Ruins of Majesta: Vol. 2.1 Creatures and Cupcakes

by Taj McCoy El

  Only one way to find out what’s making that sound.

  They reached the end of the tunnel and found an open-air area bathed in the purple light from the flame above the keep. Fields of duskrass grew between the giant stalagmites that reached for the sky. They rose out of the earth like the teeth of an ancient dragon. The scale of the stalagmites made the trio look upwards to search for the descending maw that was about to devour them. Instead, like pointed pillars in a roofless room, the pillars sloped down out of view.

  “Looks like we’re still going down,” Grax spit to the side

  “Yeah, I noticed that too.”

  Mayah and Grax stared at Margaret who shied away and tried to make herself small.

  "I didn’t mean to…” She whispered softly kicking at the earth.

  They turned to survey the view in front of them. There were small paths that ran through the shadowy vegetation like the seemingly random lines of a spiderweb, crisscrossing the field. They were wide enough to let all three adventurers travel abreast comfortably.

  So, they worked their way through staying alert. The duskrass became dotted with another shadow plant call a duskleaf. It was about three feet high with long broad leaves that rolled and unrolled absently creating blind spots and visual distractions. Grax’s tail casually brushed a leaf and it rolled around his tail and cinched down. With a yowl, Grax quickly dispatched the plant with his sword and examined his tail.

  Your party has been attacked

  Duskleaf

  Level: 3

  9/9HP

  DING!!!

  These new dangers made the trio work slower and more carefully. Mayah had a hunch these new plants would get denser as they got further into the cavern. The path led them to about one hundred yards from the base of one of the giant stalagmites, and then terminated suddenly.

  “There’s less duskrass around the stalagmites,” Margaret noticed due to her height.

  “Then let’s go that way.” Mayah pointed to the stone pillar.

  As they burned a path through the duskleaves the leaves rolled up trying to protect themselves. Grax took point and began slicing away. With a single cut he could clear a swathe of plants. They would wither on the ground, dissipating into ice crystals and nothingness. With a quick rustle of the vegetation a red blur flew out of the foliage and bowled Grax over sideways.

  Your party has been attacked

  Skaduvuurm

  Level: 6

  100/100

  A four-foot-long, fiery red, komodo dragon with small, black feathered wings was laying atop Grax and trying to eat his face with vicious snaps of its mouth. Mayah ran for Grax as he struggled to keep the winged lizard from biting his face off. A few duskrass had reached out and grabbed Grax’s arm and tried pulling him into its clutches. With the combined weight of the combatants the duskrass wasn’t having much success. Grax uprooted the duskrass and managed to use both of his arms to push against the skaduvuurm. Its wide triangular jaws snapped at his face flicking saliva into the cat’s eyes and whiskers. Its tiny wings flapped trying to help it get into position as the wicked claws on its feet ripped at Grax’s vest and leggings. They bounced off leaving small scratches behind.

  The skaduvuurm took a deep inhale, its belly began expanding and a glow burst forth from its abdomen. Its head rose in a vomitous motion just as a stun arrow hit it in the side of the head and it went limp.

  Your party has attacked

  Skaduvuurm

  Level: 6

  -27DP Stun Arrow (headshot)

  Skaduvuurm (stunned)

  73/100HP

  A belch of smoke escaped its open mouth and Grax pushed it off him instantly. As it laid there in a daze a flaming tar like substance dribbled from its mouth to pool on the ground beneath its head. Grax scrambled away from the flames. Mayah stepped over and quickly slammed its head with a Crushing Blow ending it’s existence

  Your party has attacked

  Skaduvuurm

  Level: 6

  -94DP Crushing Blow

  (47 x2 Critical hit)

  Ding!!!

  You have defeated:

  Skaduvuurm

  Level: 6

  XP: 13

  735XP till next level

  “Dank god dat fiwah didn’d hid my vace!” Grax said while brushing himself off. “If id had buurned my whizzkers, I would’ve been agged as shaz.”

  “Agged?” questioned the noob.

  Aggravated,” Mayah translated. “These skaduvuurm… Not very strong. They’re either gonna rank up or swarm in waves.”

  “Rank up?” Margaret asked.

  “Like the terrravoles. How they evolved into jacks and the mother?”

  “Oh… Like pokemon.”

  “Sure… that works.” Mayah shook her head. Oh Mags, oh Mags, oh Mags…

  A glob of fire shot out of the bushes and landed on Margaret’s shin instantly setting her whole lower leg aflame. The flames ran down her leg in thick, oily rivulets spreading around her leg as she spun in circles trying to kick the pain away.

  Grax ran over, tapping the flames with his Spike (W) covered katanas. The oil hardened and flaked off while still on fire. Mayah scanned the area where the napalm had come from and barely dodged the flying flame ball that had been hurtling at her face from the left.

  Flarfing flame spit!!!

  “It’s go time,” Mayah yelled at her crew.

  Grax watched the perimeter and helped a staggering Margaret to her feet. Favoring one leg she nocked an arrow. Grax took up the rear, stilettos ready.

  “Switch to acid” Mayah yelled.

  Grax ducked some flame spit and tossed a Stilacid at the creature hidden in the duskleaf.

  “Tossing grenades!!!” Mayah yelled, chucking Acid (D) grenades around their position. The forest came alive with shrieks of pain. The melting duskleaves revealed the bodies of twelve Skaduvuurm writhing in pain. Damage reports came flooding in.

  “Mags get that vuurm moving.”

  Margaret bid the vuurm stand up, and she made the big mistake of looking at it. One of its eyes and most of its face were missing. It was mostly forehead and meat. The sight while doing nothing to Mayah who was blinded by the maturity filter, worked aggressively against Margaret. She retched and drew her bow.

  Mayah glanced at Margaret. Still with the heaving…??? Ah well… still funny.

  Grax tossed stilettos at one writhing mob, and then another until they all perished. The Acid (D) grenades petered out and Mayah swung into action. Margaret raised the battered corpses of six more vuurms in a show of necromantic might and dry heaves. Margaret sent her minions to work diving through the bushes surrounding them to attack anything that was alive.

  They heard the sounds of battle and flame balls in front of them, and they worked their way over. Dings of slain enemies rang in her ears accompanied by the weird burping sounds scurrying through the undergrowth to surround them. The duskleaves trembled with movement.

  Grax clear back as much vegetation as you can Margaret cover him. I’ll watch your back. Everyone got some Acid (D) grenades left?” Without waiting for an answer, she said, “Good, use them sparingly.

  A flame shot towards Mayah in line with her and Margaret. If she ducked then Margaret would catch it with her back. She activated Whack-A-Vole and spun happiness clobbering the flame back the direction it came from. The duskleaf started melting where the flames landed.

  “I’m down to four dolls. Raising more.” Margaret rasped as three vuurms rose and made their way into the bush.

  “Mags get your dolls back here. I wanna see if they can spit fire.”

  A flame shot above the foliage.

  “Yep, they can still spit fire.”

  “Great have them help Grax. Grax, you got nothing to say?” Grax took a quick angry look at Mayah.

  Margaret laughed suddenly. “Cat got yer tongue???” She snorted.

  Grax just let out a threatening growl and continued to take out his frustrations on clearing some spa
ce.

  Mayah chuckled and smacked an incoming blob into the ground where it smoldered and spit. Margaret found a blue spot, fired, and quickly ducked the incoming gelatinous glob.

  Margaret’s dolls swarmed back forming into their small defensive perimeter. They began hocking fire spit into the duskrass. This served to give the trio a bit more breathing space from these ambush predators. Facing the three directions the death claws had a conversation.

  “Should we keep going?”

  “Whud kind of quezz-dun id dat?” Grax gave Margaret the stinkiest of side-eyes.

  “This is just the warm-up, Mags. If we can’t figure out the trick to killing everything then we might as well go home.”

  And we really need to find the trick to this. Like NOW!!! Luring in ambush predators …BAH!!!

  “We need to draw aggro so they abandon cover.” Mayah realized.

  “How do we do that?”

  Mayah fingered the pink stone at her neck. “We yell at them.”

  Grax grimaced remembering the last time he’d heard the necklace of sonic disruption with his sensitive ears and wasn’t looking forward to this experience.

  “Probably gonna call a lot more in too. Grenades when they get too thick.” Mayah rolled Happiness in her hands. ducking a flaming loogey, Mayah yelled at margaret, “Down!”

  “Grax and I will work the perimeter. Mags you stay in the center.”

  Margaret nodded, Mayah and Grax fanned out.

  “On three. One… two…”

  Mayah triggered the necklace and a scream was forced from her throat. Her throat felt like it was going to tear and burst her larynx. The sound rattled the bones in her chest and pressure built up in her neck just below her jaw. Grax and Margaret covered their ears, doubled over, screaming, and gritting their teeth. Three seconds passed like an eternity as Mayah spun to every direction, and then the scream warbled out forcing Mayah to take a deep breath.

  Skaduvuurms drunkenly stumbled out into the kill zone and the three got to work, Grax slicing, Mayah crushing, and Margaret heaving and shooting. They quickly dispatched ten incoherent vuurms and were suddenly under fire as reptile napalm flew into their clearing. Arrows flew back along flight paths with some success. Some of the fireballs were deflected by Happiness.

  “Hold for a few more seconds, and then grenade time,” Mayah yelled. “Mags focus your vuurms towards the stalagmite. Clear us a path and kill everything.”

  Margaret retched and shot a vuurm as it leapt towards Grax. They held until the dolls made a path halfway there. They were slowly being overwhelmed.

  “Grax time to move,” Mayah yelled

  Grax ran towards Margaret and pushed on her leg to get her moving.

  They ran forward on the path as the fireballs launched at their back.

  Reaching the dolls Mayah yelled, “Incoming!!!” Grenades flew behind them in a semicircle where they exploded into sizzling green domes that splashed the area.

  “Margaret keep that path going. This would have been easier with more dolls.”

  Margaret shot her a look of death and her eyes flashed with green eldritch power, and then sputtered out.

  “Level four doll?” Mayah asked.

  Margaret tried to smile through her spasms, and it continued to look like a sneer of rictus. She croaked, “Eight…dolls…” and another Vuurm was added to the fray.”

  A vuurm leapt straight for Grax. A startled Margaret aimed and shot. The little beastie twisted in the air only being grazed and landed on Grax. The force spun Grax and his attacker into the duskrass. The duskrass grabbed his legs leaving Grax pitching over backwards into the duskleaves. The shadowy leaves and tendrils wrapped around Grax’s body and cinched, making him hiss in pain. More leaves joined in and rolled him up tight as a mummy with only his snout remaining visible. Instead of attacking, the vuurm began drooling their fiery gook at the bases of the leaves. The volatile saliva was easily melting the plant without killing it. Without so much as a backward glance the vuurm began tugging the mummified Grax deeper into the undergrowth. Grax’s health bar started slowly inching downward. Margaret shot the vuurm that had farmed the cat but three more surged out. And quickly advanced.

  Margaret dropped one of the forward dolls and raised the one she’d just shot. It instantly attacked its own kind and Margaret hit another vuurm in the eye. Mayah rushed in and smacked the last one about. Then she tossed grenades in a wide circle trying to burn the foliage surrounding Grax’s captor. they thinned the duskleaf and Mayah stopped the vuurm from escaping with a few well-placed hammer blows.

  I’m getting low on grenades…

  “Let’s get Grax out and loot everything while we have a chance.”

  A half dozen vuurms came out during their rescue mission. Mayah, Margaret and the vuurms triumphed quickly, and then the fields went quiet.

  They cut Grax loose from the husk of leaves, and he tried scrambling into the clearing but stumbled as he was severely weakened.

  DING!!!

  Enemies defeated

  Skaduvuurm x42 (546XP)

  Level: 6

  Duskrass x153 (153XP)

  Level: 1

  Duskleaf x32 (96XP)

  Level: 3

  XP: +795

  0XP till next level

  DING!!!

  “Stupid plants!” Grax groaned while still engulfed in the glow of leveling.

  Margaret laughed at him while she glowed as well.

  “Well, at least your tongue is fixed.”

  Mayah turned to the others and said. Time to loot corpses. We need dolls for Mags in case there’s a drought, so we’ll fill our bags to capacity with vuurms and we’ll store any we can’t carry.”

  They took the meager silver and a few of the ingredients from the vuurm they stuffed into their bags, and then piled the remaining corpses in a pile. She put a hand on the pile.

  Skaduvuurm

  Level 6

  Skin x22

  Take?

  Oil sac x13

  Take?

  Wings x32

  Take?

  Meat x102

  Take?

  3 silver

  Take?

  Take all

  Y/N?

  Mayah took the silver and it auto sorted. Then she drew a runeagram in the dirt, made a token out of them and put it in her bag.

  "I don’t know how it works for you ladies, but time waits for no man. You ready to travel onwards?” He looked towards the depth of the cavern hands on his hips and struck a majestic pose like king on the bow of a ship.

  “Look at this guy, Mags. Five minutes ago, he couldn’t talk, and now he thinks he’s in charge.”

  “Well, in ancient times cats were worshipped,” Grax commented

  "I don’t think they’ve ever gotten used to their fall from grace,” Margaret snickered

  Grax deflated. His shoulders hunched as he glared at them. “Not only am I feeling like a rematch, but I think I really want to add another victim.”

  The ladies laughed at the miserable rogue as they went back to clear their way deeper into the dungeon. Grax just watched them go for a moment. He stumbled forward and looked at their backs with daggers in his eyes. He finally turned on his stealth and crept forward following his teammates.

  …..

  They made it further into the dungeon traversing cross country using the stalagmites as rest stops. The six skaduvuurms were burning away the duskrass and skaduleaf while two took up positions around the trio. They made a fairly wide path across the field. The trio farmed any roaming mobs they ran into and began to understand the vuurm’s attack behavior. Grax would bait random mobs further onto the path for greater injury, because everyone loves a bit of XP.

  When they got close to the next stalactite Mayah steadily threw grenades to help create a path through the vuurm that lay in wait for them. Vuurm laid covered in sizzling Acid (D) while her team rushed forward into the newly cleared area and attacked the still smoking vuurms. Mayah could tell
that they were completely surrounded, but that’s what I wanted anyway. She used the necklace of sonic disruption to debuff and aggro everything in range. They got rid of all the dazed vuurms as fast as possible. When the debuff wore off she tossed out the last of her regular acid grenades. They finished off the stragglers and made it to the next stalagmite.

  “Okay, we’re finally getting the rhythm, but I’m out of acid grenades. Grax can you climb up and give us eyes on our position?”

  “Sure thing.” He popped his claws and made his way up the stalagmite.

  “Mags, I’ll enchant some of the leftover grenades. You got first watch.”

  “Aye-aye ma’am.” Margaret saluted.

  They had been traveling like this for about five hours. From one stalagmite to the next they had fought the vuurm. They seemed to congregate around the stalagmites but would range between them as well. During the few rest breaks they had taken at the base of a stalagmite, no mobs would attack—at least not until they stepped away from it. If there were aggroed mobs around, and they ran onto the stalagmite they would still follow and attack. Mayah had been forced to check her hypothesis when she had tripped and fell under fire from four vuurms at once.