Silly Plots 4: It's not particularly silly, is it?

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that was Won]

"I wasn't given a timeline for how long this has been a problem." replies Edgar defensively. The woods could totally have grown over a path in a few months! Probably. Maybe.
As can be expected, despite all appearances Edgar easily makes the hike without getting tired. Though his paws get rather dirty quickly. Maybe he'll have to invest in foot-wraps.
"So you've never been in here, right? So we don't know what we're getting into?"

[bc56]

The House that was Won

"Nope! Got a torch? Aethii looks into the dark entrance of the mineshaft. A lantern hangs from a post nearby, but she doesn't seem to realize that's it's purpose. "You're the big one... Wow that feels weird. You're the big one, you should lead."

[Deathkeeper]

The House that was Won

Edgar keeps his frustration to himself. Is she really that clueless?
He sets down his weapon to pick up and light the lantern. It takes some fiddling but eventually a flame sputters to life. He holds it out to her.
”If I’m the big one in the lead you can at least hold the light for me. I thought dragons were supposed to have tons of helpful magic. You better not be making me lead just to stare at my backside.” He’s trying to be funny but this is a lot scarier than he imagined it back at the fort. Still, no turning back now. He picks up the club and steps forward.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

"I've got a magic sword and can spray pressurized water from my mouth. What else do you want?" The light illuminates the dark mine.
The passage descends slightly into the ground, branching off every so often. Abandoned tools are scattered around. It's several minutes before the unlikely pair come to the first corpse. A miner lies face down on the ground, his exposed skin tinged with rot and smelling rancid.

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that was Won]

Edgar recoils immediately, giving the corpse a wide berth.
"Oh, I haven't gotten used to this nose yet. Urk." It looks like he might be sick.
"Aethiir can you do me a favor and make sure he doesn't have any keys or more lights on him?" searching the dead is disrespectful but a headlamp could really save their lives down here. Or a map. A map would also be nice.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

"Huh. I can barely even smell him." Aethii turns the corpse over and searches him. Headlamp, yes, although it's the old-fashioned kind with a candle rather than an electric lamp. Map, sadly, no. Also, a hole is scorched through the center of his chest. That's ominous. Aethii bends down and sniffs the wound. "Are these... Magma burns?" She's a dragon, she knows these things, at least theoretically.

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that was Won]

Edgar could roar in frustration but he thankfully does not. "Oh great. They shoot lasers. I've never actually tested how durable I am. Nahira just promised me that I'd be hard to kill. If we see one of those things and don't get the jump on it, maybe you could hit it with your water so it'll stagger long enough for me to clobber it? That's the best plan I got."

[bc56]

The House that was Won

"How do you think I feel?" Aethii asks, "This wouldn't even turn a copper knife." She motions at herself, trying to indicate her skin. She raises her sword in case of an ambush. "I'll do everything I can to stop them from killing you, short of sacrificing myself." She's unusually honest about that. Most people don't like to bring that possibility up.

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that was Won]

"Well, if we're lucky there will only be a couple of these things. If they have [EXPUNGED] laser beams I can't blame them for running from one or two. But if there's a bunch in one room we'd probably be best finding another plan." Edgar mutters. He's somewhat reassured by Aethiir, but still shaky as they head further into the tunnels.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

It's several more minutes before the two adventurers come to the second sign of unusual activity. Deep gouges are cut into the mine walls at regular intervals. Clear crystals are beginning to grow out of some of the cracks. That's... Strange?

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that was Won]

Edgar goes over and gives the crystals a good flick with his claws to see if they're the usual rock-crystal and not something more esoteric.
"Pretty sure they said this was supposed to be a silver mine? You seen these before?" He doesn't think asking a dragon to identify valuables is too using stereotypes. She used to own this place.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

When the crystal is tapped, it hums in a low, barely audible pitch. "No, I haven't seen anything like them." Drawing Aethii's attention to the crystals causes her to point out something else as she runs a hand along one of the grooves. "This was carved using intense heat. See how the stone here is smooth and glassy, but rough outside the cut?" It is indeed how she says. "But where is the waste material? Even the most sophisticated excavation leaves traces."

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that was Won]

"More evidence that these things have some sort of heat beam. Maybe they ate the excess stone waste?" Rock monsters eating rock would make sense.
"We really gotta get rid of these things." The more they find out the more he's sure that this is not going to be a good day.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

Edgar is about to find out just how bad these things are, because something glowing is approaching from down one of the passages. After a moment, it resolves into a floating round creature, which seems to be made from molten rock, with crystals and tendrils of lava sticking out of it at odd angles. It echoes the same sound as the crystals at a different pitch and begins quickly drifting towards the adventurers.

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that Was Won]

"Back up. Back up." Edgar hurries Aethiir back the way they came. It's only about ten feet to the mouth of the passage (which is thankfully wide enough for Aethiir's wings and Edgar's bulk). Once they're clear they can set up at the sides of the mouth with their weapons. Edgar lifts his club, ready to smash the hellish orb the second it peeks out from the doorway. He gestures Aethiir to do the same with her blade.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

The creature does emerge from the tunnel, and it gets bashed by the huge club. It spins into the wall, and Aethii blasts it with a jet of water from her mouth. It looks really silly, because she's not a dragon right now. The creature's molten flesh hardens and cracks, and a cloud of steam hisses out around it.

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that was Won]

Edgar presses the gap in the creature's actions, charging in while it's still immobile and solidifying and smashes it with a huge, overhanded blow.
Against any enemy that knew what it's doing such a clumsy strike would be unlikely to do much good, but on a stationary stone-like object it should do nicely.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

The creature can't dodge the attack and is smashed apart by the club. Fragments of crystal and volcanic rock scatter about. The remains are still steaming hot but cooling rapidly. "What was that thing?" Aethii knows the answer, but she wants to know if Edgar knows what specifically it is. She has no idea.

[Rebonack]

[The Enchanted Forest]

The horse opens his mouth and no sound comes out. He tries again to the same result, looking frustrated.

"Owlteeth told me to keep my mouth shut about his business," the horse says. "He stole my bridle. Anything he told me to do I couldn't ignore. Told me to pull the wagon, told me to swallow kids what caused too much trouble. My bridle's over there in that heap of garbage that used to be Owlteeth. Give it back to me, and I'll tell you how to open those cages. Could even spit up little Will for you. He didn't drown so I can't eat him proper, anyway."

Swallowed whole and alive.

Just like the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood.

Of course...

The woodsman's axe solved that problem just fine.

Should Adir check, he will be able to see a glint of polished silver among the rubbish that used to be Owlteeth.

"Shoot me with that gun and yer gunna be more likely to hurt the boy than me," the horse says. "Kelpies like me are made of sterner stuff than goblins."

[Deathkeeper]

The House that was Won

"I have no idea. It's a big magma ball that apparently shoots magma or lasers or something. If we're super lucky there aren't a lot of them, because I don't know if whacking it with a big stick is gonna do much without your water hardening them up a little first. I don't think either of us can tank magma to the chest." Edgar might be super-durable but a beam of liquid-hot rock would probably still kill him.
Speaking of magma based damage, he checks the club to see if the heat of the monster melted it at all. If it breaks he's completely defenseless.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

The club shows some signs of heat damage, but, because it's just a big heavy object, it would need to be a lot more damaged to stop functioning as a weapon. Aethii looks down the passage it came through. "You think it was attracted to the sound those crystals made? We should maybe not touch them." She starts walking down the passage, forgetting that she's supposed to have a meatshield.

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that was Won]

"Maybe if we're lucky they need those to hear and can't actually see anything."
That certainly WOULD be lucky. Edgar's padded feet and lack of rattling equipment means that he is almost comically quiet if need be despite his size.
Edgar hurries after Aethiir, still holding out hope that there won't be too many monsters to deal with.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

The two heroes hurry along a passage lined with crystals to a larger, round chamber. A pair of the magma orbs are floating there on either side of a round opening on the far side of the room, seemingly guarding it. To pick one's way across the field of crystals without touching any would be difficult.

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that was Won]

"Okay. So either you spray water at one and hopefully slow it down for us to smash the other one, or we do what we did last time and try to funnel them into an opening. What do you think?"
There are plenty of crystals in the hall they just came from. They might be able to attract the monsters into another funnel.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

"What if they bring all their friends? I think we should rush them now before they get a chance to react." Aethii prepares to breathe water again. This time, she also has her sword at the ready.

[Deathkeeper]

The House that was Won

"Alright, fine. Just try to get as close as possible without them noticing and we might have a chance to close the gap without turning into swiss cheese." That almost makes his stomach rumble again. Edgar theoretically doesn't need to eat, but his brain hasn't quite grasped that. He still gets hungry at regular intervals.
Holding the club once again, Edgar slinks forward, trying to get somewhat close to the big floating balls of lava before Aethiir blasts them with water.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

The heroes charge. Aethii flies over the crystals, luckily this chamber is large enough, and sprays water down on the two monsters. It still looks silly. But she doesn't wet them as much as the last one, so when Edgar arrives, the creatures are sluggishly moving towards him, extending magma tendrils in what would could a very painful hug.

[Deathkeeper]

[The House that was Won]

Oh no! With a pair of monsters bearing down on him, this could be very bad for Edgar. He only has a club to fend them off with, and no sort of magical-
”Oh my gods I actually forgot I’m a literal sorcerer.”
Edgar extends a paw forward and blasts the two superhot monsters with a blast of extreme chill. Edgar hasn’t really figured out how to conjure intricate ice sculptures or anything but making things really cold was kind of the baseline of the gift he won.

[bc56]

The House that was Won

If the creatures don't like being exposed to water, they really don't like raw, elemental cold. Their shells harden much more quickly, with deeper, more damaging cracks. Depending on how far Edgar wants to push with his powers, he could freeze them all the way through, which would certainly kill them. But that would take a good deal of effort. They're pretty hot. Aethii watches incredulously. "Why do you even need a weapon?"

[Deathkeeper]

The House that was Won

Edgar scoffs, winding back and moving to smash both the monsters while they’re hardened and slow.
”Because freezing them would take all day and I don’t know what my limits are. I got this magic yesterday.” he calls back to her as if that was the answer all along and he totally didn’t forget he had this power until just now.
That’s kind of the problem with magically winning powers. It’s all very sudden.