by Allan Joyal
“Wow,” Jerisa said. “That’s just a start?”
“We’ll need a couple more rooms eventually,” Dared said. “But I wanted to allow the builders time to work on improving the village. That’s more important.”
Jerisa moved to put her arms around Dared. “That’s why I fell in love with you. You’ve always cared about others. If you hadn’t been like that…”
“I know,” Dared said. “Meanwhile, I should probably lead this wizard to the inn so he can rest for the evening. Tomorrow he’ll be returning to Fairview.”
Xalesin looked up and glared at Dared. “What if I want to stay?”
“The inn has no free rooms, so you’ll be sleeping on the floor tonight. Food is in limited supply, so you’d have to provide your own. And the fact that you angered the dungeon will get out quickly. Many of the people staying in town are adventurers who will be unhappy with your continued presence. I’d say you will find it far safer to live elsewhere,” Dared commented as he moved to the door.
“But I need brimstone,” Xalesin said.
“Find it elsewhere,” Dared said. “There is none available in Montgar, and I don’t want to have to break up fights because you refuse to understand that.”
Xalesin turned to follow Dared. He had a frown on his face as the duo left the shop, and headed off to the inn.
Chapter 24: Dungeon Rumblings
The clear skies seemed to hold for a few days after Xalesin left Montgar. Dared’s comments to the wizard had been borne out by their experience at the inn. Dared said nothing before claiming a table and starting a long and detailed discussion with Koltiss about making some changes to the watch policy. Xalesin still found that he received hostile stares from just about everyone in the tavern. A few did wish him well the next morning as he departed, but the majority had made it clear that he was an intruder.
Faestari had ignored the problem. The kobolds had finished their sacrifices of the corrupted members of their tribe and she was seeking a way to reward them for their continued devotion. Aylia laughingly pointed out that Faestari was doing a fine job being the deity the kobolds worshiped.
There were two more delves during the brief period of calm weather. Gee’if found the young men who had entered with Patris and guided them through the first four rooms. Two of the young men were injured in the delve, but the group was happy with their efforts. The second group included Niscott and his wife. The duo was extremely cautious once this group fought their way past the orcs, but the group actually found the stairs in the dwarven ruin before deciding to turn back. Their report brought additional excitement to the Impaled Cats as the group rarely managed to get that deep before injuries and fatigue forced the group to retreat.
A couple days later the storms returned, but this time Faestari immediately felt a wrongness in the storms. She probed the sky to find massive mana weaves interlaced with the winds, driving the storm to linger longer than normal. The source of the weaves was clearly the dungeon to the south east.
“How does it manage to do this,” Faestari said. “I can hardly use mana outside my domain, but this dungeon throws its mana around constantly. And I don’t feel that many mana spikes from deaths.”
“You can feel them from here?” Aylia asked as Faestari paced around her heart chamber.
“Not normally,” Faestari admitted. “But that new dungeon doesn’t shield its domain all that well. I can feel mana leaking from the area constantly. It’s like it only manages to gather up a fraction of what is available.”
“Could there be nodes nearby?” Aylia asked. “Is that why it has the power available to it?”
Faestari paused. She looked right at Aylia before nodded. “I should have considered that. It must have nodes. That would explain the mana and might even explain the ease the dungeon has with manipulating the weather.”
Aylia jumped out of the pool and walked over to Faestari. “Hey! It’s not your fault you didn’t realize it. I could have gone there to check.”
“I could have figured out a way to bribe that wizard to check for me,” Faestari said.
“Can you contact him?” Aylia asked. “Find some way to enchant one of the birds in the area. Its only been a few days, if he headed back to Fairview, he should be easy to find.”
“And do what?” Faestari asked. “I don’t want him back in Montgar. He’s the kind of wizard who tried to capture me.”
Aylia shook her head. “I don’t think he’s interested in more than his own comfort. At least that’s what it sounded like. The man was wearing velvet robes and some kind of velvet slipper over his feet. I’m surprised he could walk in the snow.”
“He wanted something and was going to do whatever it took to get it,” Faestari said.
“So? Put together a small bag of brimstone. Then enchant a bird to find him and give him the bag. When its opened have a magic mouth spell tell him you need him to check the other dungeon for nodes,” Aylia said.
“And how does he inform me?” Faestari asked. “I don’t want him returning.”
Aylia looked puzzled. Faestari just nodded and then resumed her pacing around the chamber. “And that’s why I can’t just go to him,” Faestari said.
Aylia stood pensively as Faestari made three more circuits around her chamber. The stone rabbits were lined up near the alcove, silently watching their mistress. Aylia looked over at them and shook her head.
“Could you make a stone bird that could fly?” she asked.
“What?” Faestari asked as she stopped her pacing again.
Aylia pointed at the rabbits. “From what you’ve told me you don’t animate the rabbits. That is…”
Faestari nodded. “My mother created them and her magic has not faded. I’ve looked at the spells she used and they should not work that way. I could probably create a stone bird, but I’d have to either insert a mana stone or keep a permanent link to it for it to be able to fly. I won’t risk the link. Not if it will be near a wizard.”
Aylia crossed her arms. “You’re just looking for…”
Whatever Aylia was about to say was lost as the mountain shook violently. The ground moved northward in a rolling wave and then jerked southward. The rabbits all fell on their side as Aylia turned to water and splashed against the side of the chamber.
Faestari had remained rooted to the floor, but she immediately reached out with her mana, making sure that none of the caverns were damaged by the violence of the motion.
“What?” Aylia asked as Faestari felt a release of mana from the south west.
“I need to check something,” Faestari said as she ran to her alcove and lay down. “That might not have been natural.”
“Might not have been?” Aylia screeched out as Faestari sent her spirit racing to the south east.
Once outside her domain Faestari could see massive scars on the mountainsides. Avalanches had slid down multiple slopes, leaving devastation in their wake. She noted two orc encampments that had been buried by snow due to the earthquake.
As she got closer to the other dungeon, the devastation became greater. One mountain had split, with a massive granite slab breaking away and crashing down the east face. Another mountain was tilted as if the ground under the south side had moved upward more than twenty feet and refused to subside. Snow continued to tumble from the peak, creating new drifts all over the north face of the mountain.
Faestari was not sure what she expected to find at the other dungeon. The vision of a smoking volcano rising up just barely within the dungeon’s domain stopped her in her tracks. She could feel strong flows of air, earth and fire magic surrounding the domain. One of the fire flows reached out towards her and the volcano began to spit lava.
“It was him,” Faestari said. “But how? And more importantly, why? This cannot have increased the mana the dungeon receives.”
Faestari turned back. One of the air flows brushed against her spirit, but she seized the flow and cut it off from the node before absorbing the mana. It was diff
icult to do outside her domain, but she managed as she headed northeast towards her home.
When Faestari flew back over her mountain, she looked down on the village and gatehouse. The gatehouse was gone. She carefully landed just inside her domain where the gatehouse had been and looked around. Her powers had kept the snow from sliding down the mountain, but the stone of the gatehouse had been outside her control and the quickly built structure had collapsed. She looked again at the village and could see that the walls had held up fairly well. Several of the merlons had collapsed and it looked like just about everyone had gathered at the inn for some reason, but she could see Dared, Kalacho and Roquel.
As she looked out over the village, Aylia flowed up from the snow. The water nymph appeared as a white and blue skinned person. “No real harm in the dungeon, although I’d recommend that no adventurers enter for a few hours. Many of the fungus released spores and the air is probably unsafe to breathe.”
Faestari nodded. “I’ve already had to heal a few orcs who breathed in too much.”
“You did? You never said a thing,” Aylia replied as she moved to look out over the village. “Should I go and help?”
“They would probably appreciate it,” Faestari admitted. “But I was more concerned about if they would be mad at me. And I’m not sure the gate guard survived.”
Aylia crouched down and looked at the ruin. She reached down and then stood back up. “He’s dead. The wall crushed him.”
“It is my fault he died,” Faestari said quietly.
“No,” Aylia said. “The dungeon would still have awoken and without you being around it probably would have gone after any other nearby mana source. I expect that it would have tried to drain Fairview.”
“I’m surprised it hasn’t tried that yet,” Faestari replied as she gazed to the southwest. “Oh, it definitely caused the earthquake.”
“How?” Aylia asked.
“I didn’t check for nodes, but it has flows of earth, fire and air magic swirling just inside the edge of its domain. We are going to have to deal with it soon.”
Aylia was going to say more, but Roquel emerged from the town gate and ran towards Faestari. “Faestari!” the experienced adventurer shouted.
Aylia looked over at the woman’s short boots, short skirt and wrapped breasts. “How can you not be freezing with so little clothing? I’m having to use mana to avoid turning into ice.”
“I have some magical assistance designed to keep my body somewhat warm,” Roquel said. “Although I’m going to want to head back to the tavern. Can you come with me Faestari?”
Faestari shook her head. “No.”
“Are you sure you cannot leave your domain? I’ve seen the other dungeon pull it off,” Roquel said.
“The problem is that to leave my dungeon in the way you want I either have to open a gap in my domain’s shield, or I have to lock my spirit into an avatar and lose my ability to sense things inside my domain,” Faestari said firmly.
Roquel nodded. “And I’m sure you aren’t comfortable risking that considering the problems that other dungeon is causing.”
“It caused the earthquake,” Faestari said. “Well, it used its mana to create a volcano. The growth of the volcano appears to have caused the quake.”
“How much damage,” Aylia asked.
Roquel looked over at the collapsed gatehouse. “That is the one place where someone died. There are a couple of damaged walls at the inn, but they were doubled walls and only the exterior was damaged. Dared and Joward have most of the town over there making repairs.”
Faestari nodded sadly. “I’m sorry. I need to stop the other dungeon.”
“How?” Roquel asked. “What can you do?”
“We’re going to have to organize a party to go in and kill it,” Faestari said. She choked back a sob.
“I’ll agree that it needs to be done,” Roquel said. “At least if everything you’ve told us is true.”
“I haven’t lied,” Faestari said. “But what are we supposed to do about organizing a party? This is going to be dangerous.”
Roquel nodded. “We’ve already talked about it. Dared has been expecting it since we ran into those kobolds when we were returning from Fairview. Kalacho and Gee’if are willing to come. And Koristal has agreed as long as we try to minimize the number of creatures we kill.”
“That may not work,” Faestari said. “I’m not sure how much mana the dungeon has fed the kobolds, but they may not survive once the heart crystal is destroyed.”
“What?” Aylia snapped. “You mean?”
Faestari held up a hand. “I have never used mana to enhance you. You can survive. However, the spiders and snakes in my dungeon would need a new source of mana or they would die out. They couldn’t feed themselves without the mana.”
“How does that work?” Aylia asked. “I mean I’ve heard that some creatures in a dungeon can survive without ever feeding.”
“The mana becomes a substitute for the food they would eat,” Faestari said. “In my case I try to use a very limited amount of mana. At first, I did this to encourage my creatures to move around, but I’ve realized that without it some of my creatures would eat so much that there would be no more rats.”
Roquel nodded. “Koristal will likely not have too much trouble with that. Cuan Bi only demands avoiding unnecessary killing. We asked Koristal to cast an augury regarding the situation, and the dungeon will only become more dangerous if it’s not stopped.”
“Dare I ask about me?” Faestari asked quietly.
Roquel laughed. “Everyone trusts you. You are a dungeon, but you have been approachable and respectful.”
Faestari nodded. “I guess I should look into how I might get information regarding what to expect. It would be nice if you could find a wizard.”
“We could always get that Xalesin idiot,” Roquel said with a laugh.
Aylia started giggling. “I heard about him, but I missed it. Are you sure he’d have any usable skills?”
“No,” Faestari said. “But if he still needs brimstone, its often found near volcanos so going to check out that other dungeon might prove to be exactly what he needs.”
Roquel smiled. She shook her head as she moved to examine the wreckage of the gate house. “I should have thought of that. Although I’m not sure he knows many combat spells.”
“He probably doesn’t,” Roquel said as she knelt by the wreckage.
“He’s dead,” Aylia said. “I can feel his blood and it is just seeping into the ground. His body has gone cold. I’m not feeling the ice melt.”
“Faestari? I know Dared was asked about this, but can you create the gatehouse inside your domain for us? It will be stronger and more comfortable if you do it,” Roquel asked. “I believe Dared will thank you. I know he doesn’t fear that you’ll destroy the town.”
“Why would I do that?” Faestari said. “This town here supports the adventurers who enter my caverns. And that is interesting. It offers me something to do other than just existing.”
“What?” Roquel asked.
“I can’t leave my domain for any extended period,” Faestari said. “And while I look like a little elven girl, I now know what I really am. Perhaps I could meet someone who’d convince me to rediscover what magic my mother used, but I doubt the other dungeons would allow that. So, those caverns are my world, with the occasional visit to the mountainside to watch the town.”
Aylia sniffed. “I never realized it was bad.”
“It’s lonely. I think that without you to talk to I’d be a lot less friendly,” Faestari admitted.
“Nothing we can do about that now,” Roquel said.
They heard someone running over the stone that had been laid as part of the gateway. Everyone standing around the ruined gatehouse looked up. Betrixy emerged. The wizardess had a worried look on her face.
“Betrixy?” Roquel asked as the woman approached.
“Sorry,” she said as she caught her breath. “Dared ju
st discovered we don’t have any kind of horn or bell for alarms. There are kobolds approaching down the trade route heading back to Fairview.”
“How many?” Faestari asked.
“About ten, but Kalacho says they look far too big to be kobolds,” Betrixy said. “I haven’t looked. They were moving towards the west gate.”
“On the far side of the town,” Faestari said. “I’d offer to help, but I can’t project my power that far.”
“I’ll represent you,” Aylia affirmed. “With all the snow around, I can have an effect. Not much because snow doesn’t move easily, but I might be able to help.”
“Go,” Faestari said. “I have to make sure the dungeon doesn’t use the arrival of his minions to attack again.”
Roquel and Aylia turned to Betrixy who led them back into Montgar. The portcullis closed behind them as they disappeared through the gate.
Faestari sighed and then looked at the mountainside next to her path. She had enjoyed having the gatehouse available. The fact that Dared and the adventurers cared about how often they disturbed the dungeon meant a lot to her. She looked back at the ruin and made a decision.
“Two rooms,” she said as she moved to the depression in the snow that held the chairs she had made previously. “I’ll make this a greeting room while keeping an actual gate for the path. The guard can rest in some comfort, and perhaps I’ll get to talk to the people more.”
Faestari started working with the stone. She wanted to ensure that the mountainside was not too distorted, so most of the granite she needed was coming from the massive stones she had ejected onto the southern slope in the past. Snow drifts seemed to shrink down as the stone underneath them melted into the mountainside only to rise back up and form the walls and ceiling of the new building.
Faestari even included an actual portcullis that could be dropped to block the entrance to the pathway. It was bronze rather than iron, but she wanted it there for a visual warning rather than to keep back anyone who was making a serious attempt to disturb her.
