Chapter Five-Hundred Two (Patreon)

The lava fortress is done, and not a moment too soon.  Well, by ‘done’ I mean ‘feature complete’.  There’s still plenty of room for more statues and other decor, but as a final gearcheck for the raid on the Betrayer, it has everything it needs.

I don’t think the delvers are looking to try to sneak inside like the first time, either.  Probably partially because it’s a bit better lit this time, and partially because I don’t think anyone is able to find any shadows in the lava to try to sneak in through.  Whatever the reason, I see Karn among the throng building outside the fortress, everyone looking eager.

Practically everyone is here, and I do mean everyone.  While it looks like only the strong delvers are intending to actually assault, the branches are full of casual delvers and curious townsfolk, wanting to get a good look at what’s going on.  I’m not against giving them a show, at least for as long as it continues to be around the outside of the fort.  Once inside, only the dedicated delvers are going to have the gear to keep up.

Grim is already on duty, slipping through shortcuts and making little adjustments following only what he can see.  He guides my healing denizens to areas that are likely to see injuries, and I’m feeling pretty confident everyone will get through this.  If anyone somehow doesn’t have magma protection, it’ll be obvious well before they try to dive in.  The kind of heat around the floes is not something that can be ignored, and with every entrance having plenty of lava around, nobody is getting through without testing their gear.

If they even flinch at the heat, the denizens are going to focus on them and knock them out.  At this point, it’d take someone really stupid to try to participate without the gear, but some adventurers are overconfident or just want to participate so badly that they’ll take a stupid risk.  Whichever the reason, I don’t need someone like that on the subs or in the Betrayer.  Thing and Queen are on standby to make sure the only lasting injuries from trying will be to their pride.

Aranya and her group are there, as is Noynur and his people, Gerlfi’s group, and the kids are looking ready, too.  Pul still hasn’t decided on a name for his gremlin either, which is pretty funny to me.  I’ll probably try to suggest Kunoichi to him if he asks.  He’s been trying to come up with something cool that isn’t trying too hard.  Definitely not easy, practically everything associated with shadow stuff is edgy enough to cut yourself on.  I’ll probably tell him to go look in the library for a thesaurus or something later, if he doesn’t want any specific suggestions from me.

Or to ask Honey.  I’m sure she’ll be able to come up with a few good options.

I’m knocked out of pondering shadow names by the delvers moving.  It’s go time.  They can’t resist yelling as they charge toward the castle, the first line of defenders swooping overhead already.  Besides lava protection, I’ve made sure to let them know to have some sleep protection, too, as I’ll be using that to emulate the Harbingers’ mental attacks.

Interestingly, the unremarkable foxes are still my best option for pretending to be Harbingers.  An arcane hand on their back with a sleep spell, and they have all the subtle effectiveness of what I imagine a properly supported Harbinger would be able to manage.

Most of the delvers have their protection up to snuff, but I’d say maybe five percent either thought they wouldn’t need it, or need to talk to whoever they got it from.  My magmyrm swiftly pull them into shortcuts so they don’t get trampled.  I think the terrain is uneven enough to test their footing already.  No need to let people get stomped for realism’s sake.

I’m also not sticking only to mimicking what I think the Betrayer has.  I have air superiority, so why wouldn’t I use it here?  Even if it doesn’t translate to whatever the Betrayer might pull, it’ll still be important for the delvers to learn how to counter.  I do think there will be some parallels, at least.  My dire ravens fly overhead with several hands, casting spells of various unpleasantness at the delvers, which could be one avenue the theorized assassin denizen walks.  My raven harpies mimic another potential option, snatching up delvers to fly off with.  In a tunnel, they’d be dragged down a passage or even through a surface or a shadow, but the basic tactic is the same: pick someone off before they can counter.

But the delvers aren’t giving up that easily.  The tanks are smoothly moving to take the hits while the ones with good damage pick off the denizens that get too close.  While quite a few delvers have been snatched up, only a few get lifted more than a dozen feet before the harpy is killed.  Very good reaction times on the delvers, good job.

As they near the walls, we spring the first surprise on them.  Through the entire line, groups of strong denizens pop out of shortcuts.  If the unremarkables before were little testing attacks from the Harbingers, this is the Harbingers taking to the field.  Dire bears shove delvers back as living brambles and soil elementals wade into the fray, giving the unremarkable foxes cover to slip into the delver ranks with a few rat thieves.

Will the Betrayer be able to steal whatever has mental or magma protection on it?  I have no idea.  Would it be incredibly effective to do?  Absolutely, so I’m going to see if the delvers have a counter to it.  Even worse for the delvers, the rats are trying to target the support classes.  DPS and tanks are easy to focus on, but it’s support that keeps them going and lets them accomplish more than they ever could alone.  They’re the logistics of a small party, and if you take out the logistics, the frontline will quickly run out of ammo.

Most of the groups are prepared for this, or at least the supports are prepared for sneaky things to try to come get them.  Aranya has the sword I gave her, and while she’s not as good as a proper fighting class, she’s a lot better than a priestess has any right to be, and easily fends off the attempted thievery.

Noynur’s elf friend has some kind of active defense bubble going which lasers the rats when they try to get him, while Gerlfi has his Kelpie along for the fun again, who is more than happy to eat a few rats.  The kids don’t even break stride as they deal with the rats, Rhonda and Pul both able to keep them off of her, and Pul’s goblin doing a great job at spotting the incoming attempts.

All in all, a very good showing by the delvers.  Even having the wolves come in to act like the least doesn’t stall their advance for long.  The ‘Harbingers’ are systematically overwhelmed, and while there are still some losses on the delver side, it’s still very manageable, and everyone gets pulled into shortcuts for treatment.

At the walls, my ravenkin get their chance to shine.  Even with the lava flowing over in a lot of places, there’s room for them to adjust gravity and let people walk up.  It looks like everyone that reaches the wall has good magma gear, too, which makes me suspect the sleep protection failures probably also were going to have magma protection problems, too.  Whoever was selling that stuff is about to have a lot of very unhappy delvers to answer to, I’d wager.

My fliers try to press their advantage, swooping in and launching their attacks, but the delvers are too organized to leave the ones scaling out to dry like that.  They manage to keep everyone safe from getting snatched and from getting zapped, and before long, they’re over the walls and into the next set of difficulties.

I have my drakes waiting for them, as well as more of the bramble/soil elemental combos, the brambles reinforced with a bit of metal elixir to make them just that much meaner.  Along with them are some more dire bears, and I figure that’s a good sample of the types of tanky denizens the Betrayer could pull.  The bramble combos are the best regen tanks I have, while the direbears simply need to take a ridiculous beating to go down.  The drakes have the best armor of my denizens, and with the lava at the walls cleared, they can also double as one of my potential linebreakers.  They can spew lava, but instead of all doing it at once, they wait for their opportune moment, trying to force a break in the line for my arcsnakes to slip through.  The delvers do pretty well against the drakes, but the first explosion catches them off guard, and I think is the first time I manage to surprise them.

In their defense, who expects a puffball zombie to pop out of a shortcut and go kaboom?  I think this might be the linebreaker the Betrayer uses, or something similar.  Being able to put an explosion right in the middle of enemy lines is too nasty to put past the dungeon, and I already know he has disposable denizens.  I don’t think it’s a logical leap the Betrayer would miss.

Arcsnakes rush forward to take advantage of the hole, blasting lightning and brutal bites as they take the role of assassin.  Not the most subtle of assassins, but their raw damage output is difficult to ignore.  Poppers and scarabs make it difficult for the delvers to focus, and my wyrms and basilisks pile on to stop the delvers dead in their tracks.

But they haven’t been delving for nothing.  While they lose more in the first minute than they did in the entire charge and fight outside, they adjust quickly.  The poppers and scarabs are identified and dampened, minimizing the disorientation they can do, the wyrms and basilisks can’t rely on their own magma spewing, since everyone has protection, and even the arcsnakes are no match for the delvers once they rally and push back.

It’s easily the hardest fighting I’ve hosted yet, with Grim himself occasionally reaching out of a shortcut to pull a delver in before they take a hit they can’t handle.  But the tanks are learning to spot the signs of an incoming puffball zombie, and can brace for impact before resuming the fight proper.

Slowly, they drive my denizens back, earning every inch of progress with hard effort and more than a little pain.  They eventually force their way through the courtyard and get a brief respite, the walls giving them just a little bit of breathing room.  Inside the fortress is a huge series of halls and tunnels, forcing the delvers to split up to find the key.  I still harry them with my denizens, but there’s only so much I can force through the hallways at a time.  With shortcuts, I could force a lot more, but why leave denizens sitting there to be attacked?  Better to keep them in reserve and fill whatever gaps need it.  That’s the big advantage of shadow affinity that I’m expecting the Betrayer to have on his home turf.

If a fireball can wipe out a whole room of denizens, why leave any denizens there who aren’t fully able to fight at any given moment?  I think once we’re into the tunnels, it’ll be a war of attrition and patience.  Once my denizens figure out the shaped charges, we’ll have a potential counter to that, but for now, I want to make sure the delvers are ready to face a slog.

I’ll let up on them once they reach the lava, mostly because I think it’s too risky to try these sorts of tactics while submerged.  Stealing someone’s magma amulet or whatever while they’re submerged isn’t something I think any of my denizens nor scions could fix.  The hard part will be getting there.

Well, the hard fighting part will be in getting there.  I may have let Teemo have fun designing the flooded shortcuts for the delvers to explore for the key.  I don’t think they’ll need to camp there… but it’s probably a good thing most of the delvers tested out their campaign gear, too.

Gotta be prepared for anything.