by DB King
Jay nodded slowly. “I fear you may be right, Marcus,” he said quietly. “I have felt for some time now that there was a threat approaching, but I could not sense its source. Go carefully, young one, and take care of the Gang as best you may.”
“I will,” said Marcus, inclining his head respectfully to Jay as he stood to leave.
As he made his way back through the main hall, Marcus looked at the gang members loitering there. They were a sad-looking bunch, he had to admit. Underfed, poorly clothed, and those who were on guard duty were poorly armed and had no training.
The Gutter Gang’s only real defense was in the stout wood and stone barricade that they had raised to block the entrance tunnel. Even a small number of fighters could hold that well against an attack, at least for a while. But under a sustained assault from a well-armed and well-trained foe? Marcus did not imagine that the results would be good.
Something would have to be done. He would use the wealth he gained from his dungeons to arm the folk and feed them up, and maybe in the course of doing that he would be able to level the Gang up in other ways too.
Maybe I truly will be able to raise them up to something new, something better, something they can be proud of, he thought. That would be good. He was very fond of the Gang. They were his people, however low they had fallen. He was one of the luckier members of the Gutter Gang. He’d had an education—he could read, write, and figure, and he could speak a few languages. He was a skilled fighter and had a bit of magic to his name. Why shouldn’t he be the one to raise them up?
“If I can, I will,” he said to himself as he made his way back up the corridor toward his own room.
The blank wall where he had created the entrance to the dungeon faced him. He looked at it for a moment, then reached for the spell to check on the dungeon’s progress.
Gestation Phase complete
Dungeon Master: Level 1
Dungeon Chambers: 1
Progress to next chamber: 110%
New Chamber Available!
Marcus nodded in satisfaction. 110%? he wondered. That must mean that I’ve gone past the requirements for a single new chamber, and begun making progress toward another. I’ll have to ask Ella about it once I’m inside.
His heart raced at the thought of what he might find concealed behind the doors of the dungeon. Would it be as Ella had said, and something amazing and new would greet him there? Or would he be in for disappointment? The words of Old Jay came back to him again. Surely, he was not going to be disappointed here. What would await him? There was only one way to find out.
He took a deep breath and reached for the spell. “Crucible: Unlock,” he said.
The doorway began to outline itself again, just as it had before. But this time, it was different. The cracks were straighter and cleaner, and it was shaped more like a door and less like a ragged cave opening. As the doorway changed before his eyes, there came a hiss like air rushing into a pressurized container.
The stone transformed even as he looked at it, becoming a sturdy door of polished wooden planks. Iron studs were hammered into the door in vertical rows, and the door had a handle of polished bronze.
“Woah!” Marcus said, taking a step back as the door shimmered into existence before his eyes. “That’s amazing!”
Bright light shone out around the door and then faded. The new dungeon chamber’s entrance was before him.
“It’s really happening,” he whispered.
“Looks like it, buddy,” said Hammer, who was standing by his side.
Marcus laughed and shook his head in amazement at his own good fortune, then stepped forward and grasped the door handle.
He twisted the handle and pushed. The door swung inward easily and silently, as if on freshly oiled hinges. Immediately, a fresh green smell hit him. He breathed deep. The fresh smell was a welcome change from the cold, sterile air of the Underway. Light shone through the open door as well as air—outdoor light, as if he had opened a door on a world where it was just after sunrise.
“Here goes,” he said, and stepped through the door into the new crucible.
Ella had said that the first chamber would be an entranceway, and it would be influenced by her nature. She was a grove faerie, and that influence was obvious when Marcus looked around the crucible.
The blank space he’d seen before had been transformed into a woodland grove. A young tree grew in the center of the grove. To its right, a waterfall fell down a low cliff-face and splashed into a deep pool. Thick grass scattered with wildflowers came right up to the door that Marcus had stepped through.
He looked around. The grove was enclosed on all sides by cliffs that rose up 20 feet before ending in thick, spiked hedges. There would be no climbing up there. For the moment at least, the only way in or out was by the door to the Underway.
Hammer stuck his nose in through the door, then turned away and headed back toward the main hall. He was likely to get something to eat there, and a spot by the central fire. Instinct probably told him that he would do well to leave Marcus to explore his new dungeon area by himself for a while anyway.
Marcus gently closed the door behind him and looked around. It was warm here. The deep blue sky above seemed almost infinite. The grove was lit by a bright sun shining down over one side of the grove.
Marcus spoke out loud to himself. “A whole woodland grove under a blue sky, but we’re still underground. How’s this even possible?”
“That’s the power of the grove faerie,” said Ella’s quiet voice behind him.
Marcus turned to see Ella standing behind him. Her faerie form seemed to have developed since the last time he’d seen her. She was a little taller, and her wild haystack of hair seemed bigger. The shapeless robe of dirty sacking had been replaced by a dark green robe that came down past her knees.
Her widely set eyes twinkled up at him from where she hovered, her strange green faerie feet floating a little above the tops of the long grass.
“Hello,” Marcus said with a smile. “This is amazing! Did you do this?”
“I didn’t do it, exactly, but the nature of my magic formed the basis for the dungeon chamber. I’m a grove faerie, and so the dungeon took on a grove aspect.”
Marcus looked around the airy grove with a considering look on his face. “You call it a dungeon,” he said, “but I couldn’t imagine anything less like a dungeon than this grove.”
Ella laughed. “That’s true, I suppose. But this is how a dungeon system begins, with a first chamber that’s not used for combat. This acts as a kind of a base for you, a place where you can store things, experiment with new ideas, or retreat to if necessary. It’s also the place where you can start your additional chambers and leave them safely to gestate. So, this is a dungeon chamber—the Grove dungeon—but unlike the others, it will never evolve to contain monsters.”
Marcus nodded, fascinated by the process. “So there are other kinds of dungeon faeries, then?” he asked. “Kinds whose different nature would create a different kind of first chamber?”
“Yes,” she answered. “There are—or at least there used to be—many kinds of dungeon faeries. Some were darker and some were lighter, and some had different elemental powers, and all those factors would influence the nature of the initial chamber. This,” she continued, gesturing around the grove, “this is my nature, I suppose.”
Marcus nodded. “It certainly is a pleasant surprise,” he said, smiling. “It’s such a peaceful, beautiful spot!”
“It is nice, isn't it? Come on, let’s look around and explore a little bit. I’m sure you have questions.”
Ella flew up so her head was on a level with his and together they began to move slowly around the small glade. The place smelled good, Marcus found, like herbs and warm grass. For Marcus, a man who had lived his whole life in the dense urban environment of Kraken City, this quiet, pleasant place was a new experience.
“So,” said Ella, “what do you want to know?”
“Wel
l, I guess my first question is how do we create a new chamber?” he asked after a moment. “When I opened this one, it said that my progress toward a new chamber was 110%. Does that mean I’m able to start a new dungeon and have made 10% progress toward a second one?”
“That’s exactly right,” said Ella. “Successful creation of the initial chamber allows you to immediately progress to creating a second chamber—one that you can use for combat. The 10% progress toward a third chamber, well, I guess that must be a bonus of some kind. I can explain the basic principles, but I don’t know all the workings of every dungeon chamber.”
“How do I continue the progress toward a new chamber?”
“By having people interact with the dungeons. Usually, that means having adventurers come into the dungeons and fight the monsters that are there. The more the adventurers do in the dungeons—the harder they fight and the more energy they expend—the bigger a power reserve is created for the creation of the next chamber. Once that reserve fills to 100%, you should be able to create a new dungeon.”
“You make it sound easy,” said Marcus with a laugh.
“It is easy, at least in principle. The real challenge for a dungeon master is getting to grips with what ingredients to add to a dungeon’s gestation phase to create good results. You can put anything you want into a gestation phase, but the results are unpredictable by their very nature. It might take you a little while to get to really understand it, and you might get some weird results depending on what you put in.”
“Right, well I was always taught that the best way to learn is by doing. Let’s give it a go!”
Ella smiled at his enthusiasm. “You should have the spell available,” she said. “This entrance grove will get bigger and fuller the more your abilities evolve, but the first thing to do is to add a new chamber and put some ingredients in there to begin the evolution process. The grove chamber evolved just from my influence, but from now on, you’ll need to add ingredients.”
“What kind of things would be good to put in, do you think?” Marcus asked. They were coming up to a blank cliff wall opposite the door, and Marcus stopped, looking up at the wall. He reached for his spells and found the new one there, as she had said he would.
Spell available: Crucible Initiation
He spoke the spell quietly. As the stone cracked and a new, dark entrance was revealed, Ella answered his question. “You can put anything in, really. As I said, it’s impossible to predict exactly what will come from an evolution chamber, but you’re guaranteed that the things you put in will develop into three things: Monsters, Environment, and Traps. Just how they will develop into these things is the unpredictable part.”
Marcus chuckled. “Sounds pretty satisfying whatever happens. Let’s have a look at this new chamber.”
He stepped forward, and Ella came up behind him. Together they peered into the dark chamber beyond. It was nothing much to speak of, just a small opening in the rock. Marcus looked around for elements to add.
“Uh, how about this?” he suggested, pulling a gold coin from his pouch.
Ella chuckled. “Good!” she replied. “Anything at all will work. Everything becomes something; that’s the basic principle of dungeon creation. Just go for it. Nothing is too humble or too fancy.”
“Right!” said Marcus. He tossed in the gold coin, where it rang against the stone and then lay still in the corner of the cave. He dug into one pocket and came up with a little round pebble. That went into the dungeon as well. Finally, he took the old iron dagger that he had carried for a long time. He had the new one now, the incredibly sharp folded steel blade that he’d taken from the guard at Diremage Xeron’s house, so he tossed his old dagger—still in its leather sheath—into the cave.
“Begin Gestation phase,” he said, and felt the magic flowing through him as it began to take effect. The cave entrance rippled and shimmered for a moment, then vanished under a thick growth of ivy.
“I wonder how long it’ll take?” Marcus said.
“Oh, leave it a few hours, maybe a day at most,” Ella replied. “You’ll find that as you get better at it, the time it takes to gestate will reduce.”
They walked over toward the tree, and Marcus was surprised to see that the grove had gotten a little bigger. The tree looked older, taller, and fuller. The waterfall was a bit bigger too, and the rocks around it were covered in deeper moss and lichen. The whole space seemed to have expanded.
“This place,” he said, “it’s… different now.” Marcus glanced at the spot where he’d opened the new chamber. “Does opening a new chamber evolve the grove?”
“That’s right,” said Ella. “Keep an eye open for it, and you’ll find that everything around you will be influenced by your new power as the dungeon master. It’s all about the progression, and your power will start to level up those around you without you taking action. You’ll raise up those around you just by interacting with them.”
The words were such a close echo of what Old Jay had said that Marcus almost shivered. He glanced at Ella, then a new thought struck him.
“Hey,” Marcus said. “I wonder what might happen if I put some of the magic dust in one of the evolution chambers?”
To his surprise, Ella’s cheerful expression darkened. She scowled and looked away, then looked back at him. She seemed hurt.
“You don’t know what the magic dust is, do you?” she said.
“What, you mean where the dust comes from? No, actually, I don’t. What does it matter? Is there something bad about it?”
She looked at him, then away, then back at him. Finally, her face cleared, and she gave him a pale smile. “Yes,” she said. “There’s something bad about it. Tell me, Marcus, your two spells, your Ethereal Key and Stealthy Tread spells—did they come from taking magic powders?”
“Well, yes,” said Marcus, feeling trepidation about what he was about to find out. “They were given to me by the thieves guild as part of my stage one initiation. What is it, Ella? What’s wrong with them?”
They walked over and sat next to the tree. The grass was warm and deep, and Marcus loosened the clasp of his cloak and let it fall to the ground. There were three sawn logs set up as seats around the space in front of the tree, and Ella perched on one of them, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her shins with her arms.
“The powders,” said Ella. “They are made from the bodies of dead faeries—faeries who have been captured and killed, usually by specialist hunters who deal in faerie goods. In Doran, the faeries ally with people willingly, because the allies have good intentions. Doran is at peace, they’ve not had a war for years, and you can be sure it’s because of the good relationship between the faeries and the humans. But here in Kraken city, the Diremages and the guilds, and the high nobles... they all want power for selfish ends. They want dominion over others, or spells that will give them the edge in their power plays against the other inhabitants of the city.”
She sighed and looked away, her eyes distant. “The Diremages are the worst. They want to be able to dominate others and amass money and power for themselves. Eventually, we think they want to raise an army and invade the Isles of the Sun, or possibly even Doran itself. They are evil men, without any morals or good intentions at all, so we will not ally with them. Instead, they catch faeries, and pay enormous sums to bring them here to Kraken City. Once here, they sacrifice us, spilling our blood on their own skin to force our power onto them.”
“But I thought the Diremages were just monster hunters?” said Marcus. “Wyvern slayers, like Arknor from the legends, or vampire slayers like Diremage Xeron. I didn’t know they had any overarching plan.”
“That’s because they don’t want anyone to know!” said Ella sharply. “Doran and their faerie allies work hard to stop the hunting of faeries, but the Diremages’ Guild must have recently hired a group with far more experience and expertise. Members of our kind have always been hunted, but it’s grown worse of late. Faeries would go out to medit
ate or look for ingredients, and they would just never come back.”
Marcus shuddered, remembering the blood-stained enchantment table in Diremage Xeron’s basement. “And is that what happened to you?” he asked.
Ella nodded sadly. “I’ve been living alone for a long time on the outskirts of a faerie settlement, meditating and seeking a sign of what I should do to find my ally. I never got anywhere, and had no idea what my path should be. Then, one day, I fell asleep in the branches of a tree. When I woke up, I was in that iron cage in a wooden crate. I don’t know how long I was there. Days, weeks maybe. I knew nothing until you opened the crate.”
“I suppose now you’ve found your ally though, so it hasn’t turned out all that bad in the end.”
Ella looked at him and smiled suddenly. “Yes, I suppose you’re right, Marcus. It’s not the traditional way for a faerie alliance to be created—I have to confess that I allied with you out of desperation, thinking that if I didn’t, you might not let me out of the crate, or worse, you might steal me and sell me on again.”
“I would never have…” Marcus protested.
“I know that now,” Ella said, “but I did not know that then. I had to make a blood alliance to seal us together. I guess I kind of tricked you into it, since you didn’t know the significance of it. But, I was desperate…”
“It’s okay,” Marcus said. “I’m glad things have worked out this way. The power of the dungeons is an amazing gift, and who knows what changes for the good we can bring about with it?”
Ella smiled. “Good. I’m glad you feel that way. I’m glad it’s worked out this way, too. Perhaps it is destiny, after all.”
“Finish telling me about the powders,” Marcus asked. “What happens after the Diremage kills the faerie?”
“Once the deed is done,” Ella said reluctantly, “the faerie’s body can be rendered down to a powder. A person who consumes the powder gets a weaker version of whatever the faerie’s power was.”
