Worthy Core

As the team of Initiates made their way up the mountain, Tafyaf kept them more or less in their combat formation in order to get them used to the positioning they'd be using later. The orc Taslush and the human Winfrey took the lead as a Fighter and a Guard, with Pipyif the gnoll Rogue and Tane the human Archer next. Finally in the rear came Kilari the dwarven Cleric, and Sincere the demon Mage...although Tafyaf kept the last man a bit further behind mostly so he could ask the demon a few additional questions. Although the demon kept them covered, Sincere clearly had a large set of wings on his back, and most of the examples of demonkind Tafyaf had seen didn't usually have such things, or at least not all the time.

"Tell me, Mister Sincere...exactly what breed of demon are you, hrm?"

If the man takes any offense to the blunt question, he doesn't show it. "Me? Well, I'm not surprised you're curious. I'm an arcane demon. That's not 'arcane' in the common sense of 'magical', mind you, though we are that. But rather in the meaning of, ah...'knowledge known to very few'. We gain our spiritual energies from the consumption of knowledge, whether it's of new discoveries, or ancient secrets unburied." He smirks. "For some reason, we were never as popular to summon as my succubi and incubi kin."

Tafyaf taps his chin. "A new one to me, yes. Perhaps makes more sense for dungeon delving though, maybe? Do you expect to, ah...'feed' from the discovery of new dungeon floors?"

"I could, yes. Anything not seen by many other people contains a certain buildup of energy we can absorb, and something never seen before by anyone will have even more. It's a more difficult diet than those who can make their meals anywhere they like with a simple whip, but it can be more...nourishing."

"I see, I see. Not very popular in the Rainlands, demons, I am sure you know, yes. How many types are there, exactly? Never had the chance to ask one before, no."

Sincere scans the trail with his gold-colored eyes before answering, though if there's something in particular he's watching out for, it's not clear. "Well, it's not quite so simple as that, my Scout friend. Very powerful demons are essentially unique types of their own, which would be almost like a gnoll evolving into an ogre after having a large enough breakfast, heheh. The general classifications apply more to the lower ranks, and even that may not be an exact description. But to give a more useful answer, perhaps a score or so of general kinds, though most are rarely seen on this world. Imps draw their energy from mischief and mirth. Gremlins from shock, surprise and disappointment. There's of course the behemoths, who gain strength from combat, and were popularly summoned to bolster armies. Fury demons gain power from the righting of karmic scales, and made for popular hunters of criminals. But, let's be honest, eh? For any one of those that were summoned in bygone days, there must have been ten, if not twenty of those fueled by sex and sadism. I suppose there were worse choices."

The gnoll searches his memory for the scraps of demonic history he's picked up over the years. "Does the preference in summoning still much matter, these days? Surely you are not all original summons, no? Hear tale of occasional summons still, I do, but very rare it seems to be these days."

The demon shrugs. "The difference isn't so much in the grand scheme of things. For those summoned from the planes of hell, we were mostly influenced by our home plane, yes. If you live in a universe of constant orgies, you'd be foolish not to focus your energies on drawing power from carnal methods. For those born here, the descendants of those from the Age of Summons, or Age of Warlocks or whatever term you prefer, centuries ago, there may be more freedom of choice...but you'd still be foolish to ignore the aspects of your parents, since they can greatly aid in a young demon's development. And so the original proportions of demonkind do not change very much."

Tafyaf nods, before spotting their destination. "Interesting...ah! The Riddle Door is ahead. I ah...must ask that you refrain from attempting to answer the door's riddle, Mister Sincere, yes."

The demon frowns. "Oh? To be honest, I was rather looking forward to it. I'm fairly good at riddles, if I might say so myself."

Tafyaf nods again. "That would be the problem, yes."

Following a childish argument with the door about whether a nearby cloud looked more like a rabbit or a duck, the team eventually made their way into the dungeon. The start was a little rough, as such a large group had trouble getting through the first room without triggering a few of the dart traps which were now quite hard to see, but fortunately none hit their marks. Once the barkbirds had been cleared out it then became a rather tedious exercise of Tafyaf leading the group through the following rooms and hallways, ensuring that no one moved so quickly that they got in over their heads. When moving through the Bone Maze Tafyaf allowed pairs of Initiates to take turns, with one melee fighter engaging the orc skeletons while a ranged expert managed the attacks from above. The acid slimes did manage to cause a few bad burns, but with Kilari's healing it was easily managed.

Eventually it was time to face the upgraded Boss of Floor One, a fight Tafyaf wasn't particularly looking forward to. He'd heard of the creature's latest upgrades, and even the previous version had been rather annoying to fight. Still, they did have numbers on their side today. "Alright! Area denial would be the aim of the game, yes. Taslush, Winfrey, keep the rabbit from reaching the rear area and the rest of the party. Kilari, you will be support, and the rest of us will reserve our ranged attacks for when the creature is in the midst of a redirection. Kilari, do you have any useful spells before we begin, perhaps?"

The dwarf nods. "Aye, Thadush, God of Charity has a blessing that may aid here, though not without a cost. A member of the party may choose to donate the power of one of their spiritual attributes to others for a time, in this case, sharing their insightfulness with the ranged party members would greatly increase the accuracy of their attacks, as they'd know better when and where to shoot, and such."

The gnoll Pipyif raises her hand. "I will agree, yes. Better suited I am for melee than ranged, yet my daggers will do little to block the monster, from what we have been told, perhaps."

Tafyaf mulls it over in his mind. He isn't thrilled with the idea of weakening a member of the team, but if it strengthens a larger number, the math seems to work out beneficially. "Very well. Perform your blessing, yes."

The dwarf nods and calls upon his god, and Tafyaf sends the party in, once again with Taslush and Winfrey in the lead. As soon as everyone's inside the monster begins its creepy, inhuman laughter the boss is already beginning to become infamous for down in the camp, causing a few shivers to run down various spines. Abruptly it stops and the boss dashes from its hidden location near the room's exit, being clever enough to attempt to bypass the women in the frontline and attack the support members of the group directly. Tafyaf expected this might happen, though, and is already in place to slice at it with his daggers, quickly forcing the oversized man-rabbit back. The team's initial counterattacks all fail, as even with the warnings they still find themselves unprepared for the speed and agility of their opponent, but once the frontliners in particular begin to adapt the fight becomes much more manageable. The rabbit attacks the pair a few times but is unable to get through their armor and defensive skills, and the few times he does get into the rear of the party, he never has time for more than a few shallow cuts before being forced away again.

Eventually Tane lands an arrow in the boss's hip, and from there it simply becomes a matter of wearing him down. Every leap becomes a little slower and a little less forceful, and more and more of the team's attacks begin to land. Gasping for breath and bleeding from a dozen slices and arrow wounds across its body, the monster gives one final laugh before leaping in Kilari's direction, only to be decapitated mid-air thanks to a swing of Taslush's two-handed sword.

Quickly confirming the boss is dead, Tafyaf turns to the group and claps twice. "Well done! We have defeated the first floor, yes! No serious injuries? You have all done better than some before you, hehe."

While the group does congratulate each other on their victory, some of them clearly don't feel done for the day. Winfrey speaks up first. "So...we are going to at least try the second floor, yeah?" There's mutters of agreement from around the room, but Tafyaf frowns.

"I myself have not fought the boss of the second floor, but we have all heard the stories, hrm? I understand the desire to test yourselves, yes, but if we proceed past this point, guarantee your lives I will not, no."

Pipyif chuckles at that. "I don't think you were guaranteeing our lives for the first floor either, exactly, hehe. We can at least try a little further, hrmm?"

Seeing the group nodding in agreement, Tafyaf shrugs. "Let us try the platform, then."

The platform section of Floor Two was, like the barkbirds chamber, a little messier than Tafyaf would have liked. There were just too many people in one spot to avoid all of the surprise tripwires, and probably at least half of the traps ended up being fired. While the monsters were defeated without too much trouble due to their numerical advantage, both Tane and Taslush took hits from darts that weren't blocked by their armor or deflected by weapons. They did keep to a slow and steady pace however, healing up at each stop down the shaft before resuming the trip via the next pressure plate trigger. For the most part the scout was just happy the dungeon hadn't started poisoning the darts yet, as that could well be beyond an Initiate's ability to heal.

At last though they reached the bottom, and the group had to make one final decision to continue or turn back. Once again Tafyaf turned to the Initiates. "We all still seem to be in good condition, but it would not be wise to become overconfident because of that, no. One final vote - shall we proceed? I admit I am curious to see this unique boss for myself..."

Once again the party nods, with Kilari speaking for them. "That Kelsey said they figured that other group got thinned down a bit before they got to the boss, even, and they started out with less people than us. If we can't take the boss, I doubt anyone else could til the higher levels start taking an interest. I'd say we owe it to the community to at least give it a try."

"Very well. I shall lead, this time." Tafyaf opens the door leading out of the shaft, which takes him to a very short hallway before revealing the boss chamber. On the wall before the chamber however, he notices a new sign posted up. "...'If ye think ye be badasses, cry out for a true challenge'? The writing seems a little odd..."

The group eyes the sign as they pass on by, filtering out into the arena. They eye the acid pools warily as well, but there's no sign of the boss themselves in sight. Pipyif speaks up after a moment goes by with no threat revealing itself. "I guess we must summon the boss manually? Hello, we cry out for a true challenge!" Tafyaf and Sincere both quickly turn to try and shush the gnoll Rogue, but they're far too late.

Sincere hisses. "Idiot! That was a challenge mode trigger, not a boss call!"

Pipyif gives a nervous chuckle. "Ah-heheh. I uh...I knew that!" Before more of the party can turn on her however, a rumble shakes the ground, and sounds of fire and steam begin to fill the arena. Without further warning each of the room's acid pools explodes, geysers of lethal liquid shooting into the air, with globs occasionally splashing outward far from their normal bounds. A woman's voice echoes around the room, coming from somewhere above.

"...You're gonna regret thaaaaaat..." With that a red blob wrapped up in bits of fabric suddenly drops from a crack in the ceiling and swings into Taslush. The large orc woman is only somewhat staggered by the attack, but as she swings her arms to steady herself, a glob of boiling acid falls onto her left arm, causing her to drop her blade and scream in pain. As the group moves to cover her, the blob rolls out onto the floor in the center of the arena, pulling itself to an approximation of feet as it takes the form of a slime mage. "You will now face...THE ULTIMATE SLIME CHALLENGE!" With that she fires off a bolt of lightning from a wand in her hand in Kilari's direction, but Tafyaf quickly intercepts with his own body, taking most of the damage on his light, but well-made armor.

"Watch the acid! Sincere, your energy spells! Tane, switch to your blade!" The Archer nods, slinging his bow aside as he draws a short sword, while Winfrey steps forward to cover the group with her shield. It only buys the party a moment though, as the slime quickly swaps to ice, blasting the Guard's feet and locking her in place for at least a short while. Tane and Pipyif move in from either side, at which point the slime shoots off a burst of flame to both push them back and conceal her own movements. Rolling to the right side of the room, she fires off another lightning bolt at Sincere - only to be taken rather by surprise as it's harmlessly absorbed by a barrier spell.

That surprise costs her, and Sincere launches an ice bolt of his own at her, literally disarming the slime as the appendage holding her wand is knocked away. Tafyaf spares a moment to give the Mage a confused look. "Such a defensive spell...is that not more of an Expert's arsenal, or perhaps at least Advanced?"

The demon just grunts. "I had a...good teacher. Perhaps we should concentrate on the battle at hand right now?" He fires off three more ice shards, but the slime is already on the move, pulling a sword from a hidden nook inside a rock. Keeping on the move, she rushes through the center of the room, launching stretchy tentacle punches at Pipyif and Winfrey while swinging a low slash at Tane which takes off the Archer's right leg. She's halted in her charge as Taslush's heavy sword impacts the ground in front of her, but with only one working arm the orc Fighter is at a notable disadvantage. A short swordfight ensues, with the orc launching several slow swings that come nowhere close to the slime, after which the slime ends the fight by stretching out her arm and impaling her sword directly into the orc's face.

"Kilari! Get to healing!" Tafyaf motions the Cleric forwards, but when he notices the recognition on the slime's face at the identification of the party's healer, he realizes he's made a mistake. He quickly moves to put himself between the slime and the dwarf, but the slime simply leaps above his short stature, slamming into the Cleric and knocking the both of them into an acid pool. Moments later only one figure emerges, the now-naked slime quickly pulling a dagger from yet another hiding place. Deciding he's let this go too far, the gnoll charges in, confident in his knife-fighting skills as his own dagger swings for the boss.

While the slime's body is flexible, it does become apparent that the boss has no actual training or technique when it comes to using the weapon, and the gnoll manages to score hit after hit. After dodging one quick attack, Tafyaf sees his opportunity to go for a killing blow, potentially decapitating the monster...only to notice after he's committed to the attack that the slime's dagger arm now has an extra elbow, and is swinging back at him. Time seems to slow down for a moment, as the gnoll helplessly watches his blade approach the slime's neck as hers aims for his...except at the last moment, he would swear the slime winks, and her blade only lightly scratches through his fur. At the same time his long dagger cuts through most of the boss's throat, knocking her head back and causing fluids to spray around the area.

Quickly hopping backwards to avoid any acidic spray, Tafyaf finds that the acid geysers are now dying down as well. The party, however, is in shambles. Pipyif is doing her best to help Tane stop the bleeding of his amputated leg, while Sincere steps in to provide some minor healing assistance. Winfrey finally manages to free her feet from the magical ice, apparently unharmed, but the same can't be said for the slain Taslush...and Kilari is nowhere to be seen at all, with no remains left to be found in the pool where he fell. Focusing first on the wounded Archer, the gnoll moves to assist with his first aid kit until the bleeding is under control.

Finally, he sighs. "That...was not ideal, no." Next to him, Pipyif begins to shake.

"It...it must have been the effects of the blessing, yes...yes? I...I couldn't have been so stupid, could I? Could I?" Tafyaf pulls her to her feet, as Winfrey helps with Tane.

"Mistakes happen all the time, they do. Important thing is, we here are still alive, yes." Even as he attempts to console the other gnoll, however, Tafyaf can't escape the feeling that the slime let him win their fight, at the end. Just how much danger had they really put themselves into? But...perhaps that was just a trick of his imagination? Something to worry about later. "Let's use the exit portal in the core chamber and be on our way, now."

Unfortunately, as they open the door leading out of the boss arena, the core chamber Tafyaf was expecting is nowhere to be seen. There's only a small dark cavern, containing a pair of treasure chests, the exit portal, and another exit tunnel leading off to the right. "...A new floor. The dungeon has created a third floor!"

Behind him, Tane chuckles weakly. "Shall we vote for taking the exit portal out of here? All in favor? Looks like we're out of here, then." Despite him not actually waiting for a vote, there's no disagreement, and after looting the chests for their coins, equipment, and an odd bottle of pink fluid, the group makes their way through the portal. Tafyaf takes on the duty of carrying out Taslush's remains, while Winfrey assists Tane through the exit, followed by Pipyif.

Until only Sincere remains. Sighing, the demon turns around and walks back into the boss arena. "Hells below, that was an absolute shitshow. A third floor already isn't ideal either, but perhaps there's a quicker way...?" Continuing on back into the elevator shaft, the man looks up and grins as he finds what he's looking for. "Hrm, I suspect that will do just fine." Shrugging at his cloak to reveal his wings, he spreads the appendages wide as he shoots back up the shaft. Eventually he reaches his target - one of the windows to the abyss Xenia carved into the shaft walls as an entrance point for her bats. Perching on the windowsill for a moment the demon grins again, before leaping into the darkness of the mountain, and beyond the dungeon bounds.

Below, Xenia and Guy stare upwards in confusion. "...That can't be a good thing, right Guy?"

"I have trouble seeing how it could be, ma'am..."