The following conversation is translated from traditional Igdolithian Dwarvish.
The squat frame of a dwarf hurried along through the halls of SilverMight, the Mountain Home of the Igdolith dwarves. He climbed up the stairs from the ground floor, taking two at a time since dwarven steps were designed for such hurried movements. Within minutes he was at the door to the noble house of WatchfulBronze, the second oldest family next to that of the mighty king of dwarves. He nodded to the dwarven guards on either side of the door, before they nodded and allowed him passage into this well-worn home.
The entry hall was rather bare, lacking many of the statues that once lined its hall. The bronze figures that remained were the current members of the house, Duke Igdur WatchfulBronze, Duchess Venverun WatchfulBronze née Iron Heart, and their six daughters. The figure in the white robe did not admire the master craftdwarfship of the statues as he rushed into the Duke’s study. He found that the good Duke WatchfulBronze was sitting at his desk, stressing once more over coins and connections. Between the declining good will of the other families and trying to watch over the surrounding lands the good Duke had a lot on his plate. Preparing the dowry for his daughters alone had taken massive amounts from his funds, especially the extra he had to put towards his wagon-wreck of a first born. The WatchfulBronze family was on the brink of losing their duchy, and all the other families were chomping at the bit to take up the mantle of duke or duchess to the capital’s territory.
“D-duke WatchfulBronze! I come bearing great news!” Svelbar said as he slammed a map down on the desk of the duke, causing an inkwell to topple over and ruin five hours of work. The duke looked ready to pop every blood vessel in his face at the loss of so much labor. Igdur salvaged what he could from the ruined papers before returning his glare over to the dwarf that had costed him so much lost work. “Well? Out with it!” The gruff voice of the Duke barked at his kin-folk, expecting an explanation for what was going on.
“Right, of course. My apologies. As leader of the Guild of Vision, and head scryer for the King, I thought that you would like this information. The uh… tool related to the king which got wet is no longer wet.” He explained, keeping words out of precision since he knew that anyone or anything could be listening to him. He was skilled enough to know the instant it happened, but the problem was that there could still be information gained in the split second before he severed the connection.
The high ranking dwarf’s head fell into his hands, clearly dreading the information that was about to be given. Despite the best efforts given, and the intelligence of those he had hired, it seemed that the last hope of his family had finally been lost. “So it’s been found… Who found it? IronHeart? SterlingTrumpet? Don’t… don’t tell me if it was ElkAxe.” He frowned, though looked confused as the scryer shook his head at the line of questioning.
“No sir. The item has not been found… but it has moved. I was scrying in attempts to find it just as all members of my guild are meant to do. At least once a day, as you are aware. It’s moved.” Svelbar said with seriousness before opening up the map which he had brought of the known world. To the dwarves it was the known world, but in truth they sat upon a very large planet that their greatest cartographers and scribes had only scratched the surface of. “It is no longer in the Sea of Courage. From what I can tell, it is somewhere here.” He pointed the map at Duke WatchfulBronze and showed a circle in the middle of The Pennisula of Pennance. Somewhere deep in the Swamp of Sundering was where the hammer of their ancestors had been hidden.
“By the beards of the elders… And you’re certain that none of the other scribes have found this out yet?” He asked firmly as he pushed away all of his paperwork to focus on this.
Svelbar shook his head. “I only barely could scry this location, and not even get an exact area. I am the most talented of the scryers, so we might have a week or two before another manages to find it.” The white bearded dwarf confirmed, a smile in his eyes under his shaggy brow. He watched as Duke WatchfulBronze stroked his own chocolate brown beard, hands pausing on the braided-in bronze beads that were meant to help denote his family.
“We will pull out all of our resources from the other search, claim that we need to think more of the MountainHome at the moment. Then as soon as they are back, send them directly to the swamp.” He said with a wide smile that showed off his tombstone-like teeth.
Svelbar shook his head, clearly not agreeing with the idea. “Will take too long. The Pennisula is all the way to the west, we are in the North, and the men are searching in the east. By the time they’d arrive here, someone else would have already gotten to it.” He argued, wanting to make sure that they knew what they were doing here. “Might i suggest a small force? Six or seven dwarves sent out, led by the strongest you know. Then reward them with a pittance and the experience of the quest.” He offered, the idea sounding far more appealing than just letting another house get their hands on it.
“Best fighter you say. This might be a forge two hammers with one ingot situation.” He grinned, a mischivious look on his face as he got an idea. “We will send Veluna and a small guard-“
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“Baby-Face Veluna?! You would put our family’s chance at salvation in the hands of the demented woman that shaves?” He was completely aghast at the idea, to the point he did not consider his place as a branch family member when speaking out of turn.
“That’s exactly my point! Veluna is a shameful disappointment of a daughter who has done nothing but make our connections to the other families harder. Twenty-five and not even married yet! She shaves off the beautiful brown beard of our family. The only thing she has done to not shame this family is hold the title of the one who has delved to the bottom of Whispering Stones the most in recent memory. Even then, she uses that as an excuse to constantly hide away from her duties and responsibilities as a noble. So I say we send her off with some other skilled fighters, straight into the heart of the swamps. If she comes back with the hammer, then she is the hero of our people and her past transgression will be overlooked. If she dies and one of her retainers brings the hammer back, then the worst first born of the main family is gone and her sisters have a better chance to marry. Not to mention we can reabsorb her considerable dowry.” He mumbled the last part, well aware he would be able to retrieve the family statues for the main hall with all the money being shoved at any possible suitor.
Svelbar was silent for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head. “Absolutely devious, brother. To send your own daughter to temper or shatter for the benefit of the entire family. I suppose this is what makes you head of the family, that kind of ruthless thinking.” The older of the siblings said as he rolled up his map, clearly about to go and decide who these ‘protectors’ were going to be.
“Indeed. I’ll let Veluna know once she comes back from her most recent dive of the dungeon. She should be there before the end of the following month, and thus someone would be back with the artifact before the end of two months.” He said gleefully, having not been so happy since his brother had given up the life of Nobility for the scyer’s guild.
“Maybe it’s not so bad. So long as I can keep it in my inventory then no one will ever know I have the hammer. Then when some dwarf comes along and delves into the dungeon I’ll drop it in their lap. Wash my hands of it, even if it is a kickass weapon with weird tags.” Red calmed himself as he still reviewed the screen. He was eyeing two particular tags when it came to the uniqueness of the item. [Secret Powers] suggested that the item had abilities that not even his system could reveal. Then there was the fact the hammer was apparently usable by a dungeon, which made him wonder if it would let him fight in a raid.
He would have to play with it later, get a feeling for what it meant to have such a rare artifact. Surely he could keep it out of his inventory long enough to hold it, examine the fine craft of the object. He shook his head of the desire to play with the powerful weapon, instead focusing on what he still had to do. Aside from picking whatever [Rare] tier thing he could choose to beef out his dungeon, he needed to actually be a dungeon first. He floated over to the untouched portion of the garden that Lotus had not yet played with. He raised a hand and constructed an entire small hut blueprint for Ivy to fill.
“I should give Ivy some laborers, she is just going to get busier and busier as time goes on.” He muttered as he looked at the red outlines of a hut made by his build menu. It was actually just like the shack he had first started as on the interior. With the difference being a bathroom and more furnishings for a religious little girl.
Archimedes flew back over, seeming upset about something. Red figured that the bird had not found anywhere dark enough to be a safe nest for the future vampiric crows and ravens that would be spawned from it. Though the feathers stopped their poofing as he looked at the construction Red had ordered. A curious black eye glinted at Red, a brief noise that Red interpreted as a question.
“No, this house isn’t for the soldiers. I have barracks planned for them but not right now.” He waved his hand out towards the shack, it clearly too small to accommodate Arabella’s brothers. “This is going to be Addison’s new house. I realize now that dedicating only the garden to dungeon defense is going to get me killed. I can’t just waste valuable rooms trying to coddle her.” He explained, receiving a huff from the raven.
“Giving her a place to live is not coddling her either! It’s my job to make sure that she is alright. So I’m doing just that. Not to mention, a girl her age shouldn’t be cooped up in the dark all the time. I’m hoping she’ll actually want to play ‘outside’ since my leach grass can’t harm her.” He explained to the bird who gave a few bobs of the head to try and mimic the way that humanoids could nod. Then the bird gave a caw that only made Red put a palm to his face.
“Archimedes, humanoids don’t expect their children to be able to build their own nests. It takes a lot for us to make our homes. Besides, you’re one to talk. I am going to have to make a whole room dark enough for you, and I am going to have to shove demonic things in just to make sure that we are still on theme for the floor.” He said firmly, the raven no longer meeting his eye as the dungeon was speaking the truth.
“Yeah.. that’s what I thought.” He said as he eyed the bird before looking at the garden wall and knowing that he wouldn’t be able to put it off for much longer. He could go through more of his notifications from the battle, but he had the feeling it was better to wait until his dungeon had fully respawned before he could attend to all of them. That surely wasn’t his natural proclivity towards procrastination trying to encourage him to leave his inbox full once again.
“There’s probably nothing important in my notifications, would have popped up by now.” He said as he picked Archimedes off of his shoulder, holding him like one would a chicken that needed to be placed back into the coop. He gently set the raven down on the ground before giving him a small pat on the head. “I am gonna go take a look outside, boy. You stay here and make sure that there isn’t any danger left crawling around.” He said with a smile as he joked a bit, knowing that all the danger was long since gone. He turned and headed for the front door, the Raven watching as the dungeon’s avatar took its first steps outside into the unforgiving biome that was the Swamp of Sundering.