Khenal
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Chapter One-Hundred Forty-Eight
🕑 Added 2023-04-25 02:21:58 +0000 UTCI don’t know how they declare winter officially here, but I’m willing to call it with the first snow in town, which started about an hour before dawn. It’s not a very heavy snow, nor is it really sticking, but it’s there, so I’m counting it. And with winter officially-by-me here, it’s time to make sure I’m all adjusted for it, and to make sure the other plans will be able to handle it.
Under the ground, it’s like winter doesn’t even exist. It’s not like it snows down there. So I don’t think the plans to find that dungeon and kick its butt will be slowed much, at least not directly. Miller wasn’t wrong about saying I’ll need mana to actually apply boot to butt, and lessened delving above ground would hinder that.
I’m not seeing too much dropoff just yet, but it can’t help but lessen at least some… right? While on the one hand, there’s not a whole lot else for people to do in winter, on the other hand, I wouldn’t want to try to have an encounter in a foot or more of snow. My snakes have already transitioned to being mostly inside, with the ravens and crows swapping in for yard duty when they’re not out on expedition on the surface.
My herbalism nodes on the surface are slowing down, but I’m actually surprised to see they’re even still working at all. On Earth, they’d be dead and drying on the surface and either wintering in their roots, or waiting for volunteer seeds to sprout in the spring. But they’re all still doing their thing, if a bit slower. I think it’s because the fruitbats have been stepping up their game.
I was all resigned to letting Tiny’s webbing secure the maze wall near the exposed timber nodes, but my bats are working around the clock to nurture new hedges even with the gentle snowfall. They’re also paying extra attention to the herbalism nodes and even the timber, ensuring they keep doing their thing properly. It’s kinda weird to see them flying around and active in the daytime, too, but they seem content enough to work harder in the winter.
Further abroad, I’ve been peeking through Honey’s and Leo’s eyes, checking up on them as they travel, and it’s a lot snowier out in the mountains and forests. I can see why the Southwood isn’t expecting much in the winter to happen. He doesn’t even need strong denizens with the help of good old general winter guarding his borders. Still, with the progress my two scions are making, I should probably get Teemo ready to head that way and get the shortcuts rolling, too. I don’t know exactly how long he can make them, nor how short, but he doesn’t seem too worried about it.
I think he’s more worried about what Yvonne, Ragnar, and Aelara are planning to do. They’ve been mostly wandering around in the woods outside, doing ranger things. What with winter being here now, they didn’t want to go out too far, even if they’re pretty confident that Yvonne doesn’t have to constantly come back to my territory to keep herself perked up.
After hearing Aranya’s story, though… well, what do you think a group of adventurers is going to do when they hear a story like that? Especially about one of their friends and technical party members? Yeah, they want to help track the dungeon down, even if they understand they can’t assault it on their own. They’ve even managed to claim a standing quest from the Office of Dungeon Affairs. Apparently, they are always looking for new dungeons, which is technically what they’ll be doing.
Right now, everyone is in the public war room, looking over the maps that are available. The Adventurer’s Guild somehow have a map of the depths, but it’s basically a bunch of faint scribbles on faded leather. Even the basic topography is in question, considering the quake I triggered to get access with my downward expansion, way back when.
Ragnar idly toys with his beard as he looks over the maps, and Aelara looks rather frustrated as she tries to match them with my own maps from the expeditions. The elf sighs and stands, stretching her back with a grunt.
“I don’t think we’re going to get much use out of the old map. It doesn’t show anything remotely like the underswamps, nor the aquifer lakes. It might connect through one of the various cracks, but…”
Yvonne sighs and finishes. “But that’s not the way Aranya got here. She came through the swamps, at least enough to attract a scythemaw. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of those cracks eventually can weave its way to this dungeon through other tunnels, caverns, and tubes, but it’s not the way she got here.”
My kobold inhales like she wants to apologize, at least that’s how she looks, but Ragnar cuts her off. “It’s nae yer fault yer no cragwalker, lass. They’d have a tough time retracin’ their steps after what ye went through, too.”
She still looks more than a little ashamed that she can’t help more, but at least she doesn’t try to continue with her apology for something that’s not her fault. Instead, she takes a calming breath before speaking.
“Where should we start, then? Just go through the underswamps and explore from there?”
“That’s probably our best option,” admits Yvonne, to the nods of the other two.
“It’s not the perfect start, but it’s at least a start,” confirms Aelara. “We’ll need to supply ourselves for this, too. It’s pretty simple to forage in the woods, but I don’t think any of us has much experience finding food in the depths?”
“Only some. I might keep m’self fed, but I wouldnae want t’ bet on even tha’ much,” says Ragnar, and nobody looks too surprised at that. If even the dwarf doesn’t think he could scrounge up much food, they’ll probably want to bring everything they plan to eat, instead of planning to find something in their travels.
“We should be able to at least resupply without too much issue,” speaks up Aranya. “The spiderkin are working on setting up a scouting outpost past the underswamps. I’m certain we can get at least basic supplies from them to make our own scouting forays.”
Yvonne nods at that idea. “That would also make it a lot easier for us to give our reports, and update everyone’s maps. Thediem will probably have the most accurate ones, but we can help with our own contributions.”
“Aye, an’ we c’n fight through things easier’n th’ bats.”
“Even if we won’t be quite as sneaky as they can be,” says Aelara with a small giggle. “They can find the routes to sneak information, we can focus more on the routes that will let Thedeim attack.”
My Voice makes his presence known by speaking up, having been listening and silently trying to not worry about them scouting underground. “Don’t forget that, with my shortcuts, the Boss can even use the small cracks to send big attacks,” he points out as he hops onto the table. He looks over the maps, like he hasn’t been eavesdropping the entire time.
“Yes, but you’ll be busy with the Southwood for a while, securing the routes that way first. Besides,” points out Yvonne, “the other dungeon will have to use more traditional movement to get its troops mobilized against us. While we can probably avoid provoking that kind of reaction, it will surely notice something is amiss well before we’re trying to batter its walls down and take its core. We’ll need to have those passages scouted anyway.”
“Sure, but… the Boss can scout those, too.”
Yvonne smiles at him, and pats his head. The two are close enough that she can recognize when he’s trying to keep her safe. “We’ll be fine, Teemo. With Aelara’s earth magic and Ragnar’s dwarvish senses, the only ones doing any ambushing will be us. And if something goes wrong, we’ll have Aranya to patch us up after.”
Teemo grumps at being shot down like that. He pouts for a few moments and sits, folding his arms. “I still don’t like it…”
Ragnar and Aelara try to hide their chuckle/giggle respectively, while Yvonne’s smile softens. “I know, Teemo, but this is what I do. You’re not the only one allowed to take risks to help people.” Her soft smile shifts to a cheeky smirk. “And I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you’ve been alive, so I know what I’m getting into.”
Teemo holds his little sulk for a few more seconds before finally relenting with a sigh. “Fine… yeah, you’re right. It’s what you do. I just don’t want to be missing the next time someone needs to jump in front of a sword.”
Ragnar grins at that. “That’s my job, ye little weasel. But be assured: we’ll be turnin’ tail and fleein’ back home if there’s any lifedrinkin’ around.” He confidence slips as he glances towards Aranya. “Will there?”
Aranya looks uncomfortable. “I honestly don’t know. I don’t think so, but that does sound like the kind of enchantment it would want to pursue. Hopefully it won’t be an issue, at least for now. If we come across anything actually familiar to me, we should immediately return to Lord Thedeim and have Him investigate.”
Everyone easily agrees to that notion. The very best case of making contact is spotting them without being spotted. The cases get a lot worse pretty quickly after that. The pale elves and dwarves are not exactly going to throw a welcome party for the group if they catch them. And if they do… well, the party will probably be the appetizers for the dungeon.
Comments
SciGuy75
Imagine the shock an opposing dungeon would experience if it watched someone counter its lifedrinking with minimal effort. Thanks for the chapter!
Karait
Mmm apetizers
Thank you for the chapter
Raufgar
Thanks for the chapter~!
Geoff Urland
Just going to drop to whole god thing for now, are you Thedim? 😆
Herakilla
Thanks for the chapter!
Kindred
amazing chapter
