« (Ritenzag the curseling herder) »
Ritzenzag inspected the struggling zombie that was clutched in the mandibles of his chief tracking beetle. The thing certainly looked to be the missing food curseling. Whilst it was still edible, it wasn’t going to taste right.
Cursing his luck Ritzenzag went to report to his superior. She wouldn’t be happy.
Zelorela has not been happy. She had sent the zombie to the kitchens and ordered him to find the necromancer.
Ritzenzag stumped along grumbling to himself. “Yeah right. Find out who’s the necromancer Ritzenzag. Yeah, find the gods forsaken necromancer and don’t get killed. Zombies need lots of spices Ritzenzag. They’re expensive to cook. You don’t want to end up in the kitchens Ritzenzag. Damn tyrant. Just cos they’re bigger an’ stronger they think they can bully us.”
Ritzenzag rounded up his value curselings and cracked his whip while he continued grumbling monotonously. Soon he headed out of the home caves with six value curselings, his two hunting beetles and two guard beetles. The small party followed the two hunting beetles.
Ritzenzag looked at the small lava tube and cursed again. There was no way he was going to fit in that hole. And he didn’t want to send his value curselings up against a necromancer.
« (Jasper) »
Jasper looked out of her lava tube entrance. She was appalled, there was this huge grey skinned humanoid wearing a bronze ring-mail tunic. And he was literally cracking a whip. A swarm of curseling trolls were scurrying around. They were building a crude stone wall around the entrance to her dungeon. The ones dragging rocks and digging looked a bit bigger and more muscular than the one she had as a zombie. Then there were the handful of curseling trolls holding spears and wearing crude leather armour. Those just seemed more alert somehow.
Jasper fled back to her heart cavern and tried to think what she could do. She knew she had to raise protectors. And it was time for some traps. She just hoped she would have enough time.
Lucky for her Ritenzag wanted to accompany his charges. So the Trolls were laboriously enlarging her entry tunnel.
Jasper decided to create another passage leading to a new room, to enlarge her nascent dungeon. It was at this point that she ran into another snag.
« Tunnel too small. Minimum size one meter by one and a half meters. »
“What! Why? What about the lava tunnels?”
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« Existing structures can be claimed irrespective of size. »
By this time Jasper was convinced this world was conspiring against her. Nevertheless she created her new heart room before heading to see what her unwelcome visitors were up to.
She fell back from the entrance and claimed more of the lava tube leading to the entrance. She was glad to reach the only junction. She had previously ignored the twisting tube heading off to the left, as seen when entering her dungeon. This she now claimed. She squeezed herself into the newly claimed passage and followed it down.
She created a few simple traps and created two small caves to hold assorted small skeletons. Then remembering the core she fled back the way she had come. On reaching the original tunnel she could hear the trolls working on the original lava tube entrance.
She raced to grab her core and was just managed to avoid the troll tunnelers.
When she was feeling fairly safely hidden, she inspected her new dungeon and was surprised by its size and complexity. She summoned Red and four skeletons to occupy her now deserted heart chamber. She also added several curseling zombies in her original two chambers.
She was just adding some new traps when she knew her dungeon had been invaded.
« Unable to modify domain when hostiles present. »
Feeling both frustrated and impotent Jasper watched the curseling troll workers widening her original tunnel. ‘Yeah right. And I bet I won’t be able to reduce the size of that tunnel again,’ she thought. ‘At least they didn’t note the side tunnel and now it is mostly hidden with rubble.’
« (Ritenzag the curseling herder) »
Ritenzag was beyond annoyed. Zelorela had him up before her nightly, and she never failed to nag him with his lack of progress regarding the necromancer problem.
It wasn’t his fault that his worker curselings were slow. They weren’t very bright after all. And he wasn’t going to waste his value curselings by making them dig. The tunnel was coming on nicely. He had asked for a borer beetle, but no, they were ALL needed! By the great la di da matriarchs, deep underground.
And now, here he was reading a System message: « Unnamed dungeon » it said.
Ritzenzag knew his limits. He collected his curselings and withdrew them back to near the start of the tunnel they had been enlarging. He set them to installing a stone door. Then once he was satisfied with that, he set them to work carving out a series of living and guard rooms.
Only then did he head off to annoy his personal nemesis, Zelorela the keeper of the Outer Caves.
Zelorela was not amused. Ritzenzag hunched his shoulders as if to hide his head and endured the screaming invective. He found it easy to hide his feelings even though he knew Zelorela was cursing because she had not passed on the problem. And now it was clear she had overreached.
He almost sympathised with her. Bothering one’s superiors led to invective, but then so did failing to bother them. Sometimes there was no way to win.
« (Jasper) »
When her dungeon was clear of intruders Jasper relaxed. Then she waited, and waited. Finally, cautiously she decided to investigate. And she found her exit blocked by a huge crude stone door.
She reluctantly came to the realization that on discovering that he had found a dungeon, the whip-wielding troll had set a guard on her dungeon.
She returned to her dungeon and looked over her domain. ‘I have to create the best undead dungeon ever. I really want a vampire, one of the princes of the undead.’
And with that decision Jasper set to work, not noticing – yet – that her shattered core was melding and becoming one. She also failed to note that the bond she had with the core was strengthening slowly.