Dungeon Master (Karma System)

Golden Axe Guild entered The Ant Hill with a plan for reaching the boss alive.

That distinguished the five-person party from the group that accidentally completed it.

Harl led with a broad shield built for tunnels. An axe fighter followed close enough to attack around either side without passing him. The archer carried short arrows that did not require a full draw in confined spaces. Their earth mage had prepared spells for barriers and footing instead of filling every slot with damage. The healer carried more restorative supplies than the party expected to need.

All five belonged to Golden Axe Guild, although none had joined the twenty-five-person group that earned the guild’s reputation inside Hizon’s defense dungeon. Their guildmates had provided records, equipment recommendations, and one warning.

Do not chase the goblins.

The Ant Hill would punish them if they forgot.

The outer tunnels gave the party enough room to advance in formation. Regular goblins appeared through observation openings, fired, and withdrew before the axe fighter reached them. Harl kept moving toward the marked route. When a bullet ant emerged from a side passage behind the healer, the archer turned instead of joining the attack ahead.

They killed both threats without breaking into three separate fights.

The food-storage chamber cost them more.

Goblins occupied the root platforms. Bullet ants moved through wall openings and struck whichever adventurer looked upward for too long. The earth mage raised a low ridge behind the group, preventing an insect from reaching the healer without revealing where it would cross. The archer waited at that point.

His first shot crippled the ant’s forward leg.

The axe fighter finished it while Harl kept the main path open. They left the chamber with injuries but without spending one of the healer’s strongest remedies.

Hizon watched from the control room near his Undercity business.

The party’s progress record moved through the corrected rooms at the pace he expected from adventurers capable of reaching the final workshop. They checked floors without attacking every support. They marked side openings. After one Goblin Trapper dropped a weighted barrier between Harl and the healer, the other three protected both sides of the separation instead of trying to tear through it while exposed.

The earth mage released the counterweight from the wall.

The barrier rose.

The trapper retreated into a repair passage. The axe fighter began following and stopped when Harl called her back.

They found the next trapper waiting beyond the route she would have used.

Golden Axe reached the deep colony with three healing potions, most of the mage’s mana, and every member capable of fighting. The first Bombardier Beetle burned the surface from Harl’s shield and forced the archer to abandon one firing position. It did not split them.

They used a packed-earth divider to survive the first spray. The mage extended it when burning fluid began curving around the edge. Harl crossed during the beetle’s recovery and pinned one goblin handler against the gate. The axe fighter destroyed the release crank before the second handler could close it behind him.

The archer killed the handlers. The party brought the beetle down after its third burst.

They rested in the marked tunnel beyond the chamber.

Harl inspected the shield. The outer layer had peeled away near the lower edge, but the frame remained intact. The healer replaced a burned strap and treated the exposed skin beneath it. The earth mage used no spell while they waited.

"Two remedies before the boss." The healer said. "I only have enough mana for one group spell."

"I have enough for four barriers if none need to hold the whole room." the mage said.

The archer counted eleven specialized arrows among the ordinary ones left in his quiver.

The axe fighter had lost a throwing axe in a trap gallery. His primary weapon remained undamaged.

They continued.

The final approach descended through a workshop filled with incomplete mechanisms. Golden Axe did not find a floor capable of collapsing onto the room below. Hizon had moved the chamber and supported the route with stone ribs that were part of the surrounding structure rather than convenient posts.

The adventurers crossed it without looking for the earlier party’s accident.

The boss entrance opened.

The Hobgoblin Artificer stood on a raised work platform beyond the center of the room. Metal lenses covered his eyes. His leather apron carried tools, alchemical capsules, and three control cords leading toward the machinery around him.

Goblin assistants occupied benches along both walls. Two Goblin Trappers waited beside separate gates. Hobgoblin guards protected the main approach. A shielded enclosure concealed the Bombardier Beetle at the rear.

Raised tunnels crossed above the room. Bullet ants moved inside them, carrying replacement parts toward openings above the assistants.

Harl did not charge the platform.

"Left wall first." He said. Directing the others to where they would begin their assault.

Golden Axe entered together.

The Artificer pulled the first cord.

A weighted arm swept across the entrance at chest height. Harl caught it on his shield while the others moved beneath the return. The impact turned him without knocking him down. The axe fighter cut the tension line before the mechanism could strike again.

Goblin assistants released alchemical flasks.

The earth mage raised two narrow barriers instead of one broad wall. Liquid broke against them and flowed into the channels between the floor plates. The party shifted left as planned, placing solid stone between itself and the opening shield around the beetle.

Burning spray crossed the center lane.

It did not reach them.

The Artificer ordered one trapper forward and sent the other toward the control bench on the right. Harl held the first away from the healer. The archer ignored him and shot the goblin reaching for the right-side gate.

The arrow entered the assistant’s shoulder. The goblin fell without releasing the latch.

The axe fighter reached the left benches.

He destroyed the first control assembly, then forced two assistants away from a rack of weighted arms. The earth mage sealed the nearest raised-tunnel opening. A bullet ant struck the new barrier and had to descend through a route farther from the Artificer.

Golden Axe was changing the room.

The machinery did not disappear when damaged. The assistants could not repair a severed tension line without reaching it. The Bombardier Beetle remained dangerous, but the party used solid parts of the workshop to deny it a full line across their formation.

Hizon watched the Artificer respond.

The boss cut one of his own control cords.

The released counterweight dropped a gate behind the party’s healer. Harl turned at the sound. The gate separated the healer and archer from the three adventurers controlling the left wall.

The Artificer opened the beetle enclosure farther.

Harl could not protect both groups.

"Stay behind the bench." He called. "We clear the left."

The healer did not waste a spell trying to reach him. She moved with the archer into the gap between two reinforced benches. The beetle’s next spray struck wood and metal rather than flesh. Burning fluid spread around the sides, reducing the space they could use.

The archer shot through the gate.

His first arrow killed an assistant carrying new cord toward the damaged mechanism. His second broke one of the Artificer’s lenses. The boss moved away from the platform edge and sent both hobgoblin guards toward Harl.

The next portion of the fight cost Golden Axe nearly everything.

Harl held the guards in the left lane while the axe fighter destroyed the remaining benches. The earth mage spent two barriers preventing bullet ants from reaching their backs. One ant climbed over the first. Harl left the guards for a single step and drove it away with the edge of his shield, giving the mage room to complete the second wall.

The healer used her group remedy through the gate.

Light reached the three adventurers on the other side and restored enough strength for the axe fighter to break the first hobgoblin’s defense. The archer killed the second after it turned toward her.

The Artificer lost his guards, half his assistants, two control stations, and one side of his protective machinery.

Harl pointed toward the boss platform.

The axe fighter advanced.

The trapper beside the Artificer triggered a floor plate. Metal teeth closed around the axe fighter’s boot. He cut the fastening strap and left part of the boot behind rather than stop. The earth mage forced the plate apart after he passed.

The axe struck the Artificer across his apron.

His health dropped fast.

The party had reached him.

The Artificer threw an alchemical capsule at his own platform.

White smoke filled the raised area. It hid him from the archer and coated the boards with a powder that ignited when the damaged beetle sprayed again. The axe fighter jumped from the platform before the flame reached him. Harl caught him behind his shield.

The earth mage spent his last large spell.

Packed soil rose beneath the beetle enclosure and forced its front upward. The next spray struck the ceiling. Burning drops fell around the rear of the room, setting two remaining work benches alight and killing a goblin assistant.

The healer used her final prepared remedy keeping the archer alive when the gate became too hot to approach.

The archer found the Artificer through the smoke.

He fired.

The arrow struck the boss beneath the collar. His health fell again, leaving a narrow portion on Hizon’s display.

The Artificer pulled his last intact control cord.

The floor beneath the separated pair tilted toward the beetle lane. The archer grabbed onto the bench. The healer did not. She slid into the open path as the enclosure lowered.

The beetle’s spray ended her attempt.

The archer lost his position when the bench collapsed. A bullet ant dropped from the only tunnel the earth mage had not sealed and struck him before he regained his feet.

The remaining three adventurers could still win.

Harl crossed the central lane with the axe fighter behind his large shield. The earth mage followed with no big spells remaining. They reached the burning platform while the Artificer tried to remove the arrow from his shoulder.

A goblin trapper stepped between them.

Harl drove him aside. The axe fighter climbed the platform and raised his weapon.

A spring arm hidden beneath the work surface released when his weight reached the top step. Harl saw it but could not reach him. The metal bar struck him side and threw him into the fire below.

The earth mage brought down the platform with a final short spell.

The Artificer fell with it. Harl reached him among the broken boards and drove his shield against the boss’s chest. The remaining health on Hizon’s display became a line too narrow to estimate. This group was one blow away from defeating the artificer.

The Bombardier Beetle recovered from the raised enclosure.

Harl heard the shield mechanism open behind him. He turned his damaged shield toward the spray. The remaining frame held for less than a second. The spray passed through it and caught both him and the earth mage inside the fallen platform.

Golden Axe’s attempt ended.

The Artificer remained alive with less than three percent of his health.

Hizon closed the combat record when the last health entry vanished. Golden Axe members met the five adventurers outside the Sanctuary hospital after their resurrection and returned with them to the Undercity. Their damaged equipment and the absence of a completion chest told the rest of the guild how close the attempt had come.

Harl looked back at The Ant Hill’s sign.

"We had him." The axe fighter said.

"Next time we will take him down." Harl replied.

The Hobgoblin Artificer reset inside his workshop. Golden Axe began discussing what it would change before the party reached the guild’s rooms.

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