Unforeseen path, p.28
Unforeseen Path, page 28
Warning! You have two hours to complete this quest! The dungeon has already started.
(Additional note: this quest will adjust to the highest-level player inside the dungeon and the number of players who are captured inside when the event goes live. All players trapped in the event will need to work together to escape captivity and complete the dungeon. Low-level players need to tackle the swarms of monsters, while high-level players dispatch the bosses. While players can choose the suicide option to escape this dungeon, this will leave the other players at a disadvantage and the infestation will continue to spread and destroy the surrounding area. While the event is active, players and monsters cannot leave the boundaries of the Hamlet of Hardfall.)
Objective: Kill the Boss Dreadmaw the Ravaging Matriarch and her two mini-boss mates, Toxic Stalker the Noxious and VaporStrike the Ravenous.
Difficulty: Nightmare.
Reward: Experience and Reputation with the city of Lodenburg and the Kingdom of Kader.
Accept: Yes
Chapter Twelve
(Monday, May 12th / Day 22 of The World.)
(Startum Ironwolf and his companions hanging from the rafter of a barn inside the unique dungeon of the Gigantic Cheliferidae Risso Infestation.)
“Gggaaahhh,” I heard Phoenix’s enraged scream suddenly ring out behind me in the dark barn, “I’m gonna kill that old hag!”
Fuck, Phoenix, you know better than to do that stupid shit, I silently cursed, while watching my own timer tick down for the paralysis poison’s effects to wear off. If this was anything like the horror games that I’d ever played before, you never let the monsters know you were recovering. It just brought you to their attention so they knew to hit you with another dose you again.
Three … two … one …, I sucked in a ragged breath as the paralysis poison icon changed on my HUD to a new debuff.
Gigantic Cheliferidae Risso’s Neurotoxin debuff has weakened. Full paralysis has now reduced to a muscular and mental disablement that blocks all Special and Magical Skills. Duration is for sixty minutes depending on the individual’s level and their natural resistance to poison.
As I read the information in my HUD, I heard the all too familiar tapping steps of one of the Gigantic Cheliferidae Risso monsters making its way across the stone floor of the barn.
“Just a quick heads up when your paralysis debuff changes,” Phoenix snarled in our local group chat, “the debuff pops, for some reason, it defaults your chat back to local.”
“Good to know,” I said, after changing my chat back to the group’s as I furiously began struggling against the spittle-like bindings holding me in place. Whatever the spittle goop Dread Maw applied to us was, it was tough as hell, I thought, as the constant straining of my muscles started to cause my body to spin around from where I hung from the rafters, “Sounds like you have company heading your way.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty fucked,” Phoenix admitted as the sounds got closer and closer, “that piece of shit mini-boss is probably going to paralyze me like Dread Maw.”
“That or eat your face off,” I said with a nervous laugh, trying to get turned around enough to see what was happening.
“Not even … remotely funny,” Phoenix unhappily grunted as the sounds of her struggling became more pronounced behind me.
“Any idea where everyone else is?” I asked, trying to get myself completely spun around as gooped-up hanging bodies started becoming visible in my peripheral vision, “Cause, I can’t reach Helgath or Neysa at all!”
“The rest … of us … are hanging … behind you,” Phoenix explained between strained breaths as I caught sight of her bound body bouncing around like a fly caught in a web, “Fuck … this shit … isn’t budging … an inch!”
“What mini-boss is in here with us?” I urgently asked, straining to spin completely around to see what we were up against.
“Level 58 Toxic Stalker the Noxious,” Phoenix hurriedly said as her struggling and grunting became more pronounced. “Fuck, this is going to suck-”
“Stop moving, Star!” Töten’s raspy voice suddenly commanded in group chat, “The mini-boss is right on top of you guys!”
I immediately froze at the big guy’s words as my rotation continued to spin me completely around so I could see the rest of the barn. As everyone’s bound hanging forms came into view, I was greeted with a horrific sight that I immediately wanted to scrub from my brain forever. Phoenix hanging from the rafters in her saliva cocoon with the bloated body of a monstrous tick the size of a city bus hunched over her with its tongue-like proboscis shoved into her abdomen.
“Hmm, tastes like chicken,” Toxic Stalker crowed in delight with a fang-filled maw as it shivered in pleasure over the Barbarian’s convulsing body. As its chitinous mouth tentacles lovingly scooped her body up, the monster began forcibly thrusting its proboscis enthusiastically in and out of her belly to widen the hole as it chittered excitedly, “With all of the guests collected for tonight’s festivities, I’m sure Dread Maw won’t notice one succulent meat sack being missing.”
At those sickening words, bile rose in the back of my throat. Were the developers really going to capture us with some shady ass bullshit like a shape-changing humanoid boss, and then force us to watch our teammates being slowly eaten to death before our eyes. As I watched the fat bulbous tick hungrily violate my friend, I could feel the adrenaline begin flowing through my veins as a haze fell over my vision like a red curtain. I was peripherally aware of Phoenix’s hit points dropping with each of the mini-boss’s audible wet thrusts as I went apeshit. Sucking in ragged gulping breaths, I fought the sticky strands with every fiber of my being.
“Dude, chill the fuck out!” Töten barked in group chat. “They’re not going to kill Phoenix in a special dungeon like this before we’ve even had a chance to escape.”
‘War Leader, we’re free of the paralysis!’ I could barely hear Helgath’s and Neysa’s mental cries over the blood pounding in my ears, ‘You must stop struggling so you’re not targeted next!’
Though the substance gave way a few inches as it cinched tighter around the rest of my body, I couldn’t break free of the spittle no matter what I did. There was no question in my mind that the mini-boss was going to kill Phoenix before my eyes. As tears of helpless rage ran down my cheeks, the double doors on the far side of the barn were suddenly thrown open.
“Seriously, man,” Töten continued doing his best to talk me down, “if you keep that shit up, you’re just going to get poisoned again for another five minutes.”
‘You must stop this so we can plan a proper escape!’ Helgath’s voice pleaded in my mind.
“Toxic Stalker!” Dread Maw’s enraged shriek rang throughout the barn. “Release that meat sack now!”
The sudden shout completely took me by surprise when I saw the monstrous form of Dread Maw the Ravaging Matriarch standing in the doorway for the very first time. My rage was momentarily forgotten as I took in the ghastly Nightmarish monster lugging sixteen more bodies into the barn with her flailing mouth tentacles. The creepiest thing of all was the remaining old woman parts of the monster that were still fully intact. With an almost sick fascination, I watched in horror as the wrinkled human face sitting atop a naked human upper chest and shoulders looked around as if the rest of her body wasn’t a monstrous fleshy tick.
Though, the most disturbing part of the entire transformation was the saggy wobbling knockers that crazily flopped around with her every step in a mock display of eroticism. It was like a trainwreck happening in slow motion before my eyes. I couldn’t have looked away to save my life. Even the massive fang-filled maw that her torso had turned into didn’t give me the heebie-jeebies like those wrinkled orbs. Not even her Human arms and legs that had been transformed into thick chitin-covered claws, or her fleshy ass that had expanded into a pulsating mass creeped me out as much.
As Dread Maw waddled over on her six spikey, chiton-covered legs, I sagged in place gasping for air. With a pure force of will, I ignored the bile rising in the back of my throat while I watched the pair approach. My logical mind clamped a fist on my disgust and simmering rage as I listened to the monsters’ ongoing conversation with a morbid curiosity.
“That’s it, just keep your cool,” Töten whispered in group chat almost as if he were worried the monsters might overhear our conversation. “We’ll probably be hung up in pairs and then we can try escaping.”
“But Dread Maw, my dearest,” Toxic Stalker whined as it ripped its proboscis out of Phoenix’s abdomen with a wet, fleshy pop like a child caught with its hand in the cookie jar. Turning to face the dungeon boss, the mini-boss possessively clutched Phoenix’s unmoving body in its mouth tentacles as it flippantly continued, “Why are you making a big deal of one puny meat sack when we have a whole slew of captured prey for tonight’s birthing?”
‘Neysa and I might have a plan on how to do that, War Leader,’ Helgath murmured in my mind, ‘but it won’t work if there are two bosses present.’
“What’s the big deal, you stupid oaf?” Dread Maw furiously raged as she came to a stop, “That fleshy meat sack is our key to taking Lodenburg!”
“I’m cool, Töten,” I replied in a low raspy voice, before sending to my soulmates, ‘Tell me.’
“Lodenburg?” Toxic Stalker dubiously chittered as he thrust Phoenix away and angrily whirled on the immense female monster. “You said we’d have to take over another five of these shitty little villages before even thinking of trying to take on a city that large!”
“You hanging in there, Phoenix?” Töten asked as the girls gave me a quick rundown of their idea. After waiting for a few moments and not getting a response, the big guy let out an unhappy sigh, “It’s just as I thought, that mini-boss paralyzed her again.”
“That’s before that high-level meat sack you were about to suck down by your lonesome wandered into our lair,” Dread Maw clicked animatedly as she lugged her prizes over to be hung, “Feeding that meat sack to the children along with her friends will give us a high enough level swarm to take on the city’s guards!”
“Fine, I’ll let her live!” Toxic Stalker chittered, throwing his mouth tentacles up in frustration as they hung the last of their prisoners up.
“Don’t fuck this up, Toxic,” Dread Maw warningly chittered as they began waddling back to the barn’s double doors, “or I’ll take it out of your hide.” She stopped at the open doors and glared at the smaller male. “Do you hear me?!”
“Gah!” Neristhana suddenly gasped as her paralysis wore off.
“I know better than to cross you, dearest,” Toxic Stalker grovelingly clicked as the Gnomeling shook off the effects of the poison.
“Welcome to the land of the nonparalyzed, short-stuff,” Töten dryly welcomed my companion back.
“You’d better,” Dread Maw loudly clacked, staring the male down, “or I’ll feed you to the children in her place. Got it?”
“Glad to see you survived that ordeal, Neri,” I greeted my companion while listening to the monsters’ conversation.
While I hadn’t asked about Neristhana earlier by name, I’d already seen that she’d survived along with everyone else while I’d been paralyzed. The Gnomeling was the one person in our group that wouldn’t respawn if she were killed. That put her safety paramount above everyone else’s.
“I will do as you command, dearest,” Toxic Stalker sarcastically bowed, pressing his toothy maw and belly to the ground in a sign of submission.
“That clicking is starting to get on my nerves,” Neristhana croaked as she watched the monsters at the far end of the barn, “I can’t believe that’s the monster who ambushed us. How is a shape-changing monster like that even possible?”
“Yeah, that constant clicking is the worst,” Töten agreed as Dread Maw slammed the double doors shut, “While I’ve never been through one of these unique random dungeons before, I’ve heard about them in closed beta.” I couldn’t help the groan that came from my lips as he continued nonplussed. “They’re supposedly hard as fuck and you can’t get out of them until you’ve either died or killed the bosses.”
“Great,” Neristhana grunted at that bit of wonderful information as Toxic Stalker raised himself up on his chiton-spiked legs.
“Supposedly, they carry dire consequences to the-” Töten began to say.
“Surrounding villages and city if we fail at taking them down,” I said, finishing his sentence as the mini-boss began slowly waddling back towards us down the center row of hanging bodies.
“Exactly,” Töten agreed with a note of surprise in his tone. “How did you know that?”
“I listened in on their conversation,” I explained with a frown, trying to figure out if the mini-boss was coming back for Phoenix. “If we don’t take these fuckers out, they’re planning on going to Lodenburg next.
“Great,” Neristhana grunted at that bit of wonderful information, before calling out to me in surprise, “Hey, Lord Stinky, look at who the monster dragged in.”
“Who the monster dragged in?” Töten asked in confusion before his eyes lit up as he eyed the bound form next to Phoenix’s swinging body. “Well, if it isn’t old hot and bothered.”
“I wasn’t talking about that scaly bitch,” Neristhana said with a dismissive snort as her eyes went to the body hanging in front of me, “but that Zeven guy we helped earlier today.”
“You mean the Badger kin guy who took off on us after helping him recover his companion?” Töten asked as we watched the mini-boss come to a waddling stop in front of us.
“Is the monster going to eat Phoenix?” Neristhana anxiously gulped as all eyes went to the disgusting creature as its mouth tentacles flailed in the air.
“It’s not supposed to,” Töten nervously said as the mini-boss’s slimy proboscis reached out to lovingly caress the Barbarian’s rigid face.
“Dread Maw warned him not to eat her,” I said in a tight voice as I watched the interplay, “or he’ll become dinner for the swarm of hungry children being hatched in the hamlet.”
“Hatched?” Neristhana’s voice cracked upon hearing that as Töten’s face tightened in disgust.
“That’s not good, man,” Töten grunted, “Did you see that Dread Maw is level 63?”
“Yeah, not that this Toxic Stalker guy is much better,” I agreed as the mini-boss drew its proboscis back with a sigh of regret. As it turned around and began waddling back down the row of bodies it was guarding, I began spinning around so that Helgath could check something about the bindings I’d noticed during my struggles.
“Level 58, this guy is gonna suck to take on too. That’s if we can even break out of these bindings,” Töten spat in disgust. “I’ve heard of plenty of groups wiping in these unique dungeons because they were never able to overcome the first trap to even take on the dungeon.”
‘Do you see it?’ I asked Helgath.
‘Yeah, there’s a thick strand in the middle that seems to be holding the bindings together,’ Helgath confirmed as I continued spinning back around towards the group, ‘If Neysa can cut it with her claws, it should unravel enough to let you move a bit,’ a mental growl of frustration sounded in my head, ‘but it won’t fully release you from the bindings.’
‘The monster plays at being slow and ponderous,’ Neysa sent as her golden eyes studied the massive mini-boss, ‘but I’ve already seen it move. I’ll only get one shot before it’s on me.’
‘Gotcha,’ I sent back, flooding the link we shared with approval and love as I caught the big guy’s eyes, “What’s up with your mount? Is there any way for you to summon your Nightmare?”
“Fuck no,” Töten cursed, the frustration clear to hear in his tone, “it’s a magic spell like raising your Ghouls.”
“That sucks,” I said frowning, before coming to a decision, “May as well go ahead and send invites to the rest of these guys.”
“Why would we even bother?” Töten asked, “Most of these guys are in the low thirties to twenties.”
“Read the quest for yourself,” I said, doing Identifies on the other groups.
From the look of things, there were two low-level Guild Teams and a slightly higher-level pick-up group who were in the level 34 to 37 range. As my eyes swept the various players around us, I focused on Igtra and Byrnwulf. The pair that we’d run into during the ambush.
“Make sure you get those two Red Draconian-Humans too,” I said as the big guy got to work.
“Are you serious?” Neristhana asked incredulously, “That female is a major bitch.”
“That she is,” Töten agreed with the Gnomeling while doing what I asked. “You know these guys won’t be able to do anything until their paralysis wears off, right?”
“If they have half a brain, maybe we can stop them from drawing the mini-boss’s aggro,” I said when two new names suddenly popped into our group, Igtra Raktizu and Byrnwulf Undaunted.
“Why did we join those uncouth idiots’ group, milord?” Igtra demanded in group chat.
“Igtra, I said that I’d take care of this!” Byrnwulf heatedly snapped as the enraged female gave him a glare of pure outrage.
Surprise, surprise, they were actually a team and not enemies, I thought, shaking my head at how wrong we’d read that scene. Whatever, it’s not like Igtra had made reading the situation any easier with her obnoxious attitude.
“Dude, is she for real?” Töten asked in an unbelieving tone at the exchange, “What part of that whole, “While the event is active, players and monsters cannot leave the boundaries of the Hamlet of Hardfall,” did your psycho girlfriend not understand about the quest?”
“In her defense,” Byrnwulf said as his voice took on a slight edge, “the quest didn’t pop up until after she was paralyzed by the boss. So, maybe, she could’ve escaped the boundaries of the hamlet.”
