Chapter 24: Rapt Audience

“Get to the DJ booth!” Scott yelled at them. Their platforms were still descending to the mob of enemies below.

Riley knew would be fine in his armor. Casey could sidestep the problem with her Shadow Step ability. Nermit was the one truly in trouble. Riley scanned one of the mobs below.

Skeleton - Level 32

“They’re not elite,” Riley called out as he braced himself. He jumped, aiming for the edge of the group. His aim was true and Riley and his extra 50lbs of Rock Armor crushed one of the skeletons beneath him. He quickly scrambled to his feet and ran from the group of enemies which were all turning in his direction.

Nermit was left with a clear landing pad to bail from the dance floor. Casey, Scott, and Heather were already at the DJ booth, having made the mad dash across the largely open space.

Riley turned left and made a loop around the room giving Nermit the time to reach the rest of the group. A rain of arrows and bolts from Heather peeled off some of the mob and Riley sprinted back to the booth before the zombies and skeletons could block his path. He jumped over an open grave and tackled a skeleton in front of him. The skeleton weighed nothing to Riley’s increased strength, and he slammed the monster against the back wall. Bones cracked and the skeleton dropped to the ground. Riley stomped on its skull killing the mob permanently.

The DJ Booth was only a half-wall that came up to chest height. It didn’t offer much protection, but it was better than nothing.

“Good call Scott,” Heather said as she fired over the Booth with one hand and kept grasping hands away with her pickaxe. “It’s a defensible position.”

“What?” Scott asked, confusion evident in his tone. “Oh, nice. No, I just thought this battle deserved some righteous tunes.” Scott found the button he had been looking for — a skull with jeweled-eyes — and smashed it. As soon as he did an upbeat sea shanty set to electronic music started playing. Vaguely pirate-like voices were singing something about a Wellerman.

“I was this close to feeling proud of him,” Casey yelled over the music. Her pickaxe getting lodged in head after head as she attacked over the DJ booth.

Riley was plugging the exit. The horde of enemies were clawing and biting at Riley, trying to pull him out of position and get to his more vulnerable friends. One zombie was trying to gnaw on Riley’s foot and was getting trampled for the trouble of it. His main weapon was useless as he couldn’t get the space or leverage to use either his sword and he had lost his dagger in the chaos.

Riley shoved with his shield pushing back the crowd enough for him to use the edge of his shield to bisect a skeleton who ignored the damage to grab Riley’s head with its bony hands. Riley tried to retract his shield but the skeleton held on tight. His stone helmet started to crack, and Riley head-butted the skeleton trapping it between his failing rock armor and the zombie behind it. The skeleton died, but it took the rest of his helmet with it.

Riley shoved the much smaller crowd of enemies back with his shield again, using the opportunity to finally stomp on the head of the zombie that was ineffectively trying to gnaw its way through his foot. The group was much smaller now as the non-elite enemies fell to the group’s well-placed attacks.

At some point Casey had teleported out of the DJ booth and was roaming the edges of the mob picking off enemies who were too focused on the DJ booth to notice her. She was a machine, a whirlwind of attacks. When she popped her Pummeling Blows ability a whole corner of the crowd went down. Enough to draw the attention of nearby mobs but she had already Shadow Stepped to the other side of the mob to do it all again.

The crowd of enemies were falling quickly. The non-elite versions of the mobs were almost disappointingly easy when they had been used to fighting the elite zombies.

The song ended and the room was quiet. Riley’s left hand was throbbing in pain. One of the zombies managed to get their teeth around his palm and bit through the armor there. Nermit’s healing spell and his own Lingering Leech were struggling to affect the wound. It took multiple casts to heal the purple veins extending from the wound.

It was ultimately an anti-climactic fight. Riley acted as a wall while his group did their thing. Everyone did their jobs, but Riley couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at his own contributions. He mostly just stood there shoving the horde of creatures back.

Riley attempted to resummon just his helmet while he was still wearing his armor. The ability refused to activate. Riley tried to flood his mana pathways in his head like the ability did and he was partially successful. The stone around his neck grew thicker but didn’t build into a full helmet.

Disappointed Riley unsummoned his full armor. He would get it one of these days.

Bone Toss

Summon a bone that will explode on impact for moderate damage. Bones can be set to explode on a timer.

Second Chance

If you die you will come back to life as a zombie, maintaining the state of your consciousness and your power at your time of death. You will be unable to level as a zombie. A powerful enough necromancer or cleric may bring you fully back to life.

The abilities from the two mobs were interesting. Riley wondered how you were even supposed to attune the Second Chance ability. It seemed like the only way to attune an ability was with use. Riley didn’t fancy dying and being resurrected just so he could keep the skill.

Bone Toss was interesting in that it seemed like a more powerful version of what the crowd had been doing during their dance. None of the skeletons in the horde had used the ability in the end fight.

With the fight over Riley got to explore his item, finally. He pulled out the shoes from his pack. They were gaudy things, covered in tiny shiny jewels that sparkled silver in the light. Riley would have been put off from using them by their aesthetics alone but he was a gamer at heart and he had long gotten over something as simple as looks. Most of his end game characters ended up looking like someone had raided a thrift shop. A rubber ducky hat paired with a monocle, a leather coat, and heart shaped-boxers on stilts was the weirdest combination of items he ever had that also yielded the best bonuses for his primary stats. It looked ridiculous but he had killed the Bone Lord and saved the world.

The shoes he had in his hands were not legendary equipment, but they were still pretty good.

Sparkling Dancing Shoes: +5 Body Score. Twirl ability.

Twirl - Perform a twirl and become briefly incorporeal for the duration of the spin. If you end the twirl while inside a physical object the being with lower mass will be moved to the nearest open space that can accommodate its side.

The bonus to his Body stat was nice but Riley was more excited about the Twirl ability. He tested it out and felt his mana dance as he did, his body looked the same but as soon as he started the twirl he felt as if he was spinning through a curtain. When the spin ended the feeling did as well. Nermit let Riley try the move on him and Riley passed straight through the man. Nermit shuddered as Riley passed through him and he mimed being cold at Riley as an explanation.

Riley tried to twirl through one of Nermit’s golden shields but ran straight into the barrier. That was good to know.

The others shared their loot. Nermit received an ability stone as his prize. It was a necromantic healing spell that took the lifeforce of recently deceased bodies and gave it allies. It worked as a potent heal but could also ‘overheal’ a target, working like Riley’s Lingering Leech spell and storing the healing to activate when needed. It was a powerful spell, but Nermit wasn’t interested in it. Riley wasn’t sure exactly why but he didn’t pry.

Casey’s was more interesting, she received a small black box with a single horn coming out of one end with a single red button on top. The item scanned as a music box and it would increase the speed of all allies who heard it by 20% for the duration of the song. There was an hour long cool down to the ability but it was a welcome addition to her repertoire.

While slightly unintuitive a box blaring loud music was perfect for the rogue. It would easily draw the enemies attention serving as an excellent distraction for her as she teleports away to a better position. The music would also help disguise the sound of her footsteps and the strangled last breaths of her foes.

The group chatted about the fight afterwards, everyone heaping Nermit with compliments for his incredible contribution. Without him there was no way Riley or Casey would have been able to finish the dance with him.

Despite their recent injuries it was still too early in the day to call it quits and the group had enough in the tank left to tackle more of the mine, so long as they didn’t run into any more bosses at least.

The group left the Bone Zone behind them and took the only other path that led deeper into the mines.

The fog lightened up and the stone floor was replaced with a wooden walkway which had been built over the ground. Riley appreciated the walkway as it kept his new shoes dry when puddles of water started to appear. The puddles grew larger and larger until they were walking over water. The sound of moving water reached the group from around a bend in the path.

They emerged from the tunnel to find themselves in a giant underground cavern lit with giant glowing mushrooms on the ceiling. Water filled the entire cavern, a large tunnel to their right fed a river of water into the cavern lake. A slow current pulling the water slowly to the left where it disappeared into a matching tunnel to their left. The wooden walkway they were on extended out over the water, breaking off sporadically and seemingly without any sense or direction. Treasure chests were clearly visible along the ends of some of the walkways. At the far end of the cavern was a large pirate ship sitting at a dock in front of a wooden building.

More pressingly, right in front of them — wearing a ridiculous pirate hat — was a vampire sitting at a wooden booth. “Welcome to Treasure Trove,” the vampire said, flashing them a smile that showed off their very sharp fangs.