Worthy Core

Once everyone was ready to take on the dungeon's final boss, Tinsel signaled for Jantana to open the boss arena doors and head on through. As they stepped inside the bosses were plain to see - a pair of massive armors standing in the center of an otherwise empty chamber. Lit only by pale, eerie torches, the dim light reflected off of opponents comparable in size to the minotaur Rampager herself. The one on her left lifted a heavy shield in one arm and an axe in the other, while the armor on the right twirled a sword - perhaps a basic longsword by the monster's standards, but rather oversized compared to what such a weapon would be to most mortals. Behind the minotaur, Tinsel shouts. "Whoo, something we can smash! Wreck it, Rampager!"

Jantana charges forward to do just that, only to come to a sudden halt as a ghostly tentacle snaps out of the floor and grabs on to her leg. It's too flimsy to entirely trip her up, but it does cause her to stumble, and the woman is left open for an early counterattack as the heavier armor smashes her across the room with a blow from his shield. As the minotaur tumbles, Tinsel shouts out yet again. "Crap, there's more of those tentacle traps in here! Watch yourself, and - whoa!" The woman drops down to all fours as a javelin flung by the lighter armor flies over her head. "Shit, they're fast! Buy us some time so Jantana can get back on her feet!"

While Kalasha and Nash fire shots at the heavy armor, forcing it to hunker down in place, Haylizt steps forward with a wave of her obsidian staff. "Ol, the night holds much, but not from your blessed children! Bless us with the sight of things unseen!" As the blessing finishes the color seems to drain from the chamber, the world becoming a mix of blacks and grays to her fellow team members. Somehow in the process they find themselves not only seeing things in a much clearer view than they had before in the pale torchlight, but glowing stone tiles on the floor suddenly make the locations of the hidden tentacles much more apparent. Even the armors now seem to glow, streams of light escaping from the cracks in their joints and helmets.

"Sweet! Weird, but sweet! Okay, Haylizt, back me up on the javelin-flinger, the rest of you take the big one!" Tinsel dashes forward, nimbly dodging a pair of tentacle traps before tossing a milky-white potion vial at her target. It scores a hit on the armor's shoulder, splashing it with a sticky fluid, and while it does little to limit the boss's range of movement it does manage to seal shut the quiver of javelins on the armor's back. It does little for the weapon it already had in hand, however, and that missile soon finds itself shot in Haylizt's direction - finding purchase deep within her large spider-like abdomen a split-second later.

"Ah!" The drider gasps, but quickly shakes her head as she inspects the damage. "It - it's not hit anything vital, I'll live! But perhaps some of their own medicine would be helpful here..." Waving her staff again, a new form of tentacle begins to rise from the floor, but unlike the dungeon's creations hers are made entirely of solid darkness itself. As they latch on to the sword-swinging armor they prove more durable than their ghostly cousins as well, though not invincible. With a few quick swings of its sword the boss begins to slice several of them through, freeing itself within a few moments. More disturbingly, however, the attack finally provokes the armor to speak.

"Ahhhhh, fun! Thank you, spider! I will make sssssssure you stay alive until after I have had the pleasure of removing each of your limbs!" The threat manages to make the Priestess blanch almost as much as the wound did, but to her relief the monster is driven back a few feet when Tinsel tosses a trio of exploding vials at its feet.

At the same time the other members of the party are finding their own target more difficult to smash than they had perhaps originally expected. The heavy armor's shield does an excellent job of intercepting most of their attacks, and the armor itself seems to protect the ghostly spirit within from most of the worst effects of the Elementalist's magics. Even when hits are scored, the damage done seems to have almost no effect, the scorches, tears, and punctures in its metal shell appearing to cause the monster no pain whatsoever. Jantana on the other hand is very much feeling the effects of her opponent's axe every time it manages to gouge its way through her skin. Regeneration magics or not, the minotaur finds herself worrying that a test of endurance will not come out in her favor.

"Nash, I'm flanking it! Once its back is exposed, hit it with everything you got!" Quickly dashing to the side, the Rampager moves to put the monster into a pincher with her on one side and the team's ranged members on the other. As the closer target, she expects the armor to keep its focus on her but feels a shiver as the boss begins to laugh instead, a booming voice that echoes around the chamber.

"Do not announce your plaaaaannnns in front of your enemy, fool!" With that the armor instead turns toward the more vulnerable orcs, dashing towards them at top speed. Eyes wide, Jantana chases after it, desperately tackling the monster in a leap before it can reach them. Despite her success in tripping up the creature's legs, the monster's axe is already flying towards the pair as he falls, an assault a panicking Nash attempts to block with an outstretched hand. A moment later that hand is on the ground, and the Elementalist soon follows, moaning as he grabs at a bloody stump.

"Shit, shit!" Kalasha reaches for another of her enchanted crossbow bolts, but staring at the armor lying on the ground less than ten feet from her, she suddenly decides she doesn't quite have time for reloading. Instead the orc grabs up half a dozen bolts into her fist at once before leaping forward, plunging each and every one of them into the monster's back with all of the strength she can muster. Some ignite into flame, some coat the metal in a layer of frost, but all together the random assortment seems to have the desired effect. As a large hole suddenly blasts itself in the steel plate, the monster's glowing energy begins to dissipate and the creature goes still. "I think - I think we got one!"

"Good work! Now maybe a hand over here!?" Tinsel's voice is growing ragged even as she shouts out her orders, her constant efforts to dodge the swordswoman's swings quickly exhausting her. For her part the armor is now painted in a variety of colors, with chemicals, oils, and all manner of other substances covering most of the exposed metal. Despite this little of it appears to have had any effect, as even when an acid, explosive or burning oil manages to damage the armor, it only seems to entertain the monster further. For her part Haylizt is finding little success with her own tricks, as the possessed armor seems to have no trouble seeing through her divine darkness, and her summoned constructs of solid Night only serve to slow the beast down.

Sadly, they don't quite do a decent job of even that. Freeing itself from another black tentacle, the armor makes a sudden leap in Tinsel's direction and although the mousekin rolls away, she doesn't entirely make it. With a sudden squeal of pain, blood splatters the stony floor and a good half-foot of Tinsel's white-furred tail goes rolling into a corner. "Gaaaaah! My tail! Not my tail!" The small captain nearly goes into shock right then and there, grabbing for her injured appendage, but as she sees the rest of her party rush to her defense she forces herself to finish the fight first. "Hold on, stay back! I'll take care of this!"

With a new flame of determination burning in her eyes, this time Tinsel dashes directly towards the remaining boss, ducking low under a swipe of the enemy's blade. Latching on to its boots she then climbs up the monster's back, dodging left and right as it attempts to grab at her. As Tinsel finally reaches its shoulders it laughs at her one last time. "It's been a pleasure, tiiiiiiny adventurer! But now you get squashed!" Ignoring the others charging in her direction the monster begins a partial backflip, attempting to slam Tinsel in between itself and the ground, but Tinsel makes a leap of her own.

Pulling herself over its shoulder and cramming several small vials into the helmet's visor gaps, the beastkin gives the armor one last grin before pushing off its chest plate and jumping away. "Eat this!" Shaken by its own impact as it slams into the ground, the ghostly construct doesn't even have time to reach for its face before the vials explode, taking the helmet and a good chunk of its chest plate with it. Although the hands flail around for a second or two more, eventually the monster finally grows still. Breathing heavily, Tinsel laughs before transitioning into a serious of curses.

"Eat this!? What sort of generic, lame-ass catch phrase is that! Shoulda gone with...'die, again!' Or, 'how about a headache!' Dammit, no, those suck too, I need to write these down ahead of time..."

Taking a moment to catch her own breath, Jantana looks at Tinsel with a newfound sense of respect. "That was well-done, Sapper. It would appear that we've managed to clear the floor."

In response, Tinsel begins to wail. "Yeah, but...but my taaaaaaaillll!" Picking up the severed body part, she barely even notices as Nash does the same with his own left arm, but Haylizt offers what consolation she can to both.

"I am sorry, but I cannot reattach a severed limb. I can store the lost parts within the Night, where they will not decay, and that may allow us to take them to the Challenger's camp. But I do not believe the camp yet has a healer of that caliber either." As she speaks the drider carefully removes the javelin still implanted in her own exoskeleton, grimacing before casting a healing spell and then moving on to Nash.

"That's...well, we might as well try it. How am I ever gonna find a boyfriend with a hacked up tail, though!?"

While the party attempts to console her, some of it comes off as a little half-hearted. Jantana simply shrugs for her part. "Lots of men like scars, you know."

"Sure, if I was gonna date an orc! As if! ...Uh, no offense to any orcs." Sheepish, the woman hands the bloody flesh over to Haylizt, who carefully sinks it into a small portal of darkness. Once both she and Nash have had their wounds seen to, it's finally time to move on to the final room of the dungeon. "Alright, core chamber ahead, let's check it out and see if there's any weird shit going on down here, or whatever..."

With Jantana once again leading the way, the party steps into the next room, finding it rather homey in comparison to the rest of the floor. Not only does a large bed take up most of one corner, but a large breakfast meal covers the room's main table. Carefully stepping forward, the minotaur picks up a piece of bacon and bites into it. "...Cold. Not great either, not too bad, though."

"Don't eat random dungeon food! That shit could be poisoned! Ooh, there's the chest, though!" Carefully opening it up, Tinsel looks inside the box almost as large as she is and begins digging around. "Let's see...coins, some necklaces we'll probably need to get identified...huh, here's a couple of books. 'Diplomatic Methods of the Goblin States?' Boring. And...'Bound and Gagging: Adventures in a Lewd - '" Tinsel hastily clears her throat. "I better confiscate that one, definitely...suspicious material. And last up, we got a potion bottle with a note attached?"

Pulling out the bottle of red fluid, the mousekin reads over the note with a disbelieving stare. "Potion of...Tail Reattachment? There's no fuckin' way that's a thing!"

Haylizt looks over her shoulder and chuckles. "I don't think there's anything that specific. But there are healing potions that can reattach limbs in general, the higher quality they are, the longer they can be used after the injury. Considering yours just happened, I think it should work for you. Seems like the dungeon really does like you."

"Well, this one time I'll take it." As Tinsel reaches for the bottle's cap however, she spots Nash standing nearby, carefully cradling the bandaged stump of his arm. Although he doesn't say anything, the look in the orc's eyes as he stares at the bottle is obvious. "...Crap. Sorry, Nash, I uh...guess you probably need this more than I do."

Conflict written on his face, the orc takes a deep breath before shaking his head. "No, the dungeon clearly intended it to be a prize for you. And you did lead us to victory. I cannot lay claim to it."

The woman gives a short, high-pitched growl in response. "No! You know what, fuck what the dungeon wants! Hells, I'm tired of all this coddling bullshit! It's bad enough that I had to take that shit back in the training yards, but from a godsdamn dungeon!? You need an arm more than I need a few more inches of tail so take it, Nash, drink up."

His ability to turn down the gift having exhausted itself, the orc gratefully takes the potion and drinks it down, while Haylizt retrieves his limb from her divine storage and helps him re-attach it. "It'll feel numb for the next few hours, and weak for the next few days. But if you don't do anything dumb with it, it should recover just fine, Elementalist."

While the Priestess does her work, the rest of the group spreads out across the rest of the chamber and searches for anything unusual. They take note of the windows to the abyss, and the fact that the tunnel to the Great Dungeon was resealed following Grizza's visit, but the only other particular oddity seems to be the rabbit they find hiding under the bed. Tinsel briefly considers killing it, dungeon monster that it is, but quickly decides there's a better way to work out her frustrations than animal murder. "Hhhmmm, hey, Kalasha, hit that button on the wall! I wanna take a look at the core real quick."

The Sniper does so, though she gives her captain a cautious look. "You're not gonna break it, are you? The Mason was very clear about that."

"Nah, I got an even better idea." Once the clam is open and the black-and-white-swirled stone is exposed, the Sapper begins to cackle as she pulls out another white-colored vial from her stash. Shaking it vigorously, she then opens it up and quickly shakes it over the pedestal, splattering both the statue and the gem in a sticky fluid. "Mwahahaha! Take that, ya dumb dungeon!"

"Tinsel! Don't damage the core!" Kalasha removes her hand from the pedestal's trigger, her look now one of alarm, but Tinsel waves her back.

"I ain't, I ain't, just a lil ol' fashioned vandalism. Or...a prank! Yeah, a prank. Just a little extra glue I had left over, is all. That'll teach it to kill our boss and make me have to take command!"

The rest of the party doesn't seem to share in her mirth, but it doesn't seem to stop the mousekin's evil laughter in the least. Finally, Jantana speaks for the group. "Well...if you're feeling better, Sapper, perhaps it's time we made our exit?"

"Yeah, yeah, I guess. See ya next time, you deathtrap!"

As the group files out through the exit portal, Xenia grows distraught. "Why won't the adorable mouse girl love me, Guy? Was it the tail thing? I do feel bad about that, all I told the guys was not to kill her. But she didn't have to go and make my clam all sticky! Look at the thing, it's dripping right onto the floor!"

Guy does their best not to sigh as part of their response. "Some adventurers just have prickly personalities, I suppose, I wouldn't take it personally. As for the glue, it will vanish along with everything else they left behind in a moment."

"I guess. Maybe I should try extra hard to kill her next time, maybe she likes playing rough? Sounds like they might not be back for a week or two though if they gotta go find a new officer."

"That might be nice, but there's no call to grow complacent. Until then, let's enjoy the spoils we've received so far, shall we?"

Though it's a short list, it does cheer Xenia up enough to cause her to briefly clap. "Oooh, better food, everyone's gonna like that. And shortcuts! Finally, no more bitching about the walk down from Floor Two, huh? Alright Guy, let's spruce the place up!"

Outside, the Valleylander party stops to collect themselves before setting off on the multi-hour hike back to the Challenger's camp. After stretching, Tinsel begins to count off findings on her fingers. "Alright, so...extra confirmation that the slime boss is really freaky, though I think everyone knew that already. Confirmation of no fourth floor so far. No confirmation of what might've happened to that missing demon...unless maybe one of those giant armors was him? Didn't sound like stabbing things was his style, though. Anything I missed?"

Kalasha nods. "No sign of where that weirdo knight lady spends all her time at. I know she's down at the camp right now, but there's no way she's been living in that core chamber for a couple of weeks, even if it is bothering to summon up food. There has to be some sort of secret section somewhere we missed. Maybe next time, if we don't bring any newbies, we can take the starting shortcut to the end of the second floor and start searching for it."

Tinsel narrows her eyes. "Yeah...and come to think of it, she probably knows a lot of the shit we're trying to figure out. Sure would save us a lot of trouble if we could get those answers out of her...guess we can't go kidnapping Challengers though, at least not without orders. Oh well...let's head on back, then see about getting a message back to command about our current clusterfuck. This fake little 'training program' idea of theirs is gonna need a few adjustments, if I got anything to say about it."

As the group heads back on down the trail, Doorman watches them go in silence, having noted that parties can be a little touchy when they leave with fewer members than they came in with. Once they go out of view around the corner however, he speaks up. "You know, it's generally considered quite rude to eavesdrop on other's conversations, don't you think?"

Chuckling, a gnoll pokes his head out from behind a rocky outcrop, a good twenty feet up the mountain from where Doorman tries to peer at him. "Not rude, no! Is my job, yes!"

The door considers that for a moment before nodding. "I guess it can't be rude to just be doing your job, true. But...why is it your job?"

Tafyaf gives the door a smirk before beginning to climb his way down. "Because you are interesting, yes! And interesting things cannot be left to only a single party, no..."