Chapter Twenty-Five
The group found the dungeon entrance at the base of one of the giant trees. The swirling mist filled a ten-foot-high hole gnawed into the bark. “I wonder if the boss did this or just a whole lot of Vermin?” Gerald muttered.
“We’ll find out shortly,” Karen tossed over her shoulder as she walked into the mist.
“Shouldn’t be bad, we out level this place by double,” Alburet added as he went inside.
Once inside, they found a softly glowing tunnel that curved up and to the right in front of them. The light emanated from veins running through the walls. The whole tunnel looked like it had been gnawed and scratched out of the trunk of the tree they were in. With a shrug, they started up the clockwise spiral.
They came to an opening in the tunnel on their right-hand side, leading further into the interior of the tree. Gerald looked in, “Two Vermin Protectors and one Vermin Caretaker. Looks like two tanks and a healer. The Caretaker is carrying a branch, and others only have the same loincloths as the ones from outside.”
“Stacia, Ally the Caretaker and Daze one of the Protectors,” Alburet told his wife. “Then it’s just pop, rinse, repeat like we have before.”
The group smashed through the level ten mobs with ease, not really needing to crowd control them. It was good practice, though, and were already developing the habit of using these tactics when they were able to, so no one complained.
After three more rooms like the first one, the spiraling ramp brought them to a larger room. Easily forty feet square, it held a single, much larger Vermin. The Vermin Eater stood near the middle of the room, fully nine feet tall. It wore only the same kind of loin cloth the other Vermin did, but its teeth and claws looked much more intimidating.
Quest: Kill the Vermin Eater
Reward: Increased Reputation with all Brightgrove factions
“Looks like just the one Optional boss. Do we want to skip him and go up the ramp, instead?” Gerald asked, knowing what the answer would be. When everyone declined, he nodded, “Okay, let’s go do this.”
The fight was a straightforward tank and spank. The only ability the boss had was a tail sweep if people got behind it. It made sense as the first dungeon in the Elven lands, easing new players into boss fights and serving as a basic DPS check. At their level, it was over in under a minute.
The group moved on, slaughtering all the Vermin they found until they finally reached the last room. They’d climbed several hundred feet up the inside of the tree trunk by then. A ragged curtain hung across the end of the tunnel, blocking the view into the final room.
“The Vermin Caller should be inside,” Alburet said as he looked at his axe, noting he was going to need a new weapon soon. “All in and zerg him?”
Gerald shrugged, “He should be level twelve, so it’s not like we’ll struggle.”
The group brushed past the curtain and entered the room. In the center of the room, an Elf stood surrounded by small Vermin. He looked up with wild eyes and a vicious smile, “Ah, the heroes who have slaughtered my children. I shall deal with you, and my next wave of spawn will grow strong feeding on your corpses.” He clapped his hands and the Vermin all darted away, vanishing into small holes along the walls.
Gerald walked forward, “They’ll just die once they go outside.”
Shaking his head, Vermin Caller Flendral pointed at Gerald, “Hold still.”
The wood around Gerald sprang up, encasing him in a prison of wood. Tiny surged forward, followed by the others. “That ability could really fuck with a single tank party,” Karen said.
As they reached Flendral, his skin darkened and hardened, looking like thick tree bark. “The tree answers to my call,” he taunted them as he swung his fist at Tiny.
The fist impacted Tiny’s shield with a resounding bong. The bark surrounding Flendral’s fist had grown hard as iron. Tiny leaned into the attack, his return attack barely scoring the new skin of Flendral.
Bob hit Flendral with a Fire Blast before the others could get around him. With a scream of rage, Flendral pointed at Bob, “Hold still!” Another prison of wood encased the Imp.
His momentary distraction allowed them all to land solid hits. None of their attacks did much damage, barely getting through the thick, bark-like skin.
“God damn, his skin is a bitch,” Karen snapped.
Alburet got into position and his flaming axe came around, blasting into Flendral’s flank. The skin blazed brightly for a split second as the axe bit in. Flendral screamed shrilly.
“Damn you, Summoner,” Flendral screamed, turning on Alburet. As Flendral turned, Karen spotted the large exposed patch of normal skin that was gashed where the flaming axe had hit.
“Fire burns off his protection,” she called out, sinking her blades into the vulnerable spot.
“No!” Flendral raged. “You’ll ruin everything, all my beautiful plans.”
Tiny roared at Flendral, taunting the boss back to him and exposing the venerable spot to Fluff, who sank her claws into it without hesitation. As Flendral screamed again, Gerald broke through the prison he’d been trapped in, followed a beat later by Bob stepping out of the burning remains of his prison.
“Take him down,” Gerald cried out as he charged in to help.
The rest of the fight was short and brutal as they tore Flendral apart. Fluff got the killing blow in, her claws sinking into his exposed back.
“No,” Flendral whispered as he sank to the ground, “my babies...”
They looked around, waiting, but no Vermin came out of the holes they’d gone into. “Is it over?” Marysue asked after a moment.
“Seems to be,” Gerald replied.
“Doing this at level would be a bitch without someone who can burn off his bark skin,” Karen muttered.
“Elementalists and Summoners, then,” Alburet shrugged. “It probably had a timer on it as well, so you could just wait it out if you couldn’t remove it. So far, nothing has been so broken that a thinking group couldn’t get past it, and this is the first dungeon here.”
Fluff nodded once, “He’s right. I kept an eye on his bar, the spell, Nature’s Protection, had a two minute timer.”
“The prison can be broken,” Gerald added, looking over at Bob.
Bob shrugged, “Easier to burn it down.”
“If you’re immune to fire, sure,” Gerald replied. “I’m sure I would have taken some damage if you’d done that to my prison.”
“Sounds about right,” Alburet agreed.
They collected their loot and went back to the Fort to turn in the quests. Once they’d collected their rewards, they looked at the time.
“We should call it for the night,” Marysue advised them. “The raffle is supposed to start in a little over an hour.”
“Sounds good,” Alburet agreed. “See you guys at the guild hall, then.” He turned to Tiny and Bob, dismissing them with his usual goodbyes.
“See you at home,” Karen grinned and vanished, followed by Fluff.
Alburet turned to Stacia, “Are you ready?” She nodded and they used their own Homestones.
Karen stood at the door to the house, frowning at it with her hands on her hips, “I don’t have a key.”
Alburet laughed, “An oversight. We’ll get it fixed.”
“Damn right you will,” Karen said as he unlocked the door and held it open for them.
“After you, ladies,” Alburet motioned and Karen, Fluff and Stacia went in. Alburet followed them in, shutting the door behind him. “Karen, if you and Fluff want, you can hit the showers first.”
“We could just all go at once,” Karen said glancing over her shoulder at him, “save time that way.”
Fluff went pink, “Ummm…”
Karen looked at Fluff then let out a wistful sigh, “Or not. We’ll be out in a bit.”