Survivors

by Dave Willmarth

  Troll-ling Staff

  Quality: Epic

  Stats: Stamina +6, Charisma -1, Mana Regen x2

  This staff was formed using the bones of a mother troll and the heart of her offspring. Infant trolls are born with the same regenerative abilities their parents possess. But they also have significant magic stored within them. They burn this magic to grow to adulthood in just over a week. The heart of this staff will lend its magic to the user, regenerating their mana at twice the normal rate. However, the staff’s repulsive appearance causes a dip in the user’s Charisma.

  Jo looked at Griff as if asking “why me?” before gazing back at the weapon.

  Griff chuckled. “I know it’s repulsive. But it doubles your mana regeneration. Making you basically an unending firestorm. And if anyone can overcome a slight Charisma loss, it’s you.” He winked at her, causing her to blush slightly.

  The group checked the other four rooms as they passed, still looking for elusive hidden chambers or caches. Finding none, they continued down the hall.

  They ran across half a dozen more individual trolls over the next hour as they moved deeper into the second level. Finally they reached another set of stone doors. These were massive, twice the height and width of normal doors. The etchings on the stone showed a battle scene in which dwarves fought against trolls. The left-hand door was partway open, so Griff peeked inside.

  He saw a wide round room with bare walls and no other exits. In the center of the room was a pile of debris formed into a giant nest. Lounging in the nest was a female troll larger than all the others. Standing, she would be about six meters tall. But based on her bulk, Griff doubted she could stand. She was half as wide as she was tall, and was happily munching on a troll leg.

  Stepping back from the door, he whispered to his group, “This could get ugly. There’s nothing in there to hide behind and she’s four times the size of any troll we’ve seen. Just as hairy, so she’ll probably burn. But when she explodes, so will we. And who knows how long she’ll last or how much damage she can do before that happens.”

  He thought it over for a minute or so, thinking back to other, similar boss fights he’d seen from other games.

  “Okay. This is going to be a moving fight. I’ll tank her, you all try to stay off to one side. Leroy and Jo, stay as far back as you can without getting out of casting range. Leroy, pay attention to our health levels. And have a mana potion ready. Jo, hit her with fire as often as you can. If she moves or turns, run. Get out of range.”

  With everyone clear on the plan, Griff opened the door wide. The boss ignored him, as he was still outside the room.

  Troll Matron

  Level 35

  Health 7,000/7,000

  Griff charged into the room, yelling at the top of his lungs. The matron turned her gaze to him, dropping the remainder of the leg she’d been gnawing on. With a roar, she defied Griff’s expectations and pushed herself to her feet. Her massive belly and breasts sagged in front of her as she picked up a piece of the debris from her nest and hurled it at the dwarf.

  It looked like a bedpost, but in her hands, it was barely more than a toothpick. The heavy chunk of wood slammed into Griff’s shield, nearly breaking his arm with the impact. He stepped over it as it hit the floor and continued to move forward, though not as fast.

  “Is that all you’ve got, ya big tub o’ nasty smells?” he shouted. She swung a meaty arm at him, each of the claws at the end of her fingers as long as his arm. He dropped to the floor to avoid the swing, then popped back up to his feet. Running forward, he sliced into her leg with his axe. The blade sunk deeply, grating against the bone. But as soon as he removed it, the flesh began to heal.

  He was taking another swing just to piss her off and keep aggro when he heard the fireball hit her. There was the whoosh of the spell shooting across the room followed by the wet squelching sound as it impacted. She screamed as her fur caught fire. Griff finished his swing, then stepped back quickly to avoid being burned.

  Lisa had been to one side with Meg, both of them hacking and stabbing at the matron’s other leg. They too backed off when she caught fire. Griff looked up to check on their progress.

  Troll Matron

  Level 35

  Health 4,900/7,000

  They’d already taken a quarter of her health. He moved farther back as she took another swing at him. She was slower now, possibly because she was having a hard time seeing through the flames that engulfed her.

  He took a swipe at her hand it as passed, severing a finger with his axe. The burning digit fell to the floor and twitched. He moved to the side and waited for her to take another swing. Jo kept hitting her with fire. Spell after spell streaking in to impact her face or body. Skin, muscle, and fat began to melt off of the matron, running down her body and pooling at her feet. The nest around her became saturated, then went up in flames as well. All the cloth, wood, and other combustibles increasing the heat. Griff and the others were forced further back.

  When she hit fifty percent health, she let out a roar. Half a dozen trolls came crawling down the walls from somewhere above. At the same time, she went into a frenzy, swiping her arms back and forth almost too quickly to see. If Griff had still been in range, he likely would have died from a single hit.

  “Run to me!” He shouted at the group. All of them dashed in his direction, trolls hot on their tails. He took up a stance so that the matron was to his left and he was just out of range of the frenzied blows.

  When his party was behind him, he activated shield bash and knocked the first troll at an angle, directly into the matron’s range. The next swipe of her claws destroyed the troll and set its parts on fire. A few of those flew into and past Griff, right into the path of the other oncoming trolls. They had the awareness to stop short or jump over the flaming bits.

  Griff shouted, “Jo!” and she began once again flinging fireballs.

  With all five trolls burning and doing their best to eat his face, Griff made a desperate move. Waiting for one of the matron’s claws to come his way, he timed his move and dashed straight toward her. The claw passed in front of him, and he continued as fast as he could. The burning trolls followed. He has less than four seconds to make it inside her range. He didn’t quite make it. Though the next burning hand passed behind him, her forearm clipped his head and knocked him down. His UI immediately showed a ‘stunned’ debuff with a 30 second timer, and his health bar dropped nearly 50% from the glancing blow.

  The trolls that followed him hadn’t been so lucky. In their rage, they’d run right into their matron’s swipes. They were blasted by the sharp claws, pieces of them sent flying across the chamber.

  Griff lay there, between the growing pool of burning fat that was expanding from the nest and the kill zone of swiping claws. With his stunned debuff he couldn’t move, so he looked up at the ceiling and waited for the thirty seconds to pass. Jo resumed her fire attacks on the matron, knocking off a few hundred points of health with each one. Leroy cast heals on Griff, bringing him back to one hundred percent as he lay there.

  The matron’s frenzy wore off two seconds before Griff’s debuff. He could only watch as she attempted to take a step forward, intending to crush him with a bubbling, melting foot. Her first step landed in the growing pool of melted tissue just as another fireball from Jo hit her in the face, causing her to lean backward just a bit. Her foot slipped in the burning fat and skidded out from under her. The massive troll fell backward, arms windmilling and roaring in rage. Griff’s stun wore off and he rolled away from the wave of burning fat that was surging his way. He didn’t escape it completely, and his armor was coated in the stuff. The stench itself could have taken health points from him as he continued to roll. The fire penetrated the openings in his armor and deep fried his skin on contact. Leroy once again cast heals on him. His health bar fluctuated up and down between forty and sixty percent.

  As he was struggling not to burn to death, Meg and Lisa ran around toward the matron�
�s head. She was attempting to rise, her elbows planted as she tried to push her body up. Her eyes were long gone, cooked away by the fire.

  Meg removed her throwing spear from her bag and hurled it with all of her dwarven strength. The short spear penetrated a ruined eye socket and sank deeply, the shaft disappearing inside her skull. Lisa ran toward the matron’s neck, intending to cut into the flesh to find a vital artery. But the heat and the dripping, burning fat kept her at bay.

  Finally Meg retrieved her halberd and charged toward the matron’s head. She drove the point of the spike into the giant troll’s ear and pushed with all her might. Lisa took hold of the shaft and added her strength as well.

  The weapon finally broke through some inner membrane to penetrate the troll’s brain. Her body went limp and her head fell back to the stone with a resounding crack. She continued to burn, but she was dead.

  All of the party members leveled up again. Griff’s health was restored to a hundred percent and his burns healed. Leroy, who had been all but out of mana and struggling to keep Griff alive, let out a cry of relief. His mana was back to a hundred percent as well.

  The others all moved to Griff and used their blankets to smother the burning fat that was still scorching him in places. Then Lisa poured some water over him to cool him down. Leroy cast a last heal, and they all sat to deal with their attribute points.

  Griff was now level nineteen, and not far from twenty. The others were only a few levels behind him now. They’d need to get back to the village and the trainers there so they could update their skills and spells.

  They waited while the boss burned herself out. It took quite a while. She never exploded like the others, which Griff considered a blessing. He sent the others around, looking for secret doors, or some way out that didn’t involve walking back up. He was still partly covered in boss fat and didn’t want to tempt the butterflies.

  While they looked, (and Leroy quietly scooped up several more handfuls of troll goop,) he looted the boss. She dropped an impressive three hundred gold and some silver, a purple-and-silver-outlined item, plus several epic-quality gear drops. He put it all in his bag, then inspected the purple item.

  Troll Matron’s Heart

  Unique Quest Item

  Present this heart to Ag’thar, Chief of the Falling Water Clan.

  Reward: Unknown.

  The others all stood straight for a moment when he accepted the quest and it was shared with them. The moment he accepted, two things happened. The queen’s body and nest disappeared to reveal a large, shining metal chest. And a portal appeared at the back of the room.

  Griff and the others gravitated toward the chest. He inspected it.

  Mithril Guild Storage Chest

  This chest can serve as a secure storage vault that can only be opened by authorized guild members. Chest holds up to five hundred items. Identical items will stack up to one hundred times per slot. Item is currently unbound, and can be sold or given to a third party through the auction house.

  Griff whistled to himself. This thing, had he found it six months ago, would have sold for enough platinum to allow him to buy a small keep somewhere. And staff it for a year. If he’d sold it in the real-world black market he could have bought himself a car.

  He reached down and opened the lid. Inside were bags of gold, silver, and copper. Along with a blank guild charter document, a blank guild seal, and something called an anchor stone. A window popped up that allowed him to see the chest’s entire inventory. There were supplies one would normally need to found a guild. Piles of resources for building – stone, wood, iron, blueprints, and seeds for farming. There were a few skill books as well for the crafting professions. Another row was all ingredients and recipes for crafting; Alchemy, Smithing, Enchanting, etc.

  Another screen superimposed itself over the inventory.

  Would you like to bind the Mithril Guild Chest to you at this time?

  Yes/No?

  Griff felt a little overwhelmed. He clicked the ‘No’ button and closed the chest. If anyone were going to start a guild, it would be Mace. He used his UI to move the chest into his inventory. Though it was only one item, it took up ten slots in his bag. Not surprising, considering how much it contained.

  “Okay, folks, let’s get out of this place. I don’t know about you, but I could use a bath.” He headed for the portal, which he hoped would drop them up at the dungeon entrance.

  As they stepped through that was exactly where they found themselves. They were just outside the crevice. A quick look at the dungeon gate showed it was a solid unmoving grey, where previously it had been swirling purple. The dungeon was clearly closed for now.

  They retraced their path from that morning, heading basically straight toward the waterfall. When they got within hearing distance of the water, Griff broke into a run. When he reached the pond at the bottom of the falls, he dropped his shield and axe and simply cannonballed into the water - which turned out to be a mistake, as it was deeper than it looked.

  His armor promptly dragged him down about ten feet. Deciding he didn’t care, he proceeded to scrub the troll goop off of himself. When the oxygen timer on his UI began to get low, he walked toward the bank. He had to grab hold of some roots and water weeds to pull himself upward, but eventually got his head high enough to take a breath. Meg held out the butt end of her weapon and he grabbed hold. They both pulled and he was able to climb up onto the steep bank.

  Feeling much refreshed, he picked up his gear. The others declined to copy his dunking technique, so they continued south toward the orc camp.

  It was late afternoon by the time they reached the camp. The same scout who had escorted them that morning appeared from behind a tree and greeted them. “It is good to see you have all returned. Welcome back.” Without further discussion, he led them through the burial ground and into the camp.

  Ag’thar was waiting for them, sitting on a pile of furs near the central fire. “The dwarves have returned alive!” He raised a fist in the air and the orcs cheered for their guests. Griff saluted the chief with fist to chest while Lisa made a very English-looking curtsy.

  Ag’thar motioned for them to sit and his face grew serious. “But have our guests completed the dungeon? Or did they find it too difficult to defeat the monsters inside?”

  Griff replied, “We defeated giant bugs, man-eating butterflies, and more smelly trolls than I want to remember. Including this one.” He pulled the purple quest heart from his bag and offered it to Ag’thar.

  “Ho ho!” The chief shouted, taking the heart in hand. “You have indeed conquered the dungeon and defeated a worthy foe! We shall celebrate!”

  The party’s UI’s all lit up with a new message:

  Quest Completed: The Heart of the Dungeon

  You have presented the Troll Matron’s heart to Chief Ag’thar of the Falling Water Tribe, signifying your completion of the dungeon and proving your bravery and skill to the whole tribe.

  Reward: 10,000xp. Reputation gain: +300 reputation with the Falling Water Tribe

  Every member of the party leveled up again, but the fireworks for Griff were more spectacular than normal. Level twenty was a milestone. The pleasure of reaching it washed through Giff as the orcs cheered again and thumped him on the back in congratulations.

  A tap on the shoulder a few minutes later caused Griff to turn and find Lisa a few inches from his face. She cocked her head to the side to indicate the other party members, then whispered, “You forgot to pass out the loot from the boss.”

  Smacking his head, Griff quickly handed out the epic items that had dropped for each of them. Each one was scalable, meaning its stats would grow along with its wearer. Jo got a new robe that gave regen buffs and was ironically fireproof. Meg received a set of troll-bone shoulders with strength and stamina bonuses. Lisa got a jet black bone sword that should have been two-handed if it were metal. But the lighter weight material made it possible for her to wield with one hand. Leroy received a staff made of m
atron bone that increased the power of his healing spell and added a small buff to mana regeneration.

  And for Griff, there was a pendant. The links of the chain were made of black bone, as was the body of the pendant. In its center was a crystal clear liquid trapped in a gem. It was called “Tears of the Matron” but the description was just a series of question marks.

  As it was too late in the day to reach the dwarf village before dark, the group stayed and celebrated with the orcs. They traded some of the items from the dungeon to the orcs, in return for some Ang’bak spirits for the dwarven guards.. Including most of the pill bug meat, which they considered a delicacy. In fact they roasted some of it for the feast that night. Griff and the others sniffed at it, not really interested in tasting it. Especially Lisa, who was still not over her adventure inside one of the bugs.

  But curiosity got the better of Griff and took a bite. The meat was actually tasty. A lot like pork. And when he swallowed, it gave him a four-hour stamina buff of +3. The others followed Griff’s lead and took cautious bites. A moment later they were all digging in with gusto.

  As they stepped back into the guest hut at the end of the evening, Griff and Lisa logged out again.

  Chapter 15

  Up the River Without a Paddle

  Mace and Shari woke late the next morning. They hadn’t set an alarm, as the Sea Sprite was just going to be sailing upriver all day, and they didn’t expect any trouble. The first thing Mace did was throw on some jeans and shoes and get ready to take Dakota upstairs to do his business. When he remembered the dog was gone, he sat back on the bed. Shari rubbed his back and said “I know, I miss him too. It’s amazing how much a part of our lives he became in just a few days.”

  They sat like that for a while, then got dressed and went to make breakfast. Well, mostly dressed. Shari just threw on Mace’s ‘GameLit Don’t Quit’ t-shirt with the Viking honey badger on the front and a pair of socks. Mace kept glancing sideways at her as they walked to the kitchen. She tried not to smile as he pretended not to be looking.