by Sean Oswald
The absorption of the goblin, and even more so the elf and Sir Tradon, had pushed her thinking further away from the simple drake hounds and their failed blood feud. Her mind was expanded even more by the magical energy for Charm and Essence magic, which was used inside of her. It gave her even more ways to use the burgeoning supply of charged magicyte she had.
Finally, after venting enough of her frustration to be able to think clearly, Altracia decided that she had allowed herself to be pulled in the wrong direction. It was time to change it up. With that clarity of thought, she pulled up something all dungeon master’s had access to, The Master Interface, or as she called it, the TMI for short.
* * *
The Master Interface:
* * *
Dungeon Tier: 3
% towards next Tier: 4%
* * *
Maximum Mana: 12,143,812 Available Mana: 11,086,449
* * *
Dungeon Levels: 1
* * *
Dungeon Rooms: 19
* * *
Dungeon Creatures: 87
Tier 1: 47
Wolf-Pigs: 28
Base Drey Hounds: 9
Flame Lynx: 4
Boar: 6
* * *
Tier 2: 38
Alpha Wolf-Pigs: 2
Drake Hound Warriors: 20
Bestial Warriors: 12
Cave Bears: 3
Lesser Treant: 1
* * *
Tier 3: 2
Drake Hound Alpha- Melee Variant: 1
Drake Hound Alpha- Shaman Variant: 1
* * *
Unused Creature Models: 3
Goblin
Elf (error- missing spirit component)
Human (error- missing spirit component)
* * *
Altracia didn’t bother looking at the tabs which described her own stats or the ones that covered available gear or magic schools she could duplicate. The interface really provided her with more information than she needed or wanted to deal with. Like virtually all sapient creatures of a certain vein in Eloria, she wanted to grow in power.
For her, that meant improving herself and also enhancing her dungeon. Simply accruing mana wasn’t enough to push her up anymore. She needed stronger minions, a vastly more diverse stock of items, creatures, and magic in her inventory. Yet all beings have their limits, and the great limit of a dungeon is its lack of ability to create new ideas. She can modify the creatures that she absorbs, much as she did with the initial drey hounds. Her mind was already full of ways to apply traits from the human and elf that she absorbed. What she really needed though was a bigger pool of stock to draw from.
First things first, she needed to create more creatures to secure her dungeon, and then she would figure out how to attract more victims. The one idea she had on that front was from when she had watched the offspring attempt to loot the corpses and had sensed when the girl took the puplets out of the dungeon. So clearly, if she made things that her victims wanted, then she might be able to entice more in. Of course, in thinking this, she had no idea just how remote her location was compared to the beings that she wanted to attract.
That was the plan, creatures and then loot, but no more drake hounds, or at least not to start out. Instead, she thought to base her new minions on the sapient creatures she had absorbed. Since the human and elf were not allowed, that really only left her the lesser treant and the goblin. Altracia’s mana-infused mind began racing, and she looked at the Creation Tab on the TMI for her options. She skipped past the Tier 1 options and focused on creating a blend of Tier 2 and 3 creatures. Something told her that she needed her dungeon to be strong enough to keep her safe but weak enough to draw in the creatures around here.
Tier 2
Drake Hound Warrior- base level 10, Mana Cost: 100+25/level
Chainmail: +50 mana
Platemail: +200 mana
Long Sword: +100 mana
Axe: +50 mana
Dagger: +25 mana
* * *
Lesser Treant- base level: 10, Mana Cost: 150+35/level
Base option not able to use armor or weapons
She ignored the other options. The bestial warriors had been a huge disappoint with how easily the enemy’s mate had taken them out.
Tier 3
Drake Alpha: Warrior Variant- base level 20, Mana Cost: 300+75/level
Chainmail: +50 mana
Platemail: +200 mana
Long Sword: +100 mana
Axe: +50 mana
Dagger: +25 mana
Drake Alpha: Shaman Variant- base level 20, Mana Cost: 350+100/level
Dagger: +25 mana
Base Staff: +25 mana
Drake Thighbone Staff: variable- 500 mana + depending upon effects.
Additional Cost: 200 health damage to dungeon master which
Heals at rate of 40 health/day (immune to magical healing)
Altracia was frustrated with the limited options available at Tier 3. She had forcefully created the new drake hounds by combining her own form with drey hounds. Then, she further shaped them into a two-legged alpha form. Before she could try any new creatures, she needed to spend mana to make enough drake hound alphas to run the various sections of the dungeon.
Twenty-two hundred mana later, she had two warrior variants at level twenty-nine, the highest level she could make them. They were equipped with high steel platemail, longswords, and daggers based off of Sir Tradon’s gear. Next, she spent twenty-six hundred mana to create matching shaman variants equipped with staves and daggers. This time though, she was unwilling to go to the trouble of making staves from her own thighbone. She was frustrated by the incompetence of prior alphas and not willing to endure the pain for so little return. They would still need magical weapons, so she looked at the possibilities present within TMI.
Magical Gear Options:
Health Bonus
Mana Regeneration Bonus
Elemental Affinity
Mana Well
Necrotic Damage
Acid Damage
Wand
Spell Storing
Defense Bonus
Damage Resistance: Physical and Elemental
* * *
Spell Effects Available:
Minor Heal
Lesser Regeneration
Minor Charm Enemy
Minor Electric Shock
Flame Fan
Ice Daggers
Fireball
Minor Binding
Lesser Repulsion
Lesser Shield Break
Mage Shield
Wind Whip
Thunder Arc
Viscid Globs
Conjure Elementaling
Dungeons excel at recreating items or funneling mana into enchantment and creation forms that they are familiar with, but when creating new things, the process was always far less efficient. Altracia was no different. Now she was going to attempt applying some of the magical effects to the gear that she provided to her new alphas. First, she focused on the staves and formed a mana well into a gem at the top of each staff. That was a simple effect that she had performed before. However, because of the inferior material of the wood, she wasn’t able to imbue the items with as much magical power. Each staff was only able to hold a magical shield and one spell. Having been impressed by the fireball, Altracia chose that for the second effect. Then she inspected the results:
Staff of the Flaming Shield.
Quality: Excellent
Base Dmg: 8
Attack Speed: 6
Fire Damage: 6
Weight: 2.5
Active Effect: 7/moonrise - Hurls a Fireball
Spell with radius 10’ for Physical
Damage: 60-90 and Fire Damage: 60-90
Range: 200’
Cool-Down: 1 Minute
Active Effect: 2/moonrise - Create a personal magical shield around the caster. Can absorb up to 200 damage. While active, the shield is on fire and causes 15-20 damage to anyo
ne within the 5’. Shield is recharged by fire based attacks.
She then worked on the other pieces of gear and, after a few hours and thousands of mana, was able to create new gear for these new alphas.
Platemail of Physical Resistance
Quality: Excellent
Base Armor: 34
Weight: 15 lbs
Physical Damage Resistance: 20
* * *
Long Sword of Razor Repulsion
Quality: Excellent
Base Damage: 10
Weight: 3.0
Active Effect: 1/moonrise - Form a razor-edged field of repulsion along the edge of the sword causing it to shear through metal or flesh alike. Negates 50 physical damage resistance.
Duration: 10 ticks
The daggers she left unenchanted. Now she got to do the fun part and create a new theme for her dungeon, one which wouldn't be so dependent upon the hatred of David Nelson. She had managed to create her own new monsters, but it had taken many rounds of failed experiments and had cost hundreds of thousands of mana.
One of the new alpha’s said, “Mistress, we thank you for life, and we will serve you well.”
Altracia only grunted in response.
“May we know what your plans are for us Mistress? If we may be so bold to ask.”
Caught up within the excitement of her plans to create new minions, the dungeon drake answered, “You and your kin will be my honor guards for now. You will guard my final few rooms and protect my lair.”
Sensing something of her passion and not knowing about their predecessor’s disappointing performance, the other shaman asked. “But if we are only in the final rooms, then how will the front rooms be guarded?”
Before the shaman’s question was even finished, the less wise warrior was already blurting out, “And how will we kill the enemy if we are hiding in the back?”
A low growl escaped through Altracia's clenched twelve-inch teeth even as she checked her immediate instinct to end her new creation’s very short existence. “I will decide where you will be, and I will decide who you will fight. From now on, our primary purpose is to grow, not to kill one man. We need many more to come into our home.”
Her reptilian head swayed from side to side as she stood towering over the six-feet tall drake hounds. “Do you understand?”
In unison, all four prostrated themselves before her. “Yes Dragon Mistress, we hear and obey.”
“Good, then know that you all exist only for one purpose.” None of the four dared to look up or question what that purpose was, so Altracia finished with a simple demand, “Feed me.”
Chapter Seventeen
Hunting monsters for XP and loot invariably leads to one question. It is the question no adventurer who wants to sleep well can ever afford to ask: who is the real monster? — Jayfen Tarzen, former guildmaster Theriot chapter of the Adventurer’s Guild.
Eris’ Rise - Emily Nelson
Emily was running full tilt with Mira and her guard Baru in tow. It only took them a couple of minutes to cover the half mile from the far northern farms to the bridge crossing the Seinna. The sight that greeted them was nothing like what she had expected. There were three elven hogo-sha, forest wardens, waving burning branches at a towering monster. Meanwhile, a druid was supervising the evacuation of not only human woodsmen but also fishermen from their boats on the river.
She stopped to take in the image of the monster. It was vaguely humanoid but looked more like a tree than a human. It wasn’t the mass of unruly vegetation that the shambling mound she had seen before was. The lesser treants they had fought before were what it looked like the most, but where they had been four to six feet tall, this thing stood a good thirty feet above the ground. Its legs were straight but comprised of four-inch diameter branches woven together like some sort of massive muscle fibers.
Atop the legs was a rounded and smooth torso ten feet across and looking like nothing so much as an oak tree trunk. From that torso extended out ten-foot long arms made of the same thick woven branches, and each ended in an approximation of a hand, complete with three fingers and a thumb formed of the same wooden material. Its head was another barrel-sized extension from the body and turned wildly from side to side.
The creature’s mouth was open, and it was screeching out an endless stream of words. “Axe cut burn flame steal dungeon young haters short snuff lives axe patience wait give take axe burn steal children moon betray branch!”
Emily couldn’t make anything out of what the creature was saying but was quick enough to recognize that even the elves waving the burning branches at it were doing everything in their power not to harm it. They only seemed intent on slowing its approach, so everyone could escape.
“Mom, it’s the only large creature within half a mile, err, I mean Lady Emiri,” Mira said.
Startled from listening to the confusing stream of words coming from the creature, Emily asked, “What? How do you know that?”
Mira only tapped her head and said, “Remember esoteric senses.”
“Oh yeah. What is that thing Baru? It doesn’t feel right that we should be fighting it.”
“Very true my lady. The elder treants are the protectors of the forest, and if not allies, at least the moon elf Circle has always shared common goals with them,” Meiyo Eihei answered.
Emily simply nodded and ran to the bridge where she recognized the druid as Aoi, female leader of the druids who now served in her district. “What is happening?”
“Thank the Circle that you are here, Lady Emiri,” Aoi said in answer.
“Yes, yes, but why is a treant attacking us?” Emily asked again.
Turning towards her Lady, Aoi said, “It isn’t exactly attacking us, or more would be dead, but it seems very confused.”
Seeing that Emily didn’t understand, Aoi continued, “It is not uncommon for us to sometimes have to fight the lesser treants. They are hard to control sometimes, and their elders simply consider this part of what they call pruning. Mature treants, however, are creatures of great peace, often content to stand in the same place for decades at a time. And an elder treant such as this one is almost never seen and to my knowledge has never acted like this.”
“So what has this one so upset, and can you understand what it is saying?” Emily asked.
“I can understand it to some extent as I am sure you can. My spell to communicate with plants won’t work. This treant is capable of speaking to us, so it isn’t a matter of translating languages or learning information from a non-sentient being. The problem is that a being like this has likely existed since before the Circle ever landed upon the continent of Talos, and its mind is not like ours at all. Its perceptions are not such that we can even understand.”
“Clearly, it wants us to understand something. We need to figure it out. I do not want to destroy such a creature,” Emily said sadly.
“I am not sure if such a thing would even be possible, My Lady, but I will do my best to help either to defend our people or to speak to the treant,” Aoi said, clearly somewhat unnerved.
“Lady Emiri …” Emily almost didn’t recognize Mira’s voice as she referred to her by noble rather than familial title. “You need to be very careful. I cast an Assess Enemy spell, and it didn’t give me a lot of information, but I did learn that it is a Tier 5 monster.”
Emily’s eyes grew wide with that information. “Very well. You stay back here with Baru. No. Don’t argue with me. I am going by myself. If it attacks me, then use your magic to try and buy me time to escape, but under no situation are you to cross that bridge. Do you understand me, young lady?”
Mira chafed at the way her mother addressed her but chalked it up to the tension she must be feeling. “Yes, Lady Emiri.”
“Aoi, see if you can call the Hogo-Sha back. It appears all of the rest of our people have escaped across the bridge, and they are clearly agitating the creature.”
The druid didn’t seem pleased, but she obeyed and called out from her spot
halfway across the bridge to the other elves, calling for them to withdraw as soon as Lady Emiri reached their location. Even as she did so, she began preparing her most powerful attack spell.
Emily approached slowly with her hands up. She made a great show of taking her daggers and setting them on the bridge even though she knew they wouldn’t have really posed any threat to the creature. Trying to make the best showing, she also pulled out the wand of fireballs and placed it on the ground as she stepped off the bridge and onto the soil on the northern side of the Seinna. The three forest wardens bowed their heads at her quietly as they threw their burning branches into the water and fled behind her. Even the one who looked hesitant to leave her side moved when he received a glare from Emily.
As the flame-wielding wardens left, Emily became the only object of the monster’s attention. With a single stride of its massive legs, it now towered over her. “Lady cut flame steal dungeon young haters short snuff lives axe patience wait give take axe dungeon burn steal children serve moon betrays branch foe!”
Emily’s mind raced trying to decipher the seeming gibberish. The first thing she noticed was that while most of the words remained the same, now that it was in front of her, it had added some words. Specifically, the words, ‘lady, serve, foe.’ She couldn’t be sure, but this didn’t seem random. Apparently, this creature recognized her as a Lady of the Moon Elves. She had to assume that it was addressing her directly. Add to that the fact that it hadn’t actually injured anyone yet, and despite its terrifying behavior, she was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.