Worthy Core Chapter 297: A Forest Stroll

As the party steps out into the entry area of Floor Four, they're quietly relieved to see that for at least the mont it seems to be recognizable. No ghost bunnies imdiately leap out to attack them, no giant water elentals rise up to sweep them all away in a tidal wave. Still, the fact that things seem to be visually the sa doesn't do much to put Thaddeus at ease. As the others gather up, the prince calls two of his followers forward. "Tizzy, Liani, a mont?"

The scout quickly makes her way over, with the vampire following at a more casual pace. "Yes, prince? What do you need?"

"I'm still concerned by the reports we got earlier saying that we lost Ruckus and the Harris brothers to a new sinkhole trap. If there's sothing like that out there and we all travel in a large group, we could risk taking significant losses to a single misstep. At the sa ti, I don't wish to fully split up the party either."

Liani stretches her arms and shoulders as she poses a question. "So what is your plan, my liege?"

"I want you and Tizzy to scout ahead and make sure there's no major surprises. No new traps, no change in the location of the bridge key, or anything of that matter. Tizzy, you're our best scout and I know you can take care of yourself. Liani, you're fast, durable, and have excellent senses - especially in a low-light environnt like this dim forest, yes? The rest of us will make our way towards the cliff, but we'll await your report before climbing to the higher level."

Tizzy nods eagerly. "We can do that! This place looks bigger than it is thanks to all the trees, but it's still just a cave pretending to be a forest. If we can avoid any fights - and my illusions should co in handy there - we can probably confirm the key location and be back at the cliffs in...twenty minutes? Thirty tops."

The prince gives her a small smile. "Good, but rember - your lives are more important than the information. If you run into defenses you can't handle, co back and retrieve us. You're an essential part of this party." He pauses for a mont before turning his head towards Liani. "...Both of you."

"No worries, my lord. I'll keep an eye on our little scout, here." Liani looks down at Tizzy, and gives the half-imp a fanged smile. "Shall we, Barrelbottom?"

"Yeah, one mont." Tizzy pulls a wand out from one of her many pouches, and casts a quick spell on the two of them. "Alright. We'll be invisible and silent except to allies, so we can still see and hear each other. It won't hold up in a fight, though, so...don't do that?"

"I'll try to restrain myself. After you."

The pair make their way forward, with Tizzy in the lead while Liani takes a slightly different route, leaping up into the branches of the nearest tree and then hopping from limb to limb. They soon make their way to the floor's cliff face without finding anything more along the way than the expected fluffle or two of vampire rabbits. As the scout examines the climbing trails up, Liani abandons the trees and rejoins her companion.

"Find any new tricks, scout?"

"Tricks? No, not yet." Tizzy turns towards Liani, raising an eyebrow at the pale-skinned woman. "Definitely noticing sothing new about you, though. What's with the new attitude?"

Liani does her best to look confused. "Attitude? I'm afraid you'll need to be a little more specific, imp."

The imp points a finger at her. "See, you say that like you're insulting , except there's no real bite there. Uh, no pun intended. You're in a good mood for so reason, and I can't figure out why."

"What? Am I not allowed to be in a good mood when we're so close to achieving our goals?"

Tizzy shakes her head. "See, that's what gets . You're normally only in a good mood after you've gotten your prize. Unless you're hunting down so poor bloke without a chance of defending himself, you hate the part where you actually have to do any work. So what gives? Ah, here we go." Tizzy fires off a very minor arcane blast which triggers a nearby rockfall, which leaves behind an apparently-clear path up the cliff in its wake. "Skipped that tripwire there, and...no slis hidden here as far as I can tell. Let's climb here."

Liani follows her up, but once the pair reach the upper layer of the forest it becos apparent that Tizzy is still waiting for an answer to her question. With a huff, Liani decides to play along. "Tell , Barrelbottom - do you ever have doubts in our glorious leader? In his genius plan for our enrichnt and the glory of our honored ancestor?"

This line of questioning imdiately puts Tizzy on edge. "I an...I'm no zealot. I'm sure we've all had our doubts. But this has to be the worst possible ti to be thinking about that! And if you are, that explains even less why you'd be in a good mood about it!"

"Ah, but you see, my comfort cos from nihilism."

"...What?" Tizzy shakes her head, before turning and making her way towards the treeline. "Talk and walk, we don't want to keep folks waiting. What do you an by nihilism? I an, I never thought you really had any great causes to start with, but putting a label on it sounds like a bit much."

The vampire glides gracefully along, her feet barely disturbing the grass even without Tizzy's illusion spell needing to do any work. "Well, it's not that I believe in nothing. Rather, I believe that our results here today...do not really matter."

"What!? How can you say that? After all of the effort we've put into this? All the people who've already died?"

Liani rolls her eyes. "Please, don't pretend like you miss any of them. Tell , do you really fantasize about becoming 'Lady' Tizzana Barrelbottom, noblewoman of the Seven Cities? Wearing fancy dresses and sitting around all day at so estate?"

Tizzy's brow furrows. "I an...I don't think I'd mind that, exactly. But to be honest I figured I'd follow along with Prince Thaddeus. Royals always need mages in their court, right? Maybe I could take a hefty cash paynt instead, and spend my ti working on...I don't know, interesting magical problems and stuff. Or maybe I'd help Xenon - Xenia - with her new setup. Even if I have missed a thing or two, I am still the party expert on dungeons, y'know?"

The last comnt does actually manage to surprise the vampire. "You wish to work for gr - for the dungeon? Are you not worried that she'll be your enemy after all of this struggle? Even if we succeed here?"

"I - hold on." Tizzy gestures for the pair to take cover behind a tree, and wait while a lumbering figure walks on by. Its slow, ponderous steps seem too quiet given the size of the thing, although tree branches do occasionally crack as it brushes past them. At first the monster looks like a shambling pile of rotting at, but as Tizzy looks up she finds that it has a very rabbit-like head, complete with long ears. Staying very quiet, she motions for Liani to follow her as she takes the long way around, and it's not until the creature is out of sight that she feels safe speaking again, spell or no.

"What the hell is with all the rabbits, anyhow!? How does combining a giant zombie with a rabbit make it more dangerous? Does it - okay, I'm gonna assu it can jump like a hundred feet or sothing stupid like that, I guess." The scout shakes her head. "Anyhow, it's not like we provoked all this, did we? I get it, she's probably friends with her dungeon buddies here, and I get not wanting to be ripped away from them. But we are trying to help her, you know? Maybe she will be pissed at us, but I hope she'll forgive us...eventually."

There's silence for a while as the pair make their way onward, easily bypassing a patrol of long-eared shades and another shambling giant. Eventually they find the altar where the dungeon keeps the key that raises the bridge which leads to the guardian arena, and note that it's guarded by a squad of vampire thralls. While that change was relatively recent in the dungeon's history, it was one they'd seen before, and Tizzy motions for Liani to begin making the way back to the others. They don't get too much further before Liani speaks up again, though.

"What if you could skip ahead a few steps, scout? What if you could begin working for Xenia imdiately?"

The question imdiately causes Tizzy to freeze, and as she looks back at Liani her personal barrier spell is already flicking on. "That's not the sort of hypothetical a woman like you would ever ask, Liani. How long have you been flipped? What - what have you done against the rest of us?"

Apparently unconcerned, Liani leans down and gives the half-imp a wide grin. "Since before I ever entered the dungeon...or at least, in this body, anyhow."

The scout's eyes widen. "...Yulia. How...how many more mbers of the squad have you possessed?"

"It's just . Grandmother was actually rather displeased by my infiltration sches, so I halted them after I discarded Pulg. Liani has proven useful in an observation role, but of course the ti for that is nearing an end as well."

Without turning her head, Tizzy uses a few of her subtle scout spells to ensure that there's no monsters sneaking up on her position. "And now you've got alone, huh? You're an idiot if you think you can take in a one-on-one, though. Maybe if you'd taken by surprise, but it's too late for that now."

Liani shakes her head. "Oh, Tizzy, I don't want to kill you! You're not on the 'must-slay' list, after all. You're not on the 'spare' list either, though. Your fate is up in the air, which ans you have a limited window of opportunity to decide its outco."

Before answering, the scout runs a few scenarios through her mind. As a vampire, Liani has access to a few low-level ntal spells which Tizzy's experience with illusions should be able to counteract. Her hands are dangerous weapons, but probably insufficient to break through Tizzy's barrier before the woman can either fight her off or retreat under a new illusion. The vampire is very durable, but a few max-strength arcane blasts should still be able to kill her. The more worrying concern is - what abilities does Yulia have on top of Liani's? Could her spirit form pass right through Tizzy's barriers? Could the dungeon have provided her with new spells that Tizzy would never even guess at? However she looks at it a fight seems like a gigantic gamble, and so Tizzy keeps talking.

"What...opportunity do I have here, exactly?"

"Well, I have provoked a mont of choice by revealing myself to you. I would not suggest that the two of us attack the others - even with surprise, we would fail. And I'm not so foolish as to ask you to directly attack your beloved prince."

Deciding not to address that particular adjective, Tizzy raises another option. "So you want to, what, be an undercover spy like you? What would Xenia even expect to find out in the next few hours that she doesn't already know?"

"Mmm, no, while your skill with magical disguises is good, you are a terrible actress. Thaddeus would know sothing is wrong within minutes, I'm sure. So here are your options." Liani stands up straight and spreads her arms open wide. "One, you can kill where I stand."

"...Definitely considering it. What else is on the nu?"

"Or you can let go, allowing to preserve this body for...later use. Take my charm, and tell the prince I beca overconfident and fell to a trap. You will not see again until the end, so I promise you I will not ruin your deception. Or I suppose you could let go and tell Thaddeus you let a spy escape, but I don't see much advantage for you in that path."

Tizzy ntally readies an arcane blast spell, but doesn't trigger it just yet. "You're really not gonna fight ? At all?"

"As I said, I currently have no wish to kill you - and this is not a true death for , now is it? But this is a mont of truth for you, so consider." Liani's smile returns. "Will you aid an agent of Xenia Worthy? Or will you slay a threat to Prince Thaddeus?"

Hearing the offer made plain, Tizzy does take a mont to seriously consider it. But only a mont.

Back near the cliffside, Hylii's head suddenly jerks upward, catching Thaddeus's attention. "What is it, Hylii? Did your enhanced senses hear sothing?"

The dark elf nods. "I hope her illusion spell muffled it for the monsters...because I'm pretty sure I just heard Tizzy fire off a pretty heavy blast spell."