Rune Seeker

A blast of hot air buffeted the group as Nivian opened the door, the smell of charred meat crawling up Hiral’s nose and down his throat. And, underneath it, something else. Something more… raw… and far less appetizing. The scent of it brought the image of a bloody carcass to mind, maggots and rot taking hold, the body bloated from sitting in the sun too long.

“Ugh, that… that is awful,” Yanily said. “No amount of cooking will make it better.”

“What do you see, Nivian?” Seena asked, the tank still occupying the doorway.

“Nothing good,” Nivian said, but he moved further into the building to give the others space to follow.

Metal clanked as Hiral stepped in, and he looked down to find some kind of grating covering the floor—the heat of it already working its way through his boots—and glowing coals beneath. Those coals were the only source of light in the building, but it was more than enough to make out the dozens and dozens of hanging slabs of meat.

Meat that was once people, with the red glow from the floor elongating wounds, highlighting disfigurement, and drawing caricature-like expressions across them.

Hand-sized hooks dangled from chains where the meat had already been taken, while others punched through torsos or legs to suspend the bodies. Smoke coiled around arms that hung limply, the skin on the hands sizzling and bubbling where they rested too long on the metal grating, while heads lolled lifelessly to the side. Men. Women. Children. Age, gender, and size didn’t seem to matter—there were bodies of all kinds. And some of them already had pieces carved out of them, like somebody—or something—had gone around testing if the meat had been cooked long enough.

“Don’t like this place,” Wule said quietly, a chain rattling somewhere ahead and to the left, and the group pulled in tighter to keep a watch in all directions.

“What was that?” Yanily asked, dancing from foot to foot as the heat from the floor penetrated the soles of their boots.

“Can’t be anything good,” Vix answered, his arm over his mouth to make breathing easier.

A chain off to their right clinked.

“Hard to see anything with the bodies and the smoke,” Seena said. “Hiral?”

“Not much better for me,” Hiral said. “But… wait… I hear something. Footsteps on the metal. Not boots, I don’t think.”

“How could anybody be in here without something on their feet?” Nivian asked.

Something passed through the smoke ahead of them, the gray fog swirling and chasing it before it vanished again.

“Look, we can’t just stand here. We’re going to need to… uh…” Seena trailed off.

“Tell me you weren’t going to say we need to smoke it out?” Hiral deadpanned.

“Maybe,” Seena admitted. “But since you already said it… Yeah. That.”

“How?”

Suddenly, there was a woof and a flash from the other end of the building, and all heads turned in that direction.

“What was…?” Wule started.

Woof. Flash. A five-by-five pillar of fire leapt from the floor.

“…that?” Wule finished.

Woof. Flash. Another five-by-five pillar of fire leapt from the floor, but this one was closer.

Dynamic Quest

You’ve been marked as ingredients for the next meal.

Survive.

“At least the objective is simple,” Yanily said as another woof and flash lit up the room, this one only ten feet away.

“It’s getting closer,” Nivian said as a red glow enveloped the party.

They all looked down at the same time to see the coals flaring.

“Don’t stand in the fire!” Vix shouted, and the party scattered in opposite directions as a woof-flash sent another five-by-five pillar of flame erupting from right where they’d been standing.

Hiral pushed through the smoke as the heat seared his back, bumping into something that squelched uncomfortably at his touch and stuck to his hands when he pushed it away. He spun around the slab that swung back, then twisted immediately to avoid a second. Woof, and a flash lit up the smoke that had somehow grown so thick, it was more like soup. He struggled to see anything other than vague shapes. Movement to his left made him twist, sword coming out of the sheath on his back, but there was nothing there.

“Guys?” he asked quietly.

His only reply was a woof-flash, this time from somewhere behind him. Had he gotten turned around? Where were the others?

The patter of running feet to his right forced Hiral to spin, the hanging slabs rocking gently back and forth as if something had bumped them, but there was no sign of whatever that was. The clinking of chains came from his right again, opposite the way the running had gone. Hiral twisted that way, sword at the ready. Still nothing.

There was another woof-flash somewhere far ahead, lighting up the smoke and a dozen silhouettes—one of them carrying a large cleaver. The flash ended, the shapes vanished, and there it was again—the barely audible running across the metal grating.

What the hell was that? A Troblin? But it was as tall as I am. Taller.

Something clinked to Hiral’s left, followed by a woof-flash directly in front of him. He turned and staggered back, face scorched by the heat and eyes blinded by the sudden light. He lifted his sword in front of him and swung, panic taking hold in his chest as a sense of impending doom settled on his shoulders. Movement behind him and smoke pulling across his skin caused him to whip around, pushing energy into his Rune of Rejection. Chains clamored and clanked as their slabs rocked back and forth from the push, but the sound of running didn’t stop.

Where? Where?

Hiral took a step forward, the heat uncomfortable on the sole of his foot. Then he dove ahead, rolling on the metal grating and burning his shoulder and back. The skin sizzled, and a woof burst from where he’d just been. Heat washed over him in a wave as he stumbled back to his feet and tried to force his mind away from the pain across his back. Lines of it crisscrossed his skin, his imagination filling in what his still-blind eyes couldn’t see.

Debuff applied: Searing Pain

Searing Pain: Mounting pain grows exponentially until removed.

Suffer -1 temporary attribute point every 3 seconds, to a maximum of -10.

The notification appeared and vanished in a heartbeat, but the meaning of the words sank directly into his mind. A debuff. A bad one.

And there’s no duration listed…?

His flesh felt tight, and the pain—oh, the pain—made him reach his empty hand toward his back. And it just kept getting worse, like the smoke was digging its way into the charred skin, burrowing deeper. Into his muscles, bones, and organs.

He couldn’t think straight, his feet stumbling forward as if they were trying to escape the constant agony at his back, his hands opening and closing. His sword clanged to the ground somewhere on the metal grate, but his feet kept moving. He needed to get away from the pain. Get rid of it somewhere. Somehow.

How long? How long will it last? Will it ever stop? Wule? Wule can do something about it!

But how was Hiral going to find the healer in the smoke when all he could see were spots from the flash? No, he’d never find him. Not like this. And the pain just kept getting worse, like hundreds of burning coals were rolling across his back, melting his skin, and tearing strips off at the same time. Did he even have any flesh left on his back?

Have to get rid of it. Rid of it. Rid of it. Rid of it, his mind repeated over and over, the words bubbling and boiling until his head was ready to explode.

“RID OF IT!” he shouted as the pattering of feet came straight for him.

Barely thinking, Hiral lifted his hand, throwing his solar energy and his pain into his Rune of Rejection, and the energy burst forth.

Something in front of Hiral screamed as blessed relief from the agonizing pain washed over him like cold water.

Hiral blinked his eyes, even the spots lessening as his mind cleared, and saw something hobble away as another woof-flash lit up the room beyond. A yellow notification appeared.

Debuff removed: Searing Pain

Huh?

Hiral looked around. The smoke was still too thick to see more than a few feet, but it wasn’t affecting his breathing. Yes, he could… taste… the foulness in the air, but it wasn’t filling his lungs or suffocating him. No, that wasn’t entirely true—there was some smoke in the air, just not as much as what his eyes were telling him was there.

It’s some kind of ability. And… if my Rune of Rejection was able to expel the debuff from my body, I wonder…

Hiral held up his left hand, concentrating on just the smoke, and focused solar energy into his Rune of Attraction. Instead of a single burst of power, he fed a thread of constant power to the rune, the smoke around him shifting as he pulled. It started small—nothing more than a flow of smoke, like it was moving toward an open window—but it built and built as it swirled around the upraised palm of his hand.

Faster and faster, like he was at the center of a whirlpool, the smoke whipped around him and gathered above. It grew larger by the second. The size of an orange. A watermelon. A dog. A horse.

And then the room was clear of smoke, the Grower party spread out and disoriented amongst the hanging slabs of meat. That something else stood not ten feet away from Nivian.

Roughly seven feet tall, even hunched over and emaciated, it had the same bark-like skin of a Troblin, though it was cracked and burned like it had been charred over and over. It held a long cleaver in its right hand, and what looked like a large thighbone in its other. It had no nose on its hairless head, its two-inch-long, needle-like teeth overlapped each other, and one eye glowed green while the other was a burning red. Its shoulders twisted and twitched, as if it was trying to get something off its back, and a breathy hiss escaped its lipless mouth.

I somehow gave it my Searing Pain debuff!

“Seena!” Hiral shouted. “Target that!”

The woman, who’d also noticed the nearby enemy, didn’t bother responding with words, and a pulse of solar energy instead rippled out of her. Something passed over Hiral’s eyes—a red outline appearing around the Troblin Butcher—and from the way the other Growers’ heads snapped around, they were all benefitting from the ability as well.

You have been buffed by: Target

Object of the Target Debuff cannot hide from your eyes for 190 seconds

You inflict 15% more damage to object of the Target Debuff for 190 seconds

With that done, Hiral released his hold on the smoke above his hand, and the whole ball of it fell down around him like it had weight, then seeped between the grates on the floor. More of the smoke did seem to be leaking out of the Butcher, but it couldn’t hide from their eyes with the Target debuff on it.

No, the game of cat and mouse was over. But who knew how long the debuff would last, or what other tricks the monster had up its sleeve? Hiral and the Growers all charged forward.