Once given a task they could handle, and with our party watching out for any monsters, the dwarves go to work. They started by creating a scaffold over the hole leading to the second level. Once secured to the scaffolding, they dangled down and began to cut the roots and vines that were growing in their way. Once those were trimmed back, the opening had grown, but it was still not wide enough to fit the mech.
Out came the picks and shovels as they chipped away at the sides of the opening, widening it bit by bit. Our team kept a watch on the level below, but the tiki monsters and their giant anaconda allies were keeping out of sight. Just once we had a tiki walk into view, and it was ended quickly by a magic missile from Eliza.
With the rest of the team watching the opening, I took time to recharge the mech’s magic missile wands. It took most of my mana pool to recharge one shot, but my mana was recharging fairly quickly in this dungeon. By the time the dwarves were done with expanding the opening to fit my mech, I’d topped off each wand up to nine charges.
“The opening should be big enough to fit that contraption, but we’ll need to do a bit more work on the scaffolding if we’re going to lower it down there. That’s going to be our biggest challenge, and I can’t guarantee you’ll have an easy trip down,” Grumbellow said as the dwarven work crews climbed out of the hole and began to reinforce the scaffolding. When they were done, the dwarves tied several thick ropes around the mech, but it looked like a bit too flimsy a solution.
“Is that going to hold all this weight?” I asked, looking doubtfully at the wooden scaffold and ropes tied to my mech.
“How tough is that thing? If it drops a bit, will it be damaged?” Grumbellow said, looking back and forth between the scaffolding and the mech.
“It’s a solid machine, but it’s not designed to be dropped that far,” I said. The drop was a good twenty or twenty-five feet.
“The way we have this rigged, it should slow your mech, and the ground down there is soft enough to help absorb the impact. It’s up to you if you want to risk it,” Grumbellow offered.
“It’s your choice Rico, we could really use that mech down there, and it’s not like the dwarves have a lot to work with when it comes to building materials,” James said.
He was right, we only had the stuff they pulled from the jungle, and the ropes and tools they had brought with them. Even if the scaffolding did nothing to slow my fall, the impact wouldn’t kill me. The worst-case scenario was the mech being too damaged to function, and the party proceeding as normal.
“I’m assuming you’ll be joining us,” I said to Grumbellow.
“Aye, we’ll go. I don’t see that we have much of a choice,” Grumbellow responded.
“In that case, let’s get the mech down there and finish this,” I said as I maneuvered the mech to the edge of the opening and the dwarves made some last-minute adjustments. A few of the dwarves tried to use some vines tied to the trees nearby to help secure the mech, but I doubted it would help much.
I held my breath as I stepped into the opening, trying to keep the mech positioned so it would land on both feet at the same time. Everything happened quickly after that. The mech fell and brought the scaffolding down with it. I didn’t fall quite as fast as it would have without the dwarves’ work, but it was still faster than I had hoped.
With a heavy jolt and the sound of something metallic snapping, I was down. My back had a sharp pain from the impact, and I knew I’d hardly be able to move tomorrow. At least the dwarven ropes and vines had apparently done enough to keep me from having any permanent damage. The mech was another story as it slumped over with its right leg folded out to the side.
“Are you okay Rico!” Marie shouted down.
“I’m good, but I don’t think the mech is going anywhere. We best get everyone down here before the monsters show up,” I said as I popped the cockpit hatch.
One by one, the other members of my party slid down the ropes. Thankfully, my summoned creatures had little trouble following them down. I had landed in a large, open chamber with a single exit, just like on the first level of the dungeon. A dim sunlight filtered through the tops of the foliage, but it seemed more artificial down here on the second level. My mind knew that we were underground despite what the dungeon aesthetic showed us.
“It doesn’t look too bad; can you fix it?” Grumbellow asked as he and a few of the dwarves poked around the bent leg.
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“Stay back, let me test things out,” I said.
The mech’s upper torso was fully functional, as were both arms and the magic missile launcher. My cockpit hatch was bent a bit, but it still fit and sealed well enough. The left leg looked intact, but something internal was broken and I had limited range of motion with the limb. If the right leg hadn’t been bent to the side, I could have probably limped the mech forward at a slow pace, but as it stood, I was going nowhere.
“I don’t think I can fix it, but I might be able to summon someone who can,” I said, remembering the Fitzfazzle figurine I had in my pouch. This damage might be more than a single gnome could handle, but if anyone could fix it, it was Fitzfazzle. Even if the mech was a write off, my gnomish friend would have other tricks up his sleeve to help us against the dungeon boss.
Pushing a point of mana into his figurine, I waited for Fitzfazzle to appear. There was some delay, but I sort of expected that. He was probably given some heads up about the summoning and even though he didn’t have a personal space, he would probably be given time to organize his gear before being sent over. At least, I hope the system gave him time to prepare and wouldn’t send him unarmed and unequipped.
A few minutes passed and everyone was getting antsy when the summoning portal finally appeared. Several duffel bags were tossed through, then Fitzfazzle walked out, bent over from weight of the overstuffed backpack he wore. It took the gnome only a few seconds to get his bearings, and then follow the summoner link to where I was standing near the damaged mech leg.
“Rico! How are you,” Fitzfazzle said, dropping his pack and rushing over to shake my hand.
“Good to see you Fitzfazzle. I’m sorry for summoning you here, but we’re in a bit of trouble,” I told him. The gnome looked around, giving the dwarves a suspicious look and then sniffing the air, like a dog following a scent.
“Hmm, another dungeon, I see. Are we offense or defense this time? I admit, I was sort of hoping that you’d summon me to your world, it sounds rather fascinating,” Fitzfazzle said.
“You’re right, we’re in another dungeon, but this time we’re on offense. If it’s any consolation, the dungeon is located on my world, and the team with me are all summoned beings from Earth,” I said introducing the gnome to everyone.
“I’ve never met a linked summon before. Can we get some information on this when we’re done here Rico?” Nicolas asked.
“I’ll share what I can, as long as Grimslade is willing to reciprocate with some of their info,” I replied. We were all getting along right now, but I didn’t want to give away any of the information that I’d shared with Refuge if I wasn’t getting something for us in return.
“I can see you managed to break your MESS already,” Fitzfazzle said. Once the introductions were over, he immediately dug into the mech.
“It didn’t handle the drop very well. Is there anything you can do for it?” I asked.
Fitzfazzle didn’t respond, instead he began to dig into the damage, pulling various tools from the bags he’d brought with him and removing access panels on the mech. Last time, Fitzfazzle had arrived at the summoning loaded for bear, and his traps really helped turn the tide of the battle in our favor. Given all the bags he’d brought with him, I had high hopes that there were more than tools stashed away in them.
“Good news and bad news on this one,” Fitzfazzle said. Before he could deliver the news, a small horde of tiki monsters began to pour into the clearing. It took a second for everyone to respond, but we immediately got into formation and began to fight back.
“Watch out, Fitzfazzle, those darts and spears are dipped in some kind of poison,” I warned.
Instead of just our party and my summons to contend with, the enemy now had almost thirty angry dwarves that were fighting at our side. There was also Fitzfazzle who was already digging into one of his packs for some sort of weapon. I jumped back into the cockpit of the mech and swiveled the torso to face the oncoming enemy, before ordering everyone back.
The legs of my mech were shot, but everything else worked just fine. A stream of magic missiles from my launchers and from Eliza’s spells peppered the leading tiki monsters. Just like before, they seemed to home in on the largest threat, which was still my mech. As they closed in, I began to swipe with my spear, cutting down several with each hit.
Once they were swarming the mech, the rest of our team went to work, easily cutting down the foe while they were distracted with trying to breach the cockpit to get at me. Like before, once they had taken a sizeable number of casualties, the shrieks began to sound among the horde, ordering them to retreat.
“Is that what you’ve been fighting against?” Fitzfazzle said, a gore encrusted wrench held in each hand as he looked over the battlefield.
“Yeah, that and a few huge snakes that can swallow someone whole,” I replied.
“Hm, I’ll have to make some adjustments to my gear, these guys are a bit smaller than I expected. That can wait though, it appears our biggest asset is the MESS. Getting it up and fighting is the key to winning this,” Fitzfazzle said.
“Before we were so rudely interrupted by those tiki monsters, you said you had good news and bad news for us,” Grumbellow said.
“Aye, the main actuator in the left leg is shot, but the others still work. The right leg is a mess, but I think we can cut away some of the damage and at least get it so you can stand up. Moving is going to be at a snail’s pace, but I’m sure we can get this moving if I can borrow some muscle,” Fitzfazzle explained.
“Muscle we’ve got plenty of, gnome, just tell us what you need,” the dwarves said, and I think I caught a few of them trying to subtly flex as they stood there.
“Alright, let’s get started. Rico, get out of the cockpit and let me in there,” Fitzfazzle said, taking charge of the dwarves and using them as his work crew. The rest of us moved to cover the entrance to the chamber in case another attack wave appeared.
While we waited, I used the time to recharge the magic missile pistol I held. Other than the javelin from the commander’s set, which I couldn’t bring home, it was my only ranged weapon. The last thing I wanted to do was let a bunch of those tiki monsters get within stabbing distance of me.