by Dean Henegar
Lashing out at the player doing the most damage to it, the wurm snapped its head around, and Yendys was barely able to pull the battle-crazed Crunchy away from the attack. Into the open maw of the wurm, Yendys summoned another pair of beetles. The creatures’ sturdy red shells glowed as they squirted out streams of flame from their mouths, scorching the wurm’s tooth-lined maw. Reflexively, the wurm snapped its mouth shut, the rows of teeth grinding away the hard carapaces of the red-shelled beetles. The wurm’s head bulged out as a pair of dull booms went off. Smoke, flame, and crushed beetle parts streamed from holes blasted into the giant creature.
“What was that, Yendys?” Smashem yelled, landing yet another pair of blows upon the creature.
“Stupid wurm wasn’t prepared for me to summon fire beetles inside it. They blow up really good when they die,” Yendys said with a grin, channeling a Nature’s Mending spell into Crunchy, who was still the target of several of the wurm’s appendages. With a gross popping sound, the leg her beetle had been going after with his mandibles tore off. Crunchy wasted no time in selecting another.
The monster’s health was dropping fast, and its options for defending itself were dwindling with each sheared-off leg. With the blast damage from the fire beetles slowing it down, the creature couldn’t swing its head around very quickly, allowing the party to dodge its bites. Jacoby activated an ability called Retaliation, and Yendys watched as every swipe at him from the wurm’s appendages was met with a slash of his enchanted sword. More and more legs were going limp, allowing the party to attack the wurm nearly unopposed.
“We’ve got adds coming out of the tunnel!” Kathala shouted. With Yendys and the others up close and engaged in melee, she and Nitor had a better view of the overall battle. Out of the tunnel the wurm had created, a swarm of troggs emerged in what looked like a never-ending stream. Jacoby disengaged from the fight with the wurm and gathered the nearby militia to meet the threat. Yendys noticed that the militia had been absent in the fight against the wurm, which was probably for the best, given how underequipped they were. The players were there to handle the big stuff, and Jacoby must have specifically ordered the militia to keep an eye out for massed groups of foes like the ones now emerging from the tunnel.
Yendys continued to summon critters to take out the wurm, which was now literally on its last legs, and waved Smashem over to help Jacoby. A pair of militia ran past. At first, she thought they were running away from the fight, but a closer examination revealed they had been designated as messengers. Hopefully they would bring more reinforcements. She had burned through nearly all her mana in the fight, holding nothing back against the deadly wurm. After downing the most powerful mana potion she had equipped on her belt, Yendys swung her staff at the monster and waited for her mana pool to slowly tick back up.
With a final shriek, the wurm stilled as its health finally dropped to zero. Yendys trotted around the bulk of the creature, ready to join her friends and take on whatever else was emerging from the tunnel. Jacoby and Smashem had the militia surrounding the tunnel as more and more troggs sought to push their way through the thin line of defense. Nitor’s chants bolstered the militia, but they were no match for the powerful Hypogean troops and were dropping at a rapid pace. Jacoby and Smashem more than held their own, but they couldn’t be everywhere.
“Yendys, take over heals for the party. I’m going to try something,” Kathala said.
Yendys nodded and dismounted, sending Crunchy to help the others hold back the tide. Kathala’s AOE heals stopped as she turned the medallion on her neck around. Instead of the glowing golden light it normally gave off, the medallion now gave off a foul and sickly aura that began to drain the life of its bearer. Yendys snapped off a Nature’s Mending into Kathala, who cast her AOE heal spell over the tunnel’s opening. With the Panacea artifact active, the healing power of her spells turned into necromantic corruption that began to eat away at the troggs, weakening and damaging them as they sought to burst through the defenders.
Yendys fired off an Entangling Roots spell over the opening, slowing and adding damage to any of the enemies emerging from the tunnel. Thankfully, the wurm-sized opening only allowed around five or six of the troggs to emerge at a time, but the number of militia continued to drop since Kathala’s AOE heals were no longer there to support them. The militia that they had help train made her proud, bravely standing in the breach and holding back the tide of Hypogean forces as Kathala’s spell sapped the life from them.
Yendys lost track of time as she fired off heals into her friends as often as she could. Her spell had a long cooldown, which limited its effectiveness. Another group of militia arrived with one of the messengers they had sent out, giving them more bodies to add to their defense. The enemy paused its attacks a few times to clear the tunnel’s mouth of the dead, giving Yendys and the other players time to recharge mana and stamina and enabling them to keep up their spells and abilities.
The second messenger arrived with a group of Drebix that had been helping protect the eastern wall, which wasn’t being pressured as hard as the others. Raiders and skirmishers took the place of the battered militia, giving them a breather. Sadly, just as the two groups were switching out, a swarm of the hideous lurkers emerged from the tunnel, forcing their way past the line of defenders and charging deeper into the market area. About fifty of the beasts emerged. Jacoby and Smashem cut down a few before having to turn their attention toward a new swarm of creatures emerging from the tunnel.
The enemy force became more organized as one of the Ikbose elves appeared and started shouting off orders. Pausing for a moment, the elf pulled a thin glowing stick from her belt and struggled to break it in half. Yendys lost sight of the elf as she focused back on her healing duties. She didn’t want to let her team down.
Charging from the tunnel’s mouth was a mass of crazy cavalry. A small group of the deathicorns bulled their way past the line of Drebix raiders and skirmishers. After the initial rush of deathicorns, a swarm of almost cute pink, fluffy bunnies the size of a pony charged out. The bunnies were almost cute; Yendys determined that their cuteness factor was being overcome by the rows of teeth in their mouths and the gross bloodstains on the fur around their muzzles. One of the bunnies that was bigger than the rest had an imp riding on top of it. The system identified the imp and the bunny she rode for Yendys.
Lilixzisilerpicazant, Oppressor, Level 22 Elite.
Cuddles, Razorbunny, Level 20.
“Oh no you don’t, imp. You killed my grandpa. Prepare to die!” she shouted, calling for Crunchy to return to her. She would meet this murderous imp in a glorious charge on her faithful mount. As she waited for Crunchy to arrive, Yendys kept an eye on both the bunnies and the lurkers that had broken through earlier.
Smashing their way through the marketplace, the lurkers focused on Phineas’s shop, charging the establishment even as Yendys noticed for the first time that a strange red glow was coming from the cracks in the walls of the poorly built structure. The distinct howls of the lurkers outside were met with similar howls from inside the shop. I hope that little pirate goblin that works there is okay, Yendys thought as her attention returned to the imp that was pointing at her and her painfully cute unicorn beetle.
***
“Step away from the door, Eyeball. Today is the one day we don’t want to attract any attention to our shop. Get to work on storing anything fragile in the back,” Phineas instructed his assistant. His shop wasn’t a critical target and should be fine, after all. If the invaders won, they would need markets as much as the Imperium did. As long as he could keep peddling his wares and reaping a sizeable profit, Phineas was happy.
“Uh, boss, there’s some weird glowy things in the storeroom,” Eyeball said. Through the open door to the large storage area in the back of the shop, Phineas saw a dozen glowing red spheres floating about the room. He channeled his magic, immediately realizing they were a type of temporary portal spell. He had personally created wards for his shop a
gainst such intrusions, a common protection in a world where thieves might have access to magical transport. No, these portals, which were glowing brighter as they grew, must have already been here.
Phineas tried to remember the inventory that was stored inside. Weapons and armor of various qualities, both magical and mundane, took up a good portion of the space. He also stored home goods and household supplies for the residents of the town. But there was one shelf where he stored magical items that needed identification. That was it; a shady character had stopped by weeks ago to sell him some magical red stones. At the time, Phineas hadn’t bothered to do more than verify they were magical since the fool sold them for only a few copper after he bought Phineas’s story that the rocks were merely colorful decorations.
He had meant to identify them to see what they were, along with piles of other gear he had acquired from various sources. There was quite a profitable market in bulk magical items. The time and expense of identifying low-level gear weren’t worth it for some, and many brokers sold the stuff for silver on the gold to move it quickly. Sadly, there was a downside and risk to this type of business; there were occasionally cursed or useless items in the mix. Now that they were active, he could tell that the stones were some kind of self-contained portal to a pocket dimension, something that bypassed his teleportation defenses.
“Eyeball, prepare for combat, but keep behind me,” Phineas ordered.
His goblin apprentice complied, rushing over to gather his gear. The mechanical arm that he had purchased for the goblin transformed into a combination of a multi-shot crossbow and extended blade. He wore a set of enchanted leather armor under his shop tunic, and Phineas tossed him a shield ring and a magic resistance amulet to wear for the fight, making a note to deduct a rental fee for their use from his wages . . . if he ever decided to pay the goblin.
With a thought, Phineas activated his shop’s full defensive measures. A half dozen suits of plate armor stepped from their displays and picked up weapons as the animation spell caused sparks of light around them. Several panels opened in the display cases and crates stowed about the shop. Crossbows peeked out of the panels and crates and swept around the room, the enchantments on them searching for intruders. From the tops of the clothing racks, spectral hands emerged, holding various magic wands as they too began to hunt for anyone who meant harm to Phineas or his goods.
“You know, Eyeball, remind me to tell you one day how I fell to such meager means as this,” Phineas said, motioning around the shop. “Before my now-humble station in life, I was the most powerful merchant in the lands of the caliph. Before that, though, before I ever found my calling as a merchant extraordinaire, I was something more.” He paused as the portals flashed and began to disgorge a horde of disgusting creatures he vaguely recalled as lurkers from the Hypogean realm. One didn’t become a mage and a merchant without gathering some knowledge of the threats his business might face in various markets.
The emerging creatures spotted him and his assistant, instantly zeroing in on the fresh meat in front of them. Phineas sighed at their antics; violence was such a waste of resources. The suits of armor blocked the door and began to trade blows with the powerful lurkers. Crossbow bolts shot past gaps in the wall of armored automatons, sinking deep into lurker flesh. Magic blasts of various elements spewed forth from wands held in spectral hands. Lurkers fell one by one to his attacks, but more emerged from the portals to take their place. The suits of armor were finally battered and clawed enough to break their enchantments, and the lurkers charged at him once more.
“You see, Eyeball, before being a merchant without peer, I was a mage without peer,” Phineas said to his companion while unleashing a Chain Lightning spell that fried the first ranks of attacking lurkers while more fell to the wands and crossbows defending his shop. “I controlled the elements with my magic.” He gestured to the lurkers crisped by the lightning. Eyeball stood in shock, forgetting to fire his crossbow. Oh well . . . at least he had an audience for this.
“I controlled life . . . and death,” Phineas continued as he unleashed blasts of necromantic energy, causing the flesh to decay off the entire horde of lurkers that had invaded his shop. He could feel the power of the portals waning as the last lurkers emerged and continued their mindless assault.
“I even mastered the difficult magic of the mind,” Phineas added. He wrested control over the feeble minds of the remaining lurkers, hurling them at each other in a blur of claws, teeth, and blood until the last dropped to the floor, dead, as the portals winked out. Howls from more of the beasts came from outside, and the first blows began to rain down on his front door. Wands and weapons turned to face the new threat.
“But my greatest magical accomplishment was one that eventually convinced me to seek a new profession. I dabbled in the forbidden arts, sought to breach barriers that should not have been disturbed. Beyond those barriers I found a new, more powerful magical force, and in my hubris, I thought myself strong enough to control what I had found. Some things, my friend, are not meant to be trifled with.” The moment the door to the shop crashed open, Phineas tapped into another world. The barriers yielded to him as voices whispered dark promises into his mind, bidding him to allow them in and promising the perfection of madness while they consumed the world. He slipped protections into place, ones he knew from experience would keep the madness from overwhelming him . . . for a time.
A new portal opened near the door, and the small force of charging lurkers ran straight into it. Things waited for the lurkers inside, things that hungered for more than the flesh and blood that the simple lurkers craved. As soon as the last lurker slipped inside, Phineas cut the link and the voices assailing his mind ceased their whispers.
“Still, Eyeball, while I may have given up the world of a mage for the much better life of a merchant, I haven’t lost my touch. Come along. Whoever planted those portal stones needs to be taught a lesson. If I’m honest, and Phineas T. Moore is known for his honesty, I do enjoy unleashing my full power now and again,” Phineas said, guiding his shocked assistant out the broken front door. “Take notes, Eyeball. The shop is going to need a lot of repairs and tidying up once we’re done here. Now, let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
Phineas looked out over the fight developing in the marketplace. A giant tunnel wurm had dug a passage into the market, and a horde of enemies was spewing out of it. He recognized some of his prior customers, along with the militia and some Drebix, fighting it out with various invaders. His customers were being hard-pressed and were on the brink of being overwhelmed by superior numbers.
“Eyeball, get started on cleaning up the shop. I’ll finish things up out here,” Phineas said, wanting to save his employee from a gruesome death. For purely financial reasons, he assured himself.
Once Eyeball was back inside and dealing with the mess, Phineas began to pull on his power, breaching the barrier to the place of madness once more. This time, he created a much wider opening. The air stilled and the fighting paused as a hushed silence came over the battlefield. Both sides could feel the wrongness of what was happening.
Over the tunnel opening, the barrier between the two worlds was wrenched open. Phineas couldn’t completely control what was happening. It was taking all his power to hold open the breach and not let it expand, despite what the voices were telling him. He didn’t need to do anything more, though; the mere act of opening the breach rang the dinner bell for the denizens of the other world, and they were very hungry indeed.
From the other world, something reached out. Long tendrils, arms, hooks, and claws emerged in a swirling mass from the void, seeking the living and the dead below. Troggs, razorbunnies, and deathicorns were snatched up and drawn into the void. As soon as one was reeled in, another hungry appendage reached down to take its place. Phineas tried to shield the allies on the battlefield—tried and failed. Militia, Drebix, and a customer he recalled was named Smashup or something was pulled in. Soon, the only one left above ground w
as a customer named Yendys. The halfling was on his frequent buyer program, so he pushed all his will into protecting her. The grasping horrors scoured the ground clean and began to reach inside the tunnel itself for more.
For several minutes, various invaders were pulled from the tunnel. By the time the last was dug out, his control was beginning to fail. In a burst of will and magical energy, Phineas sealed the breach, shaking off the madness that was beginning to wear down his mind. Panting from the effort, he walked over to Yendys, who sat atop her beetle companion, looking at him in shock.
“Here, take these. And my apologies for your friends if—when—they return. I’ll have some great sales on beetle companion accessories tomorrow. Don’t forget to stop by!” Phineas said, handing a stack of the “special” ten-percent-off coupons to the stunned halfling. He needed to get the shop back in order; after all this fighting, there were bound to be some great opportunities to make some coin.
Chapter 32
Drake arrived in-game, hoping he hadn’t missed too much. There were several issues with the dungeon he needed to take care of before he joined the fight. He tried to send a message to both Raytak and Yendys, only to be met with a system notification that the personal message system was restricted for any of the participants in a war scenario. Great. Now he had no way of letting them know he was onboard unless Raytak got a system notification. Drake finished up his work, designing the latest level for the ruins of the Gul Dorg. The dungeon was now five levels, and the Gul Dorg creatures inhabited the final two, ramping up the challenge for unsuspecting parties.
