by Alston Sleet
The entire structure screamed that these were thinking people who had designed a safe haven for themselves. After a hundred yards of stonework, an impressive feat considering it could only be done by hand or magic, the passageway opened up into a large stone buttressed cavern. I slowly panned around in awe at the fantastic work that such a large space must have required. My wonder quickly shifted into a disturbed fascination as I realized that this wasn’t a mustering hall but instead a killing field. The only exit was a single tunnel, but the far wall had thick metal grating which covered tubes with protected recesses.
Looking around further I noticed holes in the ceiling which I was sure led upwards where something nasty could be poured down. Even the floor was trapped, the surface had this odd up and down pattern which would be difficult to charge across. I felt bad for any defenders caught on the far side though.
I traveled along the new tunnel and out into the open air. This appeared to be a hollowed-out rock formation with a central square and buildings cut directly into the walls. It wasn’t a mountain, but it was more significant than a hill. At the bottom, at the tunnel's entrance, was an area of plants growing in the dim light that made it down from the steeply angled walls. On the far side from the tunnel was a flat area of stone then a wide ramp of rock that looped around the walls.
My new target would be the large flat stone area before the ramp.
Focusing back around my dungeon I checked to be sure the explorer team was nowhere near my dungeon. They had moved off about two miles and had bedded down for the night, only one of the larger men was left to stand watch while the rest huddled in leathers near the fire.
Quickly I formed a large stone plug to cover my entrance. Releasing my hold on the space around my arch, I felt it slowly loosen then the doorway disappeared from my view in the dwarven castle. I only watched further for a moment, but the dwarves which had been waiting snapped to attention then slowly moved forward.
I shifted my vision back to the surface above my dungeon. Finding everything as I expected I sent my view back to the Kobolds’ hidden city. Grabbing on to the space around my entrance I shrunk the area into a tiny needle-like point then pulled it towards its landing pad. Then I expanded the shrunken space, the connection twisting through some strange distance in a way I still couldn’t follow. Finally, I attempted to lock the stone and dimension together. At first, I felt my grasp start to slip, but with a surge of effort, I felt the space of my door and the space of the landing grasp each other and pull tight.
Relaxing slowly, the sudden loss of the strain worrisome, I then pulled the stone plug away from the door. The sudden burst of magic billowing out from my dungeon covered the hidden village with an invisible magical fog.
Suddenly the entire village was filled with screaming and war cries. Lizard people rushed out of their doors, holding metal weapons of all kind they rushed around until my doorway was noticed. Grouping up into a massive wall of spears and swords they charged at my entrance!
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lizard Are Not Like Dwarves.
I just sat in befuddlement as I watched the Kobolds rush through my dungeon. They went through each hallway in a wave of screaming madness. I watched one lizard trip, his weapon stabbing into another as they ran wild through my corridors. I kept looping them back around again to the vestibule. The stabbed lizard clamped a clawed hand around his wound and continued on with the rest of the troop, though he did give the younger male who stabbed him a dirty look.
After running around for a while the mad dash crazy behavior calmed down, then came the suspicious sneaky behavior. I think this conservative movement was a more normal response, and Jorgen’s memories match that, but apparently dropping a door in the center of their safe space was…upsetting.
Some of the warriors with spears started to slink around my halls tapping and listening carefully on walls the entire way. I was actually surprised by this since this helped them find more than one of my ‘one-way’ hallways. They couldn’t figure out how to get through, and they started to mark the walls with some kind of clear waxy stuff. The wax was tough to notice, but I could tell it had a pungent scent. Once I absorbed some, I discovered what it was.
It was processed animal fat with small amounts of lizard man urine in it. They were using clear scent markings! This apparently was the last thing I needed as well.
Ding!
New pattern, Kobold.
This was great news. I could now create monster kobolds in my deeper dungeon as a first level arena fight. If someone makes it past my low-level melee challenges, they can move on to actual opponents. I will have to play with that after my dungeon clears out since I could just feel how difficult and mana intensive the pattern was to create.
My introspection was broken by the appearance of three new Kobolds. A large female, dull browns and grey scales, and two male guards. The guards were much larger than the ones who had been rushing around in my halls. Shouting commands in a language I didn’t know, the smaller males slunk back to the entrance and then out to stand a sloppy guard around the gateway.
Suddenly my perspective shifted, and I figured out what was going on. These were the Kobold equivalent of teenagers, and they had just charged into danger to protect their settlement. Then the leader wrangled them up and sent them to stand ‘guard’ out where they were no longer in danger.
The two guards, covered with leathers and adorned with plates of armor and feathers, moved forward carefully while the female stood at the entrance and watched. Their armor looked to be something between a conquistadors breastplate and feathered tribal wear. The odd juxtaposition still looked like a coherent whole though. The smoothly curved metal plates covered areas like the chest and shins while leathers tied the ensemble together and allowed for maneuverability and silent movement. The feathers were tied off and attached to the edges of the leather bindings, nothing hung loose, and everything seemed to have a place which matched on each guard.
This was a uniform of a military force which had decided on a specific gear loadout. This wasn’t the showy gear of a singular warrior trying to display their prowess. These guys were soldiers first.
The female (chief?) stood calmly while her guards made the rounds of the area and then took up guarded stances next to her as she walked forward towards the painting. Once she reached the portraits, she gazed at them for a while making an odd rolling click sound in the back of her throat. It might have been her version of a ‘hmm’ noise, but that was just a wild guess. She then turned to the large plaque and gazed at it for a few seconds then she moved her head in an odd nod-shake gesture. The motion wasn’t a nod, and it wasn’t a back and forth shake, it was more of an unusual combination that sort of had a jaw wiggle to go with it. If I had a head, it would be turned to the side with ears up like a puppy trying to understand the yelling after tinkling on the floor.
After that bit of oddness, she gestured and started to move down my Hall of Champions. They reached the ‘dead end’ where I had the one-way doorway, and I watched the chieftains eyes narrow to slits and her nostrils flare as she seemed to be waiting for something. Reaching into a small pocket in her leathers she pulled out a small leather bag. With a quick pull of the drawstring, she tucked in with two nails and pinched a small amount of black powder inside. Flicking the black dust into the air, she observed its movements.
She was checking for airflows! Sneaky, sneaky, but the air inside was magically pure and didn’t move around unless I wanted it to move. The dust she flicked around just floated to the ground without being disturbed by anything but her movements.
Tapping her short snout with one of her claws she put away her bag and reached for a different baggy in a second pocket. This bag was carefully wrapped up multiple times with other leathers. Again she reached in and pinched out a tiny bit of sparkling dust.
This time the dust flicked into the air floated very slowly and shimmered in a distinct pattern. With my magical senses, I watched as the powder pic
ked up little currents of mana and glowed as it moved through the slowly drifting dust. Lady lizard was tracking the flows of mana this time, and she apparently found precisely the streams she was expecting.
Once they had moved away from the first few piles of dust, I absorbed them. The black powder was simply finely ground charcoal. The glittering dust though was some kind of magically sensitive stone. My [Etheric Pattern Formation] ticked up a few times and it told me what it was; Manastone. It’s a stone, and it responds to mana, well Manastone makes sense, but sheesh.
This pattern repeated throughout my dungeon, they managed to map out each of my secret hallways even if they couldn’t figure out how to open them. I watched this methodical secret crawl with considerable interest. If I could figure out how to fake the mana’s direction or just cause it swirl around, I should be able to hide my secrets even further. It wasn’t clear what precisely this leader was gaining from searching like this, but anything I could hide in the future would be useful.
Eventually, there were no more secrets to search for, and the three were standing around in the vestibule. The males seemed bored by the entire thing, just standing around ready to defend their VIP, but she looked to be thinking about something. I watched as she did another of those thinking poses, one claw on hip, hip cocked to the side, other hand’s clawed finger tapping on the end of her snout. It was an exciting bit of mannerism because it was apparent that she was thinking. Some of her characteristics had been entirely alien, but the ‘thinking’ pose was apparently universal even between mammals and reptiles. Well, sapient lizards at least.
After a few minutes of thinking the lady gave a quickly snapped command to her guards, an instruction they obviously disagreed with. One of the males actually physically stood in front of her with his spear held crosswise. The second stood to the side, the mannerism of embarrassed sheepishness came through clearly. What followed was a snapped argument that looked to be only one step away from devolving into a fist fight. It ended after some softly spoken comment from the male guard followed by his gentle caress of the female’s face. Her look was full of pride and rejection almost slapping his hand away as he tried to reach for her.
I really wished I could speak the language. Whatever was going on, I could only imagine the reality TV show level drama. The shorter guard was very clearly looking away. His whole body screamed ‘I am not hearing this! Lalalala!’, the only way he could convey it more strongly would be to stick his claws in his ears and actually say it! The Romeo guard was almost in tears he was so discouraged, and miss leader lady? She was having none of it.
Shaking his head, the more massive guard marched over to his partner’s side, and they both stood guard in front of the entrance. What followed was the slowest dungeon crawl in all of history.
Moving into the Hall of Champions she moved with an almost glacial pace. She laid down, flat on the ground, and literally inched forward in a belly crawl. She tapped, sniffed, and even licked the stone every few inches. She also stopped and inspected the walls and the roof every inch of the way in a very systematic manner. Her movements would have made a new recruit with a spoon and orders to check a minefield proud. It took her almost an hour just to test the Hall of Champions. She spent even more time checking every inch of the areas where they had detected the secret doors.
I was most surprised how they had been able to find the secret locations again even as I had removed all the dust and marks they had left. They had to have some kind of skill to keep track of every single doorway like that even as my hallways were so similar looking by design. This performance convinced me that some sort of secret trap detection challenge would need to happen. These guys were absolute masters, and it would be awesome to have a challenge even they couldn’t beat.
While the Lady Lizard belly crawled throughout my dungeon, I kept triggering my [Far Seeing] outside to see how things were going. At first, the teens had stood guard lackadaisically. After a while, they eventually started to play around until finally they broke up and wandered off. Cream of the crop soldiers they were not. I had watched the dwarven recruits standing guard for hours on end, each of them holding a position with their halberds ready to attack at a moments notice. This while wearing heavy plate armor!
Eventually, she belly-crawled all the way around back to the entrance room. When she finally was visible, the tensed shoulders of her two guards slowly relaxed. Once she was back at the entrance room, she walked over and flopped down in front of the hallway to the challenges and returned to her slow glacial pace. Neither of the guards made any comment about her actions, but they both watched her inch her way out of sight.
I could see the moment that she discovered that the challenge hall would let her through. She was inching along checking everything, sniffing, doing her minute check when she turned her head to check above and she noticed the hallway had changed out of the corner of her eye. At that exact moment, she froze perfectly still. Her body remained immobile for almost a minute. I don’t think she even breathed. When her body snapped back into motion it was like a statue came to life, it was eerie. She didn’t move quickly, but her actions continued as if it had been paused for that entire time. Her face made no expression I could understand, but she performed one long slow blink before she continued with her silent check of my hall.
This entire episode highlighted my new behaviors. This inching along slow as a snail pace would have driven me insane as a human. But watching her move along was almost hypnotically entertaining. On earth, I had never seen the point of ant farms, but I could now understand the fascination. I could, and actually had, watched for hours without taking any action and felt not a moment of boredom. In the background of my mind I had spent some time imbuing my dungeon walls with reinforcement, clearing out new challenge areas, creating coins using the new Manastone material, but in general, my focus had remained on the slowly crawling lizard.
When the hallway split into the two main areas, she sniffed and looked back and forth between the two directions and the words over the halls but then finally settled on the magical side. I don’t know if she had sensed some subtle signal, flipped a mental coin and went right instead of left, or that she liked blue more then red, but magical challenge it was.
I was nearly giddy with excitement! No one had tried any of my magical challenges. I kept expecting one of the dwarven casters to try it out, but none would.
After another hour of crawling, she finally reached the entrance to the first magical challenge. Her pace slowed yet again after she had entered the new grounds, but I didn’t mind in the slightest. The guards at the entrance though were less than amused. Both of them were nearly twitching in agitation since they apparently knew how long it should have taken her to make the loop they walked before, but she was now overdue.
The first challenge for magic was a simple one. In movement, the most straightforward skill you can demonstrate, is to move around without falling over your own feet, hence the platform challenge. With combat, the easiest ability you can reveal is just to hit a target and be aware of where you are. With magic, the humblest skill I could think of was just to sense mana.
The way the challenge worked was that there would be a room with six pedestals, each with a sword embedded in the stone. Five of those swords would be enchanted, touching them would result in flames or flash freezing, lightning or a cloud of acid. One of the six had no enchantment what so ever. It had only the slightest wisp of mana from the [Will of the World] that when touched would trigger the door opening and the reward pedestal. Even if you can’t tell what the enchantments do, knowing that one is not like the others should be enough to figure out that it’s the key.
When she finally reached the doorway, she slowed down and then checked behind her, the comical wide-eyed look of surprise when she noticed the now solid wall behind her was beautiful. I have started to take a sick joy out of watching my crazy dimensional shenanigans and how it affects different groups of sapients.
Doing
that strange head shake nod thing again she turned back around and returned to crawling through my rooms, inch by inch, sniff, and lick by sniff and lick. After she had followed all the way around the right wall, her smooth and slow movements led her directly to the prize pedestal, something she had glanced over carefully from across the room since it was so obviously different than the other stands. When she noticed that it wasn’t possible to move through the exit hallway she seemed upset, the emotions were subtle and difficult to read, but the baring of teeth is probably universal as well.
Eventually, she was done inching along every part of the floor, she then slowly stood up as if she was ready to drop to the tiles at the first sound of danger. Once she was sure of her stance, she moved cautiously around each pedestal, her hands and body far away from touching anything. She made that interested rolling click sound again as she investigated each embedded sword.
When she came to the sword which was apparently less magical the sound she was making became slightly louder. After checking each pedestal, she paused again in that eerie way before she started reaching around within a large pocket that I hadn’t noticed on her back. Within this pocket, she withdrew a thin, nearly invisible string of some kind. Tying one end to the prize pedestal, she laid her line along the ground back to the reward pedestal. She then took out a small leather water skin from her back pocket. This was a very flat packet which seemed to have something other than water since she carefully spread it on the smooth leather of her front being careful not to touch it with her claws.
A few drops of this mystery liquid fell off her clothes and onto the floor, and I worked to absorb it. The mystery was quickly solved, it was some kind of oil made from a fatty animal. What this animal was I didn’t know, but the [Etheric Pattern Formation] ticked up again and it felt like with a bit more of it I would be able to summon whatever it was. This one Kobold alone had given me so much entertainment and patterns that I was feeling particularly generous towards her. Not enough to be willing to help her not die, but enough that I would be slightly sad if she does. Maybe.
