Gina woke up in the morning feeling fresh and ready for a new day, ready to to start working on protecting her little dungeon. She felt her full of energy, no longer being drained by her monsters staying out all night. Now, what was the smartest way to use it?
After some careful consideration, planning and agonizing over the details, Gina had a plan. It was to die a premature death as a failure of a dungeon. The traps she had available where clumsy and ineffective, anything she could craft would require more materials than she had energy to create and her starting monsters where the butler equivalent of dungeon guards.
"The ale will have to wait" Resigning herself to the more important task of surviving long enough to devour the ale, her old plans would have be put aside. "Right when I could use a warm mug more than ever..." Wise decisions weren't always the best decision.
Shale popped their heads out at hearing her talk to herself. Getting used to sharing her inner dialog was going to take some time. For now, distracting her monsters with busy work would help her maintain focus.
"Can we help mum'? a hopeful to be helpful voice saved her from feeling bad about giving them tasks.
"You are so sweet to ask! After your good work the last couple days, today I want you to go do something fun, and it will help me too. Go out and do some hunting, stay within the sound of the waterfall. Make sure to not take on anything that can seriously hurt you."
" Oh hohoho, now that, we will do with pleasure mum"
"This is one scuffle that's been acomin"
"That leaf digger fluff trap will get just what it asked for"
They boldly jogged out of the dungeon, leaving meditative silence in their absence. This will help bring in the extra energy needed to complete tasks at hand. Now to figure out what those tasks are.
She took a mental inventory of what she had and what she needed.
"What do you do, when you have no materials, your guards are woefully inadequate, and you have no experience in professional murder?" There was no good answer, but her past training as a smithy kicked in. "When you can't reach the forge, prepare for when you can."
Gina didn't have a smithy in her dungeon, it was never part of her workroom. Goburi used to be escorted to the smithy twice a week to forge her parts for the rest of the week. She would work endlessly crafting prototypes out of wood or hammered copper, to be fully prepared before she was required to put the iron to the fire. She never took a step until she was fully prepared.
Calmly assessing what she had on hand; Gina was able to form a list. First, create barriers. Second, gather resources. Third, draft designs. Finally, assemble and test.
The first step was easy. Gina simply summoned a wall of stone form the inventory to fill in the hallway leading from the cave. It immediately crumbled.
"What kind of nonsense is this now?" She lamented.
She tried to make a wall farther down, in the doorway to her room and the doorway to the workroom. None of the walls would hold. She then walled off the brewery, which held but then had to be taken down as the lack of air caused the fire to almost go out.
"Seems like the dungeon needs access to the outside for some reason" Though she had no idea what that reason might be. "Well, doors it is then" But she had no lumber, and not enough energy to spend it without reason.
Carefully planning it out she would have enough energy to summon one more wee folk to collect the lumber, build the doors and summon and form the copper needed for the hinges. There would even be enough to put doors on Shale's condo, with a little left over for a home built to the new monsters liking.
Gina decided to summon a Dryad this time, growth and evolution is exactly what her little dungeon needed if it was going to survive. She was also curious at the different options available. Gina heard a POP and in the area she was focusing on another wee folk appeared.
This one was smaller, only 20cm (8in) tall. Skinny and lithe, you wouldn't have noticed standing in a pot of tulips. The Dryad had greenish brown skin and long strips of earthy green cloth, loosely woven into a tunic that ended naturally in several long strips that ended just past the knees. Tucked here and there in the flows of cloth were little clay bottles with wooden stoppers tied in twine. The feet were bare as was the hands and arms. Thick blades of hair settled across the back and shoulders, the muted shades of brown and green held in place with a simple band made of twisted roots.
Gina loved the adorable little Dryad the moment it appeared, giving it a great big mental hug. In return the Nyad simply nodded. The humble little motion made Gina squeal with unrestrained joy at having such a reserved little monster as part of the dungeon family.
Examining the new addition closely, content at the new skills she had at her command. All stats were 5 except Focus at 7 and Deductive at 7. For skills, Hunting, Foraging, Botany, Endurance, ESP and Taming all had 5 points. There was also 5 points in Plant magic, Elementalist and another 3 in Herbology.
Character Sheet:
Status Race Nyad Level 1 Age 1 Day Height 20cm Physical Health 150/150 Strength 5 Agility 5 Toughness 5 Mental Alertness 200/200 Intelligence 5 Deduction 8 Focus 7 Social Resolve 150/150 Influence 5 Slyness 5 Willpower 5 Racial Traits Ecologist, DED+ 3 Evergreen, FOC+ 2 Elementalist + 5 One with Nature
Magic Natural Possesion 0 Plants 5 Friending 0 Herbalist 3 Industrial Elementalist 5
Abilities Taming 5 Foraging 5 Hunting 5 Endurance 5 Botany 5 ESP 5
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"I need you to go gather wood, as much as you can, and bring it back here. First you need a name, how about Pappi?" The Dryad offered no reaction to the name choice. Remembering her mistake with Shale she added "Before you go is there anything you need? Food, water, a place to sleep?"
Pappi gave a small headshake, paused, and then a low solemn voice, quiet as a whisper, was felt more than heard. "Pot. Dirt."
“Of course, if a pot of dirt is what you want, then that’s what you will get. Let me know if there is anything else, and be careful”
Pappi nodded, then turned and moved down the hallway towards the outdoors, back straight, gaze firm. The flowing trails of cloth obscuring the exact leg movements, giving the impression of the room moving around Pappi instead of the other way around.
Gina began on the dryads modest request, creating a light stone pot large enough for a goblin to step in, but not large enough to sit in. She added a swirl of black rock spiraling up the lighter stone the pot was crafted out of. Intricate handles of twisted stone finished the look. The pot was put into the corner in the bedroom, between the doorways to the bathroom and the workroom. She filled it with finely crushed stone and plant matter, not knowing what else it needed.
In the meantime Shale had come back, a little scratched up, but nothing compared to the squirrel they dragged in. It finished dying on the stones of her cave, the life filling a bit of her energy. Before she could thank them, they ran off to confront a fuzzy horned demon they had seen waiting in ambush.
Pappi was doing the assigned job admirably, slowly dragging a log that was simply to big to be dragged by such a small frame. There had to be some kind of magic at work. The log was dutifully left inside the cave as Pappi went out for more wood.
Gina got to work on the hinges for the doors. The blueprints she was given were crude gate hinges, not secure at all, she needed something sturdy and reliable. Settling on a strap hinge, the familiar light glowed and faded multiple times before she was done. Two large sets of hinges with elaborate scroll work and aggressive swooping outlines sat on the bench, looking like long etched holly leaves made of copper.
"Just because it's magic doesn't meant I can't add some craftsmanship"
Three miniature sets followed for the gnome homes. Little windows for the gnome homes were next, set solidly into the stone itself with no risk of ever falling out.
As for the locks, simple latches would do. Wooden handles would be inserted into slots in the doors, when pushed down from the outside they would raise a wooden bar that would pivot out of the stone catch on the wall.
The day wore on, Pappi finally brought enough wood for the doors to be finished, Shale captured enough small game to keep Gina's energy up. As a final detail Gina added a small candle lantern midway on the wall in the brewing room, just to give her wee folk some light when the door was closed.
She told Pappi that was enough wood for now, only to bring more if there was nothing else to do. Pappi immediately went to the pot Gina had placed and planted a small seed, followed by some water out from one of the little bottles. Pappi then went down to the pond with a small sharp stick, stabbed some minnows and also put them in the pot. The last thing Pappi grabbed was a bunch of bat droppings, and dragged them on a large leaf, adding them to the pot. Stirring everything up, Pappi started humming.
As Pappi hummed and stirred the newly made soil, a sprout came up, then grew into a a thorny bush with red berries. Pappi climbed the pot and nested into the bush, munching on a berry. Relaxing on a bed of leaves, appearing to have grown in that spot for just that purpose. No one could have noticed the small dryad, blending perfectly into the newly grown home.
Gina noticed the leaves of this plant glowing in the light of her soul. Realizing the potential of the dryads skills Gina consumed the stone to make another room branching off the brewery, the new doorway was between the door to the bedroom and the brewery itself, right next to the candle lantern. The new room sat on the other side of the wall from the workshop, putting it in a row with the workshop, then the bedroom.
She replaced the stone floor with 3 feet of dirt, raised the ceiling high and then called for Pappi. Summoning some barley seeds she asked. "Think you can make these grow in here?"
Pappi looked closely at the seeds, then nodded, adding a single word in the low, quiet echo. "water"
Gina created a stone water tank, then ran 3 narrow wooden troughs on top of the dirt. The troughs were connected to the stone reservoir, the holes that allowed water to flow into them was blocked by stone slabs that would slide up with a little effort. After moving some water from the pool to the reservoir she was done.
Pappi seemed pleased with the grow room, and immediately started creating soil, spearing minnows and dragging droppings.
Gina added a lantern in the middle of the room. Usually plants needed sunlight, but that didn't seem to be a problem for Pappi. As a final thought she added door just high enough for her miniature gardener to pass through, creating a hidden passage from under the shelves in the workroom to behind the stone reservoir.
Noon was long gone at this point, so was Gina's energy. She had finished her first task, the next tasks would have to wait for tomorrow. She observed he brewery plugging away, a few small drops making it to her mug, when suddenly she was aware of heavy hooves stepping into the cave. Pappi was in the back somewhere gathering bat droppings, Shale was outside getting into scuffles, Gina was not ready to defend herself.
The steps fell hard on the stone, sniffing could be heard as if the creature was trying to find something. Gina didn't dare focus on the thing, afraid to attract it's attention. There was a scrape of metal against the stone wall, the long shadow of a horned beast fell across the newly constructed door leading to the brewery. A hand reached for the handle, gina tried to remove the handle, but the will of the creature interfered with her magic.
She wasn't ready for this.