A cold shiver ran down Jane’s spine as he walked to the door of the upscale apartment. He could feel the project manager’s calculating gaze as it lingered on his back, like a jungle cat watching its prey.
“Send Ross back in here, won’t you?” The thing stated as Jane reached for the doorknob. Jane shuddered as he felt an intense pressure grip his brain, bending his will to match that of the man behind him. He stood there with a hand on the doorknob, paralyzed, fighting back the words that his mouth was trying to form.
“Jane?” The mental pressure redoubled, forcing the words from his lips.
“Sure thing.” Jane said. The pressure vanished as the bitter words left his mouth. He looked back at the man behind him.
“Thank you, Jane.” The man said, a mirthless smile of self satisfaction played across his face. Jane turned back and left.
Outside the room, the Huntsman and the ghoul stood in an office hallway. A heavy silence hung between them as they both turned to look at Jane. Jane turned to the ghoul.
“Boss wants to see you.” Jane said, unable to stop the words from forming. The ghoul gave him a puzzled look before nodding and moving for the door.
“Wait here. I should be back out in a few.” The ghoul stated. Jane watched as the ghoul took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and disappeared behind the door, leaving Jane alone with the huntsman.
Jane glanced over at the creature. The huntsman returned his tentative look with a malevolent glare.
“So, uh, no hard feelings, right?” Jane asked, hoping to be surprised by the creature’s answer.
“You may work for the dungeon now, but I will be watching you. If you don’t work hard, if you break the terms of your contract, if you step so much as a toe out of line, I will hunt you down, and I will kill you slowly.” The Huntsman whispered, while he glowered down at Jane. Jane was not surprised by the creatures answer.
“Listen. Terry, right? I think we got off on the wrong foot,” Jane looked down, “or set of feet. I really don’t see why we can’t keep this professional. Sure, we’ve had our differences in the past. What, with you wanting to hunt and kill me, and me running away and not wanting to die, but what do you say we make that water under the bridge?
The Huntsman snarled. “I will look forward to your death.”
“See? This is what I’m talking about. You’re really contributing to a hostile work environment.”
Just then, the door opened as the ghoul exited from the room. Amusement crossed his face as he looked at the tense standoff between his two coworkers.
“Boss wants to see you.” He said, turning to the Huntsman.
“We’ll finish this later!” The huntsman snarled before he squeezed through the door.
“Picking fights on your first day?” The ghoul asked. A slight smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth.
“It’s a talent.” Jane replied.
The ghoul leveled a flat look at him. “I can see that. Anyway, let’s put you to work. For real this time. Follow me.”
Jane followed the ghoul down the hallway and into a small cubicle farm. Soft clicking noises furiously filled the air while a printer endlessly spat out reams of paper. Jane picked up one of the pieces of paper and turned it over to see what was printed on it. Sprawling across the front of the paper were a mess of corporate buzzwords and slogans, hacked apart and reassembled, seemingly at random. Have you synergized today? A budget isn’t required to work here, but it helps? There’s no I in family? I thought my old work was bad about this kind of stuff.
“Excuse me, please promote synergy. You are not being a team player.” Said a soft voice from a nearby cubicle.
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Jane looked over at the cubicle. A head covered in eyes poked out of the door of its cubicle. “What?” Jane asked, unable to parse the request.
“Sorry, we must have got our wires crossed. We need a more results focused solution.” The emaciated figure stated.
Jane watched in with growing discomfort as more office workers poked their heads out of the top of their cubicles as the clicking sounds went silent. Their multitude of gazes radiated silent disapproval.
“Jane, put down the paper, slowly.” The ghoul stated, standing stock still. Jane put the paper as close to where he had picked it up from as he could.
The office drone that had spoken looked at the paper with the bottom half of its eyes, the other half still focused on Jane.
“This will reflect on your review.” The figure said before withdrawing into its cubicle. The other drones quickly followed suit.
The ghoul gave Jane an impatient look. “Can you stop pissing people off?”
Jane looked back at the ghoul and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a talent.”
Jane looked into one of the cubicles as he and the ghoul continued through the cube farm. The office drone inside had its eyes glued to a wall of monitors displaying plumbing ghouls within the dungeon. Looking down, he saw that the drone's fingers all split several times between its hand and the keyboard. The clicking sounds were caused by the office drones furiously typing away at their computers. The worker in the cubicle turned to face him.
“Hey champ, can you circle back sometime? I’ve got a lot of low-hanging fruit on my plate?” The emaciated drone said in a bored monotone.
“Yeah, sure thing.” Jane said, before he turned and hurried after the ghoul. Eventually, the ghoul led Jane to a dead-end hallway where a simple ladder extended into the drop ceiling. As the ghoul climbed the ladder, the ceiling tile above him lifted itself out of place, revealing a smooth concrete surface between the drop ceiling and the floor above. Once both plumbers had climbed out of the office, the square lowered itself back into place, without leaving the barest mark on the floor.
“So, how do we get back in?” Jane asked the ghoul.
“We don’t.” he replied.
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Illyana crept forward through a twisting forest of pipes, her slender frame and short stature giving her an advantage over most adventurers inside the Dungeon. Her long ears deftly twitched and maneuvered with her as she scouted ahead of her party.
She stalked through the dungeon carefully, being as quiet as possible. The anteroom of the dungeon had been well-mapped, and was relatively safe, but this deep in, things changed too often to grow complacent.
Suddenly, a large clearing opened up, revealing a small group of enemies and, more importantly, the way down. She stayed there, watching them for twenty minutes as they milled around a fenced in platform in the middle of the clearing. She noticed that while most of them walked back and forth in circles, one of them seemed to stop and shake violently every few minutes. Illyana retreated back to the group.
Edgar was the only one to look up when Illyana entered the camp. Bolvóc and Grantia were too busy arguing to notice her approach and Lekesh was already looking her direction.
“Status report.” Edgar said in a clipped tone.
“I found the exit, but there are five zombies, with one variant.” Illyana replied.
“What kind of variant?” Edgar asked.
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t have called it a variant.” The elf responded with annoyance.
“Very well. Formation three, Illyana on point.” Edgar barked.
The group of adventures broke the encampment with well-practiced ease, everybody stowing the pieces of gear that were their responsibility and readying themselves in a matter of minutes. Illyana led them forward through the twisting mess of piping, quickly making their way to the clearing.
At the clearing, Edgar turned to the rest of the party
“Grantia, Illyana you two strike first. Illyana, take the one on the left. Grantia, take the right.
Illyana and Grantia crept into the clearing. Grantia pulled the stopper out of one of the large rectangular flasks at her belt and began chanting. As she chanted, water flowed out of the flask and floated in front of her outstretched hands, shaping itself into a thin disc. Illyana readied her bow as the warm golden glow of Edgar’s magic settled over the both of them. They released their attacks almost simultaneously. Illyana’s arrow hit the ghoul’s heart at the same time that Grantia’s Ice disc decapitated a ghoul on the opposite side of the group. The remaining ghouls looked up and charged them with wild howls.
“The variant is a reinforcement/striker type.” Lekesh stated quietly, yet clearly, as her voice carried itself directly into the minds of the party.
“Bolvóc, Intervene on the variant. Illyana, Crippling Strike the leader. Grantia, prep Ice Shards.” Edgar calmly barked commands as he began channeling a spell.
Illyana drew another arrow and fired it while activating her skill. “Crippling Strike!” She shouted. The arrow flew low and fast, striking true into the lead ghoul’s shin. The arrow glowed green as is grew several times its own size in an instant, pinning the ghoul to the concrete.
Grantia drew the rest of the water out of her belt flask while chanting. The water solidified into a ball of spikes as it floated between her hands.
Bolvóc stepped in front of the group as he watched the violently shaking ghoul.
The variant ghoul suddenly grew to twice its size as its muscles bulged and tendons strained. Its skin began to tear in places as it shot forward, angling for Edgar.
“Enervate!” Edgar shouted as he finished channeling. A wave of soft purple light spread over the three remaining ghouls, clinging to them as it passed through them. The variant ghoul shrunk back down to its original size as the other two ghouls withered.
“Intervene!” Bolvóc shouted, as his shield pulled him into the path of the variant ghoul in front of Edgar. The now weakened ghoul swung its pipe wrench down, only to be blocked by Bolvóc’s buckler. “Riposte!” Bolvóc’s thin sword flashed outwards, piercing the ghoul through the heart. “Shield Bash!” Bolvóc withdrew his sword as his shield shot forward, edge first, striking the ghoul in the face and sending it tumbling backwards.
“Ice shards!” Grantia pushed the mass of shards forward in front of her as dozens of small razor sharp shards rapidly shot out of the mass, spraying down the remaining ghouls.
“Targets confirmed dead, no further targets engaging.” Lekesh softly spoke.
“Good work people, search the bodies for anything useful. We’ll camp here for tonight, then continue to the second floor tomorrow.”