The Anchor-Gorged
 | |
| Level | 190 |
|---|---|
| Health | 20,000 |
| Family | Grievver |
| Location | The Iron Sill (sanctum) |
| Attacks | Claws, acid breath, war magic |
| XP | 7,500,000 |
The Anchor-Gorged is the boss of The Iron Sill, a colossal Grievver that swallowed the anchor-iron the Meridian drove into this door and never gave it back.
Overview
The Anchor-Gorged is the reason The Iron Sill exists. The Meridian pins a leaking door by driving an anchor-iron into its mouth; they drove one into this door, and it went into the creature instead of holding the frame. The iron is still inside it, and the door still leaks because of that. It reads as an enormous Grievver, its carapace gone molten gold where the metal has worked outward through the shell, brighter than any of the bronze creatures on the floors below because it sits closest to the source. It does not speak. It has an anchor-iron lodged in its throat and no reason to explain itself.
Combat
The fight is a front-loaded burn check. The Anchor-Gorged hardens as it feeds: instead of weakening as it dies, it grows tougher with every quarter of its health it loses, swallowing more of the sanctum's iron and visibly brightening as its shell thickens. Bring it down early or you end up grinding against something that is still hardening.
It comes in four phases, each crossing at a quarter of its health:
- Full health. It stirs and turns, and something inside it turns a moment later. No new defenses yet; this is the warning.
- Below three quarters. The first hardening. Its armor thickens and it becomes harder to hit at all, the gold under its shell creeping outward another inch.
- Below half. The second hardening. It shrugs off physical blows of every kind, so weapon type stops mattering, and iron grinds on iron behind its throat.
- Below a quarter. Fully gorged. It closes the last hole, turning aside elemental damage as well, and by now there is no damage type left to swap to. A group that cannot break it before this point may not be able to finish it at all.
It attacks with its claws and an acid breath at close range and backs them with war magic, so it is dangerous at every distance. It has no adds; the fight is a straight duel against a thing that only gets harder.
Lore
The Meridian wants the iron back and never says why one anchor-iron matters enough to pay this much to recover it, or what the door it was meant to close actually is. The creature's last turn tells the rest: it has stopped feeding, whatever it swallowed is finished, and it is still here. The iron was never coming back out. That is the Meridian's whole problem, and it is why the door still leaks.
Location
The Anchor-Gorged waits in the raised sanctum above the top hall of The Iron Sill. The sanctum opens off the top floor, so any group in the dungeon can reach it together regardless of which floor they came to farm.
Drops
The Anchor-Gorged carries no loot table of its own. The Meridian pays for its death through Coriel the Anchor-Clerk's sanctum tally, not by anything the creature drops.
See also
- The Iron Sill - the dungeon it caps.
- Coriel the Anchor-Clerk - who pays for the kill.
- Bestiary - all custom creatures.