Sounded like an instanced dungeon, to be sure. “And I guess it is impossible to meet another party while in the dungeon?”
Pargu shook his head. “Not impossible, but highly improbable. And still more likely that they’ll actually be creatures of the dungeon, and would fade if you took them out of its magic.”
Urza took up the tale at this point, “I have ventured into the cells thrice myself, and I can tell you that there are only two creatures who I saw each time, the Warden and the Queen. And even then, they were different. I saw the Warden, who I would swear was identical in face and build each time I met him, as first a Warrior, then an Archer, then a Mage.”
I leaned back, considering that. So, it was a randomized dungeon, with an underboss and a main boss, but the two bosses changed classes on different runs. Was that random, too, or was there a pattern to it? Did their classes depend on the party facing them? There was no way to know, unless one ran the dungeon several times. I had a feeling it would be random. This dungeon, from the way it was described, seemed to be designed to keep people from trying to gear up specifically for the dungeon. You would have to prepare for a wide array of threats instead.
Looking to the rest of my group, I grinned. “Well, I don’t know about you, but that just sounds like fun. It has been too long since we went exploring a dungeon for fun, instead of trying to keep the world from ending or eliminating a threat.” Seeing the expressions of the others, especially the other players, they all were eager to check out the dungeon as well.
Shagar shook her head. “Adventurers! Always going off and doing crazy things!”
Urza smiled sweetly at her daughter, and said, “And who was it that foolishly got herself captured while off adventuring, and ended up with an incubus’s baby in her belly because of it?” That elicited a groan from Shagar, and laughter from the rest of us, except for Pargu, who took the opportunity to glare at me again.
Eventually, the conversation wound down, as food and drink made everyone desire a bit of an afternoon nap. Or, in my case, an afternoon ‘get hauled by a pregnant orc to her bedchamber’. Semantics, I know.
When the door was shut secure behind us, Shagar turned to me, and smiled, a bit nervously. “I’m glad you came. I’ve been following your exploits, but it isn’t the same as having someone to talk to, you know? So here.” She pulled out a pair of communication stones, handing one to me. Communication stones basically worked as a kind of magical two-way radio. They were linked in pairs, and allowed long distance communication, as the name implied. They weren’t rare, but they were certainly not that common, since you had to get a new pair for each person you wanted to talk to, and group ‘calls’ weren’t possible. So you mainly found them in guild halls or government buildings, to speak with branches scattered across the country.
I slipped the stone into my inventory, and smiled at her. “I can’t promise I’ll always be around, but if you have a Dark Shrine near here, I’ll visit it before we head to the dungeon. That way, I can always return quickly enough, if there’s trouble.”
She was going to say something else, I’m sure, but I decided that the time for talking was over, at least for the night. I leaned in, and kissed her, while resting one hand on her belly. “Why don’t we ‘catch up’ a bit before the evening meal, hmm? Unless you’re too fragile now for a bit of fun?”
That got a mock growl from the orc, and she looked up at me. “Oh, someone thinks highly of themselves! This time, I’m on top.” I laughed as she pushed me back into the bed, following a moment later.
Chapter 82 – Entering the Cells
The next morning, we resupplied from the village stores, where my being a consort of the princess got us a nice discount, and rode off for the Cells of the Vanished Queen. With the dungeon changing all the time, no one really knew what the lore behind the Queen was. Even the bits of lore they did find seemed to change each time one entered the Cells, some directly contradicting eachother. Other than the Warden and the Queen, the only feature that remained the same was the entrance.
The entrance was two doors made of carved obsidian inlaid with gold and silver, making it look more like a vault than a prison. Above the doors, which stood twenty feet high, and wide enough for six to walk abreast, was written in the languages of the dwarves, dragons, demons, and angels, “Cursed be She who resides within. Never more shall She be spoken of in tales or legends. Let Her Name be Forgotten, never to be known by mortal minds.” Whoever the Vanished Queen was, she pissed someone off so severely that they ‘vanished’ her from history itself.
When I touched the doors, however, they opened easily, as though they were made of paper. Not the best sign, honestly. Dungeons where they are so eager to get you inside are usually not keen on letting you go, later. Still, we entered, and moments later there was a click, like a mechanism falling into place. Turning to the door, I was not entirely surprised to see it gone, and just a plain stone wall remaining there. The only way out was through the dungeon itself.
We were in a prison, all right. Bare stone walls, magical torchlight, and a noticeable lack of places for prisoners to hide if they started causing trouble. Real homey. And the sound of boots announced the coming of the housewarming party! Or maybe it was just a group of skeletons, all level 50. There were twenty in total, all wearing chain armor. Half of them had swords and shields, and took the front line, while behind them were eight archers and two mages. A solid setup, really. I’d admire them more when they weren’t trying to kill us.
This group was slightly more difficult to deal with than the last few undead fights we’d had. Numbers made some of the difference, sure, but one of the mages was apparently a darkness sort, and had a spell that lessened the effects of holy magic on the undead, while the other was a necromancer, and had that spell of Hrozne’s that allowed necros to heal undead. But that just made it slightly more difficult. We still had plenty of DPS to take care of them.
We played it slow, clearing our way through the first floor of the prison, and encountering a very odd array of groups. For instance, the next fight was with a pair of warrior gnolls. Easy fight on the face of it, but in close quarters, where we couldn’t use our numbers, it was more troubling. This dungeon had lots of choke points to control the fight, and keep people from just wiping everything out with numbers.
Another cell had a swarm of giant roaches in it. Unfortunately for the roaches, enclosed spaces aren’t really a problem when someone with my abilities decides ‘kill it with hellfire’ is the way to go. Damn creepy bastards. What would possess anyone to make roaches the size of a human being? If I get a chance to talk to whoever programmed these things, I’m going to smack them straight upside the head.
Easily the toughest fight of the first floor was the miniboss at the end of the cell block. By now, I was convinced that the encounters were pretty much random, but it seems that whatever luck we had came up snake-eyes on the miniboss.
Gretony
Arcane Overlord Slime
Level 60 Overlord (Slime) / Omnimage (Wizard)
Titles: Greedy One, Gluttonous One, Undead Bane, Human Bane, Elf Bane, Orc Bane, Demon Bane, Dragon Bane
“PUNY MORTALS! I GRETONY! I WILL EAT YOUR HEADS AND GROW SMART! SMART ENOUGH TO KILL DOC!”
I grimaced at that. So, we had an intelligent, foot tall slime that could use magic as our opponent. And apparently it was all kinds of pissed at some ‘Doc’, and thought eating our heads would be the key to making itself smarter. Gods, did I want to punch a dev in the junk for this! Seriously, whoever wrote this scenario must have been reading too many webnovels!
This fight was much harder than the others, as I said. For one thing, the slime’s small size made it difficult for all of us to attack it at once, and it used its spells to good effect. It favored fire at range, and lightning for close-in work. Unfortunately, as a slime it was immune to mental effects, and the tentacles couldn’t keep it in place. And it was all but immune to slashing and piercing attacks!
&
nbsp; The only ones who could do any real melee damage to the thing were Nithroel, Kamla, and myself, and even then, only when I coated my blades in hellfire. Kamla’s spellsword class was able to do a similar thing, but she could pick and choose which spells or effects she added to her blades. With that, we were able to do enough damage to keep its attention, while Kylana, Della, and Hrozne used their magic on it. Severa and Yukiko, unfortunately, didn’t have anything to do until the boss was at about half health.
Slime Zombie
Level 50 Slime / Zombie
That’s when it called in adds. From the hallway we just cleared, what looked like every creature from the cells we’d killed on our way here, now with a slime riding on top of their shoulders instead of the head. They moved like ‘traditional’ zombies, since these slimes weren’t exactly intelligent like Gretony was. Still, it was enough to keep those two occupied while we hurried to try and defeat the damn boss.
When the last shred of Gretony’s HP vanished, the slime screamed, “NOOO! THIS CANNOT BE! I… AM… GRETONY!” With that final cry, it dissipated into a puddle of mildly acidic goo, while the slime zombies all crumbled and were destroyed. That fight bumped me up to level 54, in addition to giving us some loot.
Gretony’s Slime Core
Type
Material
Rank
Unique
Taken from a unique slime named Gretony, this slime core can be used as a material component in a number of alchemical or enchanting recipes. It also can be used to enhance an existing item.
As a Component:
+50% to the effect of offensive Magic or Poison effects
As a Weapon Enhancement:
+10 CON
Mana-Leech – Steal enemy MP equal to 3/4 the damage dealt. Regain MP equal to stolen amount.
As an Armor Enhancement:
+10 CON
Damage from all acids and poisons below Divine rank reduced by 90%
As an Item Enhancement:
+10 CON
Overlord – Command and control slimes (total level of Slimes controlled cannot exceed your CHA)
Slimehammer
Type
Warhammer
Rank
Rare
Damage
1 – 500
Damage Type
Bludgeoning
This weapon is disturbingly made out of a large slime that barely holds its shape when wielded. What insane person would make such a thing? What insane person would WANT such a thing?
+100 STR, +100 CON, +100 DEX, - 300 CHA (min 1)
Deals 3x damage to slimes. Increase to 5x damage against slimes in dungeons.
+200 to all Stats in dungeons
Invulnerable – Weapon is immune to all damage, and cannot be destroyed.
Cursed: Binding – Once wielded, cannot equip any other weapon.
Slime Breeder’s Guide
Type
Tool
Rank
Uncommon
This tome is the perfect gift for anyone who has ever wanted to breed an army of slimes. Or, y’know, just keep a collection of slimes that create an endless supply of booze, potions, or other such things. Whatever you want, I suppose.
+40% to Taming attempts to tame slimes.
Slime Knowledge – Gain knowledge of all known slime types and evolutions.
Force Evolution – Force a slime that meets certain prerequisites to evolve into a new form. Costs 500 MP. 60% chance of failure, resulting in slime’s destruction.
…
What? Just what the hell? OK, fine, I can see someone thinking that any of this would be a good idea. The unique material was awesome, and I was keeping that for my own gear at some point. But the rest? Just no. The hammer and the guide would go to the auction house. I really didn’t want to deal with stupid crap like that.
All right, after I’d taken some time to purge thoughts of the stupid items from my head (a process requiring me to pull Severa into my lap for a quickie), and we’d all healed up after the fight, I stood, and sighed to the others. “I just hope the other bosses aren’t going to be this stupid. Sure, the fight was challenging, but a Slimehammer? Really?” Ok, so maybe I wasn’t quite as over it as I thought.
The second floor was pretty much like the first. We were greeted in the entrance hall with a war band of goblins. Thirty of the green skinned menaces. They weren’t nearly as disciplined as the undead group starting off the first floor, however, so while their ten archers and shamans were a bit of a problem, as soon as Severa and Kamla got into the back lines, they were quickly too busy to try shooting at us. Dealing with the warriors was a piece of cake once they weren’t being supported by the shamans.
As before, we fought our way through the cells, facing a random assortment of enemies in each one. The most memorable was, however, the second to last cell, where a Lust Demon and a pair of succubi were present, wearing little more than bondage gear. I stayed back through that fight, letting the others have their way with the temptresses. It really went against my gamer instincts to stay out of a fight, but there are some fights you just aren’t equipped for. And for me, dealing with beautiful temptresses would be that kind of fight.
A brief interlude with a pair of dwarves (who I quickly took my frustrations out on), and we were through the cells. Only a single door remained, this one carved out of obsidian like the last one. It was clear that we were coming to the boss room. From what we had been told, through here we should be able to find the Warden, and the Queen. The Queen was supposedly an optional fight, but if one survived it, they could gain great rewards.
After making sure we were all at full health and mana, I pushed the giant obsidian doors, and was unsurprised when they opened for me at the slightest touch. After all, dungeons were supposed to let you into the boss room when you found it. We entered the room, weapons drawn and ready, expecting a fight. What we saw was something that will probably haunt me for years.
And all I could think was, “We seriously don’t have enough fire for this shit.”
Chapter 83 – The Warden
The Warden
High Elf Male
Level 60 Bladesinger (Fighter) / Sanguinis Domini (Wizard)
Titles: Dark Ritualist, Blademaster, Bloody One, Human Bane, Insect Bane, Spirit Bane
Queen Euphoria
Ant Spirit Queen
Level 75 Queen Spirit (Spirit) / Shaman
Titles: Queen Spirit, Broodmother, Dungeon Master
I was severely unenthused with this whole place. Sure, the poncy elf with the fancy rapier and the mithril armor was fine. Nice, standard boss fight. But everything else? Oh, HELL NO!
The whole room was like the inside of some kind of insect hive, with cocoons that clearly had human-sized ‘larvae’ in them. From what I could see, they actually WERE humans (and elves, and orcs, and others), and were in the process of turning into insects! And there had to be hundreds of the things, at least!
But that wasn’t even the worst of it. On one wall, tied down with chains that looked like they could keep a rhino in place, and engraved in glowing runes, was the ugliest creature I have ever had the misfortune to meet. Picture an ant body, the size of a Buick, with a humanoid torso where the head should be, all deformed like some kind of weird insect, complete with mandibles and compound eyes. And it was clearly female, once.
I felt that I really ought to be commended for keeping my breakfast down as I turned to look at the poncy elf. He was dressed in fine clothes, like a nobleman of some sort, and wore a mithril breastplate over a suit of mithril chain. In one hand he held a wicked-looking rapier that seemed to glow with power. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THE GODS HAPPENED HERE?” I may have been a bit put out by the whole thing. A bit.
The Warden sighed, and then sneered as he spoke in a condescending voice. “What do you think, incubus? There was a lovely tea party, you missed the first part, but you’re still in time for cake.” He paused for a moment, and then said, “The Invae came,
their swarms a precursor of the Terrors. They do not come from this plane, but require hosts to consume and take over. What you see around you is all that remains of a mighty kingdom.”
“It started with a weakling mage, a foolish apprentice who sought shortcuts to power. He summoned the first of these creatures into the body of a rival, and was consumed himself in time. They preyed upon the poor and the homeless, those who wouldn’t be missed as they built their numbers. And finally, they attacked the palace directly.”
“With blades and fire we cleansed all that we could, but in the fighting, the Queen was taken. What was left of the Royal Guard and I tracked the fiends to a cavern on the edge of the kingdom, near the White Rock. We fought with all our might, but one by one we fell, no matter how many we killed. And that was when we found what they had done to our Queen. With no hope of rescuing her, and no hope of victory, it was decided that we should trap these Invae here, so that they could never harm the outside world again.”
Rules-Free VRMMO Life: Volume VII: The Tribeslands Page 7