After the End: Serenity

The goat path led to a crevasse in the ice. The path led down one side and directly to another tunnel entrance. This tunnel seemed larger than the ones they’d explored at the entrance to the level, but it was even more regular. The sides were smooth, and looked partially melted.

Serenity was more than half convinced that the damaged ship at the beginning had been stage dressing, and was very much hoping that the tunnel walls were as well. They reminded him somewhat of a ‘lava worm’ tunnel he’d traveled through … somewhere. He could remember the tunnel and the eventual fight with the ‘worm,’ but not where it was or why he’d been there.

The ‘lava worm’ had been a larval stage of a Lava Devourer. He remembered running away from that very well indeed.

He’d killed many of them later, but the memory that stuck in his head was the first encounter, when he’d been far too low Tier to fight it.

This couldn’t be a lava worm. That thing would melt through the ice with its body, if the ice wasn’t cold enough to kill it. It might be something similar, though.

The tunnels didn’t have many branches, and when they did find a branch, one always seemed to end in a large oval room or a pile of rubble fairly quickly, so there was no question as to whether or not they were going the “right way” for the tunnels. The only question was if this was a set of tunnels they were “supposed” to be in or not. They weren’t expecting to find a hidden boss, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

After an hour of wandering, the tunnel itself turned into one of the large oval rooms. At the back of the room, there was a pair of large, shaggy, white-furred creatures digging through some icy rubble at the bar end of the oval. Serenity thought they were polar bears until they turned to face the group.

They had faces that looked almost human. The faces were too large, oddly distorted, and a pale ice-blue, but still too human for comfort.

Someone - Serenity thought it might have been Moira - muttered “Wampa?”

“Yeti.” Serenity said with authority. “Not one of the nice variety either, I think.”

His assumption was proven correct moments later as one of the yeti picked up an irregular block of ice and threw it at him. Serenity moved out of the way and it smashed into small pieces against the wall.

Lancaster went to draw his sword, but Serenity stopped him. “Shoot them instead. We’re far enough away that we can avoid the ice, and I’d rather not get too close to them.” Serenity tapped his belt to retrieve his bow from storage, then loosed a lightning arrow at the Yeti who threw the ice block.

I should get some normal arrows for this thing. Fire arrows might work or they might be useless but it’d be interesting to see.

The lightning arrow seemed to do well. The yeti roared and picked up another ice block to throw at Serenity. As he dodged, he saw everyone else attacking.

Everyone hit except Rissa. She was better with the crossbow than she was with a gun, but that only meant she wasn’t a danger to her own side with the crossbow. Serenity reminded himself to talk to her about it; she was fairly accurate against a stationary target, but once she got into combat, she seemed to just barely miss a lot more than she should. Serenity was starting to wonder if there was a reason. Was she unhappy about hitting creatures, or was there more to it?

Serenity wasn’t able to fire again before the first yeti fell to the ground; avoiding the thrown ice while keeping the attention of both yetis was hard enough. Once it fell, the second yeti roared and charged the group.

It was a good thing Serenity wasn’t expecting an epic combat, because he didn’t get one. With everyone concentrating on the second yeti, it fell a bit over halfway to the group.

Rissa was even able to hit it more than once, once it started moving in a straight line.

The yeti had been farther away then Serenity had realized. Examining the yeti revealed that they were even larger than they’d looked. Each was over ten feet tall; the taller of the two was probably a little under twelve feet in height. Serenity was glad he’d made the call to turn it into a ranged fight; the yeti’s strength would have been much harder to handle if they’d also had reach on Lancaster and Serenity.

Both of the yeti had monster cores. They were tiny things, but they contained a fair bit of power.

The ice rubble the yeti had been examining partially blocked a smaller passage. It was plenty big enough for anyone in the group, but the yeti would not have fit. It continued for about ten feet, turned left, then continued for another six feet before opening into another small ice cave.

This ice cave contained a pedestal with a crystal floating above it and two chests. Each chest held a Cloak of Elemental Protection and 12 Etherium.

Lancaster told Echo to put the first cloak on. “I’m tired of seeing you shiver.”

The second was harder to distribute, but Moira pointed out that she’d gotten something on the last level and it was Rissa’s turn, so it went to Rissa.

Cloak of Elemental Protection

This cloak is woven from Inithari Spider Silk and provides exceptional temperature retention and water resistance without trapping moisture next to the body.

Enchantments: Temperature Moderation, Minor Elemental Protection