As Brahm stepped out of the portal he found himself in a wide tunnel. The walls looked naturally formed, with jagged rock walls and uneven floor. The only light was that of the gateway behind him, which cast a diffuse purple glow maybe thirty feet down the tunnel. Brahm took three steps forward and one to the left, holding his shield and axe at the ready.
As soon as Lila joined him, she activated her stealth ability, as did Mace. Because they were in the same party, Brahm could see the faint outline of each of them as they moved to either side of him.
Shari and Layne stepped through last, and the group stood still and silent for a moment, listening. When nothing attacked, Mace spoke first.
“Alright. This tunnel is wider than I’d like, which is going to make mobs harder to contain.”
The others looked around. The tunnel was wide enough for the five of them to stand shoulder to shoulder.
“You guys hang here while I scout ahead. Lila, you can join me, but stay behind me and be prepared to run if I say so. We don’t know what’s down here.”
The two moved forward, Mace fading into the darkness. He moved silently but quickly. Listening for Lila, his drow ears could barely detect her movements behind him.
They moved forward maybe fifty yards before his darkvision showed him a split in the tunnel. Two forks moved off at approximately forty-five-degree angles from the main tunnel, making it a big Y intersection. The good news was that both branches were much narrower.
In party chat, he said “Safe to move up. Fifty yards.”. Then he whispered to Lila. “Wait for the others. “I’m going to check them out.”
He moved forward at a jog to the intersection, stepping first into the right-hand branch and proceeded a short distance. Crouching down, he held his breath and listened. The only sound he detected was the movement of his group behind him. After half a minute, he retreated and did the same in the left tunnel.
This time, he heard some scratching noises. Shari and the others had caught up, and were standing silently. Though he could hear Brahm breathing. Mace returned to them, and whispered. “Sounds on the left. I’m going to seal the right, then we’ll go.”
With the group right behind him, he stepped back to the right-hand tunnel entrance and spoke the trigger word: “Frigus!”
Moving his hands quickly, he spread a sheet of ice across the width of the tunnel. He didn’t take the time to make it thick, as anything breaking through would make enough noise to alert them.
Their backsides secured, Mace led them down the left tunnel, moving slowly and watching for traps. They hadn’t gone far before the noises became loud enough for the others to hear. Lila, whose halfling ears were nearly as good as the elves’, whispered, “I hear clicking. Like fingernails on a table.”
The moment she spoke, there was a roar that was at the same time low-pitched enough to rattle their gear, and high pitched enough that all but Brahm held their ears and groaned in pain.
Both the roar and the clicking noises grew closer as whatever was ahead of them charged. Just as the high pitched noise ended, Mace threw a light globe into the distance ahead of them. What he saw surprised him.
Mutated Mountain Mole
Level 45
Health 19,000/19,000
Mace could only assume that the ‘mutation’ was that the mole was the size of a Volkswagen. Its snout was surrounded by sickly green tentacle-looking things that waved in the air as if searching for something while the mole sniffed the tunnel, its head moving side to side.
The clicking sound was obvious now. Its front paws each had four ‘fingers’ that ended with claws as long as his forearm. The sharp points dug into the stone floor like it was mud.
Shari immediately started firing arrows at its face as Brahm stepped forward and roared a challenge at the creature. Mace and Lila moved to opposite walls and activated their stealth abilities before advancing toward the creature.
The mole rushed forward, aiming straight at Brahm, who was already swinging his axe horizontally toward the creature’s face. Mace took a few steps forward, planning to get behind the mob and leap onto its back. But as he and Lila drew level with its head, the thing stopped abruptly.
With a few quick sniffs, it suddenly whipped a forepaw out at Lila. She leapt backward, but one of the claws raked her leg, leaving a gash from hip to knee. She cried out and fell, sliding to the ground just in time as the creature’s snout slammed into the wall where she’d just been standing.
Mace wasted no time. Focusing on the thing’s fur-covered face, he shouted, “Infier!” The beast turned its head toward him just as a fireball struck it at point-blank range. The mole screamed again, and the high-pitched sound caused all of them, including Brahm, to stagger.
Gritting his teeth, the minotaur leapt forward and buried his axe into the mole’s face. The blade sank about halfway into its snout, stunning it and ending the screeching. Layne paused in her playing to dash forward and grab Lila, pulling her back behind their tank. Mace tried again to move behind the creature, and it turned toward him. The swipe of its claw barely missed the drow as he leapt upward.
Shari called out, “It’s a mole! It’s blind. It can hear and smell you!”
She cast Life of the Forest on Lila, then fired another arrow at the mole’s face. Layne changed the tune she was playing, and the mole suddenly seemed sluggish and confused.
Mace didn’t waste any time taking advantage of the bard’s debuff. He leapt atop the mole’s back and slammed both daggers into its neck, one on either side. He used the blades as handholds to remain on the creature’s back as his enchanted dagger shouted into his mind.
Yesss… feeeeeeed!
The dagger didn’t kill the monster immediately, though it did seem to cause it great pain. It bucked and reared in an attempt to shake Mace from its back. When that didn’t work, it rolled to one side. Mace went with it, and was promptly crushed against the wall of the tunnel as the beast’s momentum pressed its bulk against him.
The crush damage quickly claimed fifty percent of his health, and jarred him loose. He managed to hold onto his daggers as the mole rolled away and got to its feet again.
Mutated Mountain Mole
Level 45
Health 5,000/19,000
With surprising agility, the maddened monster mole shot forward, slamming its head into Brahm and scattering the group as it bulled its way past them all. Lila, who’d been on the floor already, got stepped on and screamed in pain as the bones in her foot and leg crunched under the beast’s heavy paw.
Mace rolled to his feet and cast another fireball at the creature.
“Infier!”
The ball of flame struck the mole’s hind end, melting its small tail and catching its fur on fire. The initial strike didn’t kill it, but a few ticks of fire damage later, the monster stumbled, then fell. With a final screech, it stopped moving.
Shari, Mion, and Layne all set to work immediately, trying to heal Lila. The bard played her regeneration tune while Mion perched on Lila’s shoulder, casting heals on her. The halfling whimpered in pain as the rents in her skin were repaired and she watched her bones knit back together.
Mace took a knee next to the rogue. “I’m so sorry. I should have realized that it would smell us. I know moles are blind, but that didn’t even occur to me.”
Shari poked him with her elbow. “Shut up, dork. None of us made the connection. You’re not the only with a brain here.”
Mace took the rebuke with a grim nod, reaching out a hand to help Lila to her feet.
“You want to loot it?” he asked. The traumatized halfling shook her head. Mace didn’t blame her.
He stepped down the corridor and looted the monster’s corpse. Along with the usual claws and teeth, which in this case were very, very large, he received a stack of ten mutated mole meat.
Lila sniffed, then set her shoulders straight.
“Friggin’ oversized rodent tried to eat me!” she grumbled. Then she smiled. “But instead, I got
two levels!”
Shari snorted as Mace chuckled. Their concern for the little halfling greatly reduced. Though she was a full-grown female of her race, her size made it difficult not to think of her as a child.
Brahm grunted at her. “Tougher than you look, small one.”
Lila grinned at the minotaur, whipping out her blades and twirling them in each hand. “I’m tougher than you look, big fella!”
“HA!” Brahm bowed his head in respect. “Let us continue. There may be more oversized rodents to kill.”
The group took up their positions and continued. Mace left the light globe moving ahead of them. With blind monsters that could hear and smell them, there was no point in hiding the light. Another hundred yards or so down the tunnel, it turned sharply to the right. Mace placed himself against the wall and peered around the corner. A short distance away the tunnel ended in a cavern. From what he could see, there was a ledge that looked out over the large space. He motioned for the others to hang back and crept forward. When he reached the ledge, he crouched low to look over the side.
The ledge was about thirty feet above the floor of a wide cavern. The ceiling stretched above him maybe two stories higher with dozens of stalactites hanging down. But he only glanced at it to make sure there were no threats hiding above. The creatures on the cavern floor were what drew his attention.
After staring for a moment, he motioned for the others to move forward. For the benefit of those without darkvision, he sent the light globe high across the cavern to stick to one of the stalactites.
When the others reached him, Layne gasped and Shari just shook her head. “Nope. Uh-uh. Time to go check the other tunnel.” Lila nodded her head in agreement, looking a little green. Brahm just stood silently observing the creatures below.
There was a colony of ants, which covered the cavern floor like a moving carpet. The only open spaces were a stream that cut across the floor, fed by a waterfall with a small pool near the far edge.
To one side, there was a frenzied pile of the insects swarming over a large mound. As the group watched, part of the pile collapsed and the half-cleaned skull of one of the giant moles was exposed. The ants were quickly stripping the corpse clean.
“Notice the size?” Layne asked as they watched. Mace paid closer attention. One of the ants crawled across the skull, covering about a third of it with its thin, segmented body. He used his Identify ability on the ant.
Mutated Fire Ant Worker
Level 23
Health 4,000/4,000
“Something is causing the creatures down here to grow to abnormal size,” Brahm stated the obvious. “They are individually weak. But there are many of them.”
Lila whispered something so quietly that Mace couldn’t make it out. He looked at her with a question on his face. “Lila?”
She turned to look at him. “Treasure.”
She pointed across the cavern to the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Now that Mace had lit the chamber, they could all see the reflection of something large and glittering under the water. Lila’s rogue instincts had her leaning forward, almost reaching toward the prize.
Mace chuckled. “I suppose we’ll have to find out what’s down there, or Lila will never forgive us.”
He teased the rogue, but they would have had to take on this colony anyway. This was a dungeon, after all. When it came to dungeon mobs, if you couldn’t make friends with it, you had to kill it in order to clear the dungeon.
Mace looked at Shari, who was still shaking her head. “We have to. You should summon the pig. He might as well get some xp for this too. Just keep him behind us.”
Shari considered it for a moment, then agreed. She summoned Snuffles, who immediately began to sniff around. When he looked over the edge of their perch and saw the ants, his tail went down and he backed away slowly. Brahm nodded his head. “Wise pig.”
Mace took a moment to think, then said, “Okay, we can’t go down there and fight them, they’d surround and overwhelm us in seconds. We need to use our height advantage. Kill as many of them as we can down there in our first strike, then defend this ledge as they climb up at us. They’ll be able to climb the walls on either side of us too.”
Layne spoke up. “I can slow them down and give you more time to kill them before they reach us.”
Brahm nodded and just stepped toward the edge, axe in hand. He took a couple of experimental swings of the massive weapon, sweeping it across the ledge at his feet. Lila likewise drew her weapons and moved to one side of the ledge near the wall. Shari drew her bow.
Mace focused on the mass of creatures below. Each ant was roughly the size of a dog. They were packed so closely together, he doubted they’d be able to pull just a few and burn them down in small groups. They needed a devastating strike that would kill hundreds of them at once.
They were called fire ants. In the real world, that just meant their bites burned like fire. But if he knew anything about game mechanics and the twisted sense of humor of the devs, these creatures would either be able to spit fire or be immune to fire damage.
He could use ice to freeze them. Water and ice were generally more effective against fire-based mobs.
Looking down at the wall below them, he had an idea. Uttering the trigger word, “Frigus,” he began to coat the wall below the ledge in a layer of ice. He spread it slowly, working out from the center and making sure not to let the ice spread down too close to the ants.
When he was done, he looked at Shari. “You said you can add wind magic to your arrows, right?”
Shari nodded, catching on to what he was thinking. “If I wait ‘til they’re close to the top, they might crush some others when they fall.”
Her statement triggered another idea.
“Can you use earth magic with your arrows, too? Like, could you use one to soften rock?” His voice grew excited.
Shari looked thoughtful. “I’ve never tried that. But based on what the Commander told me, maybe?”
She turned and faced back down the tunnel. Pulling an arrow from the quiver at her waist, she nocked it and drew back on the bowstring. After a moment of concentration, she loosed it at the wall.
The arrow struck with a thud and stuck several inches into the stone. Mace walked over and poked at the stone surrounding it. It seemed as hard as ever. “You got penetration, but it didn’t soften the stone.” He reported.
“Hmmm… maybe if I worked in some water?”
Shari nocked another arrow. This time, she concentrated a bit longer. When she released the arrow, it shot past Mace’s face and struck the wall near the first. This time, though, it penetrated nearly to the fletching. Mace poked at the wall and found the rock immediately around the arrow was spongy.
“Yes! Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.”
He quickly outlined his plan to the group. Heads nodded all around and Shari laughed. “Only a geek like you would use science to beat a dungeon.”
“You think my brain is sexy.” He stuck his tongue out at her. She just rolled her eyes and turned away, raising her bow.
Mace got back to business. “What’s your max range with that bow? Can you hit the ones on the far side of the cavern?” Shari smirked at him and took aim. A moment later her arrow streaked across the air and struck the farthest available target. Mace nodded his head. Focusing his magic, he uttered a trigger word he hadn’t used often. “Magmus!” pushing his hands toward the far end of the cavern, he channeled the magic gently. The stalactite that he focus on began to heat up. After a moment, it was beginning to glow with a faint reddish hue. Shari drew her bow again as Mace said, “Aim for the base, as high as you can.”
Shari didn’t acknowledge him, focusing on her arrow. After a moment, it took on a slight frosty sheen. She fired the arrow and it sunk deep into the base the of the stalactite Mace had been heating.
The ice spell on the arrow met Mace’s heated stone and a blast of steam erupted around the arrow. There was a loud crack, and several hun
dred pounds of stone fell the fifty or so feet to the cavern floor.
Only a few dozen of the ants were crushed by the initial impact, but the stone shattered, sending sharp bits of shrapnel in a radius of several feet around the impact site. In all, maybe a hundred of the creatures were killed.
Shari, Mion, Lila, and Snuffles all leveled up. The ants were of a similar level to them, and a hundred at once gave them a solid xp boost. Mace and the others, being higher level, got nothing.
The group watched as the ants went into a frenzy. The deaths of so many of their number had them seeking an enemy. They swarmed over the bits of rock scattered around the impact zone. But no connection was made to the adventurers. Mace grinned. “Okay! Next! We’ll keep dropping them until they’re all dead or they realize it’s us.”
Mace heated the next stalactite, this one only a few feet from the last. When it began to glow, Shari shot it, just as before. This time, when the stone struck, the death toll was higher. The ants were still swarming around the other impact zone, so the second missile’s impact caught many more of them than the first. A keening sound went up from the entire colony as they began to search more frantically for their attackers.
Mace quickly started on the next one, then the next, and the next. He and Shari dropped tons of stone on the frantic mobs, moving from the far side of the cavern toward themselves with each one. In a panic now, the ants began to climb the walls all around the cavern. Larger, darker versions emerged from a hole near the center of the floor and spread out. Brahm pointed them out “Those must be soldiers. All these others are workers.”
Shari nodded. “Which means the queen is down in that hole. How many more of these things are down there?”
Mace heated the next one, purposely choosing one off to the far-left side. “Let’s hope not too many more. If the queen comes out, we’ll attack her directly.”
Shari shot the stone and it collapsed, falling directly onto the corpse of the mole creature. The hundreds of ants still swarming around the thing were either crushed or killed by the combined stone-and-bone shrapnel that erupted from the epicenter. Injured ants from each of the drop zones were being dragged by their fellow workers toward the hole as soldier ants continued to pour forth. There were at least a hundred of the bigger ants now.
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