When Poe shows up to get the Quartermaster, the albatros is standing at attention and waiting. Poe imperiously inspects his form, and I‘m pretty sure the only reason the scion isn’t sweating is because he physically can’t. Poe has mercy on him before too long, giving a caw and letting the albatros relax slightly.
I can feel a bit of nervousness from Hullbreak, too, but I do my best to calm him. Sure, change can be scary, but it’ll be good for him and his dwellers. They’re already changing on their own, too. Hullbreak isn’t interfering in their efforts to farm and hunt outside his borders, but he’s definitely keeping a close eye on them. I don’t tell him to stop, or even to tone it down, at least not yet.
Not only will him keeping a close eye help keep them safe and help ease his fears, but it also might help him come to understand the dwellers aren’t helpless. Small steps, though, since the dwellers are still learning how to support themselves some, too.
Poe and the Quartermaster take off, pulling me from my thoughts on Hullbreak’s progress, and the First Mate breaks the surface of the water to say a few words before they truly leave.
“Pay attention and look at everything you can, Quartermaster. The Captain is relying on you,” she solemnly informs him, and the albatross nods firmly. Despite his nervousness around me and my scions, he intends on absorbing as much information as he can about how I run things.
With nothing else needing to be said, the flying scions make their way to me. It’s looking like Poe won’t quite make it back before the first member for the meeting shows up though, as I see Nose go on expedition. I gently nudge Nova to help guide him to the public war room, and she’s quick to do so.
They take their time, but still are easily the first to arrive. Nova stays well back from the table with the maps, not wanting to set anything ablaze, but Nose curiously looks around. He can’t get too good a look at the model of Fourdock on the table, but he seems to be able to make out the maps on the various walls without too much difficulty.
Tarl and Berdol arrive next, and I have Fluffles guide them down to the meeting area. Berdol looks pretty intimidated by my Conduit, but Tarl looks more glad to get underground and away from my noisy birbs making the traditional racket of greeting.
“Why do they make noise at you?” asks Berdol, much to amusement of Fluffles and the chagrin of Tarl.
“Because Thedeim thinks it’s funny. Or they think it’s funny. Or both. Probably both,” he says, glancing at Fluffles, who nods in confirmation.
“Is it normal for a dungeon to joke like that?” presses Berdol. Sounds to me like Tarl chose a good apprentice, asking questions like that.
Tarl just smirks. “No, at least not at Thedeim’s age. Older dungeons may develop a relationship with inspectors, but it usually takes longer for them to even understand things like jokes.”
“Do they joke around once they get older?”
Tarl shakes his head. “Not often. They can understand them, but their senses of humor can be strange. The younger ones will usually manage some truly abysmal puns involving something in their domain, though I had one dungeon that liked to listen in on the conversations of delvers and would have the Voice repeat the kind of crude jokes you could hear in the seediest of taverns.”
Bardol smiles at the idea of a dungeon telling dirty jokes. “How about Thedeim? How’s his sense of humor?”
Tarl smirks and steals a glance at Fluffles. “Not as good as he thinks it is.”
You wound me, sir. Fluffles hisses and turns his nose up at Tarl in mock indignation for me, holding the act for long enough that Berdol starts to look uncomfortable. Tarl ruins it by laughing, and getting Fluffles to hiss in laughter as well.
“But not bad, heh. Looks like we’re about at the public war room. Probably a good place to start the meeting,” Tarl says with a smile, seeming to be in a pretty good mood today.
Poe and the Quartermaster arrive only a few seconds before Rezlar and Miller, as well as a small entourage of guards. The birds land before the group, and Poe gives a nod of respect, causing the albatross to give almost a bow to the mayor and his butler. Rezlar pauses at that, uncertain what to do for a moment, before I can only assume his training kicks in.
“Greetings Poe, Quartermaster. If you’ll guide us to the meeting, I can let my honor guard stay here at the gate.”
Poe motions a wing towards the house porch, a gust of wind setting the hanging quests to swaying. Rezlar considers that for a few moments, then glances at Miller, who is keeping his face in that neutral-friendly look he always wears.
“Thank you for your hospitality, Thedeim. I don’t mind my guards doing some minor delving as they wait, so long as they are ready to leave once I’m ready.” Miller's eyes shine at that, and the guards all look glad to be able to do something besides just stand around.
Poe and the Quartermaster are a bit awkward as guides on the ground, but it’s not that long of a walk down to the public war room. Tarl is looking at the model of the town with a small smile on his face, while Nova is kind of juggling some balls of magma for Berdol, who looks a bit uncertain what to make of that. Nose is is on his hind legs, his little diggers in the air and making the classic motions for uppies at Fluffles, who finally relents and leviates the mole so he can get a better look at the model.
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Poe gives a squawk to get everyone’s attention, and soon everyone is gathered around the table, except for Nova. She’d like to hang out some more, but she’d probably set things on fire if she tried to participate. I pat the bond and suggest she find Jello if she wants some company, but she seems to have her own idea. She slips beneath the floor and settles in beneath the meeting, close enough to be able to hear what’s going on, without being close enough to immolate anyone.
That’s fine by me, I have no problem with her listening in. Fluffles hisses to get everyone’s focus, before tapping the map with his tail tip. Tarl nods while the others lean in to look at the map, where a dot indicating Teemo is far outside my borders.
“We’ll be mostly talking with Fluffles today, which is partially why I’m here: I’ll be basically an interpreter. As you can see, the Voice is out on expedition to the Southwood. If you weren’t aware, Mayor, the Southwood contacted Thedeim to request aid, and Thedeim is in the process of providing that.”
Tarl’s finger traces a trail on the map. “Thedeim is preparing to send tundra wolves to help support the Southwood over the winter, and will probably be sending more denizens and possibly scions in the spring.” He pauses as he spots Leo and Honey on the map near the Southwood.
“It looks like he’s already sent his Warden and… his Librarian?” he asks with a questioning look at Fluffles, who simply nods. “I don’t know why he’d send his Librarian, but the Warden will be there to ensure the wolves are properly organized to handle the threat.”
“What threat?” asks Rezlar, and Tarl’s confidence wilts slightly.
“I don’t specifically know just yet. I’m not sure Thedeim does, either. For the Southwood to request defensive aid, it’s something trying to attack it. I’d suspect either some expansion has triggered stronger invaders to take notice, or some rival dungeon has started to cause issues for the Southwood.”
Rezlar frowns at that. “Even with how remote the Southwood is, it’s still a valuable source of lumber, skins, and herbs. Will…” he pauses, probably finding his question to be silly, but voices it anyway after the small delay. “Will Thedeim be able to help the Southwood?”
“I hope so, because I don’t think we’ll have much else to offer on that front if he can't. If it’s invaders, some powerful delver groups could help by either fighting them off, or delving to give the Southwood the mana to fight them off on its own. If it’s a dungeon… Thedeim has some experience with fighting those, at least.”
Rezlar frowns at that, but he can’t seem think of any advice to give, or any other way to help. Fluffles points at a different map, one of the area below me, and Tarl starts speaking.
“Thedeim is also aggressively searching and sending expeditions to the Depths. One of his Residents came to him from that way, and only recently did she explain why and how. She fled from a hostile dungeon that has enslaved her tribe, using them as labor and as sacrifice. She escaped when a monster to be fed to the dungeon slipped its bonds and wreaked havoc. She doesn’t recall exactly how long she fled, but it must have been days, before she came upon Thedeim.
“He, of course, doesn’t like the idea of a strong dungeon being so close, let alone one that’s so actively malevolent.” Tarl pauses and peers at the map. “It doesn’t look like he’s found any trace of it yet, but he’ll probably be sending his forces against it once he does.”
Rezlar nods at that. “I think we may need to step up our plans to help support him, then. We had been planning to encourage more adventurers to delve come the spring, to help with the construction of the Hold outside town. If he’s going to be trying to fight a hostile dungeon from the Depths, we should help him by delving and giving him the resources to win quickly.”
Tarl nods and Fluffles points his tail at my newest expansion, and the inspector chuckles. “I don’t think it’ll be difficult to get the delvers motivated. Thedeim’s latest expansion has given him new metal nodes, including orichalcum and mythril.”
Rezlar’s eyes widen at that, but Tarl continues before he can say anything. “The area is still a work in progress, but it shouldn’t be difficult to help him get plenty of mana to do whatever he wants in there.”
Fluffles points at my two enclaves, then points at the expansion.
“You’re going to be arming your dwellers with the new metals?”
Well… I hadn’t thought of that, but that’d be a great idea, yeah. Definitely need to get a metalworks. Fluffles slowly shakes his head as he tries to parse what feelings I can get through the bond. His tail taps the crypt complex, then the ratkin enclave. Then he taps the caverns, then the spiderkin enclave. Finally, he taps the tubes twice.
Tarl’s eyes widen as he realizes what I mean. “A new enclave?” At Fluffles’ nod, Tarl shakes his head. “The area is going to be incredibly busy, then.” Fluffles nods once more and taps the hedge maze, and the gauntlet, which encourages Tarl.
“That’s fair, he’s made busy areas before. Is there anything we can do to help?”
Fluffles nods as I ask Coda to come join the meeting, and to bring a couple things, too. I know he doesn’t feel ready to show his plans to anyone yet, but I can see they’re basically complete now. My Conduit taps the island in Hullbreak, much to the confusion of the gathered people, and they have to stew in that confusion for a few minutes.
I’m sure it’s only more confusing for them when Coda arrives with a cinderblock in one foot, and a roll of paper clutched in the other. The table vibrates from the thump of the heavy piece of construction material, and Rezlar looks intrigued, before his attention is stolen by the paper being unfurled.
The lighthouse design is laid bare before them, and I think Coda’s outdone himself with it. He’s finally managed to get the silk reinforcing to work properly in testing, so this will be the first real use for it.
“Build a lighthouse in the winter?” asks Berdol, and Coda simply nods. For an ordinary construction crew, it’d be a tall order indeed. It’s cold, it will probably snow, there could be delays because of storms, and those are just the most obvious problems. A lot of those problems go away, though, with a certain albatros scion and his storm affinity. It definitely won’t be easy, but it will be a good investment.
“I’ll contact the masons and see if any are willing to help with that construction. If Thedeim is confident it can be made in the winter, I think a lot of masons will want to help just to have their names attached to such an audacious and ambitious project,” says Rezlar, a gleam in his eyes. “Not a lot of crafters get a chance to work on projects in a dungeon, besides adventurers. Even adventurers don’t get to work on masonry during a delve. Other crafting fields have had breakthroughs because of such work. This could lead to a breakthrough for masonry.”
Coda nods at that, beaming in pride, and I wonder if Rezlar is maybe underestimating what Coda could do. He’s already made breakthroughs with the concrete and the cinderblocks. I can’t wait to see what else my nerd of a bat can manage.