Of Magic and Dungeons [IC/PG-16/Accepting]

[radio414 903]

Estellise said they needed to “gather more information” but what sort of information was there even to gather? Unless there was something magical about the dais or the chests that he overlooked like a magic trap, for example, Chris wasn’t really sure there was much more to look at. He missed Estellise conjuring more light until she was already tossing the ball upwards and he realized his mistake. The only solace he took was that he was correct in his assumption that the Dungeon would never have been so kind.

“I advise we step away from the treasure for the moment,” Estellise also said, and to that Chris didn’t need to be told twice. One of the chests had started rattling the moment the monsters appeared, too, which just made Chris more cautious of being near it while his attention was elsewhere. He drew his sword and stepped away, scanning the ceiling for the next attack.

Really, the monsters weren’t any more out-there than, say, the mushrooms from their previous expedition. The flying around and swooping down at people did make them significantly more alien in his eyes, but only in that one sense; he could still comprehend their existence. They were like giant weird bats, he thought. Besides, just because they were alien didn’t mean they couldn’t be hurt, though -- Lana swinging her axe around proved as much, knocking one of them to the floor, and Chris charged after it, lunging sword-first into the leathery mass.

[Doggo 218]

Estelle's magic was ready after her initial shock at seeing the strange monsters attacking them. Lana had been quick to swing her axe about, quickly injuring two of the five squids. But three of them were still in the air and all seemed interested in the mage's face. The Fereis was able to shoot one out of the air with a light arrow but the other two were nearly on top of her by the point she had fired. There wasn't enough time to fire on both so in a panic Estellise squatted down to enchant her shoes. Now with an actual athlete this enchantment would have let them move effortless about the room with great speed. But for the mage who had committed very little of her life to physical training it was just enough to get out of the way of the two attacking dark mantles with an awkward dive to boot.

The ground was no place for a Fereis mage but Estelle was more thankful to not have those teeth lodged into her face at the moment with the several feet of room she had given herself to work with. Her physical movements were anything but graceful in this position as she managed to get first onto her backside and then finally began the process of getting to her feet. The goal at this point was to simply not have to repeat this maneuver and so she readied her aim again to fire on the two who had attacked her.

[LordCowCow 840]

Chris's sword pierced the body of the darkmantle. The creature spasmed but only for a moment before dying. As life fled from it the creature flattened down to the ground and slumped over. Becoming little more than a leathery floor mat before Chris.

The other one that only had a simple cut across its cloak started to stir. It lifted itself off the ground and began to float at waist-level. Then it darted towards Lana again to wrap its cloak around the girl's legs.

As this happened they'd hear a noise above them as three more darkmantles detached from the ceiling and made their way downward.

The two remaining that had come after Estellise continued to fly in her direction. Their movements looked strange. More like swimming through the sky than flying. Had any of them ever seen a jellyfish this would be reminiscent of that. When Estellise let loose another arrow and struck one of them it dropped to the ground but then got back up. Moving much less stably than the other. The third one continued its path undeterred. Almost like it didn't even register that two of its kind had been struck down by its target.

The treasure chest sat. Unmoving. As treasure chests do.

[radio414 903]

Okay, one down, Chris thought as he withdrew his sword from the deceased darkmantle. Or, at least, he hoped it was deceased; it was difficult to tell with things like that. When he turned to the rest of the fight he saw that Estellise had hit at least two more, and another had just engaged with Lana. So things were okay so far.

Of course just as soon as he acknowledged any of that, three more detached from the ceiling and came swiftly down. From below, Chris realized, their gaping maws looked almost like that starfish-esque monster he had blown up that morning. Of course, they only had two bags left, so he wasn’t about to suggest anything out loud, but it did at least remind him to aim for the center bit as he chased after the one Estellise had tagged down, but not out.

Was that his role now? Clean-up duty? Not that he minded, just he probably had to make it known to the other two adventurers in the room. “If you can’t kill them quickly, just- mmmph!” Chris grunted as the shock of impact ran up his arm, his lunge striking true yet again. He recovered quickly enough, though. “Just bring them down to our level and I’ll be right over.”

[Skaia 578]

Lana kept her eyes on the two dark mantle that she had been engaged with, pleasantly surprised to see one of them be pelted by a dagger and killed. Her joy that there was one less of these creatures to deal with was almost immediately replaced with a sense of dread as she heard more scurrying about on the ceiling. The girl looked up briefly, looking at the trio of monsters that had just appeared out from the darkness with a grossed out expression on her face. However, her attention quickly snapped back downwards as the dark mantle that she had originally attacked went to attack her. Quickly grabbing her axe with both hands yet again, the girl swung the heavy weapon to the side, intercepting the dark mantle in the air. With a combination of force from the swing itself as well as the blade cutting into the creature, she had managed to fell it as it was launched away from her and to the ground. 

Looking back up to see the three descending, Lana didn't think she had enough time to get her axe ready to swing again and she certainly didn't have the time to do it twice. So, instead, the girl pulled out one of her hand axes and hastily tossed it at one of the dark mantles. Her aim was poor but effective enough, the axe more or less bouncing off of the diving creature and changing the course of its fall to be away from both her and Chris. With two still left in the air, one going after either of them, Lana panicked as she started to walk backwards, dragging her axe across the ground in the process. Flailing her free arm at the air to knock the dark mantle away, knowing she didn't have any time to attack again, the girl shouted to the roguish boy, "it's here, it's down, kill it!" 

[Doggo 218]

Estelle's aim was proving functional but not effective as much as the situation felt it called for. Impairing one of the creature's ability to move was all well and good but that left the other on its path to attack her, and three more had joined the fray to attack her friends. Frustrating as that was, the mage had to be sure not to get injured herself before helping the others was feasible. With the still stable dark mantle closing in the Fereis changed her stance and began channeling the light between her hands again. This time instead of forming an arrow a column extended upwards and took shape as the woman clapsed her hands around it. She had formed a blade of light.

"It cannot be that hard." She muttered under her breath at the thought of swinging a sword, even if one of her own creation. The rather unathletic mage had never been trained in anything so base as the martial arts or swordsmanship so it came as no surprise to any observer that her swing on the creature lacked any form or mastery. It was a wild swing and even that much might have been generous. Still, it managed to gash the webbing between the tendrils, causing the creature to move more erratically to try and stay airborne. That she had hit it all was a boost of confidence that proved dangerous when her continued wild and uncoordinated swings failed to follow the altered movements of the monster. After enough attempts the creature had wrapped several of its tentacles around the mage's right arm and was beginning to wrap the rest of its body around the appendage. Estellise shook her arm vigorously to attempt to dislodge it before the mouth could find her flesh to no avail. She still held the blade of light in her off hand but lacked the confidence to use it without lopping her own arm off.

There was no form or training to the mage's next maneuver. While skilled in evocation she artificially restricted herself to using light. It was graceful and proper of a lady of the Fereis to use elegant magic. But what Estellise needed at the moment was not grace but raw power. Magic surged into the hand wrapped up in the dark mantle followed quickly by the sound of stray sparks. With a final push a small explosion erupted and shook the area. But much more importantly, the force had ripped the monster off of Estelle's arm. In fact it had more shredded the monster to now scorched pieces. The mage would have been relieved if she had kept her balance. The force of the blade had knocked the woman to the ground with a thud. A moment passed before the pain set in and the mage looked in dismay to see burns setting in up and down the length of her arm.

"Not my brightest idea." Estelle berated herself but there was little time to care about herself immediately. She still held the blade of light in her other hand and there were still three of the creatures left in the room. It wasn't difficult to ready the sword as a longer arrow which she aimed from her space on the floor at the last of the new arrivals that had yet to make a move for either of Chris or Lana's positions. She let the blade-turned-projectile fly while fighting through the pain in her arm.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Doggo

[LordCowCow 840]

The darkmantle that Lana had hit was still on the ground almost in a daze. As the girl called out to her companion the creature started to move forward. Creeping along the floor towards Lana to attempt to wrap around her leg instead.

If Chris wanted to finish it off he'd first have to do something about the other darkmantle that was heading for him. Flying just above head-level and preparing to descend on Chris. It unfurled its cloak and aimed its mouth towards the young man and he would be able to see the monster's rows of teeth set into a circular mouth.

The third, which had been delayed by Lana's thrown axe, hesitated for a moment before moving towards Lana again. Diving for her head just as the other one was coming for her leg.

Estellise's arrow came flying towards it at the same time and pieced the monster. The arrow went right through its cloak and it stuttered and drifted to the side before making its dive-bomb at Lana.

Meanwhile both of the chests were immobile. Wait did one move? No. It did not.

[Skaia 578]

Having been freed from the assault of the two darkmantles, if only briefly, Lana was able to take stock of the threats that were coming at her. One darkmantle was diving from above, already injured from the arrow that Estelle had fired, and one that was diving at her leg. Looking at the two gross creatures Lana was feeling her instinctual "smash everything," in her fight or flight instincts, but didn't think she would be able to smash both at once. So, deciding that she didn't want her head to be eaten, opted to attacking the one above first. 

Grabbing her axe with both hands, the girl hefted the bladed weapon up and cleaved into the floating creature. Her blade split through it and with its weight and the force of her swing spiked the creature towards the ground. With it dead, Lana's head was safe but her leg was much less so. As the second darkmantle wrapped itself around her leg the girl was suddenly knocked off balance, letting go of her great axe and being sent to the ground. Feeling her leg being dragged towards the creature's maw, as well as thoroughly grossed out by the feeling of having this creature wrapped around her, the girl brought out her second hand axe and began swinging at it. Though she tried to swing at it, she was far too conscientious of not trying to cleave off her own leg, that she ended up just striking at the air around her rather than the monster itself. So instead, switching to whacking it with the pommel of her weapon shouting, "get off you gross mouth, umbrella thing!" 

[radio414 903]

Chris heard Lana yell “It’s here, it’s down, kill it!” from down the room and saw that indeed there was one just right there for the stabbing. The moment he saw that, though, problems arose, and already the plan was starting to fall apart.

The primary problem was that it was based on the assumption that he, Chris, was not going to be attacked by anything, that he could just run around cleaning up fallen enemies without hindrance. The presence of a looming darkmantle right above his head demonstrated why that was wrong well enough. Chris was sure that if he dared look away, the monster was going to munch his head clean off.

Well, it wasn’t like he could run upwards. But he could jump, and that was the same thing, right? That was what was going through Chris’ mind as he leapt up as high as he could, putting as much force as he could behind his outstretched blade as he aimed right for the darkmantle’s open maw.

It didn’t work, or, at least, it didn’t work as well as Chris had been hoping. The monster either anticipated or was able to react to the action, and wrapped itself around the blade, keeping his sword from going too far in. When Chris landed, the sword and the monster were still attached, and the monster was looking for more, starting to wrap its tendrils around Chris’ arm.

Whether what happened next was instinctive or just Chris channeling his inner Lana he would never be able to answer, but Chris responded to this incursion by seizing the hilt of his sword with both hands and whacking the monster against the ground like a hammer.

The tentacles stopped moving after the first hit. It took three or four more until Chris was definitely sure the thing was dead.

[Doggo 218]

With arrows flying true and companions striking at the downed creatures, Estelle was pleased to see the monsters being progressively vanquished. There were scares on both sides to be certain. Chris managed to stab a creature enough times to finally put it down and Lana was about to do the same. Or that's what the mage thought. She saw the creature had wrapped itself quite securely around the woman's leg to the point using her axe in the tradition manner could cost her the limb. The mage got to her feet, careful not to trip for the hurry, as she made her way to Lana's side. She was still trying to prod the creature off to little success but Estellise swallowed her pride and sense of disgust and grabbed onto the head-like end of the monster to try and extend it off of her companion's leg. Her index and middle finger on her right hand began glowing brightly as she pulled the monster into position despite its thrashing.

"No sudden movements Lana." Estelle grunted as she felt the magic ready to fire. Not but a moment later the ball of light pulsed brighter and shot through the eye of the monster it had been pressed up to and clean through the other side out another of the eyes. This the Fereis mage repeated some few times until the monster went limp and yielded to her grip. With a fair bit more stretching of the disgusting flesh she was able to pull the monster off of her friend's leg before she ultimately tossed it as far from both of them as possible. Estelle did her best to forego falling to the floor again as she caught her breath before offering Lana aid to stand. No sooner than her friend was standing again did she immediately channel more magic and sent some eight or so additional light spheres into the room and up to the ceiling. These the mage circled about to light every crevice of the ceiling but the search found nothing. The balls dimmed some but didn't disappear immediately as the mage didn't trust the dungeon to not still be hiding something.

"Well...  I wonder if they might have left us alone if we had just moved on." Estelle pondered aloud as the three regrouped. There were still two mysteries at least to uncover in the room. The issue of the treasure chests that had yet to disturb them while they were fighting. There was talk of what to do and ultimately the chests were to be investigated and opened if possible. But Estelle had decided to stand behind the others as they investigated, magic ready to fire at any unwanted guests that might appear.

[LordCowCow 840]

The entire fight had been oddly quiet. The darkmantles didn't seem the type to make much noise so most of it had come from the adventurers themselves. Once the fighting had ended though the silence grew even more until they decided to move to the chests. They decided as a group that Lana and Chris would open the chests at the same time.

It would take Chris a bit more time to open his as the closed chest was locked shut. However he found that the lock on it wasn't all too complicated and was able to be sprung with only a bit of effort on his part. Lana's chest was much easier to deal with as it was already partially open. Invitingly so.

As the lock on the chest Chris was working on sprung the lid popped open and when he looked inside he saw an oddly shaped key. Which looked to be of the same metal on the lock that was on the door that presumably led to the staircase.

However it wasn't so simple as that. As Lana grabbed the lid of her chest and flipped it open the chest began to shake. And suddenly a pair of arms shot from inside of the chest. Scaly and three-fingered they looked thin but with large hands and each of them grabbed onto Lana's wrist. She noticed the chest lid had changed. With teeth forming above and below the arms that had grabbed her. A large purple tongue lolled out and went to wrap around Lana's neck. With the intent to drag the girl into the empty space of the chest.

[Skaia 578]

In spite of the fact that she had been trying to strike the darkmantle and get it off of her leg with her axe, as the noble woman came and told her to not make any sudden movements Lana complied. A nervous look on her face as she practically stiffened up, worried that if she did do anything that whatever magic Estellise was going to use would do something wild and painful to her. As the creature was speared through with pure light the girl gave out a sigh of relief. Shivering in light disgust from the feeling of the creature being pulled off of her, Lana took Estelle's hand to stand up and said, "thanks for the help. That was...gross." Lana couldn't help but feel that the dungeon was filled with a bunch unsettling and disgusting creatures, wondering why there were so many of them. Why not something like a goose? Sure, they weren't the prettiest bird out there but they were aggressive enough to be like a monster and likely wouldn't make Lana feel like she needed several baths after fighting. Letting out a sigh again the girl said, "well, we did it gang. We cleared this floor and now all that's left is the treasure to claim! Nothing to stop us now from getting them."

As Chris went to go pick the lock of the closed chest, Lana looked at the chest in front of her. Clapping and rubbing her hands together, a smile formed on the girl's face as she bent down to open it. "Now, let's see what you've got inside." Grabbing the lid of the chest the girl opened it further, only for the chest to start shaking. "Eh?" The girl's confusion was only amplified as arms stretched out of the chest and grabbed at her own. Stunned for a moment by the suddenness of all of this, Lana could only let out another, "Ehh?" As the arms started to pull on her, a tongue then stretched out to pull at her neck, teeth forming around the lid of the chest. Pulling her closer, the girl's eyes went wide as she started to pull back in a losing tug of war. "Chriiiiiiiiiisssss! Essssteeeeeelllllle!! The treasure's trying to eat me!" 

Edited December 25, 2020 by Skaia

[radio414 903]

It took some doing to get his sword untangled from the darkmantle, but Chris managed after a bit. He didn’t have to rush, after all. All the monsters were dead. He did feel a little bad that his plan hadn’t actually worked, like he was responsible for the final darkmantle wrapping its way around Lana’s leg. Estellise had gotten there in time, so it had all worked out, but still…

Assuaging Chris’ fears, of course, was the treasure! Of course, he was still suspicious about the Dungeon’s generosity, but now that they had dealt with (hopefully) the primary threat of the floor, that was lessened as well. He gave the closed chest another kick too, and those feelings all but disappeared when nothing continued to happen.

In fact, the only resistance the chest seemed to offer at all was a pretty simple lock. It was like one of those locks people used when the only thieving they were worried about were thefts of convenience, the type that might as well not exist where Chris was involved, especially when he had his lockpicks on him.

Which he did.

A few deft nudges to the pins inside the mechanism and suddenly the minor obstacle was not an obstacle at all. Moments later, Chris threw open the treasure chest ready for whatever reward the Dungeon offered. It was a key. An odd key, and one that was definitely going to be useful, but Chris still couldn’t shake a feeling of irony about the whole thing. Still, he held it up over his shoulder for his friends to see. “Well, that was fun,” he said. “What’s in y-”

He was cut off by Lana’s scream. “Chris! Estelle! The treasure’s trying to eat me!” A fantastical claim if it wasn’t true; when he looked over, he saw that that treasure chest, previously basically identical to the one Chris had just picked, had sprouted arms and teeth and was now trying to put its new monstrous features to good use.

The situation didn’t leave much time to think. Chris dropped the key back in the chest and sprinted across the dais, unsheathing his sword mid-stride as he closed in on the rogue chest. He drew it back, then, in a wide overhead arc, brought his sword crashing down on one of the chest’s arms.

It felt like chopping through wood, and though his sword managed to get most of the way through the arm, leaving just a few veiny strands connecting the two segments, it didn’t release its hold on Lana.

“What even is this thing?” Chris said.

[Doggo 218]

This particular room of the Dungeon seemed intent on ever surprising Estelle. For even standing by, ready to intercept something from out of the chest, as she was she was still taken aback at what unfolded. Chris' chest opened without issue. But Lana's suddenly had arms and a mouth and was attempting to eat the woman. Lana's cries filled the room as Chris sprung into action, attempting to cut the limb nearest to him off. The man's confusion of what this monster could even be was well founded when the arm acted more like wood than flesh upon contact with his blade. Estelle's first thought was to try and pull Lana out, but she doubted she much had the strength herself to accomplish such a task. Her eyes looked back to Chris' blade and a mage's solution came to mind.

"Chris! Again!" Estellise called attention to her teammate as she sent a spell his way. It rested upon the man's blade, bestowing it a soft glow. This was an enchantment, bestowing the concept of sharpness to the blade. This was something the blade already had of course by virtue of being a blade but the magic would help it go beyond its natural capabilities. Chris had no complaint with the plan and moved swiftly to deliver the follow up blow. WIth the enchanted weapon, the limb was completely severed, leaving only one hand clasping onto Lana. Or at least that was what Estelle had assumed. But the severed hand still clung to her body. Still, it couldn't be doing much for pulling and this time a very non-mage solution came to mind. Chris seemed to have it just as readily as he and Estelle both grabbed onto Lana. With their combined exertion they were able to pull the woman out before the tongue inside the chest had found its way around her neck. Estelle found herself on the ground from the sudden release of the tug of war but her focus was on Lana's well being.

"It did not hurt you did it?" the mage asked in alarm as she tried to process the string of events. She could see no immediate injuries but whatever magic had brought life to a chest could just as easily attack in unseen ways she thought. Instinct was taking over at this point that despite freeing her friend she was naturally shuffling her way back from the monster and dragging the now-rescued Lana with her to avoid a repeat of the previous scene.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Doggo

[LordCowCow 840]

As Lana was pulled backwards away from the monstrous chest she was able to be freed from its grip. Mostly. The arm remained hanging off of her. It didn't move and it simply stuck out at an angle. Looking more like a branch sticking out of a tree than a monster's arm sticking out of an adventurer.

The chest quivered for a moment, almost as though in anger, before it started to move. It began to rise up into the air. Supported on strange limbs. They were thin and bent in a different direction than a human's would. Looking more like a bird's legs, complete with talons at the bottom, than a human's. Yet, like the arms, they had a wood-like quality to them

These legs lifted the chest up to six feet in height. The creature didn't make a noise beyond a rattling noise as it took a step towards the group. Without a sound it lifted its good arm and went for a grab around Chris's wrist. Aiming to grab the arm that held his sword. Its tongue didn't stretch out like before but hung just over its teeth almost like a panting dog. Though it was clear that it would be able to use its tongue like a limb as it had tried to before.

[radio414 903]

A lot of things happened at once and many of them were not good. Like, Chris was able to get one of the treasure chest’s arms completely off with Estellise’s help, but the thing just sprouted two more huge, birdlike appendages that grew the monster to even taller than he was. Estellise was able to pull Lana away from the thing, but that just meant Chris was now the center of attention, and, with its one remaining arm, it moved to swipe at Chris’ wrist.

He did have a magic sword now, though, so maybe it was still more good than bad. “Whoa, you can’t have this, this is mine,” Chris said. He wasn’t able to avoid getting his arm grabbed, but he was able to swap the sword over to his right hand. Chris grit his teeth. He could see why Lana had had problems. Not only had she been caught off-guard, the treasure chest’s one remaining arm was, well, if he hadn’t already experienced its more wooden nature, he probably would have described it as “bony”. “Branchy,” maybe?

Not that Chris had time to think about it. He had a sword to swing. It was a little awkward, between the grappling and using his off-hand, but Chris did manage one decent swing, which, thanks to Estellise’s magic, cleaved most of the way through the outstretched limb. “Most,” was not all, though, and the creature still had enough arm to start pulling Chris towards its open maw.

Chris made a noise something like “Uh.” The initial pull got him a little off-balance. The treasure chest was still pretty strong despite missing one and a half arms. “Uh!” The second utterance was a combination call for help and exerted force, as he wrenched back his sword for another swing. If this didn’t work, he thought, he really hoped one of the other two was there to help.

[Skaia 578]

Lana stumbled back as one of the arms that had been holding onto her was severed, as well as being yanked away from its mouth. Looking at the creature somewhat fearfully, Lana then looked over to Estelle saying, "th-thanks for the save." As the noblewoman then asked her question, Lana shook her head saying, "no I'm pretty sure I'm alr- Ah!" She yelped as she realized the creature's arm was still attached to her. Shaking her arm vigorously, the hand attached to her not moving at all, the girl then moved to pry it off. Letting out a grunt as she pulled, the arm didn't seem to be budging any and Lana eventually gave up on pure brute force. Looking back to Estelle she said, "well, I guess there's this? But it doesn't hurt any and isn't getting in the way of anything so -" 

She was cut off at a distressed "uh!" suddenly echoing through the room. Seeing that Chris was in a similarly terrible situation to what she had just recently been in, Lana grabbed at her axe,  getting ready to charge the creature. Before she did, however, Estelle first seemed to cast a spell, funneling some kind of magical energy into Lana's weapon. Looking at it in awe, the girl smiled brightly saying, "thanks Estelle! Now then..." Looking more aggressively towards the mimic, the girl shouted, "hey you! Let go of him!" Stepping forward, Lana brought up her axe and swung it right into the back of creature's faux treasure chest head. The creature froze for a brief moment, allowing Chris to slash through its arm and fall back to the ground safely away from the impending doom that was the mimic's mouth. Then, in a sudden burst of speed, the mimic whipped its head around, wrenching lana's great axe out of her hands as a result.

Stumbling forward as this happened, Lana let out a frustrated grunt before righting herself. Frowning at the creature as it seemed to take great interest in looking to eat her, Lana shouted, "fine, you want to take my axe from me? Then here's another! Hiyah!" Taking her hand axe out, the girl chucked it at the mimic, this time embedding the axe in the front of the head. Stumbling forward, head weighed down by axes and no hands to speak of, the mimic fell to the ground. As it did, it lashed out its tongue, looking to grab onto Lana with it which resulted in an all too familiar, "uhhhh!" 

[Doggo 218]

With both of her allies' weapons enchanted, Estellise took stock of the flow of her magic to make sure it was stable. The last thing she needed was another explosion, particularly with her magic now so close to her friends' faces. As the others engaged the mimic, largely robbing it of its arms and plant an axe or two into its body, the Lady Fereis focused herself and readied an attack. With the monster on the ground and flailing it's tongue at Lana she was ready to act. The thing's mouth was agape and the mage readied the familiar light magic between her hands. She had a fairly easy target and so she launched the first first of several projectiles. Each struck through as they pierced the inside of the monster, filling it with holes the more she fired. It's tongue relaxed and life seemed to be leaving it.

"One can never be too certain..." Estellise said hesitantly as she observed the beast. Just to be sure she conjured what appeared to be a hammer above the beast made of light. This swung down fiercly onto the top of one of Lana's implanted axes, forcing the blade of the lodged weapon deep into the mimic's core. This was the nail in the coffin needed and the monster fell limp and dead. Only at this point did the woman relax and release her spells. All at once vanished the further lighting of the ceiling and room, any trace of the weapons of light she had summoned, and the enchantments on both Chris and Lana's weapons. With a long sigh the noblewoman's posture slouched for a moment before turning back to her friends. "Are either of you injured?" she asked, blatantly ignoring the burns covering her own arm.

[radio414 903]

Chris had never realized that treasure could be so dangerous. Like, he knew there were personal risks to taking things that weren’t yours and he’d obviously heard legends of cursed stuff that could never be gotten rid of and slowly killed you, but neither of those were as direct as a treasure chest literally sprouting arms and eating people. He did feel a little vindicated, though, for assessing that there was something wrong with treasure chests out just being out in the open like they were. It helped him ignore the pain as he wrenched his wrist from the treasure chest’s detached arm.

“Are either of you injured?” Estellise said. 

Chris looked down at his wrist. The struggle had left some cuts, but they were the kind that came about when a scratch managed to break some skin. There was crimson, but he wasn’t bleeding. To put it another way, “I’m hurt, I guess,” Chris said, “but not injured. If you’re ready, the other chest had a key we’ll need to keep going, I think.”

He went over to the other, significantly less hostile treasure chest and again held up his prize over his shoulder so the other two could get a good look while he was still turning around. “See?” And again, presenting the key in this way left him blind to his companions for a moment; when he turned around was the first time he saw Estellise’s burns. 

“Whoa, that looks, um…” He hoped that the burns, like his injury, were better than they looked, but he wasn’t exactly sure how to express it. He settled on, “Are you sure you should be worrying about cuts and bruises when you’ve got those to worry about? Even if they’re fine they’re gonna sting forever and we’ve still got four floors to go.”

[LordCowCow 840]

Eventually the group moved on. Only to find that the door to the next level was locked. With a lock that seemed rather complex at that. Thankfully they possessed a key which had been taken from the chest earlier.

After unlocking the locked door, which was something they hadn’t seen before in the dungeon, they found themselves on a staircase, which was something they had seen quite often.

The bottom had no door and allowed them to go right into the next floor without any sort of obstruction. They found themselves in a larger room than before. Even more than the rest of the floors this didn’t seem like a solitary room.

Instead it resembled a small village. Across its expanse were a multitude of stone buildings without roofs. Four roughly cut stone walls, some with a hole here and there carved out as windows, making simple homes placed several feet away from each other.

The light was dim. Not as dark as the previous floor was but enough that it somewhat resembled the light that would be expected of dusk on the surface.

From where they stood they could barely see a large bonfire. Above which looked to be some sort of meat cooking.

The number of villagers, and what kind of villagers there were, was mostly unknown to the group. However near the edge of the village, pacing back and forth and occasionally babbling at each other, were a pair of dagger-wielding Goblins.

Spoiler

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[Skaia 578]

Lana let out a huge sigh of relief as she managed to not be eaten once again, owing her safety yet again to Estelle. Catching her breath, taking her axes cautiously out of the treasure chests corpse, the girl slowly backed away before looking back to the noble mage. In spite of all she had been through, she hadn't been actually all that injured. Physically at least. She was certain that there was some different kind of scarring from a treasure chest trying to eat her. Shaking her hand she said, "no, I'm doing good." The girl then noticed there was still the mimics arm attached to her, which blanched her for a moment before she made sure it wasn't going to do anything. Slowly, she pried the hand off finger by finger, watching it harmlessly fall to ground and letting out yet another sigh of relief. "Alright, yeah, not hurt." As the girl rubbed her arm, she then looked towards the mage again as Chris pointed out her own injuries. "Yeah, you should worry about yourself too, we're both A-Okay." Lana shuddered then at Chris's acknowledgement that this was only floor one of the day, the girl not really sure what other nightmarish horrors to expect in this dungeon.

All the same, after opening the door to the next floor, the girl walked down the same kind of staircase they had done several times earlier. Walking through the uncovered entrance to the next floor, the girl gulped as she saw what appeared to be a small village of sorts. The girl stopped in her tracks almost immediately, looking these buildings up and down. They seemed to be made of stone, rather than wood, and didn't have any sort of roof to them. After examining them for a moment, Lana said, "let's be careful...we don't know if the buildings will come to life..." 

The girl stayed tense for a moment longer, before she relaxed at the sight of what seemed to be patrolling. "Oh good, it's only goblins," she muttered, seeming to very comforted by this. Despite this, though, Lana didn't want to charge head first into the village, instead looking at Chris. Nodding towards the goblins, the girl then waited to follow his lead on what to do next. 

[radio414 903]

It was good to also have Lana insisting that Estellise take care of herself, Chris thought. Not that her selflessness wasn’t admirable, just that they obviously weren’t sure there would be time later, and while he wasn’t a magician himself, he’d seen how much they used their hands. Surely the burns would impede that, even in some small way. “I’m just saying, we’re not going to be able to magically heal ourselves if you get hit first,” Chris said. “And if you’re already hurt, I feel like that’s more likely than if you’re at your best.”

He wasn’t about to fight too hard over it past that, though. Estellise knew her limits better than he could, and if she really said she was fine, then he couldn’t force her to think otherwise. They had a dungeon to crawl anyway, and just because time moved differently in the Dungeon didn’t mean Chris wanted to waste any. He maybe had a date to get to, after all.

The key did indeed work, thank goodness. The lock it opened looked like it was significantly more complex than the treasure lock, and speaking of wasting time, trying to bypass that would have been a chore and a half. Just past the door were the familiar stairs down, and once they descended those…

“Let’s be careful, we don’t know if those buildings will come to life,” Lana said, and up until the treasure chest attack on the previous floor, Chris probably would have had some snark lined up for that. Fortunately, it seemed like the buildings were not the primary threat. “Oh good, it’s only goblins.”

They hadn’t actually fought any goblins yet, had they? Chris remembered the group they’d dashed past on their last adventure, but with all the buildings in the way, it was difficult to see exactly how many they had to avoid this time, or even where they all were. All he could see were two, patrolling back and forth, occasionally jabbering at each other. The goblins hadn’t spotted them yet, fortunately.

“How do we want to do this?” Chris muttered, only to become distinctly aware that Lana was looking at him in that way that she was ready to follow his lead, whatever that was.

Well, if he had his way, he would probably stick with what he knew best, avoid being spotted altogether, and slink over to the exit. The two visible goblins posed a problem, then, just by there being two of them close to each other. If they were going down, they had to go down fast before they noticed something was wrong.

Chris drew a dagger and gestured for Lana to do the same with a hand axe. He started counting under his breath. “One… two…” and on “three!” the two launched their weapons.

Both struck true, but only one of the goblins dropped to the floor. The other, an axe still wedged in its body, naturally started to flee, now babbling even louder. Chris lobbed his other dagger, but the toss was rushed, and the blade clinked against one of the stone buildings instead of anywhere goblin-fleshy.

“Estellise!” Chris said, desperate to keep the plan together, but he was already worried about what was coming next.

[Doggo 218]

The Fereis mage looked over her comrades but saw no obvious signs to doubt that they were okay as they said. At both of their urging Estellise was forced to acknowledge the injuries her own magic had caused her. She wanted to protest the use of healing magic on herself as it wouldn't make sense. Giving her body her own magical energy to repair itself was foolish as it would look and maybe feel a little better without any actual net change in the energy in her body compared to when she imparted magic to them. There were about ten other theories she could think of and another dozen or so scenarios in which she might want the magic she would expend to use for the dungeon or for them, but while the mage's mind so buzzed the thoughts began to subside with the much simpler answer that Chris and Lana were both likely to double down on their earlier encouragements. And so the mage took to tending to her own arm, the soft magic causing the burns to recede. Though the woman made an effort to not expend a drop more of magic than she felt necessary to heal the skin and make things looks pleasant again.

While she had been thus engaged, the others had opened the door to the next floor and so the group descended once more. Estelle had still not learned to stop being surprised at every new thing the Dungeon did for the quaintness of seeing something of a village as the next floor distracted her as she began taking in the structures around them. It was the other's attentiveness that brought the goblins to her focus. Chris wisely wanted to dispose of them both without direct conflict. The mage was excited to see the mastery both he and Lana would display as they took aim and threw their weapons. One of the goblins was felled immediately but the other seemed to have survived the maneuver, which led to Chris calling on Estelle in some hope of taking it out before it could rouse the village, if there were other goblins to rouse of course.

"Right, yes!" Estelle started in alarm, not expecting she would have a part to play in this plan. She readied her magic quickly and in her haste fired off a light arrow that still struck the goblin but would not fell him. Thankfully she had fired another very quickly after which sailed on a more direct course into the goblin's back. The monster fell to the ground from the double injury compounded with the axe Lana had stuck into it. The goblin died before passing the first building, but it remained to be seen if the noises it made had drawn any attention. For the moment, a crackling fire was the loudest thing on the floor. Estelle spoke in a hushed tone so as to not break the otherwise silence of the room.

"I pray we need not wake any others if others there be." she began as she turned back to surveying the village structures. "I can provide us distractions as the need arises though I fear they might only effectively work once." the mage concluded without speaking directly to the details of her intended distraction. As for what path they might best take she turned to Chris as the man seemed much more in his element with these stealthier operations.

Edited January 20, 2021 by Doggo

[radio414 903]

The moment the second goblin dropped, Chris froze in place. He was acutely aware of Estellise looking at him just like Lana had, and he knew he needed to answer that implicit question at some point (or at least thank her!), but he needed to know exactly how screwed they were by him missing that throw. But if their cover was blown, Chris didn’t perceive anything to indicate such. All he really heard was the crackling fire.

Chris crept forward and retrieved a dagger, then the other. As he approached the buildings, he noticed a symbol that hung at the top of each door: a round, metallic disk and a piece of bone. He also started to hear a few more noises mixed in with the fire. Goblin noises.

So the good news was, if they were going to be sneaking around, having the things they were avoiding already be distracted increased their chances. Of course, that was countered by the fact that if they were spotted, they wouldn’t be able to prevent the alarm from being sounded. He wrenched Lana’s axe out of the dead goblin and held it out to his two companions, beckoning them forward, and whispered the situation to them. “The big trick isn’t going to be magic or anything,” he said, “it’s that you don’t want to flinch. You keep low, you keep quiet, and you keep moving, and most errant glances won’t even notice.” 

He led them along the outside perimeter of the buildings. Going right seemed to lead them to a corner faster so he took them that way, though just as soon as they reached said corner Chris was already breaking his own advice, pausing to throw himself against the wall of a building and peer beyond.

There were more goblins, or there was at least one more that he could see, though he could see the goblin talking, arguing with something so he assumed there was at least one more. He also saw the dagger the goblin had at its belt and bit his lip. Things were already falling apart. The only bright side was they had already dealt with two goblins, what was two more? He brought out a dagger again, took aim, and let it loose.

The dagger was still in the air and he was already charging after it, wheeling around another building to face whoever the goblin had been talking to. It was another goblin, this one with a mace already in hand. Barely moments later, it was a goblin, mace in hand, taking a swing at Chris, and he just managed to jump out of the way, eating dirt to do so. As he scrambled to his feet, he shot a worried glance back to Lana and Estellise, a silent “help me deal with the consequences of my actions” if ever there was one.

[Skaia 578]

Lana let out a great sigh of relief as they had managed to defeat the goblins without raising too much of an alarm. The girl looked towards Chris as he then went on to explain the proper ideas behind sneaking, earnestly nodding along as she began to stealth alongside everyone else. Lana's ability to sneak around was definitely inferior to her more roguish companion, the girl walking on her tip toes in a somewhat exaggerated manner and taking much deeper breaths that she held, rather than just breathing more quietly. Thankfully, the group had managed to find yet another pair of goblins that didn't seem to notice them yet. Chris, as the group's main stealth leader here, took the initiative once more and chucked a dagger at one, while charging at the other. 

The girl was impressed by his accuracy with the first dagger and was much less impressed by his nearly getting clubbed by a goblin mace. As the boy was on the ground, Lana met eyes with him and knew that she was going to have to help him deal with the consequences of his actions. Nodding, the girl grabbed her greataxe and began to charge forward, spooking the goblin and prompting it to move towards the metal plate on its home. As it seemed ready to bang on it, Lana knew at her current speed she wouldn't get there fast enough and so with nothing else to use, she reeled her great axe back and tossed it at the goblin. Shocked ,again, the goblin ran back into its home as the girls axe clattered onto the floor inside. Pulling out her hand axe, Lana slowly made her way inside. 

Walking inside, there wasn't much to see at first glance. Just a bed of straw, a hole in the ground with a bucket next to it and a small fire pit. And also a large axe near the doorway with a cowering goblin clutching onto its mace in the center of the room. Seeing the monstrous humanoid, Lana had decided to simply lock eyes with it, suddenly feeling a bit weird about marching into something else's home and murdering it. Intending to leave the creature be for the moment, the girl bent down to start to pick up her greataxe with her free hand. The goblin seemed to have no compunction about killing the invader, however, as it started to charge the girl. Whatever strange moral dilemma Lana may have been having at that moment instantly resolved itself at this, dropping the axe and gripping her hand axe with both hands. Then, like a professional swinger in the the swing stick at ball game, the girl swung her axe, burying the blade into the creature's head. Giving a slight kick with her foot as she pulled her weapon back, the girl sheathed her hand axe and picked up her larger weapon. 

Looking out the door, she then gave a thumbs up to the other two, conveying that she had dealt with the consequences of Chris's actions.