(Camp outside the labyrinth entrance, same morning.)
Rammeld slapped down his notepad. "Lustvine!? Are you kidding me?"
The reporting scout blinked at Rammeld's suddenly informal tone. "One male and at least fifty females. There were more, but apparently some of the Golrin members tangled with them."
"This isn't the right environment for Lustvine." Alexavier, frowning, flipped through his Guide to Known Monsters. "This is fairly flat forest with occasional low hills.They prefer old ruins in deep forests or rocky areas in forested foothills. Even if there's caves available, they won't use them."
"At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to hear someone was farming them illegally." Rammeld rubbed his face. "Count Lisko's made a real mess here." He turned back to the scout. "Are the vines being dealt with yet?"
"The Epic Storms and Daylight's Advent parties are taking care of them. They're all Emeralds and Sapphires, so they should be okay."
"Don't tempt Rokvian of Dark," Alexander grumbled.
"Thank you, and you're dismissed," Rammeld said to the scout. "Give Kelton the full report -he's coordinating the scout reports- and get something to eat before you go out again."
"Yes, sir." The scout hurried off.
"Lustvine." Rammeld rubbed his head, feeling the headache coming on. "I thought Anol was a fool for restricting the labyrinth to Emerald and above -Rubies can handle quite a lot. But monsterized Lustvine is something else." He didn't voice his next thought -Anol could well know more about Cothmore's transgressions than he'd been letting on.
"You've apparently learned about monsters' actual levels." Alexavier tilted his head. "You're talking more casually than before."
"I'm talking to Alexavier the Sapphire-level adventurer, not Lord Alexavier Asheburne of the city of Auria in Corundum. I know most adventurers don't stand on formality."
"Alexavier!" An adventurer was running towards them -Alexavier recognized her as an Emerald-level member of Daylight's Advent. "Sanri!"
She nodded in acknowledgement. "We found Drysia's sword! The one with the sphynx and crosshatching!"
"What!?"
Sanri reached them and took a deep breath. "There weren't just Lustvines. They'd apparently already tangled with the dragon guys. From the bodies that were left, the dragons came off worse.
"When we finished with the Lustvines, we were going through the bodies before putting them in the body transport bags, and we found Drysia's sword under some of them. It was pretty damaged, all notched up and covered in that goo."
"But no other sign of them?" Alexavier was clearly worried.
Shaking her head, Sanri internally rolled her eyes. El had dumped Alex months ago, for Zav's sake. "No signs. Donte -that's our leader-" this was to Rammeld "-thinks Drys may have used the goo on the sword to get the vines to attack the dragons so she and El could run while they were fighting. He said they would have both been pretty tired -he's sure they reached that spot coming from the throne room, not going to it."
"Mmm." Rammeld finished his latest addition to his notes and flipped through them. "The priests calculated that Elmerin probably cast two strong Purify spells -a focused one and a wide-area one- to clear the Bolat Crystal and the surrounding area enough to stop the danger of dungeonization. That would take all of most mages' mana."
"Not Elmerin," Alexavier said. "He has a huge reservoir. But two Purifys -that would have taken a lot of what he had." He considered the matter. "He was also spamming mana potions during the fight with the vine monster, so he would have been lower than usual on those.
"Taking the time needed to travel from the explosion site to the Cothmores' area, and that he and Drysia had to travel as fast as possible because of the dungeon seed, and he probably used magic along the way -he would have been very low once they were done, without much to replenish it." Alexavier ran his hand through his hair. "And the Death Eagles were out of potions because of the unexpected creatures we'd run into, so we couldn't give him any, like we did with the detox potions."
"Minister! Minister!" A priest -one from the Rherion order, judging from their stole- dashed over to them. He skidded to a stop and doubled over, gasping for breath.
"Easy," Alexavier said, ready to catch the young man if he keeled over.
"He's right," Sanri added. "Nothing is so important-"
"This is!" yelled the priest, straightening. "There were undead in the crystal room!"
The adventurers and the minister all turned pale.
The priest swallowed. "The undead were destroyed already. When we got to the room where the crystal was, there were dead bodies outside, some killed with a blade, some with explosion magic. Inside was a pile of bones, armor, and ash. The bodies outside were wearing very good armor that probably cost a lot, but the armor inside was insanely high quality with lots of enchantments and spells still intact, in spite of clear evidence of a very powerful fire spell.
"A priestess of Vendra analyzed the remains, and eventually found the bones and ash came from people who'd been subjected to necromantic magic -undead. A couple priests of Ilex analyzed the armor."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Alexavier said. "There's priests of Vendra and Ilex down there? How did they get here so fast?"
"We were part of various adventuring parties. I'm with Arlan's Wall. We agreed to assist while our parties are helping clear the labyrinth." The priest swallowed. "One thing we all agree on -the defenses on the armor and undead were high level and numerous. In our calculation, nothing short of the shadow of Geire's fires would have broken through."
Alexavier groaned and buried his face in his hands. "I don't think even El would have had any mana left if he cast Hellfire and two high-level Purifys." He looked up and sighed. "They're probably holed up somewhere to rest and let Elmerin's mana recharge."
"And he's only not Diamond yet because Anol was such a dipshit," Sanri sniffed. Bravado covered shock; she'd had no idea that Elmerin was capable of that level of power.
Rammeld finished writing out a note and held it out to Sanri. "Could you take this to Anol? With undead present, he'll have to take stricter measures." He spotted two of the royal guardsmen walking by and waved them over. "There's various steps I need to take as well," he added, as he wrote out more notes.
*******
People mentioned in this chapter:
Alexavier
Rammeld
Kelton: One of Rammeld's multiple assistants.
Sanri: 21. Guild Rank: Emerald. Hair: Brown. Eyes: Hazel. Gender: Female. Party Affiliation: Daylight's Advent.
Donte: 28. Guild Rank: Sapphire. Hair: Black. Eyes: Yellow. Gender: Male. Party Affiliation: Daylight's Advent.
Unnamed priest of Rherion
Adventurer Parties mentioned:
Arlan's Wall
Daylight's Advent
Epic Storms
Items, magic:
Guide to Known Monsters: A book that lists all known monsters, both corrupted magic and Bolat's energy variants. Treated with space magic, durability magic, magic to prevent loss, and magic to preserve cleanliness. Available for sale through the various Guilds, but pricey. The Adventurers' Guild offers them for free to party leaders of Emerald or higher. There are cheaper versions that are smaller, shorter, and non-magic that list some monsters, usually those common around the particular guild branch where they're issued.
It's advised to consult the copy each guild branch owns and take notes even if you have one of the shorter versions; the smaller versions often cut down on the length of the entries, limiting them to habitat and best ways to hunt. (Cheaping out on his monster guide is why Falchan didn't know about the effects of jaculus venom.)
Body Transport Bags: Item bags treated with timestop magic. They are used for cadaver transport when it is needed. They are issued for free by the adventurers' guild so the adventurers can bring back their dead, rather than leave the bodies to possibly become undead in one of various ways, or be found by someone with necromantic tendencies.
It's fine to bring back any dead people in them, even if they aren't an adventurer. But using the BTBs to transport monster parts will get a fine, and a very large one at that.
Items, non-magic:
Priests' stoles: The priestly stole worn as part of the temple robes has a pattern that indicates their status. There are multiple patterns that can be used individually or in combination:
A pattern for novices that have not dedicated themselves to a particular god.
A pattern if they are a traveling priest.
A pattern indicating rank, that grows more complex the higher the rank.
Various patterns that show which deity the priest has dedicated themselves to.
Various patterns if they are affiliated with a specific temple
Different patterns if they are affiliated with one of the four guilds. (Adventurer, Crafter, Merchant, Watch.)
Particular patterns if they are affiliated with a particular noble or merchant house.
Kingdom and city patterns exist, but are discouraged, since the priests are supposed to put devotion to the gods before service to a particular government. (This can be as problematic as it sounds.)
Deities mentioned:
Ilex: The deity who rules over armor and defense.
Vendra: The goddess who rules over death. Vendra takes the souls of those who have died and escorts them either to ascend beyond the mortal realms, or to the web of reincarnation between worlds so they may begin a new life. Ascending is very rare, and a cause for celebration in the gods' realm.
Long ago, Idalin and Vikesh, in council with the other deities, realized that eternal life could be boring and dull. On the other hand, a long life could bring great wisdom, and greater ease in conveying knowledge from one generation to the next.
After great debate, the deities decided to grant the races lifespans according to their temperaments, with temperaments reflective of Idalin and Vikesh granted longer lives, while temperaments closer to Bolat's granted shorter ones. Vendra was given the job of making sure that those whose lives had ended made their way peacefully to reincarnation or ascension.
The gods' lack of knowledge of the changeability and variability of the many races of Thas created a path they eventually grew to regret.
Zav: The god who rules over gates and change.
Terms used:
Spamming: A term introduced by the Summoned that stuck. In Tas' present day, it usually means using a lot of things quickly, rather than sending many things.