Mineshaft, Liggit Mine

"Legit, starting to get claustrophobic down here," Jade mutters as we get close to the last of the Shards, the steady pattern of tapping from the butt of it's spear upon the rocky ground becoming more pronounced, step by step.

"Likewise," Angelus commiserates, "Being underground like this feels unnatural. Monsters notwithstanding."

"That a you thing, or a bird dude thing?" Windy questions.

"Both, I suppose," Angelus shrugs, "Words cannot describe how strange it feels to not have human feet, as an aside."

"What's the deal with the chickenfeet anyway?" Jade blurts out, probably having wanted to ask about it since they met.

"Raptor, actually. I wanted wings, but apparently I can't do that unless I undergo a race evolution or something similar. It was basically this, or a bird head and I elected to not go full bird," Angelus shrugs, the lamplight going a little haywire for a moment.

"Committing to the 'angel' bit are you?" Windy asks.

"Essentially, yes," Angelus doesn't even try to deny it, "Based it off of an old OC from when I was younger and into vintage tabletop games. My brother keeps asking me if I'm experiencing a mid-life crisis early."

"Not the strangest justification I've heard for becoming a Panoplast," I remark, "Or the worst. All races can be modified or in rare cases, changed entirely - Panoplasts have an easier time of it when trying to elevate their bloodlines by their nature."

"...What's the weirdest?" Windy asks, a little apprehensive.

I try to avoid consciously recalling the relevant conversation, "I don't really want to talk about it; Sufficed to say it's not something mentioned amongst polite company and more than a little beyond the pale. Even taking into consideration a particular sort of person that might be inclined to play a Panoplast, it's like comparing a kid in fancy dress to an eldritch abomination with a paper mask. Present company would be on the fancy dress end of the scale, and I'll freely admit that it's not exclusively a Panoplast playerbase thing, but I've met more bad eggs that are on the opposite end who picked it than not."

"Ah. You mean like..?" Jade hedges.

"Yes," I nod, not dignifying the subject with any further consideration.

"Ok. The shit that turns heads 720 degrees, gotcha," Jade takes the hint and drops the subject to preserve whatever might be left of her sense of innocence. Far be for me to judge other peoples tastes, within certain expectations of reasonable conduct.

The tunnel ahead opens up a fair bit more, the soft glow of the Reminiscence hanging in the air in the middle of the remains of what appears to be a breakroom for the miners. A few feet in front of the threshold to the room is the last Shard, which plods back and forth between the walls until Windy's approach alerts it to her presence, thanks in part to The Drake.

"Remember, both of us are doing it this time," I remind Windy, pulling out my zweihander.

"Yup, I'll bait the first attack out and you capitalise, yeah?" She proposes.

"Works for me. Try and give me a clean swing through the haft, if possible," I request as Windy picks up the pace, now quite confident after solo killing five of them and learning their patterns.

"Stick close behind me, then," She instructs, and I see no reason to disobey, considering my advantage in weapon reach.

While Windy squares up against her opponent, I raise my sword into a high stance, ready to hammer down left or right of her after she makes an opening for me to exploit.

I don't have to wait long, as she takes the thrusting spear with her shield angled such that it slides along with a scraping noise, then flicks her arm up, the swipe forcing the spear almost completely vertical. Seeing my chance in the making, my blade is already in motion before the Shard even has the chance to recover, gouging almost clean through the stone before bouncing off with a sharp pinging noise, the vibration travelling down my blade and through my body.

The Shard is then finished off with a swing of Windy's shortsword.

"Nice. I'd high-five you but my hands are occupied," Windy waggles her sword and shield at me.

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet, we still need to complete the actual dungeon itself. You think you can handle multiple now?" I figure I should check one last time.

She responds by flexing her sword arm, smiling, "Sure thing, boss."

I can't get used to that. I have to at some point, I realise.

"So that's the Reminiscence?" Angelus points at the floating prism.

"Yeah, that's it. We'll trigger a World Announcement the moment we step foot in the room. Not to sound like a gloryhound, but Guild foundations and all that, so I'll be doing it," I inform them, a little apologetic but still not brooking any arguments.

Jade looks a little disappointed, but neither Angelus nor Windy look like they care too much.

"Fine by me, I'm just a mercenary in this whole affair when it comes down to it," Angelus shrugs it off, "So long as I'm paid for my time and it's not wasted, you won't hear much complaining from me. Just happy to see there actually is a dungeon down here, not to doubt you or anything."

Sheathing my sword, I pay it no mind, "You've the right to be sceptical, don't worry about it. Come on, follow behind."

Walking casually forward, the group falls in behind me until I take my first step into the room.

Pleased, I smile peacefully, "That should turn a few heads. And since it's not a Secret Reminiscence, we don't have to wait for it to manifest since it already has."

"What's the difference?" Angelus enquires.

"Secret Reminiscences require a player to solve a puzzle or somesuch to unlock it, and in-so-doing the Reminiscence is able to manifest," I rattle off as we approach, "Anyway, this room is a safe zone, the Shard of Terror we just destroyed won't aggro unless attacked, so no taking potshots at it, the mob AI isn't quite that janky."

I don't have to look at Jade for her to know that I'm specifically calling her out on this, because I got a premonition of exactly that happening the moment I said 'safe zone'. Windy snickers to herself at her friend's expense.

"Like I was gonna!" Jade flips me off, huffing.

Ignoring her, I take my bedroll out my inventory, "Might as well set up our camping supplies now, before we go in. Free up the inventory space. First run will probably take about forty minutes, and we can cut it down to maybe thirty, twenty-five - thereabouts. Reset timer for this is on a twenty-minute timer, so we have enough for a short break between attempts. As for why it's quicker than Farmer's Folly, it's because it's a Bronze-Tier in an environment suffused with denser magical energy. Farmer's Folly is basically a starving leper in comparison."

That said, we get to work on setting up a primitive camp off to one corner of the room.

"This isn't where we came in..?" Jade worries aloud.

Indeed, we are in an entirely different section of the mine compared to where we entered. Additionally, the tunnel is well lit by dark, purply light emanating from the cracks in the walls, ceiling and floor, the entirety being formed from Terrorstone, and interspersed with the odd wooden archway to serve as support beams, with a lit lantern hanging from a hook, giving off a pitiful amount of illumination of it's own.

"It's not unusual. Reminiscences almost always form at the corpse of the originator, but sometimes a Reminiscence forms from multiple people at a location they identify strongly with, like the breakroom we were in. As for why it doesn't create an Ancient Battlefield instead, I honestly couldn't tell you - perhaps it just falls short of the requirements?" I spread my arms in askance.

"A strong shared experience coupled with simultaneous death, maybe?" Angelus hypothesises, and it's an explanation I've heard before.

Jade is rather dismissive, "Eh, who cares? Is what it is."

It's not an incorrect attitude to take really. Unless you're looking to forcibly create a dungeon - Which I wholeheartedly don't recommend because getting the game to recognise your efforts as something other than an attempt to exploit the manifestation rules is nigh-impossible. New dungeons pretty much exclusively manifest as one of the natural consequences of an incident, rather than as the result of a scheme.

Thinking about it, it's probably something better understood conceptually than put into words to try and explain it. Point is, the system doesn't appreciate people trying to home-grow dungeons in their backyard by committing and engineering atrocities on hapless peasants.

"A conversation topic for later. Weapons ready, Windy up front with me, Angelus in the middle, Jade watch the back for Fearstruck Miners spawning in behind us, you'll hear them before you see them," I instruct, everyone moving into formation, "No breaks until we get to the threshold of the first boss arena, last chance to take a drink or eat a snack."

Windy takes a swig from a waterskin, then gives a thumbs-up, "All set."

"Ready to go," Angelus nods, focusing up.

"Loot awaits!" Jade brandishes her shortbow.

I draw my sword, "Then let's go."

The first pack of mobs is comprised of three Shards of Terror, and audible rather than visible, is the terrified shrieks of a female Fearstruck miner coming from further up ahead and getting closer. Glancing back at Jade and receiving a nod, I pat Windy on the back, "After you. I've got the one on the right, I'll clean up the other two after."

"Understood," Windy sets her stance and charges, I trail after her, crashing my blade into my first target as she bashes into hers. The Shard I'm facing dumbly raises it's spear to block the attack, but the spear is what I was trying to destroy to begin with, and the added momentum of the running strike bites so deep that my sword manages to get stuck in the stone, to my annoyance. Still a little off-balance from the charge, it takes me a few seconds of struggling with the Shard to recover my posture enough to yank my sword from the stone, snapping the last thread of it's integrity in the process, the two halves abruptly clattering upon the hard floor.

Owing to their simplistic intellect and fighting patterns, Windy isn't having any particular difficulty keeping the other two at bay, though it's clear that the limitations of the current control system are chafing at her ability to respond to multiple attacks, even as an arrow sails between us right as I start to move in to assist. It clatters off the ceiling uselessly.

"Son of a bitch! Oh, uh...sorry Silver. G-gimme a mo..ment..." She nocks a second arrow, aims a little lower and fires, the screaming of the approaching Miner cut short as it's mouth suddenly sprouts feathers, "Yes! Fuck yeah!"

I roll my eyes, swinging down on the extended spear of the nearest Shard, trying not to swing quite as hard this time. The attack gathers it's attention to me instead, but proves fatal. Windy bashes the other's spear aside then eviscerates the damaged Terrorstone Spear, killing it, before swinging again to parry the remain Shard's attack, the point barely clipping her cheek.

"Don't get greedy!" I shout, moving quickly to assist in destroying the other Shard, while a second Fearstruck Miner approaching our rear is also taken down.

Not the cleanest fight, but Windy only took minor damage, not enough to warrant a heal quite yet, "Focus on defence, Windy. Keep going!"

While we hurry ahead, I skid to a halt some ten yards down the tunnel, another Miner approaching. But rather than that, I stop because I spot a bulbous mound of gold and jewels jutting out the wall of the tunnel a little further ahead. After taking a pair of arrows to kill the Miner I point my sword at the node, "Jade, see that there?"

"Uhhh..." She squints, walking up closer before her eyes widen when standing a few paces ahead of where I was initially standing, "Oh, that? The hells your Perception like?"

"Twenty-five. Not important right now, that's an Imagined Riches node, go get it. Angelus, watch the rear while she mines," I order, resuming my advance, "We've got the front."

Before long, and after cleaning out another seven Shards of Terror along with a couple dozen Fearstruck Miners, we arrive at the precipice of the first boss battle our group has to contend with. Taking a quick look around, I note a pair of Imagined Riches nodes present in the arena that we'll have to dig out after we kill our foe, who is just as disgusting as I remember, even though it's been almost thirty years since I last set foot in the place.

The engorged corpse of the Vacantsoul Foreman is a gruesome visage, to be certain. His head and soul long since snatched by the demonic creatures spawned from the Pool of Desire's influence. For whatever reason, a large chunk of Terrorstone was rammed into his headless neck, partially splitting his torso at the collarbone, and now his body is the fleshy puppet of the Shard of Terror within the Terrorstone.

"That is quite disgusting," Windy comments, "I think I can smell it from here. Yick."

"Seeing it in person, your description didn't do it justice," Angelus concurs, grimacing.

"Take a swig of water if you need to, mobs won't approach us next to the boss room unless attacked," I inform them, "Anyone need a refresher on what it does?"

Angelus nods, looking at me intently, "Is there an obvious tell for when the boss is about to use it's AoE attack?"

"Black glow on the head and raised fists, forty-second intervals unless tantrum is off cooldown. Before you ask, no there's not a tell for when it's about to throw a hissy fit, just remember to keep the 55-second timer from when the fight starts," I take a bite of a pastry, "As for positioning, once Windy has it's attention, we'll stand to our left and right of the respectively to give a clear line to the boss' weak spot for Jade. Save your MP for healing on this fight, let me and Jade clean up the adds and such."

Ideally, he'd also have a ranged weapon of his own, but he seems to prefer a pure caster approach, and hasn't gotten a weapon yet. I considered getting him a shortbow as well, but decided not to give out freebies when we don't need to.

All prepared, I check the group's readiness and step into the arena.

At once, the Vacantsoul Foreman starts lumbering toward us, but under the effects of Rush, it gets intercepted by Windy, stabbing it in the arm when it tries to prevent her attack on the core, after exchanging blows with the creature, she slides around to it's left as I arrive and flank behind on the right side, an arrow bounding off it's 'head'.

Matched against the far more aggressive monster, Windy seems to have a tough time finding her rhythm as us damage dealers do our best to crack open it's rocky faux-skull. Before long, a wispy of black energy starts to form, and I immediately call out the incoming attack,"Terrorise in two seconds! Tantrum in fifteen!"

Hunching over as the blackness thickens into a sickly glow, it raises it's fists into the air as if roaring, a shockwave of magic pulsing quickly throughout the room.

-107

Already braced for the impact, I grunt in consternation but don't falter, raising my sword to continue stabbing and hacking away at the creature, careful not to get too aggressive and incur it's wrath. Even though I could feasibly tank the boss myself, it's better for the person specialising in the role to gain the experience. Not running a one-man show, here after all.

Just as the tantrum is about to happen, the Vacantsoul suddenly halts it's assault on Windy and begins to channel Morbid Curiosity. But because of it's Skill prioritisation, it interrupts the cast and immediately starts a combo of three swings, wild and desperate, which takes Windy off guard. It's all she can do to raise her shield to block the first two blows before being smashed in the arm around her guard, staggering her. Before I can yell for Angelus to heal, a flash of blue-ish light washes over her, providing a measure of relief. Good, he knows his business. Fast incantation speed, too, although Minor Succor isn't a terribly complex Spell.

Bodes well.

"Windy, you ok?" I call out after a backhanded swing.

She resumes her stance quickly, "Yeah, just a little bamboozled by the animation cancel!"

It's probably the biggest danger in the fight, really, so I don't hold it against her. On the positive side, it interrupts his HP threshold move and the wind-up for Terrorise, taking their place.

Upon reaching the half-way mark, Windy is starting to handle it's blind aggression a bit better, but with the second use of it's attack speed buff already on cooldown, there's nothing to interrupt Morbid Curiosity this time.

Disengaging from the boss and running to the 12 O'clock position of the room, I call back, "Jade! Perimeter, incoming!"

Crawling out of the actual literal stone floor come a large quantity of eviscerated Fearstruck Miners, immediately worming their way towards the middle of the room.

With my high attack power, dispatching the first is simple enough, removing the immediate threat of a Wail of Stolen Souls, and I start moving anti-clockwise around the room as Jade takes the rather shameless option of running up to the creatures and shooting them in the head point-blank with her bow.

I...well....ok, sure, why not?

In the back of my head, I imagine the indignant screaming of every ranged damage dealer I've ever worked with. In particular, the Ranged Damage Leader from my old Guild's spectre can be audibly heard gnashing his teeth in rage at Jade's pragmatic approach to the mechanic.

Cleaning up the last Fearstruck Miner, halfway to it's intended destination, we resume the assault on the boss, the pattern already established.

Inevitably, the Vacantsoul drops to the ground, Windy's shortsword embedded deep in the Terrorstone core.

Congratulations, your party has defeated the Vacantsoul Foreman!

Awarding 1600 experience.

"Woo!" Windy pumps the air with her fist, joined after by the rest of us in satisfied celebration.

IdleFancy

One boss down. Alex's respect for Sherry as a person is also down, but I mean if it works, why not, right?