Khenal
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Chapter Three-Hundred Sixty-Two
🕑 Added 2025-05-27 01:44:39 +0000 UTCTarl heads off to the ODA, but not before Teemo makes him promise to come to the tree for the welcome party later. The birds disperse, having had their fun and now needing to return to their duties for me and for Hullbreak. Ragnar and Aelara decide to tag along with Yvonne to the tree, the trio plying my Voice with questions.
“So, the tree itself is actually two trees in a close symbiosis,” he explains, riding Yvonne’s shoulder as they casually stroll. “The trunk and branches are a modified yew, which Boss really liked for the branch structure.”
Yvonne nods at that. “It’s also excellent for making bows, though with your take on them, I don’t know how much longer that will be the case.”
Teemo nods and continues. “And the leaves are a modified willow. The Yew handles the structure and getting stuff from the ground, and the willow handles the sunlight for the both of them. It took Poppy a lot of tries to get it right in small scale, and I think the results of the large scale speak for themselves.”
“Aye,” admits Ragnar, appreciating the massive tree. “I’m n’ much fer trees, but she’s a beaut for sure.”
“I think I’m even more impressed with the forest, personally,” says Aelara. They don’t have a good overview right now, but they got a good look a little earlier in the walk, and it seemed to really resonate with her. “How does he make that work?”
Teemo shrugs. “Yvonne can probably feel the mana flows, but Boss saves a lot of cost by moving heat around instead of just trying to get rid of it. He can take the heat out of the winter section to boost summer, and just a little more to make sure the temperatures are where they should be, relative to the outside. The winter wolves also help. They don’t have to do too much right now, but once summer rolls around, they’ll probably be put to work more.”
“Will the new scions be at the party?” asks Yvonne.
“They should be, yeah. Zorro probably will be popping in and out, but Titania, Poppy, and Goldilocks should all be able to leave their duties on hold for a couple hours. Everyone else should be there, too, including the antkin.”
“Ah’m lookin’ forward ta meetin’ ‘em,” declares the dwarf with a wide smile. “Ah’ve seen a few b’fore, bu’ they dinnae leave th’ Principalities much. Good diggin’ folk’re good folk in general.”
Teemo chuckles at that. “They’re all pretty nerdy, though yeah, they do still do a lot of digging. Their enclave is organized like a college, with the deans of each caste answering to the Headmaster from the workers. They had a pretty bumpy road to finishing their ascension, but they’re full dwellers now and are even accepting students for their fields of expertise.”
“What fields?” asks Aelara, clearly intrigued.
“Ranching, Alchemy, Medicine, Engineering, Enchanting. Lots of interesting things to learn, if any of those tickle your fancy.”
“Enchanting? I heard about a protection from Lifedrinking, do they have access to that?”
Teemo nods. “A bit late for Yvonne, but with any luck, she’ll be the last person to fall to that particular trick.”
The birdwoman smiles and rubs under Teemo’s chin. “It didn’t go all that poorly for me, but few are so lucky. How’s Aranya doing, now you’re a full deity?”
Teemo snorts. “She’s as busy as Boss, but she loves it. Giving sermons, helping people who need it, even assisting with class changes, which are a thing the Boss can do, apparently. It’s not easy, but he’s helped a couple people get on a path that better suits them. He even helped a hauler advance to a Teamster, which gives some taming capabilities.”
Yvonne quirks an eyebrow at that. “Taming? Interesting. Are they available to talk with? It sounds like an odd advancement for a hauler. Probably part of the reason it’s considered a dead-end class and nobody else had discovered the path forward.”
“Yeah, it’s another of Boss’ concepts. I don’t think it’ll be as dramatic a change as the Sage and Legionnaire, but you never can tell with him.”
The group chats more about what’s been going on, before eventually arriving at the base of the Tree of Cycles. The cathedral Sanctum is still under construction, but there’s plenty of room on the surface for everyone to gather, mingle, and have fun. While it’s mostly my enclaves in attendance, I see more and more of the ordinary citizenry of Fourdock mixing in as well.
If I had to guess, I’d say people carefully checked with the enclaves about the bird noise, and learned about the party at the tree. I’m hardly going to exclude the people of Fourdock, and they’re not going to turn down a chance for a party and to mingle with the enclaves. My dwellers don’t exactly shun outsiders, but with their homes often deep in my territory, a lot of Fourdock people haven’t had a chance to get to know them very well.
I let my focus meander through the gathering, drifting through countless conversations about countless things. This couples kids are looking to apprentice somewhere, that merchant’s profits are up, this one is down, did you hear what she said about him, the scandal, and so on. Near the tables, conversation tends more toward the food, and wondering if they can get the recipes. The ratkin gingersnaps are a big hit, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Larx gets offered some sort of deal to sell them.
The spiderkin are showing off their latest fashions, and I think they’re going to be getting more people wanting to buy clothes from them as well. Even my antkin are using the opportunity to network, with the various Deans making connections and encouraging people to enroll in the college. They’re still putting the finishing touches on the different curriculums, but they’ll have plenty of time for that later.
A lot of people are checking out the cathedral, too. The floor is being worked on, so there’s only so many who can take a look at once, but someone got the bright idea to use gravity and have people walk along the walls, so there’s impromptu tours going on as well.
Yvonne, Aelara, and Ragnar catch up with the adventurers at the party, and I even see Karn mingling and chatting. And over all of it, Aranya helps direct the flow of the party; filling hands with a drink or food, having a quick chat with someone or pointing them toward someone else they might like to speak with. She’s a great hostess, and she smiles and glances toward my core every so often, feeling my appreciation for all her work.
Eventually, Tarl returns, and he even has Telar and Berdol with him, along with Olander! I poke Teemo to go say hi, so he stops sneaking cookies and slips through a shortcut to greet the Dungeoneers.
“Hey! I never thought I’d see Telar out in the field like this!” he teases as he pops out onto Tarl’s shoulder. The elven woman simply smirks at him before answering.
“Inspector Tarl has graciously offered to shoulder some of my duties for the next several days, giving me the time to mingle.”
Tarl mouths ‘help’, which Teemo pretends to not see. “Ah, that’s nice of him! Have you guys been trying to get him up to speed on what the Boss has been up to?”
Berdol chuckles and shakes his head. “Are you kidding? Thedeim’s packet has exploded this spring, and it looks like he’s not slowing down. He has a lot of catching up to do.”
Tarl nods at that, dropping the helpless act. “It’ll probably be simplest to do a few delves to familiarize myself with the changes, before the three of us do a full inspection later.”
Olander nods as well. “I’m looking forward to it, especially if Thedeim upgrades the forest again soon,” he hints, earning a chuckle from Teemo.
“It’s on his to-do list. He wants to get the other delvers a bit more comfortable with fighting on the branches before he does the upgrade. They’ve been getting into the bad habit of fighting things they normally wouldn’t, so he wants to make sure they remember other dungeons aren’t as nice before he ups the difficulty. Most have gotten the hint, but they still need to get the levels before they’d be able to take advantage of another round of upgrades.”
“A fair point,” admits the Crown Inspector. “I may be a bit biased towards a more difficult delve, but it wouldn’t help the adventurers to move too quickly.”
“You guys mind if I steal Tarl away from you for a few minutes?” Teemo asks, with curious looks and shrugs all around.
“So long as it’s not a ploy to get him out of helping with the paperwork,” teases Telar.
“Nah, the Boss just wants his opinion on something.”
Tarl makes his exit from the group, and Teemo leads him down a temporary shortcut, explaining from his shoulder as they go. “So, Order asked Boss to help with something, by trying to break things.”
Tarl pauses his in tracks, looking concerned. “He actually wants Thedeim to break something?”
Teemo barks a laugh. “Yeah, Boss is a bit worried about that, too, but he’s still trying to do it. It has to do with the Harbinger and its type.”
“He’s… not trying to make his own least, is he?”
Teemo shakes his head. “No. He’s pretty sure that would require messing with stagnant mana or something. He’s willing to play with dangerous stuff if it could be useful, but that just feels like begging for something to blow up in his face. No, he’s making his own type. He’s also made something weird, and wants to see what you think about it.”
“And just me, not the others. I take it he wants it secret?”
Teemo shrugs. “Not necessarily, but he trusts you to know better than he does about what he should keep under his hat for now. Though Order would probably like to keep this hush-hush, come to think of it.”
Tarl sighs as they near the end of the shortcut. “I’ll keep that in mind. So what am I looking at?”
He steps out of the shortcut to stand deep within the roots of the Tree of Cycles, in a small hollow between roots and bedrock, where my non-elemental spawner sits. He locks onto it immediately, cautiously approaching as he tries to figure out exactly what he’s seeing.
“An elemental spawner…?” he mutters, and Teemo nods.
“An elemental spawner with no element, and so no spawns. He thinks the Maw must have done something like this, then the Harbinger did something else to allow for least and the whole line.”
Tarl gingerly examines the odd spawner. “And it has no denizens right now?”
Teemo nods. “None. It’s not like the options he gets for gravity elementals, either. The list for those is also blank, but there’s room to fill it. This one doesn’t have any options from his side.”
Tarl snorts and takes a step back for a moment. “Because of course he has a new affinity to be able to compare. That’s a strange affinity, by the way.”
“Yeah. There’s some terrifying things it can do at the extreme end, but the mana needed to do that sort of thing at least leaves it in the realm of nightmares instead of reality. Anyway, what do you think of the spawner?”
Tarl looks like he wishes he had his little note stone to record his thoughts, but he soon starts voicing them. “I think if he’s trying to make a new type, this seems like a good place to start. I also think he’s on the right track with the least and stagnation. I can see a lot of potential flows, but they fade like fog in sunlight when I try to look closer. I think if you get something to anchor your new type, you could guide the spawner around it. You should show Yvonne this, too. We were talking a lot about mana flows and how the snarls work. I think she could tell if a snarl could be used to shape this into a least spawner.”
Teemo hums at that as I think. I mentally trace a bit of the knot inside the spawner, and it’s like seeing the solution to a complicated problem. It’ll work. I don’t need to chase all the numbers down to know it’ll work. I’ll definitely tell Order about this, but I still want to make my own dinosaurs. Using a stagnant knot isn’t an option, though. I can tell a knot is a solution, but not the one I need.
“Boss says a snarl’ll work to make least, but he doesn’t want least. He’ll definitely let Order know about this, though.”
“Does he have any ideas for making something different, then? I agree with him not making least, but I can also tell there’s something else he can do with this.”
So I need some kind of… catalyst? Anchor? I need a something to make my new type. But how can I get a sample of something that doesn’t seem to exist? Hmm… I have an idea, but it’ll definitely take some time to get.
“He thinks he has something he can do, but not now. You want to head back to the party?”
Tarl eyes the spawner and slowly nods. “Yeah. I think I’ll tell the others he’s trying to make a new type, but withhold the details. It’s just the sort of crazy thing he’s known for.”
“Hah! That’ll probably make it easier when he starts asking about what he needs, too. For now, let’s head back. There’s not many of Larx’s cookies left, but I hid a few away. I’ll share with you, yeah?”
Tarl smiles as he heads into the shortcut. “If you don’t mind, I’d like an extra for Telar. It’s mostly a show for how unhappy she is about being saddled with all the paperwork while I was gone, but a cookie or two should help smooth things over.”
Teemo smiles from his shoulder. “You got it, pal.”
Comments
Draken09
Tarl is coping hard when it comes to Telar. There's no way to get fewer knocks than are already coming, only ways to make her extend it.
Ben Bass
TYFTC! I like how the snarl can be _a_ solution, and not the one Thediem wants to use. Now will he look to alter a chicken or something and use that as a catalyst for his spawner, or a tooth of something? This is going to be interesting to follow!
William Anderson
TYFTC! Loving all these hints and plans
Mommy Khaos
Well I reckon there probably hasn't been any dinosaurs, so there's no fossils. He'll probably need a mix of dragons, birds, and reptiles and go off from there.
Patrick
He just has to mod some birds.
Aqazix
Is Thedeim going after fossils?
Daniel Popov
The potential stagnation spawners should probably be addressed right now because there are probably a bunch of harbingers corrupting deep dungeons right now. Idk if The DM knows how urgent it is yet.
Ethan Barrow
TFTC!! Love the character interactions as always!
Herakilla
Thanks for the chapter! Teasel's finally back!
architectural engineer
i think he is going to use the undead as a catalyst and accidentally get humans
Demonlord
Thanks for the amazing chapter 😊 It's really good that tarl is back and I'm excited to see the dinosaurs spawn in the next few chapters
you wish
Most people hate Mondays. But I love Mondays and Thursdays cause i know a chapter is coming. It is like waiting for my favorite anime to release a new episode. But, I have literally paused Animes to read the new chapters.
Nomadtheus
Chapter 50 of book one
Nomadtheus
Maybe he can make a fake fossil or some thing, grind some bone, add a few minerals, little bit of DNA from the birds and gators, and set it all in a mold of mud and let it dry?
Geoff Urland
What chapter did Tarl first meet Teemo as the Voice? I want to go back and experience that part of their friendship
Art Dragon
Now that Tarl is back the thieve’s guild and the Earl’s plans are so cooked that they're burnt.
Lord-Siver
Thank you for the meal! It's as delicious as always! Man Tarl has a lot to catch up to XD Also TheDM has an answer to Order now but wants to see what he can break before telling Order XD Will probably be funny XD
Jacob
Don't you freaking dare touch my elf guy
Jacob
Hmmmmmm. Dragon bones mayhaps? What sort of things might work as a catalyst. . . And I don't think "Catalyst" is the right word. I think something akin to an ignition type reaction as opposed to a catalyst (which just lowers necessary energy for a reaction to happen-- causing reactions to happen faster)
Valbadora
Ah, man, all these nice buddy-buddy chapters make me feel like something bad is going to happen to Tarl. Nice chapter, though
Kebbitevoke -
Cookies make any paper pushing more tolerable, especially with Thediums antics. I wonder if Tarl has enough money to keep Telar happy?
chris Bell
Tarls back can't wait for a new delve catch all us up on all that has been done of late so much going on its crazy to keep track of I wonder how tarl is going to react to to earl and his shenanigans
Anthony Felscher
TFTC! I'm glad Tarl is back, and I'm sure Telar is too.
Juno Tubolino
I love Tarl & Teemo's dynamic, they're really just old buds now! -^^-
