Rune Seeker

Dynamic Quest

A beleaguered group of frightened citizens has asked for your help.

Escort them safely to their destination.

Note: Rewards based on how many of the citizens successfully arrive.

“There must be a safe place we can take you,” Hiral said, closing the notification window with a thought. “Some place where there are more soldiers, or people who can take you in and protect you?”

Bellina nodded, then shook her head. “There is a place we can go, but it’s an evacuation point. The soldiers there will take us out of the city.”

“They won’t be there for long, though,” the older man said. “It’s almost time for them to leave.”

Dynamic Quest: Update

Escort the civilians to the evacuation point before the soldiers leave.

Of course.

“How far from here is it?” Hiral asked, looking around at the others as they also saw the notification window. “We should get going.”

“Then… you’ll take us? Make sure we get there safely?” the man asked, hope blossoming in his eyes. “I… I didn’t think we’d be able to…”

“We will,” Seena said. “But we don’t have a lot of time. Get everybody ready to go. You said there were sixteen of you?”

Bellina nodded. “I’ll get everybody. Won’t take but a minute.”

“Good. If you’ll excuse us,” Seena said, heading down the steps and motioning for the others to follow.

“Sixteen?” Nivian said. “If another pack as big as the first shows up, I don’t know how we’ll be able to keep them all safe.”

“The dungeon’s goal isn’t to kill us,” Hiral reminded them. “It’s to make us stronger. It’ll be a challenge, but it shouldn’t be impossible to protect the people if we’re smart about it.”

“That’s true for a normal dungeon,” Seeyela said. “You think it still holds true for a wild dungeon?”

“I sure hope so,” Hiral said quickly. He turned to Seena. “Plan, boss?”

“We’ll put the NPCs—the Non-Party Civilians—in the middle,” Seena explained, crouching down and drawing a large dot in the dusty road. “We’ll be in a circle around them. Usual formation, for the most part, but Wule, I want you in with them in case one of the monkeys gets by us.” She added another, smaller dot beside the big one. “You can use your heals from a distance now, right?”

“Yes,” Wule said, “but it’s not a long one. Don’t go far.”

“Okay. Nivian in the front, as usual,” Seena said, adding one dot in front of the big dot, then another on the opposite side. “Hiral, I want you in the back to keep an eye on the group of NPCs. Especially watch those roofs and tell us as soon as you spot anything, no matter how trivial it might seem.”

“Got it,” Hiral said.

“We can use the Party Interface to communicate easily,” Nivian said.

“Good thinking—keep forgetting we have that now,” Seena said. “Yanily, I want you at the top-right corner here.” She added a dot just back and to the right of where Nivian’s dot was. “Right, back left.” Another dot. “Sis, that leaves these two spots for you and me.” She filled in the last two corners.

“What about Left?” Hiral asked.

“His eyes are as good as yours; I want him floating,” Seena said, her finger tracing the air in a circle above the sketch on the ground.

“Lot of openings,” Nivian said, rubbing his chin while he eyed the plan. “But I don’t see a better way.”

“And we don’t have time to make it perfect,” Seena said, the timer already down to fourteen minutes as the last of the NPC group filed out of the building and gathered on the steps.

The ages of the group ranged from very young to very old, mostly falling into those two extremes, with only Bellina and one other being close to their primes. If it came to a fight, none of the NPCs would be helping.

“We’re ready,” Bellina said.

“Which way is the evacuation point?” Seena asked.

“Back to the main street,” Bellina said, pointing where they’d come from, “then in towards the center of the city.”

“You sure that’s the best way to go?” Wule asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to take you back to one of the nearby tunnels?”

Bellina shook her head. “The tunnels on this side are wild and mostly unexplored. That’s why you were out there, right? No, we need to get to the soldiers so they can take us to the one of the three main tunnels. They’ll keep us safe. Don’t worry; it’s actually not far. Just with the monkeys…”

“Thirteen and a half minutes,” Yanily said under his breath.

“Okay, that’s the plan, then,” Seena said. “Bellina, Wule here will stay with your group to keep you safe. Keep everybody together, though. No running off if we come across any of those monkeys. We can’t afford to send anybody chasing after you. Understood?”

“We get it,” Bellina said for the group.

“Good. Wule, buffs,” Seena said, then cast her own Lashing Vines on the party.

Wule followed up with a Nature’s Blade refresh, then unexpectedly cast Nature’s Bulwark on the NPCs. A blue shimmer surrounded each of them, and the healer nodded to confirm his buff stuck.

“Smart thinking, Wule,” Seena said before waving at Nivian, who was already in position.

Yanily, Right, and Seeyela quickly jogged over to their spots as the group moved away from the building, and Hiral fell in at the back.

Drawing his RHCs, he immediately turned his attention to his ears. The hoots and hollers of the noisy monkeys weren’t close, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t change. Even without his Killing Spree buff, he should be able to slow any of the monsters down if they showed up. No, not if. When.

They’ll definitely be coming.

The group made it back to the intersection with no problem, though they weren’t moving quickly. The timer was already down to eleven minutes, and Hiral spotted problems ahead. A small group of three monkeys lingered on one side of the road, yipping and swatting at each other as they crowded around something that had gotten their attention.

“Three monkeys, straight ahead,” Hiral said through the Party Interface.

“I see them,” Nivian said. “Boss?”

“We’re going through them,” Seena said. “Sis, let’s hit them before we even get close. Yanily, get ready in case any of them make it through. Hiral, watch out for reinforcements. I don’t want you attacking these three.”

“Understood,” Hiral said, trusting the others to handle the trio of monsters.

The two sisters pulsed with solar energy, Seeyela’s peaking and releasing first, but where Hiral expected to see the usual Gravity Well, something else appeared. A sheen formed on the ground, coating it like oil on water under the monkeys in a ten-foot diameter, and then the beasts all suddenly dropped to their hands and knees.

The air around them seemed to vibrate, and the crack of stone could be heard all the way down the street where the party marched ahead. One of the monkeys turned its head, though it seemed it took every muscle in its body to even accomplish that, and it bared its fangs through droopy lips in their direction.

She’s increasing the gravity around them. But what’s Seena going to…

Spearing Roots burst out of the ground in a vicious circle around the group, thrusting up and in from all directions. Three of the wooden pikes tore through the chest of the monster scowling at the group, killing it instantly, while the other two took wounds mainly in their arms and legs. Just from a quick glance, one would likely bleed out from the wounds alone, but the third had luckily been in a position where its arms took the worst of the damage.

“Yanily,” Seena ordered.

The spearman darted ahead, closing the distance in just a few seconds—the sheen on the ground doing nothing to slow him down—then lashed out with his weapon.

His Reed Spear Style didn’t suffer the same limitations as the straightforward root spears, curving and bending around the monkey’s limbs to strike time and again into its body. The flurry of strikes built in intensity until, on the tenth hit, a ball of purple flame consumed the monkey entirely. Not even a yelp of pain escaped the power of the contained blast, and Yanily quick-stepped away from the three dead monsters. The small explosion also finished off the third beast.

“Well done,” Seena said. “Yanily, get back in position. We’re moving.”

“Got it, boss,” Yanily said, jogging back to join the group.

Hiral’s eyes, though, lingered on what had gotten the monkeys’ attention on the side of the road: a pair of dismembered bodies.

“Try not to let the kids see what the monkeys were interested in,” Hiral said over the party chat, and he saw Wule lean in to whisper something to Bellina. With that, there was a small shift of the group to keep the little ones on the opposite side.

The group passed the scene without slowing, though there was a good jobwhispered over the party chat to Yanily and the others for taking care of it so efficiently. Still, three monkeys where the party had the advantage wasn’t nearly enough of a challenge for a dynamic quest. There would be more coming, but where were they?

“Nine minutes,” Wule said.

“How much further is it?” Seena asked Bellina.

“Just a few blocks,” Bellina said. “See that building with only red roots on the corner up there? Turn right there, then it’s just a bit further.”

“Hiral, anything?” Seena asked. “This quiet is making me nervous.”

“Nothing,” Hiral said, the city oddly silent around them again.

A pair of buildings on opposite sides of the street ahead of them caught his attention. The walls were broken and torn open, rocks strewn on the road, but there wasn’t a whit of movement. Not a sound. If there were monkeys in there…

Hiral’s eyes widened. He was thinking about this wrong. In The Mire dungeon, Lizardmen had literally appeared out of thin air to attack them. This is a dungeon; monsters can come from anywhere.

But they were already at the buildings, and just as Hiral opened his mouth to shout a warning, something within the shadows shifted, like the darkness itself was bubbling. Burping.

No, not burping. Hooting. Monkeys burst out of nothing in physically impossible numbers to come at the party from both sides.