Chapter Three Hundred and Ninety-Three - First-Person Platformer

Chapter Three Hundred and Ninety-Three - First-Person Platformer

Chapter Three Hundred and Ninety-Three - First-Person Platformer

I didnt know if dungeons had a sort of... fairness system to them.

What I meant by fairness system was something that made it so that when challenging a dungeon, the dungeon wouldnt go out of its way to make any floor entirely unfair. Each floor had a solution that anyone could figure out given a bit of time, and while some of them were a lot harder than others, Id yet to encounter a dungeon floor that was entirely impassible.

I mean, all the dungeon had to do was make the challenge of a floor to dig through a wall of rock that was a dozen metres thick, and that would stop everyone but the most determined adventurer from pushing through. But so far I hadnt seen or experienced anything like that.

Which is why I wasnt too surprised by the platforming challenge on this particular floor.

Calamity and Puffles worked together to outline the route wed need to take. Puffles had the experience, and Calamity just had excellent eyesight, could judge distances really well, and had a skill that helped him find paths, which all combined to make him really good at mapping out the route wed need to take.

The first jump wasnt hard at all. We had to move halfway down the branch that the floors entrance was on, then down onto a thinner branch that crossed it from below. The drop was shorter than I was tall, and straight down onto a flat platform.

We were still careful about it.

The fireflies buzzing around were a constant distraction, and being distracted while walking over a huge fall was a quick way to trip. So Amaryllis came up with a game while we were on our way to the second jump. Broccoli, green, she said.

Green! I repeated. Calamity... red!

Red, he said. Caprica, yellow.

Yellow, she repeated. Mister Puffles, ah, white?

Hmm, White, he replied. Then he called out Amaryllis name and a random colour that wasnt the same one hed repeated.

The game was simple, because a complicated game would be distracting, and thats what the game was supposed to stop. By having us listen to our name and the colour, we were paying attention to each other. Your mind couldnt wander off, not for long since your name would be called out soon. And if one of us failed to reply, then wed know that they were more distracted than they should be.

I thought it was pretty clever.

We continued our callouts until we reached the second jump. This one was a bit trickier, since it wasnt just a straight-down drop, but instead we had to run and jump over a gap that was just a bit longer than a full pace. That was about a metre and a little bit, I guessed, which really wasnt very far. I could skip further than that.

Something about there being a massive drop made it a lot harder, however. I saw Awen breathing hard, and patted her on the back reassuringly. Itll be fine, I muttered.

She nodded, then jumped as Amaryllis called out her name. Uh, blue, and Broccoli, purple?

I think we can stop the callouts while we take turns jumping? I asked. That seemed reasonable enough.

We went one at a time, with Puffles and Caprica hovering below on either side of the drop, just in case. With all the Jumping practice Id gotten, the gap wasnt much of a challenge at all. Then Calamity casually hopped over and Amaryllis did the same, arms spread out to catch a bit of air. Awen was last, and I clapped as she took a running jump and easily cleared the gap. She ended up running into my arms on the other side, but she more than earned the victory hug.

Right, Amaryllis said. Lets keep it up, then. Broccoli, you were at purple?

I nodded and picked up the callouts where wed left off.

Theyre quite big. A few holes poked through them wont do much, Puffles said. Seeing as how he had moth wings of his own, I decided to trust his opinion on the matter. Its all rather moot if we dont actually make it there though. Should we keep on going?

We were most of the way there already, and the closer we came, the more the Evil Roots were more of a help than a hindrance. They formed bridges across the gaps created by the branches, long ropes of thick roots that hung between the platforms we were jumping off of.

None of us trusted the roots enough to try to walk across them, or to use them to get across one of the gaps, but they did seem to bind some of the branches closer together, and there was no harm in picking spots to jump from where we had a root-based safety net beneath us.

Finally, we arrived at the end of the obstacle. In the permanent daytime of this floor of the dungeon, it was hard to guess how long it had taken us to get this far through the dungeon, but it had to be at least a few hours.

Fortunately, the end of the challenge brought us to another large, wide branch that led back into the massive trees trunk. By unspoken agreement, we all decided to take a bit of a break far from the edge, but before crossing into the next room.

It wouldnt do to face a dungeon boss with a gurgly tummy. We pulled out some snacks and sat down to eat. We had some hardtack from the ship, and some of that strange blue fish wed picked up in Codwood. That, along with some seeds and nuts, made for a pretty light but filling meal.

That was for the best. We didnt want to go in feeling bloated either.

So, tactics for this boss? Caprica asked.

Ranged penetration as an opening, Amaryllis said. If we can use the terrain to keep distant from it and pepper it from afar, then that would make for the best option. Low risk, high reward.

She can fly, though, so it might not be all that slow. And Puffles mentioned that she was somewhat armoured, Calamity pointed out. Might not be so easy.

If it gets into close-range, then well have to rely on Caprica to stall it if possible, and on Broccoli to strike it from different angles. Amaryllis turned towards our guide. Mister Puffles, how tough is she?

Other than the fluff? About as tough as good leather, I suppose.

Can that fluff be removed? I asked.

It can be burned off, he said.

That was good to know. I could manage a fireball or two to help. We bounced a few more ideas around, but mostly our plans were kept on the simple side of things. Easy enough to change on the fly, mostly because even with Puffles descriptions, we didnt know exactly what we were going to be up against.

So wed do our very best and work together to overcome whatever was in there!

Once snack time was over, we picked up our stuff. It had been a nice break; we even had the fireflies putting on a bit of a bumbling show for us (now that it was okay to be a bit distracted, I did enjoy looking at them!) but it was time to get moving.

Squeezing through another crack in the wall, we arrived at the boss room, and immediately we could sense the presence of the Moon Mother. The room was darker than the previous floor, and the air was thick with the scent of the lunaflowers that Puffles had mentioned.

We could see the giant moth monster perched on a raised platform at the far end of the room, her massive wings folded neatly against her back. As soon as she sensed our presence, she let out a high-pitched screech and leapt into the air, her legs and wings unfolding as she prepared to attack.

Between us and her, however, was a room full of crisscrossing Evil Roots, many of which had large, delicate looking pods dangling from them.

Ah, that would complicate things a bit.

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