Khenal
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Chapter Three-Hundred Thirty-Nine
🕑 Added 2025-03-07 02:17:41 +0000 UTCTeemo doesn’t elaborate for the three, mostly because I’m still deciding exactly what to do. He just thanks them for me and sends them on their way, letting me focus on what I actually expect and can accomplish with some vigilantism.
It’s definitely something to be really careful about. The Punisher or Rorchach might be cool in comics, but trying to do that in reality doesn't end well for anyone. Any sort of interference in criminal activity will need to be non-lethal. Luckily, my denizens specialize in that.
On the other hand… that could be a trap. I doubt the Earl is Machiavellian enough to expect me to send my own denizens out to stop anyone trying to intimidate the delvers, but I do think he’s smart enough to abuse technicalities to try to get some kind of leverage on me. And with how poorly I think his initial plans are going, he’d probably leap at the chance to get any leverage.
As I understand it, the definition of a murderous dungeon is one that sends out hostile expeditions. I doubt most people would consider stopping crime to be hostile, but it’d still be attacking people outside of my territory. The local ODA would probably ignore him, but I don’t know how resistant the organization at large would be. The Earl could even have enough clout and other leverage that it wouldn’t even matter if he’s talking out his rear. I might be a big deal locally, but I doubt the ODA as a whole would want to bother arguing with the Earl if he’d cost them more money than I make them.
There’s hardly social media here, but being a propagandist is probably the second oldest profession. I could probably have plausible deniability, but in the court of public opinion, that won’t get me far. While Fourdock wouldn’t buy it, I dunno about the kingdom at large.
So what else can I try? My dwellers? Oof… that feels like a recipe for disaster, but can it be managed without me feeling like a scumbag? I could give select ones the best composite armor and have a fox follow them around with an illusion. I could probably make it look like it’s just one person thwarting the criminals, when it’s actually dozens. I… don’t like that idea. It feels too much like using them like my personal army. I might literally need to do that some day, but I don’t think that day is today.
What about a different tactic? Instead of being shady vigilantes, what if the dwellers start being a neighborhood watch, wandering the streets to keep an eye on everyone? That makes me feel a lot less like a scumbag, but I’m pretty sure that’d be a big mistake.
I already apologized to Rezlar when people mobilized to protect the town from Hullbreak and his desperate hurricane gambit. It all worked out well in the end, but it’d be a lot more difficult to argue it was an accident if I do it a second time. And with the Earl around, it’d probably be the easiest excuse he could hope for to take over Fourdock directly.
I could try to be a bit less direct, instead encouraging friendship between the dwellers and the delvers. They’re already on pretty friendly terms, but I think they’re more business friends than hanging out friends. More than fine to do business with, have some small talk about the wife and kids, but not the kind of friendship to invite to a drink or to hang out at your home. Encouraging closer friendship is definitely a good thing, and I’ll probably try to have Aranya encourage that anyway, but I don’t think it’d help secure the casual delvers.
For one, that kind of friendship takes a while to solidify, even when starting from a positive place. From what Noynur and them were saying, there could be the first visits as early as tonight, and certainly before a week is done. And even if they do all become fast friends, they’re not going to have sleepovers every night. There’ll be vulnerable times, and the criminals can strike then. They wouldn’t even need to spy on the delvers to know if it’s a good time. If they hear more than one voice, they could just move on and come back tomorrow.
Hmm… what else can I do? I can’t attack directly, and trying some indirect methods seems like a bad option, too. I chew on it for a few minutes, turning it over, stepping back and examining assumptions, looking for other angles to come at it.
And I get an idea. I don’t need to attack. So far, the image I’ve given the Earl is a dungeon that is a lot less subtle than it might think it is, with my ravens staring at his forces whenever they show up. Hopefully, he doesn’t know about the sneaky foxes, and I can use this new idea to help keep away suspicion. If he thinks I’m pretty overt, he won’t be as worried about covert things like my foxes.
I poke Poe with new patrols and stations for the ravens, wanting them to follow the casual delvers home and have some hanging out in their neighborhoods, as well as to ring the territory of the criminals. If I’m deliberately not subtle and make sure the criminals know I’m watching, that should throw them off their game.
And I won’t even need to attack with the ravens. They can caw “No!” and cause a racket, alerting not only whoever the potential intimidation target is, but getting the attention of everyone around. It’s a lot more difficult to make an offer someone can’t refuse when there’s an unkindness of ravens causing a racket and drawing attention.
It’d probably still stick in the craw of the criminal boss, but then it’ll be his problem to try to figure out how to retaliate. If the shady plot is dragged out into the open, the actual guards will get involved, even without the civilians trying to get tough. Retaliating against them wouldn’t help, and would probably bring down the guards pretty hard. And with the watchbirds around their territory, it’ll be pretty obvious that I know where their base is. I again wouldn’t even need to attack them directly. If I just make a circus of their home with denizens just running around and existing, it’d just make sense that the guards would have to come take a look.
If they want to be subtle, I can strike back with the opposite of subtlety. A bit of scrutiny would ruin them, but I’d hardly even notice. Attention is good advertising for me, and I doubt public opinion would sour if I exposed some big crime ring.
Poe is quick on the uptake with the new expedition needs, and soon the birbs take wing. I take a look at the bird spawner to see if I can handle making it into a lair, but it’d be pretty tight without dipping into the ally fund. Everyone seemed to be fine with me taking some for the other lairs, but I don’t want to push it, nor do I want to get used to relying on it. I don’t want to get into debt that I can’t pay off.
The current spawns will be fine for now. With the combination of wolves and foxes, as well as some living vines, rockslides, and bees, I’m not in any danger of getting blindsided by an army or anything. In fact, speaking of bees, I poke Poe once more to get some bees into the crime base, too.
They don’t need to be subtle. In fact, it’d probably only help the ruse if they are pretty easy to spot. Cappy is working on infiltrating with his mycelia, and my bees can help with some spores to spread, too. While the criminals are dealing with bees, they’ll certainly make some kind of secure room with countermeasures for them. And while they’re distracted by bees, Cappy can quietly infest what they think is a secure area, letting him get all the juicy secrets they’re trying to hide.
It’s not hard to get Teemo to check in with Violet and Onyx to coordinate on this. Violet is taking her part as informant seriously, and is happy to get a little helping hand. Just because she’s the best suited for this, doesn’t mean I can’t give her some help.
I also learn that the criminals did, in fact, block their sewers. They did a good enough job that Violet’s sewer expansion doesn’t actually count their territory, which is surprising. Or maybe not. If sewer dungeons are common, and criminals like to keep their bases as secure as possible, they probably figured out long ago how to keep any expansions from easily taking over. Violet could specifically expand into the area they own, but with how small it is in relation to the rest of the sewers, there’s not much point.
Cappy is slowly working his way through their barricade, but having some spores on the inside will speed things up significantly for him, so he’s eager to get the help of some bees, too. I also make sure Violet knows I’m proud of how she’s doing, not just in the spying, but in dealing with the sewage and her starting cave with the bunnies.
She’s getting along great with delvers. That one tailor with the two swords apparently really likes working with rabbit pelts, so he’s a regular for her, too. Our super serious spy meeting devolves into just chatting and comparing notes, with me giving her some advice and her showing off her accomplishments.
It’s enough to make me want to invent a fridge to stick them on.
Comments
Blue Trooper
"It's enough for me to make a fridge to stick them on" AWWWWWWW You pull on my heart so much!!! ❤️
D.Kaiser
No matter what, this definitely provides a new opportunity to better understand the universe that Thediem resides within... It will be interesting to hopefully learn about the skills and abilities of the thieves vs the perceptions of the ravens ( How well can the thieves hide themselves both in the daylight and at night? Are the ravens able to track the thieves directly or do they end up tracking the minimal anomalies caused by the passing invisible thieves? Are new alchemical means created to give ravens vision outside the visible spectrum? How, at night, do the ravens bring light to the nefarious activities with the darkness?) Always excited to read the next chapter! Thank you.
Ben Bass
TYFTC! Awww, Thedeim is feeling very paternal with Violet, that is so cute! I love the idea of being overt with non-violent ways, very on brand. Thieves like working in the dark and not being obvious, anything that can draw attention to them and what they are doing will definitely cut down on their effectiveness.
Ch W
Thanks for the chapter. Zorro the Fox scion + Rezlar the underestimated noble-mayor swashbuckler = Zorro 2.0? Rezlar the underestimated noble-mayor swashbuckler + Miller the over-competant butler = Green *Hornet 2.0? What would we have if we combine all 3? *Edit the hero name
Ethan Barrow
TFTC!! I love the idea of just being an overt oaf to mess with crime.
architectural engineer
omg what if he does make some sort of batman type vigilante that would fit the theme. you know with the whole no kill rule. I still think it could happen
Gregs_Crow
NOOOOOO. BATMAAAAN
chris Bell
Awesome content once again leaving us all with a desire for more
SnowReason
Rorchach -> Rorschach
SnowReason
But if the majority of the town knows they belong to Thediem it doesn't matter as he has a good enough rep at this point to get benefit of the doubt. Additionally whatever guard classes exist probably would be able to sus something going on with the shady thief area.
LinaBoeckwurm
You don't need a fridge.... Just a wall and some paint! Maybe hire some artists! Show off her accomplishments!
Tsume Eiranis
Thank you for the chapter
mly85lc
That's a good aproching to crime part, but if they get petty and don't care adout the consequences crimnals can just. 1. bring it open fist fight, and claim self befencse afterwards. 2. attack raven, claim them as being nuicans and/or mistake them for normal raven. 3. target MC newly rises people. 4. claim theyry neighbour is victims of dungeons harassment. 5. start hunting ravens on night around city.
Juno Tubolino
Who would win, the criminal syndicate with backing from a notoriously corrupt & powerful Earl, or A couple dozen crows with noisemakers? Tyftc, I love when Thedeim gets to be a proud mentor -^^-
o0 hazzy 0o
I love how thedm is pretty much violets father figure
bioenthusiast
This almost reminds me of beware of chicken, violet is going to think he is some old master then one day he going to be like “ yeah I’m only a year older btw”.
Herakilla
Thanks for the chapter!
13L00D13ANE
You misspelled 'best', my guy
Lord-Siver
Thank you for the meal" It was as delicious as ever! nothing more crime repelling than literally a god breathing down your neck XD I think the thieves guild will lay low for a while XD
Jacob
So no Rezlar vigilanteism. . . Sad. But I do really like this idea. Being really overt about watching out for crime is fantastic. And the birds are very much clever enough to recognize people who are causing problems. I'd like the local crime boss to come out and introduce himself. Make him into an antihero. Don't have any of those that I'm aware of. Yet at least.
Starfall20
No need for a Fridge. Make a Treasure Vault.
The_Racr1
Covering up covert missions with overt ones. Very similar to how sniper shots are concealed with machine gun fire.
Rick Delallata
The shift from quiet vigilante work to obvious watchers is hilarious
Durphymcbob
I mean a magic box will a cooling enchantment probably exists it seems simple enough, he can get fridge. :)
Vorquel
Violet is a good girl
Anthony Felscher
Awww... He's so proud of her!
