Charlotte scuttled along. A spider the size of a large hand. Hair fine near invisible thread trailed behind her. She wasn't making a trail through this place for Bonehead to follow. Unlike my layout? The floor beneath the crypt was compartmentalized. Walls just high enough that a Halfling would need to stand on their tip-toes separated the space out, lending a layer of confusion on top of my limited perception.
Laginn and his kind were nimble and could climb, albeit slowly, but Charlotte was more nimble, scuttling into a pile of cast-off goo as creatures passed. Unlike the little ones Bonehead was still fighting, these were all rawbone malnourished with green leather-like skin. Like the little ones they had bulbous eyes, but yellow instead of black.
One of them poked at the goo that was Charlotte's hiding place before moving on.
I grinned. Had I a face it would not have been a wholesome or inviting expression. These were not of the same caliber of beings I had seen Kronos use unless that one had invested everything into its twin Guardians, but I doubted it. Where they were lithe grace and almost elemental force. These were ugly and misshapen. Where I could see the life and emotion in Ishida and Uchimi. These things were locked in a caricature of contempt, a sneer was all they could manage. Ugly things. Yet they told me much of their maker.
So, I was dealing with a peer rather than a predator.
Charlotte snaked a winding path through their legs, the line spooling out faster than any spider from Earth would have been capable of.
Earth. huh. File for later, too many balls in the air right now.
A single thread of silk wasn't going to hold one of these creatures, much less the half-dozen stalking through right now. Charlotte knew this and continued sprinting on spindly legs. Leaping. Jumping. One such caused one of the creatures to look down, swatting at her, but seemingly unaware of the line trailing behind.
Alright girl, get their attention. Make them stay clumped up.
Charlotte obliged, making sure they spotted her long enough for one to take a swing, causing the rest to swarm to try catching her. Then away she would bound. Again, and again she would do this until the line was cut, and she would jump to one of the half-walls in this place. I swear one of her forelimbs snapped to a salute to the cluster just before they fell in a tangle of limbs.
Off she scuttled. As I had every confidence in her my attention focused on Bonehead right as he shoulder-checked something larger than the green-skinned goblin-looking things Charlotte had dealt with. Maybe this was the leader of them though. Same green skin. Same bulging eyes, and pointed ears. About as tall as my skeletal captain though, and wearing studded leather armor.
I swear Bonehead grinned when his opponent stabbed him. , As soon as the blade touched the leather his body shifted a fraction, causing it to slide between ribs. When Bonehead twisted, to strike his opponent with the pommel of his sword it was disarmed, and then beheaded. The body fell to the floor, blood spilling from its neck.
Now Bonehead had two swords, though the creature's blade was of far inferior make it would still serve. As Bonehead approached more of the greenskins I could feel the air shift. So could he, and with a flip of his borrowed blade to a reverse grip he started off again.
Hurry. They are in my heart room. ... Where the Core is. Follow my directions. His Champion is here.
I relayed directions and could feel the Bone Guard rushing through the crypt's stairs just as Bonehead took the stairs down to the next floor.
Unlike my chapels, the stairs spilled out at the end of the room opposite its pulpit. Behind that I could see a glowing gem in the hands of another greenskin. More of those ruddy brown creatures stood between Bonehead and our quarry.
TOO LATE! The voice cried in delight as the ugly green hand squeezed the gem, eclipsing the pale pink light of this dungeon's core.
Bonehead threw his borrowed blade, not at the creature, but at the pulpit, knocking the pulpit over, and causing the creature to lose its balance momentarily. It regained its footing but lost its prize.
NO!
Bonehead already had bow in hand. The arrow loosed.
Then even as the greenskin fell, clutching at the arrow shaft in its eye, more arrows. Just because the largest threat was dealt with did not mean this place was safe, nor its owner's survival assured. Briefly one of those little brown things held up the pink gemstone of this dungeon's core, only to have an arrow slice through its wrist.
It and its fellows shrieked. Somehow its hand reformed as the horde turned to their new opponent.
Bonehead responded by drawing his blade and making a show of decapitating the nearest of the lot. One down, a dozen or more to go.
KILL HIS CHAMPION! I WANT THIS DUNGEON"S HEART! ITS LAND MUST BE MINE!
Oh, you sweet deluded moron. With your minions distracted, they never noticed Charlotte scuttling about. So they didn't see her make off with this Dungeon's core.
That brought me breathing room. The Bone Guard stormed through. My awareness expanded. Now I could see the mud-brown creatures coming in through a tunnel made in the supply room to the rear of this place. Bonehead confirmed my suspicion as soon as he crossed into the tunnel. This was definitely the belligerent dungeon.
INVADER! SCOUNDREL!
It howled as more of those mud-brown creatures set against my skeletons. Had I killed all the greenskins? How long before they respawned? Was there any way I could convince this thing to stop attacking its neighbors? Didn't it know we were all living on top of-
KRONOS IS WHY I MUST GROW! GROWTH GIVES STRENGTH. STRENGTH GIVES ME A CHANCE TO SURVIVE.
Foolish. Shortsighted and foolish. I was willing to extend to you the same offer I'm going to extend to the other. Cooperation. Pooling knowledge. Training our creatures against each other. Now. You are a distraction I don't need.
The Bone Guard spilled out into another chapel. Man whoever built this place must have been working off templates. This one looked like the last one, and both looked a lot like mine. Sure the lectern was replaced by a black staff holding an egg-sized gem with black talons rather than a pulpit, but structurally still the same.
The robed skeletons of my guard surrounded the staff. How did they know magic? As each formed a section of shielding around the staff I got curious and floated my awareness closer. Etched onto their skulls were runes that glowed as their magic was being cast. Each only had a single spell, but that cut this dungeon's core off from the rest.
Why not just kill it? Creatures began spilling in. The greenskins, the Champion, more of those brown creatures.
The sword armed skeletons beat the flat of their blades against their chests as they formed a ring around the casters. Hands that had ridden along during the march here leapt out, weighting down weapon hands, grabbing at faces, gouging eyes, and in general being a nimble hindrance that kept the attackers open to my defender's blades.
Again, why not just kill it?
The answer came to me as a pink putty-blob made its way into the room. Again that unwholesome grin. fair is fair.
I WILL NOT DIE TO A WELP THAT COULDN'T FIGHT THEIR OWN BATTLES! The voice screamaed as the black staff was engulfed in pink goo.
Fight smarter. Not Harder. Was the last words it heard as the dungeon it hoped to conquer consumed it.
Yet this place's now former minions continued their assault. With the core eaten my robed skeletons cast their magics onto their fellows. Bonehead rapped his sword against his leg twice, producing a loud clang each time. The formation paused as his jaw moved. then they advanced outward, calmly and efficiently slaughtering everything that offered resistance.
Thankfully not everything resisted. A few of the brown creatures knelt and were passed over. This place's Champion paused at Bonehead, stopped, and knelt to the Bone-Guard Captain and held its sword, handle in one hand and blade with the other, up to him.
Your call man.
Bonehead paused before taking the blade. I could see the creature tense. Too-Large eyes closed, expecting the worst. Instead, Bonehead offered its sword back, handle towards the creature.
Then Bonehead lead the Champion to the chapel room as the pink gemstone from the other dungeon was carried by charlotte to the putty slime covering the staff that held this dungeon's core. When the putty peeled itself away the staff now was a dark oaken thing with bronze claws cradling its new gemstone.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
I thank you for your help.
Bonehead gave a deep bow.
I have been perhaps too focused on mapping this place we have been born to, but maybe it was good that I had set JW out to watch the Delvers coming and going to the lonely hill.
Huh. Them going to my dungeon over others would also mean everyone else here is being starved. This could be part of why- The other dungeon's agreement to the sentiment was less word and more sensation.
There was a long pause. then the new dungeon was approached by the old dungeon's Champion, who knelt to the staff. Good. good. I already had troops, and this guy needed something more substantial than silly putty guarding it.
Now that things were winding down and my Bone Guard were leaving, each pausing by the dungeon's core to touch it, giving some of their own essences if I was seeing the right of what was going on, I had time to think.
Yes. I actually meant what I said to the other guy. I have no idea how this will work, but always better to try making friends where possible.
I saw a notification:
ALLIANCE OFFER. ACCEPT? Y/N
As soon as I agreed, which took more than a stray thought. Seemed whatever this is needs enough effort of will to make sure you don't mis-click and agree to something you didn't mean to, I could see the whole place. Combined both dungeons were literally the size of my two crypts and chapels, but that wasn't what caught my attention.
This dungeon had rooms I didn't. The now deceased dungeon had a forge in the room behind its chapel, and my new ally had two rooms each filled with the sort of lab setup one thinks of with the word 'lab'; beakers and chemicals, and glass tubes leading this way and that. HUH, that meant the slimes didn't naturally spawn. they have created beings that could divide themselves a number of times. Though if they were divided too much before gaining new mass they quite clearly died.
That gave me an idea I wanted to try. Bonehead needed to be up for it, but if he was going to be first in-last out, I wanted to make him better than he was, and I didn't want to 'upgrade' him into being a zombie. Hey, buddy, whaddaya think?
Huh, he at least wasn't saying No, but he wasn't exactly jumping up and down with Joy either. Always hate it when people throw the ball back to me when I want their opinions. Ah well, heavy the head that wears the crown. Worst case it can be undone, so nothing permanent.
TRADE REQUEST INITIATED.
It felt really weird having a clear picture of most of the cemetery, at least out to a wrought iron fence, but only being able to see what was going on in the little bubbles of perception my creatures had as they made their way back to my territory. Still. It was good to have an idea of what my territory was part of. Though now that I was aware of having neighbors I needed to make an effort to direct traffic. Maybe find a way to direct group that could use the specialist rooms there. I know when my library was gone through I got something out of it, plus if my attention was there I could take notes from whoever was rummaging around.
Speaking of focus. What caught my attention was Jen running towards my line of skeletons. Bonehead held a hand up to try getting her to stop before miming that she was listening. What was going on?
A brief check showed nothing new from my border with Kronos. My attention moved back to Jen mid sentence, "-So Fennal and Keystone have left, said something about talking to their guilds. Most of my friends got bored dealing with tarantulas, and since there aren't really any decent traps outside of a couple deadfall and creature placement traps they're calling it a night."
Fair, I supposed. I had a fairly light variety of creatures to begin with, and when my skeletons headed out it basically turned into a spider dungeon with a few minor chests. There were bouncing about my non-existant head on how to improve things, not just for the Delvers, or my new neighbor, but me too.
Bonehead patted her on the shoulder and gave a thumbs up gesture. I liked the kid. Wondered why she wanted to be a rogue, but maybe I'm reading too many negative connotations into the class. New world, new rules, and I have too many holes in my memory on the 'why' of the rules that felt familiar for any judgment to not be at best flawed, and at worst completely wrong.
Jen paused when she saw Charlotte riding one of the skeletons and held her hand out, causing my spider to hop onto the girl's shoulder. Considering how big Charlotte was compared to Jen, the girl not freaking out over a giant spider did catch me by surprise.
"Don't take this the wrong way." She patted Charlotte's abdomen as she talked, "But I think spiders are going to drive people away if they're going to continue being a big feature. Here and there, always at the edges? Fine. As the whole thing?"
A sigh from Jen as she considered her words. "I like this place. Then again outside of the training area me and Finnal first got paired off I haven't been to many proper Dungeons, but..." She gestured, seemingly miming her ideas shifting this way and that, "it's like you're this thing that reacts so there's something going on that isn't just instinct. I...don't want you to be mad."
Charlotte responded by hopping off Jen. For a moment the green skinned girl looked downcast before noticing Charlotte was scuttling to Bonehead. Considering any sort of gesture a spider makes might get the wrong reaction? I consider that a smart play. Granted I'm not sure why Jen talked to Charlotte as a proxy to talking to me. Any of my minions would do. Maybe it's because Jen sees this as a spider-related issue and Charlotte is a stand-in?
Bonehead put his hand on Jen's shoulder, pointed to her, then to him, and cocked his head to one side.
All this in a space between my dungeon and the dungeon my minions liberated. Then again there was, as near as I could tell, nothing intruding, and the weather was nice.
The apprentice rogue talked as she walked beside Bonehead. "Don't get me wrong. I love how much of a challenge you've been giving me big guy, but there's not a lot there once you get past or bored with the creatures. No traps or room puzzles. I'm..." She didn't seem to want to say the next part.
Bonehead squeezed her shoulder gently, in as reassuring a gesture as he could manage.
"Have I outgrown your dungeon?" Jen looked down, waiting. Her body tense.
My first instinct was to deny all of it. Finnal still visited, and unlike Keystone it wasn't part of his job. at least, I don't think it was. Then I considered her words, and dismantled the training room. Not completely, but pairing it down til it filled at best the back wall, leaving the main floor largely empty. Spiders were not ideal for the task, but the skeletons would soon be there to assist. While the materials were generated from Mana, once created they behaved close to their mundane counterparts until I decided to stop paying upkeep costs.
Right now I didn't have room for a proper obstacle course. Kronos has seen to me being unable to expand further down, and between me gifting, let's call them Good Neighbor til they decide on a name I hate continually going 'that dungeon' or an indefinite 'they,' or 'my new friend.' Anyway, between giving them an initial mana infusion via my skeletons, and then trading enough mana to take me from easily being able to afford a couple outward expansions, to having fairly fixed borders? It was going to be some time before I could make major expansions.
Make do with what was on hand then.
Like rooms, my minions needed continual upkeep. Unlike rooms, I'm pretty sure that minion simply reverts to whatever its natural state is once it burns through any mana I had invested in it. Considering this world and what was in it? I couldn't guarantee that wouldn't include undead.
Translation: I could sack a bunch of my spiders, but then I end up with a bunch of hostile spiders in my dungeon and, now that my mind was on it and I could check the math? That wasn't worth it at the moment.
Maybe I could send the spiders out to explore all these new places Good Neighbor had given me a map of what I was going to call a Necropolis. There were crypts everywhere. These crypts lead to multi floor structures. I seem to have lucked out in landing in the middle of everything on high value, or at least apparent high value real-estate.
Maybe I could leverage that somehow. I wondered if there were other dungeons aside from Good Neighbor.
Bonehead continued walking with Jen as the precession ended at the front doors to my little domain.
The moment the Bone Guard were collectively through the doorway, they filtered towards differing places in the dungeon. A caster here supported by a pair of Hands they could provide defensive buffs to, a fighter There guarding the spell-book at the western chapel's pulpit.
Bonehead waited at the center of my second floor, the place just below the main entryway. He would wait with a buffer skeleton, and a pair of tarantula. The two adds were meant to give Delvers something to worry over and get harassed by. I didn't want to be mean and just have a skeleton pile.
A quartet of spears. Each one with its blade shoved into the floor. As Spiders started weaving webs to connect these. I frowned, added another spear, moved one so that instead of four corners, it would have three corners, and where fourth would have been was open for anyone hoping to try their luck. As enticement to get folk to step in other than the challenge? A chest, coins scattered just in front of it to act as visible shiny lure. Inside the chest? For now I hadn't considered that far, but threw some placeholder loot in just in case.
With that done my attention wandered back to the trade I'd made. I wasn't sure if Good Neighbor could pull it off, but they had been on the edge of just giving me their land and autonomy as thanks for saving them. What they had to offer was interesting. It'd take awhile, but if this panned out I would have a ready made example of why dungeon cooperation and collaboration was vital.
Which then reminded me...
Bonehead wandered down to the guard post and grabbed a large map. While he made his way back up I'd flagged several spiders, which had assembled by the time he got to the front of my dungeon. The map was held in place, both by the cobwebs the spiders wove, and by the centerpiece decorative Charlotte's web-banner was strung across.
The map was a small thing by comparison, fitting on a stone column. Showcasing the necropolis with a little dot where my dungeon was with an arrow proclaiming 'You are Here.' Then another arrow at Good Neighbor's location. 'Good Neighbor: Home of Slimes, Goblins, Imps, a Forge, and an enchanting workshop.'
I was happy. I saw Bonehead writing more on the map after it had been webbed in place. Sure the mana donation set me back, but it was right to try getting someone on their feet. Everything-
CRASH.
Felt rather than heard event. There was a tug at my awareness. Something was wrong. Tried to focus.
There were noises.
Dizzy. A wave of virtego hit. I could feel my awareness yanked to the crypt my core was in. Spiders poured from the ajoining rooms. What was going on?
That was the urn my core was in. An elf held my core, turning it over in his hands. He was speaking, but i couldn't hear. All I could feel was a sensation of Wrongness. Just his touch was pain. Make it stop.
He started towards the exit when he saw the spiders approaching. More words said. Could I eve nbe taken out of my dungeon?
Dimly I could feel Bonehead running. He wasn't going to make it in time.
Then, Laginn flew at the would-be thief, who dodged the strike and shoved against hte door. More hands grabbed at him. Forcing him to focus on shaking them loose. The crypt door was opening. he tried rolling.
Only for a boney hand to grab him by his throat, lifting him to eye level with my guard-captain.
Thief's wide blue eyes met Bonehead's empty eyesockets.
Bonehead held his other hand out, then closed around my core when the would-be thief turned it over. Once my core was in one hand, he let the thief go from his other. I pray to whatever Gods existed out there he never realizes how close he came to robbing me of far more than any normal jewel.
That was entirely too close.