Mr. Whiskers POV
“Who are we missing? We should be on the next stage by now.” I grumbled.
“HolyDungeonDiver needs five more minutes.” Lucy said as she walked up to me. “Something about a clogged toilet. I wasn’t about to ask for details.”
“Fine. I just want to get going, there’s probably not another safe zone in this dungeon.”
“Hey, sorry guys. Had some things to finish up.” Diver said five minutes later when he logged in. “Aw crap, it didn’t work!”
“It’s fine, some things are -, wait a minute.” I interrupted. “What didn’t work?”
“I was trying to have a friend send me a robe equivalent to the one I lost earlier. You can’t get mail in the dungeon though.”
“I don’t take too kindly to lying, and even worse for cheating Diver.” I growled. “Next time, run it by one of the leaders before you try and get outside help. That goes for everyone. Now, let’s get this dungeon finished.”
Leading the way, we all exited the safe house to find one of the Siyokoy waiting for us. “Ready to move on? Excellent. Portal down is there. Three thousand mana will open it for five minutes.” Directions given, he swam away and left us to our devices.
“Blackthumb, SirMixALalalot, and myself will charge the portal.” Lucy offered. “Shall we?” Stepping forward, the three druids each touched a mana stone and started charging it. Once full, a sheet of blue mana swirled into being, preventing anyone from seeing what was on the other side.
“Tanks, lead the way.” Dave shouted, charging through the portal. The rest of the raid followed more sedately, fully expecting the next area to be free of enemies like every landing was.
Hot. Dry, blasting heat assaulted us as we stepped through the portal. The kind you feel when you open up a heated oven, and that initial blast of air escapes. We found ourselves in a massive forge area, carved out of black rock. Our landing area was a large metal grate, and there were steps leading down to the forge floor.
“Welcome adventurers! I’ve been waiting to see you.” Turning as one, we all saw a metal golem standing up from the bench it was waiting on.
“By Moradin, would you look at that.” Dr. HealYaButt spoke in awe. “Thin fingers with a flexible joint for dexterity, covered in obsidian to resist the heat. Fingertips have a mithril plate protected by quartz to enchant. The underbody must be mithril as well, to move so fluidly but the outer protections are orichalcum.”
“As expected of one of his priests, you gleaned a lot with your initial look.” The golem spoke. “I can sense the air of a master smith about you.” While he was talking I froze as I identified him.
Andimitrion
Demigod mithril golem, level 250
Crafted ages ago by Moradin himself, Andimitrion is in charge of the undersea forge.
While Heal was looking over the main portions of the body, I noticed a second set of arms that ended with clasps for tools. The vital portions of the golem were protected by the same orichalcum armor that Heal was admiring, though I was wondering how you would go about getting through it. I really hoped we wouldn’t be fighting him.
“Excellent the entire group is here. Moradin has a challenge for you that will be of great help in the upcoming battles. May I see your group’s blacksmith and enchanter?”
Heal stepped forward for the blacksmith position, but nobody else joined him. “Come now, who is the enchanter for your group?” After waiting a few minutes, he got a distraught look on his face. “Oh no, this won’t do. Moradin! MORADIN!” He turned and looked upward, shouting to the god of the dwarves and patron of blacksmiths. “OF COURSE IT’S AN EMERGENCY, NOW GET UP YA LAZY LOUT!”
Everyone cringed at the thought of using language like that against a divine. We all stepped back, lest we get caught in a divine smite.
“THAT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN TRYIN’ TA TELL YA! THEY DINNAE BRING AN ENCHANTER!”
“MY FAULT? MY FAULT?! HOW THE BLOODY ‘ELL DO YA FIGGER THAT? TWAS YER PRIESTS THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO SPREAD THE WORD!”
“HEEEEERE WE GO AGAIN! HOW COULD I POSSIBLY FORGET YOU MADE ME? YOU’VE ONLY BEEN HOLDIN’ IT OVER MY HEAD FOR THE LAST SIX HUNDRED YEARS!
“Yes, yes, thank you Tiamat. I understand you told your priests, and do thank you for that. It’s not your fault that it would cause much more chaos if they told different members different things. No, I don’t believe any of them are adept at underwater basket weaving.”
“DON’T YOU BE DEFENDIN’ HIM GAIA! THERE BE A FEW PRIESTESSES O’ YERS DOWN HERE, AND THEY DINNAE BRING AN ENCHANTER EITHER!” Just as the golem started shaking a fist at what I assumed was the entire pantheon, there was a massive pulse of mana and another figure appeared next to the golem. She wasn’t much shorter than the twelve-foot-tall golem, and was more concerned with brushing sparks of mana off the sleeves of her tight fitting robes than with the heat.
“Oh shut it ya short grump, you knew it had to be me to come down here anyway. I just saved us a few hours of tedious debate.” The newcomer spoke calmly, before turning to us. “Greetings mortals! For those that don’t immediately recognize me, prepare to be smote!”
“AHAHAHAHAHA! OH, THE LOOK ON YOUR FACES!” She immediately broke into gales of laughter as we all froze in terror. “Don’t worry, I’ll not be smiting anyone without cause. Name’s Hecate, goddess of grey magic.”
“Pleasure to make your acquaintance-“ I started, but was interrupted by her lifting a single finger.
“Excuse me a moment.” She turned to face upward, and spoke in the calmest, coldest voice I had ever heard in a woman. “Say that again you old goat.” After that, we plastered ourselves against the wall. I, and probably every single man in the raid, knew that tone and were fervently praying that whoever that was directed at didn’t say it again. With a swirl of magic, Hecate’s outfit changed. Instead of grey, mostly form fitting robes, she was decked out in a skin tight black and red leather suit. A coiled whip was on her hip, and she seemed six inches taller with the stiletto heel on her boots.
“Black hearted shrew? YOU CALLED ME A BLACK. HEARTED. SHREW?”
Panic. Oh shit. PANIC! Someone insulted a goddess in front of us, and we were helpless. So much for the raid, we’re all gonna die here.
“ALLOW ME TO ENLIGHTEN YOU TO JUST WHAT A SHREW SUCH AS MYSELF CAN DO. MAY YOUR BEARD FALL OUT, AND YOUR FACE BE THAT OF AN ELF! [DIVINE CURSE]!”
Yep. We are toast. I had so many debuffs flashing across the bottom of my screen, I couldn’t even think to look at them all. Hearing was gone, and vision had gone hallucinogenic. Seconds later, and there was a kindly looking old man standing in front of us, leaning on a simple white staff.
“Apologies for that. Mab can get quite upset when she is insulted.”
“Um, could you explain what just happened? I’m a little-“
“Confused? Sorry. Name’s Merlin, god of white magic. Part of the triumvirate with Hecate of the grey and Mab the black. Mab does the cursing, I undo it, and Hecate handles the in between stuff. Anyhow, Moradin thought he could take out his morning grumpiness on Mab. I took pity on the fool and halved his curse, but he will have a pink beard for at least six months. At least she didn’t spoil his ale again, those were dark times.” He stood back and shook his head. “Very dark.” With another swirl of magic, Hecate was standing before us once again.
“Now that we have that little bit of unpleasantness out of our way, let’s get things underway, shall we?”
“Pardon me.” Andimitrion spoke up. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Just trust me, ‘kay?”
Divine quest
Moradin wishes to aid your quest, but nothing he does is without cost. Your challenge was to obtain the materials harvested from the golems, and craft a legendary weapon. As you are not able to, this quest has been modified.
You must now craft a legendary weapon with the aid of Hecate, though instead of it being used by the raid it will be hidden within the world for someone to find. In lieu of a legendary weapon, you wil be granted two things:
1) Knowledge of the process for crafting legendary weapons
2) Moradin’s boon: +25% attack for the rest of the raid
“I’ll not be explaining all the steps, but surely just watching can be helpful, right?” Hecate asked with a smile.
“Of course we will be happy to assist with this quest.” I spoke for the raid. “Which golems are we to be harvesting materials from?”
“Those ones.” She pointed to the three golems that now occupied the cleared floor of the forge. “Good luck, adventurers!”
Orichalcum golem
Level 200
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Forged out of orichalcum to increase the resistance against a golem’s natural weakness, this foe will be slower than normal golems due to the magical resistances of its makeup. Good luck breaking it.
Mithril golem x2
Level 195
Mithril forging allows these two golems to move and attack in a far more efficient manner, though they are far more susceptible to magical attacks now.
“Dave, orichalcum. GoldGuard and Smiter each take a mithril golem. I want the rest of the guardians ready to rotate out with Dave. Berserkers are on the orichalcum guardian as well. Mages, blast those mithril golems first. Then we will pile on the main guy.”
We charged down the steps and split up, letting the tanks gather aggro before laying into the golems. I stayed back, knowing that my assassin skills weren’t going to be of much use against a golem. The druids each split to a different golem, though the extreme heat caused their binding vines to wilt rapidly. Lucy suddenly became the most useful of the lot, summoning creatures that gave defensive and offensive auras as well as one that boosted mana regeneration.
“Great, I’m useless.” Blackthumb complained. “Plants wilt too fast, and golems are immune to my poisons.”
“Well, relax and enjoy the show then.” I chuckled. “I am. Golems don’t have a lot of vital points for an assassin to exploit.”
The mages were having a blast. Roughly split equally between the mithril golems, both life bars were dropping almost constantly. They were being cautious of the tanks and avoiding electrical attacks, rotating through and using strong attacks while still maintaining a good reservoir of mana.
Dave and the berserkers were having a tough time. Most of the group was using edged weapons, which just didn’t do much against a golem. By the time the mithril golems were under half health, the orichalcum golem was sitting at nearly 90%. I was at a loss to help them out as well.
Less than five minutes later, and both mithril golems were dead.
“Damn, how are we going to take down that orichalcum monstrosity with its resistance to magic?” Lucy asked. “About the only one doing actual damage is GoldGuard with his hammer. HitMe isn’t too far behind with his axe, but we are barely chipping into that armor.”
“I don’t know.” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “It’s ignoring the magic attacks completely. There’s gotta be a way to take it down. Nothing in this dungeon so far has been a slugfest, and I doubt that the gods are going to be the first to cause one.”
Something strange started happening while I was talking with Lucy. All the mages that could had switched to fire attacks, and were concentrating on hitting the golem in the chest. They weren’t going for damage, as at least three were simply using the level 40 flamethrower spell and just channeling away.
“I think the mages are up to something. Unless you ordered it?” I asked Lucy.
“Wasn’t me. What are they up to?”
While we were staring, the flamethrowers all cut off at once. While magic wouldn’t hurt the golem, that chest was glowing a dull red after all that flame had raised the temperature. “[Frostbite].” Peppermint York and Ice Queen both started blasting frigid air right at the chest of the golem, and it clicked.
“Brilliant. Flash cooling that chest plate just made the entire thing brittle, though it’s going to resist piercing a lot more.”
“[Meteoric smash]!” GoldGuard took up a batter’s stance in front of the golem, and unleashed an absolutely massive blow, aided by the flames jetting out the back of his hammer. The impact knocked him backwards by a good bit, and even the golem was staggered. The best part was the cracks radiating outward from the impact point, and the shards of metal that dropped off the golem. It had also lost about ten percent of its health.
“Think it’ll let them do it again?” Lucy asked, but already we could tell that it wouldn’t. The golem was guarding against any sustained magic attacks, trying to move away from the mages.
“FOCUS ON A LEG!” I called out, getting a strange look from some of the mages. “TAKE OUT THE MOBILITY!”
“I think I have something that could help out.” Blackthumb said, running forward. He pulled a few vials out of his inventory and shouted, “Hold the fire for a second! Hit it when the vials break!” Everyone pulled back just enough to give him some room, and he managed to get both legs with two vials each. As he backed away, Cinderfy hit both legs with a flamethrower spell and ignited the clear paste that was on the legs.
“Damn, that’s some intense flames.” Lucy muttered, and I had to agree. It only took about thirty seconds of burning for the legs to start glowing a bit, and our two frost mages were happy to let the fires burn out before quenching them again.
“[Meteoric smash].”
“[Shattering strike].”
GoldGuard and HItMe both took a leg each, and both shins of the golem splintered. Unable to hold up the weight, both legs exploded under the pressure and the golem fell onto its back. With no self-righting mechanism, it was easy pickings for the raid. They surrounded it and kept whittling away at the body, with GoldGuard and HitMe concentrating on the constructs head.
“Innovative. Using the indirect effects of magic against a magic resistant construct.” Hecate said as she walked up behind Lucy and me. “Now, let’s check your rewards, shall we?”
We followed the goddess, walking up to the shattered remains of the orichalcum golem. “Well, what did you get?” I asked Dave.
“Says I can’t loot it. Needs a master blacksmith to do so.”
“I guess that’s my cue.” Heal said, striding forward. “Let’s see, oh nice, I can loot all three at once. One greater golem core, sixteen ingots of orichalcum, and thirty ingots of mithril.”
“Just so you know, what isn’t used in the forging process will be destroyed after you leave the dungeon.” Hecate said. “Have you decided on what you want forged?”
“Somewhat. A sword of some type most likely. Will you be supplying handle material?”
“I can. What are you thinking for the metal to use?”
“Can we use both? I would love to have the orichalcum be the edge while the mithril backs it. It’ll give us anti magic properties while still leaving room for enchantments.”
“Excellent choice.” Hecate said.
“Excuse me Lady Hecate.” Andimitrion spoke. “Moradin and some others have asked me to remind you that you will need to lower your abilities during crafting.”
“What is that supposed to mean, exactly?” She asked coldly, slowly turning as her form flickered a bit.
“Knowing how you strive for excellence in all you attempt, they simply wanted to remind you that the product must be legendary and not divine. Also that while the enchantments will undoubtedly increase its rarity, the blacksmithing skill must be up to par as well. If the only thing allowing the product to be legendary is the enchantments, then the quest will be deemed a failure.”
She stared. And stared. After what seemed like an uncomfortable five minutes, but was more than likely closer to one, she shrugged. “Thank you for the reminder. I suppose I do let myself get carried away in the pursuit of perfection sometimes.”
Turning back to Heal, she continued, “So. What type of sword and what enchantments are you looking to use?”
“Well, it would be a shame to let this much material go to waste so it almost has to be a two handed sword. I think it would be great to make a nodachi.”
“Can you describe what a nodachi is?”
“Sure. Have you heard of a katana?” She shook her head, so he kept going. “A nodachi is like a two handed katana. A long, slightly curved single edged blade. I think we should make the blade itself three feet long or so. Maybe a bit longer. Traditionally the handle is made with a ray skin.”
“Hmmm. What are the most common attacks from the weapon?”
“Downward slashes. You could probably get a few good horizontal attacks as well as a thrust.”
“I see. Would you be okay using a combination of water and lightning enchantments?”
“Sounds good to me. What do you need me to do?”
“Just forge it like normal. We can have people from the raid doing other parts.”
“What do you need us to do to help?” I asked, interrupting their planning session.
“I’ll need someone to channel me mana.” Heal said. “I’m going to heavy forge it, which takes a ton of mana and fuses extra materials into it.”
“Do you have any mages with boosted electricity or water elements?” Hecate asked.
“I have both boosted.” Grandelf answered.
“We have water boosted.” Spice Mix said, pointing at herself and Peppermint.
“Perfect!” Hecate clapped a bit. “What I need you three to do is to open a channel of mana between yourselves and the mithril ingots. Focus on sending boosted elements, though I want you to focus on electricity only.” She directed the last bit to Grandelf.
“Hey Gold.” Heal called out. “How often can you use your smash attack?”
“There’s a two-minute cooldown, why?”
“I want you to use it every chance you get.” He answered. “Maybe it’ll help out in fusing the billets.” Gold shrugged and followed him to the forge.
“Alright, everyone else channel mana to Heal. I think the sages should have enough mana reservoirs to handle their portion.” I ordered.
We all got as close as we could without getting in the way, and Heal started forging. Clean the ingots, then heat them up. Add a bit of some powder to them before placing two ingots together, and alternating blows with Gold. While that was going on, the sages were sending mana into the mithril ingots, slowly and steadily. Hecate was doing something with the greater golem core, which was smaller than I assumed it would be. Apparently the higher quality cores were simply denser and thus much smaller.
Heal started lengthening the two billets he had formed, keeping them straight for the moment. The mithril billet was twice as wide as the orichalcum one, and slightly shorter. It also was the only one with a tang, though it was slightly offset from the middle. That made a lot more sense when he folded the mithril billet around the outside of the orichalcum one, like it was a taco shell. A bit more of that powder, and he started what he called forge welding. The end result was a long, straight blade shape that had the orichalcum edge sandwiched between mithril. A few tweaks, and some tapping and the sword now had a gentle curve to it, with the orichalcum on the longer edge.
“Brock, can you mold clay?” Heal asked as he let the sword slowly cool.
“I can, why?”
“I want you to mold a repeating pattern along the mithril side. Make it look like a series of cresting waves.” He said, wiping the sweat from his brow. Brock shrugged, and did as he asked. “Andimitrion? Do you have a quench tank big enough?”
“Here you go.” He answered, pulling a lever. Rotating out from under a bench was a long tank filled with oil. “Oil is preheated, so you won’t have to worry about it.”
“Thanks.” Heal replied, turning to check on Brock. “Perfect, you kept the pattern on only half the mithril. Alright, let’s get this going.” He put the blade back into the forge, flipping it every so often to make sure it was heating evenly. When he was happy, he pulled it out and dunked it in the tank. “[Oil quench].” He muttered as he gently swirled it back and forth. Once that was done, he broke off the clay and brought it into the forge one last time. “[Temper].” He spoke again, pulling the blade from the forge before it got too hot.
“This has to be embedded in the handle.” Hecate spoke up, handing Heal the golem core she had been working on. He just nodded, and pulled out some material from his inventory. Fiddling with a metal plate, he slid it on before placing the core in the middle of the tang. “Ray skin?”
“Better.” Hecate answered, handing him a sheet of some type of yellowed skin. “Skin of the thunder serpent.” I don’t know what skill Heal activated next, but in a flash of light everything came together.
The result was a thing of beauty. The yellow skin covered handle and sheath, capped at both ends by the silvery white color of mithril. The outer ring of the hand guard appeared to be clouds, with the inner ring being waves. Connecting the two were bolts of lightning. The blade edge was the black of orichalcum, with darker blue mithril just beyond it. The wave pattern followed along, with a lighter blue colored mithril along the back.
Storm Surge
Legendary Nodachi
This legendary blade was forged at the bottom of the ocean. The orichalcum edge can slash through any spell, while the mithril backing allows for enchantments that would normally be lacking. Using a heavy forging process, durability and damage have drastically increased, though the strength requirements to wield the blade have also.
Damage: 5,000-5,750
Durability: 50,000/50,000
Spell breaker: slashing through a spell will disrupt it.
Tidal surge: Thrust forward and unleash a deluge of water upon your foes. Cooldown 1 hour
Call the thunder: Charged up an overhand strike, and release up to ten bolts of lightning upon your target. Two seconds to add a charge, ten charges maximum. Cooldown 1 hour
Adds 500 water and 500 lightning damage per strike
Strength requirements double
Divine quest complete!
You have worked together to craft a legendary weapon. Moradin is pleased with the results, and has blessed the raid with his boon for the entirety of your dungeon run.
Moradin’s Boon: +25% attack
“Perfect! Truly a wonderful weapon.” Hecate said, examining the sword. “I wish you all luck on your dungeon run. I’ll have to come up with a suitable challenge for this weapon to be the reward. Farewell!” Before we could object, she disappeared in a flash of light.
“I will offer my congratulations as well.” Andimitrion spoke. Pointing just beyond where we fought the golems, a portal appeared. “There is the way to the floor nine. This floor will remain after you leave, but there won’t be any enemies. Good luck.”