LTSV - Harbingers of Change - 49 (Patreon)

Cece squealed and jumped up and down as soon as she had examined them and snapped one of the gums off the tree. "This is exactly what I need for the [Vital Fortification] potion I'm trying to make for my mom. There's a stabilizer, [Dragon Ambergris], that we haven't been able to get in the Shop and this looks like it could be a dupe!

Randall had wandered over with Cece, weapons loose and at the ready in case something jumped Mira and Cece while their attention was occupied, "Yeah? Watch my back and I'll use [Disassemble]."

They got [Sugar Spruce Gums], [Sugar Spruce Needles], [Sugar Spruce Bark], and [Sugar Spruce Timber] from that one tree.

The needles turned out to be a culinary ingredient that Bryn wanted and the bark had decongestant and antiinflammatory properties that Cece thought would be useful in future medicines. The lumber didn't seem to be all that valuable or specially useful, but they took it in case they needed to build a fire later since the System noted that it burned well and produced fragrant, sweet smoke.

"How is the medicine chest working?" Alan asked as Cece stored her new materials, while Randall disassembled a few more trees under Mira's watchful eye.

The 'medicine chest' was another freestanding particle-board medicine cabinet that Cece had filled with airtight containers stashed in her inventory.

"Looks like it's accepting the different materials," she sighed with relief. "I know we tested it in the Tower, but I was still anxious to try it in the field."

"Good news," Randall announced, once they had a good number of the gums. "I spotted the [Safe Room] on my map."

Mira frowned at his tone. "What's the bad news?"

He winced and pointed at her in confirmation.

"It's on the opposite side of the dungeon."

"Of course it is," Will sighed, joining the conversation. He looked like a splash of black ink and blood against the snow, in his dark great coat, fluttering red scarf, and red-trimmed boots. He squinted around. "I hope the kids got dropped closer to it than this."

Randall nodded, attention still on his map. "I bet they did. They didn't run into the cops until much later. I bet it was like our Dungeon and they got dropped close to a [Safe Room] where they could figure out the System and read their alerts. Alright, there's no enemies too close to us, but I see roaming packs of something to the west and south of us. Mira, can we borrow Penny for some recon?"

Mira tilted her head with a smile. Penny shimmered into visibility and went over to dance around Randall, radiating her pleasure at having been remembered and included. She'd had a long, boring stint of bodyguard duty these past few weeks, not including those times when Mira sent her to relieve the defenders outside the Ruined Borough Gate and work out her zoomies while she 'played' with the goblins.

Taking a seat on one of the stumps left over from Randall harvesting trees, Mira closed her eyes and 'borrowed' Penny's vision as she took off in the direction of the nearest enemies. She was pleased, when Penny found a white owl with enormous opalescent eyes perched in a tree, that she could use her perception skills through Penny's eyes.

The owl was a [Snowblind Owl].

[Snowblind Owl: This dungeon creatures appear as snowy-white owls with gemstone eyes. They are not known attack their prey directly, instead they perch above adventurers and create subtle visual distortions. Individually these illusions are minor such as making a tree appear to be further to the left when a Hunter runs by. They have been known to cooperate with larger, more aggressive monsters such as [Gemjaw Ursines] and [Winter Wargs] in exchange for a share in the prey. Together, they can cause an adventurer to walk directly into an ambush.]

Penny spotted a larger group of wolf-like creatures nearby, the aforementioned [Winter Wargs].

[Winter Warg: These pack hunters appear to be enormous wolves made of ice or white quartz, with strings of ice crystals along their spines. Adapted to cold forests and heavy snowfall, they possess an uncanny ability to move silently through snow. They hunt in coordinated packs, using the terrain and weather to conceal their approach. They can disguise themselves as snowdrifts, trees, or even other members of their pack, while creating convincing false images to draw attacks away from their true position.]

She reported what she'd seen to the others. Will crouched down next to her and listened carefully as he recorded her findings in his field journal.

This excursion was as much about learning the Dungeon as it was about defeating it. They had some anecdotes from the kids, but Mira wanted to be able to sell field guides to the future Gate Hunters who came to train here. They already had partial documents ready for the 'Ruined Borough' and, thanks to Bertram, the 'Suburb of the Damned.'

In her past experience, the best and most enduring Guilds managed to monetize anything they so much as touched and then plowed those profits into building up their own hunters. People liked to say that money could not buy honor or happiness, but soldiers marched on their stomachs and the lifespan of a Gate Hunter could be measurably extended by the comfort they enjoyed between Gate excursions.

Penny took off to investigate the group of enemies to the south, which turned out to be the [Gemjaw Ursine] mentioned in the description of the [Snowblind Owl].

The [Gemjaw Ursine] appeared to be a medium-large charcoal-gray bear shuffling around while reared up on its back legs. It had spikes of smokey quartz jutting out of its shoulders and clustered around its lower jaws.

[Gemjaw Ursine: A powerful and solitary predator which uses its illusion abilities to make its attacks appear delayed or displaced, making it extraordinarily difficult to judge where its claws actually are. The magically-enhanced gems encrusting its jaws enhanced the strength of its bite, but are also a highly-prized core material among enchanters.]

"So far, I'm not seeing any sign of nuisance predators like the goblins," Mira commented once Penny had moved on. "That might change later. The goblins started spawning faster the longer we were in the Ruined Borough."

"I'm thinking those were in there to keep us from getting too comfortable in any one place," Will mused. "The timeline on that dungeon was a lot shorter than this one and the Ruined Borough seemed to be designed to hold our hands a bit, at least it did that first time."

Penny found a few more monster groups, but only one more type of monster before she got close to the Boss zone.

[Ice Fox: a small predator adapted to the frozen forest. Its pale coat blends naturally with snow, while its affinity for ice magic allows it to move across frozen terrain without leaving a trace. Clever, curious, and highly territorial, Ice Foxes prefer to confuse and misdirect intruders rather than fight them directly.]

Mira recognized that one from the kids' description of the Pearl Forest. The mischievous foxes seemed to function as a 'hint' from the Dungeon to the Hunters because they hadn't actually done anything that was harmful the kids. They had just tricked them into leaving the foxes' territory, while still routing them away from one of the bears.

Allegedly, they'd been meaner to the two cops, but only after one of the officers shot and wounded a fox. That's how the kids later found out there was a bear nearby.

The 'Boss' wasn't immediately apparent. Mira only noticed it due to its proximity to the [Exit Gate] and because a [Gemjaw Ursine] wandered close to the gate while Penny was watching.

The [Exit Gate] was surrounded by tall, snow-laden pine trees. Suddenly, an enormous tentacle lashed out from the roots of the nearest tree, aimed at the bear. The tentacle cut the [Gemjaw Ursine] clean in half before withdrawing back to the base of the tree and burying itself into the snow, using a motion that reminded Mira of a snake shimmying down into the sand.

Penny ventured a little closer to the suspect tree until Mira finally realized it wasn't really a tree. It was a crystalline serpent coiled around the trunk of the towering pine. It had a long body with two stubby little legs up near its head, which it used to hold onto the tree.

[The Lindwurm: A massive, serpentine dragon that dwells beneath the Pearl Forest. The Lindwurm possesses no wings, instead moving through earth, snow, and dense undergrowth with unnatural ease. Its scales are covered in an iridescent sheen that allows it to bend light and distort the world around it.]

"Gotcha," Mira breathed. "I found the Boss. It's in the trees this time. The kids said it was hiding under the snow when they fought it. So now we know it can change its hiding spot."

Will kept writing. "Got it. Can you head towards the [Safe Room]? I'm comparing the location to what they described and I think it's somewhere different. They described the entrance as a snow-covered bivouac tent that let into an underground bunker."

Penny happily peeled off as directed and followed Randall's directions, as filtered to her through Mira, until they came across—a little stone cottage.

"Huh," Mira said, without meaning to. "That looks like a bothy."

That got Will to look up from his notes. "A what?" he asked.

Oh course, they didn't have those in this commercialized country. Even the most remote nature trails in Alleghania tended to be intermittently studded with hostels, ranger stations, and convenience stores.

"It's a kind of free-use shelter built in mountainous areas," she explained. "They're usually built of stone and not very luxurious. They're meant for emergency shelter during fast-moving storms or for lost travelers."

"So the [Safe Rooms] can change too?" Cece asked. "I don't like that. We're lucky that Randall has the enhanced map, but what about people who don't?"

"Then they camp outside and invest heavily in those wards we saw in the Shop," Mira guessed. "We'll probably end up camping too, since even we can't return to the [Safe Room] every time you, I, or Will need an emergency stamina nap."

"Fair point," she sighed. "I guess I was hoping that the dungeons would be more predictable that that."

That was a silly thing to hope for, but Mira didn't say so.

She understood how Cece felt.

"Penny spotted some structures near the [Exit Gate] that I don't remember from the kids' report," she said, instead. "It looks a little like a ski lodge and attached slope. I'm going to investigate it.