Khenal
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Chapter Three-Hundred Fifty-Seven
🕑 Added 2025-05-09 01:50:42 +0000 UTC_______
Tarl
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Past the Southwood and deep under the ground, the recently saved city of Silvervein sits, still getting used to freedom. Despite the annihilation of the Maw, its influence still casts a long shadow over the large town, and people are still figuring out how to exist without it dictating their every move.
By now, life would ordinarily be back to normal, but the people are still figuring out what they want normal to be. Thankfully, they are not alone. The church of the Crystal Shield is an excellent force for stability, helping keep the peace and ensure that the city won’t simply be ruled by a new flavor of despot. A priest of Order is also helping the town, having decided to stick around and help guide the burgeoning government after having come to collect the Harbinger for his deity to examine.
And, of course, the new church of Thedeim, the god of Change and the dungeon responsible for thrusting upon Silvervein the heavy weight of freedom. Some resent the burden, some relish it, and so the perspective on the force that upended their lives and freed them is rather mixed. With how eager the adherents are to help out, the perspective is steadily shifting to positive, but there is still a ways to go to be seen in the same light as the Shield.
For Tarl, however, there’s no question about his feelings on Thedeim: he’s a mess, but an interesting one. The elf was among the first to delve Thedeim, and has seen more of his nonsense than most. In all honesty, it’s that dungeon’s fault that Tarl is sitting in a small office, organizing reports and waiting for his replacement, rather than getting to do some delving himself.
He knew staying here would be uncomfortable, and it’s not even the fault of the pale elves and dwarves that call the place home. It’s not their hospitality he questions. In truth, he’d be even more miserable if it wasn’t for the excellent meals and pleasant company. No, he has a lot of paperwork to do if he wants the Dungeoneer’s Guild to have a proper presence here. It’ll be worth all the paperwork, he hopes.
He wonders how Telar would feel if she could see him meticulously updating Vanta’s official dossier. The little dungeon is doing well, and showing no signs of following in the footsteps of the Maw. In fact, where the Maw would have been classified as either belligerent or murderous, Vanta seems to want to be a combat-focused cooperative dungeon. The elf can’t help but wonder how much of an influence Thediem has had on the young dungeon, despite how little the two have actually interacted.
Thedeim certainly would have taken Vanta as a protege, if Thedeim didn’t already have Violet. The Southwood decided to help guide Vanta, though, and in Tarl’s opinion, the experience has been great for the large forest dungeon and the Stag, its Voice. The Stag has long been… difficult to talk with, like a noble just itching to put a lowly commoner in their place. But after allying with Thedeim, and now helping guide Vanta, the Stag has mellowed considerably.
He’s still an incorrigible gossip, but that’s helped Tarl stay up to date with how things have been going in Fourdock, so he’s not going to complain. Even if the Stag is clearly messing with him on a few points. He’s mentioned Thedeim’s latest expansion, but has been very cagey when it comes to details about it. All he’s been able to extract from the scion is that it’s a very large expansion and that it focuses on combat for higher-leveled delvers. At least he’s been willing to tell Tarl about the new scions.
He still wonders how Thedeim pays for so many, but it clearly works, despite how many times he’s read reports about dungeons that expanded too quickly, with too many scions, and starved because of the upkeep costs. Thedeim has said, through Teemo, that he doesn’t really order his scions, but Tarl finds it difficult to imagine. It’s probably something that you just have to be a dungeon to get. Or not. Hullbreak and Southwood both were clearly running themselves differently, and had a hard time adjusting to how Thedeim works, but after the first getting vassalized and the other getting allied, they’ve both been doing much better.
Other news out of Fourdock has been concerning in its own way. Tarl would ordinarily dismiss any sightings of Olander Wideblade as rumor, but the Stag was adamant about it. Tarl’s not surprised the Crown would send someone to get a look at Thediem, but he is surprised the Crown went with him. Is the Crown Inspector so bored that he’d come to Fourdock? Or does the King actually see the potential Thedeim has to upend and change things in the kingdom as a whole?
Either answer veers too close to politics for Tarl’s liking, which makes the current events all the more disturbing. The Earl has made an appearance and the thieves guild is stirring trouble. It all makes him want to rush back and ensure his quiet home doesn’t get too loud too quickly. But he has duties here to attend to, first.
The Dungeoneer Guild is supposed to be sending a new guildmaster and inspector to officially make their presence known in Silvervein, where they’ll oversee the information about Vanta, and get jurisdiction to sell information on the Southwood, too. Once they show up, Tarl hopes to spend some time in the Southwood until the Rangers are done with their current endeavors.
The forest dungeon had experienced odd waves of invaders before the fight with the Maw and the Harbinger, and it seemed they were related at first. But the last working theory he heard from the Stag was that the varied invaders were like animals fleeing a forest fire: not necessarily sent by any hostile force, but rather reacting to its mere presence to try to escape.
It’s not a bad theory, but it doesn’t explain why they were attacking from the surface, while the Maw was deep underground. The Stag hasn’t been willing to give too many details, but he did say the Rangers have been helping him to clean up the local portion of the Green Sea forest. They’ve been finding a lot of knots or snarls of stagnation, which would explain the new invaders. Either way, things seem to be settling down, and the Rangers will be expanding their efforts into the northern expanses.
While he’d like to stay in the Southwood to try to get some information himself, he’d also like to try to catch Yvonne and her party on their way back to Fourdock. Even if the Stag wasn’t willing to give details on what she and they are doing, he was willing to say that his ally’s Resident was helping with the effort. Hopefully he can get some more information out of her on the walk back, especially about the knots of stagnation. Whatever the Maw did to make the Harbinger’s spawner, it certainly involved one, and he’s hoping Yvonne might have more insights to share on them after having spent more time dealing with them.
His musings, planning, and yearnings are interrupted by the door to his office opening. He might think of it as just a small office, but for now, it’s the Dungeoneer’s Guild hall, much as it doesn’t fit the grandiose title. He doesn’t get many visitors, as Silvervein is still figuring out how they feel about dungeons, after having been under the boot of one for so long. But the people who enter aren’t pale elves or dwarves, but rather a pair of foxkin.
Tarl smiles and sets aside the scroll as he sees their guild crests. “Ah, my replacements, I take it?”
The two foxkin exchange an uncomfortable look as Tarl quickly looks them over. They’re both healthy and relatively young, probably just out of the academy in the capitol, or perhaps even from the Principalities. It’s easy to forget the guild technically has no borders, even if he’s only ever been assigned within Horlon Kingdom. The two have similar orange and white fur, though one has white hands while the other has black. They look like siblings to him, brother and sister, with the brother having the black hands, and also the larger share of bravery as he speaks first.
“I uh… wouldn’t call us replacements,” he starts, before Tarl snorts.
“I certainly hope you’re my replacements. I want to get back to Fourdock, not be stuck here. Silvervein’s nice and all, but I really am looking forward to getting back.”
The brother winces at that and nods. “Then… I suppose yes, we’re your replacements.”
Tarl smiles and stands, offering his hand. “Then welcome to the Dungeoneer’s Guild, Silvervein branch. I’m Inspector Tarl.”
The two shake his hand before realizing they should introduce themselves. “Oh, I’m Golond, and my sister is Laineir. I’ll be inspecting, and she’ll be the guildsmistress.”
Tarl nods at that. “Excellent. How familiar are you two with dungeons?”
The sister, Laineir, quietly answers. “We’ve read and studied as much as we can, but we don’t have much… field experience yet.”
“Then you two are in luck, and are going to be getting a lot of it from now on.” He waves them forward as he pulls out the scroll for the Southwood as well. “For now, you have two dungeons under your jurisdiction: Southwood and Vanta. You’ve probably heard about the former, he’s pretty well known.”
The two nod, with Golond speaking. “One of the largest toyboxes on record, and one of the most northern on record, too. It has abundant herbalism and lumber nodes, as well as animal nodes and spawners. There is little in the way of traditional adventurer loot, but the raw resources are invaluable.”
Tarl nods at the assessment. “That’s the basics, though he’s been trying a few new things since he and Thediem allied. He has a second scion, a bear, who he has in charge of expeditions. Southwood also has a protege in the second dungeon that’ll be under your care: Vanta, a young shadow affinity swarm dungeon. He’s still too young to give an official designation, but he seems to be on the road to being a combat-focused cooperative dungeon.”
Golond frowns at that. “A cooperative swarm dungeon? I’m not sure I’ve seen that combination in the books…”
Tarl laughs. “Most of them are belligerent or even murderous, if not especially dangerous. Swarms tend to be dangerous for their numbers, not their strength. I say Vanta seems on the path of being cooperative because of what the Stag has had to say about him. The little guy doesn’t like being alone, which is why he has swarms. He’s also been told that delvers don’t respawn, which is a common misconception among dungeons in general. Vanta doesn’t like the idea of someone not coming back, so I expect he’ll be pulling his punches against delvers, once he’s strong enough to actually make people want to delve him.”
Laineir looks over Vanta’s scroll and looks confused. “He’s thinking about that while so young?”
Tarl nods. “Keep reading, the circumstances of his coalescence are unique. Having Thedeim around, as well as having the Southwood mentoring him, has Vanta noticing things that a lot of dungeons take a lot longer to ever experience. He’s still only barely able to grasp these sort of concepts, but I do think he’ll get better and better as he ages. Especially if he can get encounter advice from Thedeim, once he eventually gets his own Voice.”
“Who is Thedeim?” asks the brother, his sister nodding before she elaborates.
“You’ve been talking about him like he’s a dungeon, but in the town, we heard a lot of people talking about a Lord Thedeim. Enclaves usually worship their dungeon, but the dungeon that was here was subsumed, and it had a different name. Not many enclaves try to spread the word of their dungeon, at least not very far. But we don’t have jurisdiction over any Thedeim.”
Tarl chuckles and nods, moving around the desk and motion for the two to take whatever seats they like. “He is a dungeon, and to me at least, he always will be. But he’s also a deity. Not just a focus of faith, but the fully-fledged, apotheosed deity of Change.”
The two look at him like he’s gone mad, which only makes Tarl laugh again. “Ask around once you get settled, if you don’t believe me. Just be glad you don’t have to deal with him, heh.”
The two don’t look too convinced, but as they look over the scrolls for their dungeons, it seems unlikely he’s crazy. Everything is far too neat for a madman’s scrawl. “I’m going to go check on Vanta while you two settle in. He needs his mana, and it’s nice to get to cut loose. I’m not hard to find, when I want to be. I’m sure you two will have questions, so take the time to organize them, and I’ll answer them later, alright?”
The two foxkin slowly nod at that, reassured by the mundane regulations being followed. Tarl waves before taking his leave, smiling as he strolls down the tunnels toward Vanta. The two seem like good kids. They just need some real world experience to understand how things actually work.
They’re lucky they didn’t get assigned to Fourdock. Even with all his experience, Thedeim is difficult to comprehend. A couple of fresh dungeoneers like them wouldn’t know what’s up and what’s down in a dungeon like him.
Comments
Robinn57
Thank you for the chapter. Oh how I have missed Tarl.
TechNinjaSigma
HE'S BACK, BABY!!!
Ben Bass
TYFTC! I find it funny how Tarl says the new dungeoneers would have a lot of issues knowing what is up and down with Thediem, which I see as a bit of foreshadowing with Talk dealing with Thediem’s new domain. I am glad to see that Vanta (love the nod to vanta black!) is being cooperative with all of the positive influence they are getting from the Southwood.
