//------------------------------// // Chapter 24 // Story: Celestia Goes West // by DungeonMiner //------------------------------// Dreadmane grinned. She couldn’t help herself as she marched into the caverns. As they discovered, the indoor swamp gave way to a flooded but otherwise immaculate section of cut stone and expertly carved rooms. Or at least, they would be if the crystals weren’t growing into the chambers. The large sapphire-colored gemstones grew from cracks in the walls, pushing away the excellent stone for the haphazard growths. The perfect spot for their ambush. This cavern was the same one that the dragon continued his hit-and-run attacks on, though it seemed that the dragon had somehow flooded the rooms since their last incursion. It only meant that their trap would work even better. They came up with their bait. Now all the party needed to do was set the trap. “Art thou sure this plan will work?” The mare who was born on the battlefield asked. “I don’t even know if we can find the dragon again.” “He’ll show up,” Shadesong said. “We have all his gold, and he’ll want that back.” “But what if he merely grabs our bait and runs?” Dreadmane asked, trying not to sound too loud or too obvious. “Then we still have more back at the camp,” Shadesong replied. “At the end of the day, he can grab as much bait as he wants, but we’ll still have more back at the camp.” “Then I must ask, is it wise for us to leave the camp behind, unguarded?” “There’s no way that the dragon can find it on his own. We’re the only ones who can navigate the labyrinth level. He’d have to—” “Enough, both of you,” Luckstep said. “The dragon could be listening to us. The last thing we need is for you to give it ideas.” More like they didn’t need to be too obvious. If Dreadmane and the others pushed it, the dragon might catch on. Now they had to sell the trap. They sloshed forward into the flooded caverns before they found a room that they could use. “Let’s hope the dragon doesn’t watch us hide for our ambush,” Brightflame said. “I can probably hide anyway,” Shadesong said. “I say you probably can,” Hercule noted. “We don’t want to take that chance, though,” Luckstep said before she began casting a spell. “This should help, but we need to move quickly.” Shadesong nodded before he dropped a large bag of money into the water. It splashed loudly, and the party began to take their positions, hiding in the room for their ambush. ---☼--- “Okay,” Rolling said. “I guess the question then, is how long do you want to wait for your’ ambush?’” “Long enough for it to be believable, I guess,” Sundance replied. “And how long is that?” The party members looked between themselves. “Have you ever done anything like this, Luna?” Ivory asked. “I may have spent some time in various wars waiting for an ambush, but perhaps if thou had listened to thine teachers in school, thee would have the answer,” she said with a smile. “You definitely have,” Caramel said as he downed a twenty-ounce cup of iced coffee. “But the books don’t say how long you waited.” Luna glanced down at him for a minute or two before smiling. “I suppose I’ll accept that. Yes, I have done something like this, and typically, I found that we would have to wait several hours for a trap to be sprung.” “But we’re explicitly waiting for the trap to fail,” Sundance said. “We expect the dragon not to fall for it.” “Then the question is how long do we want to risk being in the open,” Platinum said. “How long before the dragon loses patience with us and attacks, or something randomly stumbles across our path.” Rolling smiled. “Random encounters are rolled every hour,” she reminded them. “We have to wait some time, though, just so the dragon feels like we’re serious,” Ivory countered. “Then let me ask thee a more important question,” Luna offered, “what is the longest we wish to stay? Is it feasible to spend the night waiting on the gold? Do we want to set up camp in the next room and take a watch while the others sleep?” The negative replies around the table made it clear they did not think it would be a good idea. “Then I propose that we wait just under the amount of time for a long rest,” Luna said. “Even if the dragon is watching us, as long as he’s aware we do not want to spend the night waiting for him, then it shouldn’t tip him off either way.” “Isn’t this a little meta-gamey?” Platinum asked. Rolling spoke up. “I’m willing to say that you guys have worked with each other long enough that you’d be able to pick that signal off of each other.” “Sounds fair,” Luna said. “Now,” Rolling said with glee. “I get to make seven random encounter rolls.” The party groaned. “This seems like a bad idea,” Sundance muttered. They heard the die bounce around into Rolling’s dice tray. Landing with a click-clack each time. Click-clack. Click-clack. Click-clack. Click-clack. “Ooh,” Rolling cooed before she looked up over the edge of her Gamemaster’s Screen and smiled. “Four hours in, you five are watching the obvious trap you set in the middle of the room.” ---☼--- Dreadmane suppressed the urge to yawn. Their watch was taking time. A lot of time. She never personally enjoyed waiting, and even the mare who killed as quickly as she breathed hated the fact that the wait tore at her nerves at times. Still, she needed to sit here, if only to make the dragon believe their little trick. She shifted in her hiding spot before she began thinking about what she would do the next time they got back to town. Another round of drinking and bedding any stallion she could lay her hooves on was starting to get boring in town, but there wasn’t much else to do in— The water moved. Dreadmane’s eyes snapped to the ripples that moved just above the floor, and her gaze turned to the door where they originated. Her magical grip tightened around her greatsword, and she took a deep breath as she readied herself. Slow, methodical steps sloshed forward, and Dreadmane saw the water splash into the room. It couldn’t be the dragon, she was sure, but the fact remained that something was making its way, rather obviously toward their trap. What turned the corner shook the mare that knew no fear to her core. Stomping forward came a giant of blue crystal. Flat, shining sapphire surfaces covered every face of the bipedal monster as it pushed through the water. The angular faces and sharp angles made it clear that the monster had grown into its shape. But staring into the faces is what truly unnerved the barbarian. Just beneath each of the flat surfaces sat a face. An agonized, tortured, screaming face, pounding against the crystal barrier that kept them trapped inside. As the golem lumbered by, Dreadmane was horrified to discover that the faces she could see weren’t even the only poor souls caught in the monster. The ones that pressed themselves against the crystal walls were shoved out of the way by more trapped, tormented figures. Some had avian features, to the point where you’d almost mistake them for ornithians, while others bore horns, like minotaurs or unicorns. Some even had the strange but unmistakable form of orcs. And then it struck her. Dreadmane realized precisely what she was looking at. The gem golems, or whatever they were called, acted as prisons for souls. The literal spirits of the dead were trapped inside the monster. The same demon that made its way across the room as though nothing were wrong. Dreadmane’s goddess, the incredibly fair, just, and beautiful Luna, shook in revulsion and told her servant that these things must not survive. Dreadmane nodded at the order, but she knew attacking the monster here would only throw everything they worked for into the trash. Instead, she just let this monster pass by, for now. The beast lumbered past, and the ripples in the water quieted until the monster left the room. ---☼--- “I knew you were going to make a custom monster,” Caramel muttered. “Well, of course, you did,” Rolling said. “But did you expect a walking soul jar elemental?” “No, but I knew to expect something I wouldn’t expect, so it doesn’t count,” Caramel countered. “More importantly,” Platinum said, “why does this thing exist?” Rolling smiled. “Well, you’ll just have to get to the bottom of the Sapphire Depths and discover that.” Platinum glared at her. “I hate it when you make me care about your really cool lore.” “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Luna smirked. “Alright,” Rolling said. “Let’s see if anything else happens during your wait.” Luna heard the die hit Rolling’s trade three more times before Rolling sighed. “The rest of your time spent watching the trap goes by quietly.” The party collectively sighed. ---☼--- Dreadmane continued to glare into the pit of water before Shadesong walked out into the middle of the room, sighing loudly. “I don’t think the dragon’s showing up,” he nearly yelled to the others. With the cue given, the others began to move out from their hiding places and gathered up. “We might need to face that crystal creature on the way out,” Brightflame noted, “and if we do, I think it’s best if we take pieces of it for study.” “The entire thing needs to be destroyed,” Dreadmane growled. “Luna wills it.” “I do say I agree,” Hercule added. “That thing is an abomination upon the earth.” “I hope we don’t need to fight that and the dragon,” Luckstep said. Everyone else glared at her. “What?” “Don’t you know the universe is listening?” Shadesong muttered. “Come on, let’s go.” They gathered the bait, their stuff, and everything else they could grab before they began making their way back. As they entered each room of the cavern, they readied themselves for any chance of attacking, or, at least, any chance of running into the crystal golem. Yet, despite that, they didn’t see anything all the way until they got to the swamp. They glanced at each other as they began moving to the other end of the massive room, passing the temple as they squished their way through the mud. They marched all the way to the waterfall that flooded the swamp level and used the secret key to open the staircase that led to the labyrinth above. The staircase was narrow, but they still managed to climb the stairs without much issue or sign of the crystal monster. Then they came to the submerged section. The stairs stopped suddenly, broken apart by a collapse somewhere in the stone that left a pit that filled with water over the years. Brightflame cast a water-breathing spell, and the party slipped into the water. The trip through the submerged tunnel was always a long one, but the party had several trips worth of practice now and got through the twisting, broken tunnel quickly. They broke the surface of the water a little later and resumed their climb up the stairs. As soon as they finished the climb and walked up into the warm brown, smooth walls decorated in murals of nature scenes, they let Brightflame take the lead. His natural minotaur senses made navigating the labyrinth trivial once he knew where they were going, even when the large maze sections moved on them. The only way through the dizzying, shifting walls was either with the help of a magical ball of yarn that the party kept in Shadesong’s bag for safekeeping or with a minotaur’s help. More importantly, the maze divided the dungeon’s upper levels of easier monsters from the lower levels of true monstrosities. With any luck, the crystal golem would be lost down here, while the dragon would follow a short distance behind. ---☼--- “I am really sorry that I trivialized your maze, by the way,” Platinum said. “Oh, don’t worry about it,” Rolling said. “Mazes typically don’t work well in O&O just because if I do it right, you have no way of marking your progress, which is a stupid way of playing that becomes very boring very quickly.” “And I still do not understand why,” Luna interjected. “Could thee explain why that is?” Rolling smiled. “Okay, you come to an intersection, going left or right. Which do you choose?” “Left,” Luna said. “Alright, you go left. You walk for a while and then come upon another intersection. Going left or right. At that point in time, you have no way of knowing if it’s the same intersection you just passed or not, not without some sort of mark. The easy answer for the players then is to stick to the left wall, which gets rid of any challenge to exploring the maze, while just taking more time, but even then, it only takes more time if the players don’t already know where they’re going. Sticking to the left wall is the answer for any maze-based challenge in O&O.” “I see,” Luna said. “Now, I know that. That’s why I put the magical yarn in the room right next to the maze entrance. If Platinum didn’t pick a minotaur, this whole maze would still be trivialized by design. The maze is only there, so I have an in-lore reason to separate monsters’ challenge ratings. Mostly, anyways.” Luna nodded. “I understand. Thine cleverness shines through your design, Rolling.” “Flattery will not give you a second divine intervention chance,” Rolling warned. “Wait,” Caramel said, nursing a freshly-brewed cup of coffee. “What do you mean by ‘mostly?’” Rolling just smiled. ---☼--- As Dreadmane exited the labyrinthine halls into the standard, rectangular rooms that they discovered earlier, she felt a sense of relief flood over her. Each time she entered the twisting corridors, a part of her feared that they’d never get out again. Yet Brightflame’s sharp mind had led them out once again, and she once more thanked Luna for setting the shy but amiable minotaur on her path. “Alright, we’re nearly there. When we get back to town, I suggest we spend some of our bait on some true carousing.” Shadesong smirked. “You certainly know how to speak my language, Dreadmane.” “Drink is the language that speaks to all things,” Dreadmane said. “I need not of the monk who can speak to animals or plants when I have a keg in my hooves.” Luckstep smirked while Shadesong began opening the door. It swung open, revealing a familiar clear room with a set of stairs that climbed up to the room to a platform. And at the top of the stairs stood the crystal golem. The party blinked. The monster turned and charged, the only noise being the heavy thuds of its feet slamming into the floor as it rushed them. Shadesong moved first, leaping out of the way and slipping behind the monster, setting up a flanking attack. Dreadmane covered the distance, bringing her greatsword to bear and slamming it down into the creature’s rocky hide. The moment she hit, Shadesong struck, using one of his enchanted knives to stab into the monster’s back. Hercule came up next, unleashing a powerful strike backed by divine energy, while Luckstep prepared a mantra, releasing a spell into Dreadmane. She felt the world slow around her, and her own reflexes and mind began to speed up as she felt the familiar hasting magic take hold. Brightflame moved next, opening with fiery rays of power that scorched the air around them with burning roars. But it was the golem’s turn. It raised one of its might hands and slammed it into Dreadmane’s head, landing a blow that would nearly kill Shadesong outright. With her mind ringing, she barely registered the fact that the monster grabbed her, and a terrible sense of dread filled her when she thought she heard the words “Make a Wisdom saving throw.” The mare, who faced a thousand terrors, looked on in horror as she felt and saw her own soul being torn from her body. She could see her own form, like chalk lines on a blackboard being pulled into the monster’s head where the screaming face of a long-dead ornithian wailed in agony. Panic settled into the others. Shadesong ran around the beast before he managed to feed Dreadmane a healing potion before he stabbed at the creatures and began to retreat out of arm’s reach of the terrible monstrosity. Dreadmane swallowed the potion and called her thanks before she began unleashing her rage in a series of blinding attacks. Under the effects of the spell, she could attack twice as fast. With Luna’s righteous power backing her, she quickly began to tear into the beast with her greatsword, breaking free of her grapple before maneuvering around the monster and out of the way of its grasping arms. Hercule brought his own blade down again, pouring more divine energy into each of his attacks. Luckstep seemed to split in two, with one of the Abyssinians rushing over to Dreadmane to begin healing her. Brightflame, eyes wide, began casting another spell, and the temperature started to drop drastically as a hail storm began to form around the golem. The golem swung at Hercule, and the mighty, club-like arm caught him across the beak. The sapphire giant grabbed the paladin by the neck, but he managed to resist whatever dark magic the crystal monster cast on Dreadmane, and his soul remained in place. Shadesong rushed back in, stabbing into the monster’s exposed back, even as the hail storm battered them all down in the blizzard. Dreadmane struck out again with her blade, and it struck true, cracking the gem that made its torso in half. Force slammed into her as the souls inside exploded out of the monster, screaming into the sky. The blow knocked her over, and her skull rang from the explosion. She lay there on the ground, stunned for a moment before she finally managed to get back on her hooves. “Sweet Luna,” she said. “That thing hit harder than the dragon.” ---☼--- “Why does that thing have a death burst?” Ivory asked. “Why does it stun you for a round?” Platinum asked. “The day we face two of those at once, we’re doomed,” Sundance muttered. “We still have to face the dragon once we lead him back to the camp,” Caramel noted. “I don’t know how we’re going to do that.” “I just blew my fourth level spell for this,” Platinum moaned. “I could use more healing as well,” Luna said. “Although, I know that our healing resources are going to be pressed when we face the dragon.” Sundance shook his head. “We need a new plan.” Rolling just smiled. “Then how about we pick up next week, then? It’ll give you a little time.” They agreed and began to pack up. “T’was indeed a good fight, and wonderful session, Rolling.” “Thank you very much,” she replied. “And I have to thank thee, Caramel. That was a ‘good save,’ as thee say with the potion.” He smirked. “Well, you know, us non-magic types need to stick together, is all.” Luna nodded. “Indeed.”