Khenal
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Chapter One-Hundred Fifty-Six
🕑 Added 2023-05-23 00:57:57 +0000 UTC______________
Tarl
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Tarl considers his report, brushing the feather of his quill against his cheek and not minding the ink staining his fingers. It’s not often he gets to update two dungeon reports at the same time, but he really should understand by now that things simply work differently around Thedeim.
At least the actual contents of the reports aren’t too out of the ordinary, if one ignores the dates. Violet is progressing slower than her mentor, thank the gods, but still at a rapid pace compared to other dungeons. Her tentative designation as a toybox is still valid, which is nice. He could see the gremlin scion wanting to fight when he was there, but she looked less like a killing machine, and more like a child wanting to show what she’s learned.
He’ll have to keep an eye on Violet, if only to ensure delvers understand the implied rules of delving. His gut says she’ll stay as a toybox, but have a single chest, or maybe a small section of her territory, where delvers will actually need to fight to get whatever goodies she has. Perhaps she’ll lean hard into various metals. It’d help explain why Thedeim expanded and looks to be focusing on that himself.
Thedeim’s lava tubes will be interesting. Mythril and orichalcum will draw miners from across the kingdom once spring returns, as well as adventurers to guard them. While he expects Karn’s guild will have enough that can handle magma wyrms for the demand over winter, he doubts he’ll have enough for the influx in spring. In fact, the appropriate adventurers might be more occupied with the miners in the caverns. They might shift their operations to the tubes once they learn of the bounty of rare metals in there…
He shakes his head, banishing his wandering thoughts. Those details are for the adventurers and miners to sort out. His job is to provide the information they need to make the decisions, not try to guess what they’ll actually do with it. He’ll need to pay attention to the local smiths and see if he can get an upgrade for his daggers, though. His steel ones are the highest of quality, but mythril should help him hone his techniques better.
He sighs and closes his eyes for a moment, setting the quill down. He needs to focus. If he can’t stop his mind from wandering, there’s probably not much else to add to the reports. He holds that in the forefront of his mind as he opens his eyes once more, and checks the reports for mistakes. After a few minutes, he nods to himself, satisfied.
Thedeim’s new expansion is marked as hazardous, partially because of the potential threat the elementals and wyrms entail, but also because the specifics of the area are likely to change rapidly. The adventurers and even the townsfolk at large are still careful around Thedeim’s new projects, but they also trust him enough to take a closer look than might be strictly safe. With how remote the expansion is, at least the only ones likely able to get down to look will be ones experienced enough to tread carefully.
Violet’s expansion is also interesting, as is her apparent Secret Metalworks. He’ll have to wait and see what she actually cooks up. If Thedeim is helping her, Tarl isn’t even going to attempt to guess. He might somehow give Thedeim ideas, and that dungeon has enough of those already.
Before his mind can wander to what absurdity Thedeim could get up to, the door to the guild opens and a catkin enters. Tarl is drawing a blank on his name, but watches as he introduces himself to Telar.
“You guys want information on the local dungeon, right?” he asks, and Telar nods from behind her desk, and motions for the catkin to take a seat.
“We do, though our inspector just finished an inspection of Thedeim and Violet just the other day. If you have information you believe to be more recent, however, I can still pay coin for it.”
He takes a seat as she talks, and Tarl can tell he feels less confident in a payout after hearing that. “Ah. Well, I had a quest for Seaside Forge. Uh, Hrunter will probably be by soon, come to think of it. I just turned it in with him. Anyway, he wanted me to scout out the deepest sections of the dungeon to check on a feeling he had. I didn’t know the way down that deep, since most of my clients prefer the manor or the caverns at most.
“I spotted the new scion, peeking up through the dirt in the yard, and asked her for directions. She seemed pretty shy, but also seemed to agree to help guide me. I fought a bunch of various things on the way down, nothing out of the ordinary, until she led me out of the dungeon. Then into the other dungeon, the small one?”
Telar nods. “Violet, tentative toybox designation. She won’t receive her proper one until she gains a Voice.”
“Oh. Well, she has a little gremlin scion with a bladed gauntlet, and she wanted a fight. Not like she wanted to kill me, but she wanted to fight. Does that make sense?”
Telar smirks. “Not especially, but I understand what you mean. So you and the scion did battle?”
He shakes his head. “No. Well… yes, but first, I showed her a basic stance, attacks, and blocks with her gauntlet. It was maybe thirty minutes of training before we sparred. I killed her at the end, and the dungeon… Violet? Violet didn’t seem upset about it. Then the wyrm scion, Thedeim’s new scion is a wyrm, by the way. The new scion lead me to the tubes.
“I spotted a mythril and orichalcum node and gathered a bit, and I also saw a bunch of ants in there. Some were making their hills out of weird gray dust, but others were making them out of metals. Those ants looked a lot bigger than the dust ones, too.”
Tarl’s eyes widen at that and he gets up. Telar’s eyes follow him as he approaches, and she stays quiet to let him speak up.
“Crucible ants already?”
The catkin turns to look at the other elf. “Is that what they are? I haven’t heard of them before.”
Tarl nods and stands beside Telar’s desk. “They’re uncommon in our kingdom, but many dungeons in the dwarven holds have them. Their warrior-smiths will often specialize in fighting them, giving them access to high-purity metals without needing to pay a smelter or smelt it themselves. Are you a smelter?” he asks, curious about the catkin.
He shakes his head. “Technically, I suppose, but I’m a Steeldancer by class. I only have some mining and smelting skills to help pay the bills. Metal affinity makes it a lot easier to gather and purify.”
Tarl nods at that, and eyes the catkin up and down. Well-used yet well-maintained gear, implied to be a solo adventurer, strong enough to delve deep in Thedeim, careful and smart enough to engage the dungeon himself and achieve at least a working relationship. He nods to himself and holds out his hand.
“I’m Tarl, Inspector for this branch.”
The catkin shakes his hand pleasantly. “I’m Berdol, solo adventurer.”
“Have you considered a change in career, Berdol?”
The catkin shrugs. “Not really? I like doing the odd jobs and quests in the Adventurer’s Guild, gives me the freedom to mostly do what I want. Why?”
“Have you ever considered becoming an Inspector?” asks Tarl, and he can see Berdol almost laugh the suggestion off. The elf’s honest look makes him pause and consider for a few seconds.
“What all does it entail? And will I still be able to delve? Can I be in both guilds at once?”
Tarl smiles at that. A proper inspector needs to think things through, yet also be prepared to take advantage of new situations. “You’d apprentice under me, and yes, you can still delve. You can even remain part of the Adventurer’s Guild until your apprenticeship is finished, though you’ll have to take a few oaths to not share information for free. Trade secrets and so on, I’d expect Karn to get an oath or two out of you for similar secrecy about his business, too.”
“Why me?”
Tarl takes a few seconds to consider that question, before answering. “Do you know how many people ever even attempt to communicate with a dungeon or its scions?”
Berdol looks slightly taken aback at the question, and a frown slowly develops on his face as he thinks about it. “...not many? I don’t think I personally know anyone who has.”
“Yet you did. Not only did you try, not only did you succeed with the rather personable Thedeim without the benefit of addressing his Voice, but you also were able to communicate with Violet’s gremlin scion, too. There’s more to being an inspector than being strong enough to delve solo. You also need to be able to communicate with the dungeons and their scions, to be able to recognize they have needs and wants, even if you don’t know what those needs specifically are.”
Berdol chews that information over for a few more seconds before smiling. “What’s the pay like?”
Tarl grins and prepares to answer, but is interrupted by the door to the guild slamming open.
In the doorway stands the hairiest dwarf Tarl has ever seen. A thick leather apron and rugged pants attempt to hold the tide of red hair at bay, and thick leather gloves cover hands that only *probably* don’t have much hair on them. A bulbous nose sticks out above the braided mustache, and beady eyes perch above that, though they are wide and wild at the moment.
“Orichalcum and mythril! It has orichalcum and mythril!”
Perhaps Tarl should have put some thought into how the local smiths would react, after all.
Comments
SciGuy75
It is good he expanded in winter, these new nodes could spell a lot of trouble! To think Thediem plopped them in just to experiment, judging from the reactions his mana supply might be more ridiculous than he realizes.
Alex Turff
The end of the 4th paragraph feels like it needs rewording, confusing atm. Also "the adventures and even the townsfolk"... Shouldn't that be the other way round?
