Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 20: Fighting in the Fortress

Ha! Take that! I had successfully killed the evil Mage and while I didn't think I could actually kill the remaining three, just having killed a level 24 while being level 11 made me ecstatic!

1 level 24 sapient has been killed in your Dungeon.

You have gained 2,400 EXP.

First of Your Kind rewards you 480 EXP.

Status!

Personal Status Level: 11 EXP needed for level up: 5,000/5,000 Additional EXP: 13,540 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/1,400 Mana: 61.5/700 Mana regeneration: 245 per hour Floors: 3/6 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 4 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

The three elves had gotten a lot of small wounds from all the crossbow bolts and tail-spikes and the Fighter had even gotten blinded in one eye. And just as they had gotten the 'last' of The Kobold Flight downed, the half that had taken care of the Mage returned and saw the slaughter of their clan members. Just like the dragonets, kobolds were social creatures and so they demanded revenge and attacked the now elven Party of three.

The battle lasted only another 16 minutes as the Party had found a rhythm. After killing The Kobold Flight, the Fighter and Tank climbed a watchtower each and killed the kobold in them. The kobolds on top of the wall on the other side of the moat were shot at by the Scout but his exhaustion from fighting mixed with the longer distance gave the kobolds enough time to duck behind the half-wall on top of the wall.

More small wounds had appeared on the elves and the Scout looked really exhausted, so I counted it as a small victory.

The Tank - as the least wounded - went looking for the Mage. Not far, though. He went into the middle of The Yak Pasture where he shouted "Ayred!" once and waited a couple of seconds before returning. While he was gone, the other two stated their disbelief of the kobolds having built a fortress in this new a Dungeon. Which they, of course, only had been able to do because of my guidance.

When the Tank returned empty handed, the Party quickly concluded that the Mage had left the Dungeon completely due to being mostly useless without mana. After all, the Scout had seen him leave the room so the Dungeon monster couldn't have gone after him.

They don't even suspect that my creatures can leave their rooms! And so they don't realize he's dead!

As the kobolds weren't going to lower the drawbridge for them, the Party was forced to wander into the moat. As my theme was 'forest' rather than 'river and lake' I couldn't make the moat all that deep. At most 20 cm.

The 4 totally-not-eels of the moat did some lightning damage to the Tank as he entered their territory but were quickly killed. The Fighter then jumped-rammed into the wooden drawbridge. As he did, the two kobolds on the top of the wall poured 1.250 liters of steaming hot water on top of him. I was pretty proud of this trick as it didn't count as a trap due to it being made and activated by the kobolds. First the water trough had to be filled with water from the moat and placed on top of the wall right over the drawbridge. Then it had to be heated by the short-ranging flame of a galespike or two. Then the two kobolds on the wall had to tip it over at the right time.

The Fighter shouted in anger as the water hit him. The Scout stood a couple meters behind him and had the perfect angle to shoot and kill one of the kobolds, as it was leaning out from the half wall cover. The other kobold managed to duck into safety before getting hit.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Past the moat and wall there was an oblong courtyard. To each side Erlan could see a watering trough with some hay on the ground behind it. Like water meant for horses, the scout thought. Or for the galespikes perhaps? The ground right in front of the Party in a rectangular shape was sand rather than dirt. That, added with the fortress esthetic of the room, gave the impression of combat training happening in the front courtyard. A bit further ahead right in front of the Party was the only door into the 'fortress'. Or gate rather.

Erlan hadn't forgotten the second kobold on the wall but decided to act like he had in order to draw it out. It worked and Erlan shot it dead as it got ready to attack with its crossbow.

Before going further Erlan told his Party to halt as he scouted the courtyard for enemies. Finding none, the Party started doing some first aid. Cuts were cleaned and Hagwin's eye got covered by a dressing which got held in place with medical tape.

With that done the Party opened the gate and entered the fortress.

The first room was a small 2×2.5 meters vestibule. The vestibule had an empty weapon rack in one corner, an empty shield rack in another and two empty armor stands in each of the remaining corners. This left just enough space that one could get to one of the 4 doors in the room. Right in front of the gate the Party came from stood another gate and to each side were smaller doors. Still high doors though, as the System demanded a giant should be able to fit through it. Dungeons were made so all the sapients could use it after all. As such, the height of a Dungeon room rarely went below 4 meters and if it did, it wouldn't happen in more than a room or two in a row.

The Party chose to take the right door and as they left the vestibule, a gray glow appeared for a second around certain parts of the Party's weapons, shields, and armor. For the Scout only his arrowheads and iron helmet had glowed.nove(l)bi(n.)com

"Do you guys think that was supposed to be a puzzle?" Erlan asked.

The Fighter gave a short - somewhat pained sounding - laugh. "If it was, I don't want to solve it! Leave our weapons and defenses behind in a Dungeon!" Hagwin laughed again and Andrathath joined him with his deep laughter. "No way I'm doing that!"

Having walked some meters into the room the Party could see 5 small 1×1.5 meters rooms to the right and 10 moss covered wooden beds on each side of the room to the left. When the Party cautiously opened one of the doors of one of the small rooms, they found it to be an indoor outhouse. With it simply containing a coverable hole and a basin with water, the elves refused to call it a toilet.

On the other side of the 20 moss beds there were another set of 5 indoor outhouses.

The Party then followed the room to the left which led to another same sized vestibule with a couple of easily avoidable traps. Well… Easily avoidable for 3rd tiers.

The Scout had a brilliant inner compass and so the Party checked the right gate. This led to a grass covered courtyard filled with trees and flowers. Right in front of the gate stood another locked door with 4 locks.

"So…" began Erlan. "We found the Floor exit. But I believe our mission was to report on the Dungeon, so it's probably best if we explore the rest first." The others agreed.

Walking through the door in front of where the apparent sleeping quarters were, the Party entered the spinning, knitting and weaving room. The room contained several spinning wheels, weaving looms and rocking chairs. In one corner stood a large basket filled with natural colored yarn and various knitting sticks.

Finding nothing of interest the Party entered the next room. This one being a kitchen with kitchen tables, tools, and primitive ovens. A butter churner stood in one corner.

The kitchen had three doors: the one they came from and two right next to each other to the far left.

The Party picked the furthest door and entered a room with the dimensions of the two vestibules. This one only had two doors - one on each side - and identical wheel of fortunes hanging on the walls to the left and right of the Party.

Each wheel had slices of red, yellow, and green. While there were equal amounts of red and yellow slices there were slightly fewer green ones.

"That one is fake," stated the Scout as he pointed to the wheel on the right.

"Uhh… How did you know?" asked the level 6 small dumb mimic, while keeping the basic shape of a fortune wheel but revealing its 4 eyes and mouth.

Instead of getting an answer the Fighter - as he was the closest - hit the mimic with his sword. The light from the dead mimic turning into loot concealed the momentary reappearance of the gray glow around the Fighters sword.

With only one wheel left, the Tank spun it. The wheel landed on a red slice and a click could be heard. The Party looked around in alarm, but nothing had happened. With a shrug Andrathath tried to spin the wheel again only to be met with resistance. The click had been the wheel locking into place. The Tank didn't have a lot of Intelligence but while his Class meant he focused mostly on his Toughness Score, Andrathath also had a lot of Strength. So Andrathath's reaction to meeting resistance was to use more force. This caused the wheel of fortune to fall off the wall and break. The break revealed that a key had been inside the game of luck.

Your Party failed to solve a puzzle.

The puzzle has been broken and cannot be retried this run.

After picking up the key, the Party entered the next room. They were now back in the first vestibule with the racks and stands. As such they chose the left side gate as it was the only one, they hadn't tried yet. Once again, as the elves left the room, parts of their items glowed. It was the same parts too.

The sight of 8 kobolds wielding swords, spears and shields in the dining hall came as a surprise to the elven Party. They had let their guard down after so many empty rooms.

A battle began. Every time a kobold was unable to dodge or block an attack they died. But each time an elf attacked a kobold - whether they hit the kobold, its shield or missed completely due to bad luck and hit the ground, a table, or a bench instead - their weapon would glow gray for a second and visibly rust. On the third attack the weapon would turn to dust.

Additionally the arrowheads seemed to count as one weapon as they all turned to dust as the third arrow was shot.

The same thing happened to the shields and armor of the elves but instead of it happening when the elf attacked, the item would rust when it got hit.

Had they known this would happen, they would have gathered the weapons from the loot of the galespikes-riding-kobolds from earlier. The 6 kobolds they had successfully killed in the dining hall hadn't dropped weapons as loot.

And so the elven Party suddenly stood weaponless before the remaining two - still armed - kobolds.