we found a corner where we could set up our ambush. Fiona turned invisible and she would attack from the rear while the enemy was distracted.

It wasn't long before we heard Ska sprinting across the floor toward us.

"Alright, get ready," I whispered, charging my staff with electricity and ice.

Ska shot around the corner by propelling himself off the wall, narrowly avoiding a thrown spear. He rolled to a stop next to me, facing the way he had come. God how I wished I was that acrobatic.

The jackals weren't quite as athletic as they came around the corner. When the first one spotted us he stopped, causing the three behind him to crash into him, knocking him to the floor.

Ska jumped on the downed individual while I took on two others. A few magical blasts flew past as Martin fired into the last individual. I didn't have to hold both of my targets back long, Fiona stabbed one in the back with her sword causing it to arch its back in pain. With a lightning-quick jab, I shoved my staff into its open mouth. Its head glowed like a jack-o-lantern for a brief moment before it fell to the ground smoking.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The last jackal laughed its creepy laugh before trying to flee back down the hallway. A quick Blink Step ended that attempt as I smashed my staff across the side of its head.

This place was already giving me a headache

Our ambush technique worked for the next three attacks, netting us fourteen more kills. Unfortunately, we ran into a little snag on the next one.

The jackals weren't stupid and they had realized what we were up to, turning the tables by ambushing us.

As we entered a larger room with multiple paths leading off, they struck.

"Watch out," Ska screamed, moments before all hell broke loose.

Over a dozen of the jackals rushed into the room from all sides.

Ska was in his element, diving headfirst into the fight while Fiona went to help him. Martin got his shield up with the warning and I was fighting off four of the creatures. I would like to say it was without injury but I took a glancing blow that nearly blinded me in one eye and a spear through my upper thigh.

I staggered from the attack, casting Banshee's wail to cripple the six in front of me. The four closest to me were stunned but the blast of sound only staggered the other two. I wasn't able to capitalize on my attack due to the fact that I had to pull a spear out of my leg and heal myself.

My attack did accomplish something, it gave Martin's summon time to come to my aid. The satyr-like creature rushed in and gored one of the staggered enemies. It laughed the entire time it was being torn apart. The sound made my ears ring and a headache started to form. I realized something was horribly wrong and used Identify on the creature.

Fiendish Jackal | Mind-Flayer | Level 16

As soon as I was able to realize something was wrong an icon appeared in my vision. I glanced at it to get the description.

Madness: This insidious spell pierces the mind of its foe, unseen until noticed. Intelligence and wisdom are lowered by one point for each stack. Lasts one hour or becomes permanent if stats reach 0. -4 Int -4 Wis

I realized it must be the creature's laughter that was causing the debuff.

"We gotta go!"

"What, why?" Martin asked, blasting another one of the creatures and causing it to laugh.

I watched my debuff tick up to five. "We are being affected by a debuff called madness, if we hit zero, we're fucked. Let's move!"

It took us an hour to retreat from the pit, by then my debuff had risen to nine. I was forced to drag a violently thrashing Ska out by the scruff of his neck while Fiona pushed the creatures back.

I tossed two of my modified slave collars down the tunnel killing anything following us and slightly collapsing the tunnel.

I was barely functional at five wisdom but my intelligence was high enough to see me through. It appeared that Martin was suffering in the same vein that I was. In the end, we sealed the dungeon as well as possible... probably not the wisest move. But it worked and we were able to safely retreat to the house.

My head was pounding even after the debuff had worn off, I wished I had the world's largest aspirin for the pain. None of my healing spells or Cleanse removed the spell. The only thing I could do was rub my temples and wait for the pain to abate. And I had it easy.

Ska had to be restrained until the effects wore off, now he had somehow found a hiding spot under one of the beds and refused to come out. Martin just lay on the floor groaning with his eyes tightly shut. Even now I could occasionally hear the creatures' manic laughter in the distance. Thankfully the effects seemed to have a maximum distance as I watched my status bar closely.

I made a mental note to add a rune to defend against madness or mental effects. This shit was just wrong.

We made the decision to move the house farther from the dungeon, setting it down five miles further west. It took two full days for us to recover, aside from Fiona who was unaffected by the whole ordeal. I envied her for a split second before I remember she had to die to gain that immunity.

At least the whole thing hadn't been a waste. Sure we ended up getting little to no loot, seeing as the jackal's only dropped shoddy spears. No that wasn't the upside. The upside was the fact that Martin finally hit level ten. Apparently, it had happened during our retreat. I congratulated the man, those extra points would be extremely helpful, not to mention the skills.

Speaking of. "Hey, Martin, any interesting new abilities?"

"Oh yeah, I got a few," he said, pulling out his dice.

I noticed they were d8's now instead of the d6's he had before.

"More possible summon's, plus I got a spell called blood bomb."

"Sounds menacing, what's it do?"

"The description says any creature I touch can be set to self-destruct, causing necrotic damage to the target for a period of five minutes. I'm not sure how useful it will be though, considering I hide behind my shield most of the time," he said with a shrug.

"Well, it does say creature, so can't you just use it on your summon?"

"Oh snap, I think you might be right. I'll have to try it, could you imagine my replicator imp with it, assuming it carries over to the clones."

I had to shudder at the thought of a mass of those creatures bearing down on someone and all of them exploding.

"I wonder if causing them to explode would trigger them to duplicate?"

"God I hope not," Martin said, looking pale, "then they would turn to attack me."

"Good point, we'll need to test it in a controlled environment."

The only issue was getting his dice to roll that creature. I already knew from previous conversations that he needed to roll a one, two, and three for that specific one.

Eventually, the talk turned to the dungeon.

"So, do we go back... or call it a loss?" I asked.

Ska hissed angrily, "we should wipe them from the face of the planet... but I do not think I am up for this challenge at the time," he admitted awkwardly.

"I'm going to have to agree with Ska on this," Martin added, "we barely made it out of there with our minds intact, and who knows how deep that place goes, or what other creatures dwell within."

"Yeah, as much as I would like to burn that place to the ground and be done with it, I think you're both right. Maybe in a few levels or if I figure out a way to prevent the madness we can try it again. Assuming Fiona doesn't want to just go in there and kill them all herself," I added with a smile.

"I'll pass, I don't earn experience when I'm alone it turns out."

"Well, that's shit," I said flatly.

"Indeed," she replied.

"Well, since that decision is done, let's keep moving west. I want to be as far away from these creatures as we can be before sunup."

"Alright, I'll go scout the path. You should have a few more miles of clear travel that I scouted before, so don't wait for me to return."

Everyone nodded, going about their business until it got dark enough to travel. Soon we would have to set down and wait for the moon to wane again. I figured another week of traveling at most before that happened. It was just too dangerous to travel when the moon was full or nearly so. It's not like the house was hard to spot, floating above the trees as we did.