The Mountain Grotto Dungeon, Slopes of Mount Gursway, 18th day of Sol, 1661
The Dungeon Floor had been finished. Monty had started on the decoration, installing the trees and plants into each of the rooms. In addition, the decorations around the outside of the room, merged into the walls of the room, forming the outside border. It looked like impenetrable forest, but was actually stone.
The monsters were generating as they completed the rest of their final checklists. Which just left this final walkthrough that Jeremy insisted on, then Monty could open the entranceway and officially become a Dungeon. That opening was scheduled for the 19th, although the first Delvers would not go through until the morning of the 20th.
Sara was apparently waiting until the morning of the 21st for her first Delvers.
Jeremy’s phone rang.
“Yes, Fancy?
“No, we have not.
“OK, what is the problem?
“No, you have to be kidding me.
“Why?
“Is the King and Queen aware?
“What will you be doing?
“What about you?
“Can we help?
“OK, see you on the other side.”
Jeremy hung up the call and stared into the middle distanced with no reaction on his face for a good five minutes. He blinked and shook his head, returning to the now.
Monty looked at Jeremy and asked, “What’s wrong? Are you OK?”
“We are under attack. Well specifically, Jessica and Fancy are under attack.”
*Give me the details, now!*
“Jessica has just identified a team of Dungeon Raiders that are about to attack them. They are specifically trying to capture Jessica and kill Fancy. They are then planning to target you tomorrow and Sara the next day.”
*Targeting us specifically? Are mom and dad aware?*
“Yes, and yes. Your Aunt Bess is in the area, but has not arrived yet.”
Monty thought for a few minutes, then decided what the priorities had to be.
*I’m assuming that Jessica will contact us if we can offer any assistance?*
“Yes.”
*Please take this as authorising you to offer any and all assistance asked for. Let’s start this walk through then, and we’ll take the opportunity to identify all points that we can strengthen our own defences. Before we start, can you ring Bess for me and let her know the situation and that Jessica is the priority. Neither Sara nor myself are in any danger until at least tomorrow.*
“I don’t have her phone number.”
Monty rattled of a series of numbers and letters. *My password for her will be ‘Oil of Madness’ and please give her the code word, ‘Plague of Rage.’ That will let her know that there is an active plot against us. Answer any questions she has and thanks for your help.*
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Ten minutes later, everything was enacted, and Monty was reminding Jeremy that they needed to do that walk through.
Jeremy said, “How can you concentrate like this at this time?”
Jeremy lite up the second half of the sign he had written on the Core Room wall, ‘Strive * Protect * Repay’.
*Until I am open, what I can do for my family is limited. I need to be open, and I need to be an effective dungeon. I also need to do that as a responsible Dungeon. I cannot step in and help Jessica today, so I need to become everything I need to be so I can help the next time.*
Jeremy looked at Monty’s core for a moment, grunted, and said, “Let’s go, then.”
There were about ten items that needed a minor adjustment and they had identified a further twenty changes that would add to the defence of the Dungeon in case of attack.
Monty went over the plans for the defences near the Dungeon Town, coming up with designs for the Ablution Blocks and walls that fit with his overall look.
*Have you given any thought to where we should go for level 2?*
“I have been picking up some hints from the other assistants that they are both looking at multiple floors soon. You, know, combined two or three floor, non-linear Dungeons. Did you want to do something similar?”
*I’m not feeling it. Let’s wait until level 5 or 6 and then do something really big. Epic.*
“What about an underwater level?”
*Definitely not. However, a half underwater one, has promise. I’ll start playing around with the layout and see how far I get before Jessica resolves her little issue.*
A few hours later, a group of humanoids turn up outside where his Dungeon Entrance was going to be. *They look to be werebats?*
“Well, whoever they are, they are in bad shape.”
Even many of the children were injured and everyone looked exhausted.
“Do you want me to go and do a first contact? See what they want?”
*Yes, just be careful. I’m only just starting to get you house trained, don’t want to have to start again.*
Jeremy snorted and went off to see what the visitors wanted.
It turned out that the tribe were indeed werebats. Like others of the various were species, like werewolves and werebears, the werebats were mostly human looking in their normal state. All adults could also change into a ‘full’ creature, in this case a giant bat. Some of the more warrior types also had the ‘transition’ form, which was a cross between bat and humanoid form.
They had incredible hearing, the ability to fly, see in the dark by using sonar and many had a special ‘sonic attack’, which would temporarily disable most opponents.
There were only about sixty left of the original tribe of over 200. The previous tribal leader had decided to make a bid to become the ruling tribe in their area. He had failed miserably.
There were still 4 elders left alive, all of them were in a bad mental state. The 18 months of war had worn them away to the point where they were barley functional. The tribe was basically being run by the surviving head scout, Entari. Both of her parents had died at different times, while facilitating the escape of the rest of the tribe, leaving the rest of the tribe looking up to her as a hero.
“Why should we inherit all of the calamity from your tribe by helping you?” Asked Jeremy.
With a sigh, Entari responded, “Because this is our last hope? Even those two tribes that declared blood feuds with us, thanks to that useless excuse of a chief we use to have, want us to take this. His brilliant plan was to wait for the other two tribes to send out their warbands to attack us, then attack their camps while their warriors were away. If he had been even a somewhat competent leader, or hadn’t split our forces to attack both camps at the same time, we may not have been routed by the women and retired warriors left behind in the two camps. The tribes have tracked us down and told us we were so pathetic that they didn’t want to kill us all off but are required by tribe law, now that the leader died – running away.”
“If we swear ourselves to a Dungeon, we cease to exist as our old tribe and become a new tribe under the Dungeon. They, our enemies, are fine with that and will cease to hunt us if that occurs. In fact, it was them that told us about the Dungeons opening in this area. So, we are dead if you do not accept us, so name your terms and allow us to serve you as you see fit.” The air of despair and abject hopelessness hung over them like a swamp’s miasma, chocking off joy, hope and any thoughts of a future.
Neither Jeremy nor Monty knew what to do at that point. They both understood enough tribal law to know that this situation is possible, and that the solution would probably be enough to save the tribe.
In the end, Monty was pragmatic enough to realise that if nothing else, it would give them the labour they needed to ensure that projects would work.
Monty prepared a contract that was more than fair, and Jeremy left it with the tribe, for them to read and talk through it and see if they thought it was workable.
Jeremy led them through to their new quarters and explained, “Dungeons think long term – generations - not days, weeks, years. A contract that would not be just as workable with you, but also your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren is useless to us. If it is acceptable to your people, then we will have a signing ceremony in a day or two and you can all become ‘The Mountain Grotto Dungeon Werebat Tribe’.”