Romero was a gaunt, gray creature with a slouching posture and spidery fingers. It had a head like a shaved dog with a short snout and long teeth. As soon as it spawned, it lunged at Eira.
Stew had to clamp down on it and take control. The creature's heart was beating fast with fear and rage.
He couldn't tell if the ghoul only had animal intelligence or if it was so overcome with revulsion and fear for Eira that it was unable to think. It strained at his control, He didn't dare change his focus to speed up the mining golems on their way across the dark plains of Level 4.
He tried speaking through its mouth and found it had the ability, but its voice was thick, and the words were shaped into wet, gnashing noises by the long jaws and teeth. "Hy doesth ith hathe ooo?"
Eira visibly calmed and Lady Briar's voice answered. "Ghouls have a natural fear and hatred of the living. I would have warned you, but I did not realize you planned to summon one in these tight spaces." She gestured and the revenants gathered between Eira and the ghoul – surrounding it and pressing it back against the wall.
The revenants smelled delicious. Stew found his ghoul mouth salivating at the smell of rotting flesh. It was like a cross between cheese and pickled sausage and he was HUNGRY. Maybe the Briar's wouldn't mind if he just took a small bite.
Stew yanked his mind out of the ghoul and wished he could gag or spit the imagined taste out of his mind like he might spit out spoiled food. But it was just a memory, so it lingered.
Since the revenants seemed to have Romero under control, he took the chance to check on the mining golems. They were about halfway across Level Four. He sped them up to a fast jog and reconnected with Eira.
"So let me get this straight. Ghouls hate the living and crave the undead. How is this going to work out at all?"
Eira/Lady Briar pointed. The ghoul was breathing slower now and looking down at the floor. It seemed calmer and leaned up against one of the revenants like an old friend. "They will not eat animated flesh. No one else should either."
Stew couldn't bring himself to peek inside Romero's head again now that the ghoul was calming down, but he did check the creature's stats.
[Romero]
[Lesser Ghoul - Level 1]
[Mana Cost - 1 / day]
[Necrotized Flesh Cost - 1 / day]
[Health 10/10]
[Agility 8]
[Strength 6]
[Constitution 15]
[Actions: 1]
[Action Recharge: 1/day]
[Special Attack: Infectious Bite]
[New Structure Unlocked - Portal (Dreamlands)]
Dreamlands? Portals sounded like something he could really use. He would love to have portals between levels, but something about "Dreamlands" set off alarms. He couldn't place where he had heard that word before.
"Have you ever heard of the Dreamlands?" Stew asked.
He felt the Briars confer before responding. "No, why do you ask?"
"It seems like it has something to do with ghouls." He described the menu he saw.
"It's well known that ghouls have a way of appearing in any graveyard or tomb, and disappearing just as mysteriously. Maybe this is related to that."
Stew imagined creating a portal only to have a flood of slavering ghouls pour through, and decided to hold off on exploring that option until he was more prepared for surprises.
It was another thirty minutes before the mining golems reached the second floor. Now the tiny room was seriously cramped. The briars had to herd the revenants and ghoul back up the stairs a bit to give the golems room to work.
Stew set them to digging new rooms in all four directions, then digging four more rooms at each corner to clear out a space three rooms square. Once the simple rooms were complete he used his new knowledge to directly theme them to [Dismal Swamp] without trying to dig out any more space.
The walls vanished, replaced with stagnant water, spongy ground and decaying vegetable matter for an acre in each direction.
The sky was solid black and sounds of insects and amphibians filled the darkness with creaking calls and whirring susurrations. The darkness wasn't absolute. Pale lights danced over the still waters in multiple places like dim white flames. [Corpse Orchid] a species of low growing orchid glowed with a dangerous looking, deep violet light. Through Eira's nose, Stew smelled the scent of rotting vegetation and a sickly sweet, floral scent, possibly from the orchids.
The stairwell landing was now inside a low, muddy hillside overgrown with sprawling, thick-knuckled tree roots.
Eira stepped off the stair. Her foot squelched an inch deep into the waterlogged mat of woven roots and grass that passed for land.
Stew recalled the golems. A level 1 he had named "Earl" promptly fell right through the floating plant raft and vanished with barely a "plop."
Stew reached out to the submerged golem, found the slope of the hillside underwater, then sent it trudging back up to the entrance.
He set the ceiling to natural light. Bright light from the afternoon sun suddenly filled the swamp, turning pollen dust into golden whirls. The cheery effect only made the matted depths seem more sinister. The insects and frogs stopped their whirring, but something groaned deeply in the distance.
"Do I have alligators now?" Stew couldn't feel anything living in the rooms, so the sound seemed to just be atmosphere. He would have to think of a way to get alligators.
In the brighter light, thick drapes of moss hung from the trees. Dense clumps of long grasses and plants with names like [Dead Man's Sedge] and [Hag's Hair] formed small islands in the murky, stinking water.
He found that he could raise the shallow mud in places to create relatively solid ground. He created a meandering, broken path that eventually reached the eastern edge of the swamp.
He sent the golems in that direction. The Briars, the revenants, and the ghoul followed. There was a glistening stone wall there that stretched out of sight above. With his dungeon senses, Stew could feel that the wall actually met the ceiling at four meters and the rest was an illusion.
He set Earl to digging the next room to give him more experience. Once it was done he set the theme to [Grim Graves]. A decidedly modern graveyard appeared with worn and broken stone tombstones and a rusted wrought iron fence with a double gate. One half of the gate hung open at an awkward angle. A decrepit mausoleum stood on a low hill.
Stew summoned six [Shambling Revenants] for the graveyard and named them Ezekial, Gustav, Frank, Moira, Chauncy, and Gail. He was relieved to see that although these were apparently mindless monsters, they were entirely under his control. The shamblers made Eira's revenants look like covermodels. No two were alike, but they were all half decayed and missing parts. They wore unidentifiable rags for clothing, and none carried any weapons or seemed aware of their surroundings. They trudged in random directions, and only turned when they met a barrier.
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The ghoul seemed encouraged by the development and loped forward on all fours sniffing at the air.
"I thought you said ghouls weren't interested in animated fl–" Stew began, but stopped when he saw the forearm drop off of one of the shamblers only to be snatched up by the ghoul who carried it out of sight behind the mausoleum. "Is he going to bury that?"
"For a while." Lady Briar answered.
Apparently that was the final straw for Eira. "You expect me, us, to live like this?" She waved her hand at the swamp, the graves and the mausoleum. "Bodies rot in this damp, living or dead."
"Hold on." Stew answered. "Let me finish out the level, and I'll show you the accommodations I had in mind. This is all just for the delvers. The boss fight should be here in the mausoleum."
They walked through the graveyard to the mausoleum. Stew showed them where the stairs to level three descended from underneath a massive stone sarcophagus that was easy to move aside once you found the right sequence of seemingly decorative carved lilies to press. He couldn't take credit for the puzzle or any of it really. It was all default decorations for the [Grim Graves] theme.
"But as for a place to actually live, I was thinking something over here." Stew led them to a place where the wrought iron fence ran parallel to a towering wall identical to the one that the graves had replaced. He set Earl to digging again, demolishing a section of fence and wall as he went.
Once the base room was complete. He restored the wall and gate as a hidden door. Then he sent Earl further in to dig two more rooms. He turned these into a kitchen, general room and bedroom, and furnished them with the best options he had from his menu.
Some of the furniture and conveniences were strange to Eira, and after some back and forth, he replaced the table and chairs with lower tables and reclining couches which she seemed to be more familiar with and the bed with another, longer couch covered in cushions.
The [Roasting Spit], [Cookpot] and [Baking Oven] were familiar to her, but she pointed out she didn't know how to use them. Lady Briar chimed in that she could probably work something out with revenants, but Stew showed her that, like the Lunar Forge, these were mostly for show and that there was a menu that would turn various ingredients into food. The options here seemed to recognize Eira's expectations and he saw that a few options like [Purified Water], [Wine], [Porridge], [Fish and Vegetable Soup], and [Salted Bread and Olive Oil] could be created with only small amounts of mana and no other ingredients.
Eira was in a much better mood after seeing the accommodations, so Stew left her to think about ways to improve the level while he took care of a couple of details that he already knew needed attention. He sent all of the mining golems except Earl down to the third floor then sent Earl back to the entrance from the first floor and kept his attention with the golem as it walked.
The bright sunlight outside didn't seem quite right for the atmosphere he was after, so he added [Sinister Fog]. The light immediately dimmed and the blue skies and distant mountains disappeared to be replaced with a sullen haze. Wisps of fog limited the viewing distance in every direction. In places, the mist seemed to clump and cluster like ghosts, even streaming along the ground in low-lying areas. The temperature also dropped just enough to make the air feel clammy. A notice appeared.
[New monster unlocked! Rusalka]
[The Rusalka is an undead water spirit that haunts the shores and depths of the dungeon's submerged regions. A Rusalka appears as an attractive person specifically alluring to the viewer from a distance. From closer, the Rusalka is obviously recently drowned and undead. The Rusalka uses its alluring beauty and hypnotic songs to lure unsuspecting victims into the depths where it may drown them and claim their souls.]
And, sure enough, there was the Rusalka added to his monster menu. He created one just to see what he had to work with.
A few feet in front of Earl, near the shore, a twist of fog bent down and scooped water, pouring it back over itself as if washing its hair. Where the water touched the fog, it washed away revealing green hair and pale skin.
[Rusalka - Level 1]
[Mana Cost - 1 / day]
[Health 10/10]
[Agility 5]
[Strength 7]
[Constitution 6]
[Actions: 1]
[Action Recharge: 1/day]
[Special Attack: Hypnotic Song]
[Skills]
[Botany - Level 1]
[Alchemy - Level 1]
Neither Earl nor Stew had capillaries, but he still felt like he was blushing at the Rusalka's outfit, or lack thereof. She appeared to be an incredibly attractive woman with long flowing hair. He didn't have a body or hormones to feel the full effect of her appearance, but he did remember being human.
He switched his perspective to hers to avoid the distraction and to find out who he was dealing with.
"Well, hello there. Are you the dungeon?" She spoke aloud. Her voice was as sultry as one would expect from an ambush predator.
"I am. I was building out an undead themed level and thought I would see how you might fit in. Could you tell me what you can offer as a defender?"
"You're quite well-spoken for a dungeon, but you don't feel ancient," she replied. "How interesting. As for my abilities, I think they should be evident." She chuckled, raising her unusually long-fingered hands and making a wringing motion. "I lure delvers to the water and drown them, usually one at a time. I also enjoy flower arranging, potions, and poisons."
"Have you worked with a dungeon before? Where did you last work?"
"I have not. Since my death and re-awakening, I've been looking for a good hunting area, but it is difficult to find a river or lake near any sizable population that isn't already thoroughly haunted."
"Wait. This may sound strange, but have you always been in this world or did you come from somewhere else?"
"I can't answer that without knowing where I am now." She waved her hand. "This all seems to be dungeon magic, so I don't have many clues to where I might be."
"Where were you before you died?"
Her voice changed, becoming coarser but much more lively. "I'm the first mate of the good ship Morvain's Blessing out of Dylath-Leen, or I was until a fairer smile tempted my captain. We fought, and I found myself run through and cast overboard, tied to a ballast stone, a day off the coast of Oriab."
None of those places sound familiar to Stew. "So you were a pirate. Do you have a name?"
"Privateer. We had papers." She shrugged. "Neither matter now. I won't be sailing again in waters this shallow, and I have no name in this life, nor any interest in resurrecting an old one."
"Speaking of papers." Stew offered a contract. "How would you like the name Lorelai"
The Rusalka accepted the contract. "It's a name. Any will do. Where's my assignment?"
The talk of potions and plants had Stew thinking. He sent Earl to the wall south of the entrance to dig out another two rooms. He explained to Lorelai that he wanted her to use her song to distract delvers away from the graveyard if she could, but he also also wanted to see what she could do with a [Conservatory] and an [Alchemy lab].
"One thing," Stew asked. "To make an effective distraction, do I need more Rusalka to appeal to different genders and preferences." He thought about Ba'Rush, Femur, and the Fae. "And species. Do I need different species?"
"How do I appear to you?"
Stew hesitated. "Well, um. A very attractive human female."
"That says much more about you than it does about me." Lorelai laughed. "At least I don't appear as some pretty lump of crystal. You only ever need one Rusalka for an area this size. I'm not some puny Siren who needs a chorus."
Stew left Lorelei to settle in and went to work on the [Conservatory]. The moment he set the room type, the swamp extended for another acre, in the middle of which suddenly appeared a round glass greenhouse with milky panes framed in ornate black iron. It was overgrown with runners and creeping vines. He wondered if it would have looked the same on the first floor, or if this was an adaptation to the swamp level.
Inside, the center of the room was taken up by troughs filled with soil. Tables with empty pots ringed the wall. One small table with gardening tools, gloves and stacked pots stood just opposite the door against the far wall. He tried activating one of the troughs but nothing happened, so he stepped over to the table and tried it.
[Conservatory - Level 1]
[From the mystical to the mundane, nearly anything can grow in this all-purpose greenhouse. Planting the right species in close proximity can unlock new synergies that promote growth, reveal special qualities and even enable evolutions to create entirely new varieties. Careful though. Invasive species can destroy neighboring plants and take over the greenhouse, requiring expensive treatments to clear.]
[There is nothing planted here. Plant something? Y/N]
There were no options, so he assumed he would have to gather plants to start. He had some ideas but they would have to wait for now.
He created the [Alchemy Lab] The lab also seemed to take a cue from the surroundings and become a ramshackle shack just behind the conservatory. Inside, arcane glassware bubbled over a low flame and empty jars and bottles lined one wall. Another wall was devoted to tiny drawers, all empty.
Activating the equipment prompted for a reagent, 1-4 ingredients, a temperature, and a time, but there were no other instructions. Maybe Lorelei would know what to do.
He took one more look around and decided he was finished for now. He named the new level "Shamblers' Swamp" and walked Earl down to the third floor.