“I’m always careful,” Anise protests.
“Uh-huh. Well, I’ll get the little ones back home safely.”
We part ways with the kids, Meadow, and Uncle Hawk. There are five of us at the moment: myself, Anise, Rowan, Milo, and an Elite goblin Scout named Slar. Even if Milo will be reincarnated again, they’re not willing to let him go out without some protection. Reincarnation isn’t free, after all, and having to grow up again is annoying. Milo would like to eventually survive to adulthood, and to that end, he’s carrying an Elite spear with a green tip that he’d gotten from a dungeon run.
Last time we visited the hot springs, we went through the swamps of Usk. We have no need of visiting Usk so we’re going to cheerfully take a route that completely avoids the swamps.
“You didn’t want to work on your Survival (Careful Step)?” Anise asks.
“I think it will be getting plenty of use regardless,” I reply. “Anyway, I don’t want to get closer to Usk than we have to, swamps or otherwise. Would it be quicker to go through the caves or on the surface?”
“The surface, probably,” Slar admits. “Once we get the bridge built, it will be fast! Grubwick and Splott aren’t so far apart. We just have to go a long way around. We can go straight across the surface and slip in the Splott entrance. Less risky with humans with us. Humans still sometimes see goblins and want to fight even if we try to talk.”
I didn’t have [Mapping Step] when we were last here, either, so I want to see if I can level that up more. There’s only so much experience you can get from walking back and forth between the same couple places.
Splott is close to Talgarth and across the river from the Wisteria Garden, which is another bridging project that still hasn’t quite seen the light of day. Or the light of the Great Orb, I suppose. All of these bridges will greatly shorten the amount of time needed to get between these points. So long as we’re here anyway, we make a quick run of the Wisteria Garden, because there’s no sense in walking past easy experience. Of course, the fact that it’s easy experience also means that I don’t get as much for it.
Without the kids along to infuse us with their excitement, this is starting to turn into just a thing we do. The puzzles are slightly different each time but there isn’t that much variation. It’s like going to a park, talking a walk around the flowers, swinging across the monkey bars and down the slide, solving a few gratuitous matching puzzles along the way, and finishing it out by playing a collectible card game for some reason.
“I hope the revamped Muckburrow has some strong new cards to collect,” Milo says, slipping his prize into his deck. (At least one of us here is actually interested in the game.)
“Ugh, like more dungeons need card-playing trees?” I groan.
We rest for the night at the campsite in the Wisteria Garden and move on to the nearby cave entrance. It has been a while since any of us were here, but Slar’s skills bring us straight there even though he’s never been here.
“Which skill are you using for that?” I wonder.
“It’s nothing special,” Slar says. “Just Enhanced Feet (Pathfinding). Are you hoping to become a Scout?”
“He’s just hoping to learn to do every skill poorly,” Anise interjects helpfully.
We head down into winding tunnels lit by bioluminescent fungi, eventually opening up into the vast caverns of the In-Between. The cacophony of eerie cave life echoes around us, and someone more skilled than me would be able to pick out what creatures all the howls, snarls, buzzes, hums, and hisses belong to. Below in the distance, the waters of Splott Lake gleam in the light of the fungi on the ceiling.
Rowan sighs. “I can still point out that spot I slipped and fell in a hole. I stared at those same rock formations for hours until you guys found me. And for all that, the quest has been sitting on my log for years without any leads. Oh well, I’ve been doing some good level-grinding in the meantime. I’ll find that sword eventually.”
A few crude stone buildings have been constructed on the shores of the lake, as well as a new dock. Some goblins are milling about, so we stop by to say hi before continuing on. We might be back when we get tired but we don’t need to cross the lake right now.
Slar leads us through the tunnels toward the hot springs. The entire top layer of the In-Between is moist and humid, full of lakes, swamps, rivers and springs. I try very hard to keep track of where we’re going with my various skills, but I’d still be completely lost if it weren’t for Slar.
At last, we reach the Underground Hot Springs, and we don’t even have to fight anything along the way. Whatever Slar’s skills are may have done a good job of keeping us out of danger as well.
“I’m going to build a resort down here someday,” Milo declares. “People will be able to soak while sipping Corwen cider and eating Grubwick cheese. And hopefully not dropping either of them in the water.”
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Before settling in for a relaxing soak and meditation session, we make sure to clear the area of any monsters or animals that might attack us. The lush caverns around the hot springs are like a jungle full of wildlife, but most of it has a neutral disposition and just wants to be left alone.
“I’ll keep watch,” Slar says. “The Chosen must meditate and get strong! No monsters or bad goblins will bother him while I draw breath.”
“Me too,” Anise says. “Though I’m more concerned about my own ‘Chosen’ than Milo.”
Although there’s no sulfur in these springs, the clear water is clearly not just water. Never mind the little bright blue thermophile fish that are happily swimming in boiling water. I identify one of them.
Monsters, not animals. That would explain why they’re not cooked from swimming in the hotter parts of the springs.
“Let’s find a spot to meditate that won’t boil us alive,” I say. “I don’t have any thermometer skill yet, though. Mom, can you test the water? How high is your [Heat Resistance] anyway?”
“200,” Anise replies cheerfully. “Let me find a good spot for you!”
Rowan comments, “I don’t even want to ask what you have been doing to get your [Heat Resistance] so high.”
“Lava bathing?” Milo suggests.
“Pssh, even my [Heat Resistance] isn’t high enough to actually bathe in lava,” Anise says. “Here, I found a spot that’s as hot as bathwater and not too deep. Don’t want Milo to drown if he tries to sit down.”
I open my senses to the conceptual energy flowing through the air, through the water and plants. Healing, life, and cleansing emanate through the warmth of the springs, and I reach out to draw them toward me and into my body.
Slar shouts an alarm, and I wheel my senses over in his direction to see why. A bipedal mass of fungus has shambled up to the edge of the springs. Yellow and black lichen cling to its body like hair, and the stench of decay wafts around it.
Milo curses in French. He leaps out of the water and snatches up his spear.
“Rowan, take Drake and flee,” Anise says, fire gathering around her hands. “This fight is beyond you!”
With a thunderous roar, the swamp monster spews vile black globs around the area. One of them flies toward me. Rowan gets his shield up in time to block some of it, but a bit of it splatters onto my arm. Pain sizzles through my body.
I hate to flee, but I know if the Elites can’t handle this, I certainly can’t do anything to help here. Still trying to absorb healing energy from the hot springs, I grab my staff and flee, Rowan close on my heels.
A few drops of that stuff cut through half of my health and was quickly starting to rot off my arm, and if I hadn’t already been full of healing vis this might have been a lot worse. I’m not sure where I’m going, so I just pick a direction away from the fight and move.
Behind me, Rowan slips and loses his grip on his shield. I stop and reach down to help him out of the scalding water, but the turtleshell shield quickly slips beneath the water.
“Leave it,” Rowan says. “Keep moving! It’s too hot to get it out. Anise can grab it later if—”
He leaves his concerns unvoiced as we continue to flee. The hot water reddened his exposed skin and I’m sure wearing those soaked clothes isn’t doing him any favors either, but there’s no help for that right now.
We make it to the edge of the hot springs where I’ve run low on Stamina and have to stop and [Take a Breather].
“I don’t think we’re in the clear yet,” Rowan says. “We ought to keep going once you’ve got your Stamina back.”
I nod in agreement. The sounds of battle still echo across the caverns.
“I hope they’ll be alright,” I say. “Three Elites against a Heroic… and not one that’s been deliberately nerfed by a nice training dungeon.”
“Not much we can do about it, sadly,” Rowan says. “Maybe if we can get back to Splott, they can send help. I don’t suppose you know which way it is?”
“Not a clue,” I say. “I couldn’t keep up [Mapping Step] while running for my life. Ugh, at least this wound isn’t getting any worse, but it still hurts like the Void. If it were bleeding, I could at least bandage it. I don’t know what to do about necrotic damage beyond hoping magic can take care of it without having to just cut it out.”
“And we should find somewhere safer if we need to do any cutting,” Rowan says. “Your Stamina meter topped off yet? We have to keep moving. We don’t want to be here if—”
“Yeah,” I breathe. “Yeah. Let me turn on [Mapping Step] to make sure we don’t go in circles and wind up back here.”
The local monsters have all been riled up by the ongoing battle. Previously, they’d all been neutral in disposition and wary at best, but now they’re agitated. A large Basic rank snake shoots out toward us and wraps around my leg as we’re trying to move away. Rowan cuts its head off with a swipe of his sword and works to pull the constrictor free.
“You okay?” Rowan asks.
“Yeah, I’m just glad it wasn’t a venomous one,” I say. “Let’s put some distance between us and the springs.”
I’d hoped for some health gains by now, but [Rapid Healing] seems to be doing nothing but valiantly keeping the tiny speck of Heroic decay damage from getting any worse. I’m going to have to do something about this sooner rather than later, and we’re not currently being attacked. I pull a small knife from the toolkit that is my bag of holding.
“Rowan, can you do this?” I ask, handing him the knife. “It’ll be easier for you to get at that angle.”
Rowan nods and makes careful work of the sizzling black spot on my left arm. “There we go. Hopefully your [Rapid Healing] has an easier job of taking care of a Basic knife cut.” He wipes off the knife and returns it to me.
I nod as I put it away. “Let’s keep moving, I suppose. We’ll have to see if we can find our way back to Splott from here.”