《Guardians of Terraria》Episode 5.4 - Dungeon Heist
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The three of them stepped forward, walking past each of the blue brick pillars at the entrance of the Dungeon.
The room beyond was dimly lit with some ghostly green lanterns. Some shelves containing books sat on the wall. At the floor was a large square hole, which seemed to lead deeply down. More light could be seen below from more lanterns and what looked like some flaming blue candles.
"Okay," Sid murmured. "This Dungeon is a lot bigger on the inside. Like the TARDIS. Which makes sense, since James sounds so British..."
William wasn't sure what he was talking about. Something he remembered from real life that William didn't?
"Let's go," William finally said. "We're looking for this woman that James tied up when he was cursed, and also for any treasure we can find. But be careful. I suspect even with his master dead, this place won't be ready to give up its secrets."
The three of them cautiously climbed down the deep shaft of the Dungeon. They passed more shelves containing books. William tried picking some up but they all just popped out as generic green books in his inventory. None of them could be opened or read from what he could tell.
They eventually emerged into a large square room. Dangerous-looking spikes ran along the walls. An old-looking table and chair sat at the bottom with a green-flamed candle resting upon it. Next to that was a golden chest.
"Awesome! Loot!"
Sid flew down to it and landed next to the chest.
"Hey, this thing won't open!"
William landed next to him.
"It looks to be locked," he said.
"Locked? Cactuses, how are we going to get a key for it?"
"There'll probably be a way."
That was when they heard a growl like one from a zombie or skeleton.
A door opposite them burst open, and three skeletons charged into the room. They were each clad in rusty red armour, one with a spiked helmet upon its head. Looking at them, William could see they were labelled 'Angry Bones: 140/140'.
"Of course there's gonna be skeletons down here," Sid muttered, summoning forth his Flinxes. Robyn shot at the Angry Bones with Frostburn arrows and William slashed at the monsters with his Blade of Grass.
The Dungeon turned out to be filled with these enemies. It was a maze, filled with numerous traps. Blocks that shot poisonous darts at them, collapsing floors that led to pits of spikes, rotating spiky balls attached to chains, and blazing wheels of fire that rolled along the ceiling and floor. And everywhere they turned in the dingy sage-green tunnels there were Angry Bones lunging themselves at them. They were fairly easy to kill, especially from a distance, as they weren't really armed with any ranged weapons, but were still numerous. There seemed to be an endless supply.
At one point some Dark Casters appeared. They were skeletons wearing bright blue robes, armed with a similar spell to the Goblin Sorcerers from the Goblin Army, shooting bright blue balls of cerulean energy at them. William discovered he could destroy their energy balls with a swipe of his blade.
At that same moment a large, navy-coloured slime landed on top of him, falling from a tunnel in the ceiling.
"That slime's got a key in it!" Sid exclaimed. He ran forward, his Minishark pouring bullets into it that eventually burst the slime apart. Sure enough, it dropped a Golden Key, which he snatched up.
"There's a chest right over there," William shouted, pointing at a ledge across a deep shaft they were fighting near. He threw his Thorn Chakram at a distant Dark Caster, breaking its skeleton into bones.
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"I'll try opening that one!" Sid ran over and jumped across the shaft. He double-jumped in mid-air and his Spectre Boots carried him the rest of the way. On the other side he slid the Golden Key into the lock, causing the chest to open with a click.
"The key busted itself upon using," he said. "But there's cool stuff inside! William, you might find this weapon handy."
"What is it?" he shouted, slashing at a wave of Angry Bones with his Blade of Grass.
"An upgrade to your Flaming Mace!"
William turned and sandstorm-jumped to the other side. He smiled upon reaching inside the chest and pulling out the weapon – a Blue Moon. He swung the bright blue mace in the air, the flail emitting an eerie blue glow.
"Wait, where's Robyn?" Sid asked.
William realised with a sinking feeling he wasn't sure.
"Robyn!" he called.
***
Robyn wasn't sure when or how she'd gotten separated from the others. Maybe it was when one of the floors had collapsed and she'd fallen into its hidden tunnel. Or at some point in the endless waves of Angry Bones.
She felt like she could really use their help. She had grappled to the ceiling, where the Angry Bones couldn't get her, and was firing Frostburn Arrows down into them. But each arrow could only damage one at a time, and more kept arriving every minute. She needed William's sword to cut through all of them at once or maybe Sid's Flinxes.
A ghostly Cursed Skull phased out from a nearby wall. She turned and fired arrows at it, destroying it in a few shots.
Then more Dark Casters appeared around her.
She fired arrows at them all, but their rain of blue energy shots overwhelmed her. She was going to need to drop from where she was grappled, otherwise she'd be a sitting duck against them. But she'd need to deal with the Angry Bones below.
Then she spotted a tunnel leading off, and got an idea.
She dropped, landing on the brick floor, and sprinted for the tunnel. The Angry Bones pursued her, but she outran them thanks to her Spectre Boots.
Behind her she desperately placed some stone blocks she had on hand, sealing off the tunnel from the Angry Bones. At the same moment two Dark Casters teleported in front of her, but now she could deal with them both freely without the Angry Bones attacking her. She fired and fired, and soon they both dropped dead, arrows sticking out of their bones.
She wheezed, still feeling tense from that escape. The Angry Bones kept roaring behind her, but she knew they couldn't get to her. She had earned a brief moment of respite.
She stepped into the room she had walled herself into.
It was rather brightly lit compared to some of the other rooms she'd been in, with candles and chandeliers, lamps and lanterns. A large painting rested on one wall, which appeared to depict the Brain of Cthulhu.
I wonder who would paint that? she wondered.
There were two chests in the room. One was a locked golden chest, like one from earlier that she had figured out to open using a Golden Key that had dropped from a skull pot. Upon opening this one with another Golden Key, she found it contained a blue sword named the Muramasa.
The second chest was different. This one was coloured red and black, like the colour of William's Crimtane armour. When she stepped up to it and tried to open she found it was locked, and neither the remaining Golden Key she had on hand nor the Shadow Key she had found in one of the previous gold chests worked.
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She sighed. Guess we'll have to figure out some other way to get this open.
That was when the entire room around her went dark.
She gasped, glancing desperately around, her Tendon Bow in hand. She even put a hand on the Muramasa she had pulled from the chest.
Then a figure, draped in blue hooded robes and wearing a mask, appeared.
Its yellow eyes stared down at her.
***
William and Sid kept on fighting their way through the Dungeon.
They had tried retracing their steps, looking for Robyn, but found no sight of her. They were now trying to explore some alternate routes she might have found herself going down, but the trail, if there was any that could be discerned, had gone cold. At this point they were basically aimlessly moving through the Dungeon, hoping to eventually stumble across Robyn.
Or the woman that James had mentioned.
They had found a fair amount of new items both from chests and also placed throughout the Dungeon. William had picked up a Cobalt Shield and a blue sword named the Muramasa, which dealt slightly less damage but swung much faster than the Blade of Grass. Sid had found a Handgun and Magic Missile in the chests, and picked up an Alchemy and Bewitching Table from the Dungeon's furniture. The latter item he discovered gave him a magical buff that allowed him to summon an extra Flinx, meaning he now had three of them under his command.
At one point they found themselves in battle against a massive wave of Angry Bones, Dark Casters, and a few floating Cursed Skulls.
"Aaaaaggghhh!" Sid cried, mowing his Minishark across the crowd. William slashed at the Angry Bones with his sword. It was then that one of those Cursed Skulls phased out of the floor and hit Sid from behind.
"Cactuses! I can't attack!" he cried.
William grit his teeth. He'd experienced this a bit earlier – the Cursed Skulls seemed to have the ability to inflict this curse that prevented them from being able to use their weapons for a few seconds.
"Fall back!" William cried.
They ran up some stairs and through a tunnel that slowly sloped upwards, the Angry Bones in pursuit.
That was when he accidentally tripped a pressure plate. The ceiling ahead of them burst open, and a bunch of round, grey things fell downwards.
"Boulders!" Sid shouted.
William grappled to the ceiling as the wave of boulders rolled forward. Sid jumped over them, narrowly avoiding getting bowled over. The boulders rolled down the tunnel and barrelled through the Angry Bones, turning all of them into a pile of bones.
"Well, at least they took care of that problem," Sid muttered.
William dropped from the ceiling, but didn't notice the other pressure plate he landed on, which opened up the floor beneath them, revealing a pit of spikes.
"Musket balls!" Sid cried as he and William fell. They both again narrowly escaped being impaled by the spikes by double-jumping out of the pit and Spectre-Boot-flying up to the far ledge.
"Whew," William muttered.
He and Sid stepped forward into the next room. He heard another click, and realised this time Sid had been the one to trip a pressure plate.
The entire roof above them burst open, dropping down boiling-hot lava.
William glanced behind them only to find the way behind had sealed itself off.
"Run!" He and Sid ran forward to the far wall. There William brought his Deathbringer Pickaxe into the wall, carving a small opening that they could take cover in from the lava. Beyond that was another room – joy! He and Sid ran through, and he managed to seal it up using blocks of stone just as the lava viscously oozed onto the floor.
They had saved themselves.
"What kind of madman would set up so many traps in this place?" Sid muttered.
"You mean what kind of mad woman would?"
The two of them turned to find a redheaded lady wearing yellow overalls. She had a large red wrench strapped to her back.
"Who are you?" Sid asked.
"The name's Kayla," she said. "I'm the Mechanic."
The Mechanic? "Did you get imprisoned down here?" William asked.
"That I did," she said. "Some creepy Old Man tied me up and threw me down here. Then this crazy lunatic told me he'd release me if I built mechanical parts of Cthulhu for him."
"Hold up," William held up his hand. "This... lunatic made you build mechanical parts for Cthulhu?"
"Yeah, keep your ears open! What choice did I have? When I refused to do what he asked, he said he was going to curse me and make me do the work anyway. So I just did what he asked. I figured that way I'd at least keep my free will and could maybe... you know, escape, or even better... sabotage his work." She smirked. "I kind of did both but neither really worked out. I built the mechanical eyes, spine and skeleton for Cthulhu. When it was time for me to start work on the new brain, that was when I tried to escape from the Dungeon. But that creepy Old Man was in the way, turning into a giant floating skeleton of doom. I just said, 'Nope,' and holed up in this room and rigged the entrance with all those traps."
"So you were the one to put up all those boulders?" Sid exclaimed.
"Exact-a-mundo!" Kayla said. "Should've known something was up when you triggered my lava-flow trap, none of the skellies could ever get past the pitfall filled with spikes!"
"What about this... lunatic, that made you build the mechanical parts?" William asked. "Tell me about him."
Kayla shrugged. "I don't know what to make of him, really. He's crazy, probably more so than that creepy Old Man. Always roaming around wearing a big blue cloak and a mask that makes him look like an echidna." She stepped forward. "He's the leader of the Cultists."
"The Cultists?"
"People who are trying to bring Cthulhu back to life."
***
Robyn felt like she must've blacked out, for she woke up sprawled across the uncomfortable brick floor of the Dungeon.
Craning her neck around, she saw she was in the same place she last remembered being in – the room with the Brain of Cthulhu painting. All of the lanterns and chandeliers were lit once again. The crimson chest remained sitting in front of her.
She shakily got to her feet.
What was that... or who was that... person that I saw?
She shook her head, and stepped over to the stone barricade she'd set up. She couldn't hear any Angry Bones on the other side, so she mined through it and headed back into the Dungeon.
She tried to find her way back the way she'd came, soon coming across a solitary Angry Bones dressed in dark armour. She aimed her Tendon Bow and fired
"Ow! Wait, Robyn! It's me!" The figure held up his hands.
She'd completely forgotten Sid had been wearing that silly Skeletron mask ever since it had dropped from it. A red-headed woman she had never seen before was next to round the corner, a citizen named Kayla. Then William.
"Robyn!" he cried.
He ran forward, arms splayed out, then seemed to slow down a few steps from her and lightly touched her arms.
"I thought we'd lost you," he said.
"I'm... still here," she said, though she once again wondered what exactly she had encountered back in that room.
"We found the woman that James threw down here," Sid said, then gestured to the redhead. "This is the Mechanic."
"Very nice to meet you," Kayla said, then turning to Sid and William, "And thanks again for rescuing me. It was just a matter of time before I ended up like the rest of the skeletons down here."
Sid laughed. "Well, time to take you home to where some humans reside..."
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