The Legend of William Oh

William Oh was once bitten by the dreaded swamp vampire.

After three days of agonizing pain…the vampire died.

Kenneth Peterson, level 25 Carpenter.

Mason Lanover has joined the Party!

Mason Lanover

Potent Detonator Level 16

16 Strength

32 Kinesthetics

32 Resistance

48 Focus

64 Acuity

Charges: 48/48

Free Points: 0

Primary Abilities: Conflagration*, Feedback Shielding*

Secondary Abilities: Phase Shift

Primary Ability Upgrade Available!

Reginald Thatcher has joined the Party!

Reginald Thatcher

Selfless Bulwark Level 16

32 Strength

0 Kinesthetics

80 Resistance

16 Focus

16 Acuity

Charges: 16/16

Free Points: 0

Primary Abilities: Take One for The Team*, Second Wind**,

Secondary Abilities: Heavily Armored

By the gods that’s a lot of Resistance…by the gods, that’s some low Acuity and Kinesthetics.

Reggie was by all accounts, weak-willed, blind, deaf, and clumsy, but he could take a punch. Any punch. Any time.

I thought I had good Resistance, but apparently I am on the low end of what a Tank is capable of.

Will didn’t know exactly how best to utilize their abilities, so he decided not to flail about blindly.

“What’s up, boss?” June asked once he got her away from the others.

“So, my understanding is that you’re the Party leader?” Will asked.

“Mason’s the Party leader.” June said, a faint smile peeking through the scout’s stoic expression.

“On paper.” Will said.

June’s eyes narrowed, scanning him up and down. “Fine, I call the shots. What do you want?”

“You good at it?” Will asked.

“Out of three people? Yeah, I’m the best at it.” June said.

“I want to create a chain of command. I want to put you in charge of Travis and Alicia, in addition to your regular Party. You’ve got experience herding rich kids.”

He glanced off toward Mason meaningfully.

“How are you going to get them to agree to it?” June asked.

“Alicia isn’t particularly headstrong, just shy and withdrawn, and Travis will blindly go along with anything she does. Get her to agree to follow your lead in front of him, and you’re set.”

“I see.” June said, chewing her lip. He could see the coins glittering in her gaze. June was similar to Will in that she did not enjoy a particularly wealthy upbringing, and had developed a somewhat mercenary attitude towards money and life in general.

She understood that rubbing elbows with three rich scions on a regular basis could be quite lucrative in the future, so the offer he was making her was very attractive.

“Here’s the kicker. You’re going to have to take orders from Loth. Can you do that?”

“The little black one from the Establishing Quest?”

“She’s actually really big for a kobold. But yes, that one.”

June seemed to consider a moment before glancing back up at him. “She good?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s some kind of freak of nature. She makes smart humans look stupid and smart kobolds look like animals. Loth is responsible for damn near all of my success.” Will said.

“Alright.” June nodded, offering him her hand. “I’ll wrangle the rich kids, and I’ll take orders from you and Loth.”

Will took it.

“Much obliged. Now let’s go hunt some swamp monsters.”

“Yes sir!” June said, giving him a mock salute.

“Don’t make me regret this.”

“Yes, sir.”

They rejoined the others, and Will explained to Mason and Reggie that their current command structure wouldn’t change, and when the rest of Will’s Party were back on their feet, they would shuffle Alicia and Travis into their squad.

Roger was nearing the end of his patience when they finally had the group organized, with June leading the group, Will ranging, Mason and Reggie tucked in close together behind the scout.

Will switched out the Combat Platforms for the Swampstompers, and suddenly he was a lightning bolt. The layered bonuses to his footing and Aspect of the Goat literally allowed him to walk on water and pond scum, and faster than he had any right to do.

Will delighted in the sheer speed for a while, until he noticed that Reggie was having a great amount of difficulty keeping up with the others, so he gave the Tank the Swampstompers, bringing Reggie up to speed.

Will’s reasoning was: A Tank that isn’t maneuverable enough to get between his ward and the danger, was a useless Tank.

Reggie didn’t have any Ranger passives, but his Resistance was enormous, boosting the boot’s effectiveness.

The change in equipment brought Reggie from the slowest to the second fastest after Will.

Will put on Reggie’s boots until he could get back to town and grab his combat platforms again.

Boots of the Sentinel

+3 Strength

+3 Resistance

Wearer is more difficult to move against their will. Scales with Resistance.

Sure, that would be great for a Tank, but again, if he’s too busy struggling with the mud to get in front of his Party, it’s a moot point.

“Hold up!” Roger said, holding up his hand before pointing into one of the swampy ponds, identical to every other swampy pond they’d ever seen.

“Clearwater Slime.” Roger said, pointing at the water.

“Eh?” Will frowned, looking at the pond, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

“You can identify them by the defined edge of scummy swamp water floating with all sorts of gunk, and then a circle of perfectly clear water.” Roger said, motioning with his hand.

Will’s eyes adjusted now that he knew what he was looking for.

Oh, wow.

There was a line where the water turned perfectly clear, without any of the floating bits he’d taken for granted. A massive circle, eight feet across.

“If you jumped into the water right there, it would wrap around you and start digesting your feet.”

“What’s the best way to fight them?” June asked.

Roger grunted.

“Typically, I jump in there and beat them to death before my legs are completely gone, but you kids might want to try a different approach. Heat works well on just about everything on the 4th floor.”

“Your time to shine.” June said to Mason.

Mason stepped forward and a moment later, the pond erupted with scalding hot water, the slime turned milky white by the heat.

The creature shuddered and died, and a moment later, began releasing Miasma into the air as it died.

“Fantastic,” Mason said, kissing the Ring of Arcane Endurance.

“Get a room you two,” Reggie said.

“You-“

“Ey, ring of the carpenter!” Roger said, fishing a wooden ring out of the slime’s rapidly decaying corpse. “Gives the ability to dry out wood. These don’t sell for a lot, but they’re real good for the people running Waystation.”

“Moving on,” Roger said, hauling himself out of the water and brushing off the leeches fruitlessly trying to attach to him.

“That there’s a gator. It’s a real animal so you can treat them like trail rations.”

A few minutes later, Roger grabbed a plant out of the ground, revealing roots shaped like a human.

Will started feeling…weird.

The moment evaporated with an audible *crack* as Roger callously broke the creature’s neck with a twist of his hands before crushing it between his fingers.

“Mandrake root is the only creature that does psychic damage on this floor.” Roger said, rubbing the pulp all over himself. “Interestingly enough, when you pulp it, the psychic damage remains at just a high enough level to kill any biting insects that get close, but not high enough to actually cause any harm to someone with a Class.”

To demonstrate, Roger held out his arms and waited…Will was surprised to notice that insects were now actively avoiding the Rustic Brawler.

“Note that this only works for natural insects and the very weakest monsters. Bloodsuckers will still make a play for you. Speaking of,” Roger pointed.

“Dear gods!” Mason shouted as a dog-sized mosquito streaked through the air towards Mason, flying at full speed now that it’s cover had been blown.

Reggie stepped forward using his new speed to get in front of Mason and squish the creature on his tower shield, acting like a giant fly-swatter.

“Bloodsuckers like to creep up on you until they’re too close to stop them.” He picked up one of the mangled bloodsucker’s legs and showed how it looked like the same deadwood sticks that littered the swamp.

“Another thing to be cautious of: The sound from their wings only travels to the sides, not straight ahead. Some weird sound trick, I assume, but if the swamp suddenly goes quiet from a specific direction, you’re probably being charged by a bloodsucker.”

“They also tend to hunt in packs,” Roger said, pointing at a bunch of sticks scattered across the swamp.

“light ‘em up.” June said, drawing her bow.

Mason nodded and dropped a Conflagration in the center of their densest cluster.

About six bloodsuckers rose from the chaos, their cover blown.

One went down with an arrow through its head, another two got slapped out of the air by Reggie’s shield.

Will shot the remaining three from beneath with the Phantom Hand, causing them to crash violently into the ground one after the other, massive holes bored through their torsos where they’d been drawn through the tracer.

June, Mason and Reggie paused, glancing between Will, Roger, and the three mysteriously deceased bloodsuckers.

“What?”

“Who did that?” June asked, looking more curious than anything else.

Will raised his hand.

“Did you spend charge on it?”

“Nope.”

“Phantom Hand?” June asked.

“It lets me steal things, mostly, but it also lets me release them wherever, and at whatever speed I want. Mostly I use it to shoot things with sling bullets from unexpected angles. I can shoot another thirty or so times before I need to spend a charge to reload.”

They were in his Party now, so Will was willing to share the rough outline of what the Phantom Hand was capable of. Definitely wasn’t going to tell them about the Relic slot exploit, though. That was between Will and Loth.

“Dimensional storage?” Mason asked, eyes wide.

“About a third of a gallon,” Will approximated with his hands. “I got a couple healing potions, rings, and about three dozen bullets.

Will hadn’t had time to get custom ammunition created yet, and his current build didn’t really need it yet either. Maybe when they hit the fifth floor.

“And Aspect of the Goat?” June asked.

“It’s a passive. Better footing, environmental resistance, and I can eat pretty much anything organic.”

June nodded, seemingly considering for a moment before opening up.

“Hunter’s Patience increases the potency of shots the longer I hold them, and it’s got a surprising amount of knock-on effects with non-shooting actions. Trailblazer is enhanced movement, endurance and senses in the wild, and also allows others who follow behind me to benefit from a fraction of its effects.”

Trailblazer and Aspect of the Goat could be cousins, Will thought.

“Fletching is fletching?” Will asked.

June nodded. “I’m hoping it will lead to making magical arrows.”

“It can,” Roger said, nodding.

“Take One for the Team lets me mark a Party member, and whenever they get hit, I take the damage instead.” Reggie offered, jumping in now that they were introducing their builds to each other.

“Does that damage bypass your Resistance?” will asked.

“Be pretty awful if it did. No, I get hit with the raw force, not the actual damage, so I might just get scratched by something that would tear Mason in half.”

“Second Wind is an active that gives me stamina back. I’ve upgraded it twice, so now it gives me health and draws aggro as well.”

Will nodded.

“Heavily Armored makes heavy armor lighter, and currently grants plus two Kinesthetics for each heavy armor Relic I’m wearing,”

Helmet, torso, hands, legs, boots, so…+10 with a full setup? Not bad, especially because his natural Kinesthetics growth is pretty shameful.

“Conflagration makes an explosion, Feedback Shielding gives me shields based on the amount of damage I deal, and Phase Shift lets me change damage types where necessary.” Mason said.

I imagine that was necessary on the 3rd Floor, Will thought to himself.

Once they were done introducing their builds and talking strategy, they turned to looting the giant mosquitos. The bloodsuckers didn’t have any good loot. A few gold spawned, along with bags of blood, nonmagical items and a torso relic that looked like a pair of bloodsucker wings that reduced the sound one made when chasing a target, but none of them wanted or needed it.

Will wasn’t disappointed, because Roger Oilton seemed determined to run them smack dab into the worst the 4th floor had to offer.

“F’ckin’ adders,” Roger muttered, tugging the deathly poisonous snake’s fangs out of his bare leg and tossing it off into the swamps.

“Oh, you see that brown patch over there?” he said, pointing. “There’s a fungal bloom. Don’t go over there unless you enjoy getting strapped into a table and having mycelium physically removed from your body. And that’s for Will and Reggie. The rest of you kids probably wouldn’t make it back.”

Roger frowned, thumbing his chin.

“Am I forgetting something?”

Dozens of mycelium-streaked corpses of various creatures lurched out of the water around them, creating a semi-circle designed to push them towards the Bloom.

“Right, the ambush.” Roger nodded knowingly as the undead began lurching towards them.

June glanced at Will.

He nodded to the right flank of the semicircle. It led away from the bloom, towards more dry-ish land than the middle or left flank.

“Mason, clear a path,” June said, pointing. “Reggie, lead the way.”

BOOM!

The encircling zombies were scattered by the explosion, and Reggie charged through with a deep roar while the rest of them followed.

Will and June shot enemies as they closed in, while Roger just jogged alongside Mason with a bemused expression, like someone telling new people their favorite story.

They arrived at the tiny patch of dry land, the fungal zombies slowly chasing them stretched into a more manageable line rather than an encirclement.

“They’ll try to pull you back towards the bloom, but fortunately, it’s a lot easier to fend them off from this angle.

“Un fortunately,” Roger said, glancing over his shoulder at a nearby gnarled stump. “You drew us into another encounter.”

As if it’d been waiting for his words, the lump of gnarled wood, moss and gunk began to move, creating a twelve-foot tall, vaguely humanoid shape dripping with muck.

If it were me…

“Mason, clear our backside asap. We’ll keep the Lumberer busy.”

Mason nodded and turned away. Will liked the directions June gave. It was best not to be flanked while fighting, and Mason could burn some of his prodigious Charge to clear behind them, making sure they were only fighting one thing in one direction.

“Fire to the rear!” Mason shouted before going mad on the shambling corpses following them, his explosions coming so fast together that they sounding like a frantic heartbeat that shook the earth itself.

Zzzzzzz.

What is that? Will detected a sound underneath the explosions. A strange droning that seemed to – Oh, crap!

Some of the moss covering the lumberer sloughed off, revealing a wasp’s nest that interlaced through a large portion of the plant-monster’s body.

The insects poured out of their nests, forming a cloud of angry insects, wondering what had disturbed their home.

“Oh, it’s a lumbering hive.” Roger said, nodding. “Those are tough.”

Gravity Charge

29/30 Charges remaining

Will leapt off the ground and sailed through the air toward the lumbering hive.

“What are you doing!?”

“Crowd Control!” Will shouted an instant before he hit the cloud of wasps surrounding their aggressive home.

He’d gotten the idea when Roger had pointed out how weak insects were to psychic damage.

As he felt angry wasps flood his world, Will directed a Charge through the Tomahawk of the Serpent.

28/30 Charges remaining

A haunting chord played through the tomahawk, and the insects surrounding him burst into smoking ruins and tumbled to the ground as the greater Sting Ring piggybacked on the 20ft AOE of psychic damage, killing the vast majority of the swarm in one hit.

Will’s feet hit slimy wood, nearly slipping for a heartbeat before he caught himself

He stood on top of the lumberer and scanned the battlefield.

Another group of monsters had joined the fun. They were pale, swamp-dwelling humanoids with brilliant red arm-width tongues that extended up to ten feet out of their emaciated, naked bodies.

The tip of the tongue seemed to have three rows of shark-like teeth that all faced inward, designed to saw into their victim’s flesh and extract as much blood as possible.

“Swamp Vamps are smart enough to follow a Party for miles to catch them at their most vulnerable! When a Party accidentally catches two encounters simultaneously, that’s their favorite time to strike!” Roger bellowed above the din, roaring with laughter.

The lumberer didn’t seem to realize that Will was on top of it, seemingly focused on Reggie, who was preparing to receive a strike on his massive tower shield.

“leave this to me!” Will shouted, pointing at Mason, who was fending off vamps with his stick-arms, pale blue shimmers of shielding protecting him for the moment.

Will’s first thought was to shoot the lumberer a few dozen times and remove it from combat entirely, but he decided against it.

It was, as it’s name suggested, rather slow, and Reggie was able to get out from under its strike with plenty of time to spare.

This gave Will an idea.

From the back of the lumberer, Will used the Phantom Hand to shoot two swamp vamps , drawing them directly beneath the lumberer’s massive fist.

Squish!

If being drawn through Will’s tracer-fire hadn’t killed them, the lumberer’s earth-shaking strike definitely did.

Will shot another vampire, kicking it up into the air and flinging it straight into the lumberer’s face.

The vampire, in agonizing pain, clawed the slimy wooden creature as it struggled to right itself.

BOOM!

Will’s footing bucked as the lumberer smacked the vampire on itself like someone might slap a (non-monster) mosquito, creating a splotch of blood where the vampire’s engorged tongue exploded

The lumberer seemed to stare at the squished vampire for a moment as if processing this new turn of events. It turned slightly to the side, away from Reggie and company and towards the thickest knot of the pale human corpses, raising its fists to squish these new annoyances.

Will gave the vampires a jaunty wave from atop the lumberer’s back.

In a matter of seconds, the vampires who survived the lumberer’s wrath retreated, slinking back under the water and disappearing into the muck.

Once the four of them could switch their attention to just the lumberer it was only a matter of time before the hulking monster was destroyed.

“Nothing gets the blood pumping like a good ambush, eh, kids?” Roger asked, hands on his hips in the center of a pile of dead vamps.

“You’ve got something wrong with your brain,” June said what they were all thinking.

“They cut some mycelium out of it a few years back,” Roger said, taking a deep breath. “Gods I love the 4th Floor!”