CJ stepped past the desk aiming his revolver ahead of him. Jenn took the left side of the desk as Monty hopped up on it. His ears were rotating away from each other telling CJ he was listening for movement other than their own. Behind the black furred bunny, Elena pulled the window closed with a thud.
Passing the seating area, CJ eyed the contents of the coffee table. There was a silver cylinder with a push top coffee decanter sitting next to a sleeve of mugs. They even had the to go tops stacked next to them. It all went into CJ’s inventory. They wouldn’t be using anymore considering no one had been here since the COVID outbreak in 2020. CJ remembered those times as very lean. No need for a stage show when people couldn’t leave their houses. His mind snapped back to the task at hand as Jenn gently pulled the door to this office open.
Just outside the office was a bullpen of desks. At least eight rows deep and two wide. CJ assumed this was a combination of human resources and finance by the names on the office doors that lined the east and west walls. Definitely the corporate portion of this business. They quickly made their way past the rows of cubicles toward the exit sign on the opposite wall. Once that door was open it revealed a metal staircase that led down to the shop floor. There were huge industrial machines that ran the length of the factory. Enormous rolls of fabrics were fed into the machines and anything from clothing to rugs would come out the other end. Some of these rolls had been knocked over and lay on the ground partially un-spooled.
New Message from Party Leader CJ: I don’t think that fell over on its own. Keep your eyes peeled.
New Message from Monty: It’s a little darker in here than it was in the offices. Less sun facing windows.
Monty was right, CJ also noticed the way the shadows danced between the lanes of machinery. There was an operator station ten feet from the bottom of the stairs facing one of the hulking machines. It had tape outlines for various tools on the table and a cork board that sat perpendicular behind it. A quick glance told CJ he didn’t know what those tools were for, so he decided to leave them be. The floors here were poured concrete with rubber mats equally spaced between workstations. There were power lines hung from the ceilings attached to every machine with additional lines dropping down to various sections for shop floor employees.
New Message from Party Leader CJ: Anyone see those vines or something that looks like a Dungeon entrance?
New Message from Elena: This is a large building; we may have to search it.
New Message from Party Leader CJ: You two take the north section, Monty and I will go south from here and loop around back to you.
CJ noticed nods of ascent before gesturing to the rabbit and turning south. Unsurprisingly to CJ, once he curved around another machine, he found the vines he was looking for. That meant the front entrance to this place was further down that path.
“Any idea what those plants are?” he asked Monty in hushed tones, “Besides being obvious mana mutations.”
“I’m not familiar with them from a distance. Also, I’m a rabbit not a botanist.”
“You can cast magic, you can talk, and you know how Slates work. You passed rabbit six fights ago.”
That must have been enough noise to rouse the plant monster. Vines began to contract and stretch out questing around the machine it was lazily draped over. The tip of the vine had pink petaled flowers growing from it. The petals began to slowly flap open and closed.
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“Back up, might be some kind of pollen attack,” said CJ before lifting his Flame Spitter bracelet. “Time to try this out.”
He pushed ten mana into the device and watched as a dart of red flame shot from his wrist. It flew the twenty five yards between them before impacting the question vine hard enough to smack it into the metal machinery behind it. It would only do seven points of damage, so CJ didn’t expect much. Color him surprised when the vine sprouted spines along its length before shaking violently. There was something secreting from the barbs that dripped steadily pattering to the floor. This specific mutation did the monster no favors as the flame darts diminishing embers ignited the fluid. Flames began to run up and down the length of the plant causing it enough damage to start flailing.
The flailing only spread the fluid further and wider causing the machine it rested on to catch fire as well. The lubrication that had begun to dry out within the apparatus started to boil and overheat. Now smoke began billowing from both the plant and the machinery.
“We should probably run,” said CJ only to look back and see Monty scampering back the way they came.
The smoke grew thinner as the old sprinkler system kicked on. CJ said a silent prayer to whoever was listening for the advent of analog pluming. Heat sensing solder melted, and the water poured out.
New Message from Psycho: Why am I all wet now?
New Message from Party Leader CJ: We ran into a little trouble with a vine. Good to know the sprinklers still work though.
New Message from Elena: Quit dicking around, we found the Dungeon entrance.
A few minutes of jogging later, Monty and CJ caught up to the rest of the party. They were standing by the loading bay doors looking at the back of an abandoned sixteen wheeler. The trailer was rolled up and an unnatural darkness obscured the view inside.
“Yea that’s definitely it.”
“Should we go in?” asked Jenn as she secured her gear.
“Gimme a second. I think I see some vending machines in that break room over there.”
“Your snack lust is just going to slow us down.” Snapped Monty before swatting at CJ.
“You’ll thank me when you’re hungry.”
“Ooh, I’ll come with. That’ll give me a chance to mix up some more boosters. As long as the water is still running that is.”
Jenn and CJ jogged across the loading dock area to a small break room. It had drink vending machine, one of those over engineered ones that had an arm that navigated toward your selection before grabbing it and depositing it in the chute for retrieval. There was also a snack machine that had a top row of full sized sandwiches. They were all moldy and spoiled of course but the prepackaged goods in the rows below were ripe for the taking.
“Fuck yea,” said CJ after taking a bite of a snickers bar and shifting his clothes back to the wide mouthed sleeves of his robe, “This is the shit right here. Snickers bars are second only Kit Kat in my mind. You find one of these machines with Kit Kat in it, you tell me right away.”
“You know, there’s probably a big warehouse of candy somewhere in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Sort of like your Shang ra la. I’m more partial to European chocolate anyway.”
“To each their own. We can’t all have taken summer abroad.”
“How did you know I did that?”
“You’re a college educated white woman. Lucky guess.”
“So, I’m just a stereotype to you?”
“I’m not falling for that. That’s not the same color as last time. Looks more red. Did you change the formula?”
“Well, instead of cutting it with cough syrup, this time I’m mixing in diluted liquid ibuprofen. My slate tells me it should work with a ninety-five percent success. It’ll also add a muscle soothing effect for any aches and pains we might have from all the fighting.”
“God damn. That sounds like a useful skill.”
“I know.”
There was little discussion after that, as Jenn focused on mixing her brews and CJ concentrated on looting. Ten minutes later they were all standing before the darkness of the shipping container.
“I guess I’ll go first,” said CJ before stepping off the dock and into the back of the trailer.
Bolster dungeon: Kept in Suspense- reach the other end of the bridge.
Rank C: Cross the bridge. 1 Class point.
Rank B: Support the entrenched defenders and cross the bridge. 1 Class point and a common item.
Rank A: Stabilize bridge so the people can escape, support the entrenched defenders, and cross the bridge. 1 Class point, common item, Legendary Item.
A Party has been detected. Would you like to challenge the dungeon as a group? Y/N