I awoke in a dour mood, no dour was too kind, I was utterly crushed emotionally; I had failed Lady Inlas when she needed me the most, and she had excommunicated me from among her Faithful, a just punishment for my failures. And yet for all the bad things that had gone wrong already, I could not shake that something worse was coming, something dreadful. I had long since learned to trust my intuition whenever I had this feeling, I would soon learn how right I was.
I left my room and got dressed for the day. Then headed down to the reception to see if I had received any missives from the Guild Headquarters in the Capital. The trip itself was mostly uneventful, though as I neared the Foyer there was a lot of noise and an unusually high amount of traffic. Far more than it should be this early, as it was not yet dawn. What was going on? As I drew closer to the reception several Guild clerks rushed past, but none of them even acknowledged my presence. Me, the Guildmaster! What in the world had them so upset they would commit such a breach of etiquette?
The answer was waiting for me as I entered the reception and found most of the Guild staff assembled there, along with a person that had my blood run cold. Lady Arana Ravenloft, also known as Arana the Cruel, was the guilds Chief of Internal Affairs. She would never arrive in person unless someone was about to be cast out of the guild or worse. This did not bode well for whoever she had business with, flanking her was a dozen of her Blackguard enforcers. Men and women whose sole job was to ensure that anyone found to dishonor the guild or otherwise break guild code was punished as harshly and as painfully as possible.
Lady Arana looked pleased as I entered. “Ah, Saol, you are here, good, restrain him!” The way she looked at me caused me to feel like I was a mouse being hunted by an exceptionally cruel cat. How many men and women had received that look, just before being exiled or sentenced to some other horrible punishment? And now it was directed at me.
Before I could even formulate a response to her words, Arana’s Blackguard Enforcers moved in, grabbed me by my arms and dragged me out of the Guild. No one moved to aid me as they tossed me into the courtyard after removing my Badge of Office and all the jewels I had acquired from the Guilds Treasury. Arana stepped out after them, “Saol Venthar. From this moment forward you are stripped of all titles, privileges, services, housing and riches gained from association with the Adventurer’s Guild as I hereby Banish you from our ranks. Never again may you do business with or benefit from the services of the Adventurer’s Guild in any way, shape or form. Any member of the guild caught willingly associating with you after all your remaining belongings have been removed from the premises will share your fate.”
I could not believe it. What had gone wrong, what had caused this? The confusion must have been evident on my face as Arana smiled an ice-cold smile, a smile that from my angle was more akin to a bloodthirsty sneer. She tossed a missive onto the ground in front of me; I picked it up and studied it. It carried the seal of the Sworn Blades, Rubolgs Axe, this could not be good if it involved the Sworn blades. With trembling hands, I opened it and read the contents.
Honored Grandmaster Asparo,
It is with a heavy heart and great regret that I am sending this missive to you. But given what has transpired I have no other choice, my Guilds honor and my Goddess, the Divine Lady Justina demands it. Yesterday we received a detailed report from one of our members, backed by his Noble Mistress Lady Magna Yndali. In that report we received detailed information about a Guildmaster by the name of Saol. He is currently in charge of the Caelyn Branch of the Adventurer’s Guild. He has, through some unknown means, made a Sworn Blade forsake his Sacred Oath to his Mistress. And acting with this traitor imprisoned Lady Magna as well as another, still loyal member of the Sworn Blades. Furthermore, he had them tortured and put on trial under false charges in an attempt to have them killed and their property wrongfully seized.
The breaking of this Sacred Oath is sacrilege to our Patron Goddess, and though she was greatly angered by this action. She still managed to find it in her to be merciful and was inclined to give the Guildmaster a second chance. However, the unlawful torture and false accusations of the innocent was far too much on top of this heinous act. Lady Justina has demanded we take action against Saol for his dishonorable and unjustified actions against the innocent and the sacrilege against our Divine Lady. For his crimes I have personally had him Blacklisted by our Guild and thus have branded him an Enemy of our Divine Lady. But that alone is not punishment enough for this crime, so decrees out Lady. As such, I now have no choice but to level an Ultimatum on the Adventurer’s Guild. Banish Saol so that Justice might be served. Or all current and future members of the Adventurer’s Guild will be Blacklisted from the Sworn Blades and viewed as enemies of Lady Justina.
It is a regrettable action, and I take no pleasure in making this ultimatum of you. But I have to do this, there is no other choice, his sacrilege is too heinous. His blatant disregard of honor and justice far to grave. If I do not receive a report of his banishment within 72 hours, I will have to do my duty. Not only as Grandmaster of the Sworn Blades, but also as Lord Paladin of Justina.
My sincerest apologies and deepest regrets
Grandmaster Bareth Gantarith of the Sworn Blades.
It made no sense, Magna Yndali was charged with doing mercantile business with a Dungeon and that was a crime. I had made sure that that law would pass, just a few years ago! Unless… Lady Justina did not view my law as binding because I had made use of “Supreme Orator”? Surely not? I looked up at Lady Arana and opened my mouth to speak. But before I could say a word, I was hit by her three-pronged whip. Causing a nasty wound on my cheek that was guaranteed to leave a scar.
“Hold your tongue, you damned viper, or I will remove it for you, do you think me a fool? I do not do things by halves, never have, never will. I interviewed Lady Magna and her Bodyguard extensively last night in order to ascertain the truth of their claims. And some interesting information surfaced from our questions.” She now openly sneered at me as she continued.
“I am not sure what skill you used in order to make that Sworn Blade do what he did. But it is decidedly linked to your voice if the description of the events those two gave me are anything to go by. Now get out of my sight!” She snapped her fingers and the Guild Guards dragged me away from the hall and tossed me out on the street. Once my loyal men, they now looked at me as if I was less than dirt.
As I walked towards my own home, a small house I had bought almost a decade ago on a whim. I had not used it since I became the guildmaster. A Herald bearing the crest of the Sworn Blades was busy hanging up a scroll on the local Noticeboard that carried news from across the Kingdom. A Black Scroll, the updated Blacklist.
My life was as good as over. To be blacklisted by the Sworn Blades was the equivalent of being branded an enemy of Justina herself. An enemy of the Goddess of Law, Honor, Virtue, Protection and Justice. Only the absolute worst scum of society would ever end up on that list. No one would ever do business with them, or fraternize with them. Only now that I saw the list, did it dawn on me just how bad my situation was. I would never be able to get a job anywhere, shops would refuse to sell me their goods, for fear of driving away all their other customers. No one would believe a word I was saying and more, or willingly speak or listen to me even if they did. In short, my life was ruined.
I hurried back to my old house and promptly barred the door shut, The servants would likely not be around to clean anymore once the news spread, anyway. I went into the basement and fetched a wine bottle, a fine vintage one. I didn’t even bother getting a glass for it, then just sat down at my table, opened the bottle and started to drink. The better to drown my sorrows.
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Journal Entry 256, the 5th day in the Month of Justina
Dungeons are far more fascinating that I had ever dared to hope for when I first went with Rael and the others to subjugate them. The Core had told the truth; The inhabitants were people with their own ideas, thoughts, wants and the like. That became quite clear to me already on the first night, when I got into a heated debate with a Kobold over the use of Nightcap in healing potions. The idea was absurd to me, yet the little thing proved me dead wrong. Not only did nightcap work for healing potions, despite it being an exceedingly toxic fungus. But it somehow enhanced the effect of it, making the resulting potion better than standard healing potions. That was quite a blow to my alchemical knowledge.
It was after this that I decided to actually check out the Library like the Core had offered. To say it was a treasure trove of knowledge was an incredible understatement. Tomes upon tomes that would make the professors back in the college have heart attacks from over excitement for sure. I could see why the books were warded, though it was clear it was not the Core who had warded them. But rather the sole other inhabitant of the room itself, the Librarian had to be the one who did. These wards were of an ancient variant and far more powerful than what the Core should be capable of on her own. At least as far as I knew.
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The books contained such knowledge and better yet the Library was brightly lit to allow easy reading. I could have spent the rest of the night here had I not been fetched back to the Kobold Village by my new acquaintance. A Kobold with brown-red scales named Masskha, who was a Kobold Alchemist. Never heard of those, but the potions he had made for us was decidedly the real deal. And once again far more powerful than the effect I could expect to find on the surface. Despite the very limited number of resources he would have had access to in order to brew them. This place was getting more and more interesting by the minute. And I spent a good deal of that evening in the library before I staggered to bed in the middle of the night.
Journal Entry 257, the 6th day in the Month of Justina
I buried myself in the library for most of the day; I didn’t even hear about Inlas’ attack before I returned for dinner; I had been far too busy reading and, thanks to Masskha, I was also starting to learn Umber. The dungeons answer to the Trade Language, apparently most of the inhabitants of the different dungeons could understand it. Though not all could speak it, given a lack of mouths capable of forming the syllables, or in some cases, just mouths in general. The learning process was quite difficult as the syllables required the ability to speak them with a wide variety of orifices. Due to how varied the inhabitants were, meaning the sounds was… unusual, to say the least. Not part of your standard language like the Trade Language or Elvish. Heck, even Dwarven was far easier to learn than this. It had complicated sentence structures where in some cases a previous word, spoken in a certain way, could alter the entire meaning of a sentence. So with just a single alteration to a syllable, “Hello” could change to “Hero” and the like. It was quite an interesting experience. Also, Hero does not carry the same meaning in Umber as in the Trade Language, the closest approximation would be words like Calamity or Disaster, can’t say I am surprised.
That night I told the rest of the party about what I had learned and for the first time in a very long time they not only listened. But seemed genuinely interested in what I had to tell. It felt nice to be regarded in this manner. Here, right underneath our noses, was an entire group of people we had viewed as little more than resources to be violently exploited. Without even realizing, we were invading their homes and pillaging their belongings for years upon years. Well, I had made up my mind, if I survived all this and got back to civilization I would ensure that this exploitation would end. There was too much to learn from these places. The Library of the Core had books long thought lost. In their unedited original forms and in perfect condition, no less.
Journal Entry 258, the 7th day in the Month of Justina
Indella arrived at the Library and all but dragged me away from my studies. She cited *I will need many mana potions for what I am about to do and you have a stockpile you have never used if Mordred is telling the truth.* Well, I can’t say that’s completely wrong. Though the “stockpile” was more the fact that I could burn my own mana to create mana potions using one of my Alchemy skills. And I had been doing that for a long time before going to bed each night. This gave me an entire Bag of Storing’s worth of them in total. What in the world was she planning that would require me to break into that giant stockpile?
Well, turns out I would wind up spending all of them before this day was over. Indella started to grow Razorvines all along the Duergar Fortress’ walls and quaffing potions as she ran out of mana to keep it up. At first, I thought they would vanish, but no. The vines remained, permanently it would seem, woe to those attempting to climb those walls now, or set fire to the vines themselves.
It was, however, not to be the end of it. As Indella dragged me away after we had dinner too. I was on my way back to the Library hoping to get back to my studies, but no. Indella was on a roll it seemed, wanting to prove herself useful. Not sure what had lit the fire under her in such a fashion, but it was infectious it would seem. Masskha had joined me in creating mana potions for her as she started to change the layout of the Abyssal Eye’s boss room. She was using “Shape Stone”, “Plant Growth” and “Move Earth.” To say those spells would be taxing at Indella’s level would be a severe understatement. And she was casting them over and over. She would be feeling the potion sickness from those potions she drank by tomorrow. That was for certain. Hopefully, she would be able to keep her breakfast down.
I had not seen neither hide nor hair of the Eyes as we worked. And despite the supposedly constant flow of intruders coming into the dungeon now, we had not been attacked even once. Reassuring and terrifying at the same time. Once Indella was done my storage of Mana potions was gone. Every last one of them, and both mine and Masskha’s mana levels, were rock bottom. I couldn’t squeeze out another potion even if I wanted to, and my friend Masskha was so exhausted I had to carry him back. A small burden, all things considered. I left Indella behind once I was out; she said she wanted to stay behind to meet and converse with the Eyes; I thought she had gone mad, but apparently she was considered part of the dungeon because of her bond with the Core, so she had nothing to fear. Besides, I was in no shape to try to stop her, so I had no choice but to accept her reasoning as valid despite the lack of proof. And seeing as the Core didn’t seem overly distressed when I saw her in the distance. She was working to change the layout to make the bridge she had built across the lake by far the easiest route. I could only assume Indella had not been talking nonsense.
As I neared the ramp, I noticed that the room had changed quite a bit. With a rather steep descent into the bottom of the room, before the now much longer way back up to the Mushroom forest on the other side. The illusion was still there at the top, but since I knew about it, it was easy to see through it. Though the unnatural darkness made it almost impossible to see across the room itself, not to mention there was spiderweb everywhere. The Core had clearly renovated the place to secure it against attack. That made me feel a lot safer, that was for sure.
Another Kobold had been waiting at the bottom and blew a signal on a small horn. A short moment later another signal was heard from the top. We were told to hurry up as the traps set along the way would not remain disabled for long. I hurried along as fast as I could through the unnatural darkness and spider webbing that covered almost every surface of the room now; I suspected that the place was far more inhabited than it seemed, as I could feel eyes staring at me with unnerving interest.
Sango and Sybl were the only ones still awake when we returned. They were sitting near the campfire and were happily chewing on something. Probably more steak, given the plates next to them showing clear signs of greasy food. I let Masskha down from my shoulders, and he waved goodnight as he staggered back to the village. Tough little guy. Any other mage in his state would have passed out by now. The only reason I was lucid was because I had quaffed a stamina potion, though I would not last much longer at the best of times, even with it.
I sat down next to the fire in order to get some warmth in me. This place was somewhat cool on its own, likely because it was an actual cave despite being a part of the dungeon. So the heat was welcome. We talked a bit about our day before I turned in for the night.
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This was not working, the divine vessels were too weak, and the Core had figured out my trick and had adapted accordingly. The Cubes now waited in ambush outside the range of the torch. And despite being a goddess, I could not use divine sight when viewing the world through the eyes of my vessels. Their newfound tactical finesse had to be the work of the core. The cubes themselves were dumb as bricks. The Shadows had also adopted ambush tactics, besides every so often the damn labyrinth would change. I had made little to no progress as the monsters were deliberately pulling out of combat once they started to take too much damage. Purposefully denying my Vessels any experience they would have gotten.
Luckily, I was not alone in my struggles. I had someone who could help. And even now was preparing to make a rather large impact on the dungeon itself once the ritual they were preparing around the perimeter was done. My thoughts were interrupted as she arrived in my small piece of heaven. Selba, the only one of my siblings who didn’t think me a liar or mad by now. Granted, I had brought that last part on myself, given how I had behaved the last fifteen and a half millennia. But then, what choice did I have, no other solution would grant survival. My visions had shown me this. The only downside with my visions was that they would undoubtedly be true, but could go off anywhere from within the next hour to half an eon later.
That was until that Core arrived. She had defied my visions four times already. First, she didn’t get tamed by Indella. Then she summoned the Beast to deny me a second time when Rael stepped into her Core Room with the intent to conquer her dungeon and attempt to tame her. The third time, she expertly used Saol’s greed against him. And rather than being found out, actually somehow got the party out of the guild much earlier than they should have been. And finally, she escaped in the rainstorm when the squall I sent didn’t make her crash-land as she tried to take off. Could that mean that the vision I had seen of her using my power to save us all was wrong too? No, I could not start to doubt now.
Who knew how long I had left until It arrived. I had already done too much, given up too much, I had to see this through and secure the core, no matter the cost. Just like I had resolved myself to that day so long ago. If I was mad, then so be it. At least I would have done what I could and my Father and the others would forgive me my actions. I only acted as I felt I had to, to save everything.
Selba for her part sat down in the chair I manifested for her. “My followers will be ready come sunrise. Once that happens, we will see if this Core is as formidable when faced with my children as she is against yours.” Selba was referring to her demonic children. They were not Penumbra’s creations, nor did they pay Penumbra much more than lip service, if any at all. They were great to have on your side in a fight though, provided you didn’t care too much for collateral damage.
I nodded back at her as I willed a cup of wine into my hand. “We shall see indeed, the important part now is to secure the core as soon as possible. If parts of the dungeon have to be destroyed to secure it, then so be it.” Demons had one huge advantage over Humans, they were Selba’s creations, not mine, and so not subject to the restrictions placed upon my children. They had no limiter for dungeon entry, as they technically were considered monsters and not people. A distinction Selba and I intended to exploit. All we needed was time to finish the ritual, and my puppets would make sure to keep eyes off of my dear sibling.