Genesis Locorum

It was a quiet day in the Black Box. Heathcliff left to talk to Pauline about the recent performance. Time is busy practicing his techniques. The dwarven siblings are working on designs for arms and armor for Emily to create. Elizabeth is helping the Arachne with tending to their brood and Emily herself is standing still. Not having any reason to use her avatara recently.

She then notices a strange presence within herself. She looked at her halls to find the source and noticed a surprising amount of fauna had made some parts of her their new home. Including the cordyceps-infected deer they encountered in Tarantulapolis. For some reason, she feels a sense of unease with the animals now inside her, especially the fungal ibex.

“Elizabeth?” she calls out to the fairy.

“Yes?” The fairy says.

“I know I should’ve expected to find animals inside me,” Emily says. “But?”

Elizabeth knows what she is talking about. She had already seen several beasts and critters in the halls of the Black Box for the past few days, several of which had interfered with her activities. Minerva had helped to ward them off, but as long as the dungeon remains rooted in this patch of wilderness, then the animal kingdom will continue to make ingress after ingress into the dungeon, into Emily.

At the same time, Heathcliff is at the Rosenkreuz guildhall, talking to Pauline about the Dungeon.

Pauline looks at the report, learning that five of the thirty parties that had gone into the Black Box had bested the dungeons’ two sentinels and that two more had gotten as far as the second one but were eventually defeated there.

“Impressive,” Pauline says. “Not bad for the first month and a half. You can stand to do a little better.”

“Thank you, Pauline,” Heathcliff says. “Now, cher, there is one other matter I want to discuss.”

“You’re here to look for a specialist for the animals, right?”

Heathcliff is not surprised. “That obvious huh?”

“We both know the game well enough to know that uninvited guests of the furred kind would make the dungeons their homes, especially as said dungeon grows and grows,” Pauline says. “Unfortunately our animal experts had all been hired, dear. Sorry.”

“Real darn shame,” Heathcliff says. “Don’t suppose you can find anyone that can help?”

“Well?” Pauline says. “I heard someone had been hired to visit Hamlet in the north to deal with a rat problem.”

“Hamlin?” Heathcliff says. “Isn’t that like way out of the way here?”

“Yes,” Pauline says. “While isolated, the village has supplied the guild with several Adventurers, all of whom decided to send the money made back to the town to help fund its infrastructure. Their goal is to find people in Noir willing to carve a tunnel through the Brokeback Mountains and a highway to ensure a more stable income.”

“Ah,” Heathcliff says.

“As for why they are using the money to solve a rat infestation,” Pauline says. “The rodents were claimed to have been infected by a disease that would threaten a localized plague if left unchecked, something that could hinder their plans. Again as our animal experts were already taken, they had to resort to the Ebony Blades and the Rouges in Noir for assistance.”

“Ah,” Heathcliff says. “I’m sure you’re aware of my buddy in Noir, right?”

“The rouge in blue?” Pauline says. “That one?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve heard he got hitched recently,” Pauline says. “It’s a shame that you weren’t able to attend the wedding.”

“What can I say, cher,” Heathcliff says. “Making Emily the best dungeon she could be and then some is my priority right now.”

“Do try to visit him soon, dear,” Pauline says. “I’m sure Emily would want to know him better as well.”

“Got it,” Heathcliff says. “Adieu.”

Heathcliff leaves for the Black Box, wanting to tell Emily about Hamlet and how it might be the key to their recent animal problems.

✦✦✦

A while later, Tim is taking the opportunity to practice using some Dire Wolves. He pushes one back with a pair of snap kicks. One attempts to bite him, but he evades the beast and uses a shoulder strike to repel it. He then uses a stomp to pin down one of the smaller wolves.

The lunar hounds circle him as he closes his eyes, assured of his inevitable triumph. One bites his leg, but a changing step towards another wolf is enough to repel him. He uses the momentum to push another wolf far enough to slam into the wall.

“OW!” Emily says to Tim, sensing the wolf’s slam.”

Tim ducks behind a leaping hound and uses his palms to thrust him straight up into the air. The dire wolf crashes onto the floor.

“Tim!” Emily’s voice echoes to him as she senses the crash. “What are you doing?”

“Practicing,” he says while still in battle with the animals. “What else would I be doing?”

The wolves had managed to land some scratches and bites on him, but despite that, they were unable to prevail against Tim. The pack quickly flees, now fearing the Sentinel.

Tim calms down and opens his eyes. “As expected,” he says.

“Still cocky as ever, I see,” Emily says.

“While I appreciate the opportunity to practice on these beasts,” Tim says. “Even I know I’m not enough to ward them off for long.”

“Glad it hear it, cher!” Heathcliff arrives at the dungeon. “I gots some news.”

“You found someone that can help us with the animals?” Emily says.

“Nope!” Heathcliff says. “But I did receive word that there was a Tamer in the far-flung village of Hamlet.”

“Far-flung is an understatement,” Tim says. “That place is practically inaccessible.”

“You got any other ideas then?” Heathcliff says.

“What does a tamer do?” Emily says.

“Glad you asked, cher,” Heathcliff says. “They are specialized in the taming of wild beasts and critters, they tend to be employed more by dungeons than by adventuring parties though.”

“Tamers are hired to ensure any animals in the dungeon act in the service of the dungeon instead of against them,” Tim says. “They basically are tantamount to animal trainers and other forms of domesticators. But while they can wrangle beasts, it is difficult to use them in dungeon raids.”

“Ah,” Emily says.

“We’ll need to travel past the Brokeback Mountains,” Heathcliff says. “They have a dungeon that people frequently use to make passage into Hamlin. A real gauntlet so we’ll need to make some supplies for the trip.”

The group begins preparations for the trip. Sarah offers to volunteer as she finds the rats’ investing actions too distracting from her work. Nina pleads with Minerva to join the group, a request that the mother soon accepts on the condition that Emily keeps her daughter safe. Elizabeth also joins the group, wanting to make sure Emily learns more about handling the animals that dwell inside of her now. Once supplies are prepared they set off for the Brokeback Mountains.

✦✦✦

The party of six arrives at the Brokeback Mountains, a vast mountain range of tall peaks and dangerous rapids. Heathcliff, Elizabeth, and Sarah carry bags filled with sleeping bags and a week’s worth of food and water.

“So,” Nina says. “What is this dungeon we’re looking for?” The Arachne child could barely hold her glee at her first adventure.

“Revotos’ Valley,” Elizabeth says. “Named after the Administrator of death, for its treacherous paths.”

“You’ll find when you see it, cher,” Heathcliff says.

Sure enough the group of six gazes upon a scene of dead black trees lining a blood-red river, a stark contrast to the lush forests of the majestic mountains.

Emily gulps, finding the place foreboding. Her avatara’s body language expresses a sense of fear.

Tim turns to the quivering dungeon. “Don’t worry,” Tim says. “We can handle this. The Valley is much less dangerous than it looks.”

The party enters the gauntlet. The wind hissed through the ashen leafless trees. The crimson river looks like it was stained with the undiluted blood of the deceased, and flows through jagged rocks and colossal falls. The sky turns from a pleasant azure to a twilight purple to a sanguine hue as the party steps further into the steep paths and scales the foreboding hills.

All the while, Nina pretends to be brave, but deep down the sight of the dungeon scares her deeply. Time notices this. “It’s okay to be scared, you know?” he says with warmth in his voice.

“I’m not scared,” Nina says. “Adventurers don’t get scared!” The sound of a branch rapping against another tree causes the spiderling to turn around.

“Bad adventurers don’t get scared,” Heathcliff says. “Little more the le mats prancing around with no awareness of the dangers around them.”

“He’s right, you know,” Elizabeth says. “A lack of fear is a sign of foolishness.”

The group notices figures moving in the shadows. Guardians. Similar to the walking trees they found in Tarantulapolis.

The animated arbor attacks the party. Tim repels some of the zombie trees, while Elizabeth uses her Bardsong to enchant everyone’s weapons with the power of earth. Emily keeps little Nina safe from the ashwoods while carving one of them into three pieces with her twin blades.

Tim is caught in the grip of a particularly large one but is saved by Sarah chopping the arms of the ashwood off. Tim, now free, does a roundhouse kick on the dismembered tree, toppling it and causing the timber to pin down its smaller brethren.

Surrounded by several ashwoods, Emily drives back some more with an elegant flurry of slashes, cutting down the trees with a razor-thin whirlwind that reduces them to dark grey cylinders.

Nina, eager to prove herself, overworks her spinnerettes to create sticky webs that cause the ashwoods to trip on themselves. The effort causes one of them to collapse in her direction. The panicked child tries to evade the towering timber before Elizabeth flies in and carries the child off with an expression of both concern and slight furor.

The ashwoods are soon defeated. “Not bad, chers,” Heathcliff says.

Elizabeth glares at Nina. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed!” the fairy says.

“I’m sorry,” Nina timidly says. “I just wanted to help.”

Elizabeth sighs. She knows of the young girl’s admiration for adventurers and her desire to be one. However, she also knows of Minerva’s desire to keep her daughter away from danger.

Emily is curious about something. “How young are new adventurers,” she asks.

The group gives various answers.

“That depends, cher,” Heathcliff says. “Some were venturing out since they were little. Others do not go questing until they are of age.”

“It varies by circumstance,” Elizabeth says. “Many young adventurers are typically orphans or children that were abandoned while young. Others came from poor families where that is their only means of income.”

“And others still,” Tim says “were students of fellow adventurers.” He recalls the visiting class and how he was humiliated by Chiron.

Sarah looks over at Nina. “In most cases, kids wind up adventurers not because they want to, but because they have to.”

“Every rule has an exception,” Nina says. Her prescriptive term marks her desire to become an adventurer.

“Every rule also has a raison d’etre,” Heathcliff says. “This is a dangerous job.”

“You could get seriously injured, Nina,” Emily says, “Or worse.”

The Arachne girl sighs. “I’ll be more careful, then. Sorry,” she says.

The group ventures deeper into the dungeon.

✦✦✦

The group makes their way to the first Sentinel. A larger specimen of the ashwoods fought previously. A gigantic undead arbor. The wind hissed through its bony branches.

“Sarah,” Elizabeth says, “Can you take care of Nina?”

“Sure,” the dwarf says. She takes the spiderling to a safe place.

Emily, Tim, Elizabeth, and Heathcliff approached the ashen tree. The twin holes in the arbor gaze at them with a strikingly curious and malevolent intent. Beneath these holes lies the last bit of foliage on the dead tree, the decaying leaves forming the pattern of a beard on the rotten wood.

Emily steps forward, and the ground rumbles beneath them. The tree’s roots rise from the soil as the sentinel animates itself and greets the party beneath the sky red.

Heathcliff agitates the giant tree, attracting all its focus to the knight. Elizabeth uses light enchantments on the party’s weapons to better their odds against the zombie plant.

Tim uses his wind spells to propel him forward, his gleaming Qiang carves into the tree and chops one of its spindly branches. However, he ends up grabbed by several more and slammed into the ground.

Emily throws her swords, merged again into a chakram, into the air. The blades cleave several of the branches as they arc around the high ashwood. The sentinel spits out a sticky substance, the color of decaying flesh, and binds Emily’s legs to the ground.

Heathcliff hacks at the ashwood with his light-enchanted sword. Its decaying timber is infested with fungus and weakened by the march of time. He manages to make a gash into the tree.

Emily, now rooted to the ground by the sticky substances, is left to fire light spells and her chakram at the tree, blinding it and making it vulnerable to her teammates’ attacks. Elizabeth tries to fly to Emily’s aid, but the sentinel notices the fairy’s presence and fires more of the translucent liquid at her, Elizabeth dodges these projectiles.

As they fight the high ashwood. Nina and Sarah spectate the battle. Nina is in awe of these adventurers’ ability to hold their own in battle, but she senses something is off about the tree.

Tim sees what Heathcliff is trying to do and assists him, using his techniques to widen the cuts by pushing back the walking tree. His momentum-enhanced palm strikes managed to put enough force to cause the tree to lean back a little. The wound is widened as the ashen arbor tilts backward. Its roots are unable to move alongside the rest of it.

Elizabeth frees Emily from her binds and she rushes forward and leaps onto the tree. She distracts it enough for Elizabeth to blind the tree with holy light. The searing blazing radiance causes the tree to not see where Emily is. She lands on the tree with the force of her movement tiling it back.

The wound at the bottom of the tree is now severe enough that one more little push is enough to send it falling down. But the ashwood’s roots had repelled them from the wound. Elizabeth tries to rush forward, but the sentinel lands its sticky substance on her, trapping her in a sticky sphere of translucent, flesh-colored liquid.

Elizabeth struggles to move in this mass as it hardens and halts her movements. She concentrates on a wind well that is forceful enough to shatter her binds. But the ashwood begins to slam her to the ground. She soon notices something pulling her aside.

The hammer-like arm makes contact, but it barely misses Elizabeth as she is pilled by a silver thread of silk. She turns to find the source is Nina.

Nina pulls on her thread, tugging Elizabeth closer to her with all of the strength she could muster. The ashwood tries to swat Elizabeth down, but before it can, it finds itself irreversibly leaving backward. Pushed back by Tim and Emily.

The tall undead tree falls to the ground. The force of the landing is enough to send it spiraling until unconsciousness.

A chest manifests, a sign of their victory. Sarah opens the box and observes the contexts. A spear, a shield, a sword, a staff, a suit of armor fit for a small Arachne, several sticks of charcoal, and of course, silver and bronze coins.

Elizabeth knows she should scold Nina for risking herself, but knowing that she owes her safety to her intervention, she relents and instead thanks her.

While Tim rejects the spear, Emily decides to let Nina wear the armor for her own protection. Heathcliff takes the sword and shield and Elizabeth the staff. The party is surprised to see that the armor snugly fits the child. Nina stands proudly and joyously celebrates the first gear she obtained from an adventure.

“Maybe we should’ve brought Minerva with us,” Elizabeth thinks. After the excited child calms down, the party moves even deeper into the dungeon.

✦✦✦

Emily and her group make a camp in a cave for the night. The cave shelters them from the howling wins beneath the sanguine sky. They huddle around a fire made from some of the ashwood remnants.

“Hey, Elizabeth?” Emily says.

“What’s up?” the fairy says.

“I was wondering,” Emily says, “we’ve been here for more than two hours right?”

Elizabeth realizes she forgot to mention a certain distinction. “Well, you see. Adventurers visiting Divine Dungeons are indeed ejected after two hours have passed. But there is no time limit here for Natural Dungeons like this one. It’s due to a passive enchantment designed to keep the cores safe.”

“Plus,” Heathcliff says. “It would make getting to Hamlin more painful if we’d get the boot after two hours.”

“Aren’t there other ways of passing the Brokeback Mountains?” Sarah says.

“There are,” Tim says, “But they are even more treacherous, the most obvious being scaling the mountains themselves.”

“Does this mean we’re gonna have to go through this place again?” Nina says.

“Hopefully not,” Elizabeth says. “I heard rumors that there is a secret shortcut the Hamlin villagers are using to traverse the mountains quickly.”

“Rumors?” Emily says, thinking the phrasing means that such paths do not exist.

“Yeah,” Tim says, also thinking they are unlikely to be true.

Heathcliff and Sarah keep watch as the others turn in for the night.

✦✦✦

By morning, they wake up. The wind still howls outside, moving the branches of the sessile deceased trees along its tumultuous bluster, kicking up loose dust and sending it in all directions.

“The wind’s gonna make traveling outside difficult,” Heathcliff says.

“Maybe we can try following the cave?” Emily says.

“Worth a shot,” Tim says.

The group of six ventures deeper into the cave. There they find several travelers, still and motionless. Their starch-white skeletons lay bare against the moist walls.

As they travel further they fight several entities. These dwellers of the caves carry a large club and giant yet stocky build. Their jaundiced bodies contrast with the tattered black fabrics that drape their torsos.

“Ogres,” Tim says, “Typical.”

The brutish ogres fight the party, with Heathcliff keeping Nina safe from their club swings. Tim uses palm strikes and wind magics to topple one of the giants. Emily uses her blades to cut through one of their wooden clubs, while Elizabeth uses Bardsong to enchant the party’s weapons, wreathing them in lightning that stuns the ogres with each hit. Sarah uses her hammer with more finesse than the crude ogres and their even cruder style of clubbing.

The party soon prevails against the ogres. They then travel deeper into the caves. They soon arrive at a large cavern system. The howling winds and crimson sunlight peeking through holds scattered alongside the large stalactites. A clear fluid drops from the tips of these rocks and drips onto the floor.

As they traverse the cavern, Emily hears a noise. The sound of the fluttering of wings, she looks around the dark caverns, but she cannot find the source.

Nina also heard the noise. She makes a disturbed expression, that Sarah sees. “Come on, Nina,” she says to herself, “You’re an adventurer, now.”

“Didn’t we just have this discussion?” Sarah says, startling Nina. The silver-haired dwarfette assures her that they will protect her if any danger comes. But Nina insists on wanting to help them in combat.

“Why are you so interested in adventurers anyway,” Tim asks.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Nina says. “They’re strong, they’re tough, they fight and guys and they help protect others.”

“Not all adventurers are like that,” Elizabeth says. “Some of them are dangerous people.”

“Vile, even,” Heathcliff says. He recalled an anecdote about how he ended up fighting a group of traffickers back in Charlemagne, as well as a more recent skirmish with folk who had kidnapped innocent people and murdered them.

“But they also protect people from people like those!” Nina says with an innocent smile in her eyes. “That’s the kind of person I want to be! A protector of my friends, just like you.”

Emily is surprised by Nina’s response and wonders if her being kidnapped and nearly sacrificed was a factor in her resolve.

The party soon comes across a broken part of their path. A large hole that leads to an endless abyss beneath them. With a narrow precipice at the other end of that gap.

“Should have known we’d come across something like this,” Tim says.

Nina uses her Arachne legs to cling onto the wall and move along it, easily walking to the other side. “Hang tight I—“ before she could finish. Timm uses his wind powers to leap onto the wall and jump off of it to the other side.

“We don’t have time for you to make a web,” Tim says. “Besides, are you certain you can make enough silk for that?”

Elizabeth flies over the gap, lifting Sarah by the left arm. Her wings are strained from the effort. She catches her breath. Sarah expresses some concern over her slightly pudgy build.

Only Emily and Heathcliff are left to cross the gap. The knight looks around for alternate routes. “Don’t think I can shimmy over there, cher.”

Emily looks around the cavern for ideas, she hears the howling wind from outside and considers using wind magic to propel herself and Heathcliff in a similar manner to Tim. She conjures up a gust of wind, but her concentration breaks before she can move an inch and the whirlwind vanishes. As she lands she remembers she now can use rock magic and has an idea. She focuses on the small edge of the wall, trying to do something in that area. She eventually creates several rocks, but but fall. Emily then creates small whirlwinds to keep them afloat. “Go!” she says to Heathcliff.

The knight takes the cue and leaps onto the two boulders lands on the two floating boulders and safely makes it across. With only Emily left, she leaps to the first boulder, and then to the second. She prepares to make her third and final jump, but she soon hears the same sound again. Her concentration snaps and the boulder falls. Realizing what happened she immediately jumped off it, but her leap fell too short to cross.

“Emily!” Elizabeth yells as Emily is in midair. Emily reaches out to the edge, but it is too high for her to grasp. Before she knew it, she was kept suspended over the crevasse. She looks up and finds out that Tim has grabbed her arm.

Tim pulls Emily higher, and she climbs over the edge. “Thanks,” Emily says as she stands up.

Tim turns and walks forward. “Wouldn’t do either of us good if you fell into the pit.” She says while looking back at Emily with a smirk.

The party continues navigating the caverns of Revotos’ Valley.

✦✦✦

The party of six soon arrives at another cave, sunlight peaking through several holes in the walls. The vacuous tunnel is filled with more bleached skeletons.

Everyone takes the remains as a sign that something lurks inside these walls. Emily and Nina once again hear the fluttering noise, but despite the illumination of the cave they cannot see where it is coming from.

Tim is suddenly lifted a story into the air by an unseen force. He can feel his shoulders being gripped by piercing talons as she struggles to free himself from whatever has grabbed him. He grabs his Qiang and stabs skyward. The weapon pieces something, and Tim plummets to the floor.

“Everyone,” Emily says, “There’s a sentinel here!”

Sure enough, the pain causes the invisible entity to become visible for a split second before fading from view again. The glimpse reveals the silhouette of a gigantic bat.

Elizabeth tries using Light magic to reveal the monster, but it alone can only secure a few more glimpses at a time. The invisible enemy is seen leaving through the holes in the ceiling, gliding past the strong winds howling through the voids.

The group vigilantly looks at the holes, feeling an imminent attack. Elizabeth coats the party’s weapons in light as Nina and Emily sense something.

“Over there!” Nina says as she points to a hole on their right. The invisible bat swoops in, its speed enhanced by the winds. Heathcliff blocks the attack with his shield and Elizabeth uses light to reveal the monster.

In the few seconds before the bat cloaks itself again. Tim lets loose a flurry of rapid strikes, and Emily and Sarah and their own heavier blows. The bat becomes invisible again and moves around the area. Emily uses a light-enchanted blade to reveal it for a few more seconds, allowing Sarah to stun it with her hammer. The bat falls and she climbs onto it to find its weakness. But the bat recovers and begins to fly off again, with Sarah clinging to it as it ascends through one of the holes.

Nina and Emily look at the hole-filled ceiling, both somehow being able to sense its mana. The bat flies through a large hole in the upper left corner of the cave. Emily launches a light-enchanted chakram in the direction of it bat. The weapon strikes and cuts one of its winds and reveals it for a few more minutes.

Sarah discovers something in the back of the boss as it crashes. A small cone. She strikes at it with her hammer and causes the boss to writhe in pain.

“Guys!” the dwarf shouts. “Over here.” She points at the cone. Emily and Elizabeth pelt it with light spells while Tim breaks the cone off with a momentum-assisted punch.

The cone snaps off, preventing the beast from veiling itself and the wound to its wing hinders its ability to fly. It desperately glides away from the party, but Emily easily catches up and mounts it. She stabs the bat with her two swords, causing the boss to be downed for good.

A chest falls from one of the holes and lands in the center. Tim looks inside and sees more charcoal, some leathery bat wings, some robes, and strangely enough, eight bladed attachments that look like they would fit on an Arachne’s legs. Nina sees the attachments and uses her web to claim them. Placing them on her legs with glee.

The others are surprised to find the dungeons giving gear tailored to Nina twice now.

They exit the caves. The winds had ceased. But the foreboding atmosphere remains

“We’re almost there,” Heathcliff says. “Allons!”

The party of six walks along a crimson river.

✦✦✦

The party follows the crimson river down through a hollow valley. The ululating winds from before had become a lighter breeze. The gloaming sky’s effulgence illuminates the hoary landscape.

The group soon encounters moving ichthyic skeletons, but the bones of the briny depths are of little match for Tim’s movements.

Emily looks over at Nina happily moving around in her new gear. She grows a little concerned with how the Valley had granted the arachnid child armor and arms. She gestures to Elizabeth. “So, is this normal?” she says.

Elizabeth observed the silver-haired spider prancing around, now wearing bladed attachments to her legs. “I not quite sure,” the fairy says. “It is possible for Dungeons to grant items specific to one individual, but those usually happen under special circumstances, like the blessing of an Administrator, or a prophecy of sorts. The only possible answer is if a Divine Dungeon noticed someone with a grand destiny. But that can’t be the case.”

“Why not?” Emily says.

“Revotos’ Valley should be a Natural Dungeon,” Elizabeth says. “Not a divine one, and there is no indication that its core is capable of that much sentience.” Elizabeth scratches her head.

The group soon finds more skeletons, bleached a stark white as they arise from their chithonian mounds. Elizabeth uses Light magic to easily thwart them, but the gleam attracts vultures them. Emily wonders if Nina really does have some destiny waiting for her. Her thoughts linger on her mind as she carves through several necrophagous avians. They soon climb a steep hill, from the peak of which they can see signs of a village, as well as a large lake betwixt them and the settlement.

They head straight to the lake. Its water is as scarlet as sanguine fluids as rivers flow from it like veins.

“Be on your guard,” Tim says. “Something’s lurking there, I can tell.”

Both Emily and Nina noticed a large amount of Mana emanating from the crimson lake.

“Maybe we can go around?” Elizabeth says.

As they look around for a way to cross the lake, the earth trembles. A noisome smell attacks the party’s noses as a geyser erupts at the center of the lake. A large skeletal ophioneus flying above the geyser.

“A necrodrake?” Elizabeth says.

Before the party could react, the skeletal dragon roars. The ground around the party begins to ink until only a few islands of land remain in the sanguine lake. Any escape they had is now cut off from them.

Elizabeth casts Light enchantments on the party with her Bardsong. Heathcliff makes the first strike, slashing at the undead beast. The attack causes it to focus squarely on Heathcliff. Leaving it unable to anticipate Tim lunging at it with his spear.

Sarah swings her hammer at the dead sea drake, causing part of its body to be chipped off. The ophidian roars and summons a tidal wave to flood what few land remands. The party braces for impact as the wave hits, with Elizabeth channeling her powers into an earthen barrier.

“This thing is tough!” Heathcliff says.

“What did you expect?” Sarah says. “Necrodrakes are exceptionally powerful entities.

“I expected not to find one in somewhere so out of the way,” Heathcliff says. “Those dastards usually guard tombs and mausoleums!”

The wave receded and the muddy barrier dissolved. The party finds themselves surrounded but the animated remains that were dredged up by the wave. Amalgamated into a miasmic mass of zombified flesh and bone.

“Gross!” Nina says, plugging her nose from the pungent odor. Sarah grabs the zombie’s attention with a provocative gesture. Emily dances around and cuts through the mass with her swords. Time uses palm strikes and kicks to repel the odorous mass back into the lake waters.

One chunk of rotten flesh hits the serpentine zombie and causes it to writhe in pain as some of its bones are corroded away as if the flesh had an acidic effect on it. The ophioneus dives into the waters.

Nina sees the revolted reaction of the ophioneus and has an idea. She webs up several lingering piles of flesh and drags them into the few patches of land. With one amasses into a suitable size, she uses a dragline to tug at Sarah’s arm.

“What is it?” Sarah says.

Nina uses her free hand to point to the chunk of noisome mass. “I think this snake hates it.” She says nasally.

The ophion surfaces and prepares to create another wave. Sarah rushes towards the pungent mass and uses her hammer to launch it towards the ophioneus. A direct hit is landed on the beast and disrupts its attempts to raise the levels of water in the lake.

More scraps of bone were stripped from the skeletal serpent, revealing a large cerulean stone in its skull. Emily sees the nectodragon’s bead and launches a lightning spell at it. The zombie reacts virulently to the electric shock to the beat and is left in a state of furor and frenzy. The leviathan tries to ram the party, dredging up more remains in its wake.

The zombies attack the party, but Tim uses his wind magic to throw them into the air as the phones launch at them again. The dogged and the undead cause more of its skeleton to be snapped off, revealing more of the cerulean stone.

As the serpent one more lunge, Emily leaps onto the skull and grabs it, aiming to separate it from the opheoneus. The undead dragon flies around uncontrollably, circling the party as Nina gathers more lumps of remains with her webs, and Tim, Heathcliff, and Elizabeth launch them at the dragon. Bit by bit, the skeletal dragon falls apart until it lands at its skull and enables Emily to finally sever the phylactery from the draconic lich.

The skeletal opheoneus falls apart In the air as the water recedes and a sanguine hue clears from both sky and sea.

Emily lands on the island as a part of short rises from beneath them. At the end of which is a chest.

Nina is the one to open the chest, eagerly anticipating new equipment, sure enough, among the stark white chips of bone lies a circlet that fits her head snugly. Emily approaches the other items and sees an Axe as well as a tablet with a message.

“Passage to Hamlet you are now allowed. But be warned, the piper is here right now. Little spiderling, fellow Dungeon, take these treasures, for trials await you all in the future.”

Emily hands the tablet to Elizabeth who is surprised that the dungeon has decided to communicate with them at all.

Nina takes the axe and gives it some swings, however, the axe is too heavy for her to effectively use and Sarah confiscates it.

“Minerva is not gonna like this,” Heathcliff muses.

The party as braved the gauntlet of Revotos’ Valley and earned the right to safe passage to and from Hamlet. They execute this privilege immediacy and makes their way to the village.

✦✦✦

A few hours ago, the pied man from Noir had arrived, having snuck past the gantlet that is Revotos’ Valley.

“Forsooth, the dungeon was easily passed,” the man says to himself. “Maybe I’ll play a little tune, rejoice.”

The man takes out his trusty pipe and plays a small tune. The nearby rodents were charmed by the melodies of his Bardsong and surrounded him as if he were the king. “Hah, I still got it, the job will breeze by!”

Little did he know, an invisible hand had guided him here, the presence of a demoniac entity watches him with keen interest as he plays around with the vermin. They had guided him through the valley of death in ways unknown to all but the dungeon’s core. They leave the piper be as they scope out the village.

The azure sky gleams with a warm refulgence, the sunlight shining down on the quiet isolated town of Hamlin. Children are frocking out in the town’s center with beaming smiles, as the adults cheerfully go about their day. Yet the atmosphere is thick with an understanding among the elders that the world had left them behind. The rustic town looks like something of a film depicting a past age, with cottages lined with hay and none of the more modern amenities like steam-powered devices or even automobiles. The lambent of the sunlight reveals not only a town stuck in the past but one that struggles to move forward, isolated by both time and distance alike.

The demon picks up on this and they soon chance upon its mayor. The politician, fresh off a meeting with officials from the New Virginia state government, a representative of the Rosenkreuz guild, and several important people from Noir, is on his way back to his office in tow hall, to assess the finances. The invisible specter spectates the mayor’s lucubration of the coins in the coffers.

“Hmm,” the mayor says. “After we exterminated these pests, we should be able to get enough to start the Backbreaker Bridge project by winter.” The specter looks at the location of the coins, placed not within a vault of high security, but instead a humble chest. The specter is intrigued by this.

They soon returned to the piper, now having played a tune for the population. The pied bard gives the name of Stanley Piers to his audience. A name the specter had already known too well, for they had already decided that Stanley would be their agent of change. Yet they muse on whether the rats he was hired to remove can’t also be agents in their own right. They begin to formulate a scheme involving the rats and the catcher both.

Stanley and the Hamlin residents remain unaware of the cacodaemoniacal presence. “I shall thank you for honoring me now.” The man bows. “My tunes shall ensure the vermin is vanquished. May the village be rid of rats by dawn!”

The town cheers, not knowing that others will soon follow in the rodents wake.