Chapter 8:

The waiting room of the Cleric Clinic was finally emptying, and as Rufus locked up for the day, he found he was getting increasingly frustrated with their staffing. Business had at least doubled in the last month, and he was the only blue ranked healer in the place. He’d begun to feel drained on a daily basis, and he promised himself he would talk to Marvin about hiring another cleric, or at least a a paladin.

Despite not loving the increased workload, he had to admit their services were desperately needed. Dungeons don’t pop up everyday, and there would only be another 5 days at most before the red and brown parties get called in to shut it down. This meant an abnormal amount of overconfident idiots would be getting severely injured in these dungeons, and they became Rufus’ problem quite quickly. As he went out the back door, he looked up at the shining sun hovering over the Gold District, before pulling a package out of his pocket.

“Such a beautiful day, but so many limbs being lost” Rufus said, rolling what he was about to smoke.

Going back and forth between the Shadow District and The Gold District was starting to give Jordan a headache, so he was glad to see the dungeon was only 2 blocks away from the border. As they walked through those 2 blocks, Jordan looked around at the crumbling architecture and the ancient road. The lack of visibility in the area meant that maintaining it was tricky, which was part of the reason rent was so cheap.

The pair arrived in front of the address on the quest, and were met by a middle aged halfling man wearing the Everwatch uniform armor standing in front of barrier of den. The entrance to the dungeon wasn’t visible, and the man spoke before they could get any closer.

“Hello gentleman, this is the entrance to a dungeon. If you’re adventurers please provide the detect creature stones you were provided with.” The man said in the deepest voice either of them had ever heard. Jordan stared at him in stunned silence, and Bryn took a few moments to come to his senses before presenting the stones. The halfling briefly examined them, while Jordan used his finger to see if there was anything in his ear. He gave them their stones back and motioned for them to go to the barrier behind him. As they approached, the pale blue energy shot out at them. The gelatinous substance covered the pair and pulled them into the den barrier.

Bryn spine shivered with how uncomfortable this felt, and he hated every time he had to use these. He was also creeped out by how much Jordan seemed to love it. As they plopped out the other side, Bryn looked over and saw Jordan smiling contently. He looked over and they made eye contact, Jordan’s smile fading immediately.

“It gives me tingles shut up” Jordan said, leading the charge to the dungeon entrance. Bryn shook his head and followed as the pair saw the entrance for the first time. The outside was the same as any dungeons portal, a bright red wooden door standing alone. Jordan opened the door, excited to see a dungeon with his own eyes for the first time.

A dungeon is a phenomenon that is not yet explained by magic or science. All that is known about them is about once every 4 months at the same time in every major city in the world, they appear. They spawn in random locations in the city, this time being the shadow district. However, the past year had seen dungeons pop up in the Flower District, on the border of the Gold and Floating, and once at city hall.

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These dungeons have 20 levels filled with danger, and if left unchecked they will pour out into the city. The only way to shut them down is to kill the final boss, which is usually a brown or black level quest. However, these adventurers don’t just grow on trees, so lower level adventurers are called in to clear the way for the heavy hitters to finish the job. These jobs were considered to be very lucrative, as dungeon treasure can be rare and extremely valuable.

As the party entered, they were immediately bombarded with a dry heat. As they walked in they heard their footsteps begin to crunch on sand, and as their eyes adjusted they saw the Desert Dungeon before them.

The room they were in had a massive stone obelisk, shaped to look like a Tengrathi man, in the middle surrounded by 3 stone passageways. As the pair pulled their masks on, Jordan pointed at the statue and looked at Bryn.

“It’s you” Jordan said.

“It’s not me you’re just being racist” Bryn said, grabbing a potion from his pack and uncorking it.

Jordan took out the additives he had bought at Nelson’s and began applying them a few of his arrows. Knowing the environment would make his selection much easier. “I’m not being racist, you both have the same emotionless stone face. You also both seem to think sandals are a good look on you.” He said, noting that both Tengrathi were indeed wearing sandals.

“They’re comfortable, why wouldn’t I want to be comfortable in combat?” Bryn said, as he finished his potion and put the bottle in his bulging bag. “We need a storage bag bad man, this is getting ridiculous”. He said lugging the bag on his back.

As Jordan pointed to the left path the pair started towards the section they had been assigned. “I know we’re doing well now but let’s not get crazy. Do you want to live in the Shadow Apartment forever?” He asked condescendingly.

“No of course not, I already hated that place but I think our neighbor smokes too” Bryn said sighing.

“Oh man that sucks” Jordan said unconvincingly, as he considered whether he should take up the habit again. As they continued walking, Jordan smelled a faint hint of… something.

As he tried to put his finger on the scent, Bryn grabbed his shoulder and they stopped. He rummaged through his bad and put a small vial of purple liquid in Jordan’s hand. “Drink this, I think there’s illusion magic up ahead” Bryn said, drinking his own vial. Jordan drank and gave the vial back to Bryn, his face scrunching at the bitter taste.

“Are herbs every cherry or cool lime flavored or something like that?” Jordan asked.

“Yeah they just don’t work” Bryn said nonchalantly as he looked around the wall to his left. Now that he had mentioned something, Jordan did notice the den in the air felt different in this space than it had when they first entered.

“Bingo” Bryn said, pointing to a series of symbols carved into the wall. “If I take note of these and turn them in I can probably make Ernie give us a bonus” He said sketching the shapes in his notebook. After copying them down, Bryn used a knife to cut into the symbols. As the symbols were cut into, Jordan could feel the den begin to settle.

“How did you know that was coming? Was there information on illusion magic traps in this dungeon?” Jordan asked.

“No, but I’m so weak to these types of magic without the Adventurers Boon I could feel the effects before we were in its radius, you’ve looked like you have no mouth to me for the last 2 minutes. The chant for a trap spell has to be written 100 feet before the radius of the main spell starts, so once you grew bunny ears I knew we must have been close” Bryn said, staring slightly above Jordan’s head. Jordan took in the information, but he wasn’t surprised anymore. Bryn did at least one crazy thing per quest.

As they weaved through the tunnels, they found the entrance to the section they were looking for. Jordan held out his hand to prevent Bryn from continuing, as the smell was filling his nostrils and was unfortunately familiar: demonic wet dog.

“Stay here, I’ll scout ahead. Do we have any concrete data for a Desert Dungeon?” Jordan asked, readying his bow.

“No there wasn’t one on record. The Guild assumed they would mostly be environmentally based, so a desert dungeon was a hypothetical they gave advice for in the latest newsletter. What are you smelling?” Bryn asked.

“Demon or dog, maybe both” Jordan said as he approached the door.

Bryn thought briefly before answering. “They said there could be a hellhound variant called a sun hound, have a dispel arrow close.” He said, fumbling in his bag while he spoke.

As Jordan opened the door, they found section they were assigned stood before them. The ceilings very vaulted, making it seem enormous. The sand coating the floor made Jordan’s footing feel unstable, and he could have sworn he felt it moving. The air was hot and suffocating, with the leather armor sticking to him like glue.

After taking in his surroundings, Jordan looked across the room, and noticed the smell was at its strongest by far. As he focused on the figure coming closer to him, he could make out its green color and the spikes on its collar. Was that a collar? No it just has spikes in it.

“Hey Bryn is a cactus dog a thing?” Jordan asked as he took aim.