Jace examined the monster he had released, knowing it could easily kill everyone in this room. It was level 46 with 8,000 HP. Other than that, he could only learn its abilities from observation. Gracie was screaming in his head, calling him several foul names. She had no stats on the creature as each “Balrog in the Basement” was unique. A few were dragons, but even they had special abilities from the ones available to module designers.
Calling it an armadillion was a good name. It had roughly the same body shape, only with a longer tale that ended in a six-foot boulder. It reminded Jace of an ankylosaurus, and he winced as the massive appendage smashed the dining table, leaving a crater in the floor. Two other NPCs were flattened in the attack, which must have done over 600 damage based on their Hit Points. The creature was covered in scales that looked like stone shingles. As arrows and spell attacks began exploding against the armor, the plating cracked and fell apart, breaking into pieces as they hit the floor.
The armadillion bellowed in rage as attacks and lightning found the exposed sections, and its HP started to descend. It reached almost 6,000 when it grumbled deep inside and did a full body gyration like a dog trying to fling off water. New stone scales grew over the exposed areas sliding down like eyelids closing, and its HP jumped by 1,000 points. It jumped toward a trio of mages with renewed strength, snapping at them with its enormous beak and smashing the ground before them. One of the men fell while the other two scampered out of the way. The fallen NPC was eaten in the next round.
All the mages had released their most powerful spells at the start, and so the initial damage had been impressive, removing several spots of armor, but now they were reduced to lesser spells to accommodate their limited Mana Generation, and most bounced ineffectively off the creature. It swept its tail again, clearing the broken rubble from the two shattered tables and tossing it into the retreating crowd. Most of it ended up in the pool.
Jace hoped Gracie could track its strengths the longer it attacked and defended, but he had no intention of joining the battle. He turned his back on it and rushed toward Esther. Keyan, the archer, had found a new target, and Jace felt safe casting Dispel on her shackles.
“What did you do?” the woman shrieked.
Jace also cast his athletic boon, making up for her missing necklace, and she quickly shrugged off the handcuffs.
“Well, clearly, my distraction wasn’t sufficient,” Jace said. “I needed something more . . . more.”
Esther didn’t feel like arguing and didn’t want to give Jace a chance to question her about the undead gem she had taken from him. With her missing equipment on her mind, she searched for Ian. Since dragons frequently attacked the stronghold, each NPC was programmed to defend the fortress against attacking monsters. This was paramount in their scripts, so no one gave Jace’s crew a second look. Ian was busy organizing the attackers to repel the beast, having no idea what he was doing when Esther jumped on his back. She couldn’t attack from the shadows, and he wasn’t Charmed or Flat-Footed, but she critically succeeded anyway and rendered him Helpless.
Brock turned to him when his orders were cut off mid-sentence but was too far away to react immediately. Esther was able to get all her equipment back, utilizing her Quick-Change ability to put it on faster than usual. Instead of rooting through the gem bag for her undead stone, the rogue took the whole storage item. She was about to start sucking the elf’s neck to restore her health when a howling leopard ripped her off his back.
At level 18, the cat was huge, much stronger, and more athletic than Esther. The vampire would normally have had a fighting chance to Dodge or Grapple with Lexi, but Esther was Flat-Footed while on Ian’s back, and the druid received several critical successes in the attack. Even though the shadow scale armor only covered her torso, it gave her whole body protection from slashing, and as the leopard’s claws racked at her for a full round while the woman lay Helpless, it should have been enough to kill her, but Esther only smiled at her attacker.
Lexi smiled back with her fully formed feline mouth, showing off her impressive teeth that would do piercing damage when she bit down on the woman’s neck. Before the druid got the chance, she was tackled off her victim by a streak of white fur. Esther was suddenly released from the Grapple and turned to see Snowy utilizing all the advantages Lexi had just used in attacking a Flat-Footed opponent. The wolf bit down hard, tearing flesh and blood from the cat before the spotted animal wriggled out from under her. At level 18 and with an advanced intellect, Lexi would generally have the upper hand in this encounter, but Snowy’s initial attack had leveled the playing field.
Esther turned her back on the two combatants and looked for Jace. The dwarf escorting Draya had abandoned the woman to join in the fight against the invading beast, and Jace was trying to wrestle the shackles off the mage. Since he wasn’t the one being Grappled by them, he couldn’t add his impressive Resist skill to the attempt and needed a 20 to succeed. The combat mode they were all in wouldn’t allow him to Concentrate.
The rogue ran over to assist and had the restraints off the mage in seconds. “He has my equipment,” Draya said, pointing to the dwarf at the edge of the combat zone, trying to get close enough to the armadillion to smash it with his hammer. It was a good weapon for the task.
“I suppose you want me to get them,” Esther said.
They all winced as the monster swung its colossal tail again. The dwarf took a glancing blow off his shield, while the half-orc took the boulder full in the body and died instantly, flying through the air and landing even with them, 20 feet to their right.
Another sound stole their attention, and they turned to see Snowy crying in pain as Lexi bit into her leg. Esther was torn on what to do. Jace gave the order. “Go get her stuff. I’ll take care of Snowy.”
Esther was about to ask how, but she saw her leader’s eyes return to the fallen half-orc. His two-handed sword lay on the stone next to him. The rogue nodded and raced toward danger. Getting on the dwarf’s back wasn’t going to be hard. Though he probably had a high Constitution score, Esther still felt the benefit of Jace’s Athletic boon and had her necklace back. She had never met an opponent outside of a giant that she hadn’t been able to at least render Helpless.
The problem was that when she made the dwarf motionless, he would be standing right next to the monster. Esther had been able to steal all her items back in one round because she had instantly equipped them with her ability. But she would have to go into the dwarf’s inventory and then into hers to store Draya’s items, taking at least two rounds. That was 12 seconds of inactivity next to a creature that only needed one attack to kill her.
Esther hadn’t been studying the monster’s movements, but the dwarf had, and when the armadillion was distracted by mages and archers on the other side of the cavern, he moved in closer for an attack against its side. Esther chose that moment also and Grappled him before his hammer struck home. Draya didn’t have much, but Esther got it all, ensuring the woman’s dragon staff was recovered. She jumped off just as the monster swung its tail toward the other attackers.
This body motion brought its enormous head around and pointed at the dwarf. Esther felt the magic in the air as the beast’s mana build up inside. The dwarf regained mobility just as the creature started its full body wriggling again. This time, instead of regenerating scales and health, it opened its beak and spewed lava. The dwarf needed a precious action to turn around before he could run, and after two steps, he was swallowed in a tsunami of magma.
Esther wasted an action to cast Haste on herself and just managed to skip ahead of the flow, taking advantage of broken table pieces that caused momentary dams in the wave giving her openings to move. As fire nipped her heels, she jumped to the top of one large chunk of marble and launched forward, landing just ahead of the lava as the leading edge cooled enough to stop.
She tossed a look back at the beast, who gave her a deadly stare, but its body shook from other attacks, and it turned away from the woman. Esther sighed and sought out Jace.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
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When Esther ran for the dwarf, Jace bolted for the dead half-orc. Draya just stood there. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Memorize a fire spell that doesn’t use dragon fire,” Jace called over his shoulder.
It was risky to enter her inventory during the middle of the largest combat scenario she had ever seen, but Draya could see no one paying attention to her, which was unlikely to change in the next six seconds. As a student and a scholar, she was fast and was in and out of her inventory before Jace returned with the borrowed sword. It wasn’t Diamond Etcher, but it was better than his fists.
He ran past Draya and toward the two brawling animals. Despite her early advantage, Jace could see Snowy was on the losing end of the fight. She was stronger, but Lexi was too fast, and the bigger wolf couldn’t catch her. Meanwhile, the leopard bit and scratched dozens of bloody wounds into the familiar’s white fur.
Jace tried to sneak up behind her, but the leopard was too aware and spun to Dodge the sword attack at the last second. Even the flanking bonus he got wasn’t enough to hit the leopard. Of course, Jace had never fought against a foe like this and didn’t know where the 20-slot was. He hadn’t ever parried claw attacks either, and despite his totems and parrying ability, Lexi landed blow after blow before Jace finally deflected one of her attacks.
None of his strikes found their mark, but at least he allowed Snowy to retreat behind him, her health well below half. Jace knew he needed a critical parry to return a successful strike. Draya tried to help, but a character’s Dodge ability was added to their Magic Defense against thrown fire. The druid critically saved against the mage’s first attack to take no damage. Draya was built to get massive bonuses to spell difficulty from her dragon fire, but not her regular spells.
Still, Jace noticed that the leopard was a little warier with the mage present and chose to lash out at her. Snowy jumped back into the fight to protect the young woman who still only had 50 health and would likely die from any direct assault. The wolf managed to pin the cat to the ground momentarily, and Jace finally got a sword strike in. Draya retreated to a safer distance on the opposite side of the massive battle that raged on the other end of the room.
Lexi threw Snowy off her, adding another vicious swipe of her claws to the injured wolf, and came at Jace. He thought he had seen enough of her attacks to get the hang of it, and he was right. He deflected her first paw with his blade and was notified that the second swipe was defeated with a critical block. He struck back, aiming for the leopard’s neck, and was finally rewarded with a hit, significantly damaging the cat.
Lexi backed up cautiously and took a massive strike from Esther running up behind. The rogue used Chill, adding cold damage to the wound. This knocked the leopard below half, and she rolled away from the blow. Esther Dodged a return swipe and continued passed her until she stood next to Jace. The shapeshifter eyed the two powerful fighters standing before her, knowing she couldn’t defeat both at once and was still confused about how Jace had blocked her attacks with his sword. No one had ever done that before.
Her eyes focused on Esther, watching as the vampire slowly licked the cat’s blood from her weapon. “Very rich,” she said. “Not enough fear, though.” She continued to smile at the leopard and tugged on her hat. Darkness covered her, and Lexi’s head bolted upright, her ears pricked and senses alert. She had Jace and Snowy’s scent but not Esther’s. She didn’t think anyone could hide in this room, and if the rogue struck her from the shadows, she knew she was done for. Lexi bolted to the side of the cavern opposite the pool, where several rooms stood elevated from the ground.
Esther’s trick hadn’t actually hidden her in the shadows and had only created a six-second cylinder of darkness to hide in. If she had tried to attack, she would have been visible the moment she moved forward, and Lexi would have had the initiative. She started to give chase, but Jace stopped her. “We don’t have time. If there is another way out of this room, it is probably with a private travel node, and we won’t be able to follow.” The elevator was behind them, and the armadillion was wreaking havoc before them. Over half of Ian and Brock’s forces were dead, and while it looked like they had gotten the beast down near 6,000 HP again, it had another mana burst, wriggled, and regained most of it.
“Let’s go,” he said.
They turned to run toward the wooden elevator hoping they could operate the magical device. “There were two cave trolls standing guard when we came down,” Esther said.
Jace nodded, remembering they had been part of his escort and had stayed up top. “Let’s hope we can take them,” he said. “Now that I have a sword, I don’t think . . .” his voice trailed off as he saw motion toward the top of the elevator slot, over 50 feet in the air. A second later, a massive troll fell from the upper ledge, just missing the wooden platform as it crashed to the ground. It didn’t move a muscle as it lay still, an arrow protruding from its head.
“Psycho!” Draya cried.
“Hopefully, he has Gromphy with him too,” Jace said.
They stepped around the dead troll and onto the elevator. Draya worked the controls, quickly deciphering the proper amount of mana to make it operate. As they ascended, they looked out onto the chaos below them. The armadillion had belched out two lava flows, and flames rose from every wooden structure they had hit. Smoke filled the air, but the smell of blood was rich too. Bodies were thrown all over the cavern, and the monster wasn’t close to slowing down. Jace knew none of the characters below would make it out alive. At least the walls looked steep enough that he thought the armadillion wouldn’t likely be able to get out either.
“Jace,” Esther said as they waited for the elevator to climb the full distance. “Jace . . . about the gem . . .”
“We’ll talk about it later,” the orc cut her off. “We have more important things to worry about now.”
At the top, they saw the second troll dead on the ground, three-fourths of the distance to where Psycho and Gromphy stood, an arrow in its neck. “Good to see you,” Jace said. “Do you have my stuff?”
The goblin didn’t say a word as the orc ran up to him but pulled his chest out, opened it, and soon produced Jace’s equipment. While the shaman sorted through his items, Draya and Esther drank potions to heal themselves, and after a couple of rounds, everyone was fully equipped and ready to move. “The exit is this way,” Psycho said, prepared to lead the party back up the hall.
“And the prisoners?” Jace asked.
“Alive the last time I saw them,” the elf advised.
“Then we have work to do before we can leave,” the leader said. “We came here for a reason. Now that we have a more effective distraction downstairs, no one should get in our way.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when three storm shamans raced toward them. Psycho didn’t have time to aim and knew a pair of lightning bolts would wipe out everyone but Jace. He drew and fired without the benefit of any of his abilities but still severely damaged the lead human.
“Don’t bother,” Jace said, but he was too late to stop the quick archer. Snowy joined the attack and knocked the injured shaman to the ground. She needed the health, so Jace didn’t stop her, but Psycho held his next shot in check as the other two men continued running past them without so much as turning their heads at their fallen comrade or the group that took him out. Instead, they proceeded directly to the elevator. “They’ve been summoned to protect the fortress,” Jace clarified. “They don’t have a will of their own, and nothing will distract them from their task.”
“Well, then,” Esther said. “We should help speed them on their way.” It was dimmer down here, allowing her to Shadow Step back to the elevator as it started down with the pair of storm shamans. With two quick strikes of her blades, she cut through the cords that operated the device, and it plummeted to the ground below.
Jace frowned at the unnecessary violence as he heard the crash of the wood shattering on the stone, but Esther only smiled as she walked away from the ledge. “Wouldn’t want anyone coming back upstairs before they were done. Nobody likes deserters.”
Jace decided not to argue with her and led the group back up the tunnel toward the prisoners. {I got an update from our MIT students,} Gracie said as the group navigated the upper levels of Stormhold. {They heard Esther shout that the plan was to kill them. Turns out they don’t want to die.}
“We don’t always get what we want,” Jace said. He had enough to worry about without having to herd four injured PCs out of this keep. Gromphy might have enough health potions to restore them, but they probably had so many other traumatic banes that there was no way they could make it across the bridge. Jace supposed he could use the freight elevator he had spotted, but he didn’t know for sure.
{It’s not just that they are being greedy,} Gracie said. {Choi uses this game to fund his efforts to rescue people from North Korea, including his wife. If he dies, he loses everything and has to start over. Apparently, he is close to having everything he needs to bring another group of defectors across the border.}
Jace had to admit that was a noble reason to want to keep his character in the game. “What’s the Americans’ excuse? I thought we got word that they were done with the game after this.”
{They are helping Choi, and regardless of if they ever log in again, they want to transfer their wealth to him.}
“And Karen?”
{I assume you mean the half-orc barbarian. We don’t really know about her. Since her health is so low, her Rage skill has been active this whole time, and according to the Americans, she isn’t making much sense.}
Jace nodded. “Is there any way to communicate with them?”
{Not efficiently. I am talking with Stephen and Alice. They are talking with Ross and Conor, who are in a room with our FBI liaison, Quinton. He communicates with the FBI agents at MIT, who are talking with the operators plugged into their players, who don’t always make much sense. Round-trip communication takes minutes to complete, and it isn’t always coherent when I get it.}
“But I suppose ‘I don’t want to die’ comes through loud and clear.” Jace sighed. “I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not making any promises.”
{We all know you will do your best, Jace. No one is expecting you to work miracles.}
Jace almost swore at her. Almost.