by TJ Reynolds
“What did you do? Oh!” Kai called out, then fell to his knees to inspect the various pieces of armor that Ban had crafted for him.
Using the ceremonial armor as a model, Ban had made simplified versions of the various pieces of armor for his dragon. The unwieldy breastplate he’d trimmed down. Many of the other heavier pieces, like the plackart, fauld and tassets, and of course the great helm, Ban didn’t bother to summon at all. With his weapon of choice and his new spells, the young man wouldn’t benefit from such bulky armor.
Instead, Ban had crafted a full set of adventuring gear that he felt certain Kai would look dashing in. Among them, he made fine bracers, greaves, and a long coat of chain mail. The chain he managed to make even lighter by making the individual links thinner, and he had used his hardest steel to do so.
It was quite a masterpiece, even for his standards.
As if relishing every moment, Ban gleefully watched Kai scan the lot, and then focused on the least of his gifts first. He picked up the cloak, a bit longer than it once was and twice as thick. He shook it out, smiling at its deep crimson color. Immediately, he thought of his mother’s cloak. “It’s heavy. How did you manage to color it?”
I made it fit you properly, Ban explained. That old thing was too short for a man of your stature. I wove two of them together so it will be twice as warm as it once was. Then I used red ink from the map to color it. I think the color will hold, as I bound it to the fabric with ether. Also, I added a bit of resin to make it shed water and resist fire. Should come in handy in the swamps.
“I’ll say,” Kai whispered before moving on to his next gift. A pair of ray-skin gloves sat on top of a new pair of boots. He picked them up and squeezed his hand inside. “By Andag’s smile! These are marvelous, Ban! They fit like…”
“Haha, don’t finish that, Kai. It’s an unworthy joke.” Ban’s champion teased. “But I’m glad you like them.”
Being able to project his voice into the world still thrilled him. He was sure that some might look upon the champion’s form and think it ugly, but Ban felt spectacular inside a body of any kind.
Kai moved on to the boots themselves. They were much like his own, but the leather was reinforced, and Ban had wrapped the tip of the toe in a sheet of steel. Moreover, he had spread a perfect coat of the Blizzard Sage resin all over them. There was little worry of them burning, but the resin also worked well at repelling water. A quick test had proved that theory rather nicely.
Pulling the boots on and lacing them at last, Kai jumped up and stomped about the room with a grin on his face. “Ban, these actually fit! My old ones were my uncle’s before me. It feels fantastic to have boots that fit. I really can’t thank you enough!”
Kai’s clothes were good enough for the trip, but Ban urged the boy to try on his new belt. It was thick and more than sufficient to hold up the boy’s breeches. Two inches of tough leather studded in brass. It was heavy for a belt, but it would also serve to pin the bottom of his chain mail shirt in place.
Piece by piece, Kai tried on his equipment.
The chain mail slipped over his head. He wore it exposed, as Ban had no design for a jerkin, though he remembered vaguely what they looked like. Everything had been copied and modified from the remains of the ceremonial armor in the collapsed tunnel. No doubt, rich clothes and garments that would make the armor more effective sat in Yorick’s cellar, but most had burned to ashes. All that was left had been spared by chance.
Next, the dragonling strapped on his bracers. He had a tough time with it as he essentially had to do each one-handed. But he pulled it off after a few minutes of muttering curses under his breath. These had taken especially long. Each was engraved with the twisting vine pattern that Kai liked so much. To stream-line them, Ban had stripped away some of the excess metal. Doing so had sacrificed a portion of the armor’s protection, but it was a worthy sacrifice. Ban had lined the inside of each bracer with ray skin. They would be a great deal more comfortable that way.
Finally, on a whim, Ban had engraved a single rune in the center of each. The rune correlated with the word ether, and his experiment had been marginally successful. After more study, Ban could surely make more dramatic results.
The one Ban had attempted first related to ether channeling. After inspecting his work on the bracers, he noted that they would enable greater ether channeling, increasing the damage of channeled spells by 10%. It was a small thing, yet it very well could amount to killing some fey beast a tick faster than usual.
That could be enough to save Kai’s life.
The greaves were equally crafted, but when he had tried the rune on them, the sigil failed to take hold. He erased it, supposing that since ether was channeled through the arms and not the legs, it would not do. He could always experiment later with other runes.
Resting against the wall was a shiny breastplate. The image of a dragon spouting flame stood out in stark relief, engraved on the front. When he lifted it up, Kai marveled at its weight. “How is it so light?” he asked, buckling the chest piece over the top of his chainmail.
Made it thin and cut it down more than I wanted to. It’s only enough to protect the center of your chest, and it won’t stand up to a hammer blow, Ban admitted. But it also won’t slow you down.
Kai shook his head, staring down at his new appearance in disbelief. He had a lopsided smile on his face, his slightly too-large teeth shining bright. His skin glowed golden with the blood of old Hintar, and his face was long and gaunt, still half boy. Nineteen, the dungeon supposed, was a hard age for some. Old enough to call yourself a man, but young enough both to act and to appear otherwise.
“What do you think?” Kai asked. Ban admired the gleam of his bracers and greaves, but cherished the proud smile his dragon wore like a pendant.
It was easy for the dungeon to ignore how some items were rather ill fitting, how Kai had yet to learn how to carry them with confidence. “You look divine, Kai. Simply divine.”
“And I feel it! I could hug a burrow bear in this and not worry about getting hurt,” Kai said, then spun around in a circle. “Where’s my weapon? My glaive’s still downstairs then. I need to see what it’s like to wield it while wearing all of this. It’ll take some getting used to.”
“Perhaps, but wait just a moment; I’ll bring it to you,” Ban said, then slipped out of his champion once more and began re-summoning the glaive.
Its lithe form glimmered into existence before Kai and the boy reached out to grab it. Then he froze, his eyes going wide in shock. “You … you changed it!”
Ban had done a good deal more than change it. He’d found a way to remove a bit of the shaft without decreasing its strength, which made the weapon lighter. The steel butt plate had been cut down a bit as well, and Ban had shortened the blade an inch, and cut out a deep fuller in its spine.
Additionally, Ban had learned how to sharpen and harden the edge of the blade, its point and the hook. To increase its strength, he had found softer steel worked best in the meat of the blade. Ban had experimented with the ratio of hard and softer steel until he came as close as he would get to perfection, without a long technical discussion with a master armorer. If he could get his hands on a book of weapon and armor crafting, the mountain’s depths would be the limits.
Kai spun the weapon in slow, methodical arcs then planted it on the ground and sighed. Ban waited for his praise, for some exclamation of joy, but instead, his dragon began to cry. Kai dipped his head and a few tears splashed down to the stones below.
Kai, are you okay? Ban fretted.
He nodded dramatically. Yes, my friend. I’m very well indeed. I can’t thank you enough. I… I feel a princeling.
You’re more than that, Kai, the dungeon boasted. You’re a dragonling.
I only feel like a boy from a potato farm. Kai wiped his tears. This is hard to accept.
Ban thought he might be able to understand what the boy was going through. Time would do the hardest work for him, though. In
time, he would come to feel the weight of who he really was. The gravity of the mood began to weigh on the cheerful dungeon, so he suggested, Bring up your Etheric Interface. You should be able to see more details about your equipment there.
Wordlessly, Kai closed his eyes and Ban focused so he could view the boy’s Etheric Interface with him. Intuitively, Kai selected the option labeled Equipage.
As Kai’s dungeon, Ban could snoop in on almost anything passing through the dragonling’s head. Watching him as he inspected his equipment in a more practical way, seeing their respective traits laid out in the strict and logical manner of the Etheric Interface, was quite satisfying.
Hog Skin Boots - Reinforced
Defense: +2 Armor
Protection: Feet
Quality: Fair
Properties: Fire Resistant, Water Resistant
Kai stopped and questioned Ban. You used the same resin from the map on these? When Ban confirmed that was so, Kai complimented him, then read about the rest of his equipment.
Ray Hide Gloves
Defense: +1 Armor
Protection: Hands
Quality: Fine
Properties: Mild Piercing and Slashing Resistance
Dense Wool Cloak
Defense: +1 Armor
Protection: Back
Quality: Fair
Properties: Fire Resistant, Water Resistant
Studded Belt
Defense: +1 Armor
Protection: Waist
Quality: Good
Properties: Mundane
Adept’s Plate Bracers
Defense: +5 Armor
Protection: Forearms
Quality: Excellent
Properties: Reduced Weight, Improved Ether Channeling (+10% damage on Cast Spells)
Ban! How’d you manage that? You made an enchanted item! Those are exceedingly rare. I’ve never even seen one before.
Until now, Ban replied, nearly allowing himself to gloat. And yes, they are rare. Dungeons made most enchanted items in the past, yet when a dungeon is shivvered or destroyed, all of the items it has created fail as well.
Makes sense. Kai nodded. Hey, but what about ‘Mundane’, doesn’t it just mean plain or without special properties?
Yes, I believe so. Now keep going. Ban ordered.
Modified Plate Greaves
Defense: +6 Armor
Protection: Ankles and Shins
Quality: Good
Properties: Reduced Weight
Modified Chainmail Coat
Defense: +3 Armor
Protection: Chest, Abdomen, Upper Arms, Hips
Quality: Fine
Properties: Reduced Weight
Modified Damascus Breastplate
Defense: +4 Armor
Protection: Chest
Quality: Fine
Properties: Reduced Weight, Increased Endurance
Improved Glaive of the Adept
Attack Bonus: Improved Slashing Damage, Improved Piercing Damage
Quality: Excellent
Properties: Ether Channeling - Offensive Spells May be Channeled through Glaive
What?! You enchanted the glaive as well? Kai asked.
Then, letting his Interface melt away, Kai took aim at the dungeon wall. Ban noticed for the first time that the dragonling’s eyes flickered ether blue for an instant, then a shimmer rippled down the weapon just before a bolt of condensed magic erupted from the tip of the glaive. When it hit, the impact against the wall cracked in the air, causing them both to flinch.
Kai smiled, his bronzed cheeks flushing with excitement.
“May our enemies quake before us!” Ban said in a gravelly voice.
Seeming to recall their purpose that day, the dragon’s posture stiffened once more. He lifted his improved backpack and assessed its weight. Ban had absorbed and then re-summoned Kai’s original backpack as it was more than a little shoddy from thorough use. He’d added another deeper compartment of the same design, however, making it more than capable of carrying all the boy would need on their journey. It was a simple thing, but the best they had for now.
Kai peeked inside and saw an assortment of apples and dried meat. Two waterskins sat inside as well, which accounted for most of the weight. Ban had made these of new materials, so the water they held would no longer taste so foul. They were also slightly larger than Kai’s old waterskin. Kai would have enough water for a few days of sparing use, half that if he drank what he normally did.
“And what is this?” Kai asked, pulling out the small leather pouch Ban knew would catch his eye. The young man bounced it in his hand once, his eyes going wide as he heard the chink of coin.
“I know you grew up without much to show for your hard work,” Ban said in a careful tone. “I’ve been very impressed that such a conditioning hasn’t produced a single greedy bone in your body. Every chip of copper and silver you’ve let me re-absorb for the sake of us both progressing faster. It was nobly done, Kai. But now that we’re headed off, I thought it’d be alright to bring a bit of wealth with us.”
In a few deft movements, Kai had unfastened the pouch and peered within. “By Andag’s humid sack! We can buy a kingdom with all this!”
Watch your mouth, dragonling! Ban retorted in his companion’s mind, but couldn’t help but enjoy the look of pure wonder in Kai’s eyes.
Emptying the contents out in his palm, the young man exclaimed, “Shivving gemstones too?” Can we afford such luxury?”
Switching to his champion’s grating voice once more, Ban explained his reasoning. “The gold and silver are easy to create and I had enough material to do so. No worries there, Kai. The gemstones I found locked away. I know we plan on returning as soon as we’re done, but you never know when you might need riches on the road. I agree, we should cherish them. But you never know when an emergency might happen upon us.”
The young man shook his head and refilled the pouch. Tucking it back into his pack with great care, he stood up once more and shouldered the burden.
Impatience finally urged Ban to say, Now, how about we get started? The sun is rising over the hills. It’ll be a fine day to start a long journey.
Ban watched his dragon adjust the straps of his backpack and throw his cloak over his back before gripping his glaive in his hand. For just a moment, Ban thought, the young man looked almost the hero he aspired to become as he strode forward through the gloom of the cave and out into the misty veil of the early morning.
The dungeon inhabited his champion’s body and hurried after the hero. Sunrise poured over them like liquid fire and the world appeared as easy and open for the taking as a clutch of unguarded eggs.
Looking over his champion’s shoulder, Ban had the dizzying perspective of staring back at himself retreating in the distance. He relished the feeling for a few moments, the wind over his gray skin, the smell of dew evaporating off of the pines and new grass underfoot.
Then he fled his champion’s body.
The gargat could be told to follow Kai without any guidance.
Ban kept a thread of his attention in the gargat’s tiny mind while he returned to his dungeon. He would join Kai for much, or even most, of his journey, but right now, his Earth Core was exposed to the world, and that would just not do.
Starting with a few burly Houndzards just inside the dungeon’s entrance, Ban started the process of assembling his minions in force for the first time in nearly twenty years.
This time, the dungeon swore, his defenses would not be found wanting.
24
Roadside Sages
Rhona
Rhona slept in a gulley that night; having found a dry patch of grass to lie on, she used her oiled patch of tent to wrap around her like a sandwich. It wasn’t glorious, but exhausted by over a week of travel, she slept deep and sound. Honor had cheer enough for the both of them, for which she was grateful. Nobody wanted a grumpy companion, but thankfully, the horse didn’t seem to mind her mood.
Only a few other tra
velers passed the two as they made their way towards Mindonne, and it was only a few hours past noon when they arrived. Rhona hadn’t expected much from the town, so she wasn’t disappointed when she saw the cluster of thatched huts and ramshackle hovels grouped together, several plumes of smoke congregating above their eaves to form a sluggish haze.
“High society for us tonight, Honor. No doubt. I’ll have malted oats for you and an ale or three for me,” Rhona said as she threw her leg over the horse’s side and bounced to the ground. The smell of swine and woodsmoke in the air, and the occasional bleating of a goat reminded her of home. Towns were towns and though the materials used to form the shops and shelters differed, little else did. It was a comfort for any soul who’d spent too long on the road or in the field.
The road bisected the town neatly, leading through what passed for a market. An inn shouldn’t be far off. Sure enough, Rhona spotted the only two-story building in town. A wooden structure that leaned to one side, like a grandmother grown so used to a cane, she’d taken on the shape of her crutch. Ivy climbed up a stone chimney on one side and a single red door, propped open in perpetual welcome, graced its facade.
Rhona’s heart lifted. For a soldier, an inn was a magical place. She’d had many rowdy nights in the early days of her service, and many since where the warmth of a hearth and a mug full of ale pushed away the shadows in her heart. It felt more like going home than going home.
She tethered Honor to a post out front and walked inside. It was cool inside, despite the heat of the day, the eastern wall, made of stone, holding the worst of the sun’s fury at bay. She smelled tobacco and roasting meat, both only slightly stronger than the faint tang of dried beer. Yes, she thought, this will do nicely.
“May I help ya, ma’am?” a friendly voice called from behind the polished bar.