Broken Lands

Chapter 330 – An Incomplete Expedition

The injured team’s story was straightforward, if fairly long. They’d gotten on the floating cloud, then drifted in darkness for entirely too long. The only thing that came out of the darkness was a fish monster, which they killed. They floated in darkness for a much shorter period of time, then finally were able to see the ground by the soft glow of the cloud they rode. The cloud floated the rest of the way down, then disappeared, leaving them stranded on a fairly wide ridge of higher ground between two deep canyons. The slopes to either side looked passable but steep, while the ridge itself wavered up and down but stayed far flatter than the sides. Despite being on top of a ridge, the ground was covered in a couple inches of sand above the rock, which made walking unpleasant.

They picked a direction and began walking, but every few minutes they were attacked from one side or the other by strange flying sea monsters that swam through the air. There was a link-gate visible from the ridge down one of the slopes after about an hour. They decided not to go after it, since they’d gained nothing from the node and it was down a slope; they thought for sure they’d eventually find one that was closer to the ridge and easier to get to.  Even from the ridge, monsters were visible around the link-gate.

As they moved on, the fights continued. Each one was harder than the last as the monsters that attacked them became more varied. Where at first they were mostly fish, by the time they saw the fourth link-gate down, they’d also seen a strange sort of fast-moving squid, stingrays with several different types of magic, and some kind of very strange slowly-moving flower that made all of the monsters stronger. They’d gone from easily dominating what they saw to picking up occasional injuries, but nothing too bad and figured they could push on to another link-gate, but there didn’t seem to be much point. They were all exhausted after hours of walking and off-and-on fighting and there didn’t seem to be any prizes other than the monster bodies in the zone anyway.

When they started down the slope, everything came at them at once. It was a mess where they ended up running for the link-gate as they fought. Fortunately, once they were within a dozen feet of it, the monsters stopped attacking.

That was apparently fairly common in the Maze; most exit link-gates were safe areas, at least for a short time. It wouldn’t last and it didn’t seem to apply to some monsters at all, but it was common enough that they’d run for the gate in the hope that it was one of the safe ones.

In front of the gate, there was a small pile of aurichalc and three tokens. One of the tokens had to be used to open the gate, but that meant they’d gained a dozen leaves each and a couple of tokens that would probably lead back to the same zone if they were used on a token link-gate. It wasn’t particularly rewarding, even for this early in the Maze.

Once they were healed, Arak Shade informed everyone that there were apparently three different outcomes for the zone they’d just traveled through. One was entering a Night Market; each of the groups that found one ended up in a different Night Market, but they were all very similar other than what goods were sold and what the Market Lord’s Challenge was.

The second option was the underwater monsters fought from a wider area of higher ground. Enough of the groups found that one that Arak was confident it was a wave challenge, where you decided how far you could go. Exiting earlier led to more aurichalc but fewer tokens. To Arak, that probably meant that there was a bigger reward if you got even farther, because the tokens were clearly being valued higher than the aurichalc, but he couldn’t be certain. He did expect that they’d use one of the challenge’s tokens on the way back out, since having their entire group together ought to allow them to get farther and see if his guess was correct. Even if it wasn’t, it would be a good route that would probably replace the token that was used to enter.

The third option was unknown; there was one group of two teams that was still missing. Arak could track them with a tool to find other people in the Maze, so he knew that some of them were in another link and had a guess about which link-gate was between them and the missing group, so that was where they were headed next.

Packing up the campsite went quickly. It was Rockfist and Flying Stars’ turn to lead, mostly because they were well-rested and uninjured. The teams whose turn should have been next were the pair that arrived last, so clearly they couldn’t lead the way.

The link-gate led to a forest clearing. Three dirt paths led out of the clearing; the rest of the space was heavily overgrown, more like a hedge wall than an old-growth forest. The dirt paths were about three feet wide, clearly more than animal trails but not even close to wide enough to carry the entire group. Worse, individual branches crowded even closer together and made the whole place a hazardous place to fight.

The clearing was more than large enough for the entire expedition, fortunately, so they simply had to wait while everyone came through. 

Arak sent several scouts out down the three possible paths to see if there was an obvious difference between them. Two of the scouts came back quickly, having decided not to continue their scouting far into either a very wet swamp or a region of clear volcanic activity; the first place where lava was actively eating into trees and touching the path was enough for her. Arak seemed to agree with her; they hadn’t prepared for molten stone.

The third scout took longer. When he did finally return, it was at a run chased by an oversized bear with large crystals growing from its spine. Smaller crystals seemed to have replaced its eyes, claws, and teeth, but Sophia didn’t get to see anything special that it could do; while it seemed remarkably resilient, it was still ripped to pieces moments after it entered the clearing. It made it a full fifteen feet past the edge of the clearing before it fell.

“That’s a Crystal-Tainted Bear,” Meadow told Sophia as she released her hold on the plants that had only managed to grab the bear after it was already dying. “If you ever see anything that looks like that outside the Maze, kill it but don’t let it get close to you, then either find where it came from or report it to the nearest Registry immediately so they can send out a kill team. If those things are the monsters for this area, well, I’m glad we have the Shade here. His healing works really well against the crystal taint; some healers can’t affect it at all.”

Sophia glanced at Dav, since he was their healer. She had no idea if his healing would work against the “crystal taint” or not. “What is it? I assume it’s what made it grow those crystals.” That much seemed obvious.

“Yeah, that’s how you can tell it’s there. The problem is that it starts as little crystals in the blood. They’re really tiny, and the crystal taint can spread through the entire area if it’s not caught early. Dealing with it once it’s in the small native animals is a pain; you really want to handle it while it’s still just monsters.” Meadow paused, then snorted. “I’ve had to do that three times. I’m one of the few people who can

actually deal with a lot of small critters that don’t yet know they’re tainted. Killing everything that might be tainted is better than burning everything, but only slightly. Neither one is a guarantee you didn’t miss something, so it can come back. Really, the only good thing about crystal taint is that other monsters hate the tainted even more than they hate people, so it always eventually burns out if you leave it alone. That can take decades, though, and no one can really go there until it’s over.”“At least it’s a normal sort of monster to see early in the Maze,” Jace countered. “Plus, crystal-tainted beasts are only a threat if they can hurt you, and they can’t hurt Rockfist.”

“Which is why he’s going to lead the way down the path. I’d be asking him to lead even if it wasn’t his team’s turn.” Arak Shade seemed to appear from nowhere, but Sophia was pretty sure he’d been listening for a while. Jax, can you back him up? Second upgrade defenses may not be strong enough normally, but light is one of the better options against their crystal. Most of their distance strikes are light-based, as well, and you ought to be able to deflect them.”

Jax frowned. Sophia could guess why; they hadn’t fought anything with light-based attacks, but they had tried a match between Jax and Xin’ri using a light-based staff. Despite Jax’s seeming advantages in using more than one piece of equipment, it was Xin’ri who won every single match unless they started close enough for Jax to attack physically before Xin’ri had her spells going. Even then, Xin’ri won almost half the time. The problem was that while Xin’ri could somewhat control and redirect Jax’s light, he couldn’t affect hers. He could only do what his items were built to allow, and that wasn’t something they’d ever built in, while Xin’ri’s staff included the capability as part of its ability to concentrate environmental light to reduce the mana cost.

“I can certainly back him up, but I think it would be better if Xin’ri handled any light magic,” Jax finally admitted. “She can do that at a distance herself; I can’t even reliably block it with my shield.”

Arak looked surprised, but he nodded anyway. “You know your team better than I do. Meadow, then Xin’ri, after Jax. That should work. Meadow-”

“Find them before they find us,” Meadow interrupted. “I know. And then we hold them off while the rest of the expedition kills them like we did the bear. I’ll watch in case there’s anything in the underbrush, too, but we’re not far enough into the Maze for that.”

Arak shook his head slightly. “I’ve seen it, even a single day in. The vegetation’s usually lighter, then, but we can’t count on it. That’s why I’m glad you’re with us. The scout says he found another clearing with several of the crystal-tainted, so if we’re lucky we will only face them in places where we can all fight. If not, I’ll rotate the leading team whenever we reach a clearing. This is still better than fighting the crystal-tainted in the swamp or lava fiends.”

“We run from lava fiends,” Meadow admitted. “Rockfist can block them, but none of us can really hurt them at all. At least they don’t spread the way the crystal-tainted do.”

Arak snorted. “No, you just get both. I don’t think that’s better.” He paused and seemed to notice the puzzled expression on Sophia’s face. “Lava fiends are crystal-tainted who have bathed in lava or anything else with enough heat. Hot springs can make it happen, if it’s hot enough. It melts the crystals and turns the beasts into fiery monsters with superheated blood. Fire and earth magic are common. They prefer to hunt other crystal-tainted and bring them back to their fire fields, but they will happily drag people back as well. They’re significantly tougher to fight.”

“Does that mean that using fire magic against the crystal-tainted is bad?” Xin’ri asked. “I’m betting that light-based magic will be good for defense, but they can probably also defend against it.”

Arak shook his head. “Fire is fine, but make sure it’s as hot as you can make it. You want to kill them quickly so that there isn’t time for them to transition into a lava fiend. Lightning works even better, if you’re good with it; it fries the crystals quickly. Air and Earth can work, but they’re not as good as a hot fire; they have a chance to spread the taint. Light is almost useless, and shadow’s even worse except for removing the taint afterwards. Water varies a lot; if you’re using it as a blunt instrument, it’s like air or earth, but some people can actually dissolve the crystals and destroy them that way. That’s useful to have on a team even though it’s usually slow; it can prevent the spread of the taint.”