Before they left they spent a little time introducing themselves. The first was the sharp eyed elf with an oaken staff who seemed to be the mage of the group.
“I am Halvendar Ishtar, my friends call me Hal, you may do the same.” He said in a soft voice.
The next was a stocky dwarf wearing light armor with two daggers who was standing next to Hal.
“Fiddick Gemsetter, I kill things.” His voice was ruff and gravely.
The last person was standing closely behind Tristan, unseen by everyone until she spoke up.
“I’m Mia!” She said loudly in a high pitched voice.
Everybodies heads turned quickly to the enthusiastic introduction. Tristan jumped a bit in surprise because it was so loud and close to him. She realized what she did and her round face immediately turned bright red and her baby blue were slightly wet as her teammates all laughed.
Akil had been watching her, her eyes hadn’t left Tristan since the fight. She was obviously infatuated with her surprise savior, Akil could see that she had already resigned herself to death before the siblings had arrived. She was a petite girl with chestnut hair tied back in a ponytail who used a shortbow in battle.
The two parties continued on towards the end of this floor, Tristan and Selena were annoyed due to the extreme slowdown of their pace. Meanwhile The Righteous Flame were nervous because this speed was breakneck compared to their previous pace. Selena and Tristan became more support oriented during fights, buffing the frontline fighters and debuffing the enemies, allowing Regis and his party to finish most of the monsters off with relative ease.
Regis spent all the down time trying to talk with Selena much to her dismay. Akil chuckled at his attempts, he didn’t seem to be a bad guy, just oblivious to Selena’s frustration. Meanwhile Tristan also had his own admirer who followed him closely, she was much more shy though, barely saying a word making Tristan feel very awkward. This dubious balance continued for the rest of the floor. The group reached the end of the floor after a couple of hours of work, Selena and Tristan were still fine to continue but it was plain to see that The Righteous Flame had reached the end of their rope.
“Why can’t we just leave them here? They are so painfully slow!” Selena’s voice echoed in Akil’s head. “It will take an entire week to finish the next floor at this rate.”
“Yeah, plus keeping them alive is going to really strain our resources.” Tristan chimed in.
“We are not on any kind of time constraint so it will take as long as it takes.” Akil chastised. “Keeping people weaker than you alive is a very important thing to learn, I think they are a perfect learning experience. I will not be changing my mind so don’t bother bringing this up again.”
They did not argue but he could sense their frustration.
“Why don’t we set up camp and rest before we head down to the ninth floor?” Regis suggested. “I can tell my party could use the rest and I’m sure that you guys need to recover your magic.”
Selena sighed internally but nodded her head in agreement. Regis and his team wasted no time in taking out bedrolls and cooking supplies. Seeing that the siblings had a moment of panic, they were used to either transporting to Jamiea or using magic subspace to sleep, they didn’t even know if they had the proper equipment to “rough it.” They looked to Akil hoping that his seemingly infinite bag of tricks had some form of sleeping arrangement.
Akil saw their hopeful expressions and felt a little happiness in his heart, instead of truly panicking they put their trust in him. He smiled back at them and reached his hand into his magic bag and slowly pulled out the pieces to a large tent. The siblings put on relieved expressions and started walking over to help him assemble the tent.
“Wait, let me handle it, they still think I am a supporter. It would be strange for you both to assist me.” Akil said.
They stopped and allowed him to put up the tent by himself. Fiddick looked up from setting up a fire and said. “Must be nice to have a supporter to set up yer camp.”
“You’re too much of a tightass to shell out for a proper supporter Fiddick.” Leah chided.
“Aye, but that dun mean I can’t complain about nae having someone to wipe me arse for me.” Fiddick cracked back.
“Not like you're wiping it yourself anyway.” Leah rebuked. “Sometimes I wish we could replace you with a donkey just so we could improve the smell.”
“And I’d rather replace ye with a horse, it would be a wee bit prettier and definitely a better ride.” Fiddick returned.
Leah’s face turned red and she barely managed to sputter out her last insult. “Pig!”
“Aye that I am lassie.” Fiddick said through a gruff laugh.
“That’s enough you two, no need to be at each other's throats when there are plenty of monsters who do that for us.” Regis chimed in.
During this exchange Akil had managed to set up the entire tent by himself. It was quite large, with room for multiple people on the inside. Just as he was finishing up Mia was starting to set up cookware by the fire.
Akil walked over and said. “Please, let me handle the cooking for everyone, it’s the least I can do.”
Mia looked at him confused for a moment then nodded her head, “Okay.” She handed him the small pot and spoon she was holding. Akil started to figuratively work his magic, he pulled meats, vegetables and spices of all sorts out of his magic bag bringing it together into a stew. As it came to a boil and the aroma started to permeate outwards catching the attention of the members of both parties. They continued to work on their respective tasks but it was easy to see they were distracted and enticed.
After a torturous hour of preparation Akil took the lid off the stew and gave it a taste.
“Food is ready everyone.” He said loudly.
A cacophony of happy chatter broke out among the ranks as they lined up with their bowls and spoons. Akil ladled them all a hearty portion of the bubbling stew leaving not even a drop after he took the last serving. They all sat around the fire enjoying their meals, looks of ecstasy on their faces.
“You sure cook good Mr. Akil.” Leah bellowed.
“Yeah I dare say this is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, even in high class restaurants.” Regis complimented. “The fact that this was made in the midst of a dungeon on naught but a cook pot is most impressive.”
“It's certainly better than th' tripe that Mia usually feeds us.” Fiddick teased.
“SHUT UP!” Mia yelled.
Her face turned bright red with embarrassment and anger. She looked towards Tristan and tried to defend herself, her eyes full of tears. “He’s lying! I’m not a bad cook, I promise.”
Everyone looked at Fiddick angrily. He sighed. “Calm down lassie, I’m just playing with ye.”
“That's no reason to be so mean!” She said with her eyes still wet.
“You should know better than to tease the little lady, she's not thick skinned like Leah.” Hal said.
“Whaddya mean I'm thick skinned?!” Leah exclaimed. “Why do you apologize to her and not me?”
“Everybody calm down, this is not a good look in front of our new friends.” Regis cut in.
The trio had just been sitting off to the side enjoying their food and staying out of the other party's internal struggles.
“Don’t mind us, just act how you would normally.” Tristan said with his hands up.
Selena just sat there in silence and Akil watched the interaction with a bemused expression. This reminded him of happy times far in the past with a party of his own, the way they treated each other was much more informal and fun as opposed to the siblings. Even though they occasionally teased each other it was usually very light and they respected him way too much to include him in it. Part of him felt too old for such trifles but another part of him yearned to be a part of such a tight knit group. It was hard for him to find those that he could consider equals. The closest ones he had found in his long life who had helped him kill an evil god had gone their separate ways, he was sure that even though they were most likely alive that they weren’t at the level he was as they were only around level 30 when they last spoke.
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“Would anyone be interested in some wine?” Akil asked, “I have some very light wine we could drink, obviously not strong enough for us to get drunk.”
He pulled out a bottle of one of his newer vints of wine, it was a very low percent alcohol with a very mild taste. There were some very enthusiastics acknowledgements around the fire so Akil went ahead and poured everyone a wooden mug of it. There were satisfied sounds heard from most of the drinkers.
“This is delicious, where would I find this wine?” Regis asked, “I would very much like to buy a stock.”
“Unfortunately there is only a very small amount of this wine. I made it myself.” Akil said.
“That's a damned shame, it’s a tragedy that you work as a supporter instead of a chef and vintner.” Regis lamented.
“He makes wine and he cooks, where did you find this guy? And how much does he cost??” Leah exclaimed.
The siblings weren’t sure how to answer such a question. Tristan sputtered out a weak “well…”
“This is a bit of a special circumstance.” Akil swooped in to save him. “My family owes a heavy debt to their family so I agreed to be their supporter, it's not my general profession.”
“Please let me know if you change your mind and open some type of inn or tavern. I would frequent such a place as much as possible.” Hal said.
Mia was drinking the wine happily, she occasionally shot shy looks at Tristan and giggled but she did not say anything.
The only one who didn’t seem to be that impressed with the wine was Finnick. After a couple of large gulps he looked to Akil and said. “Ah guess th' taste isn’t bad bit tis wey tae weak. This barely qualifies as booze.”
“Well if you’re sure it won’t affect your dungeon delving then I have something that might be better suited to your dwarven Palate.” Akil said.
“Is that a fact? I'll gladly tak' ye oan.” Finnick said with confidence.
Akil pulled out one of his stronger alcohols, a heavily distilled, magically enhanced cinnamon schnapps. He made it specifically to challenge the tolerance of hardy races like giants and dragons. He brought it out whenever the strength of his spirits was challenged.
He poured a single shot into the bottom of Finnick's wooden cup.
“Are ye insulting me wi' that piddly amount?” Finnick asked.
“Why don’t you try it before you say anything, there is always more if that amount proves insufficient.” Akil said with a smirk.
Finnick threw back the shot confidently, sure that he was being underestimated. As soon as it touched his lips his face turned into a hard grimace. The shot went down smoothly but his throat and stomach were on fire. To anyone watching it looked like a redness crept up from under his armor to his cheeks. He swayed unsteadily for a few moments before a loud “Hiccup” came from his mouth.
“Whit kind o' drink wis that? that wis th' Hic best thing i’ve ever drank! A've ne'er felt this wey fae sic a wee amount.” Finnick slurred out with a thick accent.
He swayed for a few moments longer before crashing to the ground and began snoring loudly.
Regis sighed and walked over to the unconscious dwarf, he laid his hand on his shoulder and a healing light appeared.
“There, that should stop him from waking up with a horrible hangover.” Regis said. “I don’t know what you have in that bottle but keep it far away from me, I’ve seen Fiddick drink before and I know he can handle his liquor.”
There was a series of agreements from everyone else, including the siblings. Regis made an obvious move to go over and sit next to Selena but she made a move to intercept it by getting up herself. She did an exaggerated stretch and yawn. “It’s time for us to get to sleep if we want to be fresh for the ninth floor tomorrow.”
Regis stopped himself mid stride and said “Of course, we should get some rest as well.”
The trio all started to go into the tent one at a time, as Akil ducked his head to go through the flap he felt a brief moment of killing intent coming from Regis but it quickly abated. Akil didn’t hesitate and acted as if he didn’t feel anything as he slipped into the tent.
Selena and Tristan were standing in front of him dumbfounded, the inside of the tent was massively bigger than the outside. There were three bedrooms, a full kitchen and a restroom/bathing area.
“You’d think I would be used to stuff like this.” Tristan exclaimed, “But master, you never cease to amaze.”
Selena just nodded her head in agreement to her brother's statement.
“I don’t know about you both but I could use a bath.” Akil said as he made a beeline for the bathing area.
Selena shook herself out of her surprise and followed. Leaving Tristan by himself, he sighed and resigned himself to bathing last.
Akil and Selena took their time bathing and then went to bed together. It was not long before the next day came.
They got up after the slight annoyance that is waking the slumbering dragon, Selena. The trio departed the tent one at a time to be greeted with The Righteous Flame breaking camp. Akil immediately started to break down the tent while the siblings stood around awkwardly. Akil moved quickly and finished around the same time as the other party. They all said their morning salutations as they prepared themselves for the day. Regis’ party was both nervous and excited to challenge the next floor that no one had bested before meanwhile the siblings were pretty indifferent.
After everyone was ready they set off down the steps, the humid heat from floor 8 was instantly replaced with a cool breeze. They walked out into a large cavern, with an echoing *drip* sounds coming from stalactites that hung over an ink black pool that filled the whole cavern besides the small lip that they were all standing on.
They stared at the menacing pool, the only disturbances were from the occasional droplets of liquid causing small ripples.
Both parties started taking out scrolls and potions that they had prepared beforehand. After all was said and done both parties each were enhanced with Water Breathing and Freedom of Movement but both parties had a different third spell. Regis’ party used Touch of the Sea while Akil’s party used Slipstream. Finally for those that could not see in the dark they were enhanced with the spell Darkvision.
Water Breathing would allow them to breathe underwater and Freedom of Movement would allow them to fight normally underwater. Touch of the Sea would allow them to swim a little bit better by giving them webbing on their hands and feet, meanwhile Slipstream would make the swim much better by giving them a degree of control over the water around them.
After their preparations they all looked at each other and nodded. They each jumped in the water with the frontliners going in first followed by the ranged combatants with the spellcasters going in last. They were hit with the sheer cold of the water. The cold, dark water was very foreboding, the only sound to be heard was their own movement through the water. There were definitely monsters down deeper in the water but they were impossible to see from the shallows they were currently in. They started traversing the deep dark slowly due to The Righteous Flame’s apprehension. Selena and Tristan had been training to fight in all sorts of conditions that included being underwater and without any form of sight. In fact they usually had to hold their own breath during their underwater sessions so being able to use a spell was a luxury.
They swam for about thirty minutes without running into any form of life. There were no features in the water to discern any sense of direction or depth but they had luckily prepared ahead and brought a compass and magical depth finder but all they knew now is that they were moving deeper and slightly to the north. It wasn’t much longer before something long and narrow swished the water in front of them.
They stopped suddenly and all drew their weapons. Before they knew what was going on, the long narrow thing wrapped around Hal’s leg and started dragging him down deeper into the abyss. A muffled scream reverberated through the water and a cascade of bubbles in the place where Hal once swam. Everyone scrambled to chase after him, he sliced through the water at high speed, both parties barely managed to keep up. Just as quickly as the first thing appeared many more shot out from the darkness.
They attempted to grab Regis and the Siblings but were met with a longsword and empty water as Regis attacked to meet it and the siblings dodged out of the way. Out of the darkness an enormous body appeared attached to all the objects that had been attacking them. It had big bulbous eyes and a monstrous gaping maw that was surrounded by tentacles. One of the tentacles was wrapped around Hal, grasping him tightly. Regis and Leah attempted to close in on the monster but before they could a tentacle swept sideways and knocked them away harshly. Leah was knocked back far but Regis managed to recover and swam up to the tentacle holding Hal. He began trying to free him but the creature's grip was too strong.
Selena and Tristan finished their first set of spells.
[Summon Monster IV: 4 Electric Eels], [Reach Spell: Bestow Curse]
A swarm of electric eels appeared around Selena and a hard to see black beam shot from Tristan’s hands to the creature and struck it in the center of the head. The electric eels moved to swarm around the creature, shocking it rapidly. The hold the creature had on Hal loosened and Regis was finally able to pull him free. Mia was using this opening to pepper the creature with arrows, one striking dead center of its eye. It began leaking a thick viscous fluid causing it to flail wildly.
The party expertly dodged around its tentacles, Regis saw his opportunity and jetted himself at the creature's head. His sword began to glow a bright blue as he raised it up and plunged it deep into the monster's innards, twisting it for good measure. The blood permeated into the water around them, making the already dark water murky and opaque. Although they could not communicate they all seemed to be on the same page as they swiftly left the bloody area behind in case it attracted more sea predators.
They dove deeper into the fathomless depth, hoping to find some semblance of an exit. After hours of aimless swimming they all saw a light in the distance. Excited, Leah swam for it immediately with Regis and the rest of his party. Selena and Tristan had stopped, feeling something was wrong with this situation. Almost too late they noticed the massive jagged jawed fish-like creature attached to the light with its mouth open and ready to catch its unsuspecting victims.
Too late did Regis party notice, Leah was already within bite range as the jaw collapsed around her, a look of intense sadness crossed her face as she realized she was about to die. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.
[Wall of Force]
Selena finished her spell just as the teeth were about to snap around Leah, causing them to stop short, held back by an invisible wall. Leah realized she was saved and swam out of reach of the fish monster that was angry its prey had escaped. Unlucky for it, it was fairly weak without the element of surprise and Regis' party alone made short work of it.
Once the fight was over Leah swam over to Selena and embraced her. Although they couldn’t be heard her body racked with sobs., she had never been so close to death in her entire life.