This door was not wood; it was more like some of the cheap doors on Earth. Analyzing it just showed it was made of ‘faux wood’, with no specifics.
“Does Heere have plastic or fiberglass, that sort of thing?”
No, but it would seem its system dungeons do. The designers are not limited to local technology or materials. Anything not of Heere would dissipate if you tried to exit the dungeon with it.
“Further down could we face monsters with ray guns?”
Unlikely but not impossible.
Kossa asked, “Isn’t that sort of stupid, making a cheap-looking door out of ‘faux wood’?”
Onre was already examining it, rubbing the palms of both hands over much of its surface as well as the door handle. “This door is trapped. The strange material might be a subtle warning to teams without the Detect Trap skill that something might be wrong. It looks like we could easily break it down, but that would certainly trigger the trap, maybe in a worse manner than picking the lock and opening it. At least, that is how I would build it.”
Arrjee speculated, “So when we open the door, something bad is going to happen, right?”
“Or before,” Onre replied. “Picking the lock itself could trigger the trap. That is where we might get a lesser trap, but a team that didn’t use the lock would get a worse one.”
“Same they do.” || Or they could both do the same thing. speculate
“That’s true too, Sun. I don’t think with a trap it will matter, but I’ve turned on my Stealth. Everyone else might want to back away.”
Ferret asked, “You’re just going to trigger it, knowing there is a trap?”
I replied, “There have been no other paths. Either we go back and toggle the EXIT switch back to campus, or go through this door.”
“And I chose Ki Prestidigitator because this kind of stuff seemed fun. If we just walked through all the doors with no risk, what fun would that be?”
“But you could get hurt,” Ferret countered.
“Or, in the words of a great sage, I could stand here with my thumb up my ass.” That cracked us all up, and the rest of us backed up by about five feet.
As Onre got the locksmithing toolkit from his pouch, Ferret laughed. “I’ve been telling Ahhshaww what we say. She wanted to know why a breather would want to do that.” Arrjee asked what he told her. “First I responded blithely, ‘Because it’s there.’ Then I tried to explain the humor, but that never works. Maybe she can understand better when I have Share Emotions.”
“Okay,” Onre warned, “here goes. It is a simple lock that most anyone with General Locksmithing could open.” We heard a click, then immediately a very staticy-sounding ‘whizshhhhht’. The floor vanished from the door to six feet back. One of Sun’s feet had been on that part of the floor, and he started to fall. Kossa, Arrjee, and I all caught him, enabling him to step back safely onto solid purchase.
Onre was not so lucky. He fell about 7 feet, into the rectangular pit which had opened up the full hallway wide. He landed erect, somehow without disturbing the multitude of snakes which occupied it. Due to its almost-black walls, the pit was somewhat darker than the hall. That boosted the efficacy of his stealth. Add his charmed silent-motion boots and that super-deodorant Grandma and his Mom provided, plus the luck not to land on one of them, all meant they were still waiting for a target.
These were normal-looking snakes, but monsters with only “Bites and constricts” listed as attack modes. They were skinnier but longer than the flying snakes, at eight or nine feet in length and no more than five inches in diameter. I’m sure that would make constriction easier. They were too intertwined to count; there could have been a Level 8 there, but all I saw were mostly 6s and seemingly very few 7s.
OL: Guys? A little help, please. These things don’t know I am here, but that could change any second.
As he said that, he spent a moment putting away his lockpicking tools and arming his knife.
Kossa was already debuffing them musically, which didn’t agro them. Ahhshaww flew off Ferret’s shoulders to directly above the pit; she was about 12 feet above its base. Ferret knew what she was doing, and he shouted loudly to get the snakes' attention and let us know the duo's plan. “I hope this yelling will draw them away from Onre. She is giving us a few seconds before she begins chilling them from directly above. Forrest, I know you’re the alpha, but I suggest you leap to Onre to support him at his end.”
I wasn’t going to argue with what I should already have done, and did so. I landed on a snake and almost fell. Onre caught me, and I was able to almost cut the Level 6’s head off with one sweep of my foot’s claws.
Rank C and a little practice for the win. One out of who knows how many?
Maybe me. 6 times 8 feet wide – 48 square feet. If they average 4 inches in diameter and were positioned side by side, that would be a single layer of 24 snakes. They are intertwined four high in some areas but only occupy about 70% of the floor. Factor in significant geometric inefficiency.
“I estimate that there are no more than 50 of these bastards, probably closer to 40.”
By the time I was standing steady and had announced that, Ahhshaww had begun to chill them. Onre and I as well, but she knew about our climate-comfort armor. And frankly, at her Level 2, it wasn’t all that chilly. But it was a great distraction; both the wind and the noise seemed to confuse them. Sun took a running jump to join us near the door. With three legs, he made a steady landing, although he bumped into Onre and me. Arrjee was pulling them, trying to keep them as much as possible away from the door. Kossa’s void debuff activated around us; fortunately it distinguishes friend from foe. It did a little damage, but its main purpose was to distract foes by very slowly but noticeably sapping all their energies.
Ferret looked like he maximized his mass, four times Ferret-nominal, and now bulkier but somewhat shorter. He even altered his name to ‘Hulky Odd’, which is who landed on top of the central mass of snakes near his end of the pit. He didn’t have a solid purchase, so he fell forward. The three of us at the other end rushed forward to help him up. His landing maneuver had brought five or six of them to their sparkly end. Arrjee leaped behind us as Kossa renewed our buffs.
Two of them managed to slither and twist up Onre’s body – the suckers were quick, I’ll give them that. They had begun to constrict, and I even noticed his health quickly drop below 90%. We were all being bitten on our legs. Well, it looked like Ferret was merely being gnawed at. Sun taunted one of the snakes on Onre and it dropped off him to seek its antagonist. Arrje, I, and Onre were able to quickly destroy the one remaining on him. From then on it was a mop-up operation with no further injuries.
After all was said, done, squashed, punched, stabbed, clawed, and aetherized, we picked up 37 drops. None were particularly valuable, being mostly low-end alchemical ingredients, a couple vials of minor antitoxin, a rusty, poor quality throwing knife, and small gems. There was no sweet dust for Ahhshaww, but we did give her both potions.
The door had remained closed the entire time, latched but unlocked. After jumping into the pit, Kossa commented that there could be more monsters beyond the door, with us being sitting ducks in the pit. We discussed that while Onre stripped and renewed what I had begun to think of as his ‘stealthoderant’. It was after 11, so even ignoring the different time zone, he had first applied it over 5 hours ago. No one had any immediate suggestions, so we pumped our stats with 10 minutes of meditation, letting our subconsciouses consider it.
When we were done, Arrjee suggested a tactic to open the door with minimal risk. The door was centered and less than half the width of its 8-foot hallway. He asked if we thought it would be okay for Ahhshaww to open it, positioned as far away from the latch as she could, but right next to the door’s wall. We moved as far away from the door as we could, but remained in the pit. She and everyone else agreed to that, so she flew over next to the wall and door. The latch was disengaged and the door pushed open, with her appendage pulled quickly back. She then flew along the wall back to us, and positioned herself above Ferret, bringing an appendage down to his forehead.
“She doesn’t see or smell anything in the hall. Or from Onre. It turns out that Air Elementals sense odors as well or better than they see – especially Level 3 air els. She leveled! She didn’t get any new capabilities, although she will get a new one at 4. We can expect her winding to be a little better now.” We all happily congratulated her.
She has more hit points now. That’s a relief.
Around 10% more.
“Do you know exactly how much improvement?”
You lack sufficient rank in Analyze for me to share that specific information. But the advancement from 2 to 3 would add one twelfth to her HP in itself, and likely increases to her vitality, strength, and/or luck would improve it further.
“She says she added a free point each to strength and vitality.
“10% or more, aye.”
Yes.
I said, “Okay, now we need to get out of here. Onre, let's advance to the door. From there I can easily reach the ledge. Ahhshaww will act as lookout as I shinny up with your and maybe Arrjee’s support. Then we can help everyone else up one at a time.” We gave Ferret a second to communicate the plan to her, and she flew up to mid-door height. The maneuver was successfully completed in less than a minute, and we were all outside and forward of the pit.
Onre examined the door frame latch to see if he could learn anything about the trap. “Holy crap! When I unlocked the door, it both activated the main trap and disabled a second part of the trap. If we had just broken it down, the pit would have been quickly flooded with some sort of brackish liquid. Imagine fighting all those snakes standing in four feet of water. I bet they swim very well, and as monster-snakes, I don’t even think they would need to breathe.”
A second thought occurred to him. “Let’s make sure to warn all teams to have someone with at least General Locksmithing. That skill, learned even to E, would have been sufficient to unlock the door and disable the second part. The lock was completely mechanical.”
Kossa said, “I agree, both that the flooded pit would have made the trap much more dangerous, and that every team should have at least a basic degree of lockpicking capability. “
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“Disarm you learn?” || Will you be learning to disarm traps? expectation-yes
“Next level I will be offered a primary class skill. I think one of them will be Disarm Trap. Unless the other one offered is very, very good, yes, I will learn to disarm the damn things. … Although we probably got some good XP from 37 Level 6s and 7s, so I don’t regret triggering the trap as we did.”
I: Your speculation about being offered Disarm Trap is well-considered. The single-triggered trap earned you an average of 224 for each snake. It was distributed with equal weight to everyone, so each of you got 1184 XP. Forrest shared 777 of his.
Arrjee asked, “Do you know how much we would have earned if we had triggered both parts?”
I: Yes.
I laughed. “Interface, how much would we have earned if we had triggered both parts?”
I: 50% more.
I told them, “That would have been over 1700 apiece. But personally, I’m glad we didn’t trigger the liquid. I expect we would have all survived, but many of us would have gotten seriously injured, especially Onre. I don’t think even his boots would have let him splash down silently, and who knows what underwater senses they have?”
“Yes, look at the walls of the pit. Now that I know to look for nozzles, I see I would have been sprayed directly as I fell, and only my boots have the silence charm. They would have been swarming me the second I landed. I’m pretty sure the trap was designed to let the lockpicker fall and miss landing on any snakes, but if they knew someone was coming, well, that would have been unfortunate.”
My brother asked us, “How would Swagger have been able to get past the pit and through the doorway? Eventually I might be able to move him across it, but it will be a while before I can move 80-plus stones with my mind.” Kossa wondered if he would even have fit through the open door. We decided he probably could, but crossing a 6-foot pit first would not be simple, especially since there was no purchase left to stand on while coming through the door.
“Few dungeons will be accessible to Swagger, right?”
I do not know, but I suspect many would be extremely difficult at your levels and ranks. Arrjee’s telekinesis should eventually provide more options.
----------------------------------------
Ferret returned to his ‘hulky’ stone form as we continued down the hall. He had become quite skinny while being helped out of the pit. His shorter legs meant he walked a little slower, but the additional mass in his stone plates made him feel safer.
Kossa had been impressed at how effective I was at clawing through many of the snakes in a single strike. I explained the Level 6s just weren’t that big around, so I didn’t even need to claw them halfway around their circumference before they were in two pieces.She must have felt the need to compliment me, because after that point she expressed her surprise that I had been able to hold that Level 8 flying snake down for so many minutes. I asked her, “Do you know what the benefit of thresholded strength is?” She didn’t. “I not only have my normal 28 strength, but the threshold grants me an enhanced grip whenever at least two limbs are involved. So both my hug around its neck and my legs locked around its tail had an extra 15% strength. Those actions were as if my strength were at 32. And we were even level, and it wasn’t really in a position where it could oppose my restraints well.”
Onre said, “In the First Duchy’s academy, we called that ‘the heroic hug’. And, Forrest, you really should learn to accept a compliment.”
Kossa laughed, “That’s one of the things I like about him.”
Is she flirting?
We came to a T-intersection, where we could go either left or right. This time Sun detected a treasure in a thin crevice in the wall about a foot from the ground. It was another throwing knife. I asked, “Do you guys think the dungeon knows our ranged capability is weak, and is helping us out?” No one knew enough to speculate, and if Interface knew, he kept quiet. Onre and I each placed one of the throwing knives in our pouches should we need them later.
“Right? Left?” || Should we go right or left? unknown
“In Earth games, players would often adopt the ‘right-hand rule’ in a maze. That is, we pretend our hand is on the right wall, and continue through the maze along that wall. You will backtrack countless times at dead-ends, but when you are going the other way, ‘right’ will be the other wall. For most maze designs, that will allow you to fully explore it.” Arrjee wondered if right were somehow better than left. “Not really. In Jacques’ language, ‘right’ and ‘rule’ start with the same letter, but ‘left’ is different. Alliteration may have been the only reason.”
Onre asked, “Why did you say ‘most mazes’?”
“It is possible to design a maze that doesn’t fully connect along one long snaking wall. It was not unheard of to have an outer section and an inner section, and you would never leave whatever one you were following with the rule. My guess is that in this category 6 floor, they wouldn’t bother with that added complexity, though.”
Ferret asked, “Are you calling this a ‘category 6’ because that is probably the lowest level monster here?”
“Exactly. Most of our maps identify this as the third floor. How does Ahhshaww see it?”
“Her map says it is the second floor.”
“So let's eliminate future confusion and say ‘category 6’. The next floor will probably be category 8. Onre, up to you. Right hand rule, or left?”
“Let’s do it Jacques’ way, right.” The right hand hallway slowly became rougher, with bigger rocks jutting from walls, and even the floor had become uneven. “The description for Detect Trap says at my D rank it should begin helping me detect any secret passageways, and I am keeping it active. The passageways may or may not be trapped. I’ll take a more focused look if we encounter one.”
After several dozen more feet, he commanded, “Don’t get ahead of me. I have stopped because there is a nearby trap. I know you have been walking close to walls to explore for hidden treasures, but don’t bump anything as you near me. Any of the jutting rocks on either the walls or the floor could be the trigger, or it could be something else altogether.” We slowly advanced to within about a yard of him. He had been examining both walls and was now bent over, slowly waving his right hand above the ground.
“Here it is. I think this slightly protruding stone in the floor is a pressure trap. We can avoid it, but something interesting might happen if we trip it. Should we?”
I replied, “This is an opinion, not a command. Tripping it will likely lead to more XP, and many unprepared teams would likely trip it anyway. I would not expect any major problems for us on a category 6 floor. So, if we were to vote, I would vote yes.” Unfortunately, everyone agreed with me. “Guys, this is why I am hesitant to give my opinion. I don’t know if you are all agreeing with me because I'm the team leader or if you actually want to trip it.”
Arrjee sighed. “Brother, it’s not your thumb that is out of sight, but your head. We’re all adults now. Allow us to agree with you when we agree with you.” Without further comment, he took three steps and intentionally depressed the trap with his left foot. “There, the team’s decision is accomplished.”
It took two seconds for a thick fog to envelop us, along with a blaring horn, flashes of light that temporarily brightened the fog, and frequent sparks of electricity striking us from all directions. They didn’t have anywhere near a lightning bolt’s power, but they still stung like strong static shocks in a dry room with a thick rug. Whatever was happening was meant to confuse and disorient more than harm. It lasted less than 10 seconds, following us as we tried to move away from the central trap. Then the effects finally ended, with the fog dissipating fairly quickly. We had spread apart but moved closer together when it stopped.
I: Alarm trap. Each party member earns 1 XP; Forrest keeps his full point.
“Well, thanks.”
It was a bookkeeping necessity.
Onre said, “Be alert! ‘Alarm trap’ likely means some foes know we are here now.”
After a few seconds we started hearing commotion, from both ahead and behind. I commanded, “Prepare for two fights. Onre, Sun, and Arrjee, you handle any foes in front of us. Ferret, Ahhshaww, and I will oppose foes from behind. Kossa, stay central and buff and debuff as needed. If you get any free time, you and your knife can join us at the rear. Everyone, be flexible.”
Ferret and I turned around and moved about two yards to the rear. Kossa cast her Void Field around us, which had a great enough diameter to affect melee foes whether ahead or behind. Both Sun and I announced simultaneously that enemies were drawing near. As they got within her flute’s range, Kossa began making them lethargic, and for the first time I noticed its reverse somnolence effect, increasing our alertness at the loss of alertness in our foes. It was adding to the extra awareness I have from my thresholded wisdom.
“Crap holy! Many.” || Holy crap! There are so many. surprise, anticipation
I asked, “Does anyone see any of these snakes and giant worms greater than Level 6?”
“Not on this side,” answered Onre. “The snakes seem a little smaller than they were in the pit, just tons of them. Those worms are just as quick, and I don’t know how they remain slimy on this dry stone floor.”
Indeed, these snakes only constricted and bit, like the ones before. The worms, however, might be a bigger issue.
Level 6 Acid Worm – youthful, sexless, 2 stones
Angry, 30 XP worth, 2 defeated
Acidic bite, acidic skin, spits acid
“We’ve got tons of snakes and acid worms. Is it the same up front?” Arrjee confirmed that it was. I noted, “These are worth a lot less XP than before.”
I: XP in swarm battles is earned primarily from quantity. Think of this battle more as an opportunity for battle experience rather than points earned from individual foes.
Ferret said, “Kossa, Ahhshaww wants you to put up your Sensory Filter. At 3, her wind capability gained a new mode. She says Thunderous Wind is going to be loud.”
We had engaged, with Ferret pounding away with his fists, and I mostly clawing them from my open-toed boots. Any snakes that tried to crawl up on us had high priority, and we helped each other kill those. I could feel acid burning at my toes, but knew that I currently had 8% acid resistance, maybe 50% more if my boots were considered as their armor. As Kossa’s filter began, the sounds of battle lessoned, but I could still hear that our front line was extremely busy.
“Arrjee. That you do?” || Arrjee, did you do that? wonder
“Yes, it was wrapped so tight around your leg, when I pulled hard it split in two and died. That’s my first kill with telekinesis! I hope you didn’t mind your leg being pulled.” || worry
“Fine leg. Dead snake. Good!” || My leg is fine; the snake is dead. Good! thanks
Just then, “BooOomm!”
Geez, that’s loud! I can’t imagine experiencing it at full volume.
A well-named capability.
The monsters didn’t have to imagine. It effectively stunned most of them, on top of their already lethargic demeanor. I saw that a few Level 7s were still able to fight, but the 6s were out for the count. Or the sparkle, in this case, as they returned to the aether. Cleaning up was straight-forward after that, tedious even, and it cost us quite a bit in stamina. Onre and I needed a moment at the end to heal acid burns. I could see that the worm’s acid had damaged the boots of all meleers, as well as our battling hands. The acid must be partially aetherial, as it had penetrated the gloves and boots without completely eating through them. Some acid spits had reached our faces.
We didn’t bother counting the drops. Most were common herbs, along with a few 10-copper stacks and three throwing knives. These were less rusted than the first two, but still of low quality. Interface had the data, however.
I: 197 foes defeated . Ahhshaww’s battle weight was 3, Kossa 2, and everyone else was 1. 6501 XP distributed with Ahhshaww receiving 1950, Kossa 1300, and everyone else 650. Forrest shared 427 points, split equally among everyone else.
“I reported the numbers to Ahhshaww. She was embarrassed to report it, but she leveled again. Our daughter is 4! That’s more than me, now. Even if I get enough XP to level again, I’ll be braked.”
I: That is correct. You still have 12 more days before you can advance to Level 4. Since the brake is calculated from the date Level 1 was achieved, and not level by level, the weeks she spent in the dungeon likely overtook several brake dates.
“I understand, and that is fine. Forrest is fine with sharing his XP, and so am I. By the way, she gained her second racial capability, Reverberate. It is sort of like Sun’s Retaliate, but it is always active. Some degree of any type of attack damage she receives is reflected back to all foes within range, in three pulses of decreasing magnitude. Damage that is reflected does not injure her. At Rank F she doesn’t expect it to be very strong. Also her Wind capability is now beginning to distinguish friend from foe.”
“Better Retaliate.” || That is better than Retaliate. impressed
“Only one Retaliate. Damaged I get.” || Retaliate only gives me an auto-attack against one foe. And I still receive the full damage. envy, daughter:happy
Kossa said, “Tell her we are all proud of her. Reverberate should be extremely useful, and her Thunderous Wind is amazing! I don’t think it killed any of the snakes or worms, but it sure made it a straightforward task for the rest of us to finish them.”
“She says she can only thunder about every five minutes, and after she does, all her Wind modes are down for that period.”
“Well, she used it very wisely this time,” Onre commented.
We decided to take a 20-minute meditate break, with Onre and I taking a 10-minute watch each. He and I had the highest regens.