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Chapter Text

Kit squinted and turned the map in her hands. The sand was kicking up as another strong breeze gusted across the Igneo desert, and a few stray grains flew into her face as she blinked furiously to get rid of them.

Currently, she and her party were looking for an artifact stowed away in a hidden ancient temple. The artifact could be used to bribe a faction of elves into helping them against Valids Moarte, and after seeing what the White Veil Nunnery had been able to do, Kit was motivated to get some of the elves on their side.

“There is such a thing as hiding things too well, Developers,” she grumbled. The glare from the sun on the faded canvas wasn’t helping, and not for the first time she cursed whoever had decided draw only a partial map in code for this questline.

Not far from her, Prowl grunted his own frustration as he brushed yet more sand off the many belts he had added to his desert rogue outfit. “Are we sure this is right? This seems a very un-elf like place, if you ask me…”

“You’re the one who initially decoded this thing!” Kit said, smacking the map with the back of her hand. “And I don’t know why you’re complaining. “You didn’t have to add your belted cosmetics to your desert armor. You could always just take them off.”

“Belts make it look cool!” Prowl argued back. A moment later there was a brief glow around his arms before even more belted accessories appeared on his arms and hip. The unrepentant rogue turned in a circle to show them off. “See? Look how cool I am.”

“I wish we could be somewhere cool,” Noir grumbled, equipping a sort of hood to cover his eyes. He too had donned a desert wanderer outfit, with stats to help the characters avoid negative effects from the extensive heat.

Trash Panda, Noir’s raccoon pet, was rambling ahead of the group. The Heroes of Retha watched as the animal jumped headfirst into a nearby sand dune, legs kicking wildly as it got stuck.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Riko grinned from her magical ice armor.

“Ha, ha. Keep laughing in weather effects, Riko, and we’ll find a way to tear your armor off you,” Prowl grumbled again, kicking a pile of dust off of his boot. Prowl stepped closer to Riko, however, leaning into the mist floating off the glacial set like an in-game air conditioner.

“I don’t know why you’re upset. I’ve offered to use an ice AOE spell to cool things down—”

“No,” Kit said with feeling. Unlike the others who largely had tan and leather garments that reminded her a bit of the Prince of Persia game series, her desert armor outfit was like if Jasmine from Disney had a love affair with a floral floaty wedding skirt. Worse, her stomach was still bare, and she felt like she had sand everywhere.

It also meant that she was the only member of the group who was visibly freezing when Riko cast her ice spells. Also, the ice had melted too quickly anyway, leading to the group trudging through wet cement-like sand.

Let’s not get distracted now. Have you figured out where the temple is, Kit, or do we need to go back to the last marker to try again?” Solus asked from beside her.

Kit tried not to be jealous of Solus as well. Of all of them, his maxed-out level and buffs made him the most resistant to the heat, but his face still got pink from time to time, so clearly he wasn’t immune to the heat either. Probably because of all the heavy armor he typically wore as a Royal Knight and tank.

“I think we’re on track. If I’m reading this right, it should appear when we hit the right area and speak the password.”

“Open Sesame?” Prowl joked as Kit adjusted their path and kept walking.

“Something like that, if we can figure out the riddle.”

“Is the riddle ‘how to get sand out of all buckles and bodily orifices?’” Prowl asked, persistent. He shifted his pants. “I think I need to add a few more belts and buckles. I think some sand got in my pants and—"

“Ew! First: no, and second: relax. We’re almost there. I think it’s…just a few more steps, actually,” Kit broke in.

“Ninety-eight…ninety-nine…one hundred.”

The whole group paused in place when they reached the end of the prescribed number of paces, but nothing happened. Worse, there was nothing around them but sand and the blazing sun. The ground was flat in every direction, with no visual changes to the landscape.

Riko looked around, shaking sand out of her desert wizard cloak. “So…is there supposed to be something here?”

“Yes?” Kit peered at the map, double checking that they’d followed all the instructions. “It should be the temple.”

“Huh.” Riko scratched behind her ear. “Not looking very temple-y, Kit.”

“Not looking very anything at all,” Prowl added, kicking a bit of sand into the air.

“It should be here,” Kit muttered, turning the map left and right as if to unlock additional secrets. “It’s supposed to have towers and walls and everything.”

“You weren’t reading the map upside down, were you?” Noir asked, scratching Trash Panda absently while they waited.

“I definitely was not,” Kit muttered, as she double checked the translation.

Noir dropped Trash Panda onto the ground. “Trash Panda, bring me the temple.”

Unhelpfully, the raccoon just sat on its haunches and stared at its owner.

“What if it’s cloaked?” Solus asked

“I suppose its possible. Does anyone have any illusion removal spells?”

Kit turned to look at Prowl and Noir, but both shrugged.

“I can cast some shadow-based illusions, but not dispel any,” Prowl explained.

“And I can remove curses that blind you or conditions that affect sight, confusion, etc., but not just straight up magical illusions. That’s more of a mesmer style thing.”

“Maybe we need to figure out the password,” Kit said, looking at the faceless sand around them.

“What was it again? Something about vegetables?” Prowl asked, walking over to help peer at the map.

“Fruit, actually,” Kit clarified, handing the map over.

            Heroes,

            I musk insist that you pay me a visit

            Do so, and I will grant water’ you want

            Follow my honey-do lists, or we can’t elope

            Hurry or I’ll be bitter

~Pumpkin

“I’m not quite sure, but it sounds like there is a pun in there somewhere,” Riko said, also peering at the list.

Kit’s ears perked as they read the puzzle aloud and palm-faced herself, hard.

“Did you get something?” Solus asked.

“Yes.” Kit said, massaging her temples. “It’s another Lord of the Rings easter egg. The password is Mellon.”

The words had barely left Kit’s lips when the ground began to rumble and quake beneath them, the sand shifting perilously as an enormous structure exploded out of the ground.

“We should move aside!” Kit shouted over the sound of trembling earth and groaning stone as the sand continued to twist and slide, pushed and pulled into shape.

“Whatever you say, amigo,” Noir shouted as he retrieved his raccoon pet, lifting it out of the sand by its tail. The racoon crawled up the side of his arm to perch on his shoulder, chittering as Noir jogged over to Solus.

Elbowing the royal knight in the ribs once they were out of danger, he added “Get it? Because it’s speak friend, and enter?”

“I’m not above killing you and making you respawn elsewhere,” Solus threatened.

“No! Don’t! We’ll have to wait for him to walk all the way back here. Or, better yet, kill me too so I can just hang out back at the respawn point,” Prowl grumbled.

“Nonsense, Prowl!” Riko said cheerily. “We’re about to go temple robbing for hidden treasure and you still owe me for that loan I gave you last week for those lovely cosmetics.”

“She’s worse than a loan shark,” Prowl grumbled, but they were all of them grinning when a small panther-based knocker took shape on the doorway.

Blinking its bejeweled eyes at them, the small facet spoke with a deep voice that echoed over the desert.

“Whom interrupts my somulence?”

Chapter Text

“What in the knock-off Disney is this?” Noir asked.

“Really? I don’t see it,” Kit teased, straightening her dancer skirts and tapping her toes against Solus’s armor to knock some of the sand free. Solus, gentleman that he was, helped to steady her as she balanced on one leg.

“I’m serious!” Noir insisted. “Tell me the level designer didn’t get a little too invested in the Cave of Wonders and Agrabaah’d this sand kitty into existence.”

“Maybe we should be cautious not to insult the sand-kitty, lest it eat us like it did its first victim?” Solus suggested, shaking some sand out of his armor and brushing it off his fluffy pauldrons.

“Wow, Solus. I’m impressed you remember that,” Kit flashed Solus a sparkling elven grin.

Prowl rolled his eyes and pretended to gag.

“Whatever, everyone! Let’s just ping Gerad and Alistair and get some of the other teams here. Now that we have found the temple, we can finally get going!”

*-*-*

It wasn’t long before Gerad, Alistair, and a handful of their KOS counterparts made their way to Kit’s party’s location.  The slightly shorter paladin and his overly enthusiastic cavalry knight First Officer bantered between each other as  Alistair helped Gerad off her mount.

“But you can’t reach the ground to dismount yourself, guild master,” Alistair said as she insisted on guiding Gerad from the horse.

“I’m not that short! Even children ride horses IRL,” Gerad retorted, slipping to the sand perfectly fine.

“Yes, but they have stools to help them. It’s a bad time to break an ankle, sir,” Alistair continued, as Gerad waved her away to stand with the others.

Unfortunately, they were accompanied by The Killing Squad, the guild Kit had the unfortunate luck to work with previously with Guild master half-Fang and First Officer Long Claw.

“What are you doing here?” Noir asked, crossing his arms and staring down his knows at Long Claw, the volatile werewolf that Kit ad previously chastised for failing to follow directions. That lead to Kit instructing Noir not to heal the recalcitrant werewolf, which, looking back, had probably secured her Noir’s undying affection more than any other thing she had done for him.

The scarred guild master fingered a dagger between his fingers. “This is a temple raid, and we are known for raiding,” Half-Fang asserted. “Therefore we requested to be one of the guilds permitted entrance into the temple for this quest.”

Riko snorted. “You just want a chance at any treasure in case, like Malignus, this quest ends up being non-repeatable.”

“Would you rather we have sent Saint George?” Long Claw asked, rolling his eyes, disgruntled as always.

“Maybe,” Noir said, grinning. “I’d love to show him my beautiful guild name again, and I expect that he at least knows enough to stay in my healing AOE.”

Saint George had long tried to recruit Noir to be one of the Brave Heart Company guild members, but he had persistently declined. Noir had taken vindictive delight in showing off his new Heroes of Retha guild status.

“Don’t blame me for your inability to adjust to battle,” Long Claw snarled. His hang gripped the pommel of his jagged saber tighter.

Noir’s grin turned to a bit more of a smirk. “I hope you brought potions for yourself today, werewolf.”

“Easy, easy,” Gerad said as Alistair, in her beautiful lotus armor, put an arm on each of the boy’s chests and stepped between the two.

“Let’s settle down, shall we?” Alistair grinned cheerfully.

“Yes. There’s no need for this before we even get in there,” Gerad agreed, backing up his First Officer.

Gerad, armor glinting in the sunshine, turned toward Kit. “Though I wouldn’t mind getting out of this heat, Kit. It’s a new temple but did you have a plan on how you want to run this?”

Kit sighed mentally.

Although this is called a Temple, it’s probably going to be some sort of dungeon raid with monsters, traps, and maybe some mini bosses. Since this quest will allow us to recruit one of the elf factions, we’re probably going to have to fight a challenging boss at the end—not as big as Malignus, but nothing to sneeze at.

Kit looked at the Werewolf still trading glares with Noir, and their kitted out crew waiting in the wings behind him. Long Claw and (Kit suspected) the gruff and equally bloodthirsty appearing Half Fang, would probably be a handful.

But with high level DPS characters in their party, they will probably be good to have on hand.

KOS had brought a well-balanced crew along with them, so if they had to, Kit figured they could let the Killing Squad run a bit rampant and resurrect them as needed.

“Let’s just take it one step at a time,” Kit offered, sending out raid invites to those present.

“Are we running this like the Elba raid?” a KOS paladin asked as they accepted Kit’s invite.

“Not exactly,” Kit said. “I don’t expect this battle to be nearly as large as that. This will probably be just a higher-level dungeon,” Kit said, sorting the last few invites into their guild parties. “We’ll get in there and see what it’s like. If we can beat it, fantastic. If not, our goal is to at least get some intel. We can update our tactics and parties and try again later if we have to.”

Once everybody was properly situated, Kit strolled up to the door.

As she approached the sandstone panther head, the cat shifted out of its graphic loop to interact with her.

“Whom interrupts my somulence?”  the head said, its volume once again disproportionate to its voice.

“Don’t worry, Gerad. I’ll defend you!” Alistair said, scooping up the smaller guild leader.

“I don’t need saving!” Gerad hissed. “And put me down!”

“I suppose it can’t hurt for you to stretch your legs a little. Perhaps that will help them to grow longer?” Alistair offered cheerfully, as the rest of the KOS guild sniggered behind them.

Kit drew her attention back to the panther head, blinking at her with its small jewel eyes.

“The being of me, Aladdin. Or should I say Prince Ali?” Kit said drily.

When the head did nothing, she cleared her throat and answered more serious.

“I do…KittenLovemuch.”

“KittenLovemuch. You seek to challenge the Temple of Astucia, resting place of the Elves most sacred star. Once you enter, your raid party will be unable to communicate outside the temple, If a member from your party dies during the course of the channel, they will resurrect at the entrance here, and will not be able to rejoin you until your party has either passed or failed the temple. Members who perish before the temple is complete will be assigned an experience penalty. As the Entry Guardian, I must inform you that the recommended party level for this temple is at least level 80. Are you sure your party wishes to enter the temple at this time?”

Kit listened through the temple warning and looked up at her own level, which was woefully only level 72. 

Casting her eyes at the rest of the party, Riko and Prowl gave her a thumbs up.

“Don’t worry Kit. We’ve got you!” Riko said. Her and Prowl’s levels flashed a respectable 82.

“Typical,” Half-Fang snorted. “We’ll probably have to carry most of the party.

“You can complain about that when you reach level cap,” Solus snapped at the other guild leader, who somehow managed not to flinch.

Solus rested a hand on Kit’s shoulder. “We’ll play it as usual. You stay in the back and I’ll taunt enemies away from you. Besides, the higher level enemies should be a great experience boost for you. We’ll get you up to level in no time.”

“And I’ll prioritize healing you!” Noir declared. Happily, he turned to the rest of the raid members. “Hear that everyone? Kit gets priority—so be mindful of your health because I will have no problem refusing to heal you.”

“Don’t ever become a real-life doctor, Noir,” Gerad said, shaking his head. “Or else you’ll really need to work on your bedside manner.”

It’s definitely a risk going in under level. The enemies will be harder than I could beat on my own, but Solus is right that the experience will be better. We’d have to fight at least a dozen desert goblin packs to get the amount of experience I’ll probably get in here.

Kit turned to the group as she equipped her battle fans. “Everybody set? We’re going in now. Be on your guard. We have no idea what will be waiting on the other side of the Temple Door.”

“We really need to work on purifying your swords,” Solus chided her quietly as the rest of the team equipped their preferred items.

“Don’t be a pest when you were so wonderfully helpful just a moment ago,” Kit whispered back to him, and laughed when the tips of his ears turned red.

Once everyone looked ready, Kit squared her shoulders and nodded to the sandy panther head.

“We are ready to begin.”

The panther head  stilled, blinked its eyes, and the world erupted into a deep, brilliant red.

Chapter Text

The red light ended up being a teleport into the temple. As the light faded around them, Kit and her team materialized in a large, circular stone room.

The temple had the musty smell of damp and mold—not at all what Kit would have expected for a desert temple. The room was dark, lit by blue torches every fifteen feet, but the light was just shy enough that there was a step of true darkness in between each torch.

Worse, there were various tunnels exiting the room.

A labyrinth, Kit thought, mulling over their options. If this was anything like some of the other game dungeons she had played, they could expect to wander the hallways and encounter various monsters that would attack them, or possibly traps within the walls. Typically, labyrinths were time consuming but not too difficult, provided you didn’t let any monsters swarm you. All they probably had to do was get to the end.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Prowl said, looking around the area. “Shouldn’t it be tan sandstone? This looks like rock we would find in a mountain.”

“Say it with me: Recycled graphics bundle,” Noir snorted, spinning in a circle to take in the room.

“You’re stuck in a game with servers that are about to glitch out and quite possibly kill us at any moment, and you’re worried about misaligned graphics details?” Riko asked, blinking.

Prowl grunted. “Attention to detail never hurts…EC is a big company…”

Kit rolled her eyes. “We can debate the ins and outs of the accuracy of made-up gaming dungeons when we’ve completed this.”

“Are those instructions over there?” One of the KOS wizards asked after everyone finished materializing.

A pair of blue torches bracketing scratches in the wall flickered brighter as the party stepped closer.

Welcome to the Temple of Astucia, where cleverness is key. Complete all five levels of the Temple to secure the Elven Star.

You are on Level One: The Labyrinth of Living Stone.

Watch your back. The walls certainly are.

Beside her Riko shivered. “Well if that’s not the creepiest thing I’ve read in a while…”

One of the Killing squad saboteurs snorted. “It’s just for atmosphere. Clearly this is a maze level. Keep your hand to the left and eventually we’ll get through. Just leave any monster slaying to us.”

“Good thought, wise guy, but which left?” Asked one of the Druids from KOS, gesturing to the variety of tunnels.  “There are at least eight tunnels, and we’re in a circle.”

“Perhaps we can mark them?” Alistair asked, scratching her chin. “Hang cloth by each one we test, and proceed one by one. We can follow each line for ten minutes, and if we come to a dead end or the hall goes farther, we can return and try another until we find the most promising options.”

“Why don’t we just split up?” One of the other members of Killing Squad asked. “It would be faster to send a few scouts down each tunnel to knock at least some of them out, right?”

“Maybe, but remember what the Guardian said: if your character dies in the temple, you won’t be allowed back in.” Kit reminded them. “Sending one person alone down the temple leaves them exposed to attack.”

“Well I think scouting is a great idea,” Half Fang said without missing a beat, nodding to some of his highest-level players. “The Temple cap is Level 80. We’ll just send people who are well above that. That should minimize any chance of dying.”

“It is a risk, but there’s no denying it would be faster to knock at least a few of the tunnels out if we can,” Gerad agreed. Looking over his own team, he tilted his head. “Though I think I would send people in pairs, for safety.”

“That’ll take too long,” Long Claw rolled his eyes. “Our guild is specialized with DPS fighters, and with their high stats they tend to move faster. They’re perfect for dungeon raiding. I’ll just send them.”

Noir snorted.

“What are you laughing at?” The leader of the Killing Squad growled.

“Oh, nothing,” Noir said, rocking back and forth merrily on his heels. “Just envisioning what your face will look like when all your party members die.”

“You dare to insult our guild?” Long Claw snarled, lifting a dagger toward Noir.

Noir pushed the dagger away. Since friendly-fire was off, he didn’t take any damage from the blade, to Long Claw’s dismay.

“It’s not that I want to insult your guild insomuch as I agree with you—you are all DPS fighters. There’s barely a tank or healer among you. What happens if your guys get swarmed with no backup?”

“Might makes right,” Half Fang said, flexing his bicep muscle as his guild grunted and hollered around him. “A good offense is the best defense. We can’t get swarmed if we just kill’em all.”

“KILL’EM ALL! KILL’EM ALL! KILL’EM ALL!”

The Killing Squad guild started chanting in unison, shaking their fists and stomping on the ground. Several of  the KOS members covered their ears to block out the noise, which echoed in the room.

Half Fang leaned back and literally howled at the ceiling. “KILLING SQUAD, ACTIVATE! GO FORTH AND BRING ME VICTORY!” he shouted.

As one, his guild howled or barked back before rushing to disappear in an unorganized mess into the tunnels.

“Well, that wasn’t disturbing in the slightest,” Kit shared a look with the rest of her party, who had the same creeped out expression she did. “But more importantly—Half Fang, what the handkerchiefs? We were just saying to send them in pairs!”

“That’s gotta be the swear proficiently,” Riko muttered to Noir, nudging him with an elbow.

Half-Fang rolled his eyes. “They are in pairs. Some of them.”

Kit watched the dots of the Killing Company raid partners swarming like ants on an unmarked map. “We didn’t even designate a numbering system or who went down which tunnels. The maze isn’t sending back data as they explored it—some of them are crossing paths. We have no idea if that’s the tunnels combining or winding,” Kit sighed.

Neither Half Fang nor Long Claw said anything as they made a few hand motions, bringing up their own dungeon maps. As Kit had explained, though they could see the general dots of party members further in the tunnels, the map itself did not appear behind them.

Long Claw shrugged. “Oh well. I’m sure it’s fine.”

Kit sighed at the DPS raid clan’s cavalier attitude.

“Kit—” Noir began, but she interrupted him.

“No, don’t follow to heal them,” Kit answered before Noir even had to ask. The healer grinned, looking incredibly pleased.

Kit, however was more frustrated. What was the point of bringing a raiding guild if they got killed in the first level? Was the entire dungeon raid going to be like this?

Solus squeezed her shoulder and Kit reminded herself that the problem players were an experienced, over-leveled raiding guild.

Still…

Opening up her raid party chat, she typed out a quick directive.

            RETURN NO LATER THAN TEN MINUTES FROM THIS CHAT. COME BACK IF YOU RUN INTO OBSTACLES OR NEED HELP. PRIORITIZE RETURNING WITH INFORMATION OVER ADVANCING ALONE.

“Why don’t we think of a way to mark the tunnels while we’re waiting?” She suggested to the rest of the team. “Does anyone have any chalk or writing utensils perhaps?”

The characters looked between them, but given the limited need for such materials at their levels, and their minimal utility in quests, no one had anything.

“I just use game notes when I need to mark anything…” one of the KOS members whispered, and the group looked a little downcast.

“We could reference them like Analog clocks!” Riko posed.

“What’s an analog clock?” Someone else asked.

Riko’s character went completely pale. “Oh my stars, I’m old,” she whispered.

Prowl patted her on the back. “There, there, Riko. We already knew that.”

“Kit, be a dear and turn friendly-fire on, please,” Riko asked sweetly, gripping her staff before smacking Prowl’s leg with the butt of it.

Prowl yipped, but his health bar did not go down.

“…what if we drop junk items by each of the tunnels?” Alistair posed helpfully. “Things we don’t mind despawning if we can’t come back to it?”

“Now THAT’S a more feasible option!” Gerad declared. “starting with you, Alistair. You always hoard a bunch of lower level potions and upgrades. Why don’t you start by putting some of those on the ground?”

Alistair’s eyes widened. “But those are for the junior players, Guildmaster!”  Putting her arms over protectively over the general area of her player menu, she looked as if she were defending an invisible statue. “I need them!”

Gerad sighed as the rest of the team giggled behind him. “We have higher level potions we can give them if we need to.”

“You always say giving out the higher level potions for smaller heals is such a waste.”

“I’ll make an exception. You need to clear out your inventory anyway. I don’t want to hear you moaning that you don’t have room to store new weapons for them either because your space is filled with junk. Get to it, Alistair.”

The cavalry knight’s shoulders slumped as she acceded to the wishes of her guild master. Trudging over to each of the tunnels, looking very much like someone had kicked a kitten, Alistair began depositing bits and pieces of truly useless inventory.

“Are those dandelion flowers?” Solus asked, his brow twitching.

“They are,” Gerad agreed, watching Alistair as she moaned moving from position to position.

“Isn’t that a quest item from around level 20?” Solus continued his questioning.

“It is,” Gerad agreed again.

The pair watched together silently, bonding over the ridiculous inventory dedication.

Only Riko seemed to have any sympathy for the First Officer.

Sniffling, she gripped her staff. “It’s such a waste.”

“They are old items, Riko…” Kit offered, having to agree with Gerad and Solus on this one.

“But she still could have sold them! All that gold—wasted!”

“Just think of all the money she’ll make back when she picks up new inventory,” Gerad called over his shoulder.

“But still—”

“No. Don’t encourage her,” the guildmaster argued, and Riko set about to polishing her staff instead as she grumbled.

Seven minutes had gone by before Alistair rejoined them, and as Kit watched the tiny Killing Company player circles advancing ever farther, her own brow twitched, irritated.

You only have 3 minutes left to return to the starting point. Return now please, so we can strategize effectively.

Long Claw grunted. “You are paranoid. They’re just clearing out the dungeon for you lower levels. They’re doing you a favor. There’s no need for them to hurry.”

Rather than fight, Kit let it go, watching the progress of the various circles. Some had joined up in pairs, others were still in singles, and as the dots had swarmed every which way over the still invisible map, it had been impossible to figure out which way they were all going.

Several members had taken damage already, but that was expected. They knew there would be monsters, and a bit of damage here or there was nothing to worry about.

Then the first player’s health went from yellow to zero, and their name disappeared from the raid party. The circle vanished, and their information was completely gone from Kit’s screen.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

“Half Fang, what are you seeing in your chat?” Kit asked, looking through the raid party chat that was dismally clear of Killing Company comments.

“Nothing much,” the guild master reported. Kit watched as Half Fang motioned in the air to scroll through his chat before typing messages to his subordinates.

Kit  watched as several of the health bars shade from green to yellow, and a few more to red.  “What do you have?” Kit pressed him further.

After the two guild leaders maintained their silence, Noir spoke up. “I guess they’re all dead then, since the two kumquats here have nothing to report.”

Long Claw rolled his eyes, rising to the taunt. They’re not dead,” he spat out. “Our members aren’t using the guild chat. Half Fang is demanding a report on what’s going on right now.”

“They’re probably too busy fighting and can’t open their panels,”  Half Fang added.

Kit groaned as another health bar dropped to red. One of the member’s health bumped back up to yellow—probably from taking a health potion or a spell—but the bars overall were not encouraging.

“This is why we were supposed to go through the dungeon together!” she growled at them. “Now we’ve lost almost an entire team to who knows what.”

Half Fang shrugged. “Just goes to show the temple may be more difficult than you said it would be.”

“Yeah!” Long Claw tacked on. “Besides, if our members are dying, you under-leveled people are bound to be slaughtered anyway, so it’s not that big a deal.”

A few of the KOS members just under the level 80 cap bristled, as did Riko and Prowl as they glowered at the two troublesome players.

“You seem very blasé about this, considering your team is getting slaughtered” Gerad observed, watching Half Fang with an eyebrow raised.

Half Fang shrugged. “We’ve only lost one so far. NBD. The others are yellow—well, some of them are red, I guess”

“Some of them!” Kit ground out.

Long Claw shrugged. “What’s the worst that could happen? We’ll just ask when they come back in.”

“They can’t come back in,” Solus reminded the two leaders. “As was clarified when we entered the temple.”

Solus, already at level cap, did not get any snark back from either of the players, who elected instead to studiously track what was likely their still-empty guild chat.

Kit turned to her own party’s healer. “Noir, any thoughts?”

“I’m not raid party leader so I can’t see everyone’s screens. Are the bars wiping fast or slow?”

“Moderately fast,” Kit confirmed, watching as another bar blipped to nothing. “Actually, wait a second.”

Opening her raid leader panel, Kit quickly moved Noir from her party to the Killing Company’s.

Noir’s eyes tracked the bars he could now see. “Ah. It’s not just health—these color changes and icons are also showing debuffs before they get low or wipe. Looks like stunning, poison, and blindness debuffs, some of them stacking so they have multiple debuffs at one time.”

“So maybe cave dwelling creatures like dungeon scorpions?” Prowl suggested. “They have poison.”

“They should be able to take out scorpions though,” Riko pondered. “Those are lower level monsters.”

“Not if they were swarmed,” Solus posed. “Even low-level enemies can be dangerous if they attack you en masse.”

“In a tunnel though?” Kit asked. “The tunnel should limit how many funnel to them, unless they’re glitching through the walls or something.”

“The dungeon could have given them a boost to their level or stats.” Solus pointed out. “They might get some sort of advantage in their own environment.”

“Or they could crawl on the ceilings and drop from above,” Prowl shrugged.

“Ooh! What if it was an accident when they were trying to ride on them?” Alistair posed helpfully.

“…I’m pretty sure that’s only a risk for you, Alistair,” Gerad responded calmly. The First Officer’s bright comment did diffuse some of the tension though, as everyone chuckled.

Kit’s chuckle subsided as she watched another bar wipe.  “Anything you can do for them remotely, Noir?” Kit asked hopefully, but the healer shook his head.

“They’re too far beyond my AOE to reach. I could delve into the tunnels and apply some buffs and heals buuut—”

 “No, we don’t want that,” Kit grumbled. “Tartersticks and Fishsauce.”

“I’ll go in,” Solus offered. “I’m level cap, so there likely isn’t anything in here that is going to be able to take me out. I’ll round up the survivors and bring them back.”

“What survivors?” Kit blew out a breath. “There are only two members left—and they’re gone.”

The last of the Killing Company health bars (aside from their remaining two leaders) flashed to nothing before the names faded from Kit’s raid party screen, cutting off the brief moment of levity.

Kit’s team glared at the Killing Company leaders, who shrugged.

“Not to be rude,” Half Fang started, which produced a variety off scoffing noises, “But there is a good chance we’ll be joining them. They’re not n00bs. It’s probably just a rough set up and they went in blind.”

“Off to certain death. Hooraaay,” Prowl quipped before Riko elbowed him.

Kit ignored him too as she sifted through the remaining party  members and group stats, evaluating what she had to work with.

They still had the five members of her party (herself, Riko, Prowl, Noir, and Solus), about ten members from KOS, and the remaining Killing Company Guild Master and First Officer.

KOS brought a bunch of healer and support characters since they were planning on supporting the Killing Company DPS fighters, but I think we can still make this work, at least to get a little bit further.

Nodding, she turned to address the rest of the group, who straightened.

“Let’s split up into groups of four. That should allow us to divvy up the remaining tunnels with enough fighters and support characters to stand a chance of making it through the labyrinth. Each group can take a tunnel and report in the group chat about your findings. If you hit a dead end or hit a monster you can’t beat, try to get out of aggro and report back here. If one team finds the way forward, we’ll group up and follow them as a team.”

The KOS members nodded and huddled together with Gerad and Alistair, figuring out the best way to divide up their teams. Meanwhile, Half Fang and Long Claw stubbornly stood next to each other.

“Why don’t you two gentlemen split up to help a KOS team each?” Kit suggested as she opened the raid screen to start moving parties.

“We’d rather take our own fifth tunnel,” Half Fang announced. Long Claw nodded.

“No, you should go with one of the KOS teams,” Kit reiterated, pointing toward two of the teams that had support wizards and healers. “They don’t have a lot of DPS in their groups. they could use the help.”

“But we have faster speed on our own without them,” Half Fang countered. “We can take on at least one more tunnel together by ourselves. That will either knock out another fake or find the right path—both of which would help advance the whole party.”

“Oooor we lose a whole KOS party because they don’t have a lot of attack power,” Kit pointed out. “Just think! You could be the heroes and be super awesome!”

Kit hoped the dangled carrot of self importance would win the two leaders over.

It did not.

Long Claw just sniffed and wiped at his nose. “If they can’t hold their own, they shouldn’t be here.”

“Not so sure you should be saying that when most of your team just wiped, bud.” Noir said, looping his thumbs through imaginary belt loops on his wizard robe and rocking on his heels.

“Which was unfortunate, yes, but we are the leaders of a raiding guild,” Half Fang insisted, gesturing between himself and Long Claw. “We won’t have the same problem.”

“Never one to learn from history are you, Long Claw?” Noir insisted, shifting to cross his arms and scowl down at the werewolf fighter. “Oi! Trash Panda! Fetch!”

Noir’s raccoon chittered as it jumped off his shoulder and raced toward Half Fang and Long Claw.

“Don’t let that nasty little rabid striped rat get anywhere near me!” Long Claw shouted, stepping behind Half Fang and climbing onto his shoulders as Trash Panda circled the guild leader’s feet.

Kit held up a hand to stop more arguments before they started, and Noir called his mischievous pet back.

Kit turned back to the pair and put her hands on her hips. “Why are you here if you don’t want to work together?” she asked, a little exasperated.

“We have a reputation to uphold.” Half Fang finally answered. He exchanged a look with Long Claw, still perched on Half Fang’s shoulder.

The First Officer had the grace to look a little sheepish as he climbed down and straightened his clothes.

Half Fang continued. “My team did not perform to our usual standards. I would like to redeem our contribution, so, Long Claw and I will take our own tunnel to knock an additional pathway out. We can do this.”

Long Claw pointed to the remaining tunnels. “Right now, we’re taking on half the tunnels. If we find the right one, great, we’ll come back and help escort everyone else. If we don’t though, we can knock out one or two of these, and have even bigger groups for the final tunnels.”

Kit hesitated. It went against her instinct to leave the two behind, but they finally seemed sincere about doing something.

Only the KOS teams really do need the help.

As if reading her mind, Solus squeezed Kit’s shoulder. “Do you want me to go with one of the KOS teams?”

Kit thought it over. “No,” she finally said, shaking her head. “I’m just a dancer. I have zero attack power. Noir is a healer and has zero attack power. We’re going to need your tank and attack skills, and if we join the other teams ourselves we’ll lose the whole benefit Half Fang and Long Claw are proposing.”

Sighing, Kit turned to Prowl and Riko. “Would you two be willing to go with the other KOS teams to be their backup? Between Noir and Solus, we should at least be able to survive. I want to make sure the others have at least one solid damage dealer on their teams.”

“Of course we can,” Riko agreed easily.

“At your service, oh fearless leader!” Prowl proclaimed loudly, completing a half bow with a grand flourish.

Riko rolled her eyes but smiled. “Between Prowl’s Mangle and my Earthen Pit and Nature’s Bindings, we should be fine. I can always bind our enemies, and make a pit so they can’t follow us in the tunnels,” Riko reassured her.

“And I’ll go with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum,” Gerad thumbed a finger at the Killing Company leaders. “Alistair is strong enough to handle one of our groups by herself, Kit.”

“We don’t need help!” Long Claw objected, eyes narrowed.

“We don’t need a babysitter,” Half Fang added, seeing Gerad’s stunt for exactly what it was.

“Of course not. Consider yourselves my gracious escort,” Gerad rolled his eyes.

Under his breath, Gerad whispered to kit. “And I have a lot of healing potions I can throw at them if they do get into trouble.”

Kit gave him a warm smile. “Thanks, Gerad. That makes things much more workable.”

After that, everyone lined up outside of a tunnel, writing into the chat which tunnel exactly they had chosen for tracking purposes.

“All right, everyone! Stay safe out there. Don’t get so proud and stubborn that you get yourselves killed. Come back early if you have to.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Alistair saluted.

In brighter spirits, the group laughed before disappearing down their various tunnels.

In no time at all, the thick stone walls blocked the sound of the other groups, and the darkness between torches enveloped them.