Frog Legs

These stone crabs live up to their name. I smack my blade into the hard shell of its carapace. I do very little to the crustacean. If I was just running through the halls then they would be no issue.

They are slow so I can easily avoid them. Maybe I can even bop off their heads like my favorite platforming game.

“Take a step back Tai. I’ll get that one.”

Momo slams the shell with the metal ball at the end of her club. It shatters immediately on impact. Shards fly everywhere.

“I didn’t hit you with debris did I? Sorry…sometimes I forget about things like that.”

She looks away either nervous or shy. I can't tell with her faceplate down.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m doing okay.”

Brutus brushes past me. He takes his time meticulously collecting the stonecrab shards.

“Whatcha lookin’ at Goggles?”

“Sorry didn’t mean to stare. Do stone crab bits sell for a lot?”

“Hmm…Not particularly but leaving behind any loot in the dungeon is just foolish when there’s coins to be made.”

He raises his eyebrows looking directly through me.

“Kinda weird for an adventurer to run through the dungeon with nothing to show for it…”

I stare at him for a bit trying to find a good defense of my previous dungeon run. I can’t really think of a good reason that the people of this world would accept.

“Bah! No matter. Some people are just into it for the thrill of the fight!”

He laughs and moves along his way.

Clack.

Silence nudges me along. We rejoin the others. As we walk I jot down some of the things we have run across so far. Mostly I need to remember some of the traps that we have seen between boss rooms.

Janice at the guild explained to me that while the dungeons overall structure doesn’t change day to day the trap place does. There are some of the classics like fire traps, arrow traps, and swinging blades. More unique to this dungeon like opening the wrong door could spell doom, like falling into a pit full of zombies, or finding a mimic thinking its treasure.

“Come to think of it, we aren't opening a lot of doors.”

The orc snorts.

“Well Goggles, that is because our luck is just bad.”

“Hey Brutus don’t give him the wrong idea.”

“Now listen Missy. 90% of the time we open a door and end up half dead.”

“Well…”

“Last month you flooded the hall–Silence almost drowned.”

Clack.

Clack.

“But…”

“Or what about when you opened up that door in the third floor maze filled with octopus arms?”

“That was just…”

“Then there was that time you had that mimic stuck to your head. You ran around scared and ran smack–”

“ALRIGHT! We have bad luck.”

Sounds more like Momo has a terrible luck stat but I can respect the superstition.

“Opening doors is dangerous. I'll make note of it.”

Brutus snorts again.

“Too bad. There are some good coins to be made in those doors.”

I can see Momo’s shoulders slouch a bit as we clear the corridors. We enter a large room with a high ceiling. There seems to be a second floor above us. Large stone columns support the weight of the secondary story lining our path.

Ribbit–

What was that? I hear the sound of blades unsheathing. Brutus is standing on edge searching in the darkness. I carefully draw my blade. Momo quietly orders a simple request.

“Form a circle. Watch every angle. We aren’t alone.”

Shoulder to shoulder we wait. I stare into the darkness for so long that I start to see things. I’m so on edge I twitch when I think I see something but it was just the eye strain.

Ribbit–

I heard the sound of air moving quickly. Something is coming. There is a loud crash as wood splinters rain down. That must have been a spear. What happened?

Again another spear hits an invisible barrier.

“Silence won’t be able to maintain the shield for long. Toss this.”

Momo hands me a large rock. I throw it the direction the spears came from. The rock shatters and the tiny shards begin to glow.

Our assailants are dimly lit by the glow of the shards. They are about my height with rags and bones for clothing and wielding wooden spears. They don’t look happy about the light.

Ribbit–

The only way I know how to describe them are frog people. Their skin is a dark green and the slime glistens in faint light. They have large eyes and their long sticky tongues droop out of their mouth dragging on the floor.

“Don’t let their tongue touch you!”

Wait, why not? I will have to ask later. Brutus throws another stone. With the light piercing through the darkness it is clear to see that we are surrounded. Momo slams her club against her shield.

The frog people shuffle backwards momentarily intimidated. Brutus lets out an orcish warcry. The frogs are no longer deterred.

“Guess it's a fight then. Goggles leave this to us and look out for Silence.”

I stand back to back with Silence. Momo and Brutus charge into battle. I can see out of the corner of my eye brutus dicing the monsters up effortlessly. Frog legs flying.

Momo launches one of them into a wall, it is crushed on impact. The frog people seem to be losing the will to fight and many are retreating. There still is quite a lot around us, at least more than 20.

Ribbit–

I heard the monster croaking above on the second floor. A large pink mass is hurdling toward Silence. They can’t see it. I push Silence out of the way.

I recoil back for a moment then suddenly–

The mass drags me all the way up by my chest to the second floor. I drop my sword in the process.

I get it now. The tongue is sticky. Very sticky.

I am surrounded by frog people and alone. This is not looking good. Another tongue launches towards me. I time it just right to dig into its flesh with the edge of my shield.

RIBBIT-

The tongue retracts to its owner. I don’t think I can keep this up if they all try.

“TAI! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!”

I can hear Momo, there is a lot more fear in her voice than I expected. She sounds close but still below me.

Fwooooosh!

A spear flies above my head over the stone railing at my back. They aim better with their tongues than these spears. If I stay up here I'll die. I really hope this works.

I jump up dodging another spear.

“MOMO!”

“TAI YOUR ALRIGHT!”

I take a few steps back to get a running start then jump off the ledge.

“CATCH!”

“WHA–”

Momo drops her shield. The loud metal hitting stone reverberates through the halls.

I land in her arms. I feel a lot safer. I look up at her faceplate open. Her large eye is staring at me with great relief.

“Good catch.”

Quickly her face flusters. She drops me. It didn’t hurt too much.

“Oh no…I’m sorry…I just ah–”

“Can we hurry it up you two let's get out of this room!”

Clack.

Momo closes the faceplate on her helmet, grabs her shield and leads a charge out of the room destroying any frog people in our way. After we put some distance between us we take a moment to catch our breath.

“That’s why you don’t let their gross tongues grab you, Goggles.”

Brutus is right. I write down some notes about the frog people's behavior and how far their tongues can reach. As long as you dodge the tongues and spears they aren’t such a problem. Maybe I could use their tongues…

Silence moves to sit next to me. I can tell they are staring at me. I realize they are reading my notes–

I close my notebook abruptly. My writing is not like anything from this world. They might get suspicious of me…

Our eyes meet. They tilt their head.

I can’t tell what they are thinking. Silence stands up facing me, bows and walks away.

Was that a thank you? Why did that feel so peculiar?

“The Gravestone Golem is up next. Hopefully there won’t be any surprises. Check your gear. It's just a few corridors left till the boss room.”

Last time I went against it I dodged by but the thing took my sword in the process. I won’t let that happen again. I tighten my grip on my sheathed short blade.

We walk for a bit through the damp corridors. The air is still. The deep we go it gets colder. I am glad I chose to wear my robes. They help a little with the cold.

As we pass through the archway into the boss room I take note that there is no door. I was moving so fast last time I didn't notice. We all slowly form a defensive line with the mound of dirt in the center.

It looks like a graveyard, but I know better. Those stone headstones on mounds of dark dirt with skeletal bones of the dead begin to shift.

The dirt rises from the ground forming large chunks. The golem’s body begins to form a more humanoid shape. Large bulky arms and a huge torso are barely supported by the stubby legs.

The remains of a skull headstone forming the monster's face. Scattered broken bones and destroyed weaponry form a defensive shell across the thing’s body.

The golem is large. It towers over someone as big as Momo.

“We need to overwhelm the beast!”

Brutus moves first. His blades outstretched at his sides. Momo charges in behind him. I move to protect Silence, my shield raised with both hands.

I don’t want to have to take a hit but if I do I will need both hands.

My sword stays in its sheath.