Dungeon World 3: A Dungeon Core Experience Read online

  Chapter 14

  “Now, she apparently didn’t have first-hand knowledge of these Horrors; she only knew about them because of her status as a Supreme-Rated Dungeon Core and her position as one of the leaders of the Fire-Dark Alliance. It was through that connection that she learned of the existence of these byproducts of the Dark Mana origination process.”

  Fred listened and conveyed the information to the others with rapt attention; it wasn’t often that he learned more about his mother and her life before she ran off with Fred’s father.

  “These creatures are being constantly formed by the Dark Mana bubbling up from the depths underneath the Deadlands and other Dark Core territories around the world; no one knows exactly why they are formed in the first place – all they know is that they’ve always existed. They only last for a single night and disappear in the light of day, and then even more are created the next day.”

  “Ok, but what exactly are these monsters?” Eisa asked, after listening to Fred recount what Deecy had been telling him. He briefly wondered why the Dire Wolf wasn’t communicating directly with her; however, he was kind of glad that Deecy wasn’t directly sharing these memories of his mother with anyone other than him.

  “I was just getting to that. These ‘monsters’ – as you call them – are physical representations of the absence of Mana; they don’t have any inherent Mana inside of them, even the Unconverted Mana that humans are apparently comprised of. Instead of needing Mana to exist, they exist to consume Mana; whenever they encounter sources of Mana, they use their forms to try to eliminate it in some bizarre instinctual need.”

  That doesn’t sound good, Fred thought. “Can they be killed?” he asked, as that was the most pertinent question at the moment.

  “Oh yes, they can be killed. When they adapt a physical form, they conform to the basic laws of nature and therefore react just the same as any other creature or monster in the world. As for how powerful they are, I have no idea – though your mother thought that they were quite dangerous, but the reason behind that thought isn’t quite clear.”

  Fred thought that if his mother – a Supreme-Rated Dungeon Core – considered them dangerous, then they were likely in big trouble. One thing was nagging at him, though.

  “Why don’t they attack the Dark Cores inside the Deadlands, though, if they are looking for sources of Mana? I would think that they would be the closest and easiest to get to.”

  “That part wasn’t as clear from your mother’s memories. From what I can piece together, these elemental voids given physical form are repelled by Dark territories, and that there was some proprietary Dark method to direct where these things appear. I would imagine that any human habitations located within the Dark Cores’ territories wouldn’t last more than a night, otherwise.”

  That was, unfortunately, all of the information that Deecy could extract from the memories inside Fred’s mother’s shard inside of her.

  “So, what do we know? There are hundreds of these ‘Horrorlings’ – not to mention the giant one you saw – and they can theoretically be killed, but we don’t know how powerful they are. They consume this ‘Mana’ you’ve been talking about, but we’re not really sure what that means. Does that change our defensive strategy?” Regnark recounted the information, and then asked the same thing Fred had been thinking.

  Everyone was silent for a moment before Fred finally answered for them all. “No, I don’t think we could or should change anything right now, as it’s both too late and I don’t even know what to change anyway. We’ll just have to see how it goes and switch things up if necessary.”

  No one had anything to add to that, so they all waited until the Horrorlings reached his dungeon first. Fred wasn’t sure if the Greater Horror could even fit inside of his dungeon and didn’t want to find out; the smaller elemental void creatures were likely going to be difficult enough to deal with.

  Fred immediately found out why these monsters were said to “consume” Mana. As soon as they touched the rock formation denoting his dungeon entrance, the Horrorlings shot out their smaller tentacles and attached them to the structure. Within seconds, the Unconverted Mana that was being used to hold them all together was sucked up into the void-like creatures and the left side of the entrance tunnel partially collapsed when the Mana holding it together was removed. Fortunately (or unfortunately, as the case was), the tunnel leading down into Fred’s dungeon was largely intact and wouldn’t block any of the Horrorlings from progressing farther inside.

  He looked at his Mana totals and saw that the upkeep that had been formerly used to maintain the dungeon entrance was gone; it was something that he was definitely not getting back anytime soon. It was almost as if these things could absorb the Mana in something like Fred, Eisa, and Deecy could do with their creations – though, fortunately, any Mana they consumed didn’t seem to enhance or strengthen them in any way. At least he hoped it didn’t.

  What that meant for the rest of the defenses he didn’t know, but he was about to find out.

  The first Horrorling reached the bottom of the entrance tunnel and didn’t even stop as it hit the Fire Wall that Deecy had set up there earlier. The monster immediately went up in flames and a terrifying scream emerged from it – with no discernable source whatsoever – as it was lit up like a stack of dried kindling. Despite being on fire, the smallish creature (which was still basically a void to his Territorial Sight) kept moving forward, only to dissolve into nothing just before the boiling pool of water.

  That was extremely promising from Fred’s point of view, because it meant that the Horrorlings were vulnerable to fire, at least. But then he looked at Deecy’s Fire Wall and it looked like it had diminished significantly from the intense wall it had been before. From his estimation, nearly a fifth of the wall had been reduced, making the formerly 10-foot wall only about 8 feet now. Fred knew that if Deecy were there she could replenish the Mana that had obviously been consumed in her defense, but at the moment she was too far away…or was she?

  “Deecy, they are consuming your Fire Wall as they go through it – can you replenish the strength of it from here?” Fred asked, hoping that the Dire Wolf could do it remotely like Fred was normally able to do from a distance – as long as there weren’t any intruders in his dungeon, of course. He could always add some things outside in his territory, but until he knew what would be most effective, he was holding off for now.

  Fred could see Deecy concentrating with her head cocked to the side, focusing intently into the distance…before she shook her head in denial.

  “I can sort of feel it, as it’s connected to me and consuming Fire Mana for its upkeep every hour, but I can’t directly interact with it. I think if I was close enough to it, I could extend my aura and repair it, but at this distance it’s impossible.”

  That was unfortunate, as a veritable flood of Horrorlings descended down into Fred’s dungeon. Deecy’s Fire Wall was able to destroy another five of the void monsters before it was completely drained of Mana and disappeared. Fred could see the Dire Wolf visibly flinch when it was finally completely consumed, and he looked at her with concern.

  “There was a bit of a backlash from its disappearance that I wasn’t expecting. I’m fine, though – just surprised.”

  Looking back at the first room, Fred kept up a running commentary of what was happening; there wasn’t much he could do other than watch at the moment. With the Fire Wall gone, dozens of Horrorlings were streaming inside without hindrance, only to immediately fall inside the boiling pit of water in the center of the room like mindless monsters hungering for the closest source of Mana. The super-hot liquid was powerful enough to kill the Horrorlings as they fell in; however, just like the Fire Wall, a bit of the Water Mana – and therefore the water itself – was consumed in the process. With his Territorial and Mana Sight working in conjunction together, he was able to visually see the Water Mana being eroded little by little from the large pit of boiling water.

  Four doze
n Horrorlings met their end inside the heated pool before the water finally gave out; without the water to insulate the Fire-infused stone, the void creatures started to burn from contact with the pool’s structure itself. And then, just like the dungeon entrance, the following Horrorlings fell down into the pit, burned themselves, and then ate at the pool’s structure, removing all of the Fire Mana inside of it.

  The entire process took all of five minutes from when the first void creature fell into the boiling water until the Fire Mana inside the stone was completely consumed. Nearly 60 of the Horrorlings had been killed in the process – and there was absolutely nothing to show for it as far as Fred was concerned. The dead left behind no corpses, no Mana, and provided no Essence; they, in fact, essentially took from Fred and Deecy, consuming his dungeon instead of providing anything to it. No wonder there are no dungeons out here; it’s not that there aren’t any humans – It’s that a Dungeon Core wouldn’t survive long out here.

  Despite such attrition to their ranks, there still seemed to be hundreds more outside trying to force themselves inside the entrance. Fortunately, the Greater Horror seemed to be waiting for the smaller Horrorlings to enter before doing anything itself.

  Seeing an opportunity, Fred told the others, “I’m going to try something with those still outside. Hold on.” He pulled out about a third of his available Fire Mana – approximately 20 units – and sent it right outside of his dungeon where there were dozens or hundreds of the smaller Horrorlings pushing against each other in their efforts to enter Fred’s dungeon. He didn’t target them directly, however; instead, he spread out the Fire Mana beneath them and lit the grass on fire.

  Normally, he wouldn’t have done something like that because he could potentially set the entire Plains of Grass on fire, and it might spread to the forest they had just left and even the Deadlands. Fred wasn’t out to burn everything down; one, because who knew how far it would spread before it stopped; two, he didn’t see the purpose of it, and it might make it harder to travel. Nevertheless, he did it now because he was hoping to keep it contained in his territory long enough to eliminate everything attacking them.

  Unfortunately, the grass fire he was hoping to rage across his territory barely lasted 15 seconds before it sputtered out.

  The fire flared up in hundreds of spots as the Fire Mana he had liberally spread all over lit the grass on fire, but it wasn’t the raging bonfire Fred was hoping for. Since the grass was alive and healthy, it didn’t burn as quickly and strongly as he was hoping; added to that, as soon as flames flared up here and there, they were instantly swarmed upon and consumed.

  It wasn’t all for naught, however; the fires ended up killing a few dozen and – hopefully – injuring others, but it wasn’t the wholesale destruction he had wanted. He thought about using twice as much Mana next time, but he decided against it since it would probably just be consumed as quickly as the first. Besides, most of the grass around the dungeon entrance had been burned from the initial test and there wasn’t much left over for the Fire Mana to consume.

  Realizing the futility of the thought, he turned away from that and told the others about his failure. They were relatively silent as they listened to how ineffective his attack ultimately was, with Eisa finally saying that maybe her defenders would have more luck. He was sorry to disappoint her, however, as he had half of his mind on the action in the first room again.

  With the Fire and Water-borne pool completely consumed, the Horrorlings turned their attention to the next-nearest source of Mana available: the two Crystal Scorpions in the room. To those that were still inside the pit, getting out seemed futile as there was nothing to climb up and get out; however, the Horrorlings didn’t rely on silly human things like steps, ropes, or ladders to ascend a vertical surface. No, all they needed to do was bump up and somehow adhere themselves to the wall – and practically roll up it with ease.

  They soon joined the others who were splitting up to attack both Scorpions at the same time. Four to five-foot tentacles reached out toward the giant bugs like eager hands looking for a handout, or a long-absent friend looking for a hug. Those hugs, however, weren’t quite safe; the Crystal Scorpions struck out with their claws and even their stingers, cutting apart the Horrorlings with contemptuous ease – but the process took a toll on their exoskeleton. Whatever part impacted the elemental void monsters was eaten away just as easily as the Fire Wall and boiling pit of water.

  Dozens more were killed by each of the Scorpions, but eventually their claws and stingers (and a large portion of their tails) were completely eaten away – so they threw their legs and bodies into the fight, smashing down on the strange creatures without care for their own lives. Fred guessed that over 100 were killed by the large bugs, but it was barely a drop in the bucket compared to how many were still swarming into his territory from the west.

  Fred was sure they would stop and consume the Mana keeping his room intact, but they were lured away down the tunnel towards the next room before they started dismantling his dungeon structure. After they consumed the Ice Spear Barricades that Deecy had placed inside the tunnel – losing another dozen of their number in the process – they left his tunnel alone, which made sense because the concentration of Mana was so small inside the structure of it that the Mana inside the next room must’ve been like a blazing bonfire to them.

  There were hundreds of the non-element void monsters now in Fred’s dungeon and many more were on the way; when he looked aboveground again, his entire territory for hundreds of feet in almost every direction seemed to be carpeted with the smaller voids that indicated where the Horrorlings were. Then, from the north and south, two more Greater Horrors started to enter into his territory; he wasn’t positive, but he thought it likely that his dungeon and territory was like a beacon to them for miles in every direction.

  “I think we’ve got a serious problem—” Fred started to tell his friends before he cut himself off. Something crossed over into his territory from an unexpected direction and he smiled.

  “Never mind – I think we just got some help. I don’t think they’ll see it that way, but I’ll take whatever we can get at this point.”

  Chapter 15

  The Horrorlings inside of Fred’s dungeon were just finishing up consuming his Flametripper Spikers set up in front of the big pit full of stone spikes when help arrived aboveground. It didn’t affect those inside the dungeon, but it did prevent more from entering and joining what Fred estimated as 300 Horrorlings already there.

  In an effort to get to the dungeon entrance, Crystal Scorpions with Goblin Gnome riders attacked the swarm of Horrorlings outside. At first, it appeared as if they would make it as they practically shredded the opposition; however, it soon became apparent that the Scorpions were being destroyed just as quickly. The Scorpions’ claws and tails were also consumed faster than Eisa’s had been inside the dungeon because of the sheer number of void creatures swarming them. Not only that, but tentacles snatched Gnomes off of the backs of the giant bugs and literally ate away at them as they were held tightly against their “bodies”.

  There were just too many of the smaller Horrorlings and the Scorpions that had attacked were soon pushed back and destroyed. That wasn’t the end of the attack, however – it was only the beginning.

  Dozens of Stone Golems rolled in and started to attack the Horrorlings with abandon, withstanding their own horrendous casualties in the process. They were quickly joined by nearly two dozen Enormous Sand Crabs that came scuttling in sideways and laying into the void-creature forces without missing a beat. They were actually making some significant progress towards the dungeon entrance when the Greater Horrors finally joined the fray.

  Hundreds of extremely long tentacles shot out and grabbed the Stone Golems, enveloping them in their steel-cable-like appendages. They were consumed even faster than they had been against the smaller Horrorlings, and within seconds the dozens of Golems were destroyed.

  Other tentacles snatched at t
he Sand Crabs with just slightly less success; massive claws were able to cut some of the tentacles as soon as they were within range with quick snips, but others latched onto the Crabs’ legs or anything else it could reach. When enough were able to latch on, the Greater Horror started to rip off legs as it pulled its tentacles in different directions; when it was incapacitated, it was much easier for the smaller Horrorlings to swarm in and consume the rest of the Earth defender.

  But they were soon joined by others; more Crystal Scorpions, Enormous Sand Crabs, Stone Golems, and even large Rockworms that burrowed up from under the ground to attack from below. There wasn’t much headway on either group’s part, though the Earth defenders seemed to be getting the worst of it. However, a trio of Golden Sphinxes showed up and immediately tore into one of the Greater Horrors.

  Their enormous lion-like claws were a bit more resilient than almost anything else that Fred had seen; he wasn’t sure if it was because they were inherently more powerful, or if they had larger amounts of Mana that had to be consumed in order to harm them. Regardless of the reason, they clawed, bit, and generally tore apart any tentacles that attacked them and reduced the northern Greater Horror to nothing within minutes.

  Of course, they had taken a beating as well, with entire parts of their anatomy completely consumed. They made their way towards another of the Horrors and managed to damage it before they literally fell apart and were quickly consumed by large tentacles. Their progress, though, had allowed many of the other Earth defenders to reduce the number of Horrorlings around the dungeon. Fred began to think he was going to have to start worrying about defending against them fairly soon, especially when a half-dozen Rock Giants showed up, their footsteps sending reverberations through the ground and his dungeon.