Forge of Eternity: Alpha Testing, page 47
“Run!” Deacon yelled, sprinting just behind Uri. “That party followed us! We have to go!”
Looking back at the tunnel showed a semi-circle of dirt blocking the entrance, clearly Deacon’s instant wall spell. How long did that last again? Not long enough to waste time thinking about it. Pulling Lex by the arm I started running to the stairs at the far side of the pit. Deacon’s wall exploded as we reached the top of the stairs.
Two small figures were rolling away from the edge of the blast, having made it past the barrier before it detonated. Hopefully, the human-sized members of their party were knocked back in the tunnel. I’m pretty sure that at least the creepy dragon-riding knight wouldn’t be able to get through easily. Not without taking off some of his armor. The gnomes got their feet under them faster than I felt was reasonable.
Our tank and Warmage caught up with us and I had a sudden idea. “Deacon, can you carry Lex?”
“What?” the artificer asked in a startled voice. “I can run.”
“Yes, but can you take these stairs three at a time?” I asked her, getting a quick head shake in return. “Deacon?”
“I follow,” he said, stowing his warhammer and scooping up the halfling under one arm. “Uri, grab Gavin.”
“Strength isn’t really my thing,” the mage said, looking at Phelyya. The demontouched elf grabbed Gavin in a princess carry and began sprinting down the stairs, the tiny cleric laughing merrily. Deacon followed behind, Lex followed in mute shock, with Goodwin following. I fell in as well, leaving Uri as the caboose of our little train. Trusting my Elven Grace, I flung myself forward with each step, landing without issue, and positioned perfectly to repeat the process.
The breakneck pace got us halfway down the stairs before we could hear clear signs of pursuit. Stealing a glance over my shoulder at the noise, I saw a gnome in stylish spiked brown leather armor sprinting down the stairs like they were a flat, paved track. His partner followed with less grace, robes fluttering as she took steps in measured jumps.
I landed hard, which was more distracting than it was painful. Keeping my attention on our desperate flight, I found my movements starting to feel sluggish. With no apparent debuff causing it, I checked my recent logs in the bottom edge of my vision. That also came up blank. Looking at my player icons, I found my stamina dropping to just about a tenth full.
Despite our many battles so far, my stamina gauge had not been subject to extreme drain. Reluctantly, I slowed from my all-out sprint to something that barely qualified as a jog. The change in pace slowed the stamina drain enough that I wouldn’t run out before reaching the bottom, but it introduced other issues. Once I was at the bottom, I’d almost certainly collapse in a useless heap.
Getting to the bottom of the stairs wasn’t really the goal though, survival was. Once these higher-level players caught up with us, we were dead. There was no way we could deal lethal damage to players strong enough to one-shot us.
“I’m going to need… to slow down… or rest,” Uri said between panting breaths. “Almost fell.”
“Uri… stop… running,” I said, similarly winded. “I have an idea.”
I turned, seeing Uri stumble a step or two just behind me. He cocked his head to the side quizzically as he bent forward, hands on his knees. Pulling my wand out, I sighted it up the stairs and did some quick assessments of distance, speed, and cast time. The gnomes were gaining on us and I wouldn’t have the time to try this more than once, maybe twice if I was lucky. Hoping for the best, I sent a Fire Blast sailing back up the stairs toward our enemies.
The Fire Blast spell did more damage the closer the target was to the center. That being said, even a direct hit wouldn’t do much damage against someone that out-leveled us significantly. So I decided not to go for a direct hit. Instead, I aimed as close to them as I could, while making sure the spell would strike the stone wall. The tiny orb of fire made contact just as the gnomes jumped over it. Their dodge was predictable, the easiest way to avoid something aimed near your feet.
It also meant they were airborne when the concussive blast from the spell hit them.
I let out a deep sigh of relief as the laws of physics confirmed that they were in effect in the game world, at least to some degree. Both gnomes were sent careening off the stairs and into the forest below, eyes comically wide as they realized their mistake. The robed one started trying to make some sort of spell gesture until her companion’s flailing arms knocked her spinning. I may not be able to deal lethal damage to them myself, but maybe gravity could.
“That was quick thinking,” Uri said, straightening up. “I think we need to keep moving though.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, sliding my wand back into my robes. “But not quite so fast now.”
My stamina had refilled a sliver in the brief seconds we’d stopped, which was just enough to catch my breath and stop panting. Deacon and the rest of the party were already at the foot of the cobblestone trap path into the forest. Uri and I started a comfortable jog down the rest of the path without incident. We met up with the rest of the party just as two indistinct figures began their way down the stairs. Deacon pressed a small glass orb into my hand and I popped the cork on it without hesitation, downing the potion in a single mouthful. It was thin and went down easily, while still managing to taste earthy and vegetal, like the shittiest kale and chia seed smoothie ever. Uri let out a cough as he drank his.
Endurance Tonic (Buff) - 50% Stamina restored 50% boost to stamina regen. 5 minutes remaining…
“Do we know if we’re walking into certain death or not yet?” Uri asked, causing Lex to snap her gaze in his direction, eyes wild. “This may be a deathtrap.”
“Hey!” I slapped him in the arm. “Maybe we don’t frighten our friend here.”
“I just wanted to know if the creepy cat sicced the forest against - ow!” I elbowed him in the side as I walked over to put a comforting hand on Lex’s shoulder.
“I have some Mage’s Cube mushrooms, if you need to take the edge off,” Phelyya suggested, placing her hand on the halfling’s other shoulder. “No charge, introductory offer.”
“Phelyya, don’t give our highly skilled artificer drugs,” I said, calmly, but firmly before turning to Deacon. “We have incoming. Do we know if we’re going to get a warm welcome here?”
“Gavin, run down the path a little, then come back,” he said in response, rubbing his face tiredly as he spoke.
Our brightly dressed cleric bowed and did as requested, sprinting carelessly for a short distance, striking a pose of triumph with his staff held aloft, and then jogging back. Deacon rolled his eyes and pointed down the path with his hammer offering the halfling’s safety as proof. I touched the marble tulip behind my ear, finding it still malleable to the touch, confirming the buff from the fountain was still active. The path ahead was safe and we were still able to move through the stone foliage as if it were normal forest flora. That might give us a fighting chance here.
“Alright then, Uri upfront, then Lex, then Gavin,” Deacon said, looking around at the party. “Then Amalie, Phelyya, and me. I see our tails are catching up with us. I’ll hold them off if it comes to that.”
“Our selfless protector,” I said, pretending to swoon. “Such a hero.”
“Can it,” Deacon said, shooting me a steely look. “Everyone, we need to keep moving.”
“Don’t stop or we’ll die,” Lex said, voice devoid of inflection. “Also, move forward and we might still die. Okay.”
I squeezed Lex on the shoulder before gently pressing her forward. Everyone slid into place and we fell into another headlong sprint, ignoring potential traps or enemies in favor of speed. The stamina potion buff kept me from depleting nearly as quickly as I had on the stairs, despite the mad rush. With about three minutes left on the buff, I figured we’d make it to the fountain before needing to slow down.
The familiar pop and shatter of a stone bush trap behind us signaled our pursuers were catching up. A second or so later, I heard a muffled curse and the sound of stone against metal. I really hope this means the forest is on our side. Another spiked bush exploded, much closer than I expected. Deacon grunted in pain and a spike of anxiety shot through me, assuming he’d just gotten one-shot like Goodwin. I stole a glance at the party icons, breathing easier knowing he was still alive.
“Off the path!” Deacon yelled, all of us taking a moment to process his words. Uri was the first to follow our tank’s recommendation, running into the bushes to the left of the path, stone leaves moving aside easily. Lex and Gavin followed on his heels, running diagonally from the cobblestone path. Lex stumbled over a small bush that refused to bend for her, but our cleric helped her up and ran arm in arm with her to clear a path through the stone foliage. I followed and looked back over my shoulder, just in time to see Phelyya and Deacon rolling off the path and narrowly avoiding a cleaving ax blow that buried itself deep in a stone tree.
“Follow the quest pull, skip the fountain. Straight to the dungeon,” Deacon called out, rolling to his feet.
I sped through my menus and enabled the tracking for the “Save Your Place, Save Us All” quest. Immediately the quest became tangible, something physical in my mind alongside the more subtle presences of the other party members. Now that I was focusing on it, something felt strange in the party sense, distinct from Goodwin’s absence. Actually, that was the strangeness, I expected him to be missing and instead had a faint feeling he was somewhere up ahead, not quite in the direction of the dungeon.
“Goodwin’s alive and close!” I shouted as we blazed a hasty trail through the jungle, the sound of shattering stone and exploding traps in the distance behind us. “We still heading to the dungeon or meeting up with him?”
“Dungeon,” Deacon replied immediately. “And let’s just hope luck is on our side here.”
Amalie - Rushing In
As we left the path behind, the sounds of sprung traps became both fainter and less frequent. Either the other party was starting to take the traps seriously and avoiding them, or they were slowing now that their prey wasn’t visible. I didn’t much care, one way or the other, since they weren’t stomping through the stone forest behind us. The stamina potion buff ended just as we burst from the jungle cover, the dungeon entrance and its guardians visible ahead.
Zeek was lazing atop the guardians’ monolith, feline body draped over the edge like a bearskin rug, human chin resting on the edge. He cocked his head to the side, turning to face us with a slow, deliberate movement. He smiled, stretching, and sat upright as we approached. The stone guardians we’d defeated on our last incursion began to stir, turning our direction while they remained on their dais.
“No time for negotiation,” Deacon said, preempting the sphinx as it opened its mouth. “Are you going to kill us, or let us save you all?”
The sphinx narrowed his eyes for a moment, then softened his gaze and looked over toward the stone fighters. The dwarf guardian shifted his grip on the war hammer in his hand. I noticed the weapon was stone now, polished marble instead of the dull metal Deacon held. His weapon found its way back into a sling on his side, his thick stubby fingers moving to a belt pouch with deliberate care. A faintly glowing orb emerged from the pouch, the guardian holding it in upturned fingers, presenting it to with an outstretched hand.
“Oh thank the gods!” Lenny’s voice issued from the orb, light pulsing as he spoke. “You all are safe, Zeek is on our side. Now, please get me out of this barely sentient statue’s hands before he accidentally cracks me!”
“Lendralgin is being dramatic,” Zeek said, voice calm and measured. “However, I would prefer you take him with you. All of you have safe passage through my domain.”
“Okay, good,” I said, hearing a faint pop in the distance that set my teeth on edge. “We were followed by some much stronger fighters. Like, way out of our league. Any way you can handle them? Keep them away from us?”
Zeek raised his eyebrows, then looked back toward the marble forest. “It appears I have been neglecting my duties and must take my leave. I can ensure the trial they face is appropriate for their power, and that their intentions are in line with this place’s purpose.”
“That wasn’t a yes,” I called as the cat sprang from the stone and bounded into the forest.
“We can’t count on Zeek,” Lenny said, bringing my attention back to our immediate surroundings. “The forest is just a simple test, meant to keep out those severely unprepared for the challenge. Unless they were sent here to weaken the Forge or pervert the dungeon’s purpose he’ll let them through. This your master artificer?”
I looked over at Lex, seeing the halfling leaning in as close as she could to one of the other guardians with a look of deep concentration on her face. She reached out and ran a finger against the edge of the archer’s bowstring, jumping back when it pulled away and fixed her with a glare. She gave me a sheepish shrug, slipping behind me as I stepped up to take the glowing mana orb from the dwarf. After a moment, I gestured for her to grab the orb instead.
“Lex, this is Lenny,” I said.
“Lendralgin Oik, actually,” he said, still held in stubby stone fingers. “But you can call me whatever you want if you can fix the dungeon and keep us alive.”
“Lex, grab the talking crystal, we need to get inside,” Deacon said, breaking her out of the stunned shock.
“Sorry I’m late,” Goodwin called from behind, his voice tired and a little winded. “Dying sucks pretty bad, but I respawned at the fountain right afterward. My logs say something about being attuned to the Marble Forest, some hidden feature of the Soft Touch buff from the fountain. It should have taken me hours to respawn, apparently.”
“It’s to prevent those with the adventurer’s soul from being separated from their party for long,” Lenny’s voice answered, startling Lex. “Halfling, I swear to the gods if you break me I will find a way to haunt you.”
The monk caught up with us and we entered the dungeon as a group. The dungeon’s first hallway had repaired itself since we’d last been through here. I drew my wand, ready to start exploding the undead at range.
“Hold,” Lenny said as we stepped into the room. “You can disable the traps and move through this room safely. Take me over to the side of the arch and somebody place a map against the perfectly square stone at chest height. That’s above head height for my current holder.”
Lenny guided our artificer through the process, which took two painfully long minutes. We did lock the dungeon door using whatever access Lenny was granting, though he did say that without full power it was only a physical lock rather than an unbreakable ward. Considering both the dungeon and raid entrance we similarly locked, we assumed the party following us had just about even odds at picking the correct door. Even if they chose the right path, it would take at least a little time to break through the entrance.
“Do you have some sort of shortcut to get us straight to the control room?” Deacon asked, stowing his hammer as we walked through the trapped crypt.
“Not exactly,” the orb said, hesitant. “There’s an entrance from the temple’s vault, which is how we normally get in and out. You said there’s no temple or city above, so we need to get to a service tunnel in the dungeon itself.”
“And the stupid drake room is the closest one?” Phelyya asked, her voice carrying an accusatory note. “How did you and the cat get in?”
“Can you shrink down to the size of a cat?” Lenny asked, the question hanging in the air for a moment. “That was a serious question, the hall of torches up ahead has a tunnel that can fit creatures about half the size of a halfling.”
“No, none of us can shrink or shapeshift,” I answered, matching pace with Lex so I could speak with Lenny more easily.
“What about breathing underwater?” he asked, his voice thoughtful. “I think there’s a tunnel in The Suffocating Caverns.”
“You know what? Forget I asked,” Phelyya said, avatar rolling her eyes. “We can just go fight the bullshit fake dragon again with its unfair double damage.”
“Sounds like you’re salty your race choice has a weakness,” Goodwin said, getting a snort in reply.
The sulfur smell caught my attention as we started down the torch hallway, just as Lenny started talking Lex through the process of disabling the traps in the next room. I had to douse several of the torches with water elementals, then we lit a few toward the end. The former Argus, turned talking mana battery, assured us this would disable the Armored Embers of the Forge ahead, resetting the trap once we passed the room so long as we didn’t open the chest.
We made it halfway down the hall to the light drake mirror puzzle room when an explosion reverberated through the dungeon.
“Any chance that was an earthquake like before?” Uri asked weakly.
“Unlikely,” Gavin answered, tapping his pipe against his lip. “It lacked a certain imposing, cataclysmic, bowel-shaking quality those tremors possessed. This sounded more like the instantaneous inferno we triggered in our first foray into the dungeon.”
“Also, the door to the room we just left is smoking,” Deacon hooked a thumb over his shoulder, just in time for an ax head to peek through. “And we are back to rushing. How quick can we get to the tunnel?”
“Uh,” Lenny started, voice shaking a bit with uncertainty. “Maybe a few minutes. Never had to rush it before.”
A deep thud issued from the door, letting heat and smoke pour into the hall behind us. Another thwack knocked a chunk of smoking wood from the door. We all bolted for the room with the mirrors, making it a handful of steps before a massive tremor knocked most of the party to the ground. Phelyya and I kept our feet, barely, and I watched Lex curl protectively around our crystalline guide as she hit the ground.
As the dungeon continued to simulate the inside of a paint shaker, a strange feeling welled up in the back of my mind. It was foreign, invasive, and most of all insistent as it pressed me to do… something. Something I’d understand so much better if I just let it happen. Pushing the feeling away was like trying to stifle a yawn or stop a sneeze already in progress. I looked to my logs, trying to ignore the shuddering of the ground while I searched for an explanation.
