94 Chapter 22 - Entering the Rose Gate (2/2)
Each party was provided with a map and ushered to another room where they found Kenji beside an archway of Roses. Within the archway was an ocean of stars, and without adieu, they were ordered to ”enter.”
The Satyr's of Bloodhorn rushed through without question, the Sun Elves of Sundrake following behind with an annoyed look.
”Shall we?” Ellie said, wiggling her fingers at Kenji as she strode into the gate. Smiling with those gorgeous golden eyes, Ellie almost blushed. Almost. Not that she liked him or anything, not a creature like that, but she could appreciate pretty boys when she saw one.
To her, Scab had been a pretty boy too. And if Kenji had been stronger, as he promised he was, Scab would be breathing right now. Ellie wasn't the only one who hadn't been strong enough.
Entering a dark cavern, Ellie found roots pushing aside soil to form walls, and a copper leafed treant in the centre with little fireflies dangling about his crown. Just as described, and yet the ease of entry, the suddeness, it was incredible.
She had been in a stone room, and now Ellie's Crew stood in a dungeon made by...well who? A forgotten god perhaps?
”Step forward adventurer, and pass into the Ways. Should you wish to return to your world, merely find me or my brother for a portal home, and should you wish it, ask for one of my fireflies to show you the way to the next floor.” the voice came from a grumbling old tree with copper leaves and a swarm of fireflies in its branches.
Kenji had told them of the fireflies and how they revealed hidden passages on the occasion.
”Thanks, we'll take that,” Ellie said.
”Thank your protector, you generosity is valued,” Taki added, the treant turning his wizened face to peer down at the Furbolg druid.
”A druid? Since you are here, I have some additional information,” the treant said, and kind off-script compared to what Ellie was told. ”The spirits are being locked up by demons throughout this dungeon, inside cages or mutated into demons. Find all four on a level and receive a special reward, although they grow in strength with every level that you descend.”
”Thank you, great one. I will heed your advice with open ears,” Taki said, bowing low before he ushered Ellie's Crew onward. The party only followed when Ellie did and entered a dark cavern lit only with fireflies, one for each party member present.
They lost the Sundrakes and Bloodhorn quickly, the other parties choosing their own routes through the undergrowth. Yet Kenji had told them they were ready, and Ellie pressed on down her own path without fear.
Exiting the winding darkness, Ellie covered her eyes as they found themselves in a golden field that sprawled in all directions. The roof was stone studded with bright yellow crystal that shone like the sun, it's light causing Armen to shy away.
”That's real sunlight,” he hissed and pulled up his hood. Immediately a pair of dog sizes ants attacked, the leftmost froze under a torrent of ice magic while the right was crushed under Dwargon's hammer.
”That was fast,” Ellie said, the wheatfield rustling as another pair emerged to attack them. While as easily dispatched as the last, they were hard to see even from the edge of the field and would become even more dangerous when they entered the fields itself.
Peering around, Ellie found no markings of a previous party as she left a stone cube and chalk markings of her own.
”Back up, Kenji told us what to do here,” unfurling an enchanted scroll, Ellie unleashed it's stored contents. [Fireball] activated and shot into the field, a blast of flame soon setting the wheat alight. Safe in the entryway, Ellie watched the flames consume this level, a chorus of screeching sounding out as the insecticide raged.
Ellie grinned, determined to grow strong, to take the powers of this dungeon for herself. Kenji's tricks would last only the first few levels, perhaps enough to finish the first floor, after that, they were on their own.
But for now she just watched, as the fire of the fields contorted in her mind to that of the Siege, and those insecticidal screams started to sound human.