"Okay, let me see if I have it this time." Amelia said, then started reciting the 'rules' they were trying to teach her about realm management. It felt like the blind leading the blind, and the answers she got from Bert, Donald, and Elara weren't particularly helpful, either. So they were making their best collective judgment.
"Can't get energy from your own spawns. Spawns from elsewhere okay. More energy from negative stuff like killing, but hard to sustain. Energy cost for ongoing effects, or messing with physics. Can spend energy to maintain spawns without feeding and sleeping. Eww on that last one, sounds horrible!"
"It is, Boss, it is! Easier on ya once you're undead, but I don't recommend it." The ratman shook his skull as he said it, then sipped from his mug. They'd rigged up a reservoir in his rib cage using a flask and some tubing, so he didn't leak when he drank anymore.
"Uh, where was I? Loot and adventurers? That's a thing I really don't get. When Bert makes stuff, it goes away eventually after it leaves the realm. But Lark, you made gold we gave to the boys, and that didn't? How does that work?"
The bird fluffed her feathers, then cocked her head to eye the caretaker. "I do not know why it is different, but it is. I am not 'spawned' as you call it, and perhaps that is the key. It takes considerable personal energy, regardless."
"So why bother risking your life to get treasure that will go away before you get a chance to spend it? Merchants must have figured out some way not to get scammed, selling to adventurers. How does that work?"
"Adventurers get experience, too. You gotta practice to get good. Fighting, dealing with traps, so on and so on. Some places, like Elara, are more for grinding, like a training ground. Mostly no loot. Some have craft minions, making things for treasure. The ones really known for loot stole it. They'd send their minions into other dungeons, or towns, or whatnot. Raid 'em. Caused havoc, those maniacs. Those're the really nasty cores. I think all of 'em've been stamped out, 'cause that sorta thing ain't popular, if you get me, Boss." said Nic.
Beige and Blue, perched on one of Alder's branches overhead, managed to look both guilty and proud at that last, nudging each other in some shared joke. Quiet looked at her own feet, twiddling her toes and not meeting anyone's eyes.
"Adventuring gear is expensive, and specialized." She added, nodding her agreement with Nic's comments. "Dungeons tend to accumulate things from those that die. Pretty random, but worth finding."
"Again, ewww. So kill people, take their stuff, to lure in more people to kill and take their stuff?"
"You got it, sugar pie. Circle of life, sort of thing. Hakuna matata."
"Uh, Pancake, I don't think that's what that means."
"For the dungeon that is, sugar toes. For the dungeon."
"Fine. Anything else?" She looked around at the group she'd assembled. After speaking with Nic about the situation in Elara, she knew she needed to come up with some fixes quick to keep things from collapsing over there. The problem was that death and destruction were the easiest way to do that, and she'd prefer something else. Anything else, really.
After looking around and seeing no one wanting to add anything, she continued. "So, if we shut the doors to Elara, no more adventurers. Which means no more energy. Everybody left over there starves. Stuff 'out of alignment with reality' as Bert calls it will disappear. Dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria!" Only Pancake chuckled at her reference.
Nic nodded, as did the rest--except Alder, of course, who couldn't nod.
"So why don't we just give Elara the excess energy from Bert? He's getting loads from all you guys, and just wasting it. We couldn't spend it all before the Fur Folk got here, much less you Elarans. That should tide us over while we remodel."
Amelia looked at the stunned faces around her. "What? What's wrong with that? It should work, right?"
"Um, barbie doll, it don't work that way. Realms aren't big on the whole 'sharing' concept. You get that, don't you?" Pancake finally got out.
"Bert and Donald share. Donald isn't 'placed', whatever that means, so he doesn't get much energy. They worked out some sort of deal, a while back. Bert gives him energy, Donald lets Bert use his agents. And he gives advice. I think they both use each other's senses, too, but they kinda lost me at that point."
"Okay, now that's just unnatural. Downright creepy, that is. Don't wanna know details, gonna have nightmares just thinkin' 'bout that ..." the goat mumbled, shaking his head vigorously as if to negate the thought.
"That's news to me. Of course, I've never heard of anyone bonded to more than one core, so this is all new ground. As far as I've ever heard, cores only communicate with their bonded ones, or caretakers, nobody else." Quiet said, looking thoughtful.
"Yeah, they said something about talking using outer bands through me. I dunno." Amelia grimaced and raised her hands palms up, confused.
"Maybe 'out-of-band', there, angel face. Never mind. Try it, see what happens. I'm gonna go stand way over there, outta the blast radius, kinda thing ..."
[Foreign core link instantiated. Energy increasing.]
"Huh, that was fast work, Bert! Pancake, too late to run away. Elara is already getting energy from Bert." She smiled smugly at the goat.
"Still violatin' the natural order, sort of thing. An abomination. And that's sayin' something, coming from me. 'S all I'm sayin'." mumbled Pancake under his breath.
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With Elara no longer in danger of imploding right away, Amelia felt like she had some time to think. She didn't approve of the basic premise of the place. Sure, it was fun to explore, and there was a thrill with a hint of danger, but real dungeons took that way too far. Elara was almost entirely underground, a labyrinth of passages and rooms with traps everywhere. They'd encountered some themselves, and they'd just been in a tiny portion of the realm. Then you add on top the residents, and it was just a nasty place.
Part of the problem, though, was many of the inhabitants liked it that way. It was the only life they knew, and they didn't want it to change. Not everybody, of course. The maintenance crews were more than happy to move on to greener pastures, like the hollow. Many were happy to have their families, especially the children, out of harm's way, but wanted to keep doing what they were doing personally. This had stumped Amelia until she remembered how fun it was to spar with the spears and play capture-the-flag and such. Of course, there wasn't much chance to get hurt doing those activities, versus fighting against marauding adventurers eager for combat and plunder. But Elara used a considerable amount of energy to 'respawn' its minions, so they weren't dead for long. Getting injured or killed still hurt, though, but for the adrenaline junkies, that was just part of the game. She still found the idea abhorrent. Competition didn't bother her, but deliberately hurting others was just right out, in her book.
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Short of completing gutting and rebuilding Elara, though, there had to be some way for it to generate energy in a way she could tolerate. Bert could sustain it for the near term, but that certainly wasn't a permanent solution.
She was still in Alder's glade, half listening to a game Alder was running for a mix of Elarans, Fur Folk, and the local gamers. The games were so crowded with watchers it was often hard to tell who was actually playing, and who was just observing. The gaming hut was crammed full, so Amelia was to one side of Alder, sitting with her back to the old oak. That way she could listen while watching the rest of the going's on in the glade. There was a cluster around the spear training machine and several knots of people around various sparring sessions. She had just watched a particularly good set of strikes on the training machine when the idea came. Well, an errant splash of water hit her, from the near-perennial game of water tag the kids and others were playing, but the effect was the same.
She glared around, looking for the culprit, squeezing water from her hoodie, then returned fire dispassionately. "[Water Bolt]!" The fox that had hit her was sent sprawling, looking like a drowned rat. She felt it was only fair since they were supposed to really focus on where their shots went, so they didn't cause any 'collateral damage'. She waved and smiled, and the fox waved back, shaking its body vigourously to get rid of the water, suitably chastised.
"That gives me an idea!" said Bill, who was standing next to her. He'd quickly gotten over his disappointment at being ensorcelled when they visited Megrim. It turned out the man loved animals, so the sight of all the Fur Folk doing things in the hollow made up for it. He spent almost as much time people watching now as he did in the practices or gaming.
Amelia looked at him expectantly. She'd been explaining her difficulties with the Elara situation, and he'd been mulling it over. He was so jovial and fun-loving it was easy to forget he was an engineer at heart, so he loved solving problems. He was also trained as a statistician, but she didn't hold that against him, much.
"You said Elara was already used mostly for training, right? Deadly training, sure, but couldn't we fix that? Make it like a paintball arena, or puzzle room, or something. Make everything non-lethal. Safe. Well, safe-ish. We could have medics on hand, just in case. I bet loads of people would want to explore, then! Heck, I'd be up for it! Can you imagine a capture-the-flag game in a real dungeon, with monsters and stuff? That would be epic!" He started speaking faster and faster as he got excited.
"Ooh! And we can have a gift shop at the entrance! Sell souvenirs, candy, that kinda thing!" added Amelia, getting into the spirit of the thing. He nodded noncommittally, his train of thought derailed.
"I wonder if the Elarans who still want to fight would be okay with that? They'd still get to hunt adventurers, but without worrying about dying all the time."
"We could have training weapons, like those padded spears we use. They could go pretty full tilt if we did it right. And be ready to do it again with the next group, no waiting to be 'respawned'! Maybe that's how you sell it to them. More action, less waiting. And less pain!"
"I like it! Let's go see if Quiet thinks it'll work!" She leapt up and headed for the yard, Bill trailing behind her.
They found the goblin relaxing in the shade under the gazebo. She listened to the idea skeptically at first, then with more enthusiasm as she thought on it further.
"So? What do you think?" Amelia asked.
"Maybe. It's worth trying. It would be unique, that's for sure. An entire dungeon for training? Not quite the same thing as doing it for real, but I guess you don't learn much if you die, so ..." She nodded as she spoke, growing to like the idea.
"Yeah? Yeah? And the gift shop?"
"Well, it's already going to be unique, so why not? We can get the girls to run us off some t-shirts and hats." Quiet replied, sarcastically.
"I hadn't thought of that! Awesome! Yeah! So cool!"
The goblin rolled her eyes.
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"'The Halls of Blight'? 'Silent Barrens'? 'Undying Springs'? What kind of names are those? They sound horrible!" Amelia protested, looking at the sketch. It was more of a network diagram than a map, with different areas indicated as circles, lines showing how they connected to each other.
"Descriptive, Boss. They're pretty much what they say on the tin. I can vouch for the Springs, myself. I'll never forget crawling outta there, all my meat peeling off. Blech! Smells like some sorta nasty stew, most days." replied Nic, tapping a bony nail on the paper. He'd made the drawing of the areas of Elara he was familiar with, so Amelia could start getting acquainted with her new territory. "I suggest the Halls of Blight. Pretty self-contained, not too many entrances, and only a few traps. Good place to start, if you ask me." They were discussing the best place to start the new makeover. The dungeon was huge, and even the maintenance crews only knew small portions of it. It was going to take a lot of work to bring it up to Amelia's standards.
"What kind of traps and things does it have?" She asked.
"Let's see, there are your standard pit traps, of course. A few fields of enfeeblement. Some mind control, and the mimic portals. Fun stuff! If we fill the pits with water or jello or something, and keep the mimics fed, nothing lethal at all!"
Amelia didn't look particularly convinced but knew she had to trust the ratman. Just wandering around exploring would likely be both counterproductive and extremely time-consuming, so this seemed like the best approach.
"Okay, I guess. I can put a portal in so we can go straight there. Suggestions on where the near end should go?"
"How 'bout in the pub? Great place to gather a party before venturing forth, sort of thing," suggested Pancake, chortling.
"Sure! Makes sense. Good place to get a drink and a snack afterwards, since you guys don't like my idea of a snack bar in there."
"Look, sunshine, it's not that it ain't a good idea. It just, I dunno, doesn't really fit the ambiance."
"It will when I'm done with it!"
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Perfectly good dungeon turned into an arcade at the mall, sort of thing ..." he mumbled.
"So you don't want plushies of yourself in the shop? I mean, they probably wouldn't sell that well, compared to the Shock stuffies. Maybe we can do some mock slime toys or something ..."
"Now hold on there, sister! Hold on! Let's not get ahead of ourselves! Just 'cause I think you're ruinin' the place, don't mean you should miss out on a best seller. Although, any stuffed animals that look like me might be fatally adorable, sort of thing. Which harshes your whole 'fun for the whole family' vibe you got planned."
Amelia grinned. The kid's ego was easy to poke. He was the only one that had not been excited about the de-lethalization of Elara, and she was enjoying ribbing him about it. As long as she had to be in charge of the place, she wasn't going to have it be a dangerous slaughterhouse. He could mock the 'fun house' concept all he wanted, but she still felt it was the right thing to do. Plus, they'd have a better chance at getting return customers, if they didn't kill them all off!
"Right! Pub it is!" Now that she was the dungeon master (she liked that term better than 'bonded one', although Briar and Pancake snickered at both) for both Bert and Elara, she could easily place portals between them. She'd deactivated all the other portals in Elara for now, so they didn't have to worry about new people coming in. None of her friends knew where the 'far' ends of those were, so at some point they'd have to pop through so they could figure that out. Maybe post some 'under new management' signs, that sort of thing. But for now, she wanted them closed.
She debated connecting the near end to the Pub entrance door but decided that might be confusing for people from the 'mortal' realm. So she had Bert add a new doorway on the back wall and placed the portal there. It was just to the side of the bar and looked like it might lead to a back room, which the pub didn't have. Ashlee could keep an eye on anyone coming and going, so that would work out fine.
They'd probably have to move the end in Elara, though. She'd asked to have it placed in the Halls of Blight area like Nic had suggested, but since she'd never been there, she just trusted to the core's judgment about where to place it. Once they were there, though, it'd be easy enough to move things around. That was the whole point of visiting, after all.
"All right, portal placed. Should we head over there? I want to check it out!"
"Hold your horses there, honeybuns. Still kinda dangerous over there, remember? Not everybody 'voted' for the management change, sort of thing. Might want some muscle with you, maybe, I dunno, some equipment? I mean, I'm just an adorable goat and wouldn't know anything about dungeon exploration, just stands to reason, is all."
"Yeah, you're right. Better round up the troops. I just can't wait to start the makeover! It's going to be epic!"