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Chapter 163: I'm open to suggestions
🕑 Added 2023-12-28 15:00:05 +0000 UTCMason led the others back to the main cavern. They met a few wandering goblins on the way, but hacked them down in a few seconds and without a word exchanged. Then they were again looking out at the strange, crystal covered hollow center of the great tree, deciding the best way up.
"Should we take the lifts?" Mai whispered, and frankly Mason didn't see a better option. The whole way up there was just a series of platforms on the outer edges of the tree, with no kind of spiraling ramp like they'd had before.
"Maybe we should explore the whole bottom floor first," Phuong suggested, which wasn't a bad idea either. Except they'd likely have to fight a whole shitload of goblins. On the other hand, that seemed basically inevitable.
"I expect we should just go in heavy and clear the bottom," Mason said. "If we're going to be stuck on those lifts, I'd rather not have a bunch of goblins shooting at us. You ready for a somewhat obscene level of violence?"
The players all looked grim, but at least not frightened. Mason half expected the creatures to run away when things got started, but better for everyone to prepare for the worst. He dropped a couple deadly traps around the entrance, then lifted his bow.
"OK," he said. "A little different this time because there's so much space. Phuong, Streak, and Mai—head out and kill as you please. I'll cover you with Alex and Seamus. If things get rough, fall back to this corridor. I'll try and tell you when, but if you feel overwhelmed, you just run. OK?"
They all nodded, even Streak, which caused Seamus to startle slightly and stare around the group like ‘did anyone else see that?’ Mason just grinned.
"Oh. And don't forget to have fun. Ready when you are, Phuong."
The swordsman grew his blue blade and went forward slightly hunched, the now massive Streak and still tiny Mai covering his flanks. Mason followed, eyes moving over everything, picking out the workers on the platforms and small tunnels, looking for ranged weapons but not seeing much they could use.
When they'd moved out of the tunnel and onto the bottom proper, Mason could also see there was tunnels dug into the floor.
"Careful," he whispered. "There's holes in the ground. Don't fall in."
A goblin shrieked in alarm just slightly above them, pointing at Streak before obviously seeing the players and getting ready to call out to the others. Mason put an arrow through his neck.
He gurgled and clomped along the metal railing before falling off, and soon enough more goblins were looking over and calling out and pointing below.
"Here we go," Mason said, no longer worrying about being spotted. Instead he just looked for anything that showed itself, and started shooting.
Panicked goblin voices soon overtook the constant drum of the swinging picks or cutting saws. Engineers at the bottom were spreading out or running away, shoving workers or the lightly armed guards towards the players.
Phuong mostly just hacked them down. None of the goblins would get anywhere near Streak, who for his part seemed content to just growl and look scary.
A few things started clanging off the floor, and Mason realized goblins up top were throwing tools and crystals at them. He gestured, but Alex was already watching, easily shielding them from the raining objects as Mason answered with arrow after arrow, dropping workers out of the air like he was hunting an endless flock of birds.
All in all, things were going rather well, which already gave Mason a vague feeling of concern in his gut.
Right on cue, a hissing, clanking buzz sounded somewhere ahead. And then another. Some kind of light shone from the gloom ahead, followed by grinding, screeching, and thumping sounds. Mason squinted until he saw what looked like...tanks?
A lot of the goblins were cheering now. Three...vehicles...came rumbling out of the dark on treads. They had spinning blades at the front with massive lights shining above. And as Mason was about to tell everyone to spread out, he realized they had some kind of...guns on their sides.
"Are those..."
The first one made a clicking sound, followed by a goblin's mad cackle. And the gloom of the tree filled with light, as the ‘tanks’ all started spraying flame.
* * *
"Fall back!" Mason ignored his own advice, running straight through a gout of fire as he turned left and ran to the flank.
[Apex Predator activated: Affinity changed to elemental]
As usual, it still hurt. He also couldn't see, and managed to bounce off the support of one of the platforms until he got out from the fire and kept moving.
One of the tanks had clearly spotted him, and with a series of clanks turned to face its spinning blades his direction as it followed spewing fire.
It was kind of pissing him off now, to be honest. And while fire might be painful, it didn't seem at all likely to kill him. With a growl of angry intent, he activated Aspect of the Cheetah, and raced straight through.
The tank could not turn fast enough. Mason cried out in pain, but soon escaped the flame thrower's angle and emerged to the side of the vehicle. He summoned his Claws and crossed the distance, leaping onto the back of the tank as he looked for weak spots or a way in. Nothing was obvious. It was little more than a steel box with the blades and flamethrowers. But at least those were obviously vulnerable.
He kicked and smashed the tubes until they bent, which the engineers clearly were smart enough to stop using once they realized. Then he felt like an idiot and activated Ranger's Mark.
His initial assessment was correct. There was no obvious way in...except at the bottom. But then he didn't have to get in, he just had to break the flamethrowers, and stop the damn things from moving.
He leapt back down and hacked at the treads, which were more WWI style than WWII. After several slashes with his claws, he'd done enough damage to slow the thing to a half broken crawl. Then he ran for the next.
He stopped dead in his tracks when he found Seamus literally dancing in the fire. The crazy son of a bitch was leaking flames out of his eyes, his arms folded and his legs kicking as he laughed and seemed to be enjoying himself. Then he held out his arms and started shooting more fiery projectiles, burning what appeared to be a hole in the tank. It soon stopped, and filled with the horrible screams of burning goblins.
"These things are the best!" he shouted, glancing over at Mason with those vaguely wild and terrifying eyes.
"Yeah." Mason cleared his throat. "The best."
The engineers in the third tank had clearly seen the writing on the wall. They popped open the tank, aimed it at the players, then leapt out and scampered away with a series of shrieks.
"Shall we take a look inside?" Seamus said with a grin. "Might be kind of cool to see how the little buggers make such a thing work."
Mason shrugged, not much caring. He called to Phuong and the others to keep moving and clearing the floor, picking up his bow and murdering his way through the lower ramps. The workers and guards had nowhere to go, and very little to fight back with. By the time he'd killed at least twenty and maybe more, the cavern had gone mostly silent.
[Encounter defeated: Goblin Lower Mining Operation. Group experience earned.]
It seemed even those on the upper levels had fled, or at least stopped working, and no doubt were running off to tell their masters trouble had arrived.
"Well done," Mason said when he found the others had made a small pile of bodies. "I guess there's nothing much to do now but climb."
"Man." Seamus popped out of the tank. "We need to get this out of here somehow! I bloody want one!"
"Yeah," Mason said wryly. "It worked great for the goblins. Now I don't see any obvious pattern, so I guess we just try the lifts and hope they get us up. I can climb and drop a rope if we need to." He tried to see the different levels and how the connected, but frankly it looked like the place had been designed by some kind of madman. He was about to try the first 'lift' when a kind of alarm blared, and text scrawled across his eyes.
[Greenblood Bounty Event initiated: 'Dueling Duos'. Please split into pairs to face the dungeon event. You have two minutes to decide, or you can be removed from the dungeon if you decline. Good luck!]
"Well shit." Mason looked at the others when it was finished. "Two minutes. If you want to run out, now's the time. Otherwise we need pairs, apparently. I'm open to suggestions."
Comments
Zach Gartman
Correction early on, The swordsman drew not grew his blade.
