Echil (Copper)

Echil proceeded with what left of his human meat shields down the shaft. He knew from the last time he had visited the dungeon that they would not encounter anything until they reached the first chamber. Even knowing this the going was slow, dungeons were notorious about changing their layouts to catch adventurers unaware.

They'd left the blond human up the slope leaning against the hill. From what he'd seen the forest had gotten a lot more aggressive since he'd been there nearly a week ago, so he didn't expect that Jacob would still be there when they ascended. He decided not to share that tidbit of information however.

"Elf, wait a second we need to light torches." One of the knucklehead brothers. Although he could not know for sure, he was confident that they did not intend to allow him to return to town. He'd tired of their racist remarks over the past two days traveling together and could not wait to lose them in the forest on the way back. Humans did not share his natural elven forest attunement, so once they lost sight of him he'd be scot free.

Torches lit and party moving once again, they entered the first chamber of the dungeon. Like last time there were thin veins that sparkled in the firelight, hinting at a trove of metal ore to be mined. Unlike last time, there was a large army of spiders coating the walls, ready to defend it.

As they lashed out at the eight-legged horrors, Echil with his daggers, the two brothers with their oversized clubs, and the scraggly looking one trying very ineffectively to catch a spider on the end of his spear, he listened to the pitter patter of the coins clinking against the floor. Something was off though.

They collected the loot and let the spear wielder hold onto the coins to make it easier to divide them later. Before moving on however, Ethan proved that he was not nearly as dumb as he looked when he voiced a concern that Echil had noticed during the fighting.

"Hold it Log humper, you said that each spider dropped a Deci. I count at least 40 dead spiderlings and we only have 23 Deci here." Echil was surprised that the thug could count past the number of fingers on both hands.

"It is because dungeon loot scales based on party size. Last time it was me and one other, so it makes sense that we'd only receive half the loot for double the party. Don't worry though, this is just the entrance, so the loot should get better as we go on."

That is the way it worked in most dungeons, at least every dungeon that the elven ranger had gone through. They proceeded through the tunnels with Jeremy prodding at the floor with the butt of his spear to check for traps. After several dead ends they came into a second rounded chamber. This one looked a little rougher than the last and had stalactites on the roof along with a couple puddles that looked to be shallow.

Echil let out a sigh of relief, he'd been worried they would have to double back and check one of the shafts that dead-ended into the pools of water. He wasn't prepared for a water dungeon, and nobody liked a water dungeon anyways.

They ventured slowly into the room looking for monsters. Had it not been for his enhanced hearing, Echil may have perished then and there. Instead, when he heard the stone above him cracking, he dived rapidly to the left. Three stalactites came crashing down around him, throwing rock splinters across the room. Although he came out unscathed, both brothers managed to get hit by a bit of shrapnel. Whereas it wasn't life threatening, it distracted them from what came next

Several oversized bats dropped out of the shadows on the roof unto the unsuspecting party, attempting to land on their necks and take them out. Because he was already on high alert, Echil managed to take out two of them with throwing daggers during their descent and catch a third on the dagger he unsheathed right afterwards.

The brothers swatted two from the air, causing sickening thuds of bone cracking when the bats contacted the cavern walls, and Jeremy happened to catch the bat aiming for him on the tip of his spear. The human had jumped back and held his weapon to his chest, point facing up, in fear when the stalactites fell. Echil could not believe the humans luck. The remaining 7 bats were much easier to pick off after the initial shock.

It appeared that the dungeon bats had gotten too large to maintain flight, so once grounded the party made quick work of them. Each of the bats dropped a Pent, worth 5 copper coins, and Echil imagined that their leather would make for very nice boots.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

After a brief pause where the muscle heads plucked pieces of rock shrapnel from each other’s legs, they moved on.

They'd found and avoided several pits, followed a couple dead ends, and eventually they opened into a third and from the looks of it, final chamber.

The walls were pockmarked, but there didn't seem to be any monsters in the room. All that was to be seen was a lightly glowing black gem embedder into the wall, and several different shades of moss and grasses growing on the floor.

"It looks like there are only two rooms, which makes sense considering this is a very young dungeon. Let's head back up and wait an hour for the dungeon to reset and repopulate. If we collect the bat carcass for skinning, we can make a month or two worth of silver each by sunset."

He turned to leave, but a chuckling behind him made him stop. Ethan and Jackson were eyeing the wall and walking towards the gemstone with their clubs out. This did not bode well.

"Fuck that. If we take the dungeon's core we can sell it for real gold. We'd never have to work a day in our lives, or risk it is fighting those fucking bats and bugs and traps."

"No! That wasn't the deal! A dungeon will pull out every single stop if you make any moves towards the core, it has been going easy on us up until this point. You are declaring war on it! Even if you did get it, the adventurers guilds will hunt you down for killing a dungeon that wasn't declared rogue!"

Unfortunately, the brutes were not to be reasoned with, and set upon the wall with their clubs. Instantly Echil heard a clicking noise that seemed to be assaulting his ears from every side. The two idiots must not have heard it as they alternated their assault on the wall, trying to dislodge the gem. Echil and the cowardly spear wielder began backing towards the entrance. Good, that’s the human with the money.

The clicking and clacking crescendo to points where even the thugs stopped to look around. Ethan took a step to go towards the entrance with Echil and Jeremy, but it was far too late. Sleek black beetles with wicked looking pincers began pouring out the rock like water through sand. The flood of beetles devoured Ethan and Jackson almost instantly, muffling their screams to the point that their bones cracking and the clattering was the only thing that could be heard.

Echil and Jeremy tore down the hallways tracing their route back to the surface as fast as possible. He was surprised to see the spearman keeping up. Scratch that, the human had dropped his spear and was running with both hands pumping through the air.

They made it to the surface somehow. A flock of birds took off from directly to their left. It seems that the forest decided to eat Jacob after all. Jeremy stooped low to snatch up the longsword and rearm himself and sprinted to try and keep up with Echil as he broke into the trees. Echil did not try to lose this one, after all he was carrying the money and didn't look like he had the guts to kill him. 

The forest was far more silent than it had been previously, and the only noises were the crunching of dead leaves and fallen twigs from the two companions, and some rustling in the canopy above. 

He'd warned the idiots not to tempt the dungeon, now his highly profitable day was being cut short and he had little to show for it. 

As they approached the ford in the river, the rustling overhead got louder. Suddenly stalactites started falling from the trees trying to spear the duo. No, they weren’t stalactites, they were squirrels whose tails looked like they were earthen spears. 

Accepting that it was better to be poor than dead, Echil did the only thing he could think of and he tripped his companion. Like they always say, you dont have to be faster than a manticore, just faster than the other guy running. So much for a payday.

* * * * *

Jeremy

It was over. He'd done his best even though he didn't even want to come on this expedition, and in the end, he was going to die anyways. He'd been toppled by the elf even though he'd been nothing but kind toward the ranger, and now with the river in sight he was on the ground surrounded by the demonic squirrels.

For some reason they weren't pouncing on him, just watching. He looked up and the elf was still being chased by various birds and squirrels still attempted to kill him, but Jeremy had been spared.

Jeremy slowly got to his feet and started limping towards the river. It seems that he had sprained something, or at least tweaked his knee.

The sun had begun to set again but there was still enough light to see as Echil ran beneath the willows to make his escape. As the elf brushed against one of the branches, Jeremy witnessed the entire tree seem to come to life, and every branch in reach grasped down at the elf at once. 

He cut a few away but eventually his hands were restrained with willow branches, and the tree slowly lifted him up by his neck.

Jeremy kept walking until he was under the bough of the willow that was in the process of choking the elf to death. Echil made eye contact with Jeremy one last time before proceeding to stare intently at the longsword in his hand. The bastard wanted to be cut down, and his life spared.

Jeremy gave the sword in his hand a longing glace right before he dropped it and stumbled out onto the opposite side of the tree. 

He threw up in the river and proceeded to limp back towards town.