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DC/RH BK II, CH 24: Additional Measures
🕑 Added 2023-02-10 00:05:09 +0000 UTCChapter Twenty-four: Additional Measures
"We have to retaliate!" Proudsprout was yelling. "We can't just let this go unanswered."
Other faeries murmured their approval but before this proposal could gather momentum, Thorn jumped in.
"No! That is the last thing we should do!" he argued. “I believed we would have more time. At this time of the year, Duke Galronde is usually off in the Fae realms. By the time he returned, we would have grown enough that the Empire and the Adventurer’s Guild would shield us from his wrath.”
“I was wrong!” he admitted bitterly. "The Duke is here now and as Fae of his territory, our demands could be interpreted as a threat of secession. His coming here today was a warning. Next time, he could show up in person. We need to negotiate, not retaliate."
The dungeon fae were gathered at the bottom of the faeriethorn tree, the logical gathering place for a meeting like this. They were worried, frazzled and fearful. None had expected that Duke Galronde would come at them the way he did. Mothers clutched their newborn children to their chests as they listened in stunned horror to the recollections of the sprites who had faced the fae lord and Proudsprout, the usually even-tempered sprite was practically trembling. Even after the dungeon core's treatment, he remained high-strung and on edge. Thorn cursed himself for having put his people in this situation. Luckily, his master was there to help out.
“Thorn is right. Today’s events were merely a show of force. We shouldn't let that guide our actions or push our hands into making mistakes we might not recover from", the gold and ruby crystal told his people. "If it comes down to a fight we are unlikely to win.”
Oh, how it ranked Brandr to admit that. He did not actually believe he could not beat the Archfae, he just knew that it would a losing battle. The only to defeat such a figure would be to confront the fae lord with the full sum of his power. Such an act would expose him to the entire world. Even in the best post-victory scenario, the guild would simply board up his entrance and leave him to starve.
As a dungeon core, he was confined to his dungeon. It was the same with his power. The faerie duke held the advantage here. Not even a dungeon break would grant him permanent access to the surface world and to commit to such an action would make him an enemy of the entire Basilean Empire.
"We can't afford to go to war with the Duke", Brandr said in a tone that was almost as if he was reminding himself. "Our best bet is to tie the adventurers closer while we can. Flix, Arbour, Lindrea, the adventurers will be on the sixth floor any day now, wrap up your projects by the close of the day and move to the Seventh. That’s our top priority right now. That’s where we’ll make our mark.
"Bellwhispers, I am going to need you to get some sprites up on the upper floors. Lately, the surface folk have been making a beeline for the guardians and ignoring everything else. Draw some of them towards our elite. Put Bluecap on that. She’s proved good at it before."
Turning to his dungeon knight, Brandr continued, "In the meantime, Thorn I am going to need a draft of what you think Duke Galronde’s next move is and how today's events will affect our standing with the Adventurers' Guild. While you’re at it, put together a team to handle the negotiations he talked about."
Brandr continued to bark orders at his dungeon fae, assigning them tasks at a pace never before seen. Soon the entire faeriethorn buzzed like a bee hive as the sprites and various fae creatures went about their business. In his head, he cursed the Fae lord’s timing. Another month and he would have had the adventurer’s guild eating out of his palm. He still could but things could play out differently now that he had such a powerful entity looking over his shoulder. The way the faerie lord had stared up into his tribulation clouds… Brandr was under no illusion that the other entity hadn’t sussed something out. What that overly handsome prick probably overlooked, however, was that just as much as he looked into Brandr, Brandr had looked into him.
As he worked, the former Dao Lord found his heart beating with a strange measure of excitement. Before today, the greatest threat his dungeon had faced was the Warden and his new posse. Judging their strength by the standards he was used to, he rated them as the equivalent of Nascent Soul cultivators. They were dangerous but not really a threat to a world god, not even one whose cultivation had been savaged like his was. Duke Galronde was something markedly different; a fully realised Dao Immortal. He was practically a living incarnation of his professed path.
'To think someone that powerful is merely a greater power in the Basilean Empire", Brandr mused to himself. "I thought my safety was all but guaranteed with my ascension to the rank of World God. This world is a lot more developed than I first believed. This calls for drastic measures."
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Brandr called up his dungeon management panel. He had planned to take things easy and slowly ease the people of this world into his way of doing things but he was running out of time. Of his nine floors, he had three preparatory floors; trials intended to weed out the unworthy. A fourth floor; a test of will and his first major death trap. Then came the fifth floor, a world of fire floor guarded by a facsimile army that needed both strength and tactics to defeat.
It wasn't always meant to be this way. The fifth floor in particular had changed greatly from how Brandr first envisioned it. Not long after his ascension, when the world proclaimed him a dungeon god, he had a half-formed idea to turn his domains into dungeon floors. This would have had the added benefit of greatly amplifying his growth. As a world god, his essence reserves were secondary to his cultivation. His power was primarily determined by his enshrined laws, the size of his internal world and the power of his inhabitants.
The idea was born then. Four floors of fire, wind, metal, and water held in the space of his dungeon. However, that plan would have to be modified when the promotions started. As more and more of his dungeon monsters transformed into forms that favoured his enshrined laws, he realised that maybe floors devoted to his so-called divine domains were not what he needed. As a Dao Lord, Brandr had mastered more laws than were currently enshrined in his world and he had insights into dozens more. Why not use his floors to further enlighten his inhabitants and even his visitors?
So he started anew. Having already started with a fire floor and aiming to do things right, he continued with the elemental cycle. His new dungeon plan called for fire, wind, aether, earth, and water.
It was the perfect way to introduce his abilities to the adventurers in a way that would not spark fear or undue concern. Just as a precaution, however, the dungeon core planned to prey on their greed by providing the with skills. Having learned how precious such things were from Thorn and seen how effective they were on his sprites. Brandr resolved to give the adventurers a small taste of just what he was capable of doing for them knowing that once word broke, he would have hundreds camping at his door. It was perfect and assured safety and mutual growth. Stronger, more numerous adventurers rooming his depths meant quicker growth for his dungeon and further restoration of his cultivation. Plus, no one would be stupid enough to slay the goose laying golden eggs.
However, just as he was preparing to ride the crest of the wave only now building, who else would come barging through but Duke Galronde, a name he had heard but not even considered until now. Once news of their conflict got out, only the bravest or stupidest adventures would come his way. No matter, he still had cards to play. He had intended to make this the tenth-floor reward but this was as good a time as any to release it.
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The Eighth Floor of Brandr’s dungeon was a stark contrast to the ones that came before it. For one, it wasn’t an expansive and beautiful natural landscape. It was relatively small comparatively speaking, less than five kilometres long and only about three wide. Even more surprising is that at the centre of it, like a giant, ugly pit, an abandoned open quarry mine.
As you approach the site, you are struck by the stark contrast between the rugged, barren landscape of the quarry and the surrounding hills, dotted with the crumbling ruins of old buildings and mines. The quarry itself is a massive pit, surrounded by steep cliffs that drop down to the bottom, where chunks of rock and gravel lie scattered about.
If you ignore the quarry and walk around its lip, you will come across the ruins of the old mining town that surrounds the quarry. The buildings here are made of stone and wood, and they are in varying states of decay, with some still standing tall and others reduced to piles of rubble. You can see the outlines of the streets, the remains of old wells and wellsprings, and the foundations of houses and shops.
Despite what looks to be years of neglect and weathering as well as maybe a monster attack or two, you can still see the imprint of the lives that were lived here. You can imagine the hustle and bustle of the town, with miners coming and going, merchants and shopkeepers selling their wares, and families raising their children. The ruins are a reminder of the people who lived and worked here, and of the industry that once thrived in this remote and rugged corner of the world.
You could also ignore the ruins and follow any of the paths that lead down into the pit. If you do, you will undoubtedly be shocked by the scale of the operation. The quarry is several hundred metres deep and stretches out for acres in every direction. The walls of the pit are crisscrossed with crude mining roads, where carts and horses would have carried out the extracted rock and minerals.
At the bottom of the pit, you will find a couple more ruins. some abandoned mining equipment, several upturned carts and a few piles of stone and crystal. the star of the attraction, however, is the ominous cave dug into one of the walls. It glows softly with an ethereal blue light and every so often, condensed streams of mist-like mana wafted out of it.
Lying in wait in that cave is the Eighth Guardian of Brandr's dungeon. The creature is an absolutely gigantic tortoise nearly four metres high and six wide. Seemingly deep in a meditative trance, the guardian is in tune with the forces of nature, as if it were a living, breathing embodiment of the world's power and beauty. The most eye-catching feature of this tortoise, however, is its bejewelled shell. The base of the shell is a solid, durable layer of tortoiseshell, but the outer layer is a layer of shimmering, multi-faceted crystals. The crystals catch the light and reflect it back, creating a dazzling display of colour and brilliance.
If you are lucky to be in the cave with it at this very moment, you just might see the symbols on one of its shell pieces change as Brandr changes its loot table.
