Today was the day. I woke up, incredibly excited. “Hey Khaliss, got a second?” I asked as I placed my breakfast down next to him.
“Sure Angus, what’s up?”
“The first dungeon group today is going to be a challenge. Remember how in that first dungeon they managed to bring in the high level character?” He nodded so I continued. “Well, we issued a challenge to him earlier. His group will challenge our dungeon, and the world will be watching.”
“Interesting. This should be fun, do you think they will make it down to challenge me?”
“Honestly? Yes. I’m sure they have a general knowledge of my traps, but I’ve kept a few things back. Depending on how many people they bring down here they might make it tough.”
“Very well. Any guess on how many they’ll bring?”
“Five. With three they will have more resurrections, but they run the risk of a wipe. Six or more and they don’t get resurrections, which would make it too easy to take out the healers.”
“Very well. We will be prepared, are you going to battle them with the twins?”
“Most likely. I won’t be able to take out an entire group of competent adventurers by myself.” Plan set, we ate our breakfasts in companionable silence.
“Well, good luck Angus. Try and kill enough that they can’t use any more resurrections.”
“Heh, I’ll try.” I said, heading out to start the dungeon run.
Grudge match starting!
Rycran and his party have entered the Shadow Outpost Dungeon to challenge the Drakelings! Head to the nearest tavern or arena to watch a live stream of this dive. Place your bets and cheer on our adventurers! Or cheer on the denizens of the dungeon!
From my spot, I watched nervously to see Rycran and his party enter. Sure enough, he had five member team. Rycran took lead as the paladin tank. Of course, he threw together a party full of redundancy. A cleric for healing, druid for crowd control and added healing, a barbarian for off tanking and damage, and a rogue for detecting traps.
“Ok, everyone have their buffs up? Great. This guy loves to attack when we aren’t looking. Oh, but I see he left us something familiar to start.” Rycran was talking, finally pointing to a pillar that I had crafted last night. “Corrigan, smash that pillar from a distance please.”
“Sure thing boss.” The rogue stepped forward. “Magic energy, bend to my will. [Arcane missile].” With his chant, a blue bolt of energy shot out and smashed the pillar. How the, did he bring an arcane rogue? Of course he did, because he couldn’t stick with traditional classes. As the dust was clearing, and everyone was expecting a hammer to swing down, I fired my arbalest.
“Huh, I would have thought he brought back the ceiling hammer for me, guess not.”
“AGAGGH!” The cleric managed to gargle out as my decapitator bolt removed his head. I didn’t stick around, abandoning the spot that the original statue had held. One kill, and they didn’t get a chance for retribution. I didn’t head to the second floor yet, instead waiting to do a little spying. A few minutes later and I heard them as they made their way to the stairs.
“Still can’t believe that he took off your head with one shot.”
“It wasn’t just the bolt head either. It wasn’t wide enough to cut all my neck. He had to have added mana to it somehow.”
“Do you think we can duplicate it?”
“Probably. The shape isn’t that hard. We can put the smiths on it, they’ll love the challenge.”
“I got a flash of something.” The druid said, and I immediately closed the hole I was looking through. Damnable druids and their sense life ability. Luckily a thick enough stone will block it. I stayed where I was, giving them five minutes before I opened a smaller hole to see if they were still there.
“Sorry guys. It was just a quick flash, and then it disappeared. Let’s get going.”
“Ok, Garret, you’re tail end. I don’t want him popping out to take pot shots at us again.” I heard Rycran say, and smiled. Putting the barbarian at the back wouldn’t save you guys. After the group had passed, I stepped out of the wall. Taking aim, I took out the druid this time, using another decapitator bolt as half the group had started down the stairs.
“Damnit!” I heard, just before I closed the door to my hallway and moved on to the next area. I headed downstairs, content that I had taken out two of their revives. I cut through the wall so that I was on the same area as they were, and left a shadowgheist in the hallway, just inside the shadow tripwire.
They took almost fifteen minutes to make it to where we were, and I heard them grumbling.
“Who in their right mind crafts a trap that goes off when it is disarmed?”
“I warned you guys that he was devious.”
“Yeah, but these annoying hit and run tactics are really getting on my nerves.”
“I know Corrigan. At least you know what it’s like now to spar against you in the guild arena area.”
“At least I have the decency to strike with blades. Hold up, there’s a good bit of mana up ahead there.” Oh? Looks like that arcane rogue managed to obtain an analogue to mystic sight. I wonder if my shadowgheist looked different in the magic spectrum? Probably should have looked into that. Too late now, I closed the listening hole I was using and sat cross legged on the ground. Concentrating, I was able to see through my clone’s eyes.
“It’s one on one, let me test this guy out solo. You guys be ready with the heals.” I saw Rycran step forward, and grinned. Crouching down slightly, I licked my lips and beckoned him closer. Once he was within range, I rang a light blow against his shield. He returned a thrust at my stomach, which I let pierce through me. Grabbing his wrist, I swung my weapon behind me, snapping the shadow tendril.
“Gotcha.” I grinned through the clone at him, watching his eyes widen as we were both impaled from above. Suddenly back in my body, I grabbed my head and dropped to the side in agony. “Uuuuuhhhnnn.” I groaned through the pain of the backlash. Note to self, when using the clone for a suicide mission disconnect beforehand. I really wanted to open up and fire another bolt at them, but my head was aching too much. It took nearly ten minutes, but the pain finally dropped to a level where I could use my skills again. Opening a listening hole, I couldn’t detect anything.
Sighing in frustration, I headed to the next area, listening. I faintly heard clunking, so I opened a peephole. I saw them just finishing descending the stairs, but the short hallway wouldn’t let me get away if I attacked. Not wanting to do a final stand, I headed over to the area with the twins, sealing the passage behind me.
“Angus! Khaliss said we were gonna fight together, but we were worried when you didn’t show.”
“Sorry guys, I’ve been chipping away at the invaders. Wanna do the same plan for when they come down here?”
“Both of us in the pillars? Hell yeah we do!” They both cried, then ran to hide. I chuckled at their energy, glad there would be backup for this next part.
Of course, they would take their sweet time making it over to our area. Nearly fifteen minutes had passed, and I was standing in the middle of the room waiting.
“Alright, I’ll go first and engage, you guys watch for attacks from different directions. This is probably another one of those shadow clones.” As Rycran prepped his team, I decided to ruin his day. I took quick aim and shot him in the shoulder with a corruption bolt before he could react. To his credit, he merely grunted before reaching over and snapping off the shaft. I smiled and wiggled my eyebrows at him. Well, as much as lizardlike beings have eyebrows.
Charging ahead, I unleashed a charged blast against his shield, sacrificing power in the blow to get past him and attack the barbarian.
“[Thunderclap].” He calmly said before smashing the sides of his twin axes together. The shockwave unleashed staggered me, letting Rycran get a cut in as the barbarian unleashed a flurry of strikes.
“KIIIEEEEYYYYAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” I screeched, slashing around in all directions. “[Binding shadow chains]!” I yelled, targeting the stomach of the rogue. I wanted all their attention on me, as Codo and Podo had finally left their hiding spots and double teamed the cleric.
“[Triple thrust].” They both unleashed their skills, but the three in combat hadn’t heard them. Of course, the cleric did, but he didn’t last much under their onslaught.
“Two to pick up over here! Garret’s down!” The druid cried a warning as the twins attacked.
“Not so fast big boy!” I snarled as the barbarian turned to help out, and slammed my scythe into his calf.
“Damnit, when did I get poisoned? [Purifying light][Mending hands].” I guess he found out about my corruption bolt’s properties. We were fifteen seconds into the fight, and I heard his frustration when his purifying light didn’t fix the corruption. “[Greater purification].”
“Pierce armor and rend flesh. [Arcane lance].” The rogues spell tore through my stomach, leaving me with a heavy bleeding debuff. It sucks when they can attack from a distance like that. The barbarian took advantage of the opening by unleashing his own attack.
“[Berserk retribution].” A red glow enveloped him and his weapons, and three slashes later I got a popup.
You have died.
As there are still players in the dungeon, you may follow along as a ghost entity to watch their progress if you wish.
Follow along? Yes/No
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Corrigan’s POV
We did it! We finally got that sneaky bastard and took him down! I breathed out a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, we had already lost Leslie and Corinne, and only had one resurrection to use. “God I feel like such a failure.”
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“Relax Corrigan, none of us suspected that they would use the player as a decoy and have minibosses hiding in ambush.” Rycran said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
“I just feel like it should have set off my trap sense. There’s a reason I leveled it that high. Between that and perception. . .”
“Stop. These guys have stone manipulation, so it isn’t like you missed a door. It was literally solid stone they stepped out of. No way you could detect that, and it’s my fault for not bringing a dwarf with us.”
“Besides.” Garret spoke up. “This dungeon is designed to mess with you. The clickers that weren’t a trap. The wire that was only a trap if you disabled it. Those glowing stones that he used as grenades in the first dungeon, but were simple lights this time around.”
“I’ll have to apologize to Leslie later, we can’t go on without a pure healer.” Rycran said. “Go ahead and see what he dropped, I think this is the first time so it should be good.”
As Rycran went over to resurrect Corinne, I placed a hand on the player to see what he dropped, freezing at what I saw.
Do you wish to loot Angus_MacG’s corpse?
Ring of Shadowgheist
Belt of the Shadow Blessed
Arbalest blueprints
10 platinum
Ring of Shadowgheist
Allows the wearer to summon a shadow copy of themselves once per hour. Ring must be worn for one hour before use.
Shadow has half the health and stats of the user, and can be remotely piloted if the user is still.
Belt of the Shadow Blessed
Crafted from the hide of an unknown creature of the Underdark, this belt has been further enhanced by being steeped in concentrated shadow mana.
Defense: 15
Durability: 125/125
50% harder to detect when in shadow
Shadow spells cost 30% less mana and do 15% more damage.
Critical hit damage from shadows increased by 50%
“Good God, this is amazing. A legendary ring, a unique belt, blueprints for his ranged weapon and ten platinum.”
“What classes for the ring and belt?” Garret asked.
“No restrictions. The belt is geared towards a rogue, but any scouting type class would love the ring.”
“Oh?”
“It lets you do a copy like he did earlier.”
“Hmmm.” Rycran said, looking at the belt and ring. “The ring’s useless to me and Garret. We would need to pilot it. Let’s do this. Corrigan, which do you want more?”
“I really, really, want both, but you got that look like you have a crazy idea. I’ll take the belt.”
“Thanks. I was wondering if we gave the ring to Corinne, could the copy cast healing spells? We would essentially get a free healer even if it only has half her mana reserves.”
“That would be a handy thing to have for tough boss fights.” Corinne said, walking up and taking the ring. “Especially if it gets a lesser version of my own skills.”
“Alright, now that we have the loot settled, everyone ready to head down? This’ll be unknown territory, and I want to advance like we still have to worry about Angus here ambushing us.” We all nodded, and headed down to the third floor of the dungeon.
“Talk about an upgrade.” I muttered as we entered. The walls had gone from rough hewn to worked stone.
“Ok Corrigan, you’re up. Sneak ahead and see what we got.”
Nodding, I activated my [Stealth] skill, and started exploring. The first corridor had four alcoves on each side, but they were all empty. I could only imagine the fun Angus would have if there were statues here for him to hide among. Though he would probably have made a sniper’s nest or something just above the door here and used that overpowered arbalest to take out vulnerable members of any group that made it this far. Keeping [Detect trap] and [Mana sight] active was giving me a slight headache, but needed. Seeing nothing, even when I checked the ceiling, I headed to the doorway of the next room.
There were three groups of drakelings, each with five members. Four spearmen and one armed with those arbalests. Of course, it looked like they were close enough to aggro everything in the room if you got into melee range. I turned and headed back to report to Rycran.
“Alright, we got a short hallway with no traps or enemies. Beyond that is a room with three groups of five. Four spearmen and one with an arbalest.”
“Chance of pulling one group at a time?” Rycran asked.
“Zero from melee, but it could work from range. Depends on if they will let us take pot shots at them or will come running.”
“Alright, here’s what we’ll do. Corinne, you are obviously in the back here. Make sure to stay to one side of the doorway so that you can avoid getting shot. Corrigan, you are to draw the closest group with an arcane lance, and retreat back into the hallway. Garret and I will be waiting just inside the doorway, ready to lay into whatever comes through. We hold the bottleneck, and you can use whatever magic attacks you deem appropriate. Ready?”
Heading forward, I checked to make sure everyone was in position. As the one with the quickest reflexes, I would be standing straight down the hallway from the room. That should give me the time to dodge any bolts fired my way. Rycran was standing to the left of the door, so that he could swing his dominant hand without worry of hitting a wall. Garret was on the opposite side, using two weapons added to his flexibility. Corinne was on Garret’s side, since the barbarian had far less armor than Rycran, and couldn’t heal himself. With a confident grin, I took a step into the room.
“Burning flames, bound by my will. Condense by my order, to unleash devastation upon my foes. [Orb of destruction].” Channeling the magic between my hands, I formed an orb of flames burning bright blue. With a flick of mental energy, it rocketed forward and exploded in the middle of the nearest group, catching two of them on fire. “Toodle loo!” I said, waving at their rage filled faces before turning and running out the door.
“One group incoming, slightly scorched.” I relayed as I passed, stopping halfway down the hall to turn and survey the fight I was already hearing. Rycran had stepped away from the wall a bit and used a shield bash to stun the first drakeling through while Garret rapidly reduced its life with critical hits from the back.
Stepping to the side of the body, Rycran and Garret were forced to act slightly defensively, as the second drakeling wouldn’t come through the door. Instead it was using the reach of its weapon to poke at the warriors. Looks like it was my turn again. “Pierce armor and rend flesh. [Arcane lance].” The bolt of magic energy took the creature high in the chest, and it screamed at me as it started to charge. Rycran went for a blow to the legs as it came through, but Garret ended it with a double axe chop to the chest.
“Incoming archer!” I yelled, seeing the one with the arbalest take aim. Garret and Rycran slipped out of view, and my sphincter tightened a bit as that massive bolt was pointed at me. As soon as that finger started tightening on the trigger, I was moving to the side, spinning to make a thinner target. Faster than I realized it would happen, there was a burning line of pain across my abdomen, but I had successfully dodged the bolt.
Standing back up after falling on my ass, I saw Rycran and Garrett dealing with the last of the remaining spearmen. I stood back up, and saw the archer had abandoned his weapon and was charging in with a dagger drawn. Right as he entered the doorway, I hit him in the stomach with an arcane lance, and Garret decapitated him as he bent over in pain.
“Well, that went fairly well, what do you guys think?”
“Yep.” Garret said. “What’d’ya think Rycran? Keep the same plan?”
“Sure. Corrine didn’t even need to heal anyone, did she?”
“Not once. You guys make this job easy sometimes.”
Corrine topped everyone off with her smaller heals, and we took care of the other two groups without any problems. We searched through the room, finding several stashes of mid-level gear and a lot of cash, but none of the gear was enchanted. That was fine though, as the guild enchanters could probably get some decent bonuses into it.
“Looks like the next room is another hallway with that Braille writing repeated over and over. Beyond that is an empty room with the stairs leading down.”
“Almost makes you wish that loremaster had made it down here, doesn’t it?” Garret chuckled. “I can imagine him freaking out at the repeated writings, paranoid they were going to unleash some ancient evil or the like.”
“Ha! I would almost pay money to see that.” Rycran chuckled. “Alright, let’s head on down.” Leading the way, we entered floor five of the dungeon.
The bottom of the stairs opened up into a widening room with two columns. Flames on torches high up gave the room a creepy feeling, as shadows danced along the floor. Looking up, a drakeling stood from behind the desk he was doing paperwork on to stare at us. Decked out in dark grey armor with spikes in places that would make them viable weapons, like his elbows, he cut an imposing figure. Two other heavily armored spearmen were waiting at attention at each side of the desk.
“It appears you managed to defeat Angus. Commendable.” He actually spoke while standing. “Though there is one less of you than he predicted. Could it be you have used all your resurrections?” I know my poker face was passable, and Rycran and Garret wouldn’t flinch when confronted like this, but Corrine wouldn’t be able to. “Ah, judging by the flinch of your healer, that was spot on.”
“Can we assume that you are the boss, since you are speaking to us?” Rycran asked.
“Indeed young paladin. Have you formulated your plans for battle? There is still time yet.”
“Garret, tank the guards. Corrine, Garret is your primary for now, but keep an eye on me just in case. Corrigan, waste the guards as fast as you can. Technique is up to you. I’ll hold the boss. GO!”
Garret used the barbarian’s [Into the fray] skill to rush between the guards at a speed that rivaled teleportation. “[Thunderclap]!” He roared, the shockwave just wide enough to hit both guards and draw their aggro.
“[Shield rush].” Rycran was always calmer in battle, angling his attack to separate the boss from his minions. Their fight rapidly devolved into a whirlwind of steel and sparks, their skills with their favored weapons nearly on par. The length of the boss’ spear was countered by the defense of Rycran’s shield, so I was free to stealth and sneak up on the guards.
Once I figured Garret had gained enough hatred from the guards, I unleashed one of my favorite combinations. “[Tempest blades].” Attacking from stealth with a six strike combination from each weapon would be devastating enough, even before you added in the bonus wind damage. The boosted damage from the belt I got from Angus pushed me into insane levels of damage, and I ended up slaughtering the drakeling before the skill even finished.
“Heh, looks like that belt agrees with ya!” Garret chuckled before turning and roaring at the remaining drakeling. Though he didn’t actually use any words, the sheer power of his [Intimidating shout] was enough to shake the bones in my chest. The drakeling was stunned and frightened, giving me the time to sneak around behind him.
“[Dirty tactics: Kidny rupture].” I didn’t use this much, only when tempest blades was on cooldown, but it was an older mainstay of the rogue tree. Plunging both daggers into the kidneys before savagely twisting them, the pain often lowered the attack speed of the opponent.
“[Vicious chops].” Garret gave a one, two overhand combo of his axes right into the chest of the drakeling as it arched its back in pain from my attack. That spelled the end of the second guard, and we both turned to help out Rycran.
“[Repelling wave]!” The boss cried, unleashing a wave of shadow energy that sent Rycran hurtling back near us. “Hrmph. You are strong, but it was a mistake to kill my underlings. Now, feel my true strength. [Shadow eruption]!” He sunk into the floor, only to surge upwards from within the triangle formed by myself, Garret and Rycran. His spear tip tore out Garret’s throat, and a swing of it as I was sent flying ripped through my stomach.
You have died.
As your party has no revives remaining, you have the option to watch the battle in ghost mode.
Watch? Yes/No
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Corinne’s POV
Things were going so well. Corrigan and Garret had wasted the guards so quickly I didn’t even need to heal them. Then the boss did some crazy move, and his attack had Garret bleeding out and Corrigan killed outright faster than I could cast a spell. I turned to see Rycran getting up from his knees, his life having dropped to a third. “[Grand healing]!” I hit him with the biggest heal I could, forgoing the boost from the chant for speed.
“Thanks Corrine.” He said, before turning back to the boss. I couldn’t see his face because of his helm, but from the sudden stiffness in his shoulders, he was shocked at having lost both of our companions. I smiled as I saw him reset his shoulders. No matter the odds, Rycran never gave up. Who wouldn’t love fighting alongside someone like that?
“Get ‘m Rycran, I’ll keep you alive.”
“Never doubted you, Corrine.” With that, he charged forward once again. “[Avenger’s aura]! [Holy smite]!” Pulling out all the stops, the battle resumed. Well, if he was going to burn his higher powered attacks, I should as well.
“My mana for comrades, I willingly sacrifice. [Boosted regeneration]. [Slow heal]. [Minor heal].” Rycran was hovering at three quarters life, but I couldn’t do more without drawing aggro.
“[Devastating blow]. [Light wave].” Rycran was hanging in there, though his life was starting to yo-yo a bit more than I was comfortable with. I hoped that their battle speed wouldn’t increase, as I was burning healing spells as soon as the cooldown ended as it was. When they disengaged for some reason, I took the time to down a few mana potions.
“I can see why Angus would consider you a rival. You do well with your sword, and your team is incredibly competent. Sorry to say though, this is your end. Farewell adventurer. [Dancing shadow steps].” The boss started teleporting around Rycran, stabbing and slashing from different angles.
“[Grand healing]!” I cried in desperation, but the onslaught was too much. Overwhelmed, Rycran fell swiftly, leaving me standing there shaking.
“You have no offensive capability, do you?” The boss asked as he walked towards me. I shook my head no, and he continued, “It brings me no joy to do this, and I hope you will forgive me for this young lady. [Triple thrust].” I only felt the first of the strikes hit my chest, before I got the popup.
You have died.
Your party has wiped in the dungeon. Respawning at your last spawn point in 5……4…..3….2….1….