Terse Elements

Andebert and Oz were not the next people to enter the dungeon. Four people stepped through the dungeon portal when it was night out in the forest: The first person was a huge man with red hair, dark clothes, and a large lumpy bag on each hip; The second person was a bald, dark skinned woman wearing red and wielding a bronze sword; the third person was an ordinary looking brown skinned young woman wearing ordinary brown clothing with ordinary brown eyes and an ordinary bow; the final person was a figure dressed all in grey with grey eyes. The grey figure started to move to the side, then it flickered to be in a crouch, then it threw a punch from standing, then it fell backwards. All these movements happened so close together that they seemed to overlap.

_ Higher Life Intruder Detected. Select Automated Response:

Attack

Claim (Unlikely)

Dominate (Unlikely)

Ignore

_

The huge red-haired man turned to the others. “We have a few moments before it decides to attack. Hildred! What are ya doing? The dungeon won’t care what you look like. You should stick to the face that Arna and I will recognize”

The ordinary looking young woman clenched her fists and glared at the man. “I’m Hilda today, Baggi.” Behind her, the grey figure flashed through dozens of actions but, on average, didn’t move.

The Dark swordswoman, Arna, smirked. “You two are hard to look at even without your illusions.”

“Leta and I aren’t-“

_ Random Selection: “Dominate” selected. Domination Failed _

_ Random Selection: “Attack” selected _

The ordinary woman was cut off as a dozen salamanders broke from cover of fallen leaves and raced towards the group. Two jellyfish changed course and began to drift in a menacing manner. One beetle opened its wings and lifted off from the top of the largest vine. Several millipedes followed behind the salamanders.

At the sound of the beetle’s buzzing wings, the four people focused on the incoming threats and spread out a little. The huge man, Baggi, pulled a rock from one of his hip bags and threw it at the beetle. The rock flew so fast that the air whistled, and the beetle exploded. Hilda began firing arrows at the salamanders. Leta and Arna moved forward to meet the rushing creatures. Leta threw a punch, but a salamander was kicked aside with a broken neck. The grey figure appeared to move in ways that were completely unrelated to the damage they did. Arna slashed with her sword and thin lines of bronze flew out to cut several creatures. The four quickly slew all the creatures in the main worldlet. Baggi walked around the worldlet to collect his thrown rocks.

“Leta, turn that off when we are not actively fighting.” Baggi held up a hand to block his sight of the grey figure. Leta stopped moving. They then folded their arms and huffed. Hilda gave them a side hug.

Arna spoke loudly to address everyone. “Attend. The badge on the doorway means there is a good treasure in this dungeon. Could be riches, could be magic, could be potions. Might be in a chest, might be in a clam, we don’t know. We’ve got two directions we can walk from here so everyone vote: left or right.”

“Left.”

“Right”

“Right”

“We go right” The group started walking to the right, except Hilda, who took a step to the left before looking confused, then embarrassed. She quickstepped to catch up with Leta. Leta held out first one hand and then the other.

“Right. Left.”

“I know, shut up.”

Arna was the first through the portal this time, and she slashed at several salamanders wading in the mud near the portal. Hilda entered last and gasped at the heat. Then she gasped at the number of creatures. There were easily twenty salamanders in the area around the portal, and the mud was already sucking at her feet.

“Back!” Arna shouted.

Hilda fell back through the portal and rolled to her feet without getting tangled in her bow. The others rushed through almost on top of each other. They paused to stomp off the clinging mud.

“Unpleasant.” Arna said.

“Rotting fae blight.” Baggi swore in agreement.

Arna gestured, and the group moved over to the opposite portal. They readied their weapons (or fists) and stepped through. The delta worldlet had a comparable number of creatures as the main worldlet, so the group cleared out the worldlet in under a minute. Their faces showed much improved attitudes and expectations.

“This is good.” Said Baggi, “This must be the side the monsters left to go fight something on the other side. Roast me if it isn’t all cleared out like this.”

Arna gestured again and the group followed the largest vine to the next portal. Each of them had a distinct reaction as they stepped from the delta worldlet into the near-blinding light of the acid rain worldlet: Baggi swore loudly and threw up an arm to defend himself; Arna grunted and squinted her eyes; Leta clapped both hands to their eyes and pulled their grey headwrap down; Hilda screamed and fell to her knees, crying. Hilda’s form became translucent under the intense light, and Leta’s illusionary motion disappeared. The sideways rain splashed over the four and refracted the light in dazzling ways.

“Blind fight tactics. Follow the vine.” Arna said loudly. Leta reached down and helped Hilda stand and put her hand on the vine. Baggi took out two stones and spun them in his hands. The stones began to orbit around Baggi at varying heights. Arna held her sword in a high guard, then moved it erratically up and down in front of her.

“I have partial sight.” Leta said, squinting through the weave of their headwrap fabric.

“Rearguard. Let’s go.” Arna said.

The four moved along, following the vine. Leta walked backwards in the rear, silently cursing themself for volunteering to try and see through blinding light, fabric, and rain. A salamander bit at Arna’s leg. She swiped her sword through its body and kicked it away. After two minutes of walking, Arna called a halt. They rested for one minute, then continued. After a few paces, a jellyfish drifted up behind them. Leta couldn’t quite see the jellyfish, but felt it slap into their face. Their cloth wrap kept the stinging away and Leta was able to knock it to the ground and stomp it dead. A half minute later, another jellyfish hit Leta in the face. Ten seconds after that, a third jellyfish arrived. “They are coming faster back here!” Leta yelled up to Arna.

“I think this is a portal. Stand by.” Arna said loudly.

Arna squinted at the vine, trying to see if it stopped in a wobbly patch of air like the other portals. Behind her, Baggi switched places with Hilda and began throwing rocks over Leta’s head to try and hit or deter creatures coming from behind. At that moment, an acid-aligned jellyfish hit Leta in the face and dissolved most of their face wrap and some of the skin on their neck. Leta screamed. Hilda panicked tried to rush back toward Leta, but one of Baggi’s rocks hit her it the temple. Hilda collapsed to the ground away from the vine, dazed and unnoticed.

“It’s a portal. Let’s go.” Arna said. She stepped through the portal. Baggi and Leta walked backwards, following the vine, and stepped through the portal as well.