“Yes, ma’am,” Alburet replied. “I set that up for my guild as soon as I found out about it.”
Her eyes went to him and tightened, “Ah. Well, the stairs are off to my left, take them down one level. I hope your hunt is beneficial to you.”
The group walked to the stairs, and Karen leaned over to Alburet. “Your rep?”
He nodded, “It took a hit with the change. I’m sitting at Wary, which is why I’m getting these looks.”
“Hmm, maybe I should do the talking for us until you can get back to Neutral then,” Gerald cut in.
“Good idea,” Alburet agreed. “I don’t want anyone to look down on the guild just because of my rep.”
They descended the stairs to find a single archway on the first level. A plaque on one side of the arch informed them that this portal served the Underbrush. “Underbrush, here we come,” Karen said, stepping on the glyph ahead of everyone else.
As they appeared on the other side, they discovered a thick hedge growing next to them, forming a formidable wall. Thorns as long as daggers thrust out from the branches in all directions. They were in front of a break in the hedge, which was manned by an Elven guard. The guard nodded at them politely.
“Welcome to the Underbrush,” the guard greeted them. “The Gunso is just inside the grove.”
“Gunso?” Marysue asked.
“It is the equivalent of Sergeant in the human kingdom,” the guard replied.
“Thank you,” Gerald replied, leading the group through the opening.
Tending to the hedge just inside the break was an older elf, his dark hair just starting to show touches of grey. His robe bore the emblem of a tree in the same place the guild logo appeared on the group’s outfits. He smiled pleasantly at the group, running his hands over a branch. The wood moved like putty under his hands, being sculpted by his touch.
Fluff paused, “What are you crafting today, Woodweaver?”
He met her eyes, “I am crafting an image of my grandchild. Her birth remembrance is next week.”
“I wish her well,” Fluff replied, and started walking, prompting the others to follow her.
“Wait, how was he doing that?” Karen asked as she caught up to Fluff.
“He is a druid, for all intents and purposes, but he crafts as well. All the keeps here are manned by a trio of Woodweavers. They tend to the hedges, aiding in the defense of the keep during attacks and repairing any damage done to the hedge and buildings if something ever attacks the fort.”
“Humans got shafted again,” Alburet muttered.
Marysue had to agree, “I wonder what the Dwarves and Lunari are like.”
“We’ll find out tomorrow,” Gerald told her. “My plan is to hit the lowest zones for both of them then.”
Guild Achievement: Clear the Vermin from the Underbrush
“Ha, one of our guild groups is out here,” Karen laughed.
“Not surprised,” Alburet told her. “The quest to clear the dungeons and such should have really got them going.”
“I’m happy to see that,” Gerald smiled. “Having goals beyond simply leveling will help give a positive reinforcement to the guild in their minds.”
The main building, which was an odd way to phase it, looked like a very wide, short tree. The archway into it had a guard posted outside of it, who gave them a polite nod. The main room held two desks which grew up from the floor. Behind one sat a man with the proper stripes to be a Sergeant. Behind the other sat a man with a very large book before him, very similar to the Quartermaster’s account book.
Gerald came to a stop before the Gunso, saluting, “Sir, Alpha Company here to help.”
The elf looked up at them before returning the salute. “More Alpha Company? Very good. Two other groups of your compatriots have been through here already today. Nice to see you spreading out to explore other continents besides the one you started on. I take it you want the quests for the area and for the vermin?”
“Yes, sir,” Gerald replied.
“Very well, Alpha Company,” he cleared his throat and recited the quests for them. “Return when you have accomplished them.”
“Thank you, sir,” with another salute the group left the tree-building.
Quest: Kill thirty Vermin
Reward: Increased Reputation with Brightgrove Wardens factions plus ten gold.
Quest: Kill the Vermin Caller
Reward: Increased Reputation with all Brightgrove factions and an item from the Quartermaster
Once they’d made it back out the gate, they looked out into the forest. Trees almost as large around as those making up Brightgrove stretched off as far as they could see. Gerald turned back to the guard on the gateway. “Which way is it to the Underbrush?”
“West of us is where the Vermin are coming from at the moment,” the guard told them.
The group started off to the west, Alburet calling Tiny and Bob to his side as they walked. Tiny was his normal stoic self. Bob was still bouncing along, talking excitedly about his new life to the amusement of everyone but Gerald. He seemed to have forgotten about his grisly death at the hands of the Mutated Death’s Apprentice completely.
Within a few hundred yards, underbrush was growing thickly around each tree. The group slowed as they looked around. Off in the distance they could see a couple of other groups going from tree to tree.
“Well, monkey see, monkey do,” Alburet opined as he motioned towards the nearest undergrowth. “After you, Gerald, Tiny.”
As the two tanks neared the underbrush, two Vermin Ambushers sprang out of the plants. Tiny picked them both up, not as surprised by the mob’s sudden appearance as Gerald had been. Gerald taunted one of the Ambushers to him a second later.
“Rat-people,” Karen shook her head.
“Mostly naked rat-folk,” Alburet commented. “Stacia, see if you can Daze one of them.”
“Aye,” she began to sing, and the Ambusher still attacking Tiny dropped his clawed paws and began to sway in place.
“Good. See if you can Ally it,” he told her as Fluff and Karen advanced on the one Gerald was fighting. Bob’s Fire Blast zipped in ahead of them.
Stacia switched songs. The Vermin Ambusher shook its head as the Daze wore off and ducked around Tiny, going for Stacia. Tiny spun, taunting it so that it turned its attack on him, lashing out with clawed hands and darting forward to bite at him.
Tiny blocked a claw and the bite, but took a small gash from the other claw before the Vermin stopped and swayed for a moment. It turned to face Stacia with a big grin. Stacia pointed at its former ally and it flung itself at the other Ambusher.
The Ambusher let out a surprised squeak when its friend attacked it. That was the signal to the rest of the group to pile in on the Ambusher Gerald was holding. With the combined damage being done to it, it died in only a few seconds.
“I can do me full job,” Stacia told them happily as the remaining Ambusher trotted over to her. “We be movin’ on or we kill this one first?”
“Let’s kill him then move on,” Gerald replied. “They have three melee attacks but I didn’t notice any other abilities.”
“Level seven mobs,” Alburet told him. “Not really surprising, the triple attack is enough for such a low-end mob.”
“The Vermin killing will be easy,” Karen sighed. “Oh well, almost like a half-day this way. Which way to the dungeon you think?” No one knew, so they waited and killed the Vermin.
They killed the Vermin and had just started to move on when one of the Alpha Company groups came into view, headed towards them. Gerald called out to them with a wave. The two groups came together with a lot of handshaking as people were introduced.
“You guys the ones that cleared the dungeon?” Gerald asked.
“Yup,” the California surfer accent was thick in the Paladin’s voice. “It was awesome, dude! Not much of a challenge at our level, but it was still fun. The optional boss has this one attack…”
Gerald held up a hand, c
utting him off, “We’ll figure it out. At our level it really won’t be much of a challenge.”
“Right on, dude,” the paladin replied, “we’re off. Got to keep moving if we’re going to make it in the top three. Keep it chill. The dungeon is about a mile that way,” he hooked a thumb back over his shoulder in the direction the group had come from.
“Have a good hunt,” Marysue told the other group, echoed by the others as they parted ways.
“Now we know which way to go,” Gerald told them. “Everyone ready to kill lots of Vermin and hit the dungeon?”
Alburet
Half-Blood Infernal Summoner
Level 23
Strength: 51 (46)
Agility: 51 (46)
Constitution: 30
Intelligence: 106 (76)
Wisdom: 172 (102)
Charisma: 81 (46)
Health: 1450
Mana: 2870
Spells:
Demon Skin-Rank 3
Demonic Retribution- Rank 2
Summon Lesser Imp
Fire Blast- Rank 2
Sap Strength- Rank 2
Demonic Haze- Rank 2
Summon Lesser Destroyer
Demonic Vitality- Rank 2
Fire Burst- Rank 2
Summon Lesser Succubus
Abilities:
Personal Spells
Flame Weapon
Copy
Infernal Upgrade: (Succubus- Ally)
Racial Abilities:
Cast spells without verbal components
Physical damage reduction 25%
Magical damage reduction 10%
Influence emotions
Fire resistance 50%
Reputation gains at half value
Chapter Twenty-Five
The group found the dungeon entrance at the base of one of the giant trees. The swirling mist filled a ten-foot-high hole gnawed into the bark. “I wonder if the boss did this or just a whole lot of Vermin?” Gerald muttered.
“We’ll find out shortly,” Karen tossed over her shoulder as she walked into the mist.
“Shouldn’t be bad, we out level this place by double,” Alburet added as he went inside.
Once inside, they found a softly glowing tunnel that curved up and to the right in front of them. The light emanated from veins running through the walls. The whole tunnel looked like it had been gnawed and scratched out of the trunk of the tree they were in. With a shrug, they started up the clockwise spiral.
They came to an opening in the tunnel on their right-hand side, leading further into the interior of the tree. Gerald looked in, “Two Vermin Protectors and one Vermin Caretaker. Looks like two tanks and a healer. The Caretaker is carrying a branch, and others only have the same loincloths as the ones from outside.”
“Stacia, Ally the Caretaker and Daze one of the Protectors,” Alburet told his wife. “Then it’s just pop, rinse, repeat like we have before.”
The group smashed through the level ten mobs with ease, not really needing to crowd control them. It was good practice, though, and were already developing the habit of using these tactics when they were able to, so no one complained.
After three more rooms like the first one, the spiraling ramp brought them to a larger room. Easily forty feet square, it held a single, much larger Vermin. The Vermin Eater stood near the middle of the room, fully nine feet tall. It wore only the same kind of loin cloth the other Vermin did, but its teeth and claws looked much more intimidating.
Quest: Kill the Vermin Eater
Reward: Increased Reputation with all Brightgrove factions
“Looks like just the one Optional boss. Do we want to skip him and go up the ramp, instead?” Gerald asked, knowing what the answer would be. When everyone declined, he nodded, “Okay, let’s go do this.”
The fight was a straightforward tank and spank. The only ability the boss had was a tail sweep if people got behind it. It made sense as the first dungeon in the Elven lands, easing new players into boss fights and serving as a basic DPS check. At their level, it was over in under a minute.
The group moved on, slaughtering all the Vermin they found until they finally reached the last room. They’d climbed several hundred feet up the inside of the tree trunk by then. A ragged curtain hung across the end of the tunnel, blocking the view into the final room.
“The Vermin Caller should be inside,” Alburet said as he looked at his axe, noting he was going to need a new weapon soon. “All in and zerg him?”
Gerald shrugged, “He should be level twelve, so it’s not like we’ll struggle.”
The group brushed past the curtain and entered the room. In the center of the room, an Elf stood surrounded by small Vermin. He looked up with wild eyes and a vicious smile, “Ah, the heroes who have slaughtered my children. I shall deal with you, and my next wave of spawn will grow strong feeding on your corpses.” He clapped his hands and the Vermin all darted away, vanishing into small holes along the walls.
Gerald walked forward, “They’ll just die once they go outside.”
Shaking his head, Vermin Caller Flendral pointed at Gerald, “Hold still.”
The wood around Gerald sprang up, encasing him in a prison of wood. Tiny surged forward, followed by the others. “That ability could really fuck with a single tank party,” Karen said.
As they reached Flendral, his skin darkened and hardened, looking like thick tree bark. “The tree answers to my call,” he taunted them as he swung his fist at Tiny.
The fist impacted Tiny’s shield with a resounding bong. The bark surrounding Flendral’s fist had grown hard as iron. Tiny leaned into the attack, his return attack barely scoring the new skin of Flendral.
Bob hit Flendral with a Fire Blast before the others could get around him. With a scream of rage, Flendral pointed at Bob, “Hold still!” Another prison of wood encased the Imp.
His momentary distraction allowed them all to land solid hits. None of their attacks did much damage, barely getting through the thick, bark-like skin.
“God damn, his skin is a bitch,” Karen snapped.
Alburet got into position and his flaming axe came around, blasting into Flendral’s flank. The skin blazed brightly for a split second as the axe bit in. Flendral screamed shrilly.
“Damn you, Summoner,” Flendral screamed, turning on Alburet. As Flendral turned, Karen spotted the large exposed patch of normal skin that was gashed where the flaming axe had hit.
“Fire burns off his protection,” she called out, sinking her blades into the vulnerable spot.
“No!” Flendral raged. “You’ll ruin everything, all my beautiful plans.”
Tiny roared at Flendral, taunting the boss back to him and exposing the venerable spot to Fluff, who sank her claws into it without hesitation. As Flendral screamed again, Gerald broke through the prison he’d been trapped in, followed a beat later by Bob stepping out of the burning remains of his prison.
“Take him down,” Gerald cried out as he charged in to help.
The rest of the fight was short and brutal as they tore Flendral apart. Fluff got the killing blow in, her claws sinking into his exposed back.
“No,” Flendral whispered as he sank to the ground, “my babies...”
They looked around, waiting, but no Vermin came out of the holes they’d gone into. “Is it over?” Marysue asked after a moment.
“Seems to be,” Gerald replied.
“Doing this at level would be a bitch without someone who can burn off his bark skin,” Karen muttered.
“Elementalists and Summoners, then,” Alburet shrugged. “It probably had a timer on it as well, so you could just wait it out if you couldn’t remove it. So far, nothing has been so broken that a thinking group couldn’t get past it, and this is the first dungeon here.”
Fluff nodded once, “He’s right. I kept an eye on his bar, the spell, Nature’s Protection, had a two minute timer.”
“The prison can be broken,” Gerald added, looking over at Bob.
>
Bob shrugged, “Easier to burn it down.”
“If you’re immune to fire, sure,” Gerald replied. “I’m sure I would have taken some damage if you’d done that to my prison.”
“Sounds about right,” Alburet agreed.
They collected their loot and went back to the Fort to turn in the quests. Once they’d collected their rewards, they looked at the time.
“We should call it for the night,” Marysue advised them. “The raffle is supposed to start in a little over an hour.”
Alpha Company (Alpha World Book 3) Page 32
