With my dungeon's creatures dead and nothing to do but wait in silence my mind was going over the past couple of days.
For quite a few nights I was sitting in silence now. Not dying for a few days really is a great way to calm down.
Today was the day the last group would enter, and I was actually quite excited to find out wat the boxes are all about.
It really seemed that each group was more then just another element.
It was not just that each group had access to a different element, they all seemed to have grown so much more things around it.
Today was perhaps the best example of this. Their element of wood seems to have made them crazy.
There are multiple tasks that need to be done, and people are all quietly picking their prefered jobs.
Except ... they prefer to shovel bat poo over picking flowers.
And then there are the people that are acting like they won a price, for being allowed to work with water containing rotting food!
They also found out that a girl with a burned cloak managed to fix that cloak all by herself.
That's how I found out they are actually all crazy, her face is white from sheer terror ..
She was even begging to shovel manure instead, asking if any of her friends wanted to swith jobs.
But they all moved away from her and avoided eye contact.
Well, that's not something I can change.
Never mind how crazy they are, let's just try to see what they are pushing to the front of my door.
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Going over everything, there seemed to be an entire industry popping up in front of my eyes.
The happiest group seems to be starting a small fire, slowly heating up the vile brew of wattery mush.
Somehow, they seem to be capturing a crystal clear liquid from that.
A lot of it went in a small carriage, some of it is being used to fill up vials attached to arrows.
But most of it is definitely being 'lost', lost as in found it's way to their own cantines or sold to some of the older members of the other groups.
There is the neutral group that's going over those really complex crossbow's, setting everything up and filling them with arrows.
That group is also gathering around a big rack that is slowly being filled up by arrows. Not the normal onces, those that have some of that crystal clear liquid attached to it.
And a tiny wagon, being filled by alcohol, but they seem to be waiting for something else.
The shit shoveling group is less happy with their 'pet bat's shit gathering job', or collecting 'guano' as they call it.
I stopped watching, as it's not fun to see people play with shit, but they were shoveling it, dripping water over it, boiling it, and spinning the leftovers.
In the end, it seems they were going for some yellow stufff that started smoking. I think they called it 'phosphorus'?
The small batch they managed to make of it of it went into the tiny wagon.
At least they cheared up when they got to put it in the wagon, which is now missing a bit more of the clear liquid.
And last of all, there were a couple of people going for the plants.
With trembling fingers, keeping everything as far away from them as humanly possible, they seemed to be making a beautiful purple oil.
As luck would have it, one of them seemed to have gotten unwell, and they all ran out with her as fast as possible.
That's how I could sample a few of those beautiful flowers that were left alone.
(Template) (Atropa belladonna) aka Deadly nightshade
A toxic perennial herbaceous plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
The foliage and berries are extremely toxic when ingested.
Atropa belladonna has unpredictable effects
The antidote for belladonna poisoning is physostigmine or pilocarpine, the same as for atropine
The following properties have been found to exist on the plant
[Cultivated] Great care was taken to provide the right conditions to enforce properties of this plant [Selective breeding] Great care was taken to select based in the desired properties [mana-enhanced] Mana was used to provide extra energy to the plant
Unlocks the (Atropa belladonna) template
(Template) (Aconitum napellus) aka wolfsbane
A species of highly toxic flowering plant in the genus Aconitum
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Aconitum napellus is an extremely dangerous plant that contains various toxic diterpenoid alkaloids, mainly aconitine primarily concentrated in the roots.
Aconite contains a strong, fast-acting poison that causes severe side effects such as nausea, vomiting, breathing problems, heart problems, and death
The following properties have been found to exist on the plant
[Cultivated] Great care was taken to provide the right conditions to enforce properties of this plant [Selective breeding] Great care was taken to select based in the desired properties [mana-enhanced] Mana was used to provide extra energy to the plant
Unlocks the (Atropa belladonna) template
(Template) (Digitalis) aka Foxglove
The flowers are tubular in shape, produced on a tall spike, and vary in colour with species, from purple to pink, white, and yellow. The scientific name means "finger".
The term digitalis is also used for drug preparations that contain cardiac glycosides, particularly one called digoxin, extracted from various plants of this genus. Foxglove has medicinal uses but is also very toxic to humans and other animals, and consumption can even lead to death.
The following properties have been found to exist on the plant
[Cultivated] Great care was taken to provide the right conditions to enforce properties of this plant [Selective breeding] Great care was taken to select based in the desired properties [mana-enhanced] Mana was used to provide extra energy to the plant
Unlocks the (Atropa belladonna) template
Given the large amount of unreadable text, and the intensive care of the poor girl,
I'm starting to think that these flowers are not as innocent as they seem.
That and also how everyone was throwing up from breathing in the purple vapour from that small spill.
After some healing everyone was coming back, and making the last of the oil with trembling hands.
The 3 flowers made a reddish purple oil that is placed in some glass tubes and also poured into the tiny cart.
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Everyone seems to be cleaning up, and it's clear that they are preparing to march to my core again.
This time most had those weird looking crossbows holding 12 bolts, but my attention was firmly kept on the 3 other groups.
In one group someone was winding up the cart.
Another group was going over a huge amount of arrows in a plank.
And then the group with the purple oil also seemed to be lining up as well.
Suddenly having finished winding up the cart, he let go and ran towards the doors to open it.
With the door open, I could see the tiny cart slowly unwinding and rolling forward.
The smaller ants in the front of the tunnel did not have a good time, they were trying to dodge the bolts that were badly aimed at them. I was exited to see that they were able to dodge some of the bolts aimed at them. The barrage was unstopping however, every crossbow seemed to fire one or 2 bolts every second, filling the room with bolts. In the end, it had no meaning, they just dodged into another bolt.
The bad aim did come at a price, my bigger (Blade ant)'s were able to dodge, not being stopped by a hit on their stronger carapaces.
With the crossbowman unable to hold the advance, I knew they had to do something.
That something started with a simple shout, "Fire the hwacha" was all they said before whistling filled the halls. The arrows with the tubes on them all left steaks of smoke in the air and flew at insane speeds inside the tunnel, punshing straight though even the biggest of my ants.
As if it was all timed, the tiny wagon also seemed to stop it's forward march.
With it's stop, it stopped unwinding and the sides dropped open.
The same white liquid, now purple from the added oil in in splled everywhere, and the the lump of glowing yellow stuff was no longer submerged and started to glow and smoke.
Knowing nothing good could come out of that, I orderded everyone back.
The glow gave me a few seconds of forwarning, but the yellow stuff's glow soon turned into a small flame. From that small flame the spilled purple liquied caused an explosion.
The few that made it out were all waiting there, looking at the giant cloud of purple gas.
Besides a few twitches, nothing that went in that gas was moving for long.
On the other side, they seemd to take their time to reload, protected by the slowly dissipating cloud.
From there on, I only learned that those that picked the flowers also threw glass filled with the pure oil.
That pure oil seems to eat it's way through and melt my fungi man in no time at all.
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It could tell they were looking for more of a challenge then I could offer, but they still left a box for me. This time it said [Emerald] on the box and had a green glow to it.
As they left my alone with the 5 boxes, something struck me as odd.
I take it back, I don't want to find out what it does