by Allan Joyal
A Living Dungeon’s Madness
By Allen Joyal
Copyright 2018 Allan Joyal
Prologue: It was a Tiny Crack
The forest flowed around the twin pillars of granite. Several tendrils of vine clung to the sheer face, growing up the side of the mountain. The vines flowed towards the gap between the two pillars. A casual observer might not notice, but right at the ground there was a small dark gap between the two stones.
It appeared to be far too small for a human to crawl through, but the approaching creature was no taller than a ten-year-old boy. It used a crude, stone tipped spear to push the vines away as it crouched at the hole. The creature cocked its dog-faced head a couple of times and then rushed through the opening.
As soon as the kobold disappeared into the hole, two dozen more rushed out from the forest. They formed a wall between the hole and the forest. Half of the kobolds watched the hole while the others scanned the trees, listening closely to the wind. More kobolds crept out of the forest. Many were carrying pups or large baskets filled with berries and nuts.
The entire group was quiet. Even the young seemed to understand that the cave was important. The only sounds made by the group were quiet barks between two larger kobolds who wore vests made from some kind of animal hide. They appeared to be counting the others as they waited.
The guards were just starting to get restless when the scout returned. It barked out an alert and then rushed the line, heading directly for the two armored kobolds.
“Good, good,” the scout barked out in its strange language. “Cave small, cave dry. No others. Cave warm. Fire safe. We claim?”
The largest of the kobolds looked at its smaller companion. The companion stared back for a moment and then gave a faint nod of its head.
“Ours!” the largest of the kobolds shouted, holding up a large steel knife. The other kobolds started barking happily as the wall of guards broke up.
“Good find,” the smaller of the lead kobolds said. “Winter soon. Lands cold.”
“Food need,” the leader said. “Hunt tomorrow.”
One of the guard kobolds came out and moved to the leader. “Cave small. We dig?”
“Take four fours, find dig stone. Start dig,” the leader commanded.
The other lead kobold turned and watched as the young of the band were guided into the cave. “Gather more,” he commanded one of the basket holding kobolds.
The leader stepped back to watch. The scout who found this would have to be rewarded. His uncle had been sure that the Cut Paw Tribe would be wiped out when the snows fell. Now they had a good chance of making it through the winter.
“No guard,” his uncle complained. “We need.”
“Trap?” the leader suggested. “Tree land have many. We find?”
The uncle barked affirmatively. “Good, good. We do next sun. Feast next sun. Celebrate.”
The kobolds standing outside and preparing to enter the cave howled out merrily.
Deep under the mountain, far below the cave a large red gem started to glow. It was a faint light in a dark chamber, but it remained steady as on the surface the kobolds claimed the cave as a new home.
Chapter 1: The End of Summer
A young woman was standing next to a small shack made out of wood. The tiny building had a single door. Currently an armored guard stood in the entry looking up a mountainside.
“No one has climbed the mountain in a five-day,” the guard said. “And I hear that the Flame Vultures might pull out.”
“I hope they don’t,” the woman said as she looked up the mountainside. “I won’t say I know any of their members well, but I thought the dungeon had been kind to them.”
“It has been Salene,” a voice said from behind the young woman. She spun around to see Roquel standing there.
The experienced adventurer was standing just to the side of the pathway leading up the mountain. She looked at the young woman and smiled.
“What?” Salene asked. “I was just mentioning that I hope the Flame Vultures don’t leave.”
Roquel nodded. “I heard. But I’ve talked a bit with Ranold. He was the most senior after Bezztol. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the experience to handle the coming winter. The Flame Vultures are going to return to their main base at Dungeon Sea Spray. They’ll try to return next spring.”
The guard snorted. “Why are you upset? You have been delving with Gee’if and his group. Your group always gets priority when entering the dungeon.”
Salene looked a bit abashed. “I just don’t want to delve every day. And I know that Gee’if and Betrixy are hoping to slow down a bit. We’ve already got more than enough treasure to live here through the winter without making more trips.”
“Does Gee’if plan on stopping?” Roquel asked.
“He hasn’t said that to me,” Salene said. “The only thing he has mentioned was a worry that Faestari might still be upset after what my father did.”
“Why would I be upset with Gee’if for that?” a new voice said from just up the mountainside.
Salene and Roquel both turned to find the source of the voice. Faestari’s body seemed to rise up out of the granite. She still had the appearance of a teenage elf. She shook her head to dislodge a couple pieces of granite that had stuck to her long blond hair.
“What?” the guard asked.
“I asked why I’d be upset with Gee’if for what Mordlew did,” Faestari said firmly.
“The man did try to capture you,” Salene said carefully. “And he did claim to be my father.”
Faestari smoothly turned and looked at Salene. “And are you going to try to capture me? Was he really your father?”
“Why do you care?” the guard asked. “I thought all you wanted to do was kill anyone careless enough to enter your caves.”
Faestari whirled to look at the guard. “I don’t need the mana from adventurer’s deaths. I have more than I know what to do with. I could close the entrance and survive for a long time on what I gather from the creatures inside.”
“What?” the guard said as he stepped back into the shack.
“Faestari,” Roquel said calmly. “I think you are scaring the man.”
Faestari shook her head. “He’s outside my domain. And I wouldn’t hurt him anyways. I might not trust him, but he’s no threat to me.”
Faestari then turned to look at Roquel. “If I fear anyone in the town, it would be you.”
“Her?” Salene asked.
“We both watched Roquel summon a powerful spirit. And I remember that group. Thumas was counting on her to make sure they reached my heart so they could perform whatever dark ritual he had planned,” Faestari growled.
“He was going to destroy your heart,” Roquel said calmly.
“I don’t think he was,” Faestari said. “One of the wizards with him had a crystal. It was very similar to the one Mordlew had the day he died. I think he was working for some wizards who wanted to capture me.”
“Why?” Salene asked.
The guard started laughing. It was a deep roaring laughter. “Oh, you can’t be that naïve.”
“What?” Salene asked.
“Think about that fight when your father tried to capture her,” the guard said pointing at Faestari.
“My so called father,” Salene spat. “He found me wandering the market of the Trade City of Cisfro. He convinced me that living with him would improve my life.”
“It worked,” Faestari said quietly. “Now you have a man you love, something you enjoy and relative safety. I’d say he didn’t lie there.”
“He lied about everything else,” Salene said. “I think only Mardrew was his child. I know that Lewfeld was not his son. He admitte
d that to me shortly after marrying Koristal.”
“How is Koristal,” Faestari asked. “I know she repudiated her marriage, but she must have loved Lewfeld once.”
“She did,” Salene said. “But Lewfeld couldn’t break free from my father.”
Faestari shrugged. “Well, I can assure you that I’m not planning any changes to the upper dungeon. Or at least nothing dangerous.”
“Nothing dangerous?” Roquel asked.
“The kobolds have been thriving,” Faestari said with a smile. “Especially since Salene and Koristal always seemed to just wound the kobolds they faced. You do realize that they consider Koristal a friend.”
“She did try to heal the kobolds after the fights,” Salene said.
“Is that wise?” Roquel asked. “Kobolds are vicious monsters.”
“They don’t like humans much,” Faestari said. “But the tribe living in the dungeon aren’t interested in attacking you. They’ll protect their chambers in the dungeon. And I’m probably going to add a few chambers for them as they are thriving.”
“Beginning adventurers will like that,” Roquel said.
“They will always be welcome,” Faestari said. “Just make sure they understand that the deeper they go the more powerful the creatures living in the dungeon.”
“You don’t mind beginners?” Salene asked.
“Why would I?” Faestari asked back. “I already said that I gain more mana than I need from the creatures living within the caverns. The conflicts a few beginning adventurers get involved in won’t hurt me.”
“I thought dungeons hated adventurers entering,” Roquel said carefully.
Faestari threw back her head and laughed. “Where did you learn that? I won’t speak for any other dungeon, but unless you are indiscriminately killing every creature in the dungeon, or openly carrying magical implements that appear to be enchanted to capture or harm me, I won’t mind someone entering.”
“So you enjoy it?” Roquel challenged.
Faestari looked directly at Roquel. “I hate seeing my monsters die. I even dislike seeing most adventurers die. I know that my monsters actually welcome the fights. They gain power if they do kill someone. But I also have to say I doubt other dungeons feel the same about that.”
“Why?” Salene asked.
Roquel shook her head. “Think about what we do know about Faestari. She was raised as a human child rather than just waking up as a dungeon. She’s met people and talked to them. I can’t think of another dungeon that would come out to greet adventurers.”
Salene nodded and looked at Faestari. “I should ask why you are doing that?”
“Aylia had an errand to run,” Faestari said. “And right now there is no real maintenance to perform. So I thought I’d find out why no one had been climbing to the entrance.”
“They are all afraid of what you might do,” the guard said. He sounded panicked as he backed deeper into the small shack.
Faestari turned to look back at the deep scars on the mountainside. They were remnants of her fight with Mordlew. She frowned for a moment. “No one from the town was involved. I have already dealt with the ones who threatened me. Unless Dared starts harboring and helping wizards who are trying to capture me, I have no reason to attack anyone here.”
“But you’re a dungeon,” the guard said disbelievingly.
“Yes, but I’m not evil,” Faestari said. “My monsters will fight anyone who enters. That is how dungeons survive and gain power. I will support them in that. I strengthen them. I make sure they have food and water. I can even provide them with weapons if it is necessary. But I’ve decided I won’t directly attack any adventurer who isn’t an immediate threat to me.”
“But you get to decide that,” the guard said.
“She should,” Roquel said firmly. “It’s her power and her caverns. But why don’t you use traps?”
Salene looked surprised. “Yeah, I remember my father saying something about your mother being a trickster dungeon.”
Faestari looked down. “My mother never taught me. Remember my parents pretended that I was a normal girl. I only discovered that I was a dungeon after they sent me away to save me. The only real instruction I got was some stone shaping my mother showed me. My father did have me help in his farm plots. He kept telling me that I should take the time to plan out how I’d place each plant so I could get the most out of the space. I think he was trying to teach me about laying out rooms and chambers in a dungeon without telling me.”
Salene laughed. “Do you want to learn somehow?”
Faestari smiled sadly. “I think my mother would be proud of me. I have a dungeon that adventurers come to. I have the respect of many of those adventurers. There is even a town growing up just outside the range of my power.”
“The town is important?” Roquel asked.
Faestari frowned. Her eyes closed for just a moment. “Its one of the few lessons my mother emphasized. She even found a way to sneak it into some of the stories she told me when I couldn’t fall asleep. She taught me that having others fear you was dangerous because scared people might attack blindly. The town shows that people want to be near.”
“They just want the treasures found after defeating your monsters,” the guard said mockingly.
Salene jumped forward and wrapped up Faestari in a hug. “Is that why you aren’t angry at us?”
Faestari’s arms rose up. They wrapped around Salene as the dungeon avatar stood stiffly within the young adventurer’s embrace. “I still can’t understand why I’d be angry at anyone in the village.”
“But we didn’t stop Mordlew,” Salene said mournfully.
“I watched the meeting in the new inn. I heard that he had been exiled from the village by Dared. You could not have known just how far his obsession with capturing me ran. And part of me has to be thankful. His attack allowed me to free the spirit of my father. Because of that I know just how loved I was,” Faestari said calmly.
Roquel looked worried. “The more I talk to you, the more I wonder if I was right to participate in killing of dungeons.”
Faestari carefully pushed Salene away. The young adventurer looked a bit puzzled as she was moved. “What? Your body feels wrong.”
Faestari looked at Salene. “I just created this avatar from the stone. My main body is still deep inside the dungeon. As for Roquel’s comment. I’ve only ever talked to two other dungeons. I would never say they are anything like me.”
Roquel smiled sadly. “Still, in the past I always thought of dungeons as creatures of hate and magic. You don’t seem to hate.”
“Why should I hate?” Faestari asked. “Who should I hate? Mordlew did attack me, but I destroyed him in our fight. The people in the village may not completely accept me, but none has offered me any harm. The only group I can think I have reason to dislike would be the Kindred.”
“Why them?” Salene asked. “I mean, I know about them. My father talked to members of that group quite often. Why would you dislike them?”
“Before you arrived, I met with the avatar of another dungeon. In some ways he tried to mentor me,” Faestari began.
“Wait, dungeons can project avatars?” Roquel asked.
Faestari nodded. “But it takes a lot of mana unless you appear inside the domain of another dungeon. If you do that, for some reason its not as draining. Anyway, this other dungeon offered some advice and help. Some of that help was to alert the Kindred that I was here and could use some old weapons.”
“But you don’t fight,” Salene said.
“Of course not!” Faestari said firmly. “But my powers are a bit limited by my knowledge. Inside my domain I can create just about any device or tool I might want, if I know how it is made. But when I first woke, I knew nothing about weapons and didn’t have any monsters that used them. Getting a pile of weapons was a way to get around that problem. I could learn from examining the weapons.”
Roquel was nodding. “That makes sense. And it explains why mos
t dungeons have a theme of some kind.”
“So what happened?” Salene asked.
“They showed up with a few damaged and mostly useless weapons,” Faestari said. “The leader claimed he had thought the group had been lied to, and tried to use that as an excuse.”
“What did you do to them?” Roquel asked carefully.
Faestari shrugged. “I had promised them payment for weapons so I paid them. I had a stone golem greet them and take the weapons. Then I told them to leave my domain and never return. Hopefully, they won’t return.”
“They are a powerful group,” Roquel said. “Some kingdoms consider the Kindred to be the authority on dungeons.”
“That is fine,” Faestari said. “I don’t live in one of those kingdoms. And I won’t mind too much if they come to the village. But I will resist them entering my dungeon.”
Roquel sighed. “I guess that’s the best I can ask for.”
“You?” Salene asked turning to look at Roquel.
“You know that Dared offered to have me be the head of his Adventurer’s Council right?” Roquel said.
“I never understood what that was,” Salene said.
“May I sit?” Roquel asked.
Faestari waved her right hand. Three chairs made out of stone rose up out of the mountainside. They were in a circle around a newly formed stone firepit. There was no fire or wood.
“Wow that is nice. Will you mind if we use that during the winter?” the guard asked. He had moved back to the entrance to the shack.
Faestari moved to sit in one of the chairs. “The snow will probably be higher than the top of the shack by midwinter,” she said. “You can use the firepit, but I expect most people will shelter in the town or within the grove. The trees should keep the ground from being buried in snow.”
Salene gasped. “How will we survive?”
Roquel snorted as she sat down. “We’ll probably spend a lot of time at the inn, and the forest will lose a few trees as we keep fires burning. But in some ways, that might be a good thing.”
“Oh?” Salene asked as she sat in the last empty chair. She shifted a few times. “These chairs are hard.”