Tunnel Rat

The huge mechanical monstrosity whined to a halt, the drill on the front slowing, and front tracks ceasing their forward movement. Milo noticed the rear tracks weren't putting out nearly the power they should, and barely seemed to be moving at all. Steam blew out of several vents, and a large panel was kicked loose from inside. As Boom-Boom jumped from the top hatch, another dozen Engineers tumbled laughing from the machine, each sporting a version of their magi-tech armor, equipped with complex tools and weapons.

Throttlecog was embracing and slapping the back of The Chief Engineer. "Damn me for a snotling! You got the old thing working?! I thought the boiler was shot and the rear tracks clutch rusted so bad it couldn't turn?"

The Chief Engineer put his nose in the air and twirled his bushy mustache. "When one is The Chief, one must know secrets of the trade."

Throttlecog crossed his arms and tapped a toe on the rock. "Such as what, you old walrus? You barely know remember how to crosswire a celestial-spark generator let alone fix an XV77-Excavator."

The Chief laughed hard. "But I'm great at stealing ideas from the rest of the brotherhood and repurposing them. Had you looked at the boiler the lads made to power the Puke-and-Twirl? Their design was 56% smaller and 17% more powerful than the one in the XV77. That gave the driller added torque and allowed for more passengers."

Throttlecog fought down the urge to go look at the new boiler. "56% smaller?! But what about the rear-track propulsion? It still looks shot to me."

The Chief Engineer pointed in the direction of the hole. "Oh, easy. We found and installed an auxiliary engine. It gave us a lot more power and let us shift the torque to the forward drill. One of the lads also found a way to retemper the drill head using a waste fluid. Luckily, Senior Engineer Milo didn't use all of it to blow up that damned snake."

Throttlecog stared at the drill, wondering where the hell the Chief had found room for an auxiliary engine. Then, two massive grey hands covered in small fungi grabbed the edge of the hole and struggled to heave pull the rest of their body out of the hole. Finally, head emerged and a very tired troll crawled out and stood, causing no small amount of panic in any non-engineers nearby. Huge mechanical excavators were one thing, but a thirty-foot-tall troll was scary as hell!

Harry's voice boomed out, "And this engine is tired! I pushed your infernal metal beast for miles, and it was all uphill!!"

Harry sat down next to the excavator and leaned back against it. One hand reached into a pouch and came out with a handful of mushrooms and grubs that he stuffed into his mouth.

All thoughts of the explosives they had been building were put aside as Milo ran to greet his friends, overjoyed at their unexpected arrival. Boom-Boom however, only had eyes for the assortment of black powder and mining explosives.

"You were building a bomb and didn't wait for me!? For shame! And you're doing it all wrong! This is a weedy little thing with barely any snap, crackle, or pop!"

Two-Screws put his hand on Boom-Boom's armored shoulder and looked serious. "You are absolutely right. It's horrible! This project needs the touch of a master demolitions expert."

Boom-Boom smiled. "Ooooh! Wait, I know this one! That's ME!" He ran to the excavator to gather tools and ingredients as Two-Screws smiled. "Now we just have to make sure he doesn't destroy the city all by himself!"

Vary ran up, looking for Milo, but could barely talk as he took in the assembled Engineers. The Chief Engineer took notice and walked up to him. "This is one of the new recruits? Nice to see the younger generation still has some spunk. What's your report, lad?"

Vary shook off his jitters. "The Raid Leader Belinda needs to know if we have a plan other than Milo getting himself half-killed again. We have more fighters coming in all the time, and things are getting a little chaotic. She requests your input."

Milo listened to Vary's report, and then paused to think, running scenarios through his head. The reinforcements that had arrived gave him so many ideas. After a few seconds, he suddenly leaped to the top of XV77 and slammed his spanner on the metal hull to get everyone's attention.

"Here's the Project. We have a slowly moving World Boss creeping up on the city. It has enough seismic power to crack open a fissure that will wreck the city and drown us all in seawater. It eats rock, spits out baby stone lurkers, and one hit will most likely kill anyone not in armor. The stone can be broken, but we're going to need a big bomb to crack its crystalline core."

"I'm off to coordinate the adventurers that are slowing it up. Let's get a bomb built and any other truly dangerous ideas of how to kill the thing are on the table. We have a reputation for pulling off miracles. Let's prove the legends don't exaggerate."

Milo leaped off the machine, doing a double flip as he landed near the bomb. After a few seconds, a large crate appeared out of thin air. "There's stuff in here. Use it if you need it, Boom-Boom." The curious dwarf immediately investigated the magic crate. "Yep. Good stuff. The deep iron ingots will work for the casing, you've got some nice cables, and I smell some interesting myconic solutions I can use as accelerants." He began rummaging through the crate, piling stuff up.

Boom-Boom paused, then pulled out a few items. A ring, a staff, a large round shield, and a quiver of arrows. "No use to me, but these might help out those adventurers." Milo had totally forgotten about the loot from the various chests that he'd opened after killing The Pudding and The Snake. He'd been looking for cheese at the time and tossed the rest of the stuff into his stash. "Good thinking. I'll find people that can use it all." He took the armload of items from Boom-Boom and passed half to Vary to carry.

As the Engineers cheered and got to work, he and Vary raced off to find Belinda.

The Chief Engineer watched him go. "Smart lad. Nothing gets this crew going like daring them to do the dangerously impossible before breakfast."

The raid was holding, but barely. They'd learned that they couldn't confront the monster like they would a normal boss. Tanks were doing their best to take a hit and live, backing off for heals while another took their place. Healers were working overtime and chugging potions to restore their mana. The one Battle Alchemist in the raid had given out all of his explosive potions and then concentrated on brewing more Restorative Mana Potions until his store of ingredients ran dry. Everyone else dealt with the smaller lurkers, or chipped away at the stony armor, trying to wear the world boss down. Everyone, including Uthneragrubban, paused for a second as an enthusiastic voice rang out in the cavern.

"OOOOH! It's a big one. Dibs on the eyes!" Squint had arrived, despite the best efforts of his cats to walk between his legs and trip him. The two cats shared a disgusted look as the boss of the Kulags sprinted towards the giant monstrosity in the middle of the raid.

While still forty feet away from Uthneragrubban, Squint leaped in the air and sailed towards its head. Knives in his hands glinted as he yelled out, "KULAG!!" Both knives hit dead center of the creature’s eye sockets, scoring critical hits. Which got less than the hoped-for reaction from Uthneragrubban.

Squint hung in front of the boss's face, hands gripping the hafts of his long knives which were stuck in its stone eyes. "Excuse Me!! That was a double crit. You can't just ignore a DOUBLE CRIT! That's not FAIR!. Cats! Explain why that isn't fair!"

With a loud 'crack', the stony armor on Uthneragrubban's head broke off, revealing a glowing crystalline face with perfectly intact crystalline eyes. Squint landed on the ground with hundreds of pounds of rock on top of him, blunted daggers in each hand. Uthneragrubban raised both claws to smash down on him, but the cats were faster. Each bit into a foot and dragged Squint out of the way. He was shouting. "That's just a warm-up! I'll be back for the real fight in a minute."

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More people entered the fray. There was a steady trickle of dark-cloaked adventurers emerging from an old tannery, paying a small fee to the local Thieve's Guild, and making their way to the lower levels to join the raid. The new arrivals were barely staying ahead of the rate of attrition as one Player after another was crushed beneath the massive boss, or thrown by her seismic shocks.

One of the reinforcements stood out. A massive ogre dressed in bedraggled pirate finery strode forward, knocking anyone in his way aside. His crew followed him, ready to die with their Captain. "Stay out of my way, minnows, Captain Pike is here to kill yon beastie."

Taking his long harpoon in hand, he threw the heavy weapon at Uthneragrubban. It hit the world boss dead center of its crystalline forehead but failed to penetrate. Pike jerked the metal cable he used as a lanyard and the weapon leaped back to his hand. "A tough one, are we? Well, I've fought tougher! I killed the great crocodile that lived in the hidden grotto beneath the Sunken City. The Old Bear of Winterguard fell to my harpoon. And now I'm killing a World Boss!"

With a show of might, the monster hunter raised the harpoon above his head, invoking the skills Slayer's Might, Go for the eyes Boo!, and Penetrating Strike before throwing it again. The glowing harpoon rocketed toward the giant boss, hitting in the same spot. Uthneragrubban's head snapped back from the force of the blow, a small crack appeared where the harpoon had hit, but faded almost instantly.

Pike retrieved his weapon, breathing hard from expending all of his best skills at once. It would be some time before he could do that again. "So, we have to do this the hard way? Fine, I like the hard way. Takes longer. More fun. Up and at it, boys, and be careful of her claws. She's a mean one, she is. Find me a weak spot to poke her in."

"We have come to help."

Belinda turned to find a smiling man in a monk's robes, followed by a dozen women who were humming a familiar tune as they passed around a bottle of wine.

"Oh, thank god. We don't have many healers, and our mana is getting low."

Brother Ignatius gestured towards the women. "Then I and the Choir of Saint Joan will sing to aid in both healing and bringing the Saint's blessing down upon you." As the women began a complex harmony, Belinda saw her mana reserves begin to recharge and small cuts and scrapes on her arms healed. A soft, warm glow spread from the Choir throughout the cavern.

"They sing beautifully." Belinda wished she could just stop and listen.

"Thank you. We've practiced constantly lately. The ladies felt that the mysterious holy man who visited us was the herald of heroic times to come. And they were right."

"Mysterious holy man?" Every time Belinda thought she knew all the people in this crazy story, someone else showed up.

Milo and Vary picked that moment to run up. "Belinda? Did you need me? Oh, hi brother Ignacious. Hi everyone!"

As Milo waved, Belinda looked even more confused, and Brother Ignatius smiled knowingly. "Ah, I see you've met our pious pilgrim who came to free the spirits held in bondage and aid us in our time of need. Of course, you would be working together. We will leave you to your work and sing until the evil is defeated or the world comes to an end."

Belinda grabbed Milo by the arm and dragged him off. Vary took that as his clue to drop the items he carried and go look for messages to deliver.

"Explain things to me! We're barely holding, and I don't know what to do. And what the hell is this about you being some holy man? That priest looked at you like you were some sort of saint."

Milo shrugged. "I never know what's going on either. Their nice people though. I met them doing laundry. Stuff happens so fast in this world. I keep trying to fix things, but my first plan usually doesn't work, so I make stuff up as I go. But we have a new plan. We're going to blow the boss up."

Belinda rolled her eyes. "With what? An atomic bomb?"

Milo hadn't considered that the game had atomics in it, he'd have to ask Boom-Boom. "Maybe if we were deeper, but the city is right above us. We're using a whole lot of Cataclysmite and whatever else the Engineers can do the spice things up. Just tell everyone that 'Fire in the Hole' is engineering slang for 'run away fast'."

"Oh, and I brought some stuff for your guys. There's a Stout Shield of the Unyielding Defender+2, a Staff of Deadly Firebolts, and a Quiver of Painful Piercing. I got them out of some reward chests, but I don't need them and they can help people in your guild."

Belinda looked at the items. Those were major magical items, and he was just giving them away? "...uh, Milo,"

"Oh, silly me. Almost forgot. And this is for you." He'd also found a scratched Copper Ring of Wisdom +1 in the bottom of the chest. It kept rolling around as Milo tried to catch it, almost like it didn't want to be caught. He attributed that to the tremors in the cavern from the boss.

Belinda watched as Milo pulled a beautiful, shiny, copper ring from his pocket, took her hand, and placed it on her finger. "Thought of you when I first got it, but I've been really busy lately. Hope you like it."

The healer stared at her hand, and then at Milo, at a loss for words. Milo grew a bit embarrassed but didn't know why. "Got to run, have a bomb to deliver."

As he ran off, Belinda continued to stare at the ring. It was made of solid copper with a dragon scale pattern. The ring shined and she examined it carefully. On one part, a circle of seven small emeralds was inset into an etched outline of a crown. The ring grew warm, and revealed itself to her.

[Vengeful Spiral of the Empress (Unique)

There must always be an Empress. Piss her off at your peril! Kneel to her Glory!

+500 mana.

Font of Power - The Empress gains double Mana Regeneration.

Poison Immunity - The Empress is immune to all poisons under Tier 5.

Spell Enhancement - The Empress may choose one type of spell to bind to the Spiral. That type will have double the normal effect when cast on others. Choose from: Poison, Acid, Rending, Burning, Trauma, Slashing, Piercing, Necromantic, Wildrot, Soultearing, Windshear, Frostburn, and Disease...

and maybe some others no one cares about.]

 

Frowning at the ring, Belinda said, "I choose Healing."

[Healing is a sub-optimal way to crush your enemies. How about: Poison, Acid, Rending, Burning, Trauma, Slashing, Piercing, Necromantic, Wildrot, Soultearing, Windshear, Frostburn, or Disease?]

 

"Bullshit. If I get to be the Empress, then I get to rule the way I want to. I choose Healing!"

[...sigh...we'll talk about this when you get a little older.

Merciful Spiral of the Empress (Unique)

There must always be an Empress. She will righteously heal you until you submit to her rule!

+500 mana.

Font of Power - The Empress gains double Mana Regeneration.

Poison Immunity - The Empress is immune to all poisons under Tier 5.

Spell Enhancement - Healing spells have twice the normal effect.]

 

"Better." Belinda couldn't wait to show her dad. He was going to turn green with envy.

Alessandra had noticed the exchange and smiled. "Looks like someone got engaged just now. Look at the smile on that girl's face."

Malka was pleased. "Engaged in the middle of a battle! It's so nice to see young people doing things the old-fashioned way."

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