The walk down felt eerily safe. Dozens of Redclouds had already made their way inside, beginning to comb the expansive halls and enter room by room to face whatever perils lay within and lay claim to their fortune. Of course, many focused on the first couple of floors, so the amount of other parties they passed grew fewer and fewer with each floor. Monsters supposedly roamed the halls, but any in the first two floors or so would likely have been dispatched already. The other floors, however, likely wouldn’t get the same treatment until a couple of days in, as the wave of dungeon delvers flocked downward.
Those who went down further made to get ahead of the crowd, potentially allowing themselves to secure a greater fortune but inviting themselves to the danger of a mostly unexplored ruin, and little in the way of other people around to help them in case they got in over their heads. Tahir felt confident that his party of five - six counting the Traveler, could deal with anything they’d find on the floor, but he also knew that anything could happen in a place like this.
Hasio scouted ahead, creeping forward while invisible to make sure nothing approached too closely while the party was unawares. Everyone else walked along, footsteps lightly echoing off of the smooth gray stone, dimly lit by flameless torches along the walls that shined an eerie blue. It almost felt choking, if not for the twenty or so-foot high ceilings, which served to make Tahir feel small.
As they crept through, they heard footsteps, Hasio making himself known before he appeared a few feet in front of them. “Think I found what we’ve been looking for.” He said, waving for everyone to follow. Up to this point, they’d been working off of the directions provided by the scouts, and landmarks listed. As Hasio led them to a corner, even Tahir could spot the more intense blue glow coming from around it. They turned the corner and found the barrier, a light blue panel, similar to the ones he’d seen Meti conjure in the past. This one had an intense glow to it, however, and one look was all it took for Tahir to confirm that nothing short of epic magic, or an adamantine Redcloud’s aura, would break it. “You two are up.” Hasio said, gesturing to the barrier.
The traveler stepped forward and stood between Hasio and Meti. “Since you haven’t done this with others much, dear contractor, I recommend keeping contact. I shall join you when you are ready.”
Tahir nodded in thanks and then held his hands out, which were immediately taken by Theo and Shukri. With a deep breath, he focused on the knowledge and feeling of teleportation magic that he’d received from the Traveler. The amount of which increased when he summoned them at tier three. Processing that amount of magical knowledge into a tangible form of spellcasting took a bit of time, but after a while he felt like he’d formed it and reviewed it enough times to do it properly. This also might have been a part of Meti’s theory. He didn’t just have the knowledge of the spell, he’d gained an impression of casting it as well.
With another deep breath, he cast the spell, sending himself, Shukri, and Theo several feet forward, past the barrier and into the hall beyond. Seconds later, the Traveler followed with the others right next to Tahir. The joy of his success was short lived, as a rank and musty smell hit his nose. The smell of some sort of animal. Additionally, the walls and floors along the hall bore long scratches, claw marks. “Tread carefully.” Hasio warned. “No telling where it might be hiding.” Looking ahead, the hall had a couple of additional doors, but led out into a large chamber at the end. After carefully checking the rooms and finding them empty of any inhabitants, they decided to continue ahead to make sure they figured out what was worth sealing this particular part of the dungeon off for.
They found it relatively quickly. As everyone made their way into the wide chamber at the end of the hall, something drew their attention immediately under the bright, green light of the torches along the walls. Something that rose to meet them as it noticed the footsteps of new creatures after who knows how long. To Tahir, it looked like a massive hyena, 10 foot tall at the snout and 15 or so feet long, with a long mane that extended all the way down its back and connected to its tail, and glowing, yellow eyes that honed in on the group as they approached.
Stepping in, the Traveler looked upon the creature, as it stood. Eyes wide, they tried to speak. “Everyone! Cover your ears-” Before they could finish, the hyena-like creature began to laugh, and Tahir lost all sense.
Technically, he had all of his senses, but everything felt wrong. His vision blurred, up was down, left was right. He tried to move his arms and nearly fell over as his legs responded instead, and all of that in addition to a splitting headache that made him feel like his skull was about to crack. He heard the large, padding steps of the hyena beginning to move, but he couldn’t even begin to think of how to dodge or avoid it. All he could do was bring up his aura shield, as he felt something began to wrap around and restrain him. He immediately felt his aura straining against the restraints as they tried to crush him.
And as suddenly as it started, the laughter stopped with a sharp cry from the hyena. With Tahir’s vision returned to him, he could see that the Traveler had rushed forward, and slashed at the creature’s flank with their cane sword. “As I was saying! This is a laughing stalker. Cover your ears or find some way to block its laughter!” Even as they continued to swing at it, the laughter started up again quickly. Tahir managed to cover his ears up in time, which didn’t completely block off the laughter, but made it bearable. His vision only blurred slightly, and he could actually move this way, but he needed something to completely block the noise, or he wouldn’t even be able to fight.
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Looking around, Theo, Meti, and Shukri also had their ears covered, and he couldn’t actually see Hasio, which probably was a good thing. The Traveler slashed away at the laughing stalker, but couldn’t do terribly much with the cane sword, and the chamber didn’t quite have the space to completely avoid it while flying. Especially as the seconds passed, Tahir spotted the hair on the stalker’s mane beginning to move independently, growing longer than it had any right to, and striking at the Traveler in an attempt to entangle them. They narrowly dodged out of the way of the hair, and a bite from the stalker, which caused it to stop laughing momentarily. Once it did, Tahir took the opportunity to lunge forward, getting ready to draw his sword and try to slash at it himself. It seemed to take notice, whipping around toward Tahir, and looked ready to begin its laughter once again.
Tahir had misjudged, he wouldn’t reach before he could strike it, and he’d already drawn his sword. Thankfully, before he had to choose between following through with the strike or losing his sword by covering his ears, a loud boom reverberated through the chamber, as if he was in the middle of a cloud during a storm, drowned out the laughter long enough for Tahir to reach and cut into its chest, before backing a way as a heavy paw tried to slam him into the ground.
Tahir took a moment to look back as he retreated. Theo had her palms together, as if she just clapped the thunder into being, and Meti was casting a spell, within seconds, a plan became clear. They needed to actually fight the stalker in the thunderclaps while its laughter wasn’t audible, and they needed to end the fight quickly, because Theo herself probably couldn’t keep up the thunder for a very long time. As fast as he could. Tahir cast soul flame on his blade, watching as the green flame sprang to life, and then quickly changed to a silvery blue lightning as the Traveler and air spirit affected the magic.
The stalker tried to laugh again, only to be met with another loud thunderclap that filled the space. It immediately buckled and dashed to the side, as a large wound from Hasio’s daggers appeared on its side, and Hasio himself briefly became visible. Instead of going after him, the stalker’s eyes honed in on Theo, and it immediately began to rush toward her, probably intent on taking out the only one who could stop its laughter. Shukri quickly rushed out in front of Theo to block the path, and with a growl, began stabbing at it once it got too close. The stalker ducked and dodged away from the spear, as its mane elongated yet again and attempted to restrain Shukri and Theo.
They jumped away with aura-enhanced leaps, and attempted to start its laughter once again. This time, Meti stopped it with her completed spell, by throwing a massive javelin of collected magical energy, it forced the stalker to yelp and duck as it grazed its flank. She then rushed forward, the tip of her staff glowing and forming the shape of a magical blade, just as Tahir, Hasio, and the Traveler also reached the laughing stalker at the same time. Immediately, the hair flew out toward them, and Tahir couldn’t dodge in time before it grabbed him and quickly wrapped around him, lifting him up into the air. It also swiped at Meti, Hasio, and the Traveler, whipping Tahir around at high speeds.
Another attempt to laugh, and yet another Thunderclap to block the noise out. Tahir took the opportunity that he gained from everyone harrying it to teleport out of the mane’s grip. Teleporting himself had become somewhat easy for him now, compared to moving around multiple people at once at least.
Shukri stayed back to guard Theo, while Meti, Hasio, and the Traveler carved away at the stalker. Tahir leapt forward himself, cutting into its flank with a lightning charged sword, and making it cry out in pain. The hair reached for him again, but he ducked out of the way, slashing at it and cutting it before it could reach him. Soon enough, Hasio leapt onto its back, thoroughly distracted with everyone else, and brought his daggers down onto its neck, causing it to give one last disorienting cry before collapsing.
After taking a moment to confirm the kill, everyone basically collapsed except for the Traveler, who smiled as they observed the corpse of the beast. “Expertly done.” They said, “The thunder made this a much easier endeavor than it would have been otherwise.”
“Thanks.” Theo said, holding her shaking hands out in front of her. “O-oh, and thank you Shukri for keeping it away from me.
Shukri gave a nod, though she was holding her ears. Tahir could only imagine being so close to those thunderclaps with ears like that - it probably caused permanent damage with her hearing. “Hey, Shukri, let me heal your ears.” Tahir called, gesturing for her to come over. He still had knowledge of healing magic from both the Winged Serpent and Dahlia, so he could manage some serviceable healing magic.
“I’ll take a more thorough look around while you do that. Care to join me, Metilia?” Hasio asked, and they went off, along with the Traveler, while Theo, Tahir, and Shukri rested.
Tahir sat down against a nearby wall, and had Shukri sit next to him while he cast the healing magic and rubbed her ears. Shukri initially winced at the touch, but as the healing magic worked to restore any damage to her ears and hearing, it was quickly replaced with a low, but audible purring that Tahir struggled to keep a straight face once he heard. He glanced up to Theo briefly, only to see that she had a hand over her mouth, barely concealing a wide smile.
After a while, a whistle of admiration from Hasio drew their attention. “We’ve got a pretty good haul back here!”