Duelling Dungeons

The mood in Sylvia’s room had been tense and gloomy, right up to the point where her stomach rumbled loud enough to shake the floorboards. It was enough to break the tension and lighten the mood.

Since she’d said what she wanted to and both Kass and I promised to do our best to support her, there wasn’t much more for us to discuss. Instead of standing around awkwardly, we decided to move to the cafeteria and try to satisfy Sylvia’s hunger.

“So how are the preparations going? Are we ready for the match?” Kass asked as we strolled into the cafeteria.

“We’re about as ready as we can be, considering we only have a couple of days left,” I replied. As we slowly wove between the tables, I noticed that Sullivan and Charlotte were sitting at our table. It was always nice to have more company during meals. “Unfortunately, The Black Sanctum has kind of an annoying lineup, which is really going to slow us down.”

“Annoying how?” Sylvia asked.

“Well… The first four floor bosses are known as the lords of poison, swarms, plagues, and the dead,” I said. “And they lean into those themes quite hard.”

Charlotte looked up and shot me a dirty look. “You know I am trying to eat, and I don’t appreciate the fact that the first words I heard coming out of your mouth include the words plague and poison. It kind of ruins my appetite."

“Sorry,” I muttered before sliding into the booth.

“Now, Charlotte, I know you’re having a bad day, but you don’t have to take it out on the girl. You know how she loves to gab about tactics and dungeons,” Sullivan said. He was slowly spooning soup into his mouth, which normally wouldn’t be weird, but as a Dullihan, his head was sitting on the table right next to the bowl. Even after a couple of months at the Manor, I still found the sight a little unsettling. “I take it you girls were discussing the upcoming match.”

I nodded. “I was just filling Kass in on the situation, since she’s been away.”

“Well, feel free to continue,” Sullivan said. “I’d like to hear what you’d like to say. Just… maybe watch your words.”

Charlotte shot me a dirty look, but didn’t outright disagree.

“Right, well…” I said, trying to organize my thoughts, “The real problem with fighting ‘The Black Sanctum’ is they lean quite heavily into their dungeon mechanic, and that anyone who can’t clear the first seven floors has to deal with the darkness.”

“Any idea what’s actually in the darkness?” Kass asked.

“Not really. The committee forced them to extend the timer, but didn’t force them to shut down the mechanic completely. That tells me that whatever they’re doing is extremely powerful, but not completely unbeatable. Probably some sort of summon ritual for a greater demon, or outer entity,” I said.

Everyone turned towards me, eyes wide. Sullivan even reached down and turned his head.

“What?”

“Not completely unbeatable? Greater demon? Seriously?” Sylvia said.

“What?” I repeated, blankly. “It’s true, they may be stronger than any one of us, but they are defeatable.”

“Tell that to ‘The Elder Woods,” Charlotte snorted.

“In all fairness, The Elder Woods rely heavily on tricks and skirmishing; they’re not great at a stand-up fight. Indrich is their best brawler, and he got caught off guard,” I told them. “Still, if they do manage to get that ritual off, the match will already be in the late game, and we probably won’t have the forces to stop whatever it is either.”

“So… we just keep the match from going long,” Kass announced. “Easy!”

“Not so easy,” I countered. “As I was saying before, The Sanctum leans in quite heavily on their mechanic, and as such, the first four floors are a slog. They’re designed to both delay and wear down any groups that barrel into them. They have heavy status effects, large groups of mobs, and recurring minions. They’re not especially strong, but can be absolute tar pits for groups that aren’t prepared for them.”

“And are we prepared for them?” Sullivan asked.

“We’re as ready as we can be,” I replied. “Even though I have plans for them, I suspect Nor’goth and his advisors will shake things up. It won’t be straightforward.”

“How are recurring minions even legal?” Charlotte asked. “Those reanimating skeletons we faced during our match against ‘The Dread Isles’ were heavily limited.”

“Those were staff members,” I told her. “Minions are, as I understand, simulated magical constructs. They’re legal as long as the summoner has the magic to invoke and control them. They’re powerful, but if you take down the controller, the minions go down with them.”

“Something tells me taking care of the controller isn’t going to be that easy,” Kass muttered as she fiddled with the ordering tablet. When she was done, she passed it to me.

“It isn’t, the other staff usually protects them, but I thought of a couple of different ways for us to deal with them,” I muttered.

While I figured out my order, Kass looked around. “Where’s George? Isn’t he always with you? Or at least, always with you while you’re at the cafeteria?”

“He’s in the dungeon, skirmishing with Luther’s mimics,” I explained.

“With… the mimics?” she asked.

“They’ll be important for our strategies!” I told her. “They’re good at munching!”

Kass raised an eyebrow. “Munching?”

“Trust me, they’ll be invaluable during the match,” I said, nodding.

“Fine… keep your secrets,” Kass sighed. “Assuming we can get through the bottom four floors, what do we have to deal with on the middle floors?”

“I doubt we’ll have to worry about facing anything tough when we reach those floors,” I muttered. “Because, based upon their previous matches, those floor bosses are going to be pushing hard into our own dungeon. They’re no slouches either. Rogu the bloated, and Jyssa, Voice of the fallen.”

“Did you say ‘The Bloated One’?” Sylvia asked, wrinkling up her face. “Please tell me that’s figurative.”

“Nope, literal. He’s a stitched man, an abomination, made of rotted flesh. Despite that, he could probably stand toe to toe with either you or Sullivan. Not only is the man scary in a fight, but he’s filled with plagues and poisons that spill out of him in combat,” I explained.

Charlotte dropped her fork loudly on her dessert plate, leaving the slice of pie half finished.

“Sorry! It’ll be the last time, I promise!” I said apologetically. She gave me the stink eye, but still picked up her fork again. “Lissa’s a channeler, pulling dark magic directly from the Fallen One. Anyone without protection, or some way to dispel her magic, will quickly find themselves crippled by her spells.”

“And, do we actually have anyone capable of dispelling her magic and providing protection?” Sullivan asked.

“Not as many as I would like,” I grumbled, “but her power isn’t unlimited, so if worst comes to worst, we can just try to overwhelm her.”

“She’s that hard to deal with?” Kass asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We were lucky last time, and had answers for everything that ‘The Dread Isles’ had to throw against us. That’s not always going to be the case,” I said. “Still, it’s not all bad news; they’re going to have a serious problem dealing with Voss, Luther, and Sully here. Hopefully, we can get enough of an advantage early on to force Jyssa to retreat.”

“Is there anything you haven’t planned for?” Sylvia asked.

“Gun’thur,” I grumbled. “I still haven’t found a way to talk to him yet. He just doesn’t want to be disturbed or participate. He could really shift the tide of battle if I ever figured out how to encourage him to work with us.”

“Good luck with that,” Charlotte said. “He was locked in that tower before I even arrived at the Manor, and I’ve never seen him leave. You’d have to find something really enticing to make him come out.”

“Which sucks, because he’s here for the knowledge, and in the tower, he has access to Linivia’s library,” I muttered. “What do you give the eldritch knowledge entity that has access to nearly unlimited knowledge?”

“I hope you’re not really asking us that,” Sylvia replied, “cause I don’t have an answer for you.”

“No, it was rhetorical, I’ll have to think about it more,” I said.

“If anyone can figure out a way, it’ll be you,” Charlotte said as she scooped the last of her pie into her mouth.

“Without a doubt,” Kass agreed, patting me on the back.

“I appreciate your faith, but I have more important things to concentrate on right now,” I said. “Like the match.”

“Well, there’s no rush, Gun’thur isn’t going anywhere,” Sullivan chuckled, just as the servers came over with our food.

Sylvia passed Kass and me our plates before taking an entire serving tray piled high with food. She shoved an entire ham hock straight into her mouth, then smiled as she chewed.

“Yeah, no rush,” I whispered as I accepted my plate of chicken and mushrooms, “but I’ll figure it out one day.”