The Dungeon of Living Stone was a hundred floors of stone halls, rooms and caves. Sparkling gems glowed softly producing light for the adventurers to see. Rich veins of iron and mithril peaked for the walls in the more cavernous rooms. RJ was watching a particular group of adventurers he had lovingly nicknamed 'the chuckleheads.' So far they had barely reached the twentieth floor a hand full of times, and never defeated his Gateway boss. For that matter, he was pretty sure the only way they were killing his tenth floor Gateway boss was consumables. The mana they expended during that fight tasted different each time. And their tank, a male elf paladin by the name of Tirandel, was incessantly complaining about the 'wasted resources.' The elf enchantress that followed behind him hummed in sympathy patting his metal clad shoulder as if to comfort the whiney paladin.
RJ hated paladins, they were total cheaters. Cool poison trap? divine health makes them immune. A new earth creature that uses sonic attacks? paladin cures everyones deafness. Finally got that preachy cleric with a falling rock trap? paladin to the rescue with a timely lay on hands. BLAH! Clerics were bad enough, but at least supporting was their role. Paladin stand in the front as defenders, making them very hard to seriously hurt, and then they throw around all this support utility.
The cleric of the party, a decrepit old elf that had probably been alive before the forest around his dungeon ever existed, was ignoring the paladin as usual, chatting with the Archer, his grand son. RJ normally avidly listened in on adventurers in his dungeon, but the clerics constant prattle about this or that that happened in his life, and the fawning looks his grand son gave him as he told the same stories, over and over, drove RJ away.
The last member of the five man band was a sorcerer, and honestly personality wise, he prefered the whiney paladin. The sorcerer seemed to think that fighting was beneath him, that being in a dungeon was beneath him, that the entire experience, even though it was the only way his sorry ass could eat, was beneath him. Any time any of the other party members asked him for anything, he would rant about his superiority, and RJ had almost dropped a rock on him just to shut him up.
Today RJ was going to finally rid himself of these annoying adventurers. Since their last attempt he had worked avidly on his twentieth floor boss. The Gem Worm, a behemoth of nearly forty feet with crystal teeth and glittering hide was normally a simple boss meant to test adventurers ability to burn down a large health pool. The Worm would burrow into the floor and shake the room causing stalactites to fall randomly every time his health dropped by a quarter. Now though, the Gem Worm had a new component. After much testing RJ had discovered that eating certain gems caused his regular worms to gain a magic reflective quality. His boss was now new and improved! if they tried to use any of that flashy bought magic, they were going to be in for a deadly suprise!
RJ cackled to himself until his personal attendant, a Arch-dryad swatted his gem. "Stop that... it scares the new monsters." She said, before going back to shaping a piece of living wood from her tree. RJ himself sat inbedded in the trunk of the tree, a huge glowing emerald colored crystal. With a bit of will he had one of the trees branches bend down and swat her on the ass. She jumped and glared at him, her cheeks flushing a dark green.
RJ chuckled and went back to watching the chuckleheads. They managed to fight their way through the floors, eleven through nineteen were a series of gem-encrusted caves. A lot of adventurers made their money by escorting and guarding miners against the large worm monsters that roamed these levels. The party seemed to be in a hurry though, hellbent on downing the boss that thwarted them. They finally reached floor twenty, a little worse for wear since the worms liked to tunnel up beneath the back lines.
When the party entered the arena, the Gem Worm exploded out of the floor in the center, its body covered in a rainbow hue of gem stones. RJ noticed that the new reflective gems had a whitish glow to them. An obvious sign that they were imporant, RJ was pretty sure it was a suggestion for the adventurers to smash the gems so their spell casters would be free to attack. He hoped that the party didn't decide to back out just because of a change in the appearance of the boss, though if they did, he wouldn't blame them.
The paladin glared at the rainbow colored worm with glowing white spots. "Waaait... did it look like that last time?" He asked, his eyes squinting alittle at the light reflecting off of it.
The cleric stopped mid-story and looked the worm over, his voice was raspy, probably from his constant talking. "I don't remember it looking like that... but i also haven't heard of anyone mentioning a change."
The enchantress hummed softly, her hands still looking for any excuse to touch the paladin. her fingers ran through his long hair, and she finally spoke in a gushing tone. "I'm sure we can do it, you're so strong and manly. You'll pound that stupid worm into dust and we'll finally get past here!"
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The paladin stood a little taller at her attention, the sorcerer rolled his eyes. "With my powerful magic we will easily defeat this boss! i will crush him with my arcane might!"
The archer looked across the group and then back to the cleric. "You've beaten the worm before right grand da? you told me about it before."
The cleric harumphed and looked a bit sheepish. "Ah.. well, yes... it was a long time ago though, back when the dungeon only had thirty floors!."
RJ would've rolled his eyes if he had them. Back when he had thirty floors he didn't even have the Gem Worm pattern, he didn't discover them until he was digging out his fiftieth floor. "I knew that old man was going senile."
the paladin, now pumped up from the enchantresses praise, turned to the party. "Buff up! make sure to use that Mass Cat's Grace scroll too! we're gonna need the help to dodge those stupid stalactites."
The sorcerer pulled out the scroll with a flourish even as the cleric began to chant his prayers, causing white light to shine down on the party. The Gem Worm just watched the adventurers, it was not allowed to attack unless they came in reach or attacked it.
Finally the paladin turned and drew his sword, pointing at the worm. "CHARGE!" he shouted, and then did, running full tilt with his shield up as an arrow from the archer went whistling over his head to slam in to the worms chest.
The worm roared in anger and rushed forward to meet the paladin, its large maw snapping forward only to run into the paladins shield.
The sorcerer pulled out another scroll, checking to make sure it was the proper one, he waited. The paladin needed to have the worms full attention or this powerful spell would turn it's gaze on him. After watching the paladins sword flash in three different times, the sorcerer began to read off the scroll. The spell was called razor winds, and was supposed to be especially effective against earth type monsters. the chant was a long one, and required all his concentration.
The enchantress was watching the paladin with a starstruck expression, but a near miss snapped her out of her revere. She began to cast one of her staple spells. a glittering enchantment that would dazzle the worm, making it more likely to miss. When she finished the chant she flung her fingers at the creature and one of the white gems flashed. The world become scintilating sparkles and she nearly fell as she stumbled back, worried the worm had cast a spell on her. It took her a few precious moments to realize that the spell was one of her own reflected back at her, she turned, shouting a warning to the sorcerer, but he didn't seem to hear.
The paladin was having a rough time, normally the enchantress would've dazzled the thing by now, and he wouldn't have to worry about so many close calls. He chanted a short prayer and white energy covered his shield, nearly at the same time, he heard the priests words as he finished a healing spell, closing the few wounds the paladin had. The enchantresses shout distracted him and he almost lost an arm, he didn't dare look back.
The Archer fired arrow after arrow into the big worm, he knew he wasn't doing a lot of damage but every little bit helped, and it kept the worm a little distracted with the pain. He watched the cleric chant and wished for the thousandth time that he could've been a cleric, but he just didn't hear the call of the gods like his grand dad.
The Sorcerer finished his long and complicated chant, revelling in the power that flowed from the scroll through him and out as his words reached their climax. He threw the powerful wind spell at the Worm with a resounding "HA!" There was a bright flash of white, and the roaring razor winds come spinning back. The sorcerer barely had time to gasp a weak.. "What?" before he was ripped to pieces.
Watching the sorcerer torn apart the enchantress screamed, truelly distracting the paladin this time, he half turned to see what was wrong and with a crunch, his shield arm was gone. He looked back in shock at the bloody stump where his arm used to be before the worms maw came down on his head, and he saw no more.
The Cleric began to chant desperately as the sorcerer fell, hoping to revive him with his "Breath of life" spell. He didn't even see the paladin disappear into the worms maw, though he did hear his grand sons shout of warning in time to watch as the worm smashed its upper body down crushing the enchantress. The cleric choked off his spell and turned to his grandson. "RUN BOY!... RUN!"
The archer shouted a warning at the enchantress but she was in shock from the death of the sorcerer, he watched her crushed into a fine paste and then his grandfather was shouting at him. "What?.." he turned and began to run before he even fully comprehended the old mans words. He was so used to following his orders, he did it subconciously. He blasted through the entrance of the arena turning to check that the old cleric was behind him.
The cleric watched his grandson run and turned back to the monster, calling up one of his more powerful spell he called down a divine flame strike on the beast. Unlike when the arcane magic reflected, holy magic burned through, cracking a few of the white gems turning them dull. "Ahhh.. so we were supposed to damage the gems first... clever." The worm roared in rage, distracted from the sight of the running archer by the pain of the clerics spell, it slithered forward and lunged down, its giant maw snapping up the cleric as the archer screamed in pain and rage.
The archer ran on, tears streaming down his face at the loss of his party. He had to warn the adventurers guild, the dungeon had changed again.
RJ cheered as the party was destroyed, Finally no more of them. He sighed happily as the mana from their deaths flooded him and turned to his next set of floors. 'Now... what to change here...'
The dryad sighed to herself as her master began cackling maniacly again, she walked over and swatted him. Being a mad dungeons caretaker was a full time job.