After re-buffing, healing, and recharging our mana, we explored the second doorway. The narrow hallway led to a stairway, but the ceiling had collapsed, making further progress impossible. Roots weaving through the rubble showed the reason for the cave-in.

  Mineral Communion conveyed that the structural damage occurred long after lizardfolk abandoned the place. The temple looked clean and in good condition when they occupied it. The cave-in occurred near the observatory’s collapsed wall, so the structural damage happened at the same time. Detect Magic revealed nothing, so we resigned ourselves to leaving the dead end.

  The two remaining passages on the other side of the chamber had fifteen-foot-high ceilings. One led to a room dominated by pale flowers the size of umbrellas. The flowers’ fragrance cut through the temple’s flooded basement like a razor, irritating my nose. The flowers didn’t look like ambush predators—but what ambush predators did? Small animal skeletons beneath them testified otherwise. The flowers cascaded down a wall overlooking a stairway whose vines covered the stairs like a net and barred our way.

  Mineral Communion revealed a tree creature moving stiffly through the space. Bark covered the ten-foot humanoid, and barren branches projected from its head and shoulders like gnarled antlers. The creature collected something from the pallid flowers. It didn’t go down the stairs.

  “We’ve got more company down here.” After describing the scene, I counted plausible roles these flowers held in the dungeon. “These flowers might be fae in origin and charm intruders. Maybe they released poisonous spores or provided sustenance. They might feed animals—or vice versa.”

  “Fireball!”

  An ember of flame grew from Fabulosa’s fingertips, rolling toward the giant white petals and exploding on impact. The room glowed for a short while in the amber flames.

  Fabulosa gave me a guilty grin. “Explosive flames can’t resolve every encounter—but then again, why take chances?”

  “A speculative Fireball? You’re such a bad girl.”

  “Nothing speculative about it—you smelled those flowers. It wasn’t making perfume down here.”

  Since this dank place rotted delicate things, the risk of damaging valuables wasn’t high.

  We held scarves to our mouths and watched for debuff icons for poisoned smoke. The flames cleared out the flowers and vines, but it seemed a wonder the spell hadn’t caused further structural damage. Nothing glowed with magic, so we descended the stairs.

  The small room beneath the lampshade flowers flooded with ankle-deep water, and our feet sank uncomfortably into something softer than mud.

  Fabulosa nearly slipped, and water splashed onto her face. She spat it out and coughed. “Okay, that’s it for me! I’m out of here.”

  I agreed. Detect Magic confirmed it to be another empty dead end.

  Backtracking to the ruined observatory, we climbed over the blocks and approached the last opening. We re-buffed, and I led the way with Presence illuminating our position. In the temple, I fooled myself into thinking the scents of rot to be autumnal. But this last tunnel stank of decayed flesh. When decomposition passed into a chemical state, it made a sickly odor unfit for animal noses. The miasma made me gag, yet we moved toward its source.

  Acclimating to terrible odors had become a cornerstone of my game, but I never looked forward to it. Fabulosa pulled her scarf over her nose, although I knew it wouldn’t do any good.

  Poking through muddy halls and rooms, Mineral Communion showed the tree creature passing, but mud, moss, and grime obscured the rocks’ older memories.

  When we spotted a candelabra flickering at the end of a hallway, I contemplated dousing Presence and pulling out Creeper. I passed on the idea. With such a bad smell, my stomach didn’t need the vertiginous disorientation of a bobbing spearhead. Still, the element of surprise seemed too valuable to toss away.

  Fabulosa had the same thoughts about my luminosity. “Let me scout ahead.” Her infravision necklace allowed her to creep around in the dark without giving her motion sickness. After detaching the glow stones from her shield, belt, and helmet, she peered around the corner. She signaled me to wait, gave me a thumbs-up gesture, and disappeared out of view.

  A branch jutting from the wall made the strange candelabra. Its limbs splayed from the center, and its tips ended in small flames. I sniffed, hoping the smell of burning wood might cover up the stench, but its magical glow didn’t surprise me. They exuded no heat or smell.

  Slipstream’s targeting reticule revealed another bend in the corridor. I hung back to prevent the ambient light from Presence from giving away Fabulosa’s position.

  I waited for her return.

  Once we finished this dungeon, we could head back to Hawkhurst. If this dungeon crawl ended in a relic, another mummy could mean more easy experience points and a celestial core—and we could both forge purple weapons. As long as we watched each other’s backs, I couldn’t see how we couldn’t reach the final two in The Great RPG Contest.

  Fabulosa still had training to do. As my melee skill ranks approached 30, I would have to slow down until my magic ranks caught up. It wouldn’t be good to hit 30 and discontinue Applied Knowledge. Experiments with rune construction increased my magic ranks, so it seemed reasonable to expect I would reach rank 30 in light, nature, primal, and arcane magic by the year’s end.

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  Hawkhurst will get caravan traffic and possibly more immigrants. Quadrupling our population would earn us another settlement mandate. After all that, my next step would include visiting Iremont to see if Sun Njal had pearls of wisdom for me to learn. The Seeking Enlightenment quest I got from Belden’s library remained the game’s only clue to adventures inside the continent’s interior.

  Rustling ahead of me brought my thoughts to the present. Through the Slipstream’s targeting reticule, I saw Fabulosa running at full tilt, slamming into the walls when she turned around a corner.

  Fabulosa sprinted at full speed and shouted. “Train! Train!”

  RPG players termed train to represent a line of monsters chasing someone. Mischievous players sometimes lured aggressive creatures into unsuspecting players while making choo-choo sounds. Sometimes, people started stampedes inadvertently, but in either case, shouts of “Train!” warned everyone to get out of the way.

  “Train! Train! Get out of here, Patch! Hit the rope!”

  Fabulosa didn’t need to tell me twice. By the time she reached me, I had attained my maximum speed, unaware of what pursued us.

  “Enemies incoming—lots of them. I pulled the entire room.”

  “What are they?”

  “Undead level 20s—and gobs of them.”

  We emerged in the dim daylight of the star chamber with the hum of forest insects welcoming us again to the outside world. The fetid water and decaying tree smelled fresh compared to the stench inside. We scrambled to reach the trunk standing in the star chamber’s center. Packed mud, moss, and puddles accented the obstacle course of fallen masonry. I couldn’t hear a horde behind us, but Fabulosa Slipstreaming a quarter-way up the hanging rope told me the situation wasn’t good.

  The rain stopped, but everything glistened with water. Slipping presented a significant danger, so I saved my Slipstream until the monsters approached.

  I didn’t have to wait long. Halfway up the 50-foot climb, the first nameplate of our pursuers appeared.

  An undead orc launched itself at the tree and started climbing. It moved faster than anyone would have managed without climbing equipment. A white bush on its back shook and vibrated from its movement, and for a second, I thought it carried a backpack, like zombie suicide bombers. Rags wrapped around the creature, but I couldn’t determine if they came from its original outfit or if someone used them to secure the plant to its shoulders.

  I opened my interface to freeze time and gave myself a better look at the enemy. Sallow branches, thick as a succulent plant, protruded from its back. When it turned, I spotted exposed roots erupting from the corpse’s ribs and shoulder bones. The plants grew from its innards.

  Another movement caught my eye.

  Another orc followed. Fungal puffballs blossomed from its flanks in a long, gray cloud like a lingering trail of smoke. The undead orc dug its fingers into the temple’s masonry and began an almost inverted climb along the inward-leaning walls. Being almost upside down didn’t slow its ascent.

  What kind of zombies moved this fast? And didn’t undead lose half of their levels? It seemed improbable that these creatures were originally level 42.

  A Fireball sailed into the doorway, impacting a mix of similar monsters.

  Fabulosa and I climbed the central tree that dominated the chamber’s interior. After almost reaching the top, I Slipstreamed 10 yards up the outside lip of the temple. In my rush, I’d lost my footing on the irregular blocks and windmilled my arms to regain my balance. Falling onto the throng of undead or backward into the forest would spell out game over either or both of us.

  Sixteen zombies chased us, each with flowers or fungus sprouting from its back. The closest undead, an orc, clambered up the tree. I shot it with my Light Crossbow. When the Arcane Missile hit, the creature fell to the ground. The corpse stared vacantly into the sky, motionless.

  /Your Arcane Missile hits Arboreal Animation 41 points of damage (0 resisted).

  /Arboreal Animation takes 124 points of falling damage (12 resisted).

  /Arboreal Animation dies.

  “Fab! Did you see that? I killed a level 21 creature with only 124 points of falling damage!”

  Fabulosa made no reply, instead focusing on the fifteen remaining attackers scaling the walls and tree. She alternately blasted zombies with direct damage spells and shot her Returning Arrow. When she called “To Me!” the arrow ripped free, dislodging the undead from its perch.

  /Fabulosa hits Dryowight for 28 points of damage (3 resisted).

  /Fabulosa recalls arrow from Dryowight for 25 points of damage (4 resisted).

  /Dryowight takes 153 points of falling damage (13 resisted).

  The mindless monster landed on its hands and knees, recovered, and began another ascent.

  “Hey, what gives? Why didn’t mine die?” Parsing the combat log didn’t expose why the fall hadn’t finished off her target. Her Returning Arrow and the fall inflicted more damage, yet the monster survived.

  Maybe dryowights were made of sterner stuff than the arboreal animations. Perhaps undead possessed vulnerability to arcane magic. I didn’t have time to think, as picking off the nearest climbers kept me occupied. I sent several Scorches and an Imbued Arrow, though none of my hits scored a kill.

  When my 30-second cooldown for the Light Crossbow ended, I shot another arboreal animation only 30 feet away. The arcane bolt connected for 51 damage but failed to dislodge it. Its lack of reaction ruled out susceptibility to arcane damage.

  I aimed my next Scorch at the fungal growth attached to a dead woman 10 feet away. The corpse arched her back, lost her handhold, and plummeted headfirst. After righting herself, she clambered up the tree for another assault with its head canted sideways. “Aim at the plants! I think that’s their weakness.”

  Fabulosa’s Fireball cleared one wall of climbers, but the structure beneath us shuddered, and we gave each other a look of alarm. The wall held. Judging by her expression, I didn’t think she would use that spell again. Her next spell, Lightning Bolt, lanced through four to no effect. Undead enjoyed immunity to electricity. But the monsters lined up in a row presented a tempting target, so I couldn’t blame her for trying.