Chapter 48: Grand…ish Strategy

“Oh yeah? Well, William Oh invented the chain of command, which he then used to strangle a supposedly ‘immortal’ cyclops who could only be wounded by metaphor. Top that.

• Mack Daniels, level 30 Climber

“Hold on a second,” Roger said, cocking his head to the side for a moment before he turned and dove into the murky water just beside them.

A moment later, the oversized Rustic Brawler emerged from the water, struggling with an eel larger than a man. It looked…pissed.

“Dragon Eel!” Roger shouted over the thrashing of water. Will detected a shift in the creature’s throat an instant before Roger yanked it’s head to the side.

A torrent of acid erupted from its mouth and sailed off into the distance, landing among the weeds of the swamp, which immediately began to smoke.

“These things make some of the best leather Relics this side of the seventh floor! Most of your Party are lightweights so it’s worth seeing what this guy drops.”

Crack!

Roger snapped the monster’s neck and threw it up on the dry path, climbing out of the waist-deep water, idly brushing off leeches.

Miasma began to flicker and unravel, rising from the corpse of the monster in a way that almost looked like smoke, if the smoke had been alive.

The corpse’s finely scaled leather mummified before evaporating, leaving nothing but bones in a matter of seconds.

Inside the dragon eel’s torso were dark brown, nearly black leather leggings. Only on very close inspection was one able to see the tiny scales of the eel embedded in the leather, lending it extra strength.

Ranger’s Eelskin Leggings

+4 Resistance

+10% movement speed.

+15% Ranger Archetype Ability Potency

Will liked the ranger archetype ability potency, but his current leggings gave much stronger stat bonuses.

“I’ll take it,” June said, raising her hand.

“How do we find Dragon Eels?” Will asked.

“Sometimes you can catch their fins sticking out of the water. They look kind of like a branch leaning sideways out of the water, but there’s always a piece of scum or something obscuring where the fin extends down into the water. They also have a very faint hissing sound when they breathe through their gills. I’ll point it out next time I hear one.”

Roger guided them through the swamp for a solid three days, until Mason hit half Charge, then they followed the shortest possible route back to Way Station.

It took longer than they’d expected, between the Ring of Arcane Endurance and Mason’s natural regeneration. Most encounters ended with one application of Mason’s conflagration, which was paid for by the Ring of Arcane Endurance.

Those that didn’t end in a single explosion usually involved Will and June picking off stragglers while Reggie stood there looking tough.

It was only when everything went wrong at once and needed a hasty correction to prevent death or injury, that Mason unleashed more than a single explosion.

They quickly learned to hate swamp vampires, as the intelligent worms that animated the corpses of dead adventurers retained a bit of the host corpse’s intelligence, and would arrange simple ambushes that aimed to cut party members off from the group, or drown them in enemies, so they couldn’t protect their weakest members from the sheer numbers.

Or both at the same time.

The most egregious example of this was when a tentacle monster plant emerged, splitting a narrow dry path in two, separating Mason and June from Will and Reggie temporarily.

By the time Will and Reggie got around to the other side again (about five seconds) the Nuker and Scout were already fending off half a dozen swamp Vamps with more emerging from the murky water every moment.

One of the vamps even managed to land a hit on Mason’s arm before he got off any explosions, which gave Reggie a circle-shaped scrape in the same spot.

Paying someone else to take the damage for you. Will had mixed feelings about Tanks. They were useful, and they reduced the aggregate amount of damage taken by the party, unless they were abused.

But the people who signed up for it were buying in to the Climbing game with their body…and mind. Decoys like Travis just died, but if a Tank didn’t die, they usually retired with crippling wounds. Often mental ones.

Resistance didn’t help resist psychic damage.

When Will and Reggie joined the fight, they scattered the vamps to the wind and turned to kill the tentacle monster that was trying to draw them into a gaping maw in the swamp lined with teeth.

With the proper application of arrows and explosions, the creature’s tendrils went limp, and they looted it’s corpse.

One of the vamps dropped a ring with inward facing barbs that granted lifesteal, which went in the emergency pile, since nobody wanted to wear it, but it might prove useful in an emergency.

Ring of the bloodsucker

+2 resistance

+2% lifesteal

The tentacle plant dropped a bow seemingly made of gnarled vines tightly woven together.

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Bow of Entangling Vines

+3 Acuity

Projectiles fired from this bow cause vines to erupt from the ground and restrain their target. Scales with Acuity.

June switched out her current nonmagical bow for the new Relic, since any bonus was better than none, and the effect wasn’t half bad.

“Draw’s a little high, but that’s good. I’ll get stronger,” June mused as she tested the bow.

They made it back to the Inn at the end of the third day, and Will checked in on the rest of his Party.

Loth, Alicia and Travis looked about ready to chew their way out of the room that Steve had locked them in, which was good.

The next morning, the seven of them got together and Will made introductions.

“Alright, everybody, introductions,” Will said, gesturing to each person as he explained how they were going to operate. “I’m William Oh, the Party Leader. This is Loth, She’s my second in command. June Ferrier will be squad leader, Mason is her second, and the rest of you guys are under them.”

“’Kay,” Reggie said with a shrug while Travis sputtered.

“You’re going to put a kobold and a commoner in command of Alicia Zodiac!?” he said, his face red with what Will could only assume was second-hand indignant outrage. Alicia Zodiac didn’t really show any response.

“I like Loth,” Alicia said, with her trademark expressionlessness.

“I mean, if miss Zodiac feels that’s the best choice of action-“

Will met Travis’s gaze, and widened his eyes.

“It’s fine.” Travis hastily course corrected his ass-kissing.

“I have to say, it’s an honor to meet you, miss Zodiac” Mason said, offering his hand to the blonde archer.

“…You have very slender bones. Are you a boy?” She asked, her voice barely audible.

“…right.” Mason said, withdrawing his hand while June and Reggie chuckled.