Cat Core, Chapter 9.

While I work on Derelict 3, I'll post more of the chapters from Cat Core. We left off on chapter 9 a while back, so feel free to scroll  through the old posts if you want to refresh your memory on what has happened up to this point. In this chapter, we see Florence's dungeon get its first visit by adventurers.

Chapter 9.

“Doug, quit your moping and take a gander at the tree line. I think we got the first of them there adventurers heading our way,” Florence said. Doug perked up, as they watched the approaching adventurers.

“What in tarnation did they feed that one?” Florence said, highlighting the large young man carrying an axe. The four young people were dressed funny in her eyes, wearing odds and ends of metal and leather, must be bikers or something. No, that wasn’t right, they were too clean cut for that.

“He is rather large, but his lack of armor suggests a berserker or barbarian of some type. They are powerful melee fighters but have limited defenses. The others are what you’d expect, a fighter with a sword, a rogue type, and what I think is a healer. We only have our three defenders, so you should think about where you want to place them. Once the adventurers make it inside the dungeon, it may be too late to move them around without being spotted,” Doug advised.

Florence thought about the placement of her babies. While she had a lot of area to cover, she didn’t think that spreading out the cats into different rooms would be a good idea. The had done well against the goblins, but only because they attacked at the same time. The front lawn area had Doug’s crossbow contraption trap, so she would place the kitties in the living room. She willed her cats to defend that area and they responded without the usual stubbornness you’d expect from a feline.

Midnight simply laid down on an afghan blanket that had been draped over the sofa while Bhargath and Tater took up position on the ledge over the door, ready to pounce when the adventurers reacted to Midnight. Just like the named creature option had told her, the kitties were starting to learn and work together. It was so cute to see them become a team.

“Good call, Florence, the living room gives a good initial ambush and if things go poorly, they can try to escape either through the pet door or along the ceiling ramps. I’m not much good in a fight, so I’ll stay in the core room, if you don’t mind,” Doug said.

“Sounds good Doug, now be quiet so I can hear what they’re saying,” Florence said, shushing her kitten advisor. Doug was in tune with her core, so he could see everything going on in the dungeon without having to physically be there. The little kitten parked himself on the cushion she had fashioned for her rocking chair.

“Can you stop rocking a bit, you’re going to make me sick,” Doug whined. Florence hadn’t noticed, but her rocking had sped up as the adventurers closed int, a nervous reaction. She slowed things down a bit, but not completely, Doug would just have to suffer a bit.

“Hold up, let me check for traps,” the small, chubby fellow said as he approached the entrance.

“Don’t bother, dungeons never trap the entrance,” the one carrying a sword said.

“Vanderman, let him try, I’d rather Roland check everything out than have a trap kill or injure us,” the homely looking girl replied. Florence now had two names, the chubby guy was Roland and the guy with the sword was Vanderman.

“Shara’s right, not wanting traps and stuff,” the big guy replied.

“Thanks Ox, but it doesn’t matter who’s right, we need to be careful. This is supposed to be a new dungeon and new dungeons are said to be easy, but I’d rather not die finding out this one was the exception to the rule,” Shara said. Now Florence knew all their names. She wanted to at least know who the first guest to her home were.

“Why does this place look like a house, and what’s a Doug?” Roland asked. They were somehow confused over her entryway greeting. After spending far too long to check things out, the one called Roland opened the gate and waived the group on. Florence noted that Shara wiped her feet as asked, and the big guy followed her lead. She didn’t think the others were being intentionally rude, they were just distracted.

“This is just plain weird; I’ve never seen the like. This is more like a house than a dungeon. Are we in the wrong place?” Vanderman asked. In response, the little door on the mailbox opened as the box swiveled toward Vanderman. A sharp twang accompanied a howl from Vanderman as a crossbow bolt penetrated through his upper arm.

“Everyone stop, let me disarm that trap before you try and help Vanderman, he might have stepped on a trigger of some type and there could be more,” Roland said, carefully making his way over to the mailbox.

“Ha, serves that creep right for saying our home’s weird. Nice shot Doug,” Florence said. Doug nodded his little kitten head.

“It did work out pretty good, and the trap can be upgraded later to include an automatic reload option so we can unleash more damage,” Doug advised. Florence looked at the party, noticing that once they passed the threshold from the hillside entrance, coins were indeed being pulled from their pockets. Every few seconds a penny would pop out and head toward her core. The adventurers didn’t seem to be able to see the money flowing, which was probably for the best.

“You noticed the coin, while we’re not going to get rich off these newbie adventurers, the flow of cash is steady. It should be more than enough to compensate for the miserly rewards you offered,” Doug said, directing her attention to the chubby little guy, Roland, who was rooting around in the mailbox.

“Trap’s gone, looks like a magical trigger of some kind and not a tripwire, so go ahead and help Vanderman,” Roland said. The one called Shara rushed over to her friend, chanting a few words and placing her now glowing hand over the crossbow bolt. She yanked out the bolt and covered the wound with her glowing hand. The sword guy whimpered a bit, but to her fascination, Florence could see the wound begin to heal, the blood stopped, and new flesh grew to repair the damage.

“Such a nifty trick, that would have come in handy back home,” Florence said.

“Too bad it wasn’t a kill shot, we could have used the income, but at least a serious wound gets us a little more money, look,” Doug said. Florence watched as the blood on the ground absorbed and was changed into more cash flow. In addition, the healing magic cast by the girl netted them a nickel.

“I suppose that’s pretty helpful, I’m not sure I want anyone to die, though,” Florence replied. She was a good person, ask anyone in Logan County and they’ll tell you. A good person doesn’t want others to die needlessly, does she? Florence didn’t think so, but if they died in her home and helped it grow, wasn’t that a worthwhile cause?

“Is this some kind of joke? Did we enter a defective dungeon? Look at this ‘loot’ people,” the chubby guy, Roland, complained as he took the reward she had granted him out of the mailbox. How dare they complain! That was a perfectly good doily and it even looked like it was patterned off of the one her aunt had gave her. Granted, her aunt Margie wasn’t the best at knitting doily’s, but it’s the thought that counts with a gift, right?

“Told you! You tried to be a, what’s that word you humans use? Ah yes, you tried to be a cheapskate and now they’re going to kill us all. I tire of your incessant failures and incompetence,” Doug lamented.

“Shut up Doug, they’re just ungrateful for what they’ve been given, just like a little kitten I know. Be quiet, they’re about to enter the living room and I want to see how my babies do against them,” Florence said. She had missed what the other adventurers said while Doug was whining, but now they were gathered in front of the door and the ungrateful Roland was checking it for traps.

“Door’s clear, Vanderman, you’re up,” Roland said. Vanderman pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

“What in the realm is this?” He said in confusion. The other adventurers pushed their way in, all of them astonished at the room in front of them.

“See, Doug, the adventurers think the room is impressive, my decorating skills are notout of date,” Florence said.

“Ox thinks this place is weird, but kind of neat,” the big guy with the axe added as he pushed his way forward.

“Aww, look at the big kitty,” Shara said, watching Midnight reclining on the back of the sofa.

“Umm, yeah, cute kitty, but also really big kitty, be careful,” Vanderman warned.

“Nonsense, when have you ever heard of a dungeon adding kitties to their mix of mobs. No, this poor thing must have wandered in and couldn’t find her way out,” Shara said, cooing as she approached Midnight. Florence was astonished that her baby didn’t attack the woman right away, the cat looked conflicted, a look she’d never seen on a cat before.

“Ahhh, get it off me, get it off!” Vanderman cried as Tater leaped down from above the door, knocking Vanderman on his face and latching his teeth onto the back of the man’s neck. The giant cat’s claws carved gouges into the leather chest armor of the warrior. Roland reacted by bringing his bow up, unable to target the cat on top of Vanderman, he instead loosed an arrow at Florence’s precious Midnight.

“No!” Both Florence and Shara shouted. Midnight yowled in pain as the arrow struck, injuring the kitty, but not putting her out of the fight. The cat squared off against Shara, but then turned and rushed Roland, only to meet a second arrow from the lightning fast rogue. With a whimper, Midnight skidded to a stop and breathed her last. Snapped out of her shock, Shara charged Tater who was starting to slash his way through the cheap leather armor of the warrior.

“Bad kitty!” Shara said as she awkwardly swung her smith’s hammer at the slashing dungeon cat. A meaty thump sounded as the blow connected and Florence, to her horror, thought she could hear the sound of bones breaking. Tater was hurled off the man and skidded into the wall, his impact dislodging one of the family pictures she had hung up there.

A flash of light flew into the side of Tater, finishing off the poor little guy. The light had come from the big oaf they called Ox. While he talked and looked like a moron, the big guy had some skills. Her last companion, Bhargath the Foe Render, lay at the giant man’s feet, cut in half from a blow of his axe. In the span of a few seconds, all three of her babies had been taken down by this group of adventurers. A bit of fear set in as she realized that nothing stood between them and her core, except for her formidable cane. Doug’s warnings seemed much less foolish now, was her reward too miserly? Should she have had more defenders instead of named ones? Nah, she was right, and Doug was just being a worry wart.

“Wow,” Doug started. “That went rather poorly. I had no idea the large stupid looking one was a mage. Not only that, he’s also competent in using the axe. Some warrior mage hybrid, not all that rare, but not what I would have expected from what looks to be a new party of inexperienced adventurers. The only question now is what they intend to do with our core?” Doug asked. Florence didn’t reply as she watched the party heal their wounds and search the room for loot.

“This place is very strange; I’ve never heard of normal house cats as dungeon mobs. Look at this room, it’s like a strange home or something,” Vanderman said as Shara healed his wounds.

“Wow, look, another one of these stupid things,” Roland whined as he looted Tater and found another doily.

“Ha, at least it’s a different color, you might get to collect a whole set,” Vanderman joked. The group all had a laugh at her loot. Florence didn’t take it as an insult, after all, Doug had said they were inexperienced adventurers. They probably just didn’t have any idea what the value of a hand-crafted doily was.

“I wouldn’t mind having the kitty pictures,” Ox said as he picked up the fallen portrait.

“No can do, Ox, it’s a dungeon creation. Anything other than loot drops will disappear once you take it out of the dungeon. Without the dungeon’s mana sustaining it, everything in here will fall to pieces,” Vanderman advised. The big guy shrugged and hung the picture back into its place.

“Why, that young man is very polite. He and the homely girl are all right as far as I’m concerned,” Florence said. It was quite refreshing to see young people behave with manners, even if they just slaughtered her precious pets. She didn’t really feel too bad about that, after all, her babies would be fine once she summoned them up again. That brought up another strange thing, she couldn’t resummon her pets, something was blocking her.

“Doug, why can’t I bring the cat’s back?” She said in a bit of a panic. Had she lost her babies permanently somehow?

“You don’t know? Well, that must have been part of the information you lost when you pushed out some of your dungeon instincts. The same energy we feed on, the cash flow from the adventurers, prevents us from forming new items while they’re inside. Kind of like trying to take a breath while your drinking water, it’s not possible unless you want to kill yourself. Once the flow of money from the adventurers is gone, we can go from gathering to producing once more. Loot is the only exception to the rule, something to do with it being pre-paid and created ahead of time. Don’t worry, as long as they adventurers don’t kill us, we can get our cats back on their feet as soon as our visitors leave,” Doug assured her, they watched silently as the group continued to explore.

“This piece of furniture is quite comfortable, despite the strange coating on it,” Vanderman said as he sat upon the slip covered sofa.

“Yes, I was worried that coating was a slime of some type, but it seems inert and perhaps is just there to protect the furniture from excess wear caused by the feline denizens of this place,” Ox said. Florence, along with the rest of the party was a bit shocked at his sudden eloquence. Almost immediately, the big man placed the stupefied look on his face once more and began poking about the room.

“Well, at least the loot wasn’t all bad, in addition to the doily’s we have this teacup. Huzzah,” Roland said sarcastically. While most of them had been polite, that Roland guy was getting on Florence’s last nerve.

“Don’t worry Roland, I think this dungeon isn’t quite done setting itself up. We probably jumped in before it was finished. Still, use some caution as we proceed, it could be a trap to lull us into a false sense of security. How’s your mana Shara and Ox? Do we need to rest before proceeding?” Vanderman asked.

“I’m down to half, but it’s slowly rebuilding now that were out of combat,” Shara answered.

“Mine’s good, only fired off one magic missile to finish off the mean cat,” Ox added.

“Good, Roland, is the next door clear?” Vanderman said. Roland nodded, having given it a cursory check. Florence watched the party enter the hallway, cautiously moving past it once they realized there was no threat. The entered the kitchen and stopped to check all the possible hiding places.

“Strange, is that tea pot actually full?” Shara said, pointing to the steaming pot of tea and the various cookies placed out on a serving tray.

“Yes, but it could be a trap,” Vanderman warned.

“Maybe, but it’s not unheard of for a dungeon to place a safe area for adventurers, giving them a chance to recover before tackling the other challenges. Should we try some, well, too late to ask I guess,” Shara said as she glared at Ox who was busy stuffing cookies in his mouth.

“Hey big guy,” Roland started. “You probably shouldn’t eat dungeon cookies without checking them out first,” Ox just shrugged and poured himself a cup of tea before sitting in one of the chairs.

“Well, looks like he’s not going to die a horrible death. We might as well enjoy a snack. Cookies and tea does sound pretty good, much better than the trail rations we’ll have to eat tonight,” Vanderman said as the rest pulled up a chair and enjoyed the tea Florence had prepared for them.

The refreshments gave the party a small enhancement to their rate of healing for the next hour and Doug seemed a bit less nervous when he saw the party was pleased with the little treat that she had left for them. Once they were done, Florence watched the party clear the bedroom before finally approaching the core room. Now her fate would be decided, but if they wanted to attack, her cane would give them a walloping they wouldn’t forget.

“Hold, this is the core room,” Vanderman said as the party filed in behind him, weapons raised to defend against any new threat.

“Hey, is that the kitten from the picture?” Ox asked, pointing at Doug who was crouched on the rocking chair, his back arched and fur bristling to strike fear in the hearts of his foes. Florence thought it just made him look cuter.

“I think so, he’s adorable,” Shara said.

“Don’t get too close, Roland, core’s will often have some kind of defensive mechanism,” Vanderman warned as Roland approached to look for loot.

“No way, a new dungeon like this with only three mobs wouldn’t have any defenses,” Roland said confidently.

“Oh, just a bit closer you loot disparaging chubby turd. Excuse my language Doug, that one just makes me so angry,” Florence said.

“No apologies necessary mum, feel free to give him a good thrashing. I’m no fan of this one either, too shifty for my taste,” Doug replied. It came out as a hiss to the adventurers who couldn’t hear her and Doug communicate.

As Roland entered range, Florence’s cane flew forward and connected with the top of his head, making a hollow bonking sound as the blow landed. Roland staggered back, out of range of the cane, Florence staying her hand, not wishing to start a fight with the rest of the party by killing one of their members.

“Are you okay?” Shara asked, casting a healing spell on Roland as he slumped to the ground.

“Uhhh,” was all the rogue could say as his eyes rolled back into his head. Ox readied his axe and stomped forward toward the core gem, but Vanderman held him back.

“Hold up, the dungeon was just defending itself. We shouldn’t destroy it, that would defeat the purpose of us coming here. Let’s head back and try again tomorrow. Maybe by then the place will have sorted itself out and we can actually get some decent loot,” Vanderman said.

“Yes, I think’s it’s time to go,” Roland slurred, slowly coming to as Shara healed him. Florence watched the party leave the dungeon, they stopped a few times for Shara to cast a fresh heal on Roland, the rest of them scouring the place for any additional loot.

“My, wasn’t that exciting, Doug?” Florence said, pleased at surviving their first group of adventurers.

“Indeed, it was, and in addition, we’ve acquired a bit of coin to improve things with. Sadly, we can’t change the loot, but perhaps by increasing the challenge, we can make the dungeon a better experience for them. If we’re really lucky, we might even kill that Roland fellow next time. That would be the icing on the cake as I believe your people used to say,” Doug replied.

Florence looked at her savings balance, it had crept up to $53.22 by the time party exited the dungeon. She kind of liked these adventurers, except for that Roland, maybe she would get a chance to take him out next time.