Since the [Bellwethers] had gone through Crestheart so fast, Vee decided to go ahead and allow the rest of their party to do their first dungeon run before the start of business the next day. Sure enough, exactly as Neil predicted, none of them struggled with Crestheart at all. They effortlessly crushed Vee’s ghosts, beat back all his skeletons, circumvented the slimes and elementals without breaking a sweat, and failed to fall for any of the dungeon’s traps.
It was as humbling as it was infuriating, and the [Dungeon Master] felt sick to his stomach during each and every run. How could Crestheart be this far behind the curve in terms of the challenge it offered? Most regular adventures didn’t even make it down to Alforde! Surely the adventurers here in Oar’s Crest weren’t that weak, were they?
The proof that they were was right before his eyes though, and Vee couldn’t deny it. He glanced over at Reginald, interpreting the hat’s surly silence to mean that his [Majordomo] had come to a similar revelation.
Alforde clapped a comforting gauntlet on Vee’s shoulders. “There wasn’t any way we could know the dungeon would do so poorly,” the armorsoul said quietly. “We’ve done fine here in town, even against higher level adventurers.”
“But why is there such a big difference?” Vee wondered aloud, looking down as the final [Bellwether] adventurer – A level 33 [Tree-dweller] kitrekin named Veruca – tore through a pack of slimes and finished her run. “How have we done so well against the Oar’s Crest adventurers only to be so bad against these out of towners? I don’t get it.”
“Maybe it’s the ghosts,” Reginald murmured. “You’ve seen how people in Oar’s Crest are about ghosts, boss. Kids who grow up here are constantly told all sorts of horror stories about the vengeful spirits beyond the walls, and some of that is bound to get deep into their minds. What if they subconsciously freeze up against our minions? That might explain why it’s so much easier for you to hit them with traps and stuff.”
Vee frowned and leaned forward, steepling his fingers in front of his face. That was certainly a plausible explanation, but the [Dungeon Master] almost thought it too neat. Plenty of the adventurers who came through the dungeon looked like they were scared of ghosts, but that didn’t mean much by itself. Gawain’s balls; they were scared of every minion that they encountered!
He leaned back in his chair and gave the matter further thought. Inexperience could also be a factor that helped explain the performance of the Oar’s Crest adventurers – or maybe he should start calling them Oar’s Crestventurers?
[Wit +1]
----------------------------------------
After the day’s actual runs were finished, Vee invited all seven the members of the [Bellwether] party up to his office so that they could discuss their experiences with Crestheart and start offering him ideas about how to improve the dungeon.
He was in a sour mood as they filed in; only a single challenger had managed to make it down to Alforde that day, underscoring the difference between his regular customers and the type of customer he’d be getting once the circuit started.
The [Bellwethers] made themselves comfortable around the office. Neil and Ceilynn sat down at the table across from Vee, while the rest sat on the floor or leaned against the walls. A couple of them drew out small recording crystals and snapped images of themselves, or looked around the office to take in their surroundings.
Curious, Vee went ahead and activated [Third Sight] to see if any of them had ghosts on their shoulders like Neil did. Sure enough, he saw another two membralls – one on Veruca and another on the shoulder of the elkin [Trickster] – but the really interesting thing he noticed was the collection of tiny bug-like ghosts surrounding most of the [Bellwethers]. He recognized them, but it took the [Ghost Maestro] a few seconds to remember their name.
Vanibites, a somewhat malicious – depending on your point of view – spirit that gnawed on their hosts, giving them an incredible hunger for fame and fortune. Most of the time, it was relatively easy to control, but if an infestation got bad enough it was common for those suffering its effects to get hurt – or in rare, unfortunate cases, killed – in an attempt to make a name for themselves. Generally only found on high level [Actors], [Actresses], [Musicians], [Singers], and [Politicians], it was rather unusual to see so many “in the wild.” As such, the [Ghost Maestro] surmised that their presence wasn’t entirely coincidental.
“Alright,” Neil said as he got out some papers and set them down on the table. “We’ve got a few things that we can go over with you that we think will help Crestheart out quite a bit, but before we get to them, we need to discuss what you’re going to pay us for our help.”
“Pay? I didn’t realize you were charging me,” Vee said. “I thought this was going to be something that helped us both.”
“It is, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be free,” Neil said. “That’s not how business works.”
“Fair enough,” Vee said. “What’s your price?”
“If you want to pay up front, it’s going to be fifteen gold fleurs. Alternatively, we can take installments of three gold fleurs a month for six months or one percent of revenue until we reach twenty four. Your call.”
Vee grimaced. Paying more fleurs in the long run wasn’t desirable by any means, but more time meant more flexibility, and he valued that pretty highly. Besides, he simply didn’t have enough of an emergency fund to feel comfortable parting with fifteen gold fleurs just then. HIs reprieve from paying Sacre back wasn’t going to last forever, and he needed to sock away as much money as he could before that happened.
“Give me some time to think about it?”
“Of course,” Neil said. “We’re not so boorish as to demand payment to start. You’re a scion of the Vales family so we know you’re good for it.”
Vee tightened his jaw and shook his head. “My financial agreements and obligations are solely my own. My family and I…are not close right now.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Neil said with a knowing smile, but Vee simply shook his head.
“It’s not relevant to our discussion.”
“I see. Well, I can recognize an anthill to avoid kicking when I see it, so I’ll refrain from pressing further and move on. Let’s go ahead and get into offering you our feedback. Ceilynn, would you like to start us off?”
The salamander nodded and leaned forward. “It’s obvious that Crestheart is a labor of love for you, and it has a certain charm as a result. We think it's a strength of your dungeon that you didn’t simply grab random layouts from Yeller’s and mash them together.”
“Yeller’s?” Vee asked.
“Yeller’s is a union-sponsored dungeon designer, who puts out a series of resource books for dungeon designs. They’re filled with minion positioning tips, trap suggestions, and things like that. Normally, [Dungeon Masters] who are looking to make some quick fleurs by buying distressed dungeons and flipping them around will grab one, pick some generic hazards, and call it a day. Once you’ve gone through a Yeller’s dungeon, you’ve kind of gone through them all.
“Though, with that said, there’s some merit to such an approach too. Yeller’s work isn’t terribly inspired, but it’s solid, and there’s a lot of things about floor flow that you could learn from reading through a manual or two of his. The union sells them, though they’re typically on the pricier side.”
Vee mentally crossed that idea off his list of things to do. Maybe someday he’d have some free fleurs again, but for now he needed to save as much as he could.
“Crestheart’s biggest problem is that your rooms are all too singular in their purpose,” Ceilynn said. “Most of them have a single gimmick, like mobs of minions, or traps, or some sort of platforming element. In the few rooms that have more than one threat, the secondary one is usually extremely simple and easily dismissed.
“Beyond that, your minion offerings are almost comically limited in their variety, and are without fail extremely low level. That mini boss you have has some interesting elements, but it’s a single star in an otherwise empty sky.”
Ceilynn finished her assessment of Crestheart, the rest of which followed similar lines of thought, and Vee decided that he needed to start taking notes. Grabbing a notebook, he jotted things down as the rest of the [Bellwethers] gave their feedback. Some of the adventurers focused on thematic concerns – “Why exactly are there so many ghosts? What is the [Dungeon Champion] protecting?” – while others focused on missing types of threats – “Lacking proper puzzles means that adventurers can simply devote all their focus to combat without any risk of downsides” – and at least two mentioned the lack of viable bonus challenges.
Vee wrote as quickly as his hand would let him, but he still felt like there were lots of things that were slipping by. The [Bellwethers] all spoke so quickly that he couldn’t keep up. It was like his first days back at the academy, when he’d been so focused on taking notes that he’d failed to absorb any of what was being said, and the [Dungeon Master] knew that he’d have to go back over them later and actually try to read them carefully.
Every now and again, Vee found himself anchoring onto a word or idea that he thought sounded interesting or cool, and he jotted down additional notes as frequently as he could. Creatures frozen in blocks of ice were one such example, as were ghost hands socketed with frost crystals to give them a chilling effect. Vee felt more than a little foolish for never really thinking of that latter one before.
Finally, after ninety minutes or so, the adventurers finished giving their feedback and got up to leave. Vee thanked them, and walked them all to the door. Neil turned back as his party started heading down to the street and said, “Would you like to go walk through the dungeon with me tomorrow morning before your runs start? It might be easier to visualize some of the things we mentioned today if we can actually point to floors and walls and stuff.”
“That’d be really helpful,” Vee said, though he warily added, “but what will it cost me?”
“Nothing,” Neil said with a smile. “The easier it is for you to implement our feedback, the faster you can redesign Crestheart. Consider it part of our fee, eh?”
Vee nodded, and the adventurer left with a friendly wave.
Turning to his friends, Vee held up his hands and said, “Well? What did you guys think?”
“They had a lot of good suggestions,” Alforde said. “I’m sure the dungeon would be much better off if we implemented them.”
“While true, I’m not sure where we’d get the money for everything they brought up,” Reginald said quickly. “Tier three and four minions aren’t cheap, and that was their biggest complaint by far.”
“We might be able to fudge things a bit if I go ahead and make some stronger ghosts,” Vee said, “but I don’t know if that’s going to be enough by itself.”
“Then we’ll have to think about better puzzles and improving room flow too,” Reginald said. “Which has technically been on our to-do list for a long, long time.”
“Yeah,” Vee said, nodding. He thought back to his frankly dreadful poetry attempts and shuddered. He had a bad feeling that he was going to have to take another stab at it.
Main Character Sheets:
Main Character Sheets
Vee Vales
Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 32
Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 23
Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 6
Might: 15
Wit: 38 (+1)
Faith: 26
Adventurousness: 7
Ambition: 15
Plotting: 19
Charisma: 15
Devious Mind: 25
Leadership: 21
Guts: 14
Intimidating Presence: 10
Citizenship: 23
Public Relations: 8
Determination: 4
Persuasiveness: 5
Bargaining: 3
Patience: 2
Competitive Spirit: 1
Pragmatism: 1
<3<3 Infatuation <3<3
Alforde Armorsoul:
Primary Class: Hammer Specialist (Self), Level 5
Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 17
Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 18
Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 10
Might: 56
Wit: 15
Faith: 29 (+1)
Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9
Endurance: 29
Intimidating Presence: 14
Heart of a Champion: 14
Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 9
Vigilance: 10
Vanity: 2
Reginald:
Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ??
#$&Q#$)(@#$#@#$%!@#$##%#%()@#$**@@##
Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 41
Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 19
Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 11
Additional Class: Hyperthymesiac (Self), Level 5
Might: 1
Wit: 37
Faith: 17
Ambition: 28
Greed: 24
Deceptiveness: 27
Manipulativeness: 42
$#&*!@!!: !!!
Loyalty: 47
Patience: 11 (+1)
Irritability: 23
Remorsefulness: 17
Expository Prowess: 23
#%$Pragmatism*#$: @#61$5
Hop@#!! @#$@!@#
@#$@%%^
#4^5#*&_!+++#(@$#
Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 9