by Dakota Krout
“What just happened?” Dani demanded, dodging falling chunks of rabbit meat.
“You are a cruel being.”
“You actually did it!” Dani whooped!
“Is it still stable?” She skillfully avoided the question.
“Always thinking ahead.” Dani morphed into an eye and rolled herself. “How about this, can you make portal ‘keys’? As in, when they make it to a portal, they have to have a specific item in order to get to the next floor?”
I paused,
“Yes?”
I rhetorically asked her.
“Pretty low? Unless they come in bound and gagged?” Dani remembered a situation Dale had been in recently.
“Just make things happen and let me explain it away as ‘magic’, would you?” She was unbelievably uninterested in the technical details.
I made the adjustments, creating a single, long archway which I split into twenty arches. I wanted two arches per level, at the start and after the Boss. I kept a few as spares, in case of future expansion. I added all the Inscriptions and Cores to the arches, and let them sit for a few hours to accumulate all of the Essence needed.
The keys were an interesting artifact. I decided to create them as a short, modular chain. At the end of the chain was a chunk of gemstone with a tiny Core buried in the center. When a gemstone was collected from a Boss in the dungeon, it could be added to the chain. This would grant access to that level directly when the correct gem was touched as the holder walked through the portal. To that end, I altered the first floor a little bit. It had a clear quartz ‘window’ in it that allowed viewing into the second floor Boss room, and was directly below the Inscribed celestial quartz. I replaced the clear quartz with a clear pane of fluorite, and began filling it with water corruption after adding a few Runes.
Now, I wanted to make sure my previous efforts weren’t wasted, so I made a clear keygem that would exit at the top of the stairwell, into the church area above. The first floor would be accessed via a topaz keygem — from inside the dungeon of course — the second floor via a gem of fluorite, the third floor with an emerald, and the fourth floor with a ruby. I made sure that the viewing panes reflected these changes, though it meant removing large sheets of minerals. I wanted to have my own stylistic theme, and no one could tell me ‘no’! Okay, Dani could… but if she didn’t know about it, she couldn’t stop me.
Returning to the explanation of my portal setup, I only allowed incoming portals to connect to the start of each level; I wouldn’t want someone taking a Boss by surprise. I thought about making the chain as a bound item, but decided that if someone too weak stole it and entered the dungeon, they would be almost assured to die. A too-strong person wouldn’t be bothered by the first levels at all, so it felt like a logical wash to me. The next step was testing. I spaced the arches out and brought a Goblin in to test them for me. I’d use rabbits, but they lack opposable thumbs. I wonder if I can fix that...? No, no, focus!
I was glad that I had spaced them out, most of them worked just fine but two had slight variation in the Runescript. One of them exploded, and I lost a Goblin. I cleaned up the room before bringing in a new one. When he found the next failure, I wasn’t even aware of it for a moment. I waited, but it seems that this arch had sent the Goblin… elsewhere. I didn’t know where, and I decided not to try and find out. I let that one stay on after deactivating the Essence accumulators, and it eventually was just pretty stone again. I reabsorbed it, then began moving the arches throughout the dungeon. I was sure that they would be a conversation starter in the morning.
~Dale~
“Thank you for coming on such short notice, Sir.” Dale respectfully said to the flesh Mage entering the bitter cold of Mountaindale. They had just stepped through the portal, and were hurrying toward the church.
The flesh Mage nodded, a regal motion that caused a flutter of jealousy to race through Dale. The man had obviously worked on his own body, and used himself as advertisement. He was the most symmetrical person Dale had ever seen. He was almost disturbingly handsome, with chiseled muscles and a powerful frame. His voice was deep and mellow, Dale had no doubt that this was the most charismatic man that he had ever talked to. It was actually intimidating on a deep level.
“Thank you for your advance payment. I hope that you understand my reluctance to come here, and I thank you for allowing me to bring along a guard.” The Mage uttered in a honeyed tone.
“Why not?” Hans tried to say brightly. “It only costs us an extra gold per week.”
“Exactly.” The Mage agreed, not noticing the sarcasm. “I assure you, Your Grace, Nez is worth every copper.”
The black-haired, blue-eyed swordsman walking ahead of them didn’t bother to join the conversation. His gaze was flickering between the people walking around. He vanished suddenly, only a *zap* and flash of light allowing the group to follow his progress after a moment. He was next to a tent, sword against the throat of a Dark Elf. He uttered his first words since they had met him. “Assassins. Instructions?”
“Hold!” Dale cried out before the Mage could speak. “The Dark Elves are here by my request, and are acting as the policing force for this city. Hurting him would be a very bad idea.”
Ru’Nez the Blade nodded, stepping away from the Elf and sheathing his sword, “My apologies. Normally, beings that are stereotypically assassins are something that a host would mention to others… before bringing them into his territory.”
The Elf looked at the swordsman and nodded, vanishing from sight again. Dale winced at the intended rebuke, “Sorry about that.”
The Mage waved a hand to show that there was no harm done. “He is just proving his worth again. He does that. Where is the patient?”
“Ah. This way.” They moved into the chapel, finding Tom propped up in a ring of intense fire.
The Mage looked at him critically. “He is currently undergoing breakthrough? I’m not going to work in that fire. We’ll have to wait until he is aware. I do charge by the day…”
Dale agreed with the flesh sculptor, as it was hard to argue. They found an empty room for the Mage, and Dale decided to leave him there and walk around to see the improvements in the area. He was almost to the exit when two people carrying a litter with a bleeding man ran in. Dale almost ignored this, but realized that injuries from the dungeon usually resulted in people coming up the stairs, directly into the church. He followed them, waiting for their expla
nation.
“Sir, we found him like this out on t’mountain.” The speaker was a local, someone who had lived on the mountain their whole life. He took off his hat and was holding it in his hands — fidgeting — while he talked to Dale. “He tol’ us that his horse ‘ad died, and he were from some village down south.” He paused, chewing on a fingernail. “They’s been attacked, some kinda human-lookin’ monsters. ‘Parently, them same monsters been follerin’ the river, killin’ everone that’s in they’s way.” A small coughing fit. “He’s been trying to warn people, but he’s been barely ahead of ‘em this whole time. I think he lost ‘em at the bottom o’ t’mountain, where the river waterfalls down.”
The other local simply nodded along, saying ‘yup’ every once in a while. Dale thanked them, told them to go get some food on his credit, and went off to gather the council. It took nearly an hour for the members to gather, apparently they took less notice of messengers coming to talk to them than they did Dale. Go figure.
Dale wasted no time. As soon as they were gathered, he launched into an explanation of the situation. Unfortunately, they treated the problem with much less care than Dale desired.
“Dale,” Amber countered soothingly, “you can’t fly into a panic every time some random peasant thinks there are monsters after them. There are monsters all over the place in this world.” She chuckled at the look Dale gave her. “What? If there weren’t, don’t you think the Bashers would have garnered more attention? Mutated horned rabbits that attack people?”
“We don’t know if this is real, and it is a second-hand account as it is. We need to wait until we have more information.” Frank condescendingly stated. “Let’s send out some trackers on horses. It’ll be a few days before we know anything for certain.”
They left, leaving Dale with a growing pit in his stomach. They were correct, but people living in the Phantom Mountains weren’t prone to flights of fancy. He heard Madam Chandra talking about an unrelated topic as they walked away, proving that they were treating this far too lightly. Chandra was discussing with Frank, “But if I buy enough of them, I can change the name to the Chantom Mountains!”
“People would always spell or pronounce them wrong! They’d write it with an ‘S’ as the Shantom…” Frank's voice faded into the distance.
Dale decided to go check on the fortifications. He walked to the quartz-flecked new walls, feeling relief as he got closer and they blocked the wind. The walls were not a ring around the city, but simply walls that blocked the paths needed for travel. The Dwarves were relying quite a bit on the natural fortification of sheer cliff face to block unwanted travelers. A section of stone was rising slowly from the ground, doubling in height by the time he arrived.
“Hail the walls!” Dale shouted, feeling better after the exercise he had gotten from his short jog to the wall.
“Hello there!” Beor shouted back, pausing from overseeing the work. “What brings you all the way out here? There aren’t any new ways into the dungeon since that first one.”
“What? What?”
“Don’t worry about it, we sealed it up.”
“…Right. Well, we got a report about a gathering of monsters at the base of the mountain, and I just wanted to see how the walls were coming.” Dale tried to ignore the previous comments.
“Monsters, eh?” He pulled on his beard. “This beauty’ll stop just about anything, and we’re working in Runes so that it’ll ignore other earth Mages. We should have this last section done this evening if we hurry a bit. Now, we won’t be staying here, so you need to post guards, or things’ll just swarm over it.”
Dale tried to think about who would be willing to watch the walls. “Crap, there is no one.”
“Eh?”
“Nothing, I just need to find a way to hire on guards…” Dale thanked the Dwarf and hurried back to the main areas. He found the city administrator after asking directions a few times, and worked out a plan of action with the harried man. They would have guards by tomorrow, but they would mainly be lookouts, not fighters that could actually defend the wall. That would take much longer to accomplish, but Dale was still relieved that they would at least have advanced warning if something were coming. He was walking back to the chapel when Adam came running out.
“There you are! Hurry, he’s waking up!” Adam turned back and ran, Dale hurrying behind him. They walked into the stiflingly hot room, just as Tom gave a great shudder and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes, and a smile crossed his face. The smile turned to a frown and then a yell of pain and rage.
“Ye Gods! I knew that breakthrough was painful, but this just seems excessive!” He groaned, trying to rub at his arm. He paused, a look of horror crossing his face. “My arm?” Tom roared, “What foul deeds have been done to me in my absence? Was I neutered as well?”
Rose had a startled look on her face, “We… didn’t check?”
“I’m not being literal! Get thyself away from my smallclothes, you!” Tom barked at a cleric that was reaching a bit too low.
“Tom!” Dale exclaimed loudly, demanding attention. “This happened in the dungeon! The Goblins ambushed us and took you, cutting off your arm as they tried to get your Warhammer.”
Tom calmed down as Dale talked, a reaction to having to listen to orders on a daily basis. He looked down, “I cannot fight as I am. I am sitting, and my balance is off, nearly toppling me. The joy I felt at achieving my breakthrough has fled, and all I feel is shame.”
“Oh relax, you tight-ass.” Hans joined the conversation in his usual fashion. “All this means is that we need to do some specialized training. At the end of it you are still going to get your arm back, so don’t start wallowing. Plus, you just extended your natural lifespan by a handful of decades, so even if you weren’t getting your arm back, giving up wouldn’t be an option.”
Tom’s face rose and fell and rose again, emotions playing across his features as Hans berated him into listening and thinking of the situation from a different standpoint. He stood, and thanked Hans, moving to hug him.
“Back!” Hans dodged the clumsy attempt at an embrace. “I don’t do half-hugs, sorry.”
Tom looked stricken, then gave a wet chuckle. “You are such a terrible person.”
“I know, but it works for me.” Hans laughed and slapped Tom lightly on the face. “Let’s go meet the Mage who is going to be giving you a new arm.”
~Twenty-Two~
“Well, it is pretty. Sell it as a bauble?” If I had hands, I would slap these stupid adventurers. They only saw the profit, and never the usefulness or true beauty in an object.
The person asking the question scratched himself and sniffed his fingers, making Dani cringe. “I mean, a jewel on a chain? It’s not even a bracelet? Is it supposed to be earrings of some kind?”
“Nah. There’s only one. Earrings come in pairs.”
Did I need to make something blaze with Essence in order for people to treat it as anything other than a shiny stone? I released a frustrated noise, no one had used the portal system yet. A bunch of people had found the stones, and a few people had even found down to the third floor’s keys! I noticed that someone was now wearing a bunch of them as a necklace. I had made them modular, so you could connect them together, but I still had to sigh when I saw the topaz, fluorite, emerald pattern repeated over and over as simple jewelry.
The archways on the floors had been noticed, but after an initial assessment had been ignored. After it was found that the Cores couldn’t be pried off, the arches were largely forgotten. It was days before Dale’s group came back, and I was surprised at how much I had missed a semi-intelligent group of people being here regularly. They were talking about something, but I was looking at Tom. He had an odd chunk of armor on, and it took me a moment to realize that someone had strapped a buckler onto him where his arm had been. I snorted with laughter at the odd sight, and listened to what they were saying.
“New jobs, anyone?” Dale was all business today.
/> “Yup, someone felt that Glitterflit pelt and decided that they must have an entire wardrobe of them. It is a huge offer of money, apparently they were told how difficult it is to get that type.” Rose informed the group.
Hans shrugged, “I don’t know, I kinda have a soft spot for those little guys.”
“The Spotters are asking for an entire Goblin, they want to determine the differences between them and their non-dungeon counterpart.” Adam announced. “Double pay if it is alive.”
“Too much effort for a live one, we’ll see how it goes otherwise.”
“Evan wants us to escort him down to the third floor again.”
Dale paused, “That triples how long we stay in here; does anyone have plans after?” A few shrugs were his answer. “Guard duty is a go then, make sure he visited either the alchemist or apothecary. If we learned anything last time, it is to not let him come down here without a night vision potion.”
Tom made a noise and raised the shield a bit. “I think you and I learned different things during our last dungeon run.” This got a few laughs from the group.
“Right, well, here comes Evan. Now, everyone ready to go?” After checking their supplies, the group of six walked deeper into the dungeon.
Dale’s movements gave nothing away. His eyes stayed focused and roving, looking for danger. “It is my turn to ask questions, and I am going to save it forever so that you can’t screw me over again.”
Hans suddenly laughed, “Look! Tom, you’re in the statues!” I had replaced the statue of the crazy Elf and bunnies with one of dozens of small Goblin arms holding up a single, larger arm.
“That is not funny. Who takes the time to make these odd statues?” Tom grumbled, looking a bit sick as he wriggled his stump.
Their questions ended as combat began. They fought through the first floor with ease, finding six sets of the topaz keygems in the Boss room’s chest. Dale looked at the gem intently, muttering, “What the heck is this?”
