“… so our best bet is to make it to the eastern side of the complex. There were lots of puddles of water on that side, but far less mushrooms. If we can fight from a corner and clear them out patch at a time I think that’s our best bet.” Cire had finished explaining the layout of the dwarven ruins under the grove and launched into his plan.

“I don’t disagree, but what if they all come at us at once? We can’t count on them behaving like before. You remember yesterday, they were far more aggressive.” Selene chimed in.

“I be thinkin’ that might be the case so we are going to do what we did with the yetis.” Durg reached and patted the side of his backpack causing a several glass bottles to clink.

Nic and Andre looked at each other with a mirrored smirk before the elder brother Nic spoke. “You mean you’re going fall on your ass and then get the crap kicked out of you?”

“Bah! No. We are going ta drop as much oil down there as we can and set them on fire. I haven’t tried cooked red cap fungus beast yet. I be lookin’ forward ta it.” Durg said.

“I was wondering how we were going to be able to fight down there. If it is as big as you said it’s probably pretty dark. Not a problem for you three, but Nic and I would have some trouble.” Andre winked. “Not that Selene wouldn’t be able to tell that I am the handsome brother in the dark.”

The group circled up around the thirty foot bore at the center of the valley circled by a burnt out grove of twin pines. Selene rolled her eyes at the brothers, who looked like twins so far as she could tell. “You’re both toddlers compared to me. I have already expressed that I have no interest in either or both of you.”

Durg started setting up the rope, pulling it from Cire’s pack and tying off anchor points. “You know that never stops humans from tryin’ right? Besides I bet one or both em’ have given Maisy a good look or two.”

Suddenly interested in checking the ropes Andre avoided further inquiry, but affirmed Durg’s supposition all the same. Nicolas couldn’t help twisting the dagger though.

“Little brother, are you sure it’s wise to stir things up right before we drop into a dark pit to fight monsters and she will be firing arrows from behind your back?”

“All I said was that I she could tell I was the handsome brother! It’s objectively true.” Andre backpedaled and folded his arms across his chest defensively.

Shaking his head, Cire started passing out the bottles of oil. They had a dozen in total and planned to throw ten down in a general line. This way when they lit it on fire they would have a defensive line to assemble behind. The two humans were left out, they couldn’t see as far and didn’t know the layout of ruins.

“I didn’t think to ask this before, but Durg, Selene and I all got a skill that lets us bond with our party members more than experience and loot sharing. It let us see each others status sheets.” He paused seeing uneasy looks come over the brothers faces.

“I was going to ask if we could do that with you, but that can be intimate information. Mind sharing your levels and primary combat skills? I am sure Stacy had a general idea before he brought you along to fight those yetis, but I don’t.”

Noticeably relaxing the two men nodded to each other, some unspoken communication passing between them.

“Were both good with an axe, can wear medium armor, and we each have a skill ability or two that we want to keep to ourselves, but we will use them freely.” Nic responded.

“Besides my bountiful charisma, not much is different between us. Nic can track, but I don’t think that will help us much in this situation. Were both around level 10.” Andre didn’t let up, but it wasn’t too overbearing.

Cire chucked several oil flasks down the hole and waited for Durg and Selene to do the same. “We don’t have that much variety in our combat styles. Four of us use melee weapons that all cut and slash. Selene, you’re going to have to cover a lot of gaps.”

The female elf finished throwing her last flask. “Let’s keep a rotation going, three of you fighting and one holding back. That way someone is getting rest and we have a reserve if we need it. We can’t exactly run away once we are down there, only re-position.”

Sparking up a torch Durg passed it to Cire and then repeated the process with Selene. “So much strategy. We burn em’, we bash em’, and we eat em’. Nuff said.”

Shrugging with a smirk, Cire tossed the lit torch down the hole towards the oil patch. “He isn’t wrong, but he has missed some of the nuance.”

“Stop the messing around. Everyone get on a rope and start heading down.” Scooping up one of the lines, Selene was over the edge and rappelling before any of the others could argue.

The rest of the group followed behind her keeping a reasonable pace. Each stopped to orient themselves once they had slipped down past the overhang and into the wide open cavern. Roaring flames burned below them in a patchwork line towards the center of the room. A massive column dominated each quadrant of the hall.

Touching down one after another the party dashed for the north eastern column, putting the solid object to their backs. Cire’s description of the space had been accurate. Only two patches of mushrooms were close enough to sense them and react. Familiar ripping and popping sounds echoed off the walls.

“Get ready! Don’t let them over run us!” Cire shouted over the noise.

One group with several human sized mushroom beasts and two lumbering giants whose dark red caps rose close to twenty feet in the air approached from the south eastern column. Closer, between the party and the wall of fire another pack of the fungus beasts were running towards them. These were a radiant glowing blue hue, but their stumpy legs and arms matched their red cousins.

Nic, Durg, and Cire turned to face the blue fungus monsters, weapons held at the ready. Arrows flew past them and thinned out the pack causing several to stumble and fall back. The initial clash pushed the three defenders back as four monsters charged into their ranks.

Blunt spongy limbs pummeled Durg’s armor getting worse than they got as sharpened spikes and ridges left rents in mushroom flesh. Chopping like a lumberjack, Nic focused his double buck axe on legs and torsos. Felling the beasts like saplings. He didn’t kill with each swing, but he left the monsters rolling on the ground unable to fight effectively. Cire danced between the two. His blessed blade wove quick short strikes in between the other two.

Twang’s of Selene’s bow sounded in rhythm as she nocked and fired at the group still bearing down on them. She had foisted extra arrow bundles on the human brothers, but she was still trying to be sparing with her shots. The more damage she could do with less resources all the better. The monsters started dropping, going down easily.

One of the glowing blue mushrooms deflated and went limp after Durg’s last pair of short axe strikes. Spreading out from its cap a cloud of sparkling blue and white spores enveloped the dwarf and his two closest companions. Coughing and sputtering they continued to fight on, hacking apart the rest of the beasts whose flesh offered little resistance. When each fungus monster succumbed they spewed the same particulate into the air blanketing the area.

Stumbling out of the cloud Durg gasped and choked. “Poison. Strong.”

Cire grabbed a fallen Nicolas and drug him back to the column, he didn’t have time to check the poison notification, but he could feel his Regeneration ability fighting the continual damage. It didn’t feel pleasant. Nausea came and went in waves as he faced up against the next charging group. His voice came out in a croak.

“Andre, you’re up. Watch out for the blue ones.”

Dwarves had a natural ability to resist various poisons. Their hearty bodies and closeness with the earth rendering many mildly toxic or poisons plants quite delectable. This concentrated dose was throwing Durg for a loop. However, he had battled through many, many intoxicating effects before. He wobbled over to stand with Andre against the oncoming threat.

Ceasing her barrage of projectiles Selene rapidly dosed Nicolas with herbs. She didn’t have anything to counteract the poison, but the healing herb Old Man’s Beard lichen grew plentifully in the valley so they had a large supply. She was back to firing arrows before the human had started chewing.

Thorny spikes shot from the charging mushroom monsters as their red caps split down the center and fired them with popping bursts. Toothy maws unnaturally ripped open along the stalks and the beasts thundered into the adventurers. Whittled down as the giants had been by Selene’s artillery barrage they still carried far more momentum than their human sized counterparts.

The companions were staggered, but managed to hold the beasts from reaching too close to Selene. Cire played the distraction, running right up to the base of one of the lumbering beasts and then darting to the side. Andre and Durg focused on the man sized equivalents, cutting them down to prevent any from breaking through their line. Selene focused her fire on the giant showing the most wounds, but for the huge mushrooms the arrows individually caused little worry.

Finally, all three melee fighters chopped down one of the mammoth mushrooms while abandoning any pretense of defense. Cire was laid out by the unopposed giant. A bashing clump of leathery mushroom appendage flung him ten feet through the air before he skidded and rolled along the damp stone. Andre and Durg turned on the beast, but it was Nicolas who took it down as he rejoined the fray. He took off one of it’s legs at the knee. When it toppled to the ground he killed it with one solid blow, sinking the entirety of his axe head into the bloated stalk until the giant red cap tore off.

Slowly, but surely, the party began to find a rhythm as packs of mushroom monsters crashed upon their blades. They were able to clear out the entire eastern section of the hall without recieving too many hits. The next batch of blue caps gave them less trouble than the first, but they were still hard to handle. They waited until most were near death and then everyone but Durg ran a good distance away. Then the dwarf killed the half dead beasts and ran himself.

It wasn’t the best tactic, but Durg was able to resist the effects of the poison better than everyone else. They had made it all the way to the south eastern column, but now the blazing oil fire they had set in the middle of the room had dwindled down to nothing. Each counted their blessings that they seemed to be out of range of the mushrooms across the hall. None seemed to be active or moving yet, just giving off a soft glowing light.

“So, we got a rude awakening with those blue ones. Although we should have expected poison from mushrooms to be honest. I am more worried about those glowing orange ones though, any guesses on what they do?” Cire asked as he pointed across the big hall in the descending darkness.

Now that the flames had were no longer over powering the mushrooms natural irridescents the underground cavern was lit up by the soft effervescent glow of oranges and blues. Dark clumps spread amongst the glowing gave away where the blood red variants were sprinkled amongst them. Compared to the five groups they had just taken on a veritable army was spread out before them.

Thankfully, few of the monsters posed much of a physical threat besides the over sized variety. If these beasts were anything like the ones topside they were no more than level 12 and most too low level to pose much of a challenge. Everyone was more or less recovered from the previous fighting having taken the respite between each group to replenish their hit points through herbs and rest. Ominously, no one had answered Cire’s question. An uneasy silence hung in the air.

They took a moment to sweep their surroundings their minds active while their bodies rested. Behind them, in the eastern wall was a large archway that opened up into a tunnel half as high as the cavern. There was more than enough space for a semi truck to drive through. More puddles of water filled the passageway hinting at a source for the moisture hidden within. To their side from the floor to the ceiling they could see doorways, windows, stairs, and balconies carved out right into the stone filling the wall.

“Well, if the blue ones are poisonous, but weaker than the red caps it stands to reason that the orange ones will do something different. Let’s use the rest of the oil to create another defensive break, but try to catch one of the orange patchs in the flames. Maybe we can figure out what they do before we are in close quarters.” Cire offered.

Grumbling in a friendly tone Durg jabbed Cire with his elbow. “You and your caution. I just say we run at em’ swingin’. What’s the point if there be no surprises?”

Nic and Andre look less enthused than the bushy bearded dwarf and shook their heads in unison. “We like Cire’s plan better. How have you stayed alive so long Durg?” Andre asked.

Hefting one of the last three flasks, Durg waited for Selene and Cire before they all threw them across the hall. Durg grinned as he sparked up one of their last torches.

“What’s the point of fightin’ monsters if you arn’t going ta have fun? Bah!”

Durg tossed the torch across the hallway. The party was ready for a wave of attacking monsters. Some even thought they were ready for the unexpected. However, no one was prepared for the wave of explosions that tore through the cavern. Pandemonium and destruction spread out like a wave through the mushrooms, adventurers, and naga.