by Sean Oswald
Thelan slammed his fist down on the makeshift table set before him sending mugs of stolen dwarven ale to the ground. His anger needed expression. Normally, he would have crushed the one bringing him such news, and in fact, he almost did. He barely managed to contain his anger since spell casters were the one thing that he didn’t have enough of in his horde. Not so for scouts though. The king's large, claw-tipped hand shot out and grabbed the throat of one of the two scouts. The magical, golden-inked tattoos upon Thelan’s chest, drawn by the traitor Balayria some three years before, flared to life to feed him strength. All around got to see where his title came from as he used the poor scout’s head like a hammer, bashing it repeatedly against the table, shattering the wood, and eventually leaving it unrecognizable.
This only mildly sated Thelan’s anger. He called for all of the leaders still within camp to gather together. He would make these humans pay. It was such a human thing to stand in the way of what the goblins wanted, but it infuriated Thelan even more that humans were interfering in lands that were not even their own. That could not go unanswered.
Chapter Five
We have all had that moment where we put our foot in our mouths, so to speak. Just pray that embarrassment is the worst consequence for bad decisions you ever face. Dungeons rarely leave it at harsh words. — Jayfen Tarzen former guild master Theriot chapter of the Adventurer’s Guild.
Dungeon: Tomb of David Nelson – Mira and Emily Nelson
Mira’s mind rushed through the options. She did a calculation of all the known assets she and her mother had available to them. She lamented that she didn’t have a better idea as to Rak’kar’s abilities but decided to trust that as a champion of his people he was probably as powerful as Jaselm. She thought about all of this in seconds while the three surviving drake hounds leered down at them. The fireball had not killed any of the cluster of other bestial warriors behind the drake hounds but had seemingly injured most if not all of them. From that information, she assumed the other creatures were tough but not quite Tier 3 level like the drake hounds appeared to be.
Mira felt a moment of regret because none of them had been killed. She didn’t have any special hatred for them, but if only she had gotten a good chunk of XP, she would have been able to reach Tier 3. That might have made the difference. The XP they had gained from the one slain drake hound was substantial but not enough on its own.
Your party has defeated Drake Hound Alpha: Warrior Variant Level 22. XP: 132 x 2.1 (numerical bonus) x 1.1 (Tier bonus) x 2 (killing blow bonus) /5 (surviving party members=121.8 x 1.25 (racial bonus) = 152 XP.
A couple more of those would have been enough to level her up, but another part of her mind told her that she should just consider herself lucky that they had managed to kill one Tier 3. The conquer was only due to the fact he had been knocked prone by the unexpected fireball, and then the Thunder Arc spell had critted on his head.
Still, it was no use wishful thinking. She had to form a plan with what she had available to her. The best bet would be if they could somehow bring Daichi and Jaselm back into the fight. She was confident that the paladin would recover, but maybe not fast enough. As for the monk, he didn’t actually appear to be badly hurt, just trapped. Hopefully mom could free him and heal him. The real question was if she could count on Rak’kar. She really didn’t know what the minotaur was capable of and had to hope that the few stories she had heard over the past few days about his race were accurate.
Through all of this planning, Mira had to listen to her mother urging her to cast Gate and escape on her own. As if it were in Mira to abandon her mother. As much as she might fight it, she was a Nelson, and neither her mother nor father were the kind of people to leave anyone behind. Her dad always proudly spoke of the fact that the Marines never left a man behind; the same would be said of her today. She might not be able to feel hope regarding their situation, but she had the next best thing, determination.
On one side, she was up against a wall at the bottom of the ramp which had receded under them when Rak’kar stumbled onto the floor trigger. The remaining alphas and their bestial warriors were above them where Jaselm and Daichi were incapacitated and trapped. In the other direction, coming down the ramp were six other drake hound warriors in armor with weapons at the ready. Mira didn’t know if they were all Tier 3 but had to hope that maybe some of them were lower level. For that matter, she had to hope that the minotaur could keep them busy long enough for the rest of her plan to work out.
For as fast as her mind was operating, time was still running out, and she had to act. She leaned forward and pretended to be afraid, trembling as she pulled the Wand of Viscid Globs free. Then, twisting her body, she extended her left arm and aimed the wand at the six oncoming warriors while simultaneously raising her right hand towards the creatures above them. She shouted the command word for the wand before seamlessly transitioning into a quickened Wind Whip. The wand, which was initially two inches in diameter but expanded to two feet as it flew through the air, spat forth a yellow glob of gel that ruptured in the center of the four drake hound warriors. It had the consistency of snot and clung to them. The thickening gel caused them to fall to the ground in a jumble.
The whip shot up from her other hand and encircled the ankle of the closest warrior overhead. The magic wrapped around the leg, and she willed the magic to retract. She pulled back, and her trapped target came lost his footing and fell from his perch down to the trap floor beneath. At the same moment, she shouted out, “Mom, go full ninja and see if you can heal the others! Rak’kar protect our back!”
Emily and Rak’kar both responded to her instructions for entirely different reasons. Emily reacted out of trust, and Rak’kar reacted from years of battle training. He surged forward towards the six drake hounds in front of him and slammed his free hand into a disk held against his chest as he moved. While picking up speed, a series of clanks resounded from silver plate armor that spread out to cover his body till he was almost entirely covered. Only a slit for his eyes, a mesh over his mouth, and holes for his horns were left open. Just as the armor fully encased him, he slammed into one of the two warriors left unsnarled by the viscid glob.
A brief second behind the minotaur, Emily activated her cloak of fleeting smoke and began to drift upward in her vaporous form. It wasn’t as fast as she might have liked, but in a couple of seconds, she was level with the floor where the other dungeon creatures were watching. While ascending, she telepathically reached out to Yua, the female member of the Moon Elf Throne, what would essentially pass for their queen. It was a right granted to her by customs as old as the Moon Elves’ time on the continent of Talos. A right she was able to exercise through a powerful magical item given to her when she ascended to her place as Lady Emiri, her Ring of Noble Command.
“Forgive me my Saisho No Josei. I have no time for proper etiquette. My daughter and I are trapped in a dungeon. If you can get word to my husband, please send him home immediately.” Emily communicated to Yua rapidly, referring to her by her Moon Elf honorific meaning first woman.
Emily paused for just a moment hoping for a response from her queen, anything to assure her that even if this stupid decision cost her and Mira their lives that at least Dave would protect their other children. She couldn’t wait long because she was almost into place, so she had to continue on with no response. If she had had more time, she would have realized that the time dilation in the dungeon made it so that even if Yua had responded, the response wouldn’t reach her for minutes rather than seconds.
She extended out a hand and cast Minor Cure Poison on Jaselm. The mana surging out of her didn’t hinder her new form, but the drake hounds weren’t remain shocked for long. The warrior at the top left moved forward and slashed at her with his longsword in rapid succession. His attacks seemed to be an equal measure of power and grace all wrapped up into animalistic fury. For all of that, the blows each only caused around (4) damage to her because she only took 1/10th damage from physica
l attacks in this form. Even better, her Ring of Noble Command caused 20% of the damage from each strike to be reflected back at the attacking drake hound. Emily almost lost her focus as she watched long bloody cuts open up on the body of her confused attacker.
She quickly changed focus knowing that the minor damage from each blow would add up, and once the other creatures attacked, she might be overwhelmed. So she activated another ability of her ring and cast Dominate Mind aimed at the drake hound shaman who was casting a spell at Mira. His magic went off in the form of an electric shock just before her spell blasted into his mind. Unlike Mira’s charm spell, this was Tier 5 magic, something beyond any of them without this wondrous item. The magic surged out, coursing through the ring and making her fingers a bit numb even in their vaporous form.
A second later, she saw a notification that her domination had been successful, and she could act through the creature. For Emily, it was jarring to suddenly see out of two sets of eyes at the same time. She had access to his character sheet but couldn’t examine it for too long, so she latched onto the first spell that she saw. A part of her mind was casting Minor Heal upon herself and channeling the dual healing effect towards Daichi while another part was casting a spell called Fear through the body of the shaman.
Down below, Mira had her hands full too. She couldn’t see her mom or Rak’kar but wouldn’t have had the ability to help them even if she could. The warrior who fell down was stunned briefly, but Mira knew better than to engage in close quarters combat. Her first action was to activate the shield from her staff. In the time it had taken her to sheath the wand and grasp the staff, the warrior had already escaped the entangling wind whip and launched himself at her. He didn’t bother to draw his sword but instead attacked with fang and claw. The blue bubble of her shield sprang up in the last instant, and the sound of claws screeching against it was akin to nails down a chalkboard. It was terrifying to see the slavering jaw of a half-reptile half-wolf creature attempting to push through the seemingly frail shield to get at her. Those cruel claws were quickly draining the 200 hp of the shield.
A moment later, the warrior was beneath her as Mira activated her Lesser Wind Ring and took to the air. The drake hound warrior leaped up to try and pull her down, but the bubble of her shield held him at bay and gave his claws no purchase. He fell back to the floor below them.
Now a good fifteen feet in the air, she took a second to take stock of the situation around her. She looked to see how her mom was doing and found that it was something of a mixed bag. She was in her smoke form and being steadily attacked by another warrior who was a bleeding mess of cuts. At first Mira couldn’t understand how her mother had been able to inflict that type of damage on the walking monster, but then she remembered the ring that the elves had given her. That would definitely bear more study later to see if the effect could be duplicated. This was actually one of the problems with Mira’s new processing power. She was always thinking of things to do but never had enough time to do them all. Strangest of all was that not only was the shaman not attacking, but instead, it seemed to be casting a spell at the other animalistic warriors who were clearly confused about what was happening.
From there, Mira turned her attention to Rak’kar. The warrior seemed competent enough, but he still had six swordsmen to deal with who were most likely Tier 2 or Tier 3. Mira’s eyes widened and her mouth hung open in shock when she realized what she was looking at. The two drake hounds who had not been caught up in the viscid glob had been butchered. The one on the left looked like he had been flattened into a pancake against the floor. It was almost as if a huge anvil had been dropped on him. The other one had been cut in half vertically instead of through his torso. This was done in only the six seconds or so which had passed since she had sent him into the fray. The minotaur was covered in shiny, metal armor. Mira could only wonder where that had come from. Well, at least, the armor looked like it had been shiny at one point. Currently, the armor was covered in blood splatter as Rak’kar hacked at the trapped warriors. He was bellowing like a cartoon bull while cutting off limbs and knocking aside feeble attempts to block his attacks.
Satisfied that mom and Rak’kar were okay, or more than okay for the moment, she turned her attention back to the drake hound beneath her. He or maybe she, it was hard to say, was prowling around the floor of the trap and waving its sword. They must have drawn it while her attention was distracted. Even with that in hand, their attacks couldn’t reach her. She immediately cast the Flame Fan (48) spell stored in her staff and then cast her go-to spell of Ice Dagger (121). Still, the creature wasn’t dead, only wounded. For the most part, she felt thrilled with her abilities, but she had noted that the higher she climbed in levels, the less her spells seemed to be able to deal damage, especially to single targets. She could still put out a lot against a group but felt like she really needed some more magical answers for a single strong opponent. She decided to think about it later.
She resigned to casting more spells until the darn drake hound fell down. It didn’t come to that though because a few seconds later Rak’kar slammed into the creature. Rak’kar’s bull horns gored the man shaped creature as his momentum drove its body into the wall. Mira felt like her own teeth were rattled by the force of that impact. The drake hound wouldn’t be attacking anyone again. His body was mushed like a rotten apple up against the wall, and the minotaur’s metallic armor was covered in even more gore if such a thing was possible.
Emily’s mind felt shredded from the effort of maintaining enough focus to cast two spells at once. It wasn’t all on her as the mind of the dominated shaman did a lot of the work on casting his Fear spell, but she was still attempting to cast a Tier 3 Charm spell and a Tier 1 Essence spell. She gritted her teeth and bore the strain just as she bore the tiny slices of pain she felt each time the drake warrior’s sword went through her smoke body. She felt the Fear spell go off first and in her mind’s eye felt a wave of nauseating uncertainty roll out from the outstretched staff and hand of her puppet. The same wave washed over the dozen bestial warriors she had previously blasted with the fireball wand.
Each of the dozen began to tremble. It was an odd sight on their mutated faces. Bears, boars, and lynxes were ill equipped to show fear on their faces, yet somehow, each one conveyed that same sentiment. After the trembling came the most disgusting effect of the spells as puddles of liquid began to form at their feet. Shivering and now standing in their own urine, the ultimate degradation struck a handful of those most strongly affected by the spell. The putrid scent of the loads they released into their crudely crafted britches, or in the case of a particularly large bear man, straight onto the ground, filled the air. An instant later, the spell’s power took its final effect, and all ten of the twelve were sent running down the hallway screaming or howling their heads off in terror. The two brave ones remaining had been able to shake off the worst of the effects but were still quivering.
While taking that sight in, Emily finished her own spell and felt the Lesser Regeneration take effect on her. Thanks to the Ring, it also affected Daichi. Ironically, she had been healed to full health between her casting the spell and finishing it because the warriors slain by Rak’kar had caused her to level up. Still, Daichi needed healing, so it wasn’t wasted.
By this time, Jaselm was up and charged into Emily’s attacker with his shield. The bash attack knocked the warrior, who was already weak from blood loss, back onto his tail. After that, a pair of quick slashes ended the creature.
“Thanks for the heal, but when did you learn charm magic?” the paladin asked with a thumb jerked over at the dominated shaman.
“It’s not me. It’s the ring the Throne gave me,” Emily said before quickly continuing, “We need to get Daichi down, but I’m not sure if that saw trap resets or not.”
“I think, given a minute to prepare, I can create a strong enough shield to resist the saw, but I won’t be able to pull him down while doing it,” Jaselm said.
A
t that moment, Emily noticed Mira floating towards them, and seconds later, a massive form covered in armor and blood hopped up from the fifteen-foot pit. She shuddered not at the thunderous sound he made when he landed but more at the thought of how much strength such a feat must take. Emily’s instinctual reaction to the creature’s horrifying image was to think it was another attacker, but then she saw the horns and realized it must be Rak’kar.
Apparently sensing her apprehension, the massive warrior gave a partial turn to a disc on the front of his armor, and with a heavy metal clanking sound, the armor over his head retracted and exposed Rak’kars grim visage.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get up here Mistress, but there were pests to kill below.” Emily couldn’t help but notice that he said it with an entirely straight face, although she was far from being an expert in minotaur facial expressions.
She then explained to all of them what needed to be done, and while the monk pleaded that he didn’t want anyone else to die trying to save him, he didn’t resist once it was clear she wouldn’t leave him behind. They all followed her instructions, and good to his word, Jaselm was able to hold the saw back while Rak’kar’s incredible strength pulled down the trap that had the monk pinned to the wall. A couple of quick healing spells later, and he was standing up. The loss of blood still made him a bit woozy, but the magic healed most of that.
While they had been freeing Daichi, Mira and the dominated shaman had been tasked with killing the two frightened beast warriors. The creatures tried to run away, and it took a number of spells. But in the end, between the damage from the fireball and a couple of spells from each of the casters, the two fell.