NOVEL WEB 26: Dungeon
"Bloody power builder!" Jonathan exclaimed as he watched the third group of brutes fall to Zigarete's onslaught. Unfortunately, Jonathan wouldn't be able to rip up her character sheet at the end of this session. Reality was often disappointing. Only his first encounter had done anything to damage the Inquisitor's forces. He was beginning to question the merits of just releasing the entirety of the remaining beasts from their holding cells. 'That probably wouldn't be enough.' he thought. At this rate Zigarete was going to find them with barely a scratch on her. Little miss Spanish Inquisition wasn't Jonathan's only problem either.
"We have lost another one." Saikhi said with a somewhat distracted tone as another floating screen went blank. After the first attack, something had been systematically destroying whatever devices recorded the various chambers and hallways. Jonathan was getting blinder by the minute. Saikhi and Talitha were doing their best to help him monitor the situation but they were still distracted by their master's power. They were just as dedicated to watching each other's bodies and Jonathan's bulge as they were to watching the screens in front of them. It was probably the right time to 'conievo' them back to sanity. Jonathan's experiment to see how effective they had become whilst under his power had produced a result. The conclusion was a big fat, 'not very'. Unlike Sala's priestial ability, natural desensitization seemed to have a limit.
"Conievo" Jonathan chanted before touching each of the girls in turn. The change was immediate. The girls were now completely focused on the screens.
"It is the Tracker." Saikhi stated as the clouds in her mind dissipated. "He has to be the one knocking out the view ports."
"I think she's right, the faen isn't with the others. We lost sight of him near the beginning." Talitha added.
That made sense. There is always that one guy who thinks it is a good idea to wander ahead without the main group. That is why, as a Dungeon Master, Jonathan hated rogues. He watched carefully for the next monitor to go blank. There! Hallway 4 East's screen shutdown. With a press of a few buttons Jonathan released all of the beasts that were still residing in the eastern wing of the catacombs. That will teach him to never split the party, a lesson Jonathan learnt long ago.
"Hey, what is that thing?" Jonathan pointed at a solitary lizard-like humanoid still in a cell near Zigarete's group. Red scales covered it's muscular form.
"I am uncertain, I have never seen one of those before." Saikhi said as she scribbled down some notes on the creature.
"You've never seen a drakken before?" Talitha asked with genuine surprise.
"A dragon!?" Jonathan exclaimed. "Does it breathe fire?" This was too good.
"Breath fire? No daddy. It's a drakken." Talitha clarified. "They are solitary hunters that stalk the forest floor. Highly intelligent and extremely dangerous. How have neither of you ever heard of a drakken before?" Talitha was surprised at Saikhi in particular. She could have believed that her chieftain hadn't heard of drakkens before, he was a foreigner, but Saikhi? She seemed like she was generally well informed.
"There was nothing about them in the library." Saikhi added defensively.
"Well it must be dangerous if they keep it separated from the rest of the beasts here. Hopefully it will do a better job than those brutes have." Jonathan hovered his hand over the button to the drakken's cell.
"Wait Master." Saikhi implored. She pointed to a button just below the drakken's cell release. "I believe this controls a lock down door in the tunnel. If we wait a moment, we might be able to separate some of the group."
Jonathan nodded, his companions were doing a remarkable job. Any initial hesitation that he once had of bringing them along had long since faded. If it wasn't for them, Jonathan would probably have wound up captured or face down in a ditch. Having two women fawn over him also had its benefits. He felt that his companions were getting the raw end of the deal. Despite Jonathan's protests and insistence that they need not follow him, the girls didn't listen. He just hoped they would all get out of this unharmed.
"Now!" Saikhi shouted.
Jonathan pressed the lock down door's button. He watched as a stone slab fell down, splitting the Zigarete's group in two. On the far side, Zigarete and two soldiers were separated from Garth and the other four guards. Garth and his men started to hack and prod at the slab, desperately trying to find a way to get it open. Jonathan then pressed the drakken's cell release button. Time to unleash the boss. The drakken moved carefully from it's holdings, the light in it's chamber started to flicker.
Back over in the eastern wing, Jonathan got his first glance of the faen Tracker that had been causing him grief. He stood bloodied among a pile of dead beasts. He had single-handedly cleared the eastern section of the catacombs. Everything that he had thrown at the Tracker was not enough. Jonathan felt his stomach drop. This was not good, not fucking good at all. That guy was terrifying.
Jonathan pressed a few more buttons, releasing a horde of fresh beasts from their holding cells. Unfortunately, in an act of infinite wisdom, the designer of this system had not installed any sort of centralized control system for the knockout gas. They obviously skipped that lecture during Evil Lair Construction 101. Had they attended that lecture, this battle would be all but over by now. Jonathan stood up from his chair.
"We are getting out of here." he said, doing his best to sound confident. If they stayed here, it would only be a matter of time before the Inquisition, particularly the Tracker, would get to them. At least if they left now there was a small chance of them escaping. Jonathan did his best to memorize the fastest route out. They would still need to go through the three guards that he had seen on the monitors at the exit to the catacombs but they would deal with that problem when they got there.
Jonathan's companions put up little resistance to the idea of leaving, they saw the writing on the wall. As they left the control room, Jonathan took one last glance back at the screen showing Zigarete's group. Hopefully, that drakken would buy them some time.