by Allan Joyal
Faestari started to follow, but paused as two kobold women rushed to the door.
“Evil one gone?” one of the two asked as they worriedly looked out of the room.
“Left,” the other one replied. “Take future. Send to fight. Send to die.”
“Save?” the first one asked.
“Hide, hide,” the other replied. “Babies not here. He not find. I teach. I send away.”
The two kobolds scurried out of the room, still whispering. They watched the shadows closely as they headed off into the darkness of the caves.
Faestari let them get out of sight and then started to follow the faint trail of mana left by the dungeon avatar. It had been very active in walking the halls of its dungeons. Faestari could feel the traces of mana left by the constantly moving crystal.
“How does the domain not move?” she asked herself as she ducked into a side passage. Several kobolds rushed past her through the main passage. Four were helping injured warriors move. The others were barking in dismay as the small band travelled towards the surface and the breeding chambers.
“No food is being grown,” Faestari realized as she waited for the sounds of the warrior’s passage to fade. “I’m not seeing any fungal farms or even spider hatcheries. The only creature I’ve spotted has been kobolds.
The winding hallways were becoming larger, with higher ceilings. Several had side passages with raised entries. Faestari explored one of the side passages and found that it paralleled the main passage. There were openings large enough to allow a kobold to attack anyone moving down the passage.
Passages that were designed for defense surprised Faestari. This area was deep within the dungeon’s domain and there should have been no reason to establish such elaborately designed caverns. The floors were also becoming smoother as she continued heading after the trace of mana.
She soon noticed that they were nearing the bottom of the dungeon’s domain. She paused and concentrated on using the rat’s nose to find what was near. She could hear fighting in the passages just a short distance away and worked her way through one of the spear ports back to the main passage.
As she landed back in the main passage the stench of kobold sweat and blood nearly caused her to pass out. She looked at the floor and realized that it was sticky with patches of still coagulating blood. Two bodies lay in the middle of the passage rotting.
The unclean nature of the area frightened Faestari. Her dungeon was kept clean by a combination of the rats and spiders working to scavenge any dead body and her own quiet actions to absorb any corpses that were left to rot. This dungeon had bodies lying in a hallway that smelled of slaughter and despair.
She crept forward heading towards the fighting. At the same time the fighting seemed to be headed towards her. It kept growing louder far too quickly and she finally found shelter next to another dead body just as a crowd of kobolds moved into the room. They were facing away from her and appeared to be fighting a losing battle. One in the back of the group stumbled and was quickly stomped on by the ranks in front of him as they retreated.
Faestari watched in astonishment as the kobolds kept falling back. She tried to spot the attackers, but the narrow passageway forced the kobolds to crowd together making it impossible to see beyond them.
“Come, come!” she heard called out from behind her by the dungeon avatar.
A moment later two dozen kobolds charged forward, rushing by Faestari’s hiding spot as they joined their retreating brethren. The fighting intensified and then the kobolds began slowly pushing forward, driving their enemies back towards the border of the kobold’s domain.
The avatar watched. Faestari could feel it reach out with mana, seeking to heal any kobold that was still alive. Two of the fallen kobolds managed to rise, but another remained motionless as the fight pushed out of sight down the passageway.
Faestari remained where she was as the kobolds drove their enemy away. The avatar also waited until the fight had vanished into the darkness and then turned back. “More, more,” it cried out as it vanished back towards the breeding chambers.
As soon as the avatar had vanished, Faestari raced down the passageway following the fight. She wanted to get an idea of what was happening. To her surprise she saw a wall of mana in front of her before she caught up to the kobolds. She paused to look and found that this was the edge of the kobold dungeon’s domain. The fight had left its presence leaving her still ignorant as to what creature the kobolds were fighting against.
Faestari took a moment to spread her limited senses and see if she could isolate where the mana of the dungeon was centered. She could feel a few of the enhance kobolds dying out of sight down the passage as the mana webs used to enhance them and keep them from growing hungry shattered. The mana was quickly vanishing into the ether, failing to feed back into the dungeon that had created the creatures.
“It doesn’t understand,” Faestari thought as she centered her thoughts and turned to head back out. She realized she could just step across the domain boundary and leave, but she wanted to confirm the location of the heart crystal before she returned to Montgar.
Her rat body took less than a dozen steps when the ground underneath it sudden thrust upwards. Faestari was thrown towards the ceiling. “Steal! You came, danger!” the kobold avatar said as it stepped out of a side passage. The crystal in its hand turned crimson as it reached for Faestari.
There was no time to think about it. Faestari jumped towards the boundary of the domain. Another section of the floor rose up as the ceiling started to close, threatening to block her escape. She raced forward faster, dodging around to try to avoid being tossed as the floor warped and flowed in waves.
“Stop! Mine!” the kobold dungeon screamed just before Faestari heaved forward and crashed into the mana wall. She popped through and immediately pulled her mana and spirit out of the rat as it crashed to the floor lifeless.
The kobold dungeon barked in anger as Faestari’s spirit sped downward. She dove deeper into the earth, looking around and watching as she came upon a horde of enhanced kobolds fighting against some broad-shouldered squat humanoids with gray skin. The kobolds had engineered a stalemate, but it was one based on the fact that the kobolds had numbers as their opponents clearly had better weaponry. Faestari could see that the scene she had witnessed must be occurring regularly as the kobolds were slowly losing fighters.
“I see it all, and I know that the dungeon somehow can move around with its heart,” she thought. “But how can I guide the others to the dungeon? It is likely to try to escape once it realizes that the adventurers can fight through its defenses.”
The other dungeon did not appear to be chasing her. Faestari paused one last time to confirm that none of the kobolds was paying attention to her spirit and then she headed northeast back towards her home.
Chapter 26: Preparations and Problems
Aylia was waiting in her home chamber when Faestari’s spirit reanimated her avatar. The water nymph cried in joy and ran into the sleeping alcove to help the elven girl sit up.
“I was worried,” Aylia said. “You didn’t say it would take so long to scout the dungeon.”
Faestari ignored the implied rebuke as she set her feet on the floor of her heart chamber. “It was necessary,” she replied. “Most of that time was the time it took to travel there.”
“Just six days?” Aylia asked. “I thought it was much farther away. Roquel was saying it should take twenty-five days to get there once everyone is ready.”
“I went directly there through the mountains,” Faestari said. “There were chasms a human couldn’t get across, but there were vines I could cross as a rat. And I never slept or ate. Other than a couple times I had to hide from predators, I kept moving.”
“Which no human can do. So, you do have to travel almost to Oersteglen and then turn south as Roquel told me. And she admitted to adding time since you’ll have to walk through snow since the cold of a winter storm might kill any horses,”
Aylia said. “Would you be walking with them?”
“It would take too much mana, and I can’t leave my dungeon for that much time,” Faestari said. “I can watch over them in spirit and talk to them through various means, but until they reach the other dungeon, I won’t be able to be with them.”
“So, did you discover anything?” Aylia asked. “I mean you were gone for days and days. Fortunately, the storm kept the adventurers from trying every day, although Kalacho did lead one delve. They stopped after running into one of your beetles. I was hoping they’d push deeper. I want to watch them take on some of the new creatures you brought in.”
“That level is far more dangerous than the ones they challenge now. I’m not unhappy to see them being careful,” Faestari replied. “As for discovering things. I want to ask questions of the Great Dungeon.”
“Which Dungeon?” Aylia asked.
“I think it is the oldest dungeon awake. It told me that it was originally a prison labyrinth used by one of the kings of the Psyack Empire to torture enemies. It woke and for some time was constantly challenged by those seeking to rescue lost companions or avenge lost relatives. But none succeeded and when the empire fell, the memory of its existance faded,” Faestari said.
“It must be powerful,” Aylia said. “Is that the faceless avatar I’ve seen visit you? The one that dismissed me completely.”
Faestari nodded as Aylia helped her walk to the edge of the pool.
The water nymph looked around nervously and then dove into the pool. Her body vanished into bubbles as she sank. A moment later her head formed out of the water. “Is it mad at me?” she asked.
“I think the dungeon has no real cares or worries,” Faestari said. “Few remember that it exists and it’s on an island in what is now known as the Shipwrack Sea. Unless treasure hunters try to visit the island, it is left alone.”
“Wow,” Aylia said quietly. “I never realized that dungeons could be that old or powerful.”
“There are several from what I understand. But a couple had necromancers somehow take control over the heart crystal. The dungeon is forced to protect the necromancer,” Faestari said.
“But don’t humans eventually die?” Aylia asked.
“If they are powerful enough then there are some dark magics that lock their spirits and prevent it from leaving this plane. I guess the flesh vanishes, but the skeleton and mind remain. At least that is what my dungeon memories are telling me,” Faestari said.
“I guess it doesn’t matter to me,” Aylia said. “So, what will you do about the other dungeon. It sounds like you don’t have any ideas.”
“Oh, I do,” Faestari said. “I’ve found out why the dungeon is so eager to steal mana. I even have a suspicion as to how it received the mana necessary to wake. I just wanted to ask questions of The Great Dungeon because some of what this new dungeon does, are things that I believed impossible. It appears to do things that dungeons aren’t supposed to be able to do.”
“So?” Aylia said. The water nymph sounded almost bored. “Do you want to do what it does?”
“I would never need to do it,” Faestari said. “It’s part of why it is trying so hard to steal mana. And I saw that the population in his dungeon is lower than I expected.”
“So, what are you going to do?” Aylia asked.
“I need to let Roquel and Dared know that I have information. Then, I’ll watch over them as they travel to the dungeon.”
I can get them!” Aylia offered. “It will give me something to do. Your dungeon is so quiet most of the time.”
Faestari shook her head, but moved back to her alcove. “If you want to, I’ll just wake my avatar in the gatehouse.”
Aylia jumped back into the pool. Her body turned into bubbles that flowed towards the bottom of the pool. Faestari paused in her walk to the alcove to watch her friend leave.
There were voices in the meeting room Faestari had set up as part of the gatehouse when she opened her avatar’s eyes. She listened for a moment before standing up.
“Why do we meet here?” Salene asked.
“Because it’s not in the tavern,” Alysia responded. “Roquel is still mad that I didn’t work harder to keep Leutal and Yngar from entering the dungeon. I knew we weren’t ready, but allowed them to lead us there.”
“There were no permanent injuries,” Salene said. “And I have to say that Patris appears to have worked harder in training since.”
“Patris trains hard,” Alysia said. “And I’ve seen Jasiae more often at training. I’m afraid Ullualia and Leutal still don’t put in enough effort.”
Faestari allowed the door to her alcove to open. She heard two women gasp as she stood up and stepped into the meeting room.
Salene was lounging against the wall. The hearth had a roaring fire in it. Alysia had a stick in her hand and had clearly just used it to stir the coals in preparation for adding another log from the stack along the wall.
“Faestari? Why have you come?” Salene asked.
“Can’t I just come out to talk to some humans?” Faestari asked with a sigh.
“I…Well…” Salene babbled. “I mean.”
Faestari held up a hand to save the babbling young woman. “I do like to talk to people. However, today I came here because Aylia is going to be asking Roquel and Dared to come. I just got back from checking out the other dungeon.”
“And I hope it doesn’t try to attack me right now,” Faestari said softly.
“It could come back?” Alysia asked in a horrified voice. “That one time nearly got me killed.”
“I’ve warded the domain against it,” Faestari said. “And when I saw it, there was something going on that was keeping it very busy. That’s why I need to talk to Roquel. I know she’s already agreed to kill the dungeon for me.”
“You’re going to kill it?” Salene asked.
“I’m not, but I fully support killing it. It shouldn’t be necessary, but the magics that spawned this dungeon were incomplete. It doesn’t know what it is, nor does it understand the dangers of its actions. What it is doing will cause all dungeons to be suspected,” Faestari said.
“How will Roquel know to come?” Alysia asked. “Oh, thank you for this room and hearth. We use it quite a bit to relax and chat in private.”
“Does Jyxton know?” Faestari asked with a giggle.
Alysia blushed. “It’s not about that. I really want to become a great adventurer, but after that first visit, I realized I might not have what it takes.”
“You do,” Salene said firmly. “Even Leutal could become a very successful adventurer. You just have to practice.”
“And he probably refuses to accept that,” Faestari said.
Alysia nodded. “I love him, but he thinks he can enter dungeons without armor or weapons.”
“Bad idea,” Faestari said quietly.
“Hey!” Alysia said as she looked at Faestari. “Could you train him? Or at least tell him more about what things are like inside your dungeon.”
“No,” Faestari said. “I won’t help teach others how to get through dungeons. Not directly.”
“But,” Alysia said.
Salene put her hand out and rested it on Alysia’s shoulder. “Don’t. I know you want to help Leutal and you see Faestari as a potential resource, but she’s a dungeon. If she tells you that she can’t or won’t do something it is in your best interest to back down and accept her decision.”
“I thought dungeons never talked, which meant that Faestari was different,” Alysia said plaintively. “I’m going to lose Leutal if he doesn’t accept that there are reasons to use armor and weapons.”
“I still have to work within certain rules,” Faestari said quietly. “Look at what is happening right now. There is a new dungeon that is becoming a problem. The other dungeons have accepted that it won’t listen to us as we try to get it to change its ways. I’ve been instructed to organize a party to kill it.”
Alysia’s face turned pale. “You�
�ve been instructed? By who?”
“All dungeons have a spirit. I’ve interacted with a few. The ones talking to me have made it clear that they want me to take responsibility for dealing with the new dungeon. And after its most recent attacks on other dungeons, they have decided it must be destroyed,” Faestari said.
“How can you be so unemotional about that?” Alysia asked. “You sound like my mother would when she told us to go and kill a few chickens.”
Faestari looked at the young woman. “This other dungeon is only related to me by the fact that we are both dungeons. I have no real tie to it. It’s attacked me. And then it threatens my existence by taking actions which may scare nations. If a nation like Fairview is frightened, it will likely move to destroy what scared it.”
“But how would that threaten you?” Alysia asked. “Fairview would just destroy the dungeon that is causing the problem.”
“They might, or they might decide that all nearby dungeons need to be destroyed. Worse, they could communicate that to other groups, and all dungeons in the world might become targeted. That is what the other dungeons worry about. And I agree with them regarding that fear,” Faestari said.
“Why?” Alysia asked. “That makes no sense. You aren’t a threat.”
Salene shook her head. “Think of the power Faestari demonstrated the day you entered the dungeon. She never appeared to strain, but she took those three enhanced kobolds and crushed them.”
“Actually, the ground crushed them,” Faestari said with a faint smirk.
“You commanded the ground to move,” Salene said. “And I’m sure you can tell me about the source of the earthquake. That was the other dungeon wasn’t it.”
Faestari nodded. “It combined earth, air and fire mana to raise a volcano. That was the source of the shaking.”
“Why?” Alysia asked.
“I don’t know,” Faestari said. “Due to its nature, I cannot really communicate with the dungeon.”