[Dungeon Party]

Serenity - Death-Eater - Melee Tank, Melee Damage, Self Healing

Moira (Follower) - Mage - Ranged Damage (Magic)

Echo - Baffles - Ranged Damage (Magic), Scout

Lancaster - Steadfast - Melee Damage, Agility Tank

Rissa - Time’s Eye - Healing, Support

[Select level: 5 or 6]

When the group appeared on the sixth level, they stood at the edge of a large stone room. In the middle of the room stood six poles, each of which had a cage at the top that seemed meant to protect a flame, but none were lit. They walked up to the poles and saw that just inside the circle of poles was a circle etched into the stone floor with four symbols in it. The four symbols were easily recognized as the four suits of a deck of playing cards.

“Great. A puzzle room.” Serenity wasn’t pleased. Puzzle rooms could be very fast if you found the key quickly, but they could take hours or days if you got stuck. “Let’s spread out and search-”

“There’s an empty circle on the ceiling,” Echo reported. “It’s bigger, but centered directly above the one on the floor.”

The group split up and it wasn’t long before they found that each of the walls had a symbol of one of the four suits on it. After quite a bit more searching, they still couldn’t find two more symbols to match the six torches.

Echo reached out to touch the heart symbol. They hadn’t found anything in more than an hour, and she was pretty sure they’d keep arguing and searching for another hour unless she did something.

“Echo, don’t-”

It was already too late. A flame seemed to spring up from the diamond symbol in the circle between the torches. It headed towards the center point, then kept moving. As it moved, it seemed to morph until - as it reached the edge of the circle on the floor - it was a four-legged salamander made of flame. The flaming shape darted across the line, stopped, and looked around.

For a moment, it didn’t move.

Then it started running full out, straight at Echo.

Only Echo and Moira had ranged attacks at the ready, but the room was large enough that everyone was able to attack at least once before it reached Echo. It dissipated mere feet away from her.

“Don’t TOUCH stuff without being told to! You could get hurt!” Moira yelled at Echo.

“We need to get moving. We don’t have time for this.” Echo’s tone was impatient, almost angry herself. “Stop yelling at me and start figuring out how to get out of here.”

“Listen up young lady-”

“SHUT UP! You’re the one who’s supposed to care, so shut up and look at Serenity! We don’t have time for this shit!” Echo’s voice was resoundingly loud as she interrupted Moira.

Everyone turned to look at Serenity. He wasn’t sure what they were looking at. He felt fine. As fine as you could feel when you were really hungry, anyway.

That had been a Fire elemental. He wondered if it had any Death elementals? He could really use a Death elemental right now. It would be food. He wondered what they tasted like. Wonderful, surely-

“Serenity?” Rissa’s touch on his arm distracted him from thinking about food.

“Yeah?”

“You weren’t paying attention, were you?” When Serenity shook his head, she continued. “Echo touched the heart again and nothing happened, so we’re going to try one of the other symbols. Please be ready if the same thing happens.”

When Lancaster touched the club symbol, a brownish flame rose from the ground. Once again, it headed through the center of the circle to the edge, then straight for Lancaster. This time, it was shaped very much like an earthworm. Everyone was ready and it didn’t get close to Lancaster.

Neither the heart nor the club did anything when they were touched, so the next one was the diamond. The flame was a pale, almost invisible, blue. It looked a lot like a dragonfly as it reached the edge of the circle and dove for Moira, but the group didn’t have any trouble taking care of it before it got close.

Rissa reached out to touch the spade. The flame was once again blue, but this time it was a deep, dark blue, darker than Serenity’s scales. It became a large fish with a long, pointy nose, but once again it was pummeled into submission long before it reached Rissa.

Serenity looked at the circle. There was something he should be seeing.

Yes, there was.

“They all go through the center while they’re still flames.” He was thinking out loud.

“Does that matter? They exit then head for whoever touched the symbol.” Echo was standing nearby, also watching the circle. Serenity wondered when she’d left the diamond.

“I think so. The paths all cross.” Serenity kept being distracted by thoughts of food. If these four were earth, water, fire, and air - as seemed likely - well, there were six poles. “I wonder what the other two poles are for.” If one of them was Death, he’d have food.

Echo was still trying to solve the puzzle. “Everyone get ready! We’ll hit all four symbols at once. It’ll do something, so be ready to fight!” She headed back to the heart. “In three … two … one … NOW!”

Serenity saw all four symbols light up in quick succession. The flames moved to the center, then seemed to hit each other and rotate around the center of the symbol before they were flung outwards.

Each flame landed in one of the flame holders at the top of a pole.

Four down, two to go. There were only four symbols on the walls, and the only ones on the floor or ceiling were the empty one above Serenity’s head and the one everything came from.

Empty and full.

Death and life, maybe?

There was only one way to find out. “If the flame is black, please don’t attack it.”

“What are you-”

“Don’t-”

“Serenity-”

Serenity didn’t pay any attention to the protests. If it really did give off a Death elemental, he wanted to catch it.

He wasn’t tall enough to reach the ceiling, but his naginata would easily reach if he held it up high enough. It was only about ten or twelve feet up, after all. He tapped the ceiling inside the circle.

A black flame appeared in the middle of the circle on the ceiling and fell to the floor. It sat there for a minute while Serenity watched. “Don’t attack it!” It was definitely of the Death element. Serenity could tell that even from outside the circle.

After a minute, it headed directly towards Serenity. It seemed to have formed into a dark cloud while it sat. He leaned forward and caught it with his claws right after it left the central circle.

He’d already taken a bite out of it before he realized his claws were empowered with the [Deathstrike] ability, which was allowing him to hold on to the otherwise incorporeal Death elemental.

Huh, I guess that’s why it’s a racial ability.

This Death elemental tastes pretty good. A little spicy, but not hot. Not sure what it reminds me of. A spicy chocolate froth maybe? No, it’s more substantial than that and not as sweet. Whatever it is, it tastes good.

Serenity suddenly realized that everyone around him had been talking, but wasn’t anymore. He finished off the last bite of elemental, then said “Ah, I wasn’t paying attention?”

“You and food.” Rissa sounded amused. “So, you’ve found something you can eat. Let’s see how many of those we can get for you.”

It took them a while to work out the rules.

The bottom circle would form a green flame that would turn into a vine (or maybe a snake?). They were pretty sure it had to be Life.

There was a hard fifteen minute cooldown on any of the symbols except for when all four suits were pressed at the same time. They expected the same to be true of Life and Death, but since that would consume the Death elemental, they didn’t try.

After a symbol was pressed, the others (either all four suits or both Life and Death) had to be used before any of the others would be available, even if the fifteen minutes had passed. Similarly, while the flames were lit, the corresponding symbols didn’t work. It was easy enough to put out the flames; blowing on them would work - and all four of the elemental flames would go out at once. The fifteen minute cooldown applied when the flames were blown out.

Life and Death only worked if the four elemental flames were lit, but Serenity could only get four Death elementals before they had to blow out the elemental flames and re-light them. It wasn’t difficult, but it was annoying.

If they were careful, they could feed him almost four Death elementals an hour.

That evening, Rissa sighed as she triggered the spade once again. Once Serenity had eaten the next Death elemental, she spoke to the group. “It’s not enough. Look at Serenity. He’s almost back to where he was this morning.”

Echo looked puzzled. “Yeah, so? It took us a couple hours to figure it out this morning, he’s getting better.”

“Yeah. A couple hours’ worth of recovery with more than twelve hours’ worth of work. We can’t keep this up all night, we all have to sleep. One night, maybe, but until the Tutorial is over? It’s a losing proposition. We need another solution.” Rissa leaned against Serenity and put her arm around his back, tucking her hand under his wing.

“What are you two talking about?” Serenity looked over at Echo as he put his arm around Rissa.

“Your weight.” Echo stated it plainly, then elaborated when Serenity looked confused. “You looked really, really skinny this morning. You’re still pretty skinny but maybe not skin and bones. I don’t understand why you’re losing weight so fast by not eating, but you are.”

Serenity looked at his hand. It definitely didn’t look like he had any extra weight there. He felt his abdomen, and it was more concave than he liked. “That explains why I haven’t been gaining any healing. It’s all been going to try to get me back up to weight, but all the weight’s getting used.”

Serenity took a deep breath and let it out. “The only solutions I have are to move on. Maybe I can get a Path that will help, I’m due for one. Or maybe we can complete the Tutorial fast enough. For now, let’s plan to finish this level in the morning so we can hit the next level fresh, with me having had at least something to eat.”

He could see the doubtful look on Echo’s face, but all she said was “I’ll try to think of any options. Can you tell me exactly what you can eat?”