Mordecai considered his options. The individual pieces were quite doable. Evolving a creature into a very young umbral dragon of no more than human size would be easy enough, at that age it would still be notably weaker than the dragon bosses.
Umbral drakes, which were actually a type of lesser dragon, were of the right size and power to be suitable for an advanced caster’s familiar much like some other lesser dragons.
Creating a creature with the power of even a young umbral dragon but that could be tied to a familiar’s bond was more difficult, and adding the ability to become that tiny didn’t actually make it easier. Hmm. Conditions could restrict power, so what would make this interesting? Aha.
“I can make that happen, with a limitation. Only one of you can be full-sized. So when you are human-sized, your dragon would be fairy-sized, and the same in the opposite direction. But you can both be about gnome-sized at the same time.”
“Yes! I’ll take it!” The faerie woman danced about happily, “What’s next, what’s next?!”
Mordecai let Kazue take back over from here, it was her show for this area after all. He’d find a candidate and evolve them while Kazue worked on the rest.
“Well,” Kazue said, “Your familiar will act as your grimoire, so we need to give you some spells. Your job is to challenge visitors and make them exert themselves, so you will be given a selection of spells to either hinder or aid delvers as you see fit, but nothing that can harm them. Some, however, may greatly inconvenience them. We’re going to do this right, so in order to study your spells and prepare which ones you are ready to cast without notice, you have to work with him, and if he’s not available then you don’t have a grimoire until he is available.”
“Oh, right. What sort of challenges do you have in mind?”
“Well, you get to be creative, but we have several ideas and will offer up more if we think of them. You get to decide which ones to give, and are free to choose harder options for people you don’t like, you just can’t cause them any harm unless they get violent first. Now, some of the easier ones are simple tasks like finding a batch of herbs or finding some bit of jewelry that has been ‘lost’, or otherwise having them go out to find and fetch something for you. To go with the theme of some old, traditional tales about witches, you can also have them do tasks like cleaning and cooking, or perhaps entertaining you with a song or a story.”
“Okay, yeah, those are pretty easy I think,” Carmilla said, nodding along.
“Slightly harder than that might be for the delvers to go and find a missing pet, who could be ‘afraid’ and actively avoiding strangers or otherwise more difficult to obtain and bring back to them. I’ll also be bringing in some other inhabitants, so they might need to convince someone to loan something to you, or maybe they have to win a game of cards or dice against a particular group, or maybe they have to find a way to pay off a favor that you supposedly owe someone. There’s a lot of options here. You can also have them pay you with scrolls and books or whatever else you like. And instead of singing or telling a story, you can have them make a work of art for you, or compose a new poem.”
Kazue wanted to also make sure Carmilla knew the limits, “Now, we’re also going to give you the ability to sense how much a person or group has exerted themselves in your area, including the minimum amount to be allowed to pass up to the limit where you have to allow them to pass without further interference. The challenges here are a lot more fluid than in other locations, so enumerated task lists don’t really work, we just need to have them push themselves about as much as people going through the combat route would.”
“I can do that,” The faerie said, looking thoughtful, “Any challenge I like, right? Can I seduce them?”
The question caught Kazue off guard, and it took her a moment to reply in a flustered tone, “Er, what do you know about, ah, seducing people and such?”
“Oh, I’ve spied on the people in the inns topside, most of us have. The other faeries mostly thought the big folk looked and sounded funny, but I thought it looked fun and interesting,” she grinned impishly, “Though I admit it was often funny too.”
“Right, I’m going to have to do something about that. Now, um, hang out and explore or something, we’re going to have to talk about this before we give you an answer.”
She, Mordecai, Moriko, and through Moriko, Kazue’s avatar spent almost an hour discussing the ethics involved, with Mordecai’s avatar occasionally asking questions of some of their more trusted guests to get a gauge on how others might feel. When they were done, Kazue presented Carmilla with their answer.
“Yes, with caveats. First of all, it can never be a demand, it must be an option, and you can’t press the person hard or punish them for saying no. Second, if there is a group that is together, then you can only offer the option to the entire group, not including ‘companions’ that don’t count against the party size limit, and you have to treat them equally enthusiastically. So you probably shouldn’t offer if you aren’t interested in one or more of them. Third, if they initiate without a hint or prompting, then it doesn’t count unless you want it to. Also, it counts as entertaining you, so if you aren’t entertained, then they failed. And finally, you can’t make it a challenge for more than one in ten people or groups that come through the level, though once a person or group has reached their goal and you have officially told them that they are free to pass through to the end of the zone, you can still offer anyone you like to stay with you. This doesn’t have the other restrictions, that’s just you on your free time. But no matter what, you have to be available to offer challenges to other delvers, even if you have to interrupt your other activities. Oh, and only with full adults.”
Kazue was a little dubious about Carmilla herself on that front, but Mordecai had previously noted that her fairies were sparks that had matured in the Other Side, and Carmilla had an adult mind and body to go with that age. The other fairies did not seem to be as fully cognizant despite being technically old enough, so Kazue and Mordecai were going to make sure they didn't get into trouble before they were more mentally mature. Not that all adults were particularly mature, but there was a lower limit that was acceptable.
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“Eh,” Carmilla scratched at her nose, “I guess that’s fair. I just gotta figure out who is worth offering it to.”
“Ah, yes, um, so from what you said before that, you aren’t exactly experienced,” Not that Kazue was much of one to talk, less than half a year ago Kazue was just as inexperienced, “As long as no one is around, you can head top side and meet people and such, but you have to shape away your wings and be disguised as a visitor for now. Then, you know, fewer mistakes when being the swamp witch and all. I mean, it sort of depends on what you want people to think of you, but scary swamp witch and novice seductress sort of clash.” Honestly, Kazue would be happier if Carmilla wasn’t going this route, but she also didn’t want to interfere too much with how inhabitants led their lives or did their jobs. And she had to admit that sultry seductress did fit the scary witch image too, it just wasn’t what she was imagining when she came up with the idea.
They weren’t entirely done, but Carmilla wanted to get to know the area for a little bit before they spruced up her home more, partially because she didn’t entirely know what she wanted yet. So Kazue shifted her attention to the barrier separating the two parts of the zone, having already handed off the task of keeping the faeries from spying on their guests to Mordecai. She copied and continued the growth, but this time she grew it along the edge of the lake until it reached the cave wall, completely closing off her side from the end of the zone. She then grew a large patch of the impassible growth in that corner against the wall, then set about constructing the dungeon magic that would attach the creation of a passage to Carmilla’s acknowledgment of a party’s success.
However, the winding passage wouldn’t go all the way through at once. It would open with just enough room for the group to comfortably fit while leaving a couple of meters of pathway behind them. Then the path would start closing up behind them as more opened up in front of them. Kazue was mindful of Mordecai’s advice that there was always someone who would decide to try and cheat if it looked easy to do so, so it was generally best to not let them cheat to begin with.
The path led to a narrow ledge at this end of the lake, and the growth here thinned enough to let travelers see the lake and any fights that might be taking place while also protecting them from it. And that ledge ended at a doorway that opened up to the same chamber that the ‘boss door’ led to, which then led to the corridor headed to the arena and the feast hall.
Throughout the zone, she started creating small huts, hidden tree houses, and the occasional homey burrow in the roots of a tree large enough to have created solid, if damp, ground, and other little places to be occupied. She didn’t designate any particular creatures to these areas, instead, she created a special sort of role for whatever inhabitants were taking a turn here. It was a package that included telekinetic ‘hands’, the ability to speak magically for those few creatures they hadn’t managed to make good voice boxes for, and a few other utilities to make them operate in a rough approximation of how most people on the surface lived. Throughout the various abodes she now scattered some waterproof card packs, dice sets, bags of brightly colored marbles, and the boards and pieces for various popular games. They were probably also going to want a lot of things like pots and pans and most certainly furniture, but a lot of that could be easily crafted by other inhabitants and fill out more naturally. Kazue just wanted to get enough stuff to create the image of ‘monster’ people kicking back and playing games or otherwise doing social stuff when delvers approached them to fulfill whatever tasks the witch had given them. And it would be a good place for some of their inhabitants to relax outside of the warrens.
Also, she wanted to eventually have this suite of abilities available to everyone who could use it, but it tied up a lot of mana just making it a role-specific mantle for the zone. So for now she just had to be satisfied with what she’d created.
And of course, she needed to create natural treasures to be found, in addition to rewards for tasks done. As usual, plants with useful properties were an easy one, but she needed more. Thankfully, they also had some other resources to put in place, for those with a good eye. The areas of the wetlands closest to the walls were drier and a little higher, and she chose a few sections to make into different rare colored clay.
And in that clay could be found various uncut gems and minerals: tourmaline, iolite, malachite, jasper, and opal. Nothing quite as fancy as the dwarven opal they had received, but these were all minerals that could form in clay and mud. Especially the opals, which could form in any sort of wet, sedimentary environment.
Now, to the town at the start of the zone. Mm, it was time to get creative. They had bunkin from the dire rabbits, rabkin from the rabbats, now it was time to make buzzkin from the bunbees. She had considered beekin, but that sounded too much like beacon.
There were not a lot of them interested in the role. The way that they had been designed early on made them still inclined toward group behavior even now that they were sentient. But there were a few who were a little discontent with their role in the hierarchy, and neither she nor Mordecai had done much to create a path for them to advance on. It was time to change that.
She started working on the evolution process while those bunbees who were interested gathered together in Swampton. When she was done, the dungeon had a third clan of laganthros. Their overall design was much like the bunkin and rabkin, but they retained the black and yellow stripes and some other bee features such as antenna, and instead of a rabbit tail they had a small bee-like bulb, complete with a stinger. Kazue had altered them to live and breed like mammals again, including restoring milk production instead of honey and they could not secrete wax.
They were not limited to this town, and were in fact free to work in any of the positions that their kin occupied, so long as all the necessary roles were covered by people with the appropriate skills. But this gave them a starting point.
Now for the roles and rules. This was to operate much like the lakeside town in the river zone, but with some differences. While swamp boats and other such services were available for the combat side, part of the challenge here was to navigate the wetlands. You could build your own, forage or buy materials, etc., but the townsfolk were officially under a ‘geas’ that would ‘curse’ them if they provided vessels or guides into the witch's territory. Those who sought to curry her favor so that they might pass through the wetlands must do so through their own resourcefulness.
Mm, and one final touch: Kazue took advantage of the fact that the faeries were already prone to forming mushroom circles, and recruited Sarcomaag to help her. Whenever a circle formed on this half of the zone, stepping into it would trigger a teleport with just enough delay to potentially catch an entire party, depending on the size of the ring. The default was to teleport them to another, random ring, and both rings would become inactive for an hour. Where Sarcomaag came in was to create directional teleports. The mushroom boss already had tendrils throughout the wetlands, so he could simply grow an extra, crystalline mushroom at the edge of the ring that pointed at another ring, however distant, and that would direct the teleport there instead of making it random.
She also added a rule that let him reactivate rings whenever he liked, so long as no delvers were within ten meters. For that matter, no ring could become active if there were delvers within ten meters, they had to have some chance to spot and avoid the ring.
By the time Kazue was done, Carmilla had her familiar, an umbral dragon/drake named Udup.