Dungeon Champions

After much discussion we decided to take the ramp. It wasn’t like we had anywhere else to go. The ramp led us to a new level that, blessedly, didn’t seem to be made of meat. It was almost like a maintenance shaft, going under all the fun things and to the other control nodes.

What had been a potentially grueling, room-by-room meat slog instead became a strategic speed-run against the nodes. Using our Tablets and relatively high Cunning scores, we worked together to memorize as much of the maps as we could.

Blessedly, the maintenance shafts didn’t have the same “ever shifting” problem as above. We were able to take our time and figure out how the different shafts and tunnels were marked. It made it relatively painless to figure out where we were going.

I’d like to think we got better at shutting down the control nodes as we went, but the reality was, we just utilized brute force as much as possible. Getting them disabled was of the utmost importance, as we needed this abomination of a dungeon to end.

When the remaining three nodes were deactivated, the fleshy bits of the dungeon started to recede. It wasn’t quick, but we took a break in the relative safety of the maintenance tunnels to eat some food and rest.

The downtime was exactly what I needed. I could feel the tension slowly easing from my muscles. The constant vigilance and frantic battles had taken their toll, and this moment of respite was sorely needed.

We found a large enough place for Zuri to set up her cooking pots and prepare a meal. As she did, the rest of us lounged against sloped walls, catching our breath and recovering.

“Once we’re out of here, I’m going to propose we focus on getting our chef time and space to come up with new recipes,” Merielle said, accepting a bowl of warm fish stew.

“Agreed.” Taking one of my own, I chewed thoughtfully. “Like we discussed before, the team is leveling up quickly. We need higher-mana recipes and spells, otherwise we’ll just be big balls of hit points and mana, and won’t scale with future challenges.”

Zuri waved at her cooking setup. “I have many pounds of ingredients. What I need is to experiment with what we’ve got. That Level 5 ability will make foraging much easier, too. I’ll be able to take more risks with experimentation.”

We all liked the sound of that.

She finished the meal by brewing a huge pot of Healing Concoction. “This will consume all of my Hollyflower Blossom, but it should top off everyone’s hit points.”

It would have, too, had they all not climbed to Level 5 already. While we took turns drinking down swallows of mint-flavored restorative brew, I passed out mana gems. We’d rapidly depleted my supply, leaving only a few for emergencies.

If everything went as we hoped, we wouldn’t need to do much more before we’d be out of here. And then we can rest up, replenish our reserves, and consolidate gains.

I’d be a liar if I didn’t admit to thinking about more nights with Zuri. As my thoughts drifted, so too did my eyes. Things were growing between Merielle and I. She’d admitted an interest. And then I couldn’t forget Nym’s feelings towards me.

There are things worth exploring that aren’t found in dungeons, part of me remarked. The rest of me, all but the cold hunger for violence, agreed.

“So,” Britney said finally, breaking the silence, “what’s our next move?”

I swallowed a mouthful of rice. “I’m going to propose that we wait long enough for Zuri to produce more Black Wash. Once she’s done, if that map we saw earlier was accurate, the core should be somewhere in the center of this place.”

Merielle frowned. “But how do we get there? These maintenance tunnels are useful, but I didn’t see any paths that seemed to lead to the center.”

“Me either. But they might get us close. And now that we’ve weakened the dungeon’s defenses, we might be able to fight our way through to the core.”

Nym’s ears twitched nervously. “Fight our way through what, exactly? We don’t know what’s guarding the core.”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “No, we don’t. From what I know of dungeons, there might still be some pockets of monsters, but with the flesh walls gone, they will be easier to deal with. Instead, we need to prepare for the dungeon boss.”

Zuri looked thoughtful as she swapped out several pots for others. Adding foul-smelling ingredients and oil paste to one, she held her hands over it. I watched, fascinated, as her hair seemed to join in the cooking process this time. Each serpent extended forward, stretching a solid two feet away from her scalp to drool their venom onto the contents.

A line of magic, barely visible as blue-white energy, surged down her hand into the pot as she began stirring. Once she’d gotten the contents to a boil, she said, “Perhaps we should take stock of our resources. See what we have left to work with.”

“Good idea,” I agreed. “Let’s do a quick inventory check.”

We spent the next few minutes going through our packs and assessing our remaining supplies. The battles had taken their toll on all of us, both mentally and physically. Most of our weapons were magical, or literally magic, so those were fine.

I was down to just a handful of mana gems, and all of us had nicks and scratches but were basically healthy and had our mana topped off.

We wouldn’t be going into a boss fight at a significant disadvantage, relatively speaking.

“All right,” I said, once we’d finished our inventory. “Here’s the plan. We’ll use these maintenance tunnels to get as close to the center as we can. Once we hit a dead end, we’ll have to surface and fight our way through whatever’s left.”

Britney’s eyes flashed with heat. “And then we take out the core and end this.”

“Exactly.”

It took Zuri precious minutes to properly prepare the pot of Black Wash. Despite the intensity of the process, it went much faster than it would have taken anyone without her class. Since her storage ability let her keep ingredients at the state she’d stored them, work over previous nights came in handy. When she was done, I took the pot into my inventory space.

As ready as we could be, we gathered our gear and set off down the tunnel, following the markers that seemed to lead toward the center of the complex. Eventually we came to an abrupt dead end. A heavy metal door blocked our path, its surface covered in what I assumed were warning signs.

“This is it,” I said, studying the door. “Beyond this point, we’re back in the main dungeon. Remember, stick together and watch each other’s backs.”

But the door didn’t lead back into the dungeon.

The room beyond was immense—at least fifty feet across in an octagonal shape. Off to my right were rows and rows of cages of different sizes and shapes. All of them were full, although nothing seemed to be making any noises.

In the center of the room were rows of tables made of varying types of materials. The most prominent were metal and stone tables, and they had corpses laid out on them. A handful of wooden tables seemed to mostly hold various implements, and despite best efforts they were spotted with blood.

Along the left side of the room were a series of bookshelves and a few well-worn chairs. The books themselves were pristine, which was odd considering the state of the rest of the room.

Nothing greeted us at the door, so after a moment of discussion, we went inside to look around.

The corpses on the tables were where I went first. The bodies were mostly humanoid, or…were… I didn’t know enough about Boulibar Bay to say these were locals, but based on the information I had from Mayor Regan, it was a good assumption. Some of the bodies had broken weapons at their feet, marking those as adventurers.

There were just so many corpses; after looking at about ten of them I gave up and started to walk away.

“I don’t like this,” Skullie said, almost like he was sulking.

I paused. “What’s wrong?”

My familiar clicked his teeth together. “This isn’t… There’s no necromancy here.”

“But all these corpses…”

“Exactly,” Skullie said in a matter-of-fact tone. “There should be residual death energy, traces of necromantic magic. But there’s nothing.”

I frowned. If these corpses weren’t the subjects of necromancy, what were they doing here?

“I know none of these are the minoant body we plan on moving you to, but is there any chance you can bond with one of these faster?” Turning, I waved at the selection. “It could take a while to make the connection, right?”

Skullie regarded the offering thoughtfully. After a moment, he whistled through his teeth. “Actually, there is something we can do. It’ll require Nym’s help.”

“Happy to,” the catgirl said, bounding over. “Especially after all your help on the ship. What do you need?”

“There may be no necromantic energy in the air, but those are corpses. That much death is a resource we can tap into. We can use the bodies to create a field of death energy around the minoant. It should expedite the process.”

“How long will that take?” Zuri asked.

The skull chittered. “Maybe half an hour, assuming we work fast?”

“Do it,” I said, pulling him from his holster. Walking to an open section of the floor, I extracted the hulking minoant’s body. Putting it down, I chopped the head off. Since it was just as fresh as when we’d fought it, the corpse began to ooze.

“Oh!” Skullie exclaimed. “I forgot about it being fresh. That’s even better!” He began to rattle off arcane commands, which Nym quickly assisted him with.

My role ended up involving moving bodies as the duo needed them.

While the three of us worked, the rest of the team spread around the room to inspect the other contents. Zuri was examining one of the cages with Britney at her side. Suddenly, the half-gorgon commanded my attention. Her face was pale. “These cages…they’re not empty. And these things aren’t dead.”

Finishing my work with a body, I rose and moved over, peering into the nearest cage. At first glance, it appeared to be filled with a jumble of body parts—arms, legs, torsos. But as I looked closer, I realized with growing horror that the parts were moving, twitching independently of each other.

“Oh, that’s so gross,” Britney said, her voice shaking.

“Don’t open anything up,” I cautioned. “Try not to touch anything like a button, either. I’d rather not let anything out.”

Zuri nodded while the celestial muttered something under her breath that I pretended was her agreeing.

Given the potential risks of stumbling into a problem without Nym or Skullie to advise, we decided to forgo further exploration until the ritual was over.

It didn’t take long. Skullie explained as Nym worked, talking about how the innate potential of the bodies was a bit like having an empty mana battery for necromancy. When he poured mana into the arcane circle she’d drawn in blood and chalk, he was able to create a unique effect. One that transformed healing mana into necromantic magic.

“Now,” he announced, “Jordan, I need you to carve out the neck hole a bit for me. And Britney? Be a lovely celestial and prepare to cast healing spells on me and my new body.”

“Why healing spells?” she asked, her confusion clear.

“Once Nym triggers the ritual circle, we’ll have about thirty seconds where any healing magic becomes necromantic. You’ll be sealing me into my new body. It’ll be great.”

Nym got it. Zuri got it. Even I sort-of got it. But Britney was clearly lost and uncomfortable. Still, once the lich’s fleshless head was in place in the new hole I’d carved, she did as he asked.

A few seconds, and a lot of mana later, a brand-new Skullie rose to his feet. Towering nearly nine feet tall and incredibly muscular, his skull had generated a layer of zombie-like yellowed tissue. Eyes filled his skull, menacing and yellow, and stringy bits of gray hair burst from his scalp. His mouth was the same as before, with oversized shark teeth that pressed against desiccated lips.

When he spoke, it was with a lisp that suggested he’d also regenerated a tongue. “Ahhh, this is so much better!” It came out as ‘shish ish tsho mush better’.

Britney, holding a fresh mana gem against her forehead, burst out in laughter, only to be joined by the rest of the team.

“What?” Skullie asked, jaws clicking as he ran a gray-purple tongue across his lips. “Did my hair regrow patchy?”

***

Skullie [Familiar] Update

Name: Skullie

Age: 394

Level: 7

Class: Necromancer

Species: Lesser Lich Spawn [Evolving]

Hit Points (Endurance + Level): 31

Mana (Magic + Level): 25

Attributes

Strength: 19

Endurance: 24

Agility: 13

Cunning: 20

Discipline: 18

Magic: 18