Worthy Core

Tafyaf stood in the Fort's courtyard, double-checking his supplies as he kept an appraising eye on his new dungeon-delving team. He had talked to the surviving villagers the day before to find out what they knew, but they hadn't volunteered to join the second team and he wouldn't have taken them if they had. The fools had gone into a dungeon without so much as a shield or a helmet! Frankly, the scout was surprised any of them had gotten out alive, but he chalked that up to their sudden good sense in turning around and leaving halfway though.

Though as his thoughts crossed that point, he found something about it curious. Dungeons always had loot, of course, and core chambers were often full of the stuff. That could be seen as encouragement to not harm the core, and it probably was. But within the dungeon floors, large sources of loot usually came after the challenging fights, not before them. The dungeon clearly wasn't going for a fully non-lethal approach, very few did, but literally paying delvers in order to convince them not to risk their lives seems like a new wrinkle. Something about it amuses him, though he can't exactly say why. Shaking his head, the gnoll attempts to refocus his attention on the here and now as his team finishes gathering before him.

The first was an elven woman, Combat Medic Grayana Goldleaf, who actually outranked him in level reckoning at 14. She was the Fort's primary healer, and Tafyaf felt a little bad about depriving them of an essential resource, but he was certainly not about to go into a dungeon without a healer. Unlike the soft robes of more religious or nature-derived healer classes, the Combat Medic wore the same armor as the other light troops of the garrison, which Tafyaf felt was much more appropriate for a dungeon dive. Unfortunately the woman apparently had no dungeon experience at all, the only newbie on the team despite her relatively high level. Next was a human, Gilliam Erado, who at level eight was still only an Initiate-level Soldier like many others in the garrison. However, the man was clearly angling for a shield-based Advanced class soon, which made him a decent tank for their party. Additionally, he had cleared four floors across two dungeons over the past few years, which made him more experienced than most others Tafyaf had available to choose from.

The last member was another gnoll, Perfyew Drass, a level seven Archer with two floors of experience in a single dungeon. Tafyaf had his own shortbow which meant that they had some overlap, but with a specialist handling the ranged issues he could focus on scouting. And besides, the garrison only had one combat mage qualified for the job, and Commander Paulados wasn't about to let him take both the garrison's best healer and their best mage at the same time. Though all that paled before the real reason Tafyaf had picked her over the garrison's other archers - she was almost unbearably cute, and Tafyaf was only a simple gnoll, after all.

With the full group assembled, Tafyaf stands straight and delivers his little speech. "Morning! Spoken with you each, I have, but so that we may all review together: I am Alpine Scout Tafyaf Srooll, and ordered we have been by Commander Paulados to investigate the new dungeon on Triple Peak Mountain, yes. Local villagers say it has named itself with 'The Worthy Dungeon', and saw the first four rooms, they claim. Two focused on light traps, a beginner's labyrinth, and, ah..." Tafyaf honestly rather doubted this next part of the story, but he felt obliged to share the information at least. "Villagers say the first floor boss is a rabbit. Ask me not why. Soldier Erado, you and I will be taking the lead, yes, with Combat Medic Goldleaf and Archer Drass providing support. Important to note, so I must: this mission is for scouting, not destroying! Aim to reach the core, we will, but leave it intact we should. It will take two hours to reach the dungeon, perhaps, any questions before we leave?"

Grayana raises a hand. "This is my first dungeon intrusion, as I mentioned earlier, and I must ask...what exactly is the military's policy on loot recovered on a mission like this?"

The gnoll chuckles, this was the sort of vital question he could appreciate. He found himself liking her more and more - from the way she kept her short black hair tucked under her medic's cap, to her piercing dark brown eyes, she gave every impression of a woman focused on practical and pragmatic concerns. Despite her lack of dungeon experience, he expected her to do well. "We shall share among the party and keep for ourselves, equally yes. If some dangerous artifact or important source of information we find, submit it to authorities we should, but this dungeon is new, small. Unlikely to find any such artifacts here."

The Soldier raises a hand next. "You said there were Valleylanders checking the place out, right? What do we do if we run into some?"

At that question, Tafyaf sighs - this sounded like politics and that was far out of his wheelhouse. So, he decides to go with a conservative approach. "We should avoid provoking an incident, yes. If we can arrange matters peacefully, we should. If they start a fight, kill them all, yes." The group actually seems to brighten up at the possibility, making Tafyaf think they would be much more comfortable fighting a squad of minotaurs than dealing with an unknown dungeon. Still, doing both at the same time sounded like bad business, so hopefully it wouldn't come to that. "You have your lists of required supplies, so one more check and then we shall begin our hike."

Even as dead Barkbirds fall down around her, pincushioned by arrows, Xenia can't seem to stop squealing. "Dog boys! Oh wait...is that one a dog girl? Look at her little Robin Hood hat! It's so cute I could die!" The dungeon master can't, or at least shouldn't, carry Sir Flopsy around with her while adventurers are in the dungeon, which means her hands are free to try and hug the gnoll Archer currently massacring her first room defenders. To try and fail, given that she passes right through the woman, but she gives it multiple tries just in case she can make it work.

"Xenia, please! Be professional! They certainly are...look at that armor they're wearing, wouldn't you say it looks like uniforms? This is certainly no random band of lost townsfolk." Guy hovers in between the group as they move in a tight formation - a chainmail-wearing human covering the group with a heavy shield and sword as two bow-wielding gnolls pluck birds from the sky, backed up by a tall woman - perhaps an elf, going by the pointed ears. Other than the vanguard Xenia has to agree, the other three are all wearing almost-identical light armor, mostly made up of what seems to be padded leather with metal reinforcement over small parts. Looking closer they do seem to have small patches attached to various places, reminding Xenia more of military unit designations rather than national flags, though in this case they don't seem to all be wearing the same thing.

"That first big group that came here seemed kinda professional, but they weren't kitted out like this. Hell, that spider guy was practically naked. Not that I was complaining. But yeah, either this is a very thematic bunch of adventurers or...military? Does the military have dungeon diving squads?" Once all the birds have been slain, the male gnoll starts shouting out orders even as he takes the lead in scouting out the first hall, which seems to confirm things. "No debate or anything, they're just doing what that one says...yeah, these guys have to be military. I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing..."

The Slip'N'Slide room was only a minor hazard, with Perfyew being the only one to slip at all on the wet floor, and Tafyaf grabbed her before she hit the bottom. The door lock puzzled them for a minute, but Tafyaf's sharp eyes caught the key in the water, and Grayana proved graceful enough to retrieve it without slipping or setting off any traps. The Bone Maze slowed them down a little longer, but it proved far less threatening to them than it had to the Farmers. Between the forewarning about the arrowslits and their superior ranged capabilities, not to mention their actual armor, they were able to reach the end without a scratch. Xenia huffed a bit, but if they could upgrade their undead another tier or two the design still had potential, she was pretty sure. The swords at least made the orc skeletons more dangerous than the knives had been.

As they reach the door to the boss room the group pauses to read the sign over the treasure chest, but Tafyaf waves them down before anyone can even consider opening it. "We wish to continue, and unless someone packed a battering ram, breaching the door would be difficult, hehe. We may consider picking it up on the way back." If anyone's disappointed they hide it well, and they move on to peek into the room itself.

The actual Boss Bunny is much more clearly a threat than the bluffing Sir Flopsy was. Not only is it several times larger than a normal rabbit, but there's clear signs of muscle under its fur, which just doesn't seem right for a rabbit at all. Still, 'several times larger than a rabbit' is still a relatively small creature as far as dungeon monsters go.

Soldier Gilliam scratches his chin. "You don't think it's poisonous, do you? Small monsters are usually only dangerous if they're poisonous."

Grayana sighs. "You mean venomous, not poisonous. And if it was crossbred with something small and venomous, wouldn't it be even smaller than a normal rabbit?"

"Dungeon is still young, so threat level is probably low, yes. Still, approach if it were a dragon, we ought to do. Gilliam, hold its attention while we strike from afar."

The Soldier nods and steps into the room, shield raised. Once the monster's attention seems to be focused on him the others follow, Tafyaf and Perfyew raising their bows, but in between them firing their first shots and the arrows landing the rabbit is already gone. It takes a moment for pair to catch up with its leap, but soon they realize the thing actually latched itself onto Gilliam's shield and appears to be gnawing at the metal. "Gah! It's on my...well, honestly this isn't so bad. Thing barely weighs anything and it sure as hell can't eat a shield." Gilliam adjusts his sword to try and stab the creature hanging on to him, but the moment he lines the weapon up the monster moves again - this time in Perfyew's direction.

"Ahhhh! Get it off! Get it off!" Tafyaf briefly aims his bow in her direction before thinking better and drawing a dagger instead. As soon as he gets close to the Archer the monster is gone again, though he takes that as at least a partial win. Perfyew bears a number of scratch and claw marks but nothing immediately dangerous, well within healing spell tolerances. Still, that will need to wait until the monster is actually dead.

From there the fight becomes almost comedically drawn out, to the point where Tafyaf wonders if the whole point of the encounter is to exhaust a party. The group is able to adjust with Gilliam and Tafyaf protecting the others, with the oversized bunny being unable to get by Gilliam's shield, and being slashed by Tafyaf's dagger any time it comes too close. At the same time, Gilliam and Perfyew both prove too slow to actually hit the thing, and Tafyaf's own slashes are barely more dangerous than the animal's own scratches. The fight is suddenly brought to a close when the rabbit's rear leg appears to spontaneously break just as it's preparing another leap, an opening Perfyew and Gilliam quickly exploit to finish it off.

Looking around for the source of their good luck, Tafyaf notices Grayana standing by the door holding a small metal combat wand, a simple device barely larger than a quill. Noticing Tafyaf's curious look, the elf scoffs. "What? I'm a Combat Medic, not some soft Fountain Priestess or something. It costs a little extra mana, but bodies can be manipulated in all sorts of ways."

Tafyaf laughs. "Not complaining, no no! A healer defeating a boss is new to me, though! Well done!" The group finds another loot chest inside the cave facade the boss was guarding, this time with no signs on it about closing doors or such, so the party dives in. In addition to the usual amount of currency they find four necklaces bearing rabbit's feet - while none of the team has the skill to properly appraise them, the theory of them being luck charms is generally agreed.

Gilliam holds one up and peers at it. "Not unusual for boss loot to be thematic, like, but four copies of the same item is unusual. Heh, hey Perfyew, you wanna hold on to these for us until we finish? Seems like so far you need it."

Perfyew sniffs from where Grayana is patching up her minor wounds. "I am not doing that badly, no. But...I could hold on to them, yes, perhaps."

As the group heads on into the next room and starts puzzling over the workings of the elevator platform, Guy poses Xenia with a question. "Not that I'm complaining, but don't you think it's perhaps...against the spirit of the thing to abuse our, ah, 'special status' in this way? They're effectively eagerly making use of cursed items now."

Xenia's face is stony. "Hmmmm....naw. I gave em a way out, and they killed Boss Bunny, they deserve what they get. Fuck, that's gonna set me back almost a full day's worth of mana...maybe I see the appeal of upgrading bosses with souls after all. Ugh."

While none of the members of Tafyaf's party are at all familiar with elevators, the very obvious pressure plate attached to a pedestal on the platform with a clearly marked down arrow eventually cries out for pressing. Tafyaf presses it himself, and the entire group immediately goes on alert the moment the platform begins to move. After nothing attacks for a minute or so they ease up a little, but are still rather unnerved. "The dungeon takes us where it wants us to go. This does not seem ideal, no."

"Well, I guess it beats using stairs - ahh!" Perfyew shrieks as a number of objects suddenly fall onto her head and shoulders. Others land elsewhere on the platform, and it takes a moment for Tafyaf to figure out what they are - large spiders, perhaps tarantula-sized. The ones who actually land on the platform seem to be rather unlucky, as several of their exoskeletons crack like eggshells when they land, but those landing on people experience a far softer outcome. Gilliam raises his shield to block one or two who bounce off, but by far the majority seem to be raining on Perfyew alone. "Why! Why is this happening!?"

With very careful swipes of his dagger Tafyaf is able to remove most of them, but without warning the platform shudders to a stop, and as Perfyew stumbles she steps into a tripwire that Tafyaf was sure had not been there before. A line of darts fires from the wall, one landing every three feet or so along the course of the wire, and one of those lands in Perfyew's right thigh. The poor Archer shrieks again even as she finally tosses the last spider off of her shoulder, falling to the platform floor. Again, Tafyaf calls for their medic. "Dammit! Goldleaf! And watch your step, all!"

Grayana sighs as she rushes over to the fallen gnoll. "You are putting me to far too much work for one day, young lady. ...I'm detecting a very minor venom effect from the spider bites, a minor slow perhaps. I doubt it could add up to a paralyze at this strength, but when the dungeon gets stronger...as for the leg, let's keep you from bleeding out, shall we?"

As the Combat Medic patches up the gnoll yet again, the other pair scout out the area where they stopped. Other than the dart traps, all they find is another downward-pointing pressure plate on the wall, which eventually Gilliam presses to continue their trip down. As they proceed the platform stops three more times. On the second, orc skeletons hop out from hidden alcoves along the sides of the shaft, triggering a brief sword fight. Grayana works to defend Perfyew using both her combat wand and a long dagger, but the gnoll is slightly injured once again when one of the orcs leaping onto the platform lands on her wounded leg. At the third stop, bats fly in through windows carved into what appears to be a totally black abyss outside the shaft, apparently with the goal of forcing the party into triggering another set of tripwires. This level they pass without incident, but on the fourth and final stop before the end, a pair of orc skeletons are joined by a swarm of spiders rushing around the platform, obscuring yet another layer of tripwires. Gilliam accidentally triggers a few while fighting the orcs, and Perfyew ends up with another dart stuck into her shoulder and at least four more spider bites for her trouble. By time the platform finally reaches the bottom floor, the poor Archer is a sobbing mess on the floor, being awkwardly comforted by Grayana.

Breathing hard, Tafyaf looks around for the next threat. "Is this the bottom? Are we...oh." Turning around, Tafyaf notices a large entrance on one side leading directly to what must be the core chamber. The core itself isn't visible, but a large pedestal with a statue of a stone clamshell is apparent, as is a treasure chest sitting on the floor next to it. "...Second floor boss room still under construction, perhaps. Goldleaf, can you watch over Archer Drass?" The medic nods, and Tafyaf and Gilliam cautiously enter the core room. As core chambers go it's rather modestly decorated compared to others they've heard of - next to the pedestal they spot an exit portal on the floor, but otherwise the decor is limited to some very simple stone and fur furniture, a basin of water, and an apparently mundane rabbit who seems to offer the pair no threat. The oddest part is more of the dark windows which show nothing but emptiness outside, which Tafyaf takes as some sort of dungeon trick, though he's not sure he's heard of a dungeon making fake windows of that sort before.

It doesn't take long for the pair to find the trick button to open the clamshell, and soon the presence of the core is confirmed. Gilliam stares at the large pearl-shaped object for some time, but Tafyaf grabs his arm as the shell once again begins to close. "Remember orders. Not here for that, no. We take loot, we take notes, and then we take portal, yes."

The Soldier sighs. "You got it, boss. And hey, a full clear - bet you they'll promote me to Advanced for this, so not for nothing, right?" Behind him, Perfyew sobs.

"I am never going into a dungeon again, no!"

Looking at the poor woman, Gilliam leans over to Tafyaf. "Maybe we should let her keep the luck charms from upstairs? Never seen anyone who'd need them more." Tafyaf considers this, and nods.

After the group empties out the final chest and exits through the portal to the dungeon exit, Xenia looks down at her own only loot from the encounter and sighs, as the gnoll's lost bow and 'Robin Hood' hat melt away. "Well, least that counts as one satisfied customer. Here's hoping for a 'zero stars, never raid this dungeon!' rating."

Guy nods along. "Always a silver lining, ma'am."