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

[LordCowCow 840]

The Stirges were creatures mostly of instinct. Yet it almost seemed that they reacted to Lana's shouts. As soon as she started to shout for Chris to help they dove down at her again. Six of them in total, each breaking from a loose circle around her to try and jab at a different part of them, came down towards her. One went for the left side of her waist. Another for each of her legs. Two more moved towards different parts of her back, though they would struggle more than the others to pierce through the leather armor, and the sixth was right in front of her field of vision and went directly for her neck.

The first seemed to be the quickest and before Lana could react it had stabbed its proboscis into her side and began draining blood out of her.

It seemed that these creatures were not the only remaining living beings in this area. With loud splashing noises two more Sahuagin emerged from the water. One on the far left and the other from the far right. They came up from the side of the pools of water nearest to the stairs they had came from and started to make their move. Neither of them were armed but they didn't look any less dangerous as they started to approach from Estelle's side, and the other's rear, with their bodies hunched to keep themselves steady on the land.

Spoiler

Map

In case you're worried no there isn't an infinite supply of sahuagin.

 

[radio414 903]

“Yes there was something on the ceiling, get them away from me!”

Chris couldn’t revel in his being right for too long, not while the things formerly on the ceiling were still flying around pestering Lana and being a general nuisance. A particularly brave thought formed in his mind where he would pick off each insect (or two insects, at least) with well-aimed dagger tosses, but it got dismissed almost immediately. Obviously, like, there was a Lana in the way and also if he didn’t hit Lana or the bugs, the daggers were certainly going to go into the water.

Speaking of the water, Chris heard a couple splashes from somewhere behind him and really hoped he wasn’t about to get flanked. His mind changed tacks. Daggers were still more ideal than flailing around with a sword, so he pulled those out and zeroed in on the one trying to get at Lana’s back. “I got you, Lana!” he called back. “Just, uh, hang on!”

He managed well enough, in that the blood-engorged mosquito stood no chance, though said engorgement became a problem when the thing’s death throes sent blood everywhere, or when, while still in the process of detaching, he had to duck out of the way of an errant axe swing. At least it got him eye-level with the next ones, the ones on Lana’s legs.

Again, it wasn’t too difficult, even if being on a limb meant he had to move a bit quicker, in case Lana decided to kick out or something. Chris even managed to get less bug guts on himself now that he was ready for it. But another problem arose the moment he got the insect off: the one on Lana’s other leg noticed, and not only did it notice, it decided that Chris was a much more attractive target.

“Gah!” Chris said, throwing himself back, landing flat on his butt. Now it was his turn to start waving a blade around, trying and failing to hit the now-mobile-and-incredibly-agile insect. “Uhhh!”

[Skaia 578]

Lana's frustration quickly turned to panic as the stirges began to converge on her. The girl continued to swing her greataxe haphazardly at the stirges, hoping to swat them away yet they didn't seem interested in the frontal assault approach. With five of them stabbing into her, Lana felt a light sting go through different parts of her body, stepping back a bit as she continued to swing her axe around in an attempt to get them off all while letting out loud grunts and cries. This was to little avail and she felt even more off balance and awkward as she suddenly felt like there was some kind of "swooshing" behind her. She really hoped it was Chris helping her, as the only other alternative was a sea goblin with really bad aim.

Trying to keep herself from bowling over either, the girl managed to at least find something to focus forward on as she saw one stirge that seemed to be going straight for her face. Letting go of her axe with one hand, the girl drew out her axe and swatted at the stirge. Being batted away, the monstrous mosquito was briefly stunned which left Lana an opening to slash at the creature. The blade smashed and cleaved through the starving insect, killing it and leaving Lana breathing heavily. Part of it was the adrenaline she was feeling from how horrifying this experience was, but after striking the stirge she felt her breath was accelerating even further. Darting her eyes towards one that had latched onto her, the girl grit her teeth and began to beat the stirge with the back of her hand axe. As she did, the girl felt the shock of the attack go through her and noticed her legs were starting to wobble, finding it difficult to stand up.

After striking it a few times though, the beast finally detached from her, allowing Lana to strike it with the blade and kill it in one fell swoop. As the girl was sprayed with her own blood, she felt herself lurching forward, as if the weight of her own swing pulling her. The girl blinked a few times, finding it harder to keep her eyes open with each blink. Her greataxe as well, felt like it was far heavier then it ever had been, and Lana felt her grip on it starting to slip. Forcing herself forward, the girl struck her great axe against the cavern floor giving her the chance to let go of it. She as well fell forward, putting both of her hands forward to stop herself from hitting the ground hard. Lana took a moment to catch her breath, feeling light headed and exhausted. Yet still, there was one stirge on her and she could definitely make out Chris's call for help. S, standing back up as quickly as she could, blinking as she saw spots in her vision and stumbling a bit, Lana used her free hand to reach and start desparately clawing at the last stirge on her. 

[LordCowCow 840]

As Lana gripped the insect that was attached to herself she could feel its weirdly leathery body. Its four wings batted rapidly, hitting her hands and lightly stinging them as it pulled itself off of her. Before it seemed to be feeding but now it seemed more desperate and, perhaps, angry, as she grabbed onto it. It then went back at her again. Going to ram its proboscis back into her, aiming for her stomach this time.

And then she heard a splash. As yet another of the so-called sea goblins came out from the water towards the far side of the cavern. Holding onto a trident and making its way towards her.

Meanwhile the stirge near Chris seemed unconcerned with the waving blade and dove right for the young man. If it continued on its path it would piece Chris's eye.

The other two sahaugin made their way towards Estellise. They moved slowly. In part due to being not as steady on land but also because they seemed to realize in some way what she was. Worried that rushing in would be dangerous they continued to creep towards the young mage.

Spoiler

Map

 

[radio414 903]

Chris instinctively shut his eyes and looked away as soon as he realized exactly where the mosquito was aiming. Taking eyes off it was obviously not the way to actually handle the thing, though which he only fully realized when after his latest few sword swings met nothing but air. At the very least, he thought, he’d managed to make the insect miss also, and he whipped his head back up to face it post-dive to see it wheel around for another pass as well. He didn’t have a lot of time, but wild swings clearly hadn’t been cutting it (no pun intended!) so he had to try for something else -- something a bit more measured.

He didn’t have a lot of time, but it was an amount of time, so he used as much as he could, judging exactly where the mosquito was going to be, and swung.

It wasn’t a clean hit -- it was able to get out of the way of most of it -- but it was a hit, clipping the insect in the side and sending it on a scattered flight all around Chris. It was slower now, though, which meant his follow-up swing was able to bifurcate it cleanly, again getting blood and viscera everywhere. It was gross, but it was dead.

Chris looked back to where Estellise was, now able to check on that splashing sound he’d heard, only to see that there in fact had been two splashing sounds, one for each fish goblin now approaching the mage. A lot of him trusted Estellise to deal with them, but he didn’t want to take that chance. He picked one -- the one on his left -- and charged back.

Just as Chris neared it, though, he heard another splash as one more leapt out of the water in the pool nearest him. “You better be the last one,” he muttered to himself. “Alright, let’s do this.”

[Skaia 578]

"G-gross." Lana couldn't help but say, no matter how labored it might've been, as she grabbed at the insect. The bug itself had a body that was definitely not befitting of any bug she had ever had to deal with, and she could as well feel the beating of its wings against her palm as she tried to claw away at it. Eventually, she felt her wrestling against the creature find success, with the stirge pulling itself off of her before buzzing around. Lana couldn't really make out expression on bugs that well, but she definitely felt some measure of rage behind it as it charge towards her. Gripping at her handaxe, the girl sluggishly swung the blade towards the creature, sinking the blade into its odd bug flesh. While her axe didn't manage to kill it, it did disable the creature, prompting her to lift her axe skyward. Then, with gravity doing most of the work, brought the blade down to finish it off. Letting out a deep sigh of relief, rid of her bloodsucking attackers, she was met with virtually no respite as one of the sea goblins had managed to make its way towards her. 

In her fatigued state, the girl had forgotten the emergence of another creature that had happened roughly two seconds ago. Being still on the ground, the girl had no amount of maneuverability to avoid it, nor did she have a fitting weapon to go toe to toe with it. So instead, she threw hers. Pulling her arm back, the girl went to throw the axe, only to feel her muscles practically scream at the exertion needed to actually do so with any force. And so, the weapon was weakly tossed towards the creature only for it to parry easily with its trident. After launching her failed attack, Lana fell back onto her hand, scrambling as quickly as she could from the monster. Going backward, she didn't really know what was there besides Chris, and while she didn't want to run into him she did think he was a much safer place to be then - 

Lana looked backward as she saw her roguish companion replaced by another of the fish goblins. Letting out an exhausted sigh, the girl simply muttered, "great." Looking at the first one, the one approaching her, Lana figured that being stuck between the two when she was as enfeebled as she was would be disastrous. So, she opted to take the fight to them instead. Stopping her backwards movement, the girl then lunged forward, tackling into the creature. Grappling onto it, taking it by surprise with her sudden charge, Lana reached back to pull out her second axe. Swinging the blade at the ankle of the creature, it let out a pained fishy gurgle before grabbing onto her back. Feeling it hoist her up, Lana lowered her grip to hold onto its not harmed leg. Swinging her axe again as the creature started to hoist her up, slashing against its leg, the monster flung her into the water. 

[Doggo 218]

The theory behind walking on water was endlessly escaping Estellise as she cycled through fragments of incomplete memories. Hours and hours spent learning enchantments with her father and none of the information she needed was readily coming to mind. A loud splashing sound would soon signal to the mage that enchantment was no longer necessary as she looked up to see Lana had either fallen or been thrown into the water that filled most of the room. Chris was decidedly more dry and a cause for less immediate concern. The most pressing matter for the Fereis was the two approaching Sahaugin cautiously approaching her. She had yet to see monsters be particularly wary of her magicks and somehow that put more pressure on her than had they simply leapt at her.

Frustrated as she was about not getting the enchantment right, Estelle wasn't inclined to shift to particularly controlled offensive magic. She shifted focus between the two Sahaugin, waiting for them to get close enough. It seemed to last an eternity until they were close enough to strike. In that moment the mage raised a hand to each fish creature, the magic escaping her hands seeming to warp the air around them for a moment before two resounding booms sounded into the cavern. The mage had caused localized explosions aimed at the gut of each fish creature but the hurried nature of the casting of the spell had her in a less than sure footed position. The force of the spells knocked the mage back almost as fiercely as she had intended to hit her targets.

[LordCowCow 840]

The sahaugin watched Chris as it emerged from the water. Crouching low for balance as it moved away from the water's edge. It looked to Chris's blade and snarled as though offended that Chris had a weapon in hand. It then moved forward, scurrying in a crouch, moving towards Chris's side opposite the blade. Instead of slashing at him with his clawed, webbed, hand it instead opted to grab onto Chris's arm. The creature tried to half-drag half-fling the boy away and towards the water's edge. With the intention to take the fight to that more advantageous setting.

Lana felt the surprisingly warm water envelop her. It was dark under the water, and hard to make out more than vague shapes, though she did notice some glowing patches of coral down below which showed her that the bottom wasn't some unimaginable distance from the surface.

She didn't get much time to think about her surroundings as the sahaugin came in after her. Brandishing its trident in one hand as it kicked its feet and moved more swiftly than on land towards her.

The two sahaugin approaching Estellise noticed her start to cast and they began to move quicker. Though they weren't swift enough on land to reach her before the spell completed. One of them, to her right, noticed what was happening and tried to duck out of the way. Only for the explosion to occur on its arm instead. Blowing off a chunk of it, leaving the creature without half of its right arm. It let out a noise halfway between a gurgle and a scream and moved towards her faster, unsteadily, to try and grab onto her with its remaining hand.

The other wasn't quite as lucky in one sense but more in another. It didn't dodge and so the explosion happened roughly where it was meant. But it wasn't as close a hit and so it didn't lose a body part. Its stomach and part of its chest was scorched and the creature was blown off of its feet. Writing and thrashing on its back the sahaugin seemed to be temporarily unable to continue the fight.

Spoiler

Map hasn't changed much but still here it is.

 

[radio414 903]

Chris kept his focus on the fish-goblin as much as he could, though a few things made it difficult. The first was simply the existence of other living monsters still on the floor, especially the few that, though their attention was elsewhere at the moment, could easily turn around and flank him if they so desired. The feeling of constantly having to watch his back, while not unfamiliar at this point in his life, was certainly unwelcome and definitely a hindrance.

The second was another splashing sound, this one not from another monster rising from the water, but someone -- Lana -- being shoved in. The amount of peril she was in had surely increased dramatically and the only reason Chris wasn’t rushing to her aid was, to put it bluntly, self-preservation. He was already engaged.

Lastly, but certainly not least, was the massive explosion from his other side as Estellise tried to blow her two fish-goblins away, to some success. So really, it was his awareness of his teammates that kept him distracted, enough so that the monster in front of him was able to grab his right, non-sword-carrying wrist and fling him to just in front of the water, charging after him like a bull trying to get him in the water.

Just as with the ones before that had tried the same, it was the last thing Chris wanted to have happen. “I didn’t bring my bathing trunks with me for a reason,” he grunted, a wisecrack that certainly didn’t help, but just slipped out. The fish-goblin after him didn’t have any appreciation for it either, and he had to swing his sword in a wide arc just to ward it off as he once again scrambled to his feet. His back was against the wall, er, water now, and he had to end things quickly. He gripped his sword tight with both hands and gave it a high swing, aiming right for the creature’s neck. 

[Skaia 578]

Lana had barely managed to hold her breath as she was tossed into the water below, sinking into the surprisingly lukewarm body of water. The girl tried to struggle her way up, though found her general lack in experience in swimming and current fatigue to be hampering her. To make matters worse, there was also the thing that threw her in the water propelling itself towards her at speeds that she didn't like. As Lana was a very straightforward girl the thought of matching weapons did cross the addled girl's mind, but her arms were already having a hard enough time moving as it were. So instead, the girl simply let go of her hand axe and decided to take the problem much more head on. 

As the sea creature moved towards her to stab at her, Lana put her hands up to block against the attack,. grabbing at the two outer ends of the trident. Pushing against it, the monster had opted to pull her in as well as claw at the girl. Twisting her body to avoid the sharp hand, her expression contorting into one of great strain, the girl then pulled forward on the trident to propel herself even more forward. Using this forward momentum, the girl butt her head against the fishy creature's. As they were underwater and Lana was far from proper ramming speeds, this did little more then stun the creature - likely more out of surprise then anything else - but it did end up bringing Lana closer. Close enough for her to notice the slits on the creature's neck. Lana wasn't an expert at, well, anything but she figured anything weird looking was a good enough starting point to attack. 

Letting go of the trident, the girl brought her hands over to the creature's neck, beginning to press her thumbs into the neck slits that it had. As she did, the sea goblin let go of its trident and started to move in a panicked frenzy flailing its arms about every which way. The momentum of it caused Lana to swing around to its back, where she proceeded to grab onto its neck even tighter than before. Being underwater she could barley make out what any of the noises actually were, but she felt the creature was going through something to similar to her at the moment. Her lungs were burning and her mouth kept trying to force itself open to get some air back into it, her vision as well starting to go a bit blurry as the water continued to flow into them. Yet still she persisted, trying to strangle the creature with her bare hands as it clawed at her hands. Thinking this was taking too long and she was certainly running out of time, Lana let go with one hand, before drawing out a knife to her side. 

Jamming the blade into the creature's neck lung, the panic seemed to only increase in the creature as it attempted to pry her off. Her own breath finally giving out, Lana's mouth opened as water started to flood into it. The girl began to feel a choking sensation go through her, yet despite gasping for breath or trying to cough neither seemed to work. Instead, her body started to go into its own frenzy, pulling the dagger through the sea goblin's neck, before pushing off the creature's back to launch herself upward. She didn't look down or back at the monster, bleeding out and desperately trying to reach out for Lana but losing the strength to as it sank, as she desparately tried to get to the surface. 

As her head broke through the water, she expelled the water in her mouth almost immediately, coughing and hacking up as much as she could. The girl flailed her arms at the surface, trying to stay a float all while gasping and coughing out more water that got into her, not making any headway and rapidly losing what little strength she had left. 

[LordCowCow 840]

The sahaugin that went for a desperate grab at Estelle managed to get a flipper on her shoulder. With its forward momentum, and being off balance due to missing an arm, the creature pulled the girl down onto the ground.

With the two on the ground, the fish-man atop of her, it tried to move its remaining hand from her shoulder to her throat instead.

The other sahaugin who had been blasted down was getting back to its feet. It seemed to be uncertain at first but, seeing the mage now on the ground, grew more confident and started forward.

While Lana pulled herself out of the water, not getting attacked by any potential hidden sahaugin, Chris launched a hasty attack on the Sahaugin threatening to force him into the water as she had been. The monster seemed to have grown confident being near to the water. Despite its usual slow movement on land it looked to be eager to bring Chris into the water where it would have a great advantage. Thus it was trying to move forward towards him as Chris swung his weapon.

The blade cut through the air swiftly before connecting with the monster's neck. It cut open the sahaugin's throat. The blow wasn't deep enough to cut clean through but a deep gash cut into their neck and the creature grasped for its throat and stumbled about before falling sideways into the water.

A few moments passed and a cloud of blood appeared on the surface of the water yet the sahaugin did not reappear.

Spoiler

Map

Aight so here's the deal. Radio and Skaia you two can have Estelle do actions in your posts if you wish until a point where Doggo is able to post himself. Doggo also says that you can get input from him for what she'd do.

 

[radio414 903]

Chris held his sword above the water even after the fish-goblin’s blood started rising to the surface, not wanting to take any chances, especially since Lana had taken a dive moments before. He even instinctively raised his sword up ready for another strike when he heard a splash sound but it turned out to just be Lana pulling herself back out from her own battle. Still, he kept it raised just in case until he really was satisfied nothing was coming out -- not the one he’d just killed, not another one, nothing.

There seemed to only be two monsters left and both of them were behind him. When he turned around to reevaluate, though, he saw things had gotten a bit worse than when he’d tried to charge back the first time. One of the monsters had just staggered to its feet, sure, but the other was on top of Estellise and about to throttle her. 

He grit his teeth. “Hang on, Estellise, I’m -” he said, but before he could even finish his sentence another *BANG* rang out and the latter monster -- the one that had just been leering over Estellise -- staggered back again. Chris could just barely see she had her hand raised in front of her, she must have done something akin to that first explosion, though clearly with less power behind it. The fish-goblin was off her, but it wasn’t off off her just yet.

“Hang on, Estellise, I’m coming!” Chris said again, charging forward again with his sword drawn, Just as he neared the range of his sword-arm, he leapt into the air and swinging down, mentally reminding himself to aim for the neck.

[Skaia 578]

As Lana flailed her arms about, the girl found that fate was on her side here. She was exhausted at it was and wasn't the greatest swimmer to begin with. In fact, she had only gotten back to the surface because she had been able to push off the corpse of her foe. As such, she was quite relieved to find that she was already next to land, grabbing at the ground. Continuing to cough, water spewing out of her mouth as she did, Lana eventually managed to pull herself up. With her knife on the ground next to her, the girl simply lied on her back, coughing more as she tried to catch her breath and no longer be drowning. Turning her head a bit, the girl let out a groan between coughs, seeing that there were still monsters to be fought and hoping they wouldn't come near her. 

On that end, the Sahaugin that Chris had attacked turned to avoid the strike, moving back away from the prone caster. Not particularly agile, though it had still managed to avoid death by throat stabbing, Chris had still gotten a cut on the neck of the creature. As it had managed to put Estellise between it and Chris now, the noble caster did not want to be on the front lines of facing the monster and so she started to back away from it. Seeing her move, the Sahaugin went to dive at her only to suddenly receive a blast of light from the young girl. Though she had experienced some recoil, Estelliese had still managed to knock the creature away from her. 

[radio414 903]

Well, he hit it and it was no longer focused on the lying-on-her-back magician, so that was two good things, Chris thought. Like, it was focused on him now and that wasn’t ideal but what he was getting at was there were worse alternatives. He could have missed entirely, for example. And the second blast did help -- it kept the thing distracted just long enough for Chris to catch back up with it and ram his blade through its chest.

The monster didn’t die right away. In fact, it managed enough wherewithal to draw the blade even further into itself and let out a spittle-filled roar right into Chris’ face, taking one final half-hearted swipe at his face before, when Chris leaned back and pulled his sword out to dodge, collapsing. “Gross,” Chris said as he wiped the fish-goblin spit off his face and onto his sleeve. “That’s it, though, right?”

It wasn’t it. There was still one more, one that had been blown away by Estellise’s first blast and had just gotten back up on its webbed feet and was now leering at all three adventurers one after the other, like it was deciding which one of them was going to be its prey first. Chris moved first, though, which seemed to make the decision easier for it. The meat was coming to it, after all, and it raised its arms ready for the attack.

The attack Chris chose was a large diagonal cut, aimed between the shoulder and the neck hoping to cut clean through from there to the thing’s hip. It was an attack the creature had forever to see coming and it defended accordingly, raising its arms up and at the ready. Chris’ sword didn’t take the expected path, though. Instead, he relaxed his grip to bring the sword around, side-stepped, and drove the sword edge down into its other, now significantly less-guarded shoulder. 

This blow by itself wasn’t lethal either -- Chris certainly wasn’t able to bifurcate it like he’d hoped -- but him finding the opening swiftly lent itself to creating even more openings as he wrenched his sword back out to drive it back in. It only took one or two more swings, and the errant scrape he got from ignoring its claws on the way down went almost without notice until the fish goblin finally collapsed.

Chris collapsed too a few moments later, exhausted from the battle, lying down on the dungeon floor trying to catch his breath. Even now, looking up at the ceiling, he could see it was already developing the same quality it had way back on the floor with the kobolds -- it was starting to betray the shifting nature of the place. “There’s what, three more this run? Two more?” he called out. “Two more. I think.” He brought a hand to his newest battle wound and winced, now fully appreciating the pain. “I just- okay.” He sat up and looked back to his companions, first Lana, then Estellise. “I’m going to need a hearty meal after all this. How are you two feeling?”

[LordCowCow 840]

Eventually the floor of the dungeon would again start to force them to move on and once they did they found themselves in yet another cavern.

This one they could see a multitude of small ponds spread across its expanse. Each of them connected by narrow streams of water. In the areas between these ponds the ground was interrupted by several large rocks that jutted out of the ground. These rocks were shaped, and angled, in such a way that it would be fairly easy to scale them and the biggest was around six feet above ground.

They could clearly see across the clearing, even with the rocks in the way, and the doorway on the other side of it. However they could also see the enemies that would prevent them from simply passing through. And, as they saw them, so did the monsters spot the group.

A trio of large creatures, somewhat resembling goblins, standing at seven feet tall. They were muscular, covered in patches of fur, and had vaguely ursine features that had given them the name of Bugbear. None of them were armored in more than random pieces of armor that looked like they had just strapped to themselves. They each had a large wooden club in one hand and, in the other, whips. When they saw the adventurers they used these whips to stir up the unusual creatures at their feet.

Strange, insect-like, beasts which were five feet long and three feet tall. Their brownish-yellow hide looked thick and lumpy and the two long antennae on their face whipped around as if agitated. There were four of these beasts and they seemed to be controlled by the bugbears. Though at the moment they seemed to be antsy about something and one of the bugbears tossed some scraps of metal at their feet. The creatures swarmed it and, at the touch of its antennae, the metal started to rust and the monsters ate it.

Moments later the bugbears barked at them in their goblin-like language and the monsters started moving towards the group.

Spoiler

Rust Monsters, yay!

Map

The distance is enough you can't chuck something at the monsters but it wouldn't be long to run up to them, or them to you.

 

[Doggo 218]

Definitely shaken by the fishy encounter, Estellise took a moment to collect herself once the group were fairly certain they were clear of threats on the current floor. She did her best to answer Chris' question, an attempt to assure him she was fine. But the words were garbled and mangled. They were still understandable but any number of nobles would have looked upon her with ghastly horror attempting to process what she had said. It amounted to saying she was fine really and as she tended to the group's injuries her heart and breath settled restoring some clarity to her thoughts and words. It would not be long at all until her vocabulary was back to its usual flowery self.

Content with the work of healing the mage moved on with her allies when everyone was ready to do so. The new floor was yet another new sight for the mage but she had little time to take it in as there were monsters some distance off who already noticed them. Bugbears tending to insects that rusted and devoured metal. With relatively little metal on her person the mage wasn't immediately concerned for herself but her friends who relied on metal weapons would certainly be put in a pinch.

"Quickly, your weapons." Estelle asserted calmly for Chris and Lana to each hold out whatever they intended to fight with. Assuming either or both did the mage would focus her magic into enchantments, fortifying the weapons to make them stronger and more durable. It wasn't a perfect defense but would hopefully give them time to attack, and ideally kill, the beasts before losing their weapons entirely.

[radio414 903]

As he had come to expect after being healed, Chris was pretty sore as he descended the stairs to The Dungeon’s ninth level. Even his shoulder was starting to act up again. He pressed onward all the same, though; he was as used to the discomfort as he was going to get, and the quickest way out was down.

It probably said something about the last floor that his first reaction was not “okay, there are some monsters to deal with, nothing to worry about too much” but “there’s going to be something in those pools of water. I don’t know what, but it won’t be good”. Like, it was either that or the rocks also in the middle area were going to be evil rocks or something. The monsters he could see were bad too, though, and when considering those he wondered if they could just, you know, get through the door without fighting, but before he could even express such a desire the bear-goblins noticed them and started driving the rust monsters their way.

“Quickly, your weapons!” Estellise said, and Chris almost instinctively offered up his sword, but managed to think better of it drawing his daggers instead. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Estellise’s magic, but it was the one thing he had tied to Ellwood estate; he wasn’t about to let the monsters even get a chance at it. The other weapons he had were just as good anyway.

“Thanks,” he said. “How are we approaching this, left-hand rule again? If we have to run for it I’d rather be closer to the door.”

[Skaia 578]

Lana continued to lie on the floor, exhausted and lethargic as she watched her teammates dispatch the remaining two fish goblins. With that done, Lana rolled back on to her back and seemed to just be content lying there, letting out an annoyed groan as Chris asked how she was feeling. Though that were enough to convey the mood she was feeling, she did add, "food sounds good." She closed her eyes for a moment, contemplating taking a nap, but before she could actually pass out she felt the familiar warm healing sensation pulse over her. As her energy was being restored as well, her body no longer being near devoid of blood, Lana suddenly felt an incredible soreness ache across her body. Letting out another pained groan, the girl opened her eyes before trying to motivate herself by saying, "just two more." Getting up, the girl grabbed her small arsenal of weapons off the ground before following the group downstairs. 

As they entered the next room, Lana instinctually let out a "geh," immediately being cautious of the pools of water in the room and drawing her axe as if she were ready to fight the water itself. This new found animosity towards water, though, was quickly replaced by more feelings of revulsion as she looked over to see the even more disgusting goblin variants alongside even more grosser bugs than the mosquitos she had just encountered. She again couldn't help herself from letting out an annoyed "ugh," as she saw them completely obliterate the metal that was tossed to them. Looking to her own axe with worry Lana quickly brought it over to Estelle at her behest, saying her own, "thanks," as she tightened her grip around the haft as if that would somehow keep it safer from being rusted.

Nodding at Chris's statement she said, "left sounds good. Ugh...just...watch out for the pools..." The girl was certainly not looking for a repeat of last floor, but still began to run to the left anyhow. 

[LordCowCow 840]

The bugbears looked at each other and began a grunting argument as the rust monsters made their way towards the group. Finally one of them, with a huff, gestured over at the stairway which caused the other two to nod in agreement.

One of them moved over to stand in front of the door and the other two followed one of the pairs of monsters each. Still wielding their whips they implemented them whenever the rust monsters seemed to start to wander off. In this way they steered them around the left most and middle section of the interconnected pools of water.

As the group neared the water system they couldn't tell how deep the water was, for the ponds nor the streams, but they noticed that the streams were only a foot wide and thus would be easy to simply step over.

As a couple of the rust monsters proved by moving across said streams with ease. Though the group would notice they took care to not step into the stream which could indicate they were deeper than one might expect.

At points it was hard to see the monsters behind the rocks but they could still get a general feel for their locations. And it seemed that they were moving fast enough to reach the other side of the pools of water in a few more moments.

Spoiler

Map

I'm not 100% sure where exactly you were heading but this seems a good approximation. If I'm wrong let me know

 

[radio414 903]

“Keep to the left!” Chris yelled out to his companions. The last thing he wanted was to be flanked, and if they kept the wall to their backs they could at least avoid that. As he ran he also tried to come up with a way to deal with the rust monsters, unsure how his daggers, hardened though they were, could handle what was assuredly a pretty tough carapace. Like, they could have Estellise deal with them, but expecting her to deal with over half of the enemies by herself seemed like the makings of a bad plan.

As he rounded the pool and leapt over the first rivulet, a memory from his childhood came to the forefront of his mind. It was a small one, basically just a single image, but it was him in the family garden tormenting small bugs. Most of them he’d just poke and prod with a stick to see how they’d react, but he also selected a few to flip over and watch them flail about, legs in the air, unable to right themselves. That gave him an idea. The rust monsters were definitely bigger than most bugs, but they were still bugs, right? “Do you think there’s a way we can flip these things over?” he wondered aloud. “Can we get them on their backs?”

The bugbears were their own problem, but they seemed deal-with-able on the surface. Maybe there was something involving them too? Deal with the masters and find a way to placate their pets? Well, Chris thought, one plan at a time. The enemies were closing in fast. Still, he did his best to aim at the bugbear headed their way as he charged, pushing off a rock to leap forward with a dagger extended ready to pierce the monster.

[Skaia 578]

Lana continued to run along the left hand side of the room, following after Chris as the monsters they were facing seemed to split up and try to answer them. The girl grimaced seeing the two of the rust bugs skitter ahead of the bugbear. As both she and Chris got to the water's edge the girl still couldn't help but feel like something was waiting for her underneath the surface, but managed to get her focus off of that as Chris wondered his plan aloud. Unfortunately for Lana the paranoia was replaced with a feeling of revulsion as she imagined the rust bugs on their backs with their legs flailing about. "Maybe? I've never tried....bug tipping before..." The girl shuddered, not really wanting to get up and grab onto the large creature, and so she instead just followed after Chris's lead. 

With greatxe drawn, the girl gulped as she jumped over the small body of water before going to rush towards the nearest rust bug. Bringing her axe to her side, the girl went to swing the blade in a sideways arc towards the creature. 

[Doggo 218]

Happy to default to Chris' mind on the matter, Estellise moved with the others to the left after completing her task of reinforcing her companions' weapons. The mage crossed the first small gap with water running through it just behind the others and was able to observe the respect shown the water sources by the monsters moving to attack them. After the previous floor Estelle had no desire to find out how deep the water ran or what might be lurking in it. Chris had another idea, that of flipping the rust monsters onto their backs. Estelle wasn't nearly as well versed on the subject of bugs but that the idea was even being raised confirmed her friend did. Whether they would prove immobile once flipped or simply easier to kill, the Fereis wasn't opposed to the idea. The less their weapons had to touch them the better.

"I might have something for it." Estelle voiced as she felt about her person. Not finding what she was looking for, the woman soon took to reaching down to the ground to look for stray rocks. With a good six or so gathered she began channeling magic into them, interweaving enchantment and evocation techniques in a way that would very much upset her mother and other older members of the family. Content with the spell, Estelle lobbed the rocks ahead of the group, the energy imparted in part guiding her throws and giving them more power to spread them out ahead of the oncoming attackers. Each rock pulsed with light periodically, helping the three to see where they had landed. "Lead the insects to my spells if you can. They will activate on their own when touched." she called out her approach to the situation. Magical traps to help with bug tipping.

[LordCowCow 840]

The two groups, monsters and adventurers, closed in together around the middle area between two streams, creating a hectic series of actions. Chris's dagger buried into the bugbear and he let go of the whip he was holding in that arm.

With a grunt as Chris was forced to drop due to the bugbear being taller than him, either digging the dagger in more or pulling it out as he dropped a foot or so back to the ground, the bugbear took a heavy step back and swung its club in the direction of Chris's skull.

The rust monsters seemed to have been attracted to the giant hunk of metal that Lana was wielding. As Lana paused when Estelle through the rocks the rust monsters continued. One of them stepping under one of the magical mines. Causing it to go off and knocking the monster almost onto its back. Lana was able to complete her swing and bury her weapon into the rust monster's unprotected underbelly. Opening the creature up as it lay there.

The other one seemed to ignore its fallen kin and clambered atop of its corpse. Its antennae running along the axe head. When it didn't immediately begin to rust the creature moved forward to bite onto Lana's hand.

Spoiler

Map

Assumption is the "mines" are spread in the gaps between rock and water. The rust monsters and bugbear to the right will be shortly crossing the steam over on that end.

 

[radio414 903]

Chris really hoped the sounds behind him involved the sound of a rust bug getting flipped over on its back because he really didn’t have time to not be looking at the bugbear in front of him right now. He’d managed to partially disarm it, but not a disarm in the way he would have really liked, just getting the thing to drop its whip. On the not-so-bright side, Chris had also had to make the decision to either let go of his own dagger and actually land on the ground or hold on wildly as the bugbear surely was about to flail wildly trying to get him off. He chose the former, obviously, but that left him with only a singular dagger to work with.

He hadn’t accounted for how big these things were either. The foot-or-so drop was larger than he had been expecting and he would have staggered back even more if not for the rock behind him. “Guh,” he let out. He might even have given some snark had he not immediately had to dive out of the way of the bugbear’s other weapon -- the massive club -- came crashing down. 

So that was two problems, then: the bugbear had both a height and reach advantage on him. Maybe he should have had Estellise enchant his sword after all, he thought as he scrambled to his feet. That would at least have solved that second problem, or at least made it easier to manage. Daggers -- or dagger, singular, now -- just felt so stubby by comparison. But, then again, that wasn’t the only way to deal with that particular disadvantage and, now that he was thinking, there were ways to deal with the other one as well. 

“This better work,” Chris muttered to himself. He swapped his remaining dagger to his left hand, reversed his grip, and took off, not towards the bugbear again, but towards the rock. When he reached it, he jumped and kicked off and up, giving him a little extra height and redirecting his momentum back towards the bugbear, arm raised and ready to drive his dagger back down into the beast from as above as he could manage.

[Skaia 578]

As the enormous rust bug tipped over, having been properly exploded, Lana went in for her swing against the creature's underbelly. With a sickening crunch she had managed to open the creature up in one strike, Lana herself having a disgusted expression on her face as she pulled the blade back. With one dead, the other that had been coming towards them didn't see too perturbed by it, unlike Lana who very not okay with second one. She was even less okay with it as it started to touch her axe with its feelers and bite at her. Letting out an, "ahh!" the girl pulled her great axe backwards along with her arms to attempt to avoid the bite of the creature, before going to bring her axe all the way back down towards its head. 

The blade buried itself into the creature's back, but with its moving feelers as any indication it was still quite clearly alive and trying to eat both her and her axe. Pulling the blade out, the girl winded her swing up again before burying the blade into the creature's side. Clearly angered by this, it went to bite at her again. Not wanting to have her arm made a snack of, Lana let go of her blade before stepping back a bit and pulling out her hand axe. With its head now exposed, the girl went to strike into its head, the axe finding purchase but not going deep enough. As it did, the feelers of the creature started to go across her blade causing it to rust almost immediately. An annoyed expression crossing her face, the girl shouted, "hey! I paid good money for this!"