Cat Core 2, Chapter 24.

Chapter 24.

Florence felt that she had at least a little time after Bartleby left to finish up what she wanted on her home. Her balance was down to $98.22, which should be enough to summon the last few cats and for Doug to round out things with his traps. The second-floor bath needed another defender, the surprise attack from reanimated undying kitties was good, but it would have less of an impact when the adventurers got a few runs in and knew to look for it. She summoned a new kitty, and as she suspected, this one was just as haggard-looking as Acheron and Styx.

“Doug, do you want to name our newest addition? I thought you had some weird river thing going with their names or something,” Florence offered. The new kitty was a skinny grey short-haired one, and even though it looked like it was half-starved, the kitty seemed to be enjoying himself while he played with the others.

“Oh, thank you, this one shall be Lethe,” Doug proclaimed.

“I suppose that’s another one of them rivers?” Florence asked.

“Yes, the river of forgetfulness in the underworld, to be exact,” Doug said before going back to work on his traps. It turned out he had done a good job with trapping the walk-in closet. Vala was hiding in there behind the junk stashed on the top shelf. If anyone tried to climb up there after her, several boxes filled with caltrops would drop down, making any movement on the floor a difficult proposition. In addition, he had placed two traps on the pull-down door leading to the attic.

If someone tied to pull down the ladder, it would descend with overwhelming force, slamming into the unsuspecting adventurers. When it triggered, or if someone tried to climb the ladder, a crossbow trap hidden in a storage box would activate. The room would be confusing and deadly, especially the first time a party tried it.

For the last two traps on this floor, Doug decided to do something in the great room. There was a strong force of five defenders protecting the room, but it was currently just a normal type of battle for the adventurers. He went with a new design, combining two traps into one. Using the venerable crossbow trap, Doug inserted two of the devices in the coffee table situated in the center of the room. From that spot, the entire room would be in range. It would make this one of the more dangerous rooms, but Florence was fine with that. If they wanted to go from the first level to the second level of her home, they were going to be challenged.

Both floor one and two were now at their defender expense limits, with the third and final floor having ten dollars left. Florence was going to just make another kitty and call it a day, but Doug was really excited to try something new there. She let him have his fun and the little kitten placed traps in two of the coffins that were lying about the graveyard. If anyone got too close to them, they would lurch forward and snap shut on their victim, doing damage, and holding them in place for a bit. It would probably scare them half to death as well, nobody wants to get eaten by a coffin while trying to fight a necrocatster.

“Doug, what do you think we should do with the stuff we bought? I was thinking of using the haunted rock thing to make Mortimer’s backyard ever creepier,” Florence said.

“That’s a good use for that item, as for the others, I’ll rig up the barrel of gnomes as I did before, using one of the kitchen cabinets for it. In fact, I’ll place the figurines there as well. If we’re seriously threatened, we can drop them all on the unsuspecting attackers and have quite the swarm of defenders,” Doug advised.

“That will work,” Florence agreed, watching as Doug put the finishing touches on everything. For now, the barrel of gnomes would stay in the core room. Without the goblins and their opposable thumbs, nobody was around that could lift it up. The figurines were small enough to carry up to the counter, but that barrel was a biggen.

“My dear Florence, I think that the home is now complete. We’ve reached the defender cap on all three floors, and we're as ready as we can be for anything the adventurers can dish out,” Doug said with pride.

“I agree, you did some great work on them there traps, Doug. I can’t wait to see them in action,” Florence said.

“I think we’re about to get that chance, Shara and her charges are back,” Doug said. They watched as the party stepped onto the new starter area for her home. See her welcome center for the first time, the group stood there for a bit, gawking at the gazebo and the fenced-in area with Mo waiting inside. It was then that Florence heard a noise that she most definitely didn’t like. It was barking.

“I knew I should have put a no dogs allowed sign,” Florence said, eyeballing the newcomer that was with Shara’s group. It was a young lady dressed in shabby leather armor. She had a dagger belted around her waist, and bracers with strange sticks shoved into them. The dog itself was a monster, a big old boy with a mean look to him. It hit her then, this newcomer was one of them there Kunrax hound people!

“Is that what I think it is?” Doug asked, his kitten fur bristling when he realized the type of dog that was being brought into their home.

“Hey, you get on out of here. I don’t want no followers of that stupid Kunrax dirtying up my home!” Florence shouted out. The party, save for Shara, was stunned that a voice was coming out of big Mo, which Florence had used as her mouthpiece.

“Woah, a talking cat,” Tipp said as they approached the fenced-in kitty.

“All of you, head back out into the tunnel for a moment, let me explore this on my own,” Shara ordered.

“But how are we to learn if you keep what you’re doing hidden from us?” The girl Jess asked.

“I am still your Matron, and you will do as I command!” Shara ordered. The girl looked like she was going to offer further argument but held her tongue and led the others into the tunnel.

“I should have warned you, this young lady, Isa, is joining the party on a trial basis. She claims that her god is just misunderstood, but I have my doubts. She is as green as my other charges, so I don’t believe she could be a threat to you, even if she wished. I hate to admit it, but I think there is a purpose to her joining up. Can you put aside your justifiable anger and let these young ones attempt to delve into your home?” Shara asked. Florence was furious at seeing a follower of Kunrax, but she trusted Shara and would agree to her request.

“Very well, they can delve, but one wrong move from this Isa and her mutt, and I’m bringing everything I can down on her,” Florence said.

“Thank you, I’m not in the party with them today, so do you think we could visit together while they work on their delve?” Shara asked.

“The fact they’re not in a party with you will help them some with the experience drain, but your mere presence inside our home will still hamper their growth a bit,” Doug said as he trotted out of the house and into the gazebo, motioning for Shara to join him. She went back and told the party to go ahead, and that she would wait at the gazebo for them to return.

“I have some sandwiches and other snacks for you inside the basket,” Florence said. Shara helped herself to a ham and cheese as the party assaulted the front lawn. Doug had her tell them not to hurt Mo, he was just there for testing the newest of adventurers.

“What happened to the rest of your party?” Florence asked, curious what became of them.

“On the day you were attacked, the town tried to fight off the invaders and Vanderman gave his life to allow us a chance to escape,” Shara said. Florence could see the time that had passed did little to diminish the woman’s pain over losing her friend.

“As for the rest of us, we continued as a party for a while, occasionally adding an additional member when needed. We were quite successful, but one day, Roland just up and left. He said he was done with the adventuring life and wanted something more peaceful. He never kept in touch so I’m not sure what became of him,” Shara said.

“Well, he was kind of irritating, like most rogues are,” Florence interjected.

“Rogues and similar classes can be, challenging. As for Ox and Nala, they retired soon after Roland left. His father had passed away and Ox took over the business. They’re married and have had a wonderful life with five children. The two mages in the group, Frex and Chamm, are their grandsons,” Shara said, a smile on her face as she remembered her good friends.

“I kept on with adventuring, eventually taking over the training of new initiates in my order. Enough about me, where did you spend all these years?” Shara asked.

“Me and Doug went back to my world until the gem was ready again. Time works weird when you’re involved in all this core gem shenanigans, for us, only three years passed before I returned to Aerkon. It took Doug a bit longer to find me, but we're doing just fine now,” Florence said. She didn’t feel comfortable going into too much detail about earth. Perhaps it was something to do with being a core, the influence pushing her away from revealing too much.

Florence shared with Shara how the party was doing on their delve. They had made it past the hall and were clearing the bath before trying the sewing room. So far, that dog lady wasn’t causing much trouble, other than her filthy pet seemed to have quite the hankering for biting her kitties. She used them sticks on her bracers quite a bit, throwing them down to summon totems that healed or fired off bolts of energy at her babies. Florence hated to admit it, but her class seemed effective.

They hit a snag in the library, between Zeus and the magic missile traps, they were banged up pretty good, calling it a day just in time since Florence could see Loki’s patrol pattern through the dungeon meant that he would reach them soon if they stayed. As for the loot, they didn’t do too bad, with lots of coins and several doilies. They didn’t get the rare drop, Tater, but they did get four of the others. A couple of normal weapons also dropped which Shara said was good as they could trade them in at the shop for gear that was appropriate to their classes.

“Thank you, Florence, for a wonderful afternoon. Your home is lovelier than ever. I hope you’ll have me over again when these kids run their next delve,” Shara said.

“Of course, we’re always glad to have you visit. Come by anytime,” Florence said.

“I still don’t trust that Isa, but other than her presence, they were a nice group,” Doug said as the party made their way into the tunnels.

“Yep, I don’t trust her either, but until she does something, we’ll let her join them in their delves,” Florence said.

A commotion near the tunnel caught their attention. Shara had summoned her armor and weapons, calling upon her power as the party formed up behind her. Florence could feel mana being used as Shara unleashed spells to smite down whatever was attacking them. She had the party back toward the home entrance, which caused Florence to hurry and resummon her missing defenders. Once the party crossed into the welcome center, Florence would be blocked from rebuilding her defenses.

“Disgusting, I despise these arachnid invaders. Shara seems to be doing a number on them, though,” Doug said. Florence looked up from her work and could see swarms of them jumbo-sized scorpions flooding out of the tunnel. Shara was giving them what for, her hammer crushing an ugly bug with each swing. The others fought as well, their weapons slamming into any of the scorpions that tried to circle behind Shara.

Unfortunately, the further she backed away from the tunnel, the wider the area she had to defend. That dumb dog lady threw down another of her totems. This one glowed red and shot off small fire bolts at any bug that got within its range. Another totem went down, this one caused roots and whatnot to grow from the cavern floor and entangle the monsters. Florence had seen something similar when the cultists had invaded, but Isa’s magic wasn’t nearly as powerful. Her dog was happy enough to chomp down on a bug or two, but Isa called him back when a sting left the dog’s movements lethargic from the venom.

“This is my last totem,” Isa called as she dropped a stick that glowed green and began to heal a bit every few seconds.

“They’re backing off, do not pursue,” Shara called as the bugs fled back into the tunnel.

“What do we do now Matron? They may be waiting for us in the tunnel and the dungeon is at our backs,” the rogue that Florence thought was named Tipp said.

“Head into the dungeon, for now, I need to work on something in the gazebo. As long as you don’t go past the first area, you should be fine,” Shara said, the older woman stumbling her way toward the gazebo.

“Shara, are you ill, did them critters poison you?” Florence asked, concerned over her friend.

“No, it’s not poison, just my years catching up to me,” Shara answered.

“I’ve heard of this phenomenon, as an adventurer ages, they still retain the powers of their class, but will rapidly lose energy during a fight. Long, drawn-out battles could leave an elderly adventurer on the ground, gasping for breath despite their impressive abilities,” Doug offered. It was sad, but Florence kind of figured there had to be some way in this world for folks to get old. Eventually, old folks just got too run down and it was time to pass on. That’s what had happened to her.

“Your companion is correct. In my younger days, I could fight for hours, if necessary, now, my energy runs out quickly. The time I can fight is becoming shorter and shorter each year,” Shara admitted, looking a bit sad about the whole thing.

“I know that feeling, dear, it happens to us all,” Florence said, trying to comfort her friend.

“These were to be the last of my trainees. I can only hope the light grants me strength enough to see them complete their instruction,” Shara said, finally catching her breath, while enjoying a cup of sweet tea that Florence had placed in the basket for her.

“I’m sorry about them critters, the place is lousy with them. Some core got destroyed and it turned a couple of the critters into crazed monsters. I had to kill the spider guy already, but the scorpion one, who I hope is the last of them, has been hiding in the tunnels like a coward,” Florence said.

“Clearing out this scorpion abomination would be a good test of my party if they weren’t exhausted from their earlier delve,” Shara said.

“I’d pay good money to have them critters exterminated,” Florence started to say only to have a system prompt pop up into her vision. From the shocked expression on Shara’s face, it looked like she was seeing something similar.

You have offered a quest to a party of adventurers in your dungeon. They have been tasked with eliminating the source of the scorpion shard creatures that keep assaulting your dungeon. Select a reward level and turn-in location for this quest. Note that your dungeon will be hostile to adventurers even if they are just there to turn in a quest. The cost of the reward will be deducted immediately and returned to your balance if the quest is not completed in the allotted time.

A time limit for this quest will be automatically generated.

Quest reward options:

1. Minimum reward. This reward level generates $25 worth of reward chests. The reward cost is $25.

2. Moderate reward. This reward level generates $40 worth of reward chests and an item unique to your dungeon. The reward cost is $50.

3. Maximum reward. This reward level generates $50 worth of reward chests and an item unique to your dungeon for each party member up to a maximum of 6. The reward cost is $100.

It was a tough choice; her current funds were low after finishing up the home and placing the last of the traps. The maximum reward was out, and after selecting the moderate reward, she was left with $18.33. Being a frugal woman, Florence would have rather gone with a minimum reward, but if Shara and her crew could take out the scorpion bug guy, it would be one less thing to worry about. Florence then selected the gazebo as the turn-in location, not wanting to force them to battle through her home just to turn in a quest that was helping her. She confirmed her choices and watched as Shara and the other agreed to the quest.

“This is quite a surprise, Florence, I didn’t realize you could do such a thing,” Shara said as she accepted the quest.

“I didn’t either, but I guess it’s kind of a crazy situation since the bug guys were part of a core gem at one point,” Florence replied.

“We’ll take our leave and then try to resolve your scorpion problem in the morning,” Shara said.

“Thank you, dear, I’ll be waiting to hear from you,” Florence said.