"You might as well explain the plan Rinaldo," said Hidden-Caverns from the air in the room.
Rinaldo moved forward and brushed a bit of food of his tunic and looked at them all with a look of confidence and excitement. Ceras for a second wondered where this new Rinaldo had come from as he seemed to emit power and authority that had not been in his nature before. It seemed like he was not the only one to have gained some extra skills.
"You might want to take a set for this as it will be a bit of a special," said Rinaldo in a serious tone of voices," Firstly a bit about the enemy army that is marching on us. The leader duke Moryam the duke the of River-wind area of the Kingdom. He rules over the area the town below is in and is a legendary warrior, known for his high strength."
"How do you know all of this?" said Rhef with a face showing astonishment as if this new image of her brother was something so difficult for her to understand.
"Most of the stratagem is about gaining intelligence on your enemy, my dear sister," said Rinaldo with a smile," so I've been working on a network of informers.
"The force moving toward the dungeon is about ten thousand strong."
"What!" blurted out Ceras as he felt a sinking feeling.
"Don't panic," said Rinaldo with a reassuring smile, "as we have a large number of monsters under my command and also there are the monsters in the dungeon that will not let them pass unmolested."
Ceras thought how did the thing get to be on such a large scale all of a sudden, and as in answer his question Rinaldo said, "Most of the army are adventures which see an opportunity to gain experiences with about a score of a thousand standing army directly under the Duke's control.
"So, from Hidden-Caverns past knowledge and our own intelligence what seem to be their battle plan is for the adventures to be cannon fodder. They'll enter the dungeon first and clear out the levels as best they can, allowing the main army to make its way to the dungeon bottom mostly unmolested."
"That will be about nine thousand people all running through the dungeon attacking anything that moves," said Rhef with wide eyes, "it a good thing that we have been building so quickly."
Rinaldo nodded his head in acknowledgment of what his sister had said to the group and then cleared his throat as if he was an older statesman giving a speech to a banquet of the rich and the powerful hob-nobs.
"Your right," Rinaldo said, "if we still had only two or three levels then the whole dungeon would have been swamped easily by such a large number. But with your work, dear sister, we are in a much better state. We have gained some intelligence that the duke Moryam thinks that this will be a pushover, as we are only kids with a limited amount of time to have prepared and he is a mighty high-level warrior."
"The power of being underestimated, "said Hidden-Caverns in a mocking voice, "how the arrogant will fall. I hope."
The last was said with a bit of uncertainty thought Ceras as he said, "Well, he certainly not going against the prevailing options of the town council."
"Well this is all to our advantage," said Rinaldo with confidences, "when the adventures all attack, we going to push back using two tactics. The first is easy and will bring in loads of experiences into the dungeon, Hidden-Caverns is going to allow as many monsters into the dungeon as possible."
"At the moment I've been limiting the access to the dungeon through the portal," said Hidden-Caverns, "especially at the high levels. Now with the army arriving I'll let any monster in that they can handle. It not only will cut down the numbers in the army but also gain us a significant amount of experiences for the future. This could set us up for years!"
"The second method of dealing with all of the adventures," said Rinaldo with a smile as if he was savoring his favorite dish, "is for the dungeon army to running hit and run tactics all the time. We'll have units of the army that I've been organizing that will be using guerilla warfare tactics to ambush and attack the enemy all the time.
"One of the main advantages is this is our home territory, and with the portal, we can gain access to all of the levels within seconds. The adventures will not be able to use the portal as if they are challenging the dungeon; they need to complete all the level in one go with exiting the dungeon."
"Will they be able to enter the dungeon," asked Symania from the side of the room, "when they get resurrected?"
"No, I can prevent people that have challenged the dungeon and failed from entering it again," said Hidden-Caverns in a serious voices, "this was put in the complicated magical spell that controls a dungeon, like that I can't kill anything directly, as it all has to be the monsters or traps in the dungeon."
"While we're are eating away at a large number of adventures," said Rinaldo taking back control of the conversation, "the duke's force will be moving through the dungeon behind them. So, our plan is to meet them on a battlefield of our choosing on one of the levels and defeat them there."
"Giving the experiences that you are so craving after," said his sister in a mocking tone of voices."
"Definitely," he replied.
"So, what is my role in all of this?" questioned Ceras as he looked at Rinaldo.
"Well somebody needs to defeat the high-level duke," said Hidden-Caverns, "as his armor, weapons and the skills, he has been going to make him impervious to most normal attacks from the lower-level people. If you can't defeat him them all to the rest will be wasted, but we do need to give you a clear chance without having to fight your way through the army."
"Well I guess that is what I've been practicing and gaining level for all of the last two months for anyway," said Ceras with a nod of his head, "but will the dragon help as the duke will have to go past her to reach the bottom of the dungeon."
"We can't rely on her as here behaviors a bit erratic at the moment," Symania with a sad smile.
"What about the castle at the top of the dungeon," said Grikius, "will they destroy that."
"No, it will be ok," said Hidden-Caverns, "as long as we don't prevent access to the army. Which is not a problem for us as we want all the battle to be in the dungeon for the experiences and they will want all of the infostructure to be in place so it all should be ok."
As the adventures finished off their meal, there was a look of excitement and nervousness on all of their faces, except for Apollo who was cleaning the food of the plate and the plater on the table that had been left over. Due to is the size and sharp teeth, nobody felt like stopping him. Ceras did note that he left the salad that had been set out as he guessed it was to health, to which he agreed with the dog tastes.
Chapter 9 Dungeon Warfare Gorilla Tactics
Ceras and Rinaldo were watching the army start to set up a camp on the level ground around the dungeon from their vantage point on top of the tower. The army seemed to be more a mob than an organized army than what Ceras had been expecting. There were a lot of flags indicating adventuring groups, with people milling around them as if they were no real structure to the masses gathered below.
"I have information that Moryam the Duke of Riverwind," said Reinaldo to Ceras, next to him as the cold wind blew his hair, "is still staying in the town below. He will only come away from his comfort when the core of the army starts to descend into the dungeon."
"When do you think that they'll start entering the dungeon?" said Ceras as he was watching the army.
"About now," said Rinaldo point to a group of about one hundred adventures that were heading to the castle open gate, "I'll be seeing you later I've got work to do."
Rinaldo left with an excited look on his face as he put on a helmet, started to make his way to the portal room in the tower.
--
Deatie, the captain of the 'Sweet Action' adventures company, with his hundred elite members behind him, led them into the entrance of the dungeon as they all issued the formal challenge. He had won the honor, as some would say it was, to be the first party of adventures from the army into the new dungeon. It normally would have been given to the group with the greatest
battle prowess, but he had won it by being married to the daughter of the duke.
"This should be easy," Deatie said to his second in command beside him, "the duke says that it just a bunch of children running the dungeon. Information that I gathered in the town last night indicated that there about ten levels in the dungeon, in total that people have seen. So, in a few days you, if I do well, the duke may make me the dungeon master."
The next in command nodded his head in agreement, to the man beside him in plate armor with a large board sword in his hand as if he was the duke himself. Ever since Deatie had managed to charm the daughter of the duke, he had always modeled himself on the duke, which seem to amuse the duke no end. While the duke was in the legendary level Deatie was still just a standard level adventure, and had been stuck that way for a few years as he had stopped battling monsters above his level, and this was his big chance to get up in the world.
The 'Sweet Action' adventures company wait for a second for the door to the dungeon first level to open, to see what awaited them. Deatie laughed as he saw the rats in the first crypt moving around sniffing the ground. As the rats saw and heard the adventurers enter the hall, they started to attack in mass. Deatie used his sword more like a sickle as he ran into the center of the room, cutting fanged rats into pieces as they ran towards him.
"This is too easy," the captain shouted across the room to the rest of his company.
The rest of the group of adventure in all sorts of armor and wizard robes had entered the room, all now killing the rats with laughter as there was no risk of damage to them from such a low-level monster. Amongst all the merriment suddenly two bolts from a cross-bow appeared in the forehead of one of the healers of the group at the back. The healer fell back onto the floor, dying only to disappear in a glowing white light. Before the company could react, all of the other healers fell over with several bolts sticking out of their bodies.
Desperately Deatie looked around for where the cross-bow bolts were coming from, and all he could see was a wall full of slits that the bolt was shooting from. One of his wizards that was quick thinking sent a fireball toward the wall, this only splash over the wall as the bolts seem to be still shooting into soft targets.
Deatie second in command, who had been placed in the group by the duke, to watch over his son-in-law, shouted, "Wizards I want a shielded place against the wall to prevent any bolts from hitting us."
A blue shimmer appeared in front of the hole blocking of the bolts as the adventure started to take cover in the area of the room, not in the firing line of the cross-bows. After a few minutes when the adventures had managed to regroup themselves, the second in command reported.
"All of our healers are dead sir," he said with a worried frown," it seems to be a bit too organized to be coincident. We should send somebody back to inform the other adventures and get us some more healers."
"Stop being such a coward," said Deatie as his second in command went red with anger from the comment, "we need to go forward quickly as we can if I'm going to win the prize."
Deatie ran forward into the hallway leading to the next hall with several of his toddies following him. In the next room, he was met by several skeletons that had bows that were leveled at the adventures as they entered. Deatie plate armor easily defected the arrow from causing any harm to his body. With the rest of the warriors, it was easy for him to cut down all the skeletons.
The rest of the level proved to be easy for all of the adventures as most of them were at the journeymen level or the standard level, the only one at the master level of a warrior was the second in command.
"See what did I tell you," said Deatie in a scornful tone of voice to the second his second in command, "it was all easy. Now, somebody was telling me of an amusing trap on the entrance of the labyrinth on the second level. If you hit the right combination of tiles, you get a load of rabbits falling onto you. I want to see this, what a weak dungeon this is if that all they can do."
The two walked through the entrance to labyrinth passing the level's portal that was behind them. In the reception room to the labyrinth, Deatie saw the tiles on the floor and wondered over with his adventures crowding around him.
"The man told me that these tiles activate the dropping of the rabbit, so everybody gets ready for it will be raining rabbits," as he said this everybody laughed looking up to see the rabbit rain, as he pressed the tiles.
Deatie heard a grinding noise as if the stone was being moved above his head, and as he looked up expecting to see balls of fluffy rabbit, but instead out of the hole fell large snakes that fell down with their mouths open to bite anything in their way. Several of the people beside him screamed as he saw them with a snake attached to their faces injecting in venom. The people that had been bitten suddenly started to go white as if they had lost all the blood to their face and them vomiting all over the other adventures as the backed off. Deatie watch as their face them went black and fell over, hitting the ground with ratting breath that got slower. Just a he was about to ask for healers, he heard the sound of shouting from the edges of the group leading to the portal.
"Were under attack," shouted somebody," its orcs, I think."
This was then confirmed by the roar of orc warriors heard them run into battle. The second in command started to issue an order for a shield wall to be put up to allow them time to get organized and reposed.
But Deatie shouted, "Don't concern yourself with this as I'll lead a counter-attack."
As he pushed his way through the milling and confused adventures, several of them fell under the blades of the orcs while he was trying to get to the front of the group. By the time Deatie was in the front of the battle about ten of the adventures had laid dead, but what was worst was that orcs were retreating back into the portal where they could not follow.
"That's not normal behavior of the orcs," said the second in command as the last orc ran away," I've never known for an orc to retreat."
Looking around the battle scene all the bodies of the dead were disappearing, with white light as the second in command said, "We now have only eighty left, and we're still only at the entrance to level two. This is not good, my lord."
Deatie just "hmphed" and walked off the pattern tiles to solve the maze.
--
Looking at the pit with the several dead bodies of his adventures, Deatie was slightly shocked at what had happened. They had come out of that horrible maze onto the long corridor with the thin bridge at the end only to fall prey to the crushing traps in the corridor while having to defend against the arrow from the orc warrior at the other end.
One of his drinking buddies ran forward, bravely through Deatie, with his shield in front of his body taking the cross-blow bolt on the surface. The crowd of adventures cheered up until the point when he ran on to the bridge, and they just slipped off into the pit, screaming.
As the magicians in the company had set up the shield for the adventure to advances behind, when several more people tried to cross the small bridge, only to fall into the pit. Finally, it took his second in command to shout for everybody to stop trying for the fatalities to stop as the orcs retreated into the portal on the other side.
"The magicians have cleared the bridge," said his second in command, "of whatever was causing everybody to fall. It should be safe to cross now."
"If they are so sure it safe," said the angry Deatie in a peeved tone of voices, "get them to cross first."
"Are you sure that wise sir," said the second in command as he frowns, "because we really need them to proceed forward and if anything happens to them, we'll have no healing at all or battle magic."
"Will you stop questioning every order that I give, "said Deatie as he looked up his subordinate's face, "and just do what I say!"
"Yes, sir," was the reply.
With that, the second in command started to walk back to the magicians that were looking nervous as they had heard the conversation like everybody else in the dungeon.
&nb
sp; "You heard the boss," shouted the angry sub-commander, "get across the bridge and show us all that it's safe."
The five magicians started to creep across the narrow bridge slowly with looks of terror on their faces, as they look down into the pit. In a few minutes, as the rest of the adventures watched, it was obvious that the bridge was now safe as all of them made it across without falling in. Just as everybody was about to cheer, armed orcs ran out from the exit of the level with weapons held in their hand, and started to cut down the five robed magicians before anybody could react. Deatie watched in horror as the magicians fell before the bloody weapons of the enemy.
Just as the orcs were running away, one of them turned back and look into Deatie eyes and gave him the most peculiar express, as if he was having trouble passing wind. Then he just ran off before an archer shotted him.
"That was strange," said the second in command to nobody in particular.
"You mean that all of the magicians are dead," said somebody.
"No," said the sub-commander, "that was predictable. It was the face of the orc it was if he was trying to smile at us, but orcs don't smile."
Deatie looking in horror as he was now down to sixty of his original company and had no healers or wizards. Even though he despised the two classes, they needed to keep the warriors fighting in any adventuring, but he guessed they could get on without them for the rest of the dungeon.
--
Gimwell had been confused at first by the tactic of hitting the enemy and running away, at first. His main misunderstanding was the running bit at the end of the fighting. Hitting an enemy or anybody, was for an orc second nature and it was just how the world worked, but this running away from a battle was a mystery, normal you ran into a battle screaming with weapons drawn, now that was natural.
With the rest of his gang, he was hiding underground in a pit with a cloth over the top of the exit covered in grass. This was another mystery to Gimwell as he had never heard of the word ambush before. It had taken a lot of hits and kicks, from his gang boss, to explain the concept to him, but in the end, he understood that all he had to do was wait until he was told to attack; while the enemy walked by unmolested for a while, very unnatural in his option.
Dungeon Battle Page 7
