Keeper

by Tom Larcombe

  “Bubbles, come on out,” Becky said, once they were in the dungeon.

  The large rat crawled out of her sleeve and up onto her shoulder. Eddie blinked again, the thing was larger than he'd remembered and he quickly did what he didn't think to do the last time he'd seen it.

  Evaluate, he thought, staring at the rat.

  Bubbles

  Type: Animal(pet)

  Adult Rat (Male)

  Level: 3

  Armor: 18

  Health 25/25

  Attack: 17 (3)

  Dmg: 1-2/1-2/2-5

  Status: Pet

  You are currently unable to obtain more information about Bubbles with Evaluate.

  “So, where did you guys go after I disappeared last time?” Karl asked.

  “We headed down the stairs, tracking you until I didn't see any more tracks,” Eddie replied.

  “So, you never checked this last door?”

  Eddie shook his head.

  “Then I know where we need to start,” Karl said. “Someone get the door for me.”

  Karl shimmered and disappeared into stealth. Eddie noticed that it was easier to figure out where he was here indoors than when he was outside.

  I remember, we're both more specced towards outdoor adventuring, Eddie thought. I wonder what the difference is for me? Obviously, shorter range on my bow, but there's got to be more than that.

  He stepped forward and opened the door for Karl. He assumed the scout had entered the room and received conformation a moment later.

  [group chat: Karl – Not much here, some decayed furniture, some bones—]

  Karl's group chat broke off with an audible yelp from inside the room.

  “Skeletons,” Karl cried out a moment later.

  “You already said bones,” Allie replied.

  “No, animated skeletons, undead, you know, hostiles?” Karl yelled.

  As he was speaking he came racing back through the door. Jern stepped over towards the room Karl had just vacated. Eddie, knowing that skeletons in the game would take minimal damage from either his sword or arrows, reached into his inventory and pulled out some old friends that had been neglected for a while.

  He slung two of his throwing sticks over the pommel of his sword and gripped the third, ready to hurl it when the skeletons showed.

  “Blunts, people,” Allie said, pulling out her battle ax.

  She caught Eddie's curious glance and, since the skeletons weren't out yet, took a moment to explain.

  “My ax does mixed blunt and slashing,” she said. “Closest to straight blunt that I have.”

  He nodded, then caught sight of an ivory white set of bones walking through the doorway with a jittery motion. Even before Jern got off a strike, Eddie hurled his throwing stick. It slammed into the skeleton's skull, making it even more jittery for a moment, then Jern struck. The dwarf's hammer slammed into the skeleton's rib cage, knocking several ribs right out of the monster.

  Tiana strode forward until she was right behind Jern.

  “I got this,” she called out.

  She began to chant, holding a hand up over the dwarf's head. A few seconds later her hand began to glow and a few seconds after that, the light was practically blinding, even though most of it was directed away from the party.

  With the glow causing them to turn their heads to save their sight, no-one saw the result, but they heard the clatter as a mass of bones fell to the floor, clattering as they slowly went still.

  Jern glanced in front of him now that he could see, then turned and dipped his head to Tiana.

  “Priestess,” he said.

  She simply smiled.

  “I never had a chance to use that spell before, it's only good against undead and these are the first ones I ran into,” she said.

  “Well now,” Allie said. “Spiders, undead, I wonder what else is in this dungeon. If that's all it's got, then this might be easier than I'd feared.”

  “As long as you give me enough time to regenerate mana between fights,” Tiana said. “That one has a rather high cost. Almost a fifth of my mana at eighty points.”

  “Wow,” Dominic said, “You've got almost as much mana as I do. You're level eight, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Then it looks like priests and wizards get about the same,” he said.

  “Well, my mana is based on my wisdom and I've put the majority of my stat points there,” she replied. “So if you've done the same with your intelligence, then yes.”

  “I've left off a few here and there that I probably should've put into intelligence,” he said. “So I guess wizards do get a few more.”

  “Makes sense since priests get some basic combat skills as well,” Tiana replied, “but let's get to the dungeon, shall we?”

  “Just waiting for your mana to regenerate,” Allie said.

  “Not necessary. We know the next thing should be spiders, right?” Tiana replied.

  “Um, yeah, it should be.”

  “Then let's go.”

  “Wait a moment,” Becky said.

  “What?” Eddie asked.

  “Would you like me to scout this next one out? See if there's all those spiders there again?” she asked.

  “You have stealth?” Eddie asked.

  “No, I have speak with animals.”

  She chanted for a moment, then set Bubbles on the floor. She spoke for a moment, a chittering sort of sound coming from her mouth, before Bubbles scurried off towards the stairs, disappearing from sight before he reached the top.

  “Huh, so I guess rats get stealth also,” Eddie said.

  Allie shuddered for a moment at his words, then shook her head.

  “I don't even want to think about it,” she said softly.

  A minute later Bubbles was back, Becky chittered at him again and listened closely as he replied, then she stood.

  “There are a lot fewer spiders now, one rear paws worth of claws. Which is to say five. Also, there's no web across the doorway now.”

  She stopped and looked at Bubbles before continuing.

  “Well, at least none at one foot or lower, I doubt Bubbles looked any higher than that.”

  “That's fine, great even. I wonder if Light Online does first clears? It sounds like that might be what's going on,” Allie said.

  “First clear?” Karl asked.

  “Yeah, the first group to try to clear a dungeon tends to get the max number of mobs and the like that it can provide, but they get a bonus when they finish. I was just wondering if this were that since there are so many fewer spiders this time. It could be that we got the first clear on that room and now it's respawning to a smaller number.”

  It was Karl's turn to shudder.

  “How many were there last time?”

  “Thirty, maybe more?” Eddie said, “and they were huge, nearly the size of my torso.”

  “Um, I'm gonna bring up the rear here. I'll stay in stealth and backstab anything that tries to sneak up on us, okay?” Karl said, a hint of green to his face.

  ~ ~ ~

  They headed down the stairs, one of Tiana's lights as far in front of them as she could manage. It turned out that there was a partial web in the door, but it only filled the top two feet of the doorway so far.

  Once everyone was ready Dominic hit it with a create flame spell, the most basic of his fire spells. The webs immediately ignited and once they'd burned down enough, Jern raced into the doorway, Eddie and Allie taking position on the first step up from him so they had a clear line of sight into the room.

  There were several dark blobs scurrying about the room and when Tiana sent her light inside the doorway, they were revealed as spiders. They weren't quite as large as the ones they'd found last time, but Eddie was still happy to fill a couple of them with broadhead arrows. Allie was firing as well and before long they'd killed four.

  “Five?” Eddie asked Becky.

  She nodded and chittered at Bubbles. The rat chittered back.

  “One on the
ceiling, or at least there was, right inside the door,” she said.

  Jern raised his shield over his head and stepped through the door. A moment later a large spider, just as large as the ones they'd found the first time, dropped down onto his shield. Dominic grunted, chanted, and before Eddie could nock and fire an arrow, the spider burst into flames as a fiery arrow struck it. A single arrow from Allie finished it off and Jern tilted his shield, dumping the dead, burning spider onto the floor.

  “That was much easier than last time,” Allie said.

  “Yeah, but the rest of the dungeon won't be, unless someone else found it and cleared it in the meanwhile,” Eddie said.

  She winced, apparently already rather attached to getting the first clear on this dungeon if that was a a thing in the game. Eddie moved over to where the chest had been last time, but only found a handful of coins mixed in with a bunch of bones where the chest had been the last time.

  “Not much,” he said. “Just some silver and copper this time.”

  “Well, let's keep going,” Allie said. “Karl, you ready to scout now?”

  Karl shimmered into view.

  “Yeah, but if I see any more that size,” he said, pointing to the charred remnants of the spider on the floor, “I'm coming right back and letting you kill them first. No backstab on that kind of critter, they need to be at least roughly humanoid.”

  “Okay Karl,” Allie said, smirking.

  Eddie's estimation of Becky rose another notch as the druid leaned over and spoke to her rat, who proceeded to scurry down onto the floor and across Allie's foot. Allie shrieked and jumped back, then turned and glared threateningly at Becky as Bubbles returned to his owner. Meanwhile Karl stepped between the two women and looked at Allie.

  “But if I find any rats, I'll kill them before they can get to you,” he said with his own smirk.

  Allie's face went through several emotions rapidly before settling into a neutral look. She rolled her eyes and turned away from both Karl and Becky. Karl quickly mouthed “Thank you” to Becky.

  “Someone needs to open the door they want me to go through,” Karl said, then shimmered and disappeared.

  Since there was only one door visible in the room, Eddie went over and started to open it, but it was locked.

  “Wait, did you want to check for traps on this first, maybe use your pick lock skill so I can open it for you? It's locked,” Eddie said.

  Karl faded back into view with a groan.

  “Way to destroy a dramatic exit, man,” he said softly to Eddie.

  Karl knelt in front of the door and pulled out some tools.

  “No traps,” he said a few seconds later, “at least none I can see.”

  He worked his tools into the lock and less than a minute later there was a loud click in the otherwise quiet room.

  “There, now give me a minute, then open it,” Karl said.

  He put his tools away, then shimmered out of view again. Once he had, Eddie pushed the door open. In the quiet he heard the sound of splashing liquid.

  He walked back over to the rest of the group.

  “I don't know what he'll find, but I think I heard water down there. That's not encouraging since I think we're already under the level of the lake.”

  Allie shrugged.

  “We'll see,” she said. “Give him a few minutes, then we'll go after him if he isn't back.”

  Karl was back a minute later.

  “Stairs down, then more undead,” he said. “Plus some sort of underground pool. I didn't see any other exits, so they might be underwater. Some of the undead were in the water also.”

  “Undead?” Tiana asked.

  “Yeah, both skeletons and zombies this time and let me tell you, they could've skipped some of the realism on the zombie stench.”

  Tiana made a face, scrunching her nose.

  “My spell will work by type. Do you want me to hit the skeletons or the zombies?” she asked.

  “Anyone know anything about zombies in this game,” Eddie asked. “Specifically, will swords and arrows work better on them than on the skeletons?”

  “They should,” Dominic said. “Maybe not full damage, but a lot more than on skeletons.”

  “Okay, Tiana should hit the skeletons with her spell then?” Eddie asked.

  He got nods from most of the party.

  “It's a plan,” Allie said. “Karl, what kind of room was there to move around down there?”

  “There's a fairly big ledge, rounded edges, crumbling a bit near those edges. There's a staircase that continues down into the water, but I obviously didn't check that out. The ledge goes about twenty feet to either side of the stairs.”

  “Alright Eddie, you and I on ranged support. Dominic, if you see anyone far enough out of the water for your fire to work, target them. Jern, take the center position where we go down, Tiana you're right behind Jern so he can cover you while you cast. Dominic behind them on the stairs. Come down far enough so you can see, but not far enough to get into melee with these guys. Becky, keep an eye out behind us. You can take attacks of opportunity if you see any. Okay everyone?”

  The nods that greeted her signified the party's assent and they quickly moved towards the door with Jern in the lead.

  As they went down the steps Eddie was behind Jern, ready to peel off to the side once the dwarf picked his defensive position. Jern was nearly to the water when Eddie saw the ledge Karl had talked about. Eddie split to the right while Allie went left. Tiana stepped up behind Jern, and Dominic stopped several steps higher. Becky looked irritated as she stopped several steps behind Dominic, but she kept turning her head to look behind them. Tiana, who had let her lights extinguish so they could move into position undetected, cast another light spell over Jern's head.

  In the light Eddie saw at least seven skeletons and nine zombies. The ledges where the party was were clear, but there were undead standing on something in the water. Something that let them keep their torsos and heads above the water. When they saw the lights the undead submerged and Eddie watched the ripples that signified them coming closer.

  The first one up was a zombie. Allie and Eddie both released at the same moment, the arrows taking the zombie from either side. Jern gave a wild swing of his hammer that slammed into the zombie's head, caving it in. The zombie collapsed back into the water, staying still after it fell.

  As more undead came up out of the water, Eddie kept firing. He saw Allie doing the same and Dominic tossing the occasional fiery arrow at zombies that had come all the way out of the water, dragging themselves up onto the ledge.

  Once the last of the skeletons had come out of the water, Tiana released her spell, the bright light spilling over the undead and slowly shattering the bones of the skeletons over the next half minute.

  With the skeletons down, Tiana started healing Jern. The dwarf was bleeding in several spots by now, but once his health started going back up, his swing regained vigor. Within a few minutes from when the last skeleton had dropped, the zombies were all down, their corpses floating in the water.

  Eddie looked around the room. As Karl had said, most of what he could see was a pool of water.

  “Now what?” he asked.

  Tiana gestured and sent her lights out as far as she could from herself, then moved them around in a semi-circle at her maximum range.

  “Wait,” Becky called out.

  She'd come down after the fight was over.

  “Back it up a few feet,” Becky said.

  Tiana obliged her and Becky pointed.

  “Right under the water level on that wall. Is that a lever?” Becky asked.

  Eddie could barely see what she was talking about. There was something there, but he couldn't tell if it was a lever or not.

  “Maybe?” he said.

  “I don't know about any of you, but I'm not swimming in this water,” Karl said.

  “No need,” Becky replied. “Do we want to pull that lever?”

  “Assuming it is one, I
can't think of anything else,” Allie replied.

  “I got this,” Becky said.

  She chanted for a moment again, then Bubbles slipped out from her sleeve. She chittered at the rat and he immediately dove into the water, swimming towards the spot Becky had pointed out. Before he'd gotten too far, she chanted again and Bubbles grew to almost half again his normal size.

  “Animal Growth?” Dominic asked in an interested tone.

  While Dominic sounded interested, Allie actually averted her eyes from the enlarged rat.

  Becky nodded to Dominic, but kept her eyes on Bubbles. When he got to his destination, the rat put both of his rear claws on top of whatever Becky had spotted, then used them to push himself out of the water, using his front paws for balance against the wall, but not putting any weight on them.

  For a long moment, nothing happened, but then a grinding noise emanated from the wall near the rat and Bubbles sank back into the water. For a minute Eddie thought he was imagining things, but then he looked at the wet spot on the wall in front of him.

  The water level is definitely dropping, it's just going down slowly, he thought.

  There was a loud thump from somewhere in the water and then the water started draining more rapidly, just as his notification light started flashing. Eddie quickly pulled up his notifications.

  Hidden Quest (non-repeatable):

  Sunken Leisure

  Fishing and swimming are leisurely activities, but currently Rat Lake is not suitable for either. It is infested with zombies, and since you closed off the access to their lair, they can no longer return home from the lake.

  Destroy all of the zombies in Rat Lake to make it safe once more.

  Reward: 2500xp, ???

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Freyja nervously entered Odin's hall. She'd avoided it since angering him, but when his summons came she couldn't ignore it. He was the ranking god, even if he'd been distracted for a long period of time. She was just glad he hadn't thought to summon her in the midst of his rage. She knew he preferred acting and not thinking, especially when his rage was upon him, so she'd thought it safe enough, but now she had no choice. She'd been summoned.