The Dungeon of the Overgrowth

The promised dungeon feels underwhelming to the players. To them, it would be more apt to call it a small stronghold inside a hill that was overrun by dryads. The corpses which nourish the vines growing all throughout the first floor tell a story of human soldiers and clerics ambushed by these plant-based monsters. The way the vines weave through their bones, their flesh melded with the thirsting roots; it lends to the ominous atmosphere. While most of the party proceeds with the same caution children have in a haunted house, Mira and GG do not.

Mira trails behind, paying respect to the fallen men and women. She offers small prayers, and performs small rites which leave traces of mana that glow like candles at their feet.

On the other hand, GG is charging forward with wild abandon. She is ecstatic that her new spell book holds so many elements, and that her first dungeon after acquiring it would be one with a weakness to fire.

“Don’t go too far ahead.” Gambit says nervously.

“I can’t believe this is our first dungeon. Not a single monster on the first floor. I hope we find something so it’s not a waste of our time.” Free Stuff talks with a nonchalant attitude, but his eyes and other senses seem to be acutely scanning his surroundings.

Narco looks at the vine covered walls. “You know Mira, when you said dryad dungeon, I thought you meant the Forest of the Willow Sage. This feels more like a crypt than a dungeon, and also… I don’t recall seeing this place before.”

“Isn’t that over in the eastern lands?” Mira’s eyes wander about the hallway, as the presence of vines grow more abundant the deeper they venture. She thinks about why Narco might be asking this question, before something clicks in her mind. ”Why? Are you scared?” She asks mockingly.

“I’d feel more comfortable in the daylight where you aren’t limited to half your spell list.” Narco continues to examine the odd destruction of this ruin. “I’d also feel more comfortable if I knew what-”

Free Stuff steps on a trap, triggering a runic pattern on the floor. GG couldn’t react quickly enough to dispel, resulting in the party members being teleported to other runic sequences throughout the stronghold based on where they were standing. Narco and Mira are sent to the second floor’s rune, Gambit and Free Stuff are sent to the third floor’s rune, while GG is sent to the bottom floor of the stronghold.

After a blinding light, Narco and Mira find themselves in a dark room. The glow of the runes on the floor quickly disappear as the pair stand there unsure of what just happened.

Narco stands still, in the same exact stance he was in when he was teleported. “Don’t move.” He speaks slowly. “We can’t see our surroundings. For all we know, there’s more traps or a cliff next to us. We should wait for-”

Mira immediately casts a light spell above them, illuminating the room in its entirety. She gives a knowing smirk, confident that Narco forgot what a Sunshine priestess is capable of.

He stands up straight, correcting his panicked stance. “From the looks of the room, we appear to be in this stronghold’s prison.” There are corpses of prisoners still in shackles, but unlike the bodies above, these appear to not be human. “Why do they look like demons?”

“Because they are.” Mira slowly realizes that Narco doesn’t know anything about this dungeon. “Do you not know about the Demon King’s War?”

He continues to examine the bodies in the room. “I thought you said there wasn’t a monster army in the east?”

Mira takes a deep breath. “There isn’t, and there wasn’t. There was a cavern which held the ruins of an ancient city, and a magical artifact that kept the demons sealed away. As the strongest religious order, the Church of the Broken kept clerics posted at the cavern’s entrance every day. Unfortunately, this attracted the attention of bandits who snuck past the guards and tried to steal the magical artifact. Simply by touching it, the seal weakened enough for the demons to break free. Thus a small militia of demons waged war on the western lands until one day their leader disappeared, and the remaining forces were all captured or slaughtered.”

“Disappeared?”

“That was roughly 50 years ago. Bases like this were built to help fight the demons, but after the war, security measures probably became relaxed. Resulting in dryads successfully conquering this place. Who knows when this stronghold fell, but after enough time the kingdom recognizes the treasures belong to whoever clears it.”

There is a glimmer of worry and interest in his eyes. “But disappeared though? Like, the leader of the demons just went missing?”

“That’s what was written in the history books in the library of Flosolis. Of course, they only dated back a hundred years, so who knows where the demons were before being sealed away.”

The two leave the room with ease since the cages have corroded over the years. They notice they level up, and assume the other party members are doing well. As they enter the stronghold's second floor hallway, they hear a scream coming from below and head towards it.

After a blinding light, Gambit and Free Stuff quickly move into an offensive stance. They stand back to back as they get a sense of their surroundings. They look around and try to piece together what happened to the stronghold, and the strange room above them that adjoins the cavern they are standing in.

“It’s odd. It looks like the rune sent us to the bottom of a well, or at least the remains of one.” Free Stuff relaxes his guard, and scratches his back with the dragon club.

Gambit takes a step back. “Seems like all the light is coming from the room above us.” He climbs the stone bricks that line the half remaining circle of the well. When he reaches the top, he slides back down. “Looks like some primitive locker room. There’s a lot of GodHaven showers.”

Free Stuff walks to the wall of the cavern to get a better picture of the view. “Judging from all the rubble on the floor, it appears that the stronghold spontaneously collapsed into this cavern, as if this cavern magically appeared out of thin air.”

Gambit shakes his head. “Or maybe something carved out this cavern around the stronghold, causing part of it to collapse.”

“I guess that makes sense.” As Free Stuff leans against the cavern wall, he feels the vines on his back. The unexpected sensation of cold, soft vines on his back makes him jump forward.

Gambit walks toward Free Stuff. “I guess we have to decide whether to move down the cavern, or back to the stronghold.”

The sound of footsteps approaching causes both of them to turn toward the noise and prepare their weapons. From the shadow of the abyss, several figures climb up the rocks and enter the miniscule light from the showers above. They are dryads. Their green skin and plant-like accessories made that abundantly clear.

Free Stuff looks at them up and down, aware that they are monsters, but he can’t deny the allure. There are three beautiful women in somewhat revealing clothing before him. The one in the center flirtatiously gestures with her fingers for him to come to them.

As he is about to step forward, Gambit stops him. “You’re not about to try what I think you are?”

“Don’t be such a prude man. We’ve been trapped in this game for four days, who knows how much longer our bodies will last. We might as well enjoy our time here.” Free Stuff says, unable to look away from the beautiful group of dryads trying to seduce him.

Gambit sighs. “Firstly, think about how Mira and GG will judge you for getting freaky with a group of monsters. Second, you do realize it’s a trap right? Please tell me you’re not that dense.”

“But what if it's not a trap? Think about it. Doesn’t the chance it’s not a trap make it worth it? If we let fear stop us from pursuing the depths of the unknown, then we would not accomplish what the men of yesterday thought impossible.”

Gambit looks dumbfounded, and mutters to himself. “Oh my… Like… I can’t… I’m friends with an idiot.” He speaks up. “Have you not read a single book? This is the trope. This is the first and the last thing ever written in fiction. Monsters will always use mankind’s inability to think rationally to eat. Have you heard of mermaids or sirens? Vengeful nymphs which are what these dryads are based on? Vampires? Succubi? It’s the venus fly trap for perpetually ignorant guys. Don’t be a statistic!”

“Gambit.” Free Stuff finally turns to face him, revealing a mournful look. “We might already be dead. We might never be able to go back home. Shouldn’t we just enjoy whatever little life we have left?” Gambit is taken aback, unsure of how to comfort him. “I’m an orc. I’m a monster. If this is all that’s left for me, then I’m not risking much.”

A moment of silence arises between them while the dryads still try and lure Free Stuff towards the edge. Gambit finally speaks up. “You still have us.” He gives a genuine smile. “Even if all we’ve become is just lines of code, I know that we’d miss them. Just as I know you’d miss ours if we disappeared. But as long as we’re here, as long as we exist, shouldn’t we fight? Shouldn’t we try to see this through to the end, no matter what that might be?”

Free Stuff laughs softly, and gives a light smile. “You’re way too optimistic for your character model.”

Gambit laughs along as his HUD indicates he levels up.

The dryads look confused, and accept that their plan to lure in the orc and then disembowel him has failed. Their cute faces turn frighteningly ravenous and animalistic. They expose their growing branches and twisted smiles as they slowly approach the pair.

From deep within the darkness, a malicious laughter could be heard. It is maniacal and only gets more and more energetic as the roar of explosions gets closer.

After a blinding light, GG finds herself in the center of a massive room. It looks like a tomb covered in vines. At one end is a staircase leading up with a hole that leads to a cavern, and at the other end is a lone figure standing before a stone altar. She sees two dozen braziers lit along the walls. As she takes a step to gain her balance, the figure realizes she is there and turns around.

A sinister grin emerges on her face, as she says to the figure, “a leshy, huh? I’m sorry, but today is going to be a really bad day for you and your friends.”

Without hesitation, she shoots a bolt of flames at the monster. “Incinerate!”

The leshy conjures a wall of branches to block it, but the wall is immediately burnt. She begins to run around the room, zigzagging chaotically, slowly getting closer. Every time she changes direction, she throws a different fire spell. A barrage of spell casting comes flying at the leshy as he struggles to put up defensive barriers fast enough. “Ball of Fire! Scorch! Incinerate! Scorch! Burn! Burn! Incinerate!” She screams as she casts them, enjoying the thrill of overpowering a foe.

The leshy lets out a roar of garbled noises, speaking in a language GG doesn’t understand. Two dryads emerge from the ground, but before they can finish being created, she runs between them and places a hand on each of their heads. “Burn.” With a single spell, her hands ignite their heads and immediately kill them.

She then dashes towards the leshy, who is caught off guard since he was expecting her to continue zigzagging. He tries to put up a wall, but she counters the spell causing the growing wall to phase out of existence. She places her hand on the leshy’s chest. “Incinerate.” A burst of fire penetrates the creature’s chest completely. As it dies, she looks down at the leshy. “What a pitiful excuse for a boss fight. I guess elemental weaknesses still exist in this world.”

As the leshy bleeds out, GG finds the stone altar the creature was investigating. She sees it is warded with protection spells to keep enemy hands away from whatever is inside. With a single dispel, she gains access to the altar. Inside she finds a corpse in heavily damaged armor, and a sword. She pockets the sword in her bottomless bag, and then awkwardly pays respects to mimic Mira.

GG then rushes to the staircase, leveling up when the leshy finally dies. She stops when she hears the shuffling of dryads in the cavern. Another smile forms on her face as she opens her spell book to the burn page again. She leaps into the cavern and slowly makes her way up the cave, burning countless dryads and walking over their ashes. After burning three at once with a ball of fire, she is greeted with a frightful scream from Free Stuff.

“Damn GG, don’t scare me like that. I thought you were the boss of this dungeon for a second. You just killed them so fast, I didn’t even have time to think.”

GG pats Free Stuff on the arm since she doesn’t want to stretch to reach his shoulder. “There, there. Who knew our big orc was a big chicken.” She laughs.

A thud is heard from behind them. Narco falls into a squat, holding Mira so she wouldn’t get hurt from the jump. “I didn’t realize we’d be this late to the party.”

“Don’t worry.” GG says. “I might have gotten carried away and beaten the leshy in the basement already.”

“I guess that explains all the experience.” Narco says, putting Mira down. “I guess that’s one dungeon cleared. Any notable loot?”

GG hands him the sword she was carrying in her bag. “This was next to some guy in a magically sealed stone coffin that was disguised as an altar. Any idea which sword it is?”

As Narco unsheathes it, the blade shines in the low lighting, and is purely reflective. “Vision’s Echo, a blade for killing mages. Though I recall it being wielded by an archknight in the Cathedral of Faefora. It isn’t too far from here. Maybe we should check it out as our next stop.”

No one disagrees.

The plan is to head southward to Magiadmirari, a city once known for its worship of Faefora and its incredible study of magic. Yet, not everything is always as it was.