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MT 264 - Another Montage
🕑 Added 2025-04-11 00:35:45 +0000 UTCI would have said forming a diplomatic treaty in what was essentially a VIP room at an extraordinarily exclusive dance club was an odd sort of affair, but it didn’t even make the top three for weird shit that week. Ishi was very professional, and even when a dozen of Etja’s new friends joined us in our private room, she didn’t let it distract her one bit. In fact, she was able to subtly guide my attention back to where it needed to be every time my own focus drifted to one or more of the peculiar newcomers.
I was a bit chagrined when the subject of Closetland’s population came up, and I was forced to look away from a very complicated sort of beer pong being played between Etja and a bird-moth-woman in a leather three-piece bikini.
“We haven’t done a census, and I suppose it depends on what counts as a member of the population,” I said. “Less than a thousand?”
For a second, I was expecting the concept of Closetland as a nation to end right there in Ishi’s eyes, but the princess simply nodded, and the scribe marked that figure down. Apparently, having a country with very few inhabitants was not that strange for Dragons.
“Fermantalus has only one citizen,” said Ishi, noticing my curiosity. “Although they have several million bodies. We are more concerned with a nation’s ability to secure and maintain its own borders than the size of its population, which a dimensional kingdom should have no trouble doing.” She glanced up from the document and met my eyes. “You did resist an avatar’s invasion, after all. That’s better than most can say.”
Before everything was formalized, Ishi asked to be shown where she could establish an embassy. I then spent the day giving the princess a tour of our very little kingdom, while everyone else in the party enjoyed their time at the club. She’d obviously gotten the sense that Closetland was not particularly large during our discussions, and the princess gave no sign that she felt our micronation was inadequate in any way. In fact, she was full of compliments when she saw how we were converting ambient dimensional mana into natural resources and had several valuable thoughts on the Closet’s self-perpetuating nature and how it might be improved.
She also planned on bringing a team of her own people to construct the embassy and maintain the grounds, which introduced a wrinkle that I’d been contemplating, but hadn’t expected to crop up just yet. If we wanted to take this whole ‘being an independent country’ thing seriously, I was going to have to get used to having at least some randos in the Closet at any given time.
Border control was easy, since I literally controlled the borders, but my experience with the Hiwardian delegation may have made me a bit paranoid. Not everyone would appreciate the Big Brother levels of surveillance Grotto tended to subject visitors to, and an embassy would technically be land belonging to the Rulers. I didn’t think spying would be taken particularly well.
Was this the best idea? Anxieties aside, if it encouraged a group of ancient and powerful Dragons to help us out with the avatars, then fuck yeah it was. Also, by allowing for an embassy, the Dragons granted me permission to place one of my Checkpoints in their mountain. The portal could only be used from within their embassy, and Ishi would have final say over when and if the Checkpoint could be used. Legally speaking, that is. I could still open it whenever I wanted and from anywhere in the Closet, so long as I didn’t mind violating the terms of our initial treaty. I wasn’t planning on ever doing that, of course.
But I could, and everyone knew that I could. They also knew that almost nothing could stop me from opening that portal, so the Rulers were taking a pretty big security risk. I didn’t mind ceding some control to get relatively instant access to a civilization of mythical creatures and a host of delicious cocktails.
In the end, Closetland was formally recognized by the Rulers and assigned the status of “friendly”. That was a step up from neutral, since it meant we weren’t on the list of nations they might unilaterally invade without warning. However, it was not to be mistaken for “allied”, since they made no promises whatsoever to help us out if someone else started shit with us. That was more than fair, and it went both ways.
This was technically the first official recognition of our fledgling nation, although Zenithar Zura was working on something for us from Eschendur’s end. The Littans had some paperwork that gave our party the opportunity to declare an affiliation prior to our upcoming joint Dungeon diving, but I’d been on the fence about going down that rabbit hole with the empire.
I was also pretty sure I could call up King Filix and have the man ratify something for us if I felt like it, but dammit, we didn’t even have a formal constitution. I was sort of waiting for us to at least have farmers or something before proclaiming “We the people” to the wider world.
Then again, if we were on the lookout for distressed populations in need of a new home, we had several options. The Wastes had plenty of outcasts who chafed against the rule of existing power structures. Ayama was a popular destination for refugees and other wayward travelers who’d abandoned their homelands for whatever reason, and was pretty selective. There was always a boatload or two worth of people hanging out off her shores with no great place to go. Timagrin was also seeing a light exodus as people sought to distance themselves from the recent tragedies there. We weren’t hunting for homeless masses to take in, but they were out there.
As for what Silver meant when she implied Ishi might join up with some Closetlanders to go Delving, there was more merit to the idea than I’d initially thought.
Joma was Level 20, which made her a pretty good match for Ishi at Level 21. Joma had exclusively done Gold Delves, but Grotto didn’t think she’d have any trouble with some plats. The Yeti’s Animal Handling skill, combined with the bond she’d rapidly developed with Nottagator were–according to Grotto–enough to let Joma take the big girl inside a Delve as a fucking animal companion, which was outrageous. Only about as outrageous as my own ability to bring Shog into Delves, but that was still pretty outrageous.
For some reason, Grotto was okay with this, but not with me taking Nottagator wherever I went. I think my Familiar was getting a soft spot for the furry little Mittan, but I let it go without comment.
Between Ishi, Joma, and Nottagator, we had very strong starting seeds for Team Princess. I could even officially declare Nottagator as royalty to keep the theme going. But the fun didn’t stop there. Vaulty was technically a Delver. Or, he was several Delvers at once. As it turned out, every undead member of the Zng army in Throne’s Delve had been a Delver in life, and Vaulty was the spiritual composite of several such entities, harnessed and modified by Throne herself.
With a bit of System massaging and by spending some of our System Rep, Grotto believed he could get Vaulty reassigned from a monster back into a Delver. There was nothing saying an undead couldn’t be a Delver, and the not-quite-a-construct had both the free will and the appropriate mana matrix to take advantage of a Delve’s mana injections.
What Level would he be? I had no idea. Vaulty was the composite of a dozen Level 15s, but the System would probably do some batshit calculation to figure it out. I’m sure there wouldn’t be any oversights there, and that Vaulty’s capabilities would be entirely fair for whatever Level might end up being assigned.
That gave us three of five party members, with an animal companion that basically made up a fourth. There was also the possibility of having Shog fill out the team. My summon had been categorized as a “Hidden Delver” towards the end of Deijin’s Descent, so if I didn’t need him with me, I could send the guy on missions while I was busy doing other stuff. Everyone’s favorite c’thon was still on leave for another six months, but Ishi wasn’t in a huge rush to start smashing Delves. Dragons worked on fairly long timelines.
Speaking of which, I discovered that Ishi was eighty-six years old. She looked really good for her age, but that’s no surprise since I hear that immortality is great for the skin.
Next, I rubber-stamped some blueprints Grotto had going for the continuing expansion into unused parts of the Closet. Notably, there was a spoke and wheel design he called the “Five Harbingers,” which incorporated five sub-obelisks that would be slaved to the main obelisk. They would each be housed inside a tower that was technically its own Delve, but which would be set for lower Levels and easily managed. That was the pitch, anyway.
The towers would move as the Closet expanded, continually adjusting the influence of each obelisk and the radius from which it could gather mana as they were upgraded. This would help us get back on track to exponential growth, plus they could be customized so that each member of the main party could use one as their dark lair when plotting and scheming. It would be Throne’s project, but Grotto would supervise. I was assured that no undead or mental slavery of any form would be involved.
I also had to approve some expenditures for labor that Grotto wanted to hire in from Eschendur. This immediately caused me to appoint Nuralie as Closetland’s Lord of Coin, since she was more than happy to spend my money for me, and I didn’t want to deal with all of that.
Then I had to address some missives sent from various parties across the globe. There were several from Hiwardian officials with follow-up questions about the king’s kidnapping, alongside dozens of inquiries and invitations from the various major houses. Those questionnaires got pushed off to Varrin since he spoke fluent noble.
Beyond that, there was a letter from Seinnador requesting that I send him some more poison essences. The term of our agreement to sell him all the poison essences he required for two years had been extended since I’d technically breached our original sales contract by disappearing from the face of the planet for a year before the term was up. The letter was filled with friendly ribbing.
I took my agreements seriously and set aside a hundred to send his way, along with an order for a dozen of his upgraded Dazzlers. I had some ideas for those I wanted to explore.
I went back and forth with the Zenithars on what we’d learned from the Dragons, facilitated meetings with delegates from both the Littan Empire and Hiward on Ishi’s behalf, and even took the time to meet with some Timans who I’d first thought were government officials but turned out to be a group of minstrels. They wanted to know more about how I killed a living mountain by pile-driving it from space.
After some initial confusion, I realized that these troubadours were getting the lore mixed up between two different Fortune’s Folly escapades–both of which involved destroying a mountain while falling from great heights–so I set the record straight and sent them on their way. Afterwards, I wondered how they’d heard about any of that shit, but my boa had an effect that boosted my renown so I didn’t think about it too hard.
In between all of this, Varrin invited me to join him for some Smithing lessons from Hep’s Elemental Remembrance. That guy was a hell of a teacher, but gods above, was it hot in that caldera. I eventually broke down and asked why I was the only member of the party whose hair was constantly at risk of catching fire, which was met with the following responses.
Nuralie: “The oil in that fireproofing salve was developed from the natural oils my scalp produces.”
Kind of gross, but neat.
Varrin: “I am Hiwardian.”
Congratulations on your superior genes, Varrin.
Xim: “It’s really not that hot.”
I chalked that one up to Third Layer shenanigans. She’d mentioned there was a lake of fire down there once.
Etja: “My hair isn’t actually made of hair!”
Blessed golem magicks, how can I learn your ways?
I also convinced Ishi to give me some Wandmaking lessons, which were quite hot as well, but in a different kind of way.
Overall, I was a busy fucking man for three months. Almost like I was trying to help coordinate a global information exchange and oversee a hundred square miles of land development, both while constantly increasing my capacity for ass kicking. While the workload was stressful, it was quite good for my skill levels.
Your Smithing skill has increased from Level 17 to Level 20!
Your Wandmaking skill has increased from Level 11 to Level 20!
I just barely managed to get both of those to Level 20 for the next evolution before I was out of time to train them up. I had to sacrifice working on a few other things, but I was ready to smith up some new prismatite gear to replace my verdantum, which had become fairly obsolete. My Demon Bone Cuirass of the Descent was still pretty good compared to normal gear of my tier, excluding outliers like Varrin’s helm, so I just needed to replace everything else. Easy enough.
For Smithing, my evolution let me squeeze in 50% more defensive mana weaves onto a piece of gear than I’d normally be able to. It was creatively named Defensive Specialist. However, I wanted to wait to craft new armor until we’d cleared the rest of the Delves we were aiming for prior to meeting with the Littans. Mana weaves were limited by stats, and I’d have more stats after a few more Delves. The delayed gratification would lead to a superior product.
For Wandmaking, I picked Double Barrel. That let me put two spells on a wand instead of the normal max of one, and four spells on a staff instead of two. It also let me use wands as a focus when casting any spell, not just the ones stored within it, which had some advantages depending on the wand. My spell-sticks now had a mana capacity of 45, which was really starting to get somewhere.
Ishi also introduced me to a few exotic wood types that added some bonuses when used to make wands. I bought some Dragon-grown Acacia and crafted up a pair of these bad boys:
Acacia Wand of Elemental Reservoir
Requirements: INT 20
Effects:
+20 damage to elemental spell attacks made while using this wand as a focus.
Mana Capacity: 45/45
Spell Slots: 2/2
Stored Spells:
Explosion!
Elemental Barrier
Sonic was an elemental damage type, so the wands would enhance both spells.
All the wheeling and dealing I was doing also led to some Diplomacy levels.
Your Diplomacy skill has increased from Level 17 to Level 21!
Naturally, I picked an evolution that would encourage people to pay more attention whenever I opened my mouth.
Executive
You exude a presence of authority, generating trust in those who converse with you. Other entities instinctively understand your expertise, causing them to trust your opinion over their own in any topic involving an intrinsic skill you possess, as long as their level in that skill is lower than yours.
Then, finally, there were the Delves, which delivered more skill levels and some juicy stat growth on top of everything else. Of course, there was something about these next Delves we’d forgotten to consider: one of my recent evolutions had come with an unusual and lightly foreboding System message…
Comments
His Dad
Explosion!+ ?
Throh_goblin Lord
Love the diplomacy upgrade
