As Shan disappeared into the caverns, Garal turned to him, readying his axe to follow. “This should be easy, the entrance of dungeons are usually empty. See you on the other side.” Grinning evilly, he gave Gordo a wink before stepped into the caverns entrance, disappearing just as rapidly as Shan.

Ten seconds, Gordo, thought, just ten seconds. He felt a shiver run down his spine as he stood there, followed by a slight prickling feeling like he had ants walking about between his leather armor and skin. At first he thought the excitement of the moment was affecting him, but scoffed that away. This was replaced with a feeling that someone was watching him, so spun around, hoping to first, catch them in the act, and second, make sure he wasn’t being sneaked up on. He sighed, seeing no one, and shook his head. The anticipation of entering his first dungeon in this game must be playing tricks with him. Taking one longer and last look about, he followed his instructions and stepped into the black entrance.

Everything went dark, totally dark, followed by a cold sensation like someone had just dropped ice cubes down the neck of his armor. As his body spasmed in discomfort, he felt a sudden tugging feeling in the pit of his stomach, like something had grabbed him by the belly button and yanked him forward. Staggering, he stepped out of the darkness and into the gloomy interior of the caverns, the air still, but feeling moist, and carrying the smell of something unrecognizable, but reminiscent of death. He couldn’t help but gag as his first breath tasted.. moldy ?

Something slapped down onto his shoulder, and he jumped in surprise, quickly shrugging whatever it was that had landed on him off and turned rapidly in that direction, his short sword held protectively in front of himself. A deep, booming laugh filled the air, bouncing off the unseen walls, echoing away into the distance. His grip tightened even further on the hilt of the weapon he held.

“Oh, Gordo, you are a laugh, as twitchy as a cat on a hot tin roof. Put your weapon away before you stick it into one of us, this area is clear.” Garals deep voice again boomed out, but this time not loud enough to create any further echoes. “Just stand still a minute, and give your eyes time to accustom themselves. The entrances of dungeons usually are a safe place, but let’s not automatically assume this to be true in this game, the developers here seem to like changing all previous game conventions, so keep your weapon ready for action, just in case.”

The only way he knew the other two were in the area near him was by the darker patches they made in his vision as their bodies obscured what little light existed. Suddenly he shut his eyes as bright sparks sprayed up from the location of the taller shadow, which he assumed was Shan. “What the hell.” he exclaimed as bright lights played across his retina, even with his eyes shut. “That hurt.”

“Sorry.” Came out of the darkness as Shan answered him. “Trying to light a torch. I hate these damn things, they never seem to want to catch.” Another spray of sparks erupted as Shan scraped his flint and steel together again, failing a second time to get his torch going.

“Hold up a second, will you, I have something here that will solve that problem.” Gordo spoke as he reached into his bag and withdrew one of the torches of eternal flame that he carried. Light instantly filled the cave about them, making him blink his eyes a few times as the suddenness of its arrival blinded him. He heard both of the others swear loudly in protest as they also became temporarily blinded.

“Ah, shit, Gordo, next time give us some warning, will you.” snapped Garal at him. Gordo lifted the torch higher, spreading the light out further allowing the other two to see it. Garal squinted at the torch, then at Gordo. “Gordo, how did you manage to light that torch.” he asked quietly, “I didn’t see you strike any flint before that lit up.” Shan also was staring at the torch, and had drawn closer to get a better look.

“I didn’t light it, the torch was already lit when I pulled it from my bag.”

“That’s impossible, torches can not go into a bag when lit. Once a torch has been lit, it can only be discarded when you have finished with it, not inventoried. They explained this quite clearly in the game manual, it’s something to do with the game physics of light and heat.”

Gordo frowned at this and pulled the torch closer to him, holding out his other hand towards the flames. “Sorry, there’s no heat from this torch.” He then put the torch back into his bag to show he could do it, before withdrawing it again. “See, it can be inventoried.” then shrugged,

Garal went red in the face and was about to angrily reply to this, when he was halted by his brother. “Hold on a minute, Garal. That is not an ordinary torch. I have inspected it and its telling me it’s an eternal flame torch, so it’s probably not affected by the normal rules for torches.” He switched his gaze top Gordo. “When we get out of here, you are going to have to tell us how you got this item, it’s pretty special and not something I have heard of before.”

Gordo nodded, and held the torch up high again, bringing the rough walls of the cavern into full view. They looked to have been carved out of solid rock, oily moisture coating the stone, while the floor was a thick layer of damp soil liberally mixed with a sandy substance. The mouth entrance of two tunnels could be seen against the wall furthest from them, each leading forward, but angling away from each other. Both looked similar, with neither providing any information on which should be taken to advance deeper

As the twins discussed which tunnel they should take first, Gordo was distracted as he became fascinated with the effect of the torch against the cave walls. He had noticed that while the flames of the torch played about and flickered, the illumination of the walls stayed constant and unwavering. He even waved the torch about, to see if he could get any change, or to even get the shadows dancing, but ceased when he got an angry glance from Shan.

“We are going to take the left tunnel, Gordo. Stay close behind us and if you see another source of light anywhere in front of us, put the torch away immediately. As there is only enough room for one of us at a time, I will be leading, followed by Shan, and you take up the rear.” Garal hefted his axe into a comfortable carrying position, one where he could bring it into action immediately, if needed, and stepped into the tunnel he had chosen.

After about three minutes of walking, Garal, still acting as the point man for the party, came to a sudden halt, one hand raised. Quietly, he waved the other two back, and they all retreated back a couple of bends of the tunnel. Grabbing them by their heads, he pulled them in close so he could whisper to them without alarming whatever lay in front of them. “There is three goblins in a small cavern, one of them is cooking something, the other two picking over a pile of trash in a corner. Couldn’t see any other exit from the cavern. The cooking goblin doesn’t seem to be well armed, but the other two are stronger than the two conscripts we killed at the entrance, probably low grade guards. The cavern isn’t that large, so if we rush them, we should have the element of surprise. I will take on one of the stronger goblins, Shan can have the other, and you,”He looked at Gordo, “occupy the goblin that’s cooking, he doesn’t seemed to be armed so shouldn’t pose much of a problem for you. If you find him too much to handle, just try to defend and one of us will give you a hand when we have finished ours off.”

Gordo nodded, while Shan just gave a small grunt of agreement and they all stood up. “Don’t try anything fancy, Gordo, your level isn’t high enough for you to mess about. “ Gordo felt a little insulted by this comment by Shan, he wasn’t a clueless noobie, after all, but they seemed to be treating him as such just because he was low level compared to them. He was happy enough to follow their instructions, for this was their dungeon and he was just tagging along for a free ride, but they should at least trust him enough to know that he knew how to fight. He held his tongue, though, not wanting to cause any problems at this time.

They charged into the cavern, just as planned, but the goblins didn’t react in the manner they had expected. The two that Garal had classified as guards, while caught off guard, quickly recovered and managed to close ranks in front of the goblin that was cooking, their weapons drawn, standing shoulder to shoulder. This caused the brothers to slow their charge , as this maneuver was not something they was used to from goblins, and the whole party came to a halt just out of weapons reach.

“This is something I didn’t expect.” muttered Garal, as both sides stood there, glaring at each other. “Goblins shouldn’t work as an organized unit, they should just have charged us as soon as we entered their agro zone.”

One of the goblins suddenly spat at the party, striking Shan on one cheek with a slimy ball of spittle, making him flinch back in amazement. This brief moment of hesitation by both parties was enough time for the goblin who had been stirring a cauldron when they entered, to turn and rush to the far cavern wall and pull on a rope that was hanging there. Instantly the sound of an alarm could be heard for elsewhere in the caverns, its sound muffled by the turns in the tunnels.

“What the hell is going on here,” growled Garal again, “first they organize a damn defense against us, and now they call for reinforcements. Goblins shouldn’t be acting like this. Ah, fuck, we have to kill these quickly, before more arrive…. Attack.” The last he yelled out aloud, then he and Garal, rushed forward to meet their chosen targets, the goblins stepping forward to meet their charge.

As the four met , their weapons clashing together, Gordo slipped around the side of them, staying well out of range of any weapon that may be swung at him, he closed in on the remaining goblin, which had remained at the back wall, the ladle it had been using to stir the cauldron with, grasped in one scaly claw. He stabbed forward with his short sword, intending to skewer the ugly creature on his blade, only to be surprised when it jumped to one side, allowing the blade to slip past it, leaving it unharmed. It swung the ladle up brought it down on the top of his head, the pain from it bringing starts to his vision. In desperation, he slashed his weapon sidewards, in the direction where his opponent stood, and was rewarded when it connected with the goblin, a shallow cut along its ribs.

He congratulated himself on his success, but realized he had done it too soon when another blow struck him, this time on one shoulder. He could see from the health bar that these blows hadn’t caused him much damage, but the pain they gave him was high, and quite distracting. He gritted his teeth, and stepped in closer to the goblin, which couldn’t retreat from him any further due to the caverns wall being right at its back. He thrust forward once more, sinking the blade deep into its unprotected stomach, and followed this up with a blow to its neck. He could see that he had removed most of its health by this point, and swung again to finish it off, but found his blow blocked by the ladle. He growled in frustration and ripped the blade down, gutting the goblin and spilling entrails out onto the ground. It collapsed, the last of its hovering health bar disappearing.

He spun around to assist the other two, but saw they had already dispatched their opponents and were heading for the tunnel, ready to attack or defend against the expected reinforcements. Looking around, he thought they would already have arrived, but saw that this battle had only lasted for mere seconds, instead of the minutes that it had felt like to him.

“Gordo, get over here.” snapped Garal, his eyes firmly fixed on the mouth of the tunnel. ”We don’t have time to daydream. I can hear the others coming down the tunnel.” Gordo ran over , and stood behind them, positioning himself so he could look between them at what was approaching , as well as to allow him an avenue to thrust his weapon forward.

Thankfully, these goblins didn’t take the time to organize themselves, like the first ones had, and entered singly or in pairs. The twins engaged them in combat as soon as they entered and, with the occasional assistance from Gordo as he thrust his blade between them to strike the enemy, quickly managed to dispatch each, taking only minor wounds themselves. The flow of goblins ended after the ninth had been killed, and they lowered their weapons, but didn’t relax in case more put in an appearance.

“Well, that wasn’t that hard after all,” remarked Garal, and chuckled. “Thank god they were all low level guards, and not the seasoned soldiers that they could have been.” He took a look around the cavern, making sure that none of the slumped and bloodied bodies were moving. “I cant see the boss monster here, so somewhere ahead there must be another one waiting for us. Shan, could you go and scout out the rest of this area and see if you can locate it ?” Shan only nodded, then quickly departed down the tunnel.

“You and me will search the bodies while we’re waiting, Gordo. Just put all the loot in one pile, we will sort it out after that.” They spend the next couple of minutes looting the fallen, transporting all the loot items into one big pile, but nothing seemed that exceptional, from what he could see. Finally finished looting, Garal told him to start searching the cavern and this proved to be more beneficial to the party.

The trash pile against one wall produced a handful of mixed coins of silver and copper, along with about three dagger in a variety of conditions. A human body, stripped of most of its equipment, lay beneath the trash, and a search produced a pair of leather gauntlets in fairly good condition, but didn’t carry any special bonuses for the wearer. The final item in the cavern was the one that made the fight worth it.

The cauldron, at first glance, seemed to be just what it looked to be, a cauldron of stew, but an examination of the stew itself made Garal gasp and dance with glee. Amused by his antics, Gordo took a look at the stew to see what all the fuss was about.

Green Forest Goblin Stew.

A nutritious stew made by goblins from local meats and herbs. This stew, if eaten by the adventurous, will restore all heath to full. The goblin chef ha added unknown herbs to this specific stew, creating an unexpected bonus. A whole serve must be consumed before any benefit can be received

Serves : 3

Benefit 1 : restores health to full

Benefit 2 : Removes all hunger

Benefit 3 : While under influence of debuff, a player can gain the benefit of nutrition by eating the flesh of a slain monster or other player.

Special Benefit : Anyone who eats this stew will receive one bonus attribute point. The bonus can only be received once, and any further consumption of the stew from this cauldron will provide no benefits. This consumption will not affect bonuses attributed to other cauldrons

Negative Effects : This stew is for goblin consumption, Any race other than goblin which eats this stew will gain a cannibal mark, visible to all races. This debuff will last for four hours, the length of time it takes to digest the stew. If any player is affected by the cannibal debuff on ten occasions, the mark will become permanently visible. Each subsequent consumption of this stew will add one hour to the length of the debuff. The cannibal mark imparts a negative 10% to all trade and negotiations while visible and can not be removed.

Consumption of this stew may cause vomiting, nausea, bad breath, or severe gas attacks.

While they had been reading the description of the stew, Shan had slid quietly back into the cavern behind them. The first they knew of his presence was when his spoke, his voice making them jump in surprise. “What you two looking at ?” He then leaned over them and inspected the stew himself. “Interesting.” was all he uttered, but he pulled three vials out of his inventory, and filled them from the cauldron, the remaining stew disappearing, along with the cauldron, after the third one had filled up. Popping a cork into each one, he placed one into his inventory and handed the other two out. “I’m going to save mine, for the moment, but feel free to eat yours, if you wish.” Gordo and Garal just followed his example, not wanting any debilitating effects while they were in the dungeon, and stored the vials away.

“Well, the boss monster is there, at the furthest cavern from here, and he is a Goblin Captain, but I don’t think he’s the end boss for I think there is a stairway going down behind him. I couldn’t enter that cavern to conform this. Other than him, the only goblins remaining on this level is a handful of basic goblin types, those in non combat positions. We can clean them up as we progress towards the captain.”

“What about the loot ? Want to split it up now ?” asked Garal.

Shan looked at the little pile that they had gathered, he quickly sorted it out into two piles, one with the real trashy stuff in in, like the bronze daggers and leathers in poor condition. “These,” he said, pointing at the trash pile, ”are not worth the space in our inventories. Yes, they will bring in a few silvers, maybe a gold or two, but personally, I’m not interested in that. You two can fight over those.” He returned his gaze to the much smaller pile. “Now these are worth keeping for sale.” Gordo examined the pile.

Loot Pile

Leather armor x 3

Iron dagger x 4

Leather boots x 2

Leather Gauntlets

Copper necklace (+1 Perception) x 3

Copper Ring (+1 Intelligence)

Rusty longsword

Iron Ladle

“What I suggest is that you take one of the necklaces, a set of the leather boots and the ring, Gordo, the rest we will take for sale. Otherwise, we will just sell the lot off and split the takings.” In reply Gordo reached forward and took the items he had listed. He equipped them all instantly and look a peek at his character page.

Gordo

Class : Omniclast (Swordmaster)

Level: 4

Swordmaster level : 0

Armour Class : 5 (Leather + Boots)

Health : 140 / 140

Damage : 2 – 8 (+1% strength bonus, +0% Skill Bonus)

Strength : 4 Constitution : 1 Dexterity : 2

Intelligence : 1 Wisdom : 0 Perception : 1

Skills:

Small Arms : Level 0

By the time he had closed the window, the loot pile had disappeared into the bags of Shan and Garal and they were waiting for him so they could continue onwards. Shan held out an had and poured his take of the money they had found into his. Without counting it, he placed it into his pouch, not wanting to hold them up any further, or look like he didn’t trust them by counting it in front of them.

By the time they had arrived to the entrance of the last cavern, the one that the captain occupied, they had encountered and slain twelve more goblins, all relatively easy compared to the guards. The loot from these creatures was quickly divided up, consisting mainly of a handful of coins. Somewhere along the way Gordo had increased both his Swordmaster class and Small Arms skill to level one, but had not received an attribute point to allocate because his overall level remained at level four.

They kept out of the doorway, knowing from experience that the goblins didn’t operate with an agro zone, but more along the concepts of the real world, these being sight, sound and smell. If a goblin saw you, or heard you, no matter how far away you were, it would react, and react in a manner that couldn’t be anticipated or predetermined. This was the realism effect in action, and made for a more interesting encounter than expected. All the old preconceptions on how creatures and monsters operated and behaved did not apply in here, and each had to be approached with a mind clear of expected responses.

Gordo had managed to get a peek into the room, for that what it was, a room carved into the solid rock, and seen the beast they were to assault. Seeing it, he seriously doubted the plan that Shan had proposed on the way here, was going to succeed. The captain was a level six monster, higher than any they had already faced, and was at least a foot taller as well. It stood with his back to them, but he could still see it was wearing banded leather armor, and carried a steel longsword and shield, their first opponent to possess one of these. Its green skin was mottled, with a long scar running down the back of its head. His examination had also let him know it had seventy health. This was not going to be a walk in the park.

In a quick rush, they proceeded to follow the plan they had come up with, and Garal and Shan entered the room, running to stand about ten feet apart. Gordo followed them in, but stayed near the entrance, looking as unthreatening as he possibly could. The goblin hadn’t been just standing idly about while they had been maneuvering, and had reacted instantly to their entrance. He had spun about, his sword now drawn and his shield held up protectively in front of him. Watching them.

Shocking all of them, it spoke to them its voice a high nasally whine. “So, the cause of all my guards concern as arrived at my door. A stinking elf and a disgusting dwarf, along with their little pet. If you leave now, you may survive, but stay and I will ensure you meet your foul gods.” He stepped forward, his head lowered and tusks thrust forward, drool dripping down as he gnashed them together. He glared at them all through the small beady eyes, the redness of them glinting in the torchlight.

Garal spoke first, and his words, while not eloquent, expressed how they all felt . “Fuck off.”

The goblin laughed aloud at this, then without warning, charged Shan, mainly because he was the closest one to it, catching them all wrong-footed. The monster rammed his shield into Shan, putting its whole body weight behind it, sending him flying through the air and into a wall. This action performed, it spun about and advanced on the dwarf, more carefully this time. Garal took a swing at the goblin, only to have the blow blocked on its shield, and in return the goblin stabbed downwards, sticking the longswords blade deep into one of the dwarfs thighs. Staggering slightly from the wound, the dwarf punched forward with the butt end of the axe, catching the goblin unprepared, and managing to strike it in the face, Its health bar barely registering this damage.

Gordo, initially caught out by the goblins charge, had recovered enough to come up with his own plan and had started to ease himself, crablike around the walls, in an attempt to get in the goblins blind spot, right behind it. He knew he would have to wait for the right moment, for it was moving about too much for him to make a successful attack. He drew one of the dagger from his inventory and threw it at the monster, knowing he was almost certain to miss, but the sight of the knife flying across its vision distracted the goblin enough for Garal to get in one solid blow, making its health bar drop by at least twenty percent.

While all this was going on, Shan had recovered enough to join the fight again, and the goblin turned to be able to fight both of them at the same time, his back facing towards Gordo. This was the moment he had been waiting for and sprinted forward and shove the short sword as hard as he could into its back. The blade sunk deep, green blood oozing out between the blade and the skin, the armor darkening as it absorbed the blood.

The blow must have been a good one, for the captain gave a groan of pain and the shield slipped from its grasp, the health bar dropping down to less than half full. With a mighty swing, the goblin belted Gordo with his now empty hand, knocking him onto his back and removing twenty five health points. The blow was painful, momentarily dazing him, as he was informed with a message.

You have been stunned. You will be unable to move for another five seconds. All damage received while under stun will be at one hundred percent.

It felt like someone had hit him in the face with a baseball bat and he could taste blood from where he had bitten his tongue, but couldn’t raise his hand to his face because of the stuns effect. All he could do was lay there, and scream internally at the pain. Damn, what the hell level was the pain threshold set at, he screamed to himself, it felt like it was on a hundred percent.

The stun wore off just in time for him to see the goblin slump down onto its knees, then fall forward, a wet cracking sound as its face smashed into the ground, breaking off its fangs. Both Shan and Garal had survived, but both carried battle scars where the goblins blade had struck them. Garal reached down and grabbed Gordo by the back of his armor, lifting him to his feet in one swift pull. Slapping him on the back almost hard enough to send him back onto the ground, “Well, that was a great blow you struck, but I think we all need to get a lot better if we are to finish this dungeon.”