Chapter 31: The Fate of Eddie Pool
DM monitored the manor for a few more hours. He had a working floorplan in his head that he was fairly confident in. At least, he knew what all the important rooms were at this point. The Lord seemed to have very little to do with the rest of his family for whatever reason. He also didn’t converse with servants or knights unless he specifically needed something. At one point, a messenger arrived from somewhere in the city with a bundle of papers. DM let the messenger come and go unmolested.
As the Lord was returning from a trip to relieve himself, he passed the patrolling knight. Perhaps somewhat inappropriately, he asked the knight to pick up a piece of furniture and move it to the cellar. DM wasn’t even sure what it was. It seemed like an aged decorative vanity of some type. The Knight hesitated, then shook his head in resignation and hunched over to pick up the wooden item.
DM realized this was a chance to act. He had good visibility of the Lord, but the knight was too distracted by wrestling with the dense wooden furniture to notice anything out of the ordinary. As the knight turned away, a tentacle rose up from the floor behind the Lord and immediately hid itself. Then, it scooped up an unlit candle and tossed it at Eddie Pool.
The candle caught the Lord’s leg on the way down, successfully delivering the infect status. He cursed, hopped to the side, and looked down to see a candle rolling away from his foot.
“What is it, my Lord!?” The knight turned back to assess the situation.
Eddie glanced at the nearby countertop where the candle most likely fell down from. “I’m surrounded by incompetents.” He grunted and stormed off, ignoring the knight.
Now, DM had a much better vantage point for watching Lord Pool. He could take the man out at any time. The knight was also confirmed to be in the cellar, unable to intervene for a short while. Of the servants, one was also infected and in a different part of the manor. The only risk was another servant or a family member walking in on the Lord while DM was dealing with him. DM assessed that the chances of that were low. Just as he was about to act, the Lord spoke up to nobody in particular.
“I’m so fucked.” He forcibly turned his chair to face the window behind the desk he was sitting at and then sat back down, staring down at the city. From what DM could tell, he was staring from afar at the Guild. Then, he turned his vision more toward the west, presumably toward the capital. “Not to mention the Church…” He turned his head again to stare at the Twin Cities Cathedral, although the lower portions were obstructed by other buildings.
DM couldn’t help but wonder what was going through the Lord’s head. Would now be a good time to charm the man and then extract information about what the Lord had done and what he was afraid of? It was certainly beyond the scope of what the Guild Master requested, but DM was curious. So long as the Lord was infected, DM could hear his answers, even if they weren’t in the same room. Of course, DM’s commands would be conveyed telepathically, so the distance wasn’t a problem in that regard either.
No. DM had worked long and hard to set up this situation which minimized risk. Changing the plan at the last minute was not worth it. If DM was so keen on questioning the Lord, he should have thought about that beforehand. There was no guarantee the Lord would remain such an exposed target beyond the current moment. For all he knew, guards from the royal palace could bust in at any second and apprehend the Lord, greatly complicating DM’s efforts.
Charming the Lord and keeping him charmed carried other risks as well. The Lord knew his enemy had access to charm. Perhaps he took measures DM wasn’t even aware of to protect himself. Affection would take too long to apply. Deviating from the plan could draw the ire of the Guild Master. The only correct action here, as far as DM was concerned, was to take the Lord out. Given all the uncertainties in the Lord’s actions, DM figured the least he could do was avoid making the man suffer.
A moment before DM could act, someone knocked on the door.
“Enter.”
A servant poked his head in. “My Lord, a gentlemen from the Church is here to see you. He’s waiting in the foyer, drinking tea. Shall I escort him here?”
“The Church huh? No, I’ll come down in a few minutes.”
“Very good, my Lord.” The servant pulled the door shut behind him.
Eddie turned back to the window and spoke to himself again. “If it was anyone else, I would have just sent them away…” As he mustered the strength, both physically and emotionally, to stand, he received a blow to the back of his head, falling forward on to the floor.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
He was asleep. The ash tray that had struck him and applied the sleep status effect lay in dozens of pieces on the floor all around him. A tentacle grabbed his arm, poisoning him. The sleep status did not get removed by the poison effect. After a few dozens of seconds, the Lord breathed his last.
----------------------------------------
DM was curious to witness what would happen in the mansion next, but he thought keeping the knight and one of the servants infected was too risky. If the visitor from the church detected infect, then the Lord’s death would immediately get linked to the dungeon. DM didn’t want to have anything to do with the Church at this juncture, and he certainly didn’t want anyone to have proof of his involvement in such a high-profile murder, justified as it may have been.
After releasing infect, he monitored the manor from his few bats in the area, but he didn’t see anything interesting. Had he the mental capacity, he would have previously monitored people coming in and out of the manor, instead of giving the Lord his full attention. Perhaps he would have gotten a good view of this Church official before he entered. As things stood, he’d have to wait for the official to leave to see him, but things were about to get quite spicy at the Manor, so who knew if he’d even catch a glimpse of the religious man.
DM had no way to keep track of time, but it took a surprising while for him to notice anything unusual from his exterior view. He could have sworn it had been an hour or two by the time he noticed a change. A courier arrived, exchanging pleasantries with the guard at the gate and turning over some items. The courier departed, apparently not needed to carry the satchel of items into the manor.
The guard seemed impatient, frequently looking back over his shoulder at the entrance to the manor. Eventually he marched over to the door, opened it, and shouted something in. DM suspected he was asking why nobody’s checked up on him in a while. The guard shouted several more times, then looked back at the gate once more before storming into the manor.
For a few minutes, DM heard only silence from the manor. Then, the guard from the gate ran out of the manor, mounted a horse, and rode off. DM found that a little odd, but chaos after the Lord was killed was probably to be expected.
DM estimated another ten or so minutes had passed before anything notable happened. Several knights arrived on horseback. They tied their horses up without bothering to bring them into the stables and then ran into the manor, hands on the pommel of their swords.
A few more minutes went by. More people arrived, although this time of varying occupations. In additional to a couple of knights, there were a couple of people that appeared to be mages, and several people who didn’t dress like they had any combat role whatsoever. DM was not familiar with how everyone dressed in the city so he could only guess.
As more and more people flooded toward the manor, some started to patrol the perimeter and keep track of who entered and exited. DM thought the whole area was now dangerous to keep minions in, so he carefully dismissed each of his bats, trying not to draw any attention to them. Hopefully, nobody could link current events to him, but he couldn’t witness what happened from here.
----------------------------------------
DM figured it would be a while before any news made its way to him in the dungeon. The girls were still completing their return trip to the Twin Cities, Daphne’s party was still in the city, and Sasha’s party was continuing their adventuring in the Empire. Since DM had released most of his infected hosts in the city, there wasn’t much to watch there. He split his attention between his eyes in the Lower Gordu Forest and playing around with the console, which he had been neglecting for a while.
He was still hopeful that improved relations with the Guild would provide him an opportunity to journey to the dungeon in the Upper Gordu Forest. Perhaps he could seize control of the dungeon or somehow extract resources from it. Even if those ideas didn’t pan out, he could probably absorb experience from some of the monsters. He hoped he’d have more luck siphoning off monsters from another dungeon than he did from his own.
“Man, I haven’t leveled up for a while, have I?” Apparently, killing the Lord was not sufficient to level the dungeon. He hadn’t decided what to do with Barney, either. He could eliminate the man to tie up loose ends, but he felt awkward about doing that. The decision could wait, for now. Barney was having no problem camping out on the edge of the forest, out of sight from any travelers.
DM wasn’t sure what would happen to the Twin Cities leadership now that the Lord was dead. Would a family member take over? If so, what effect would that have on the restriction to enter the Lower Gordu Forest? What about Olivia’s confinement? The aggression towards the Guild? Perhaps somebody else entirely would take over. DM didn’t have enough information to draw any conclusions.
Just as DM was finishing up writing the first draft of code for a computer-guided dungeon trap, he noticed someone approaching the dungeon.
“Oh, the Guild Master himself?” DM must have lost track of the time if the Guild Master had the opportunity to slip out of the city already. Most likely, the man was coming to report on the results of DM’s efforts as well as what they were going to do from here. As the Guild Master entered the dungeon, DM received the expected alert.
When the Guild Master arrived in the first chamber, he was greeted by a goblin. He raised a hand to one of his swords, ready to draw it if needed. The goblin gestured, and a chair appeared for the Guild Master to sit on. The goblin then turned and departed the area.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.” Unlike Thaw, the Guild Master inspected the chair and then accepted the offer, sitting on the dungeon-generated furniture and waiting to be received. A few minutes later, the morphling of his own form entered the room and addressed him.
“…Welcome back, Guild Master.”
“I thought I was clear.”
“…Clear about what?”
“I told you to eliminate the Lord of the Twin Cities.”
“…Yes. That is what I did.”
“I didn’t tell you to eliminate his entire family and everyone in the damn castle!”