Worthy Core

Almost as soon as the first troops had finally finished the descent down to the bottom of the mountain's abyss, Commander Gerlosius had immediately gotten to setting up a squad to be their rearguard while sending others out to secure the nearest tunnels. Half a dozen troops likely wouldn't do much if the dungeon's defenders attempted a serious assault on their rear, but the man's military instincts are well-trained and the draconic's not one to leave their supply lines entirely vulnerable.

The man continues to be fairly busy as more and more soldiers arrive, but as soon as he's able the officer finds a moment to meet up with his sovereign. "Welcome to the bottom of Mount Faralis, Dragonlord. Everything appears to have gone without issue for the first phase."

The golden dragon scoffs at the greeting. "Far from the bottom, Commander - there are levels much deeper than this. I must say, I am glad I still yet possess my perfect memory - from my understanding, most mortals would have trouble recalling the layout of a place they last saw several centuries prior."

The soldier glances around at the area around them. It had been well-lit by a number of mages shortly upon their arrival, so it's easy for the man to see...large, nondescript piles of stone for the most part. It's probably only remnant dungeon magic that keeps the mountain from collapsing into such a space as this, but that hadn't entirely stopped centuries of erosion from trickling down tons of pebbles and small rocks over the years. A few rather larger ones, as well - the man is fairly certain he can make out a more recent pile of rubble that was probably the Floor Six boss arena, before it had exploded during the last battle in the dungeon. There'd been no signs of bodies, though. Although several Domain soldiers had been registered as falling to their deaths in this pit, Gerlosius can only imagine that the dungeon had sent out forces to recover them - or at least their gear and supplies.

All in all though, the man can't say that he sees anything reminding him of the glory of an ancient dungeon. "...Have you seen this area, my lord? I'm not sure it really looks like much of anything to me."

"I suppose it might not look like much now, but I do recall the layout and there's only one place we could be right now. I had experimented with several vertical-style floors, larger than Worthy's second although admittedly without her clever moving platform trick. The walls separating them seem to have collapsed, creating this massive space we find ourselves in now. Fortunately most of the exits from the floor were at the bottom." The dragon narrows their eyes at the tunnels the scouts have begun poking their heads into. "However, those tunnels are not those exits I recall."

Gerlosius frowns. "Perhaps over the years the old ones collapsed, and new ones opened up? It may be difficult if we don't know where any of these tunnels actually lead."

The Dragonlord makes his way to the nearest, inspecting its walls, and as other soldiers scurry out of the way the commander follows. "..These tunnels are not the result of natural forces. Someone has been shaping the stone here. Perhaps for their own purposes, or perhaps to mislead us." They waves a dismissive hand. "Fortunately, either way it does not much matter."

"You believe these tunnels will still take us to Worthy Dungeon?"

"I believe it is irrelevant where they lead." The dragon grins, showing their fangs. "My dungeon was grand in scale, granted more power than most of those which came after. Most of my floors were quite sizable, and cannot simply be filled in with earth magic. Nor could they all be collapsed, as that would pose a serious risk to the stability of Worthy Dungeon. Hidden behind walls perhaps, but that means little when one recalls where they are, and which walls are false. We will need to do some digging but we need not blindly follow this labyrinth to wherever it may take us."

The dragon turns left and right before pointing a claw at another tunnel perhaps forty yards away. "That one leads us closest to the nearest main floor. From there we could enter Worthy's territory within an hour...should there be no surprises."

The two share a look, and Gerlosius nods. "I'll make sure the soldiers are prepared for a long hike, then."

While there's no traps or ambushes in the first tunnel the soldiers take, there's still enough signs of activity that the scouts stay on guard. Not only is there little dust or fungal life in this hall, but there's even signs of massive, footprint-like depressions in some of the stone. Geomancers declare them to be the result of magma elementals who had spent too long standing around and had begun melting into the floor, indicating that the tunnel was indeed created in the relatively recent past.

The path doesn't twist too much for the first few hundred yards but eventually it does hit one sharp corner which causes the lead scouts some consternation. The leader of the all-kobold team raps against the stone of one wall with his knuckles. "If it's turning here, then it's turning away from the old floor the Dragonlord pointed us to. That means this is probably as close as we're gonna get without following and hoping that the thing loops back somewhere. Drill squad, you ready to get to work?"

The three mages of the team nod. One of the trio is a geomancer himself while the second is a general elementalist, but the third member of the squad is a hydromancer, carefully making her way through the tunnels with a magically-enchanted barrel of water strapped to her back. The first time the scout leader had seen that she was assigned to his unit the man had scoffed, but that had ceased once he'd first had a demonstration of their particular brand of teamwork.

Although the geomancer does begin with shaping the stone in front of him as may be typical, the elementalist instead starts by pulling a pile of finely-ground gemstones from a pouch. Levitating into the air, the powdered gems are soon sucked in by a floating bubble of water brought forth by the team's hydromancer. Although the bubble has a smooth, calm appearance from the outside, the intense look of concentration on the mage's face tells the others that the pressure within that bubble is growing ever-harder to control.

As the geomancer clicks his tongue, a signal to the rest of the group, the hydromancer releases that pressure - in a very specific direction. Jetting forward in a fine stream the powdered gems dig away at the magically-softened stone, wearing it down more quickly than a team of geomancers could do on their own. Even as she works the elementalist continues to gather the spent mixture back up, sending it back into the high-pressure bubble, and after a few refreshes from their pouches and barrel the pair have created an endless loop of rock-carving water.

When the cutting blade of combined elementalists finally breaks through into the next open space, it's also that jet of water which saves the hydromancer's life. Within moments of the wall crumbling apart there's arrows flying towards the scouts, but each of those which get too close to the lead mage end up practically disintegrated by the stone-carving mixture. Still, it's enough to bring a quick halt to the spell as the kobold ducks and beats a hasty retreat. "Contact! Enemies ahead!"

The squad leader glances into the next chamber himself but it's the job of scouts to find the enemy, not to destroy them, and he quickly confirms his mage's decision. "Rainlander army ahead! Bring up the regulars!"

The Domain army had kept a fair bit of space between each squad in order to avoid the risk of tunnel collapses destroying too many of their forces, but the nearest team doesn't take long to respond to the call. A pair of kobolds carrying heavy shields rush forward, while a number of more combat-oriented mages follow right behind. To say that the battle has a bit of a chokepoint issue however would be greatly understating it. The hole carved out between the two spaces would be barely large enough for a kobold scout to scurry through if they had no particular hazards to worry about, and as both sides get to aiming their attacks through that small gap it's clear that no one will be attempting such a thing any time soon.

Arrows ping off of the shields of the lead vanguards while an arcane barrier stops fireballs and lightning bolts from doing more than lighting up the dark tunnels. For their part the demonic mages of the Domain have no better luck in harming their foes, though. They can barely see through the deathly hole to aim their spells, and what glimpses they do get indicate that the Rainlanders are hiding behind prepared defenses. All in all, it seems to be something of a stalemate.

The succubus leading this particular squad isn't feeling inclined to hold up the entire army for hours fighting over this one tiny gap, to say the least. "Zebell! Flush them out!"

"Aye, ma'am!" As the others step aside a young crossbowwoman comes forward, aiming a bolt with a very unique-appearing payload. The shift in the defenses does allow for a Rainlander arrow to sneak through, landing in the demon's shoulder and throwing off her aim, but fortunately for her accuracy isn't too great a concern with this particular shot.

As her bolt flies forward it ends up impacting one of the stone walls the Rainlanders are covering behind, breaking with the shattering sound of glass. That alone is a rather suspicious thing to be hearing from a crossbow, and a dwarf cautiously pokes his head around to get a look at the enemy's trick. "What're they pullin'? Acid? Dud firebolts? Eh, some kind of, ugh, smoke..." When the man's report fades out into a series of hacking coughs, it occurs to him that he may have made a serious mistake.

"Alchem - egh - alchemist powders! Hold yer noses, and - ack, cack - get...get back!" The man is barely able to finish shouting out his warning before he collapses to the ground, clawing at his throat, and his nearest companions soon focus on pulling him away from the affected area. The quick retreat doesn't entirely save them from the effects either, unfortunately. Despite the lack of wind within the deep tunnels an enchanted effect upon the shattered bolt creates its own, spreading the deadly poison in a far wider area than the shot alone could have affected. Seeing this, the army squads of the next position back begin beating retreats of their own, and even the third-line defenses begin paying more attention to the spread of the green cloud than to the enemies ahead.

The distraction lasts long enough for the Domain to begin sending troops through the hole while others work on enlarging it further, and by time the defenders resume a solid rate of fire the battle's balance has dangerously tipped. One kobold and a demon take serious wounds as they scurry their way through, but the magically-crafted defenses the Rainlanders are hiding behind are now becoming quickly degraded, and after one elf takes an ice lance to the head their commander apparently decides it's time to call it quits.

"Fall back! Let the scalies have this one, we'll get em again on the next!"

There's a cheer as the soldiers fade into the darkness but the cloud of powder that bought them this victory is now a barrier blocking their own advance, and the scout leader returns to check on their next moves with the succubus officer. "How long til that effect settles out? We could pull out masks but those are hell to work in on the surface, never mind down here!"

"Four minutes - or a fair bit less, at this point. It'll give them some time to flee this particular fight, and they may well be better prepared for alchemical attacks going forward, but it's no matter."

The woman grins with a fanaticism that makes even the scout shiver. "In the name of the Dragonlord, we'll burn each of these rats out of their holes."

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