A Dungeon’s Survival

Cameron

Fire erupted in the room. Teeth snapped together inches from the spear-wielder's face. A cloud of spores ignited as they passed through an explosion. The situation in the bog was complete chaos.

“No more fire!” the rogue shouted.

It hadn't taken more than a handful of seconds for the dangers of my third room to collapse on the group. They had moved toward one of my Plated Gators after realizing the beastkin girl's arrows were completely ineffective against it. Once they had reached it, the room's Trenti popped up. The magic user of the group had quickly tried to dispatch the plant monster with fire, something that would have normally worked exceptionally well against it.

What he hadn't considered, however, was that the room was filled with pockets of explosive gas. That gas erupting into flames gave the gator the perfect opportunity to attack the group. It also, as an unintended consequence, brought something new to my attention. That something was the flammability of my mushroom goblins' Spore Waves.

As the diminutive monster's spell traveled through the resultant explosion of the alchemist's attack, the spores ignited. They still seemed to maintain their regular effectiveness, but they received the added bonus of being on fire. That was enough to set the unfortunate caster's robe ablaze, a problem that was quickly remedied by him diving face-first into the bog water, but that still left him momentarily out of the fight. That was when the remaining three Shadow Vipers joined the fray.

One person thrashing about in the water soon became two as Flur shoved the archer girl out of the way of an incoming strike. She then decapitated the snake whose surprise attack she had just foiled and put a knife through the skull of another. She wasn't fast enough to put the third down before it reached her, though, but rather than striking at her, that one opted to wrap itself around her legs and pull. With that, two people thrashing about in the water became three.

As bad as the situation behind them swiftly became, neither of the group's front liners were able to concern themselves with it. They were too busy avoiding getting eaten by a massive alligator. To the spear-user's frustration, his weapon did little more than carve deep scratches into the beast's hefty scales. In contrast and fortunately for them, the swordsman had no such problems.

With a lunge that looked a lot less impressive than it otherwise might have thanks to the water hampering his movements, Lance stabbed his blade down into the creature's snout. The monster's tough body resisted the attack, but in the end, the adventurer's strength won out. His blade pierced the Plated Gator's scales and ripped through its flesh until the tip of his weapon found itself within his target's mouth. There it remained, but its wielder failed to maintain such a stable position as the monster he faced responded with a roll.

That tactic of the gator had both pros and cons. To its benefit, three people thrashing about in the water turned to four, not that that number would remain so high for long; Flur had already dispatched the snake binding her and was rising to her feet. On the other hand, to it's detriment, the sword that was plunged into it was driven straight through its lower jaw due to a combination of both its own strength and weight pressing down on it as it rolled through the shallow water.

A relieved smirk found its way onto the face of the beastkin boy as the enemy assaulting him was forced back. That smirk was erased a moment later as he too found himself thrashing about in the water, forced to fall back in order to dodge the clamping jaws of my second Plated Gator. Just for a moment, all five members of their group were downed in my bog's murky terrain.

Penta! I found myself cheering.

None of them had actually died, but I felt satisfied having taken the full group off their feet. That state of helplessness they found themselves in was short-lived, however. As the rogue surfaced fully, she threw a knife at the second gator. Her aim, as per usual, was impeccable. The giant reptile roared as it lost an eye. She didn't let that opportunity pass her by either.

With another fluid motion, the beast found itself inhaling a blade. It's armor was bypassed completely, but the damage done didn't approach the realm of lethality. It had only bought time, and in that time, my Trenti had capitalized on the situation, letting loose another Spore Wave. That was when I learned another thing about the spell. It couldn't travel through water.

Flur was the only one affected, but from the way she ignored the pain and acted, I could have almost been convinced it had somehow failed outright. She, without missing a beat, reached down and hauled up both Lawrence and Autumn.

“Attack, now!” she ordered.

To their credit, the pair only took a few precious seconds to collect themselves. Afterword, they began scrabbling for their weapons. Unfortunately for them, that was not a quick process.

The girl was first to ready an attack. Arrow nocked, she fired it at the hulking reptile bearing down on them. Her projectile missed its mark, whizzing past the beast a full foot to its right. She gritted her teeth and said, “Fletching's wet. I can't aim properly.”

The boy had marginally better luck than his physically ranged counterpart. He drew a bottle from his belt and hurled it. It collided with the recovering gator and, in a burst of shattered glass, released a bright green concoction that splattered across its back. Immediately, steam began rising from the monster where the sizzling liquid came into contact with it. The reason his luck was only marginally better than his party member's was because his efforts only succeeded in enraging the beast.

The Plated Gator chose this moment to strike. It's teeth found no mark as its face collided with something unexpected. Lance had resurfaced and, disarmed of his sword, grabbed and blocked with the spear his companion had lost his grip on as he had submerged. Once the force of the monster's attack was dispersed, the human extended an open palm behind him without looking and said, “Knife.”

A moment later, that open palm was clamping around the hilt of a blade. How Flur had so gracefully tossed one to him, and how he had managed to catch it without looking, I had no idea. I was impressed, but as smooth as that maneuver had been, what he did next didn't lose out. In a move that surprised me, he tossed the spear aside and tackled his way on top of the creature's head. There, he slammed the dagger down as it began to roll like the one before it had. The blade pierced, and he was pinned underwater as the creature's roll forced the weapon further into its skull, penetrating not just bone but also the monster's brain in a single go.

Around the monster's body, the water began to bubble as, presumably, whatever Lawrence had splashed it with dispersed into the liquid in a mostly harmless manner. That was only one part of the battle resolved, though. The other gator had moved back in and, lacking the ability to operate its mouth, opted to swipe with its tail. The attack caught the recovering, disarmed spear-wielder off guard and sent him tumbling back.

The other three moved to deal with the re-engaging gator, but their results were lacking. An arrow harmlessly clacked against it, a dagger chipped its armor, and a wet powdery substance burst into a wave of force in Lawrence's hand that sent him sprawling back into the water as well. The beast moved to sweep with its tail again, but Flur was faster. She retrieved the forlorn spear floating nearby, and to my surprise, used it to vault herself out of the water. She released it, and it was sent flying across the room by the force of the gator's tail. She, on the other hand, landed smoothly on its back.

From there, she dove forward to position herself on its head. Then, she struck with two daggers. In what seemed to be her favored tactic, the insectinoid aimed for the creature's eyes, taking out both of them at once. As soon as she did so, she launched herself from its back just in time to avoid getting caught in a roll. She, however, didn't avoid the cloud of spores that the Trenti then fired at her.

“Someone deal with that thing!” she yelled, “I'm out of weapons!”

In response to her command, an arrow fired, and unlike before, it landed. It only pierced the Trenti's mushroom, though, and while everyone's attention was on that monster, the other Trenti, the last monster in the room to engage, let loose a blast of magic from behind the ranged combatants.

The archer, after freezing up in pain for a precious few seconds, spun on the spot, unsheathed a dagger from her belt, and threw herself toward the goblinoid, grappling it. The alchemist followed suit, struggling to remove the staff he had strapped to his back. Once he got it, he, in a very non-mage fashion, began to bludgeon the creature with it.

Trentis were resistant to physical attacks, and mine, even at level one, had a significant endurance stat. That meant the magic-oriented adventurer's strikes were completely useless. I honestly wasn't sure if the little mage goblin could even feel the blows from the metal rod as they bounced off of it ineffectually.

Wow, he's weak.

“Alchemists usually are,” Fabian agreed.

The archer, on the other hand, seemed far more adept at using her secondary weapon. Her attacks still did next to nothing to the wooden body of the creature, but between her relentless strikes and the monster's strength stat that could compete with the alchemist's in terms of uselessness, the Trenti was left helpless as she held it underwater. That situation, while effectively already won by them, was stuck at a standstill.

Elsewhere, the rest of the party was moving again. Dan had finally gotten to his feet and was making his way to his lost weapon. Lance had managed to lift the gator off of himself enough to get free but was left spitting up bog water and gasping for air, and Flur was getting hit by another couple of Spore Waves as she struggled to free her daggers from the Plated Gator's eye sockets.

The battle didn't last much longer after that. A thrown dagger Flur paired with an annoyed yell of frustration put the one Trenti down, and a spear thrust from the tank who had been absent for most of that fight finished the half-drowned one off. The group didn't lower their guards, but whether they accepted it or not, they had won. A minute passed as they remained on guard for additional surprise attacks, but once once they seemed satisfied none were immediately coming, they, exhausted, began to drag the corpses of a gator and a Trenti to the entrance of the room where they regrouped.

What do you think? I asked Fabian, Was that too much of a challenge?

“Considering you set the room up to be another gauntlet, probably. That's the difference between immobile plants and roaming monsters. You need a much bigger area or terrain that's faster to traverse if you don't want them immediately collapsing in on delvers. Overall, though, I think it was acceptable.”

I almost feel like I should adjust it, but that was far too good of a choke point. It could buy me some much needed time when dangerous groups come through. Also, I feel like they could have handled that much better if they knew what was coming ahead of time.

“I think it should be fine. You might want to space the monsters out a bit more, though.”

I'll consider it.

While I was busy discussing possible changes with Fabian, the adventurer group's front liners began dragging their kills back to the entrance while the other three members remained just far enough into the bog to prevent me from respawning any of my monsters.