Taylor Hebert Dungeon Girl Part 22 (Patreon)

Armsmaster frowned as he studied the five unknown capes that were explaining their version of events to Battery. He’d have dismissed them as idiots for thinking leather armor would keep them safe except their boots, cloaks and masks were obviously tinkertech which meant that their armor might be more durable than it looked. “Where did you get your tinkertech from?”

“Neverland, she’s the best,” Gothic replied with amusement.

Armsmaster glanced between the girl that had just spoken and the two female capes talking to Battery. “How durable is your armor?”

Gothic shrugged. “Durable enough that we’re still alive.”

Randal smiled slightly as he noticed Armsmaster’s lips tighten at the vague response. While he had a lot of respect for Armsmaster as a Tinker, the man needed to lighten up a bit. Besides, it wasn’t like the Tinker would have answered the same question about his armor if an unknown cape asked.

“How did Neverland create the masks?” Armsmaster asked curious about how they moved as they looked solid, at least until they moved.

Taylor turned to look at Armsmaster. “Trade secret.”

“Let me guess, the boots and cloak are the same?” Armsmaster asked with frustration, thinking about his failure to get any useful data from Vista’s hoverboard, all of the non destructive tests he’d done had shown it to be aluminum and Piggot had vetoed his request to drill a small hole in the board to run further tests. He was currently leaning toward a persistent shaker or striker effect somewhat like Dauntless’ ability.

Kevin muttered under his breath, “He can be taught.”

Taylor turned back to look at Battery. “Anything else?”

Battery grinned slightly. “No, I think I got the basics, you showed up to help, dropped Hookwolf with the assistance of Hellhound’s dogs then Gothic and Medic provided first aid to the injured gang members.”

Armsmaster cut in, “Is there a reason you let the Undersiders get away?”

Taylor turned to look at Armsmaster. “Why would I attack a group of heroes helping deal with the Merchants?”

“They’re villains.”

“Huh, they seemed pretty heroic to me, helping take down a Neo-Nazi and a bunch of creepy drug dealers.”

Randal spoke up, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.”

“Of course if I find it chewing on my shoes and chasing the mailman, I'll treat it like a dog, but until then its a duck to me,” Gothic said running with Randal’s analogy.

Battery cut in before Armsmaster could start on a rant, “What happened to Squealer?”

Taylor said, “No clue. We didn’t see any sign of her or any strange vehicles.”

Battery noticed one of the PRT drivers walking over. “On that note, thanks for the help we should get going if we want to avoid another breakout attempt.”

“Best of luck,” Taylor replied as she started walking back into town, she didn’t really want Armsmaster knowing just how much she could stuff in her pockets which meant they couldn’t grab their hoverboards until they were out of sight.

Armsmaster frowned slightly as he watched the strange capes walk off into the night, cloaks blending into the darkness far better than they should considering the streetlights and the various headlights that should have illuminated everything. “Any idea what their powers are?”

“Not a clue, they managed to take out Hookwolf presumably at range which implies that at least one of them is a shaker or blaster or they used tinkertech. We’ll know more once they question the rank and file.” Battery turned her attention to the PRT agent. “Ready?”

The man nodded. “Yeah, Piggot wants him under lock and key, yesterday.” He couldn’t really blame the Director, the media was already having a field day with them losing three capes in transport, they didn’t need to lose a fourth in less than twenty four hours.

“I’ll be right behind in case the Empire tries to break him out.” Armsmaster doubted they’d bother trying to break him out when it made more sense to put in a call and have one of their contacts break him out during transport to the Birdcage. He was hoping Dragon could send a transport so they could skip that particular song and dance.

0o0o0

Danny muted the news as Taylor and Gothic walked down the stairs in their pajamas looking a touch sleepy but happy enough, which was a relief after hearing about their raid on the Merchants. “How did you sleep?”

“Great.” Gothic grinned as they walked a bit closer to Taylor’s dad so they didn’t have to talk across the room. “Taylor is an awesome pillow.”

Taylor’s lips curved up into an unconscious smile as she thought about her giggly new friend, it was nice having a best friend again. “I slept fine. Any word on Hookwolf or Squealer?”

“Hopefully the PRT can keep him locked up,” Gothic complained.

Danny grinned at the girls. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Why?”

Danny gestured at the television. “Armsmaster called Dragon and she sent a transport in the middle of the night. Apparently Hookwolf was enough of a flight risk that they weren’t risking transporting him by van.”

“Sweet,” Gothic replied as she started dancing in place.

Taylor laughed as she watched Gothic ‘dance’ in place, she wouldn’t be winning any awards but at least it was heartfelt. “Hopefully it doesn’t turn into a gang war for the area the Merchants controlled.”

Danny shook his head. “I have a feeling the ABB and Empire will wait until the police have swept through before they try to claim the area.”

Gothic sighed as she stopped dancing. “That’s assuming a new gang doesn’t move in.”

“Hopefully they’ll be better than the Merchants,” Danny as he stood up. “What do you want for breakfast?”

“What are our options?” Taylor asked.

“Pancakes or scrambled eggs and bacon or if we’re feeling adventurous we could get out the waffle iron.”

“Waffles,” Taylor replied as she headed for the kitchen to dig the waffle iron they hadn’t used since before her mother’s death out of the cupboard.

“Waffles are good,” Gothic agreed as she absently read the subtitles. “Any idea which dungeon we’re going to hit today?”

“Diablo,” Danny replied without hesitation.

Gothic turned to look at Danny. “Why Diablo?”

“Elixirs, Brockton Bay isn’t the safest place to live at the best of times and I worry about you and Taylor. I’d worry a lot less if we could pick up some vitality and strength elixirs. Not to mention more healing books.”

“Or better armor?” Gothic asked thinking about some of the unique types of armor you could find in various video games.

“Yeah,” Danny agreed as he headed toward the kitchen to start making the batter.

“Sounds good to me,” Gothic agreed as she followed him into the kitchen to help.

0o0o0

Taylor stared at the popup that appeared when she carefully touched the iron cauldron filled with a bubbling greenish liquid. ‘Cryptic Cauldron, permanently increase health by 100 points and decreases mana by 100 points.’ She carefully pulled her hand away from it. “No one touch the liquid!”

“Poison?” Danny asked as he picked up a sword that had ‘dropped’ when one of the succubi had died.

“Acid?” Gothic asked with a touch of amusement as she picked up a ring one of the demons had dropped and added it to her bag of treasures.

“Lime jello?” Kevin asked getting in on the joke.

Taylor shook her head. “Worse, it permanently increases health by 100 and drops mana by 100.”

Randal look a step back from the cauldron even though he was already five feet away. “That’s nasty.”

Vicky shrugged. “That doesn’t sound bad if you don’t have mana.”

“The rest of us have mana and would like to keep it that way,” Amy stated firmly, thinking about her enchanting skill.

“I’m just saying, I could use it,” Victoria replied as she glanced around the less than cheerful dungeon complex that looked to be made of massive bones.

“The only way you’re testing that is if the rest of us are outside the dungeon,” Danny stated firmly.

“Why?”

“Because the shrines affect the entire party in the game,” Randal explained.

Amy looked at her watch. “Actually, we’ve been at this for a couple hours, we could drop the loot off and use the bathroom while Vicky tests the shrine.”

“Do you think my mana would go negative?” Victoria asked warily as she realized that testing the shrine might be a bad idea.

Randal shrugged. “It shouldn’t, but this is real life, not a game so no idea.”

Danny cut in before they got sidetracked arguing, “Amy has a point, let’s finish the last couple rooms then we’ll take a break and Victoria can try the shrine if she wants.”

“Works for me,” Victoria replied as she flew toward the next area. She ducked around the corner and grinned as she spotted a blue winged succubus. ‘That’s different.’ She dodged to the side as the succubus tossed a barrage of blue starbursts at her. “Shit!”

“Great,” Amy complained as she started running in the direction Victoria had flown.

“One of these days we’re going to bring power armor,” Kevin complained as they started jogging after Amy.

Victoria twisted and dropped as the boss rapidly tossed a seemingly endless storm of blue starbursts at her like someone had set a baseball throwing machine as high as it could go while shaking it. She screamed as she felt one of the spells impact her leg cutting through her shield as she dove for cover. It felt like the time she’d burned herself on the grill before she’d gotten her powers only over a baseball sized area of her leg. “Fuck!”

Amy dashed around the corner then raised her elemental gun and pulled the trigger, sending a stream of fire at the demon. “Stay away from my sister!”

Gothic tackled Amy out of the way of several extremely fast moving balls of blue fire. “Down!”

Kevin smiled as he stepped around the corner closer to the wall and opened fire on the mini boss. “Die!”

Vicky used the distraction to close with the demon in a burst of speed and hit her in the face as hard as she could. “Bitch!”

“That’s one way to do it,” Randal said as the mini boss vanished leaving behind a set of wings, a simple gold ring and a book. “I don’t remember wings dropping in the game.”

“I don’t remember the blood star spell being that damned fast either,” Kevin grumbled as he helped Gothic and Amy to their feet.

“There are bound to be a couple differences,” Taylor pointed out as they headed over to check on the loot.

Gothic reached over and poked Victoria’s nose with her finger and healed her leg. “That should do it.”

Victoria sighed in relief as the pain vanished. “Thanks.” 

“You’re welcome.” Goth looked down at the demonic wings. “At least she dropped interesting stuff.”

Danny frowned as he looked over at the stairs in the corner of the room. “We should probably look into picking up more resistance gear.” 

“It’s on the list,” Taylor agreed as she reached down and picked up the set of demonic wings. “Cosmetic demon wings, they won’t let you fly but you can mentally control them and use them to glide which is pretty cool.”

Kevin laughed. “You’d make a mint selling copies at various conventions.”

“Do they come in black?” Gothic asked hopefully.

Amy shook her head.

“Might be worth trying to figure out how to duplicate them,” Taylor agreed as she put the wings in her bag then picked up the book labeled Healing Arts. “It teaches healing, any takers?” She smiled as Randal, Kevin, Victoria and her father all raised their hands. “Makes me wish I had dice.”

“I left mine at the shop,” Kevin admitted.

“Gamer fail,” Gothic teased.

Randal said, “You might as well give it to Danny, Victoria wants to test the cauldron that gives her more hit points before she picks up a mana spell and we’ll survive.”

“Works for me,” Kevin agreed.

Taylor handed her father the book then picked up the ring. “Huh, Topaz ring of Thieves.”

“Crap?” Randal asked absently as he watched the healing book vanish as Danny opened it.

Danny smiled as he mentally reviewed his new spell.

Taylor shook her head. “Quite the opposite, it nullifies half the damage from traps, ranged weapons and magical attacks.”

“What?!” Kevin stared at Taylor in shock. “Thieves?”

“The most useless damned enchant in the game, is useful?” Randal asked in disbelief.

Taylor shrugged. “Apparently, it also helps with 8% of magic, fire, and lightning damage.”

“That’s from the topaz enchant, it’s nice but not game breaking.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that ring would drop half the damage from bullets?” Gothic asked excitedly.

Taylor said, “It says ranged weapons so I’m assuming, I’m not exactly sure how we’d test it without sticking the ring on someone and shooting them.”

“We could always shoot Aegis,” Victoria pointed out.

Danny shook his head. “We’re not going to shoot a Ward to test it.”

“He regenerates or adapts, Amy could fix him…” Victoria trailed off as everyone looked at her. “Okay, fine, it was a horrible idea.”

Amy frowned as she looked at the ring in Taylor’s hand. “I hate to say it, but we should probably hand these out like party favors to the local heroes.”

“Considering it reduces the damage before armor, it would help a decent amount,” Taylor agreed.

Amy glanced around the creepy bone covered room then over at the stairs that went to the next level. “Okay, let’s take a break and grab something to drink and use the bathroom. Vicky can use the cauldron once we’re through the portal then we can see if we can salvage it when we get back.”

“Works for me, I wouldn’t mind another one hundred hit points,” Victoria agreed. She wasn’t sure exactly how the hit points would translate, but being more durable under her shield couldn’t hurt, especially since she kept running into things that could cut through her shield lately.

Taylor gestured and opened a town portal back to the garage. “Feel free to join us after you’ve used the cauldron.”

“No problem, I’ll haul the used cauldron over here if I can.”

“Sounds good, check in before you go exploring,” Amy warned her sister.

“Don’t worry, I’m not crazy, there are way too many things that can ignore my shield here,” Victoria complained as Randal stepped through the portal.

“It’s a good reminder that your shield isn’t perfect.” Amy turned and stepped through the portal before her sister could reply. She was glad her sister had a forcefield but it wasn’t perfect and she really needed to stop treating it like it was before it got her killed.

Victoria waited waited until everyone went through the portal then flew back to the cauldron. ‘Okay, now or never Vicky.’ She warily poked at the liquid. She was a touch surprised when it vanished as she touched it, giving her something that felt remarkably like a sugar rush. She twitched and flew back several feet in surprise as a creepy echoing voice announced, "A surge of blood interrupts your thoughts!"

Victoria spun around, frantically looking around for the voice. She took a breath and forced herself to try to relax as she scanned the creepy bone covered walls to make sure nothing was going to jump out at her. “Fucking dungeon is trying to give me a heart attack.”

She gave the empty cauldron a wary look then carefully picked it up off the ground, half expecting the voice to go back to shouting at her. She waited a couple of seconds for something else hair raising to happen then cautiously flew back toward the portal carrying the large iron cauldron. She set the cauldron down a few feet from the portal then floated through. “You forgot to mention the creepy ass voice of doom.”

Taylor looked up from the pile of various weapons and suits of armor on the ground as she turned to look at Vicky. “Sorry, I’d forgotten about the creepy voice.”

Victoria turned to look at Kevin who looked like he was trying not to laugh. “You try being alone in the creepy dungeon then having a voice tell you something about blood and interrupting your thoughts, it’s pretty damned effective at interrupting your thoughts.”

“Okay, when you put it like that, it’s actually a bit creepy,” Kevin admitted.

“Are we ready to hit the next floor?” Vicky asked.

Taylor said, “I wanted to see if I could find something a bit better than topaz for a prefix for the thievery rings.”

“Any objections to me trying to see if I can salvage the cauldron while you sort through the rest of the gear?” Amy asked curious what the cauldron would come up as.

“Knock yourself out, I’m sure we’ll find more eventually,” Taylor replied as she dropped the Topaz ring of Thievery into her salvage box and hit accept. She smiled as she looked over the two new enchanting patterns. ‘If this works against parahuman powers, it’s a game changer. Hell, it’s a game changer against the gangs regardless.’ 

“Awesome, thanks.” Amy grinned as she stepped through the portal so she could salvage the cauldron.

“Wait for me,” Vicky said as she followed Amy through the portal.

Taylor grinned as she looked at the over their collection of loot. “Now I just need to find something better than the topaz prefix for our new rings.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard to find something better, if nothing else you could go with the stronger resistance prefix you got last time,” Randal suggested.

“Should work,” Taylor agreed as she started sorting through the items they’d grabbed to see if there was anything more useful than what she already had.

“Speaking of preparing for horrible monsters and demons, do we have a plan if we actually get to Diablo?” Gothic asked.

Kevin snorted. “Yeah, don’t stick the damned soul stone in your head like an idiot.”

“Pretty sure that goes without saying,” Taylor replied as she picked up a rather ornate dagger and looked at the tooltip. ‘Obsidian dagger, 40% resistance of magic, fire and lightning resistance, nice.’ She dropped the dagger into her salvage box and hit accept.

Danny shook his head. “I think she meant how are we going to kill him without getting ourselves killed.”

“Yeah, that,” Gothic agreed.

“Ah right, that makes more sense.” Taylor glanced at the obsidian enchant on her enchanting page then looked at the tooltips for the steel ingot and the chunk of obsidian she’d gotten as salvage. ‘Nothing special for the metal and a 40% resistance crafting reagent, nice.’

Kevin frowned as he thought about the Diablo fight. “It depends on how the level is set up, if we’re in a dungeon based on the multiplayer version of the game then he’ll be running around free, if we’re in a version based on the single player mode, he’ll be boxed in with a bunch of demonic knights and we’ll have to flip a couple switches to get to him.”

“Yeah, I’m going to assume he’s free to run around. If I’m wrong, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

Randal said, “In either case, we’ll probably want to clear around the stairs so we can escape at the first sign of trouble. We hadn’t seen any of the demons climbing stairs but I’m not going to assume that they can’t.”

“I think we’re jumping the gun a bit, we’re barely into hell and we’re already having to bring our A game, I don’t think we’re going to get to Diablo today,” Gothic pointed out. 

Amy followed Vicky out of the portal with a slightly annoyed look on her face. “No dice, the used cauldrons break into magical iron and a normal cauldron pattern.”

“Should be useful for swords at least,” Victoria pointed out.

Taylor turned to look at Amy and Victoria. “That’s less useful than I was hoping but about what I was expecting, we’ll probably have to toss a full cauldron into it to get anything really amazing.”

“At least we tried,” Amy agreed.

Randal grinned. “I don’t know, that sounds like what we need to mix the Gummiberry Juice in.”

“Gummiberry Juice?” Gothic asked. 

Danny glanced at his watch. “On that note, we’ve got the rest of the day, we might as well order some pizza. That should give Taylor enough time to make everyone a decent ring of thievery and Victoria a vampiric sword in case she has to cut through a bunch of demons.”

“It would also give me time to look through the rest of the loot and explain the Gummi Bear dungeon,” Taylor agreed.

“I could eat,” Kevin agreed.

Danny pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed as the rest of the group discussed their favorite toppings.