"I hope he is ready?" Lana said. "The fairies should be appearing soon."
Anna shot Max a smirk but neither of them said anything.
"What's that?" Rod asked when he saw movement off screen.
Gilmore stopped. It was hard to tell what he was doing, but it looked like he raised 2 daggers.
A group of creatures rushed towards him.
"That's not fairies!" Lana said in surprise.
She was right. 5 dogs rushed across the path. Their teeth were bared and they dove straight towards the man.
Gilmore rolled and popped out of stealth. His dagger slid into the side of one. He sheathed the dagger in his off hand and grabbed 5 throwing knives. He whipped them into the group of dogs. He threw wildly and didn't know how many he hit because he had already turned and ran.
But the group watching knew. 3 of the 5 knives found targets while 2 missed.
Hearing the snarls behind him, Gilmore ran towards a tree. He leapt and jumped off a trunk towards another tree. He reached the tall branch and pulled himself up.
Squatting, he looked bellow. He wanted to take stock of the situation but a soft pop signaled the arrival of a good size dog beside him. The dog's jaw was locked onto his arm. He lost his balance as the dog started falling to the ground.
With his free hand a rope dart went flying to a nearby tree.
It landed solidly with a *Thunk*
Gilmore held onto the rope as his fall changed into a swing. He let out a grunt as he flung his arm and kneed the dog. With a yelp it let go and rolled on the ground.
Unsure as to what happened, Gilmore didn't hold the rope and continue the swing. He let go and rolled on the ground. With his high stats he had a chance to outrun the dogs.
He ran further into the woods, all the while, hearing his pursuers closing in.
Three soft pops and a trio of dogs were suddenly in front of him.
It looked like he wasn't going to escape. He held a knife in each hand and lunged forward.
What followed was a dirty messy fight as the assassin kneed, cut, kicked, stabbed, dodged and slit.
Sometimes the dogs would pop in with surprise attacks while he was dealing with others. Sometimes when a dog was about to be killed it would pop away.
Gilmore had managed to kill 3 before the 2 remaining pop away. He kept up his guard for several minutes but it didn't seem like the dogs were going to return.
"What the heck was that?" Lana asked while nervously looking at her uncle who had lost half his health in that fight. "Why didn't he encounter the fairies?"
"Those would be fey hounds." Max said. "The dungeon is designed to give 3 encounters along the path. The 4th encounter will be the boss."
Anna chimed in. "There are a few different encounters set up and the dungeon randomly assigns them to help keep things exciting."
"Are fey hounds so viscous. It looked like they saw straight through his Stealth?" Dirk asked.
"Fey hounds are great trackers. They have an excellent nose and great hearing. These were all Elites with the largest dog being the alpha of this small pack and being a Rare Elite." Max answered.
"So we would only fight normal fey hounds and 1 Elite?" Lana asked.
Max nodded. "The fact that these are Elites makes it much harder for your uncle. When they become Elite, they gain short-range teleportation. As you saw, it can be nasty when they fight in a group."
"What about the Rare Elite?" Silvia asked.
"I believe it's bite has a temporary bleed effect." Max said while motioning to the projection.
They turned and saw Gilmore bandaging his arm when the powdered healing agent wouldn't stop the bleeding.
Once bandaged and after a potion, the assassin had 60% of his health but was a long way from the path. They could tell from the map in the corner that he wasn't heading in the right direction to get back onto it.
"You said that the encounters were on the path. Then is it possible to skip?" Lana asked.
"Sure, but it's not that simple. It is very hard not to get lost when you are off the past. And besides, I said the random encounters were on the path. Who's to say there isn't other things in the woods."
All 4 teens shared a glance. It was a bit frighting and exciting at the same time. Who knew what was out in those woods.
As Gilmore pushed through the woods the others realized that he may not be lost. He was walking parallel to the path and when the second encounter drew near he began heading straight to it.
Max didn't find this odd. The man was a high 30s assassin. He wouldn't be surprised if the man knew the 2 half injured Fey hounds were following him. The Dungeon Master had seen him glance subtly over his shoulder towards them 3 different times.
When Gilmore noticed the second encounter far in the distance, he pulled out a powder and threw it over himself before entering stealth again.
Rod looked to Lana for answers since he had no idea why the man had done that.
"It should be a scent powder."
Gilmore slowly moved towards the clearing ahead. He didn't find a bonfire like his niece had told him. Instead there was a small pond. On the far side he saw three women who looked like their skin was made from bark. Their hair sprouted upwards like small tree branches.
He recognized dryads. And it appeared his niece did as well, since she announced it to the group.
Gilmore slowly circled behind them. He knew it was risky, but he didn't want to be stuck in here for days, so he didn't have a better option.
The true way of the assassin was patience, but his niece was watching, and he needed to get back. Since the dogs had lost his trail, he decided to give it a try.
The group slowly watched as his invisible outline moved closer to a dryad.
He looked like a cat about to pounce, and then he did. The man leapt the final distance and plunged 2 daggers into the creatures back. His hands then moved in a flurry.
The creature had more health than he expected. Before he could finish it off, vines curled around his legs and he was suddenly dragged towards a different dryad. The one he had injured turned towards him. As Gilmore was being drawn away he pulled out 2 small hand crossbows from his cloak and fired.
The injured dyad collapsed as she died.
Gilmore knew it wasn't good when the vines began to bind his waist. The third dryad leapt over and clawed at his chest. He had been paying too much attention to the first dryad and couldn't react in time.
He instantly knew something was wrong. He was feeling lightheaded, and his chest burned. Far more than a claw should have.
Poison was his first thought. And he was right.
Hearing dogs barking in the distance Gilmore didn't fight back against the 2 dryads. They sent him directly to the hospital.
"Where those Elites as well?" Rod asked.
"Rare Elites. If you encounter them, they will be normal Elites." Max replied.
"They look rough." Dirk said.
"They aren't too horrible. They are good at hand to hand combat and have a few magical abilities. Your uncle probably could have succeeded if he wasn't rushing, but I doubt you would want to spend days while he waited for the perfect chance to pick them off 1 by 1."
"That's true." Lana said. "Neither of those were easy encounters for an assassin."
Anna nodded. "Your uncle should be waking up in the hospital shortly. Remember to make sure he gets his credit and loot from the building next door. And any tools or weapons that were left behind and not broken will be returned as well."
"Thanks, we should head over."