Rex

Rex is a level ??? tyrant found in the Fabled Depths. He is not a boss to be fought. He is a force of nature to be escaped. It fights hand to hand, so spells have the edge on it and a bow is at a disadvantage.

He stalks the whole of the Fabled Depths. The old stories say he is the Ancient Warden’s own pet, still keeping his master’s grounds four centuries after the binding. Nobody who stood close enough to check has stayed to write it down.

Fighting it

Best not to.

Preparation: A pack with masking mud in it, a clear line to a stair, and friends you can run faster than.

Rex is not fought. He is escaped. He arrives without warning while people are in the Depths. A roar rolls through the zone, he picks one of them, and he walks them down through anything in his path. Rocks, walls, the columns of the dead cities: he goes through, not around.

There are two ways off his menu. Climb out of the Depths, since he never follows into daylight. Or roll in masking mud, which kills your scent for two minutes and breaks his lock. Mind who you stand next to when you do either. Anyone within a minimap’s radius of him inherits the hunt until he is gone.

The mud comes from seeps of cold black earth scattered through the Depths. Scoop one and it goes in your pack as masking mud, one roll per handful, to use the moment you hear the drums. A scooped seep rises again somewhere else a few minutes later, so there is never a hub to camp.

It is a dive’s supply, not a stockpile. The moment you stand in daylight, by stair, spell, death or hearth, every handful bakes into sunbaked mud, which hides nothing and never turns back. The bank refuses it for the same reason. Each trip down starts with finding a seep.

His theme follows him, not his target. If you can hear it, he is near you. If the drums have come in, he is too near.

If a company of the realm’s best puts him down, he does not die. He staggers, turns into the dark, and leaves one Fabled key where he stood. Every time.

Drops

Item	Quantity	Chance
Fabled key	1	Always