The Other Shoulder

The Other Shoulder

Level	140
Health	1,600
Family	Grievver
Location	Held Door
XP	600,000

The Other Shoulder is the sealed second fight of Held Door, the thing that caught the Meridian survey crew before it caught their Line-Captain. The wing that sends adventurers in to relieve the crew does not know it is there.

Overview

Killing Line-Captain Isaure Vellamy does not finish the hall. Her death opens a chamber at her own stand point that appears on no Meridian survey, and what waits inside is the reason the door was being held at all. The crew were not holding it against the wing. They were holding it against this.

It is far stronger than anything else behind the door: a heavier creature than the hall's own tuning suggests, and a genuine step up from the Line-Captain who precedes it. A party that has just spent itself putting her down should expect a second, harder fight rather than a victory lap.

Fight

It fights by pressure rather than speed. As its health falls it braces harder, and it announces each stage as the room seems to close in:

"Something takes the weight off the door and puts it on you."

"The floor answers a pressure that is not yours."

"It braces. The room gets narrower without moving."

"It leans the last of its weight into the room."

And when it finally gives out, the door it was leaning on gives out with it:

"The pressure goes off the door. Nothing takes its place, and that is worse."

See also

• Held Door - the dungeon it is sealed inside.
• Line-Captain Isaure Vellamy - the officer whose death opens its chamber.
• Relief-Bearer Ysanne Loret - the warden who pays for the relief, and who hints at what else is in there.