MH3 Roaming Dungeon - Chapter 1: Battle for the Brew

Blood sprayed across the mossy cobblestone path of Monster Haven’s main street in front of Dolli. The Witch turned Wispelle scowled down at the gurgling hero that collapsed before her.

“Worth it,” he gasped his final breath from behind a thick brown beard and moustache.

“Is that the last of them?” Taffy asked from Roodaulf’s back. They galloped through the sky, patrolling for escaping Neckbeards—a guild who’d been pursing Monster Haven relentlessly, always after something in Taffy’s distillery.

One more lumberjack looking hero ran off down the alley behind the distillery, a jar of something clutched in his hands. Dolli cast out a Gravity Sink and the hero slowed to a crawl. She opened a fold in reality right in front of him, then another next to Taffy in the air. The hero fell straight into it and dropped out of the sky. Casters and archers fired everything they had at the moving target who flailed and screamed.

“I was so clooose,” the hero cried out as he fell. He was dead before he hit the ground.

“It’s all clear,” Dolli called to her troops and Taffy descended.

They surveyed the area. Doors unhinged, broken walls, shattered glass, and even a small fire that two goblins were dousing with dingy water. What a mess.

Dolli put her ghostly midnight blue and gold hands on her hips and sighed. “If I’d known your special brew would’ve brought the dungeon thismuch grief, I may have reconsidered letting you open the distillery right next to my alchemy shop.”

“Yeah, about that Doll,” Taffy put his arm around Dolli’s shoulder and tried to lead her aside. His arm passed through her Spark body, and he groaned. “Would you come here please?”

Dolli smirked but obliged, joining him in the distillery. The elf had been so easily frustratable of late and Dolli took some measure of amusement in poking his buttons for calling her “Doll” and generally disregarding her personal space.

Taffy closed the broken door, partially shielding them from the street. The whole Ex-Mas Posse was present, save for the reindeer. Perhaps it was just Dolli’s Imagination, but they all looked… bigger.

“We really, really need you to up the security on this place. We’re just getting hammered every time those Neckbeards get in here, and we really can’t afford any more of it.”

Dolli crossed her arms, amused. “It’s only whiskey.”

Taffy ran a nervous hand through his shaggy, red hair. “I sort of didn’t tell you the whole truth about the brew. Yes, it’ll get you lit, but,” Taffy paused, then mumbled his way through the rest, “We also kinda need it not to turn into giant monsters and lose our minds in a few days.”

Dolli’s face darkened in a scowl and Taffy grinned sheepishly. “I’m sorry?” he asked, with a nervous chuckle.

“Tell me everything, now,” Dolli demanded.

“Well, a few weeks ago I got the notification that the Twelve Days of Crisismas were coming and that’s a pretty nasty stretch of time for me an’ the boys if we don’t get our brew. In particular we turn into monsters with a plus five-hundred percent Strength, Stamina, and Agility modifier.

“Kelzoul used to find dungeons outside his power level and camp nearby for weeks. He’d throw us in cages knowin’ that our “time of the year” was comin’.” The Ex-Mas Posse shared a chuckle, and Taffy shook his head.

“In our monstrous form, we’re nearly unstoppable, and we lose all control of our mind, but we wake up twelve days later rememberin’ everything we’d done. It’s been hard…” he trailed off, then took a deep breath and clapped his hands together. “So uh, yeah. We need at least six days of uninterrupted brewing time to get our Grumpus antidote done just right or we’ll turn on everything around us, even each other, sometimes.”

The swirling gold in her chest turned orange and chaotic at the sting of betrayal. “Why did it take a week for something so dangerous to come up?”

Taffy’s brow pulled together and his cheeks reddened. “Hey, what we transform into once a year is our personal business! We wouldn’t have needed to say anything if those damn Neckbeards hadn’t stolen our last batch of the brew!”

Dolli took a deep breath. Taffy had been nervous to tell her, ashamed even. Kelzoul had used them like rabid dogs. Taffy had to have been scared about Dolli, or any Overlord they’d joined doing something similar.

“I want to earn your trust. I’m not Kelzoul, and I’ll prove it. But you’re not giving me much of an incentive to trust you when you withhold dungeon-threating information from me. Is there anything else I need to know about?”

Taffy’s face puffed up, the red in his cheeks deepening.

Cookie slapped a hand down on his shoulder from behind. “She’s right Taff. Calm down now.”

The lead elf gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. A moment later, his shoulders fell away from his ears and his cheeks lost their angry color. Taffy rubbed the back of his neck and looked at his feet. “Sorry. Side effects. Crisismas is close.”

Dolli used Vapor Form to solidify her body, then put an arm around Taffy’s shoulder. “We’ll figure this out together. I’ll ask Brene to put a special guard around the distillery and I’ll send you all the ingredients we have on hand, then help you collect any more you need. What else can we do?”

Taffy walked with her to the door. “Nothin’ else, Overlord. I’m sorry we didn’t come clean sooner—we were just worried, ya’ know?”

Dolli nodded. “I do. But soon enough these heroes won’t ever be a problem again and you can brew your—what was it called again?”

“Egg Noggin-Fogger,”

Dolli laughed. “Right. Brew to your heart’s content.” She broke away from him at the door and pushed it open.

The broken wood fell out of the frame and landed with a thud in the streets. She cringed at the clatter and hurried off, saying, “I’ll get someone to fix that, too.”

“Yeah, thanks. Oh, Dolli?” Taffy called after her and she stopped. He grinned, asking, “Did you really find it?”

“I’m pretty sure this time,” she said with a smile, glee spreading through her.

Six years of searching for a way to close the Hero Portals, and finally the answer came to her in the heroes own design. Dolli rushed off to her cottage and opened the Hero Quest menu. Katrina had finished getting the Passages of Agorise the night before, but then had immediately gone grey in Dolli’s menu; returned to her own realm.

But now she was back, and Dolli was ready to get to the bottom of the Necro-Shaman weapons, [Sherkahn’s Shillelagh]. Dolli selected the [Summon] button and golden light flared before her in the shape of a slender woman. The fire mage materialzed with a pop and blinked a few times.

Katrina frowned. “Aw man, I was in the middle of an auction.”

“You were able to get the pages I asked for?” Dolli asked, hand out.

“Uh, hi to you too. Oh, yeah, no problem about the auction I just lost because of your rude summoning interruption,” Katrina talked to thin air as if Dolli had apologized. How strange… was the hero hallucinating?

Katrina tsked. “Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. Yes, I have your pages.” The mage pulled the torn parchment from her inventory and passed it to Dolli.

“Thank you,” Dolli said with a gracious smile and accepted the quest item. She handed over Katrina’s coin in return.

Dolli turned and brought the pages over to her table and Katrina followed not far behind. “So, this staff—”

“Shillelagh,” Dolli corrected.

“Wha’evar,” Katrina said with a roll of her eyes. “She-lay-lee-thingy… what do you want it for again?”

Dolli didn’t let any of the glee enter her expression as she said flatly, “Dungeon business.”

“Uh huh. Okay, well, let me know if you have any other fetch quests I can do,” the mage said a little too quickly, then backed toward the door.

Dolli put up her hand and the mage stopped. “What do you know?”

Katrina crossed her arms, then recited the description of the Shillelagh in a mocking tone. “With the ability to traverse the expanses, Sherkahn’s Shillelagh will give you the power to change the world.”

Dolli had read that from the Legendary Weapons list that Katrina had brought a few days before. But Dolli had been careful to ask for information on several of the weapons from that list, though all that had interested her was the Shillelagh.

“What of it?” Dolli asked, unperturbed.

“Don’t treat me like I’m dumb. You want to close the portal to your world, right?”

Blast. Katrina was too smart for a hero.

Dolli sighed with defeat. “It’s not that I want yougone, but there’s no other way around this. I want to protect my home from the heroes who treat my life—” Dolli stopped and gestured with arms wide—“all our lives, like they aren’t real.

The mage thought for a moment. “But what if there was something else you could do? Like, why not just go hide deep in the mountains where no hero would ever find you, but me of course,” she said with a grin.

“It’s not just about Monster Haven, but all of Hafheim. They treat our land like a playground. This is our home.”

Katrina chewed her lip, then nodded sadly. “I get it.”

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about this. I don’t need a hundred and one heroes hunting down the Shillelagh.” Dolli said, returning to the pages spread out on the table.

“Yeah, can do. Oh, and just a heads up,” Katrina said, leaning in conspiratorially. “Rumors of the super alcoholic drink the Ex-Mas Posse makes is spreading on the forums getting a lot of attention. Those thick-heads the Neckbeards aren’t telling where, they want to keep it to themselves, but Victorious Victorians, VV, have their eyes on Monster Haven, too. They want Boji’s zeppelin designs, hard.”

“Wonderful news, thank you.” Dolli wilted. It wasn’t just one guild on the hunt for them now, but possibly dozens.

Katrina shrugged. “Sorry, I’m just the messenger. Alright, I gotta get back to that auction now. Hopefully it’s not over yet. Mama needs a new pair of shoes.”

Dolli scowled down at Katrina’s pristine silk slippers.

“Figuratively speaking,” Katrina said with a chuckle. “Anyway, best of luck Overlord. Just give my portal badge a shake if you need me. In fact, it’d be really nice if you did that instead of surprise summoning me.”

Dolli moved to her hearth and double-tapped the glowing rune over the fireplace. The green portal stone attached to Katrina’s bad glowed brightly, then vibrated on her chest with an audible buzz.

Katrina smiled. “Was that so hard?”

“Immensely. “Now go get yourself new shoes, or wha’eva,” Dolli said, mimicking Katrina. “I have a map to decipher.”