Chapter 19
Arris and I had been thinking along the same lines. Together we would recruit the rest of our dungeon party. He recommended we bring on a warrior that he’s crawled with before and I was game.
“Name’s Watt,” the warrior said. “It’s battle axe week for us so I'm wielding this guy.”
He motioned with a nod at the obvious: a wide battle axe that spanned across his back. The blades of the weapon were blackened, giving him the illusion that he had wings. The bits of each blade were nefarious, as though the metal was cut as opposed to polished.
“Got a few warrior spells up my sleeve as well. Probably gonna get some healing potions while we’re here.“
I offered to trade some of my giant stash of healing potions, but Watt had literally nothing left to trade.
“Trying to focus on powering up my armor as soon as possible so I’ve sold everything I’ve looted so far,” he said. “I trust Arris, so you guys just find our remaining members. I’ll be back in a bit.
His chainmail shirt rustled as he left us in the middle of the guild post. Other adventurers took care not to stand in his way, with the battle axe taking a ton of room. Almost all the warriors had their battle axes equipped.
“Solid guy,” Arris said. “Awesome to have on a crawl. Doesn’t usually have much to say, but he’s loud and all he wants to do is power up his items. Spends nearly all his mana on leveling his armor. Most of his mana went to leveling up his chainmail. Ask to see how light it is, he’s put a ton of mana into lowering the weight.”
Arris and I ended up talking to a few other adventurers until finally recruiting a rogue. He would be the second rogue I would fight alongside, although Jeuhm kinda didn’t count.
“Erik. Pleased to meet you guys,” he’d said and shared his eagerness to practice together for the level 02 dungeon coming up.
We’d made some basic small talk before Watt returned and then Erik shared his proficiency with us: Level 4 kris dagger.
“Any preference for dungeons to practice on?” I said.
“There’s a series of dungeon sewers below the guild,” Erik said. “Lots of traps.”
“Can you deal with them?” Watt said.
Erik gave a sly smile and presented his left sleeve. He rolled the fabric back to reveal a fist sized rune embroidered with something between gold wire, and fibers from a silver shadow.
“Sense trap rune,” he said. “75% success rate. The sewers are some of my favorite dungeon runs so far. I’m already familiar with them and—I mean—it’s fun.”
The rest of us shrugged and we decided to do as the rogue does.
Across the guild grounds, we descended a wet stone staircase. It ended abruptly before a waterway that flowed with brackish water and smelled of molding clothes. We followed a wooden walkway on an embankment until the guild grounds came over our heads and we were officially underground. We had to raise our voices over the rushing water.
Erik was pretty open to whichever of the sewer dungeons we were attracted to. We traveled the walkway up and down a bit, exploring the possible dungeons. They were all enormous pipes with swinging gates, from which brackish water trickled.
We settled on the dungeon whose plaque read: “Big Fang Sharp Fang. level 01.”
The weathered bars swung open on creaking hinges, and we followed the wooden platform into the dungeon.
There was an eerie calm in the sewer pipe. Water dripped from a thousand places. Water trickled just at the height of the soles of our boots. A clang of metal on metal rang out every once in a while.
“I’ll take the lead,” Watt said, and equipped his battle axe.
The further we got, the darker it got. The light from the entrance was weakening, too thin to keep up with our distance any longer.
“Just a sec guys,” Erik said and brought out a small lantern from beneath his black cloak. The lantern was bronze and hung from a blackened chain. Embossed beneath was a rune. Erik cast his mana bar to send 2 points to activate the rune. It flashed a brief red and yellow before the used candle within lit with a fiery purpose.
“I got this my second day at the guild,” Erik said and gave the lantern a little swing. “Good thing too, cause most adventures I’ve dungeon crawled with have nothing for light. I’m 90% sure you guys don’t have anything, do you?”
“Nope,” I said.
“Nope, Watt said.
“Kinda,” Arris said and cast his Ancienne’s Nature so that it flashed a brief dim green in the sewer tunnel.
We splashed onward until Erik stopped suddenly and his lantern swung jarringly. He froze for a moment and we felt an unease emanate from his posture. Before I could ask, a dozen giant rats chittered at the edge of the lantern light.
“Hold this healer!” Erik said and practically tossed the lantern chain into my hand. In its absence, and in the flailing light, he brandished his kris blade.
“Garden Spider!” Arris said, and cast open his mana ring. The familiar yellow and glossy striped spider inverted from a globe of mana, then raced towards the hissing rats.
I fumbled the lantern to my other hand and fumbled again for my flagstaff. From the weight of the chain, it fell straight to the damp sewer floor.
“Son of Felke!” I said, trying to lift the flagstaff with one hand and keep the lantern up with the other.
I couldn’t set the lantern down because the bottom was uneven. So I stood weaponless, and put a few potion bottlenecks between my fingers from my bag. Thank Pyrrhon for such an easy access item.
Erik was a moving shadow among the giant rats. In his absence were trails of lacerations along the stomachs of the rats. They were squealing in anger and death.
Severed rat’s heads were rolling beneath the rhythmic pendulous swings of Watt’s battle axe. His chainmail was blocking bite after square-toothed bite. A rat was leaping through the air, landing heavily on his shoulder, and barely clinging on with teeth and with claws. Watt was tossing it down by the scruff to Arris’s Garden Spider who was pouncing on it with lethal bites, and spraying debilitating silk to pin it down.
I let go of Pyrrhon’s potions to cast my mana bar and observe the health bars of my allies. Our Garden Spider had been dealt a few blows, so I lobbed a level 1 potion at it.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Potion Incoming!” I said, and the bottle blew to oblivion, healing the spider to full health again. The Garden Spider’s true speed and strength returned, and it plowed on into battle.
I was useless, holding the lantern I shouldn’t have been given, and too weak to lift my flagstaff with one hand. It was a frustrating circumstance, and when the battle was over, I made sure to relay my thoughts.
“Hey,” Erik said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pass the lantern off like that. My instinct was to free my hands and strike.”
We conferred over our approach to battle, and resolved that Erik would handle his lantern whether in battle or on trek. After mimicking a few skirmish events, we found that setting the lantern off to the side, leaning against a wall, and out from the center of the sewer, provided the best lighting.
In our next run in with giant rats, it proved to be effective. I was able to wield my flagstaff, though the chain required I use both hands to properly move it when equipped. I fought one of the vermin at bay with the top of my flagstaff. It had slipped between my companions and sprinted straight for me. Under Erik’s flashing kris blade, it died.
Just beyond was an intersection of sewer pipes. The one before us, and the one to the right were gated off.
“Only one way to go,” Watt said and stepped to the left and into the darkness. Erik jogged to lead him with light, and the rest of us followed. It was a little creepy walking beside Arris’s Garden Spider, but honestly, I was beginning to get used to him.
The sewer ended not too far in and we were met by a pack of giant rats. After we dispatched them, Arris drew up his Ancienne’s Nature bar to absorb them, while Erik inspected a lever on a plinth against the wall.
The end of the sewer was cast in wavering green, and flickered lantern’s light. The lever stuck out from a slot in the plinth and a very comfortable looking leather wrap covered the end. The finger grooves on the wrap was inviting.
“Hold up, Watt,” Erik said, stopping the warrior’s attempt to pull the lever.
Erik rolled up his left sleeve, threw open his mana bar, and flowed 2 points of mana into the embroidered rune of gold and silver shadow. The rune produced an illusion of itself that tricked the eye into thinking it was rotating. Then a diamond in the wall glowed a neon yellow.
“Trap,” Erik said and moved around the plinth to inspect it. “Spike trap. As soon as someone activates that lever, that spike will come bolting out. Watt—No!”
It was too late. Watt came forward to stand directly before the plinth and pulled the lever. A distant grating reverberated ominously down the sewer pipes. The lever clicked in place, and a massive rusted spike bolted out, striking Watt in the middle of the chest.
“UNH!” The warrior grunted and staggered back a few steps.
I flowed my mana ring to full scale and observed his health bar barely take a hit. Watt turned to us, pointing to the site of the impact on his chainmail shirt. An area of the chain links were bent and misshapen. “Level 22 chainmail shirt. Wanted to see how it fared against a trap. First one I’d run into.”
Erik was at a loss for words and fumbled through a series of emotions, until throwing his hands up to the heavens. I think we all felt the same way Erik did. All except for Watt, who chuckled to himself and began leading our return back up the sewer tunnel.
“Only one way,” he said.
We crossed the intersection down a similar sewer tunnel, now open, and met another group of rats, and another plinth with a lever. We repeated our successful killings, avoided the trap this time, and returned once more to the intersection. The ongoing main sewer tunnel was now open.
As we crossed through the threshold of the sewer pipe, we were assaulted by an odor of decaying wool and sewage soaked, moldy cloth. The mouth of the tunnel closed behind us. The gate we’d activated had descended down with finality, locking us inside. The floor of the sewer was flooded, soaking our boots just above the soles. Torches along the walls flared to flaming life, one by one in a giant circle.
We were in an even larger sewer tunnel where the wall of the pipe had been beaten back into an oval dome-ish space. A pile of wet lint, and wool, and cloth, and bones, were heaped together to form a dank island. Atop the island stirred a colossal rat. It was as tall as my flagstaff, with rectangular bared teeth the size of Zekaidean’s flag.
In a flash, it scrambled down the pile of rubbish and skidded to a halt with its front paws stretched out to stop it. Massive rope-thick whiskers bent back as it bared its panes of white teeth again and hissed.
Hshhhhhhhhhh!
Watt calmly walked towards the boss and equipped his battle axe. Defined muscles bulged from the weight of his weapon in the strong torchlight.
“Oak Beard!” Arris said and charged to Watt’s side.
Erik was charging in from an angle, nearly behind the rat, brandishing his kris blade and arriving at the boss first. He leapt into a diving slice, catching the rat off guard. Erik’s momentum had him running towards me, and a cascade of rat’s blood fountained from an arc in his wake. The rat screeched and snapped his neck to bite after the rogue, missing by a shadow.
It’s attention was forced upon the arrival of Watt’s swinging battle axe, and Arris’s green Oak Beard fists. The Garden Spider ran circles around the base of the rat, spinning silk and debilitating claws and paws.
I equipped my flagstaff before me and flowed my mana bar large enough to walk through. Everyone’s health bar came up a moment later, and I saw the Garden Spider’s health tumble to halfway as it received a clawing kick from an unspun leg.
Erik’s health tumbled halfway as he got caught in a punishing chomp of teeth. His health bar tumbled once more as the panes of teeth bit down harder, and a clawed paw reared up to slash at the rogue.
I hefted my flagstaff up with all my might. “Eurghh!” Then I let it drop and activate. My mana bar emptied clockwise until only 10 points were left. Those 25 points lept out with the lash of a serpent’s strike and powered the rune at the base of my staff. A glow of blue was pinched in a slow motion splash between staff and sewer.
Five of Gryf activated.
Fist of Wind activated.
Life-Steal activated.
Zekaidean’s Anvil activated.
My flagstaff trembled in an unseen tornado. The ribbon and flag lashed out as though warning of storms to come. I held on with gritted teeth, all my strength, and a windswept tunic.
I aimed for the rat, and Watt was the closest friendly in my aim, receiving 5 healing from Five of Gryf. A flutter of silver bird’s wings stuttered in and out of existence above his head.
Fist of Wind tumbled violently in accumulating folds of shadow and wind until a large fist was formed. It sailed over my companions heads and smashed into the boss’s crown, flattening it’s ears, beating against its open eyes and forcing it to drop Erik from its mouth.
Every companion received a floating Fist of Wind rune above their head, indicating the Life-steal enchantment was healing them all by 5 points.
Erik and Arris’s Garden Spider were still low on health.
Winds continued to tug at my flagstaff from every direction and tear at my clothes. The fur of my boots and tufted leather vest were buffeted from the force.
Zekaidean’s Anvil: A blue ghostly form of an anvil slammed to the sewer floor, sending curtains of water splashing up from either side. Another blue ghostly form of a winged hammer manifested above the anvil. Thin air wrinkled to show the outline of a laughing dwarf as it reached for the hammer, before his form unwrinkled. The winged hammer came down to strike the anvil. A gold spread of light filled the boss’s chamber with brilliantly overcast detail.
Each companion received a ghostly emblem of a winged hammer and anvil above their heads. With each strike and spread of gold overcast light, they received two healing.
Watt was raging in battle, occupying the colossal rat’s main attacks with hefty swings of his battle axe.
The anvil struck and a chorus of angels chimed in place of beating metal. +2 health to all.
Arris was wailing on the side of the rat’s face from adjacent to Watt.
The anvil chimed. +2 health to all.
Erik recovered enough to deliver hit-and-run strikes at the boss’s side.
The anvil chimed. +2 health to all.
Arris’s spider now had a third rat's limb pinned down.
The anvil chimed. +2 health to all.
The boss gave a final fight for its life. It screeched with rage. It thrashed with fervor.
Watt leapt up and brought his battle axe down with a resounding war cry.
“Raugh!”
He cleaved the boss in two.
Zekaidean’s anvil chimed out it’s remaining strikes, healing each member a final two points.
The boss’s destroyed form tore to burning shreds that evaporated into thin air. The light from Zekaidean’s Anvil receded, leaving us in the flickering torchlight that patterned the walls.
A gold chest rose from the nest of the boss. I healed everyone to full health with a few potions. Then we all came together to negotiate the loot.