Dungeon Life

I spend most of the rest of the day watching the enclaves, and let Teemo catch Rezlar up on what’s going on. He doesn’t really have anything new to add to the planned fight, though he does have a few questions about resources. A full on iron vein would be pretty cool, and I don’t doubt it’ll be sustainable. Just the limestone quarry is pumping out tons of mana from how much the people want it. Making an iron vein won’t exactly be cheap, but the upkeep is pretty minimal. I’m confident it’ll be a good mana printer.

I’ll be waiting until after the fight, though. I’m sitting on a lot of mana, which I fully intend to let Fluffles leverage for the fight. He and Teemo have been working on something interesting, and I get the feeling it’s going to eat boatloads of mana to be able to actually pull off. I check for cheaper veins, and while copper and tin wouldn’t be too bad, some of the more interesting minerals just flat out don’t show up. Mythril and orichalcum do, but those are stupid expensive. But more normal things like sulphur or salt don’t. I dunno if it’s because of where I’m located, or if they’re just not options for veins. If they’re quarries, I don’t see them yet, either.

So yeah, I’ll be adding an iron vein to my to-do list, alongside expanding into the forest and making the ant enclave. But all that aside, my dwellers are doing great. The spiderkin have been working hard to make more winter wear, and so they’ve been wandering around a bit more on the surface. I’m always a little nervous when they leave my view, but they’re grownups, and the town is safe, so I do my best not to dwell on it.

I’m also keeping an eye on where Aranya told that legend yesterday. She promised another one today, and I don’t want to miss it. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she’s deliberately taking her time preparing and doing other errands. I wouldn’t put it past her to tease me like that. At least being focused on the story keeps me from obsessing over the upcoming fight.

I kinda wish she wasn’t going to join the next group going that way, if only to get more legends out of her. I bet she was on her way to a historian class or something before stumbling into me. Maybe she actually was one? I think classes can change, or upgrade, or something? Nobody really talks about it much, at least not where I can hear.

My mind idly chews on the idea of classes advancing and how, before I notice Aranya making her way to the… pulpit, I guess? She smiles as I settle in to listen, and the gathered ratkin and spiderkin glance around. I wonder if they can feel my attention like Aranya can. Tarl said he could sense when I’m paying attention, but was that just having good perception, or is it an inspector thing?

“Yes, Lord Thedeim is listening today,” says Aranya to the gathered dwellers, leading to the murmuring growing a bit more excited before she continues, and they fall into a respectful quiet.

“I promised the legend of how Kobolds came to be, but it’s really how all intelligent life came to be. Oh, people argue their own legends of course, but this is the one my people tell.

“The First Sanctuary, after creating so much, was not satisfied to stop now. I can only assume spawning was different, so long ago, because I never said anything about a spawner for the elementals, did I? Sometimes they would make more of themselves, and sometimes the First Sanctuary would make them itself, but there was no spawner for them.

“The First Sanctuary never imagined the need for something like that, and so merrily kept creating, and sending the creations out into the stagnant mana. Some would die, but that’s simply part of life. The First Dungeon experimented with life, trying to weave all new and wonderful varieties. The fey came first.

“Did you think a kobold legend would start with kobolds?” she asks the crowd with a smile. “Though I say the fey came first, it would be more accurate to say plants and beasts came first, but they were part of the last legend, so they don’t count. Anyway, the fey. They were different than the beasts. Most of the beasts had little use for mana, at least in any complex form. They would use some, but their type of use was not far from what many today would consider to be martial uses. They would hit harder, rather than throw a fireball.

“The fey were inclined to wield mana more directly. The First Sanctuary even looked back at the elementals, and was intrigued to discover the elementals were rather balanced in their mana usage. With three different ways of handling mana, the First Sanctuary wanted to see if the different varieties of life could handle more mana.

“It took time, but progress was steady. Stronger beasts were created, stronger, elementals, stronger fey. They would impact the stagnant mana more and more, and yet the First Sanctuary felt there was still room for improvement. Finer manipulators, greater intellects, things needed to better guide and better understand mana were needed.

“The First decided to focus on the fey for this new idea. The beasts saw little difference between mana and muscle, and the elementals had difficulty understanding there was a difference between themselves and mana. But the fey actively tried to manipulate it. That would make the process much easier to start with!

“And so, after much effort and a great multitude of lesser fey being created, the First Sanctuary created the first elf. The Sanctuary was beside itself with joy, and quickly made many more. The new life naturally brought mana to motion, making the Sanctuary’s desire all the easier. The elves were grateful, and though they stayed with the Sanctuary for a time, they were curious about the lands of stagnant mana. The First Sanctuary warned them of dangers, of the strange twisted versions of so many of its creations that would come back, mad with bloodlust.

“But the elves needed to go, so the Sanctuary wouldn’t stop them. Once they left its territory, it was shocked to see just what kind of impact they had on fully stagnant mana. While it could feel them moving it within its borders, the mana almost heaved and frothed with what the elves would make it do!

“The Sanctuary worried it may have made a mistake, until the stagnant mana tried to resist the movement, and the opposing forces created a new Sanctuary. The first was ecstatic to have another of its kind. It guided the newborn, and the two worked to bring even more intelligent life into the world. With the success of the elves, the First set about replicating it with the beasts, while the second decided to create different elves, based on different affinities.

“The First created beastkin, apparently many at once. I don’t know which kin was first. I personally suspect birdkin, but that might just be from me listening to some of Yvonne’s legends of the Goldenwings.” She titters at a few memories, before continuing.

“Which was first wasn’t important. The important part was that they were, as a whole, much more able to expand into the stagnant mana than the elves. A single elf is versatile, sure, but will not thrive in any particular niche as well as a kin in the perfect environment.

“After the kin, came the dwarves, as the First came to the elementals. The surface was well populated, but the tunnels of the deep were still stagnant, and the dwarves were perfectly suited to the tight confines. The second dungeon was even inspired by the dwarves to create gnomes, having had difficulties with certain affinities to base an elf on.

“Life flourished, and new Sanctuaries were born, new intelligence created. The First continued to learn and grow, observing what made the fey different from the elementals different from the beasts. As it watched and learned, it found something new, some other variety of life. It wasn’t quite tied to the elementals, but to something very similar. It was a strange piece of existence, and so the First decided to weave will and mana into it, if only to see what it was.

“It created a gremlin, a primal spirit of shadow affinity. I’ve heard some rangers call them nature or natural spirits, not to be confused with incorporeal undead. This new variety of life was just as wonderful to the First as the others, and soon orcs and goblins spread across the surface and below it.

“But still, where are we? Where are the kobolds? I’m getting to that,” she answers her own question with a smile.

“The First wanted to create more, and felt it had almost run out of things to create. It searched and found no new life like with the primal spirits. It briefly wondered if the stagnant mana could be a life, but every interaction with it showed it antithetical to life. So what could it create?

“Maybe it could weave life together, like with mana affinities? It sounded difficult, maybe impossible, but the First was eager for a challenge. It wanted to weave life together, but how? There is so much to life, in all its varieties. Where to even begin? Well, much like with starting with the elemental affinities, it should start with the simplest forms, the most obvious things.

“Elementals, fey, beasts, spirits. The beasts are strong and incredibly varied, surely at least one of them would provide a proper base? Muscle and bone, but the First wanted more. The elementals had such trouble differentiating themselves from raw mana because they are suffused with so much of it. Can that strength be infused into a form like a beast’s? The fey are great with manipulating mana, second only to the sanctuaries themselves, so if the First wants the best aspect of them, it will be that mana control.

“But what of the spirits? Perhaps it doesn’t need them? It tried to weave the other life and could immediately see terrible imbalance before the whole weave fell apart. It needed more, but could a primal spirit give what was needed? The First understood the spirits the least, but it had a feeling the spirits would prove a vital part of this new life.

“It tried again, and this time with the ephemeral traits of the spirits in the mix. They proved to be the last ingredient, though not the most vital. All parts were imperative to the whole, each needed to strike the balance and create stability. It was difficult, so very difficult. Easily the most difficult thing the First had ever done, but it finally succeeded!

“No, not the first kobold. The first dragon. A wyrm.” Aranya smirks and continues. “After that, the creation of my people was almost an afterthought. With a new variety of life, all the sanctuaries set about creating dragons with different affinities, and making them stronger, wiser. The First created us. Some of the other sanctuaries were not impressed with us. The intelligent form of the new life, one built from the best of all the others, and it’s just some short lizardkin?”

She smiles fondly. “But the First loved us as much as all of its creations. That’s why we kobolds call them sanctuaries, rather than dungeons. They are our home. We don’t begrudge the others for moving away and moving on. Perhaps, if given time, we would have done the same. But before we could, the Great Catastrophe befell the Sanctuaries, sparked by one that even the most devout kobold would readily call a dungeon.”

She stretches and looks around the gathered dwellers, and nods to herself. “But that is another legend as well. Maybe I’ll tell that one after I come back. I need to prepare to sojourn to the Southwood with the adventurers and Lord Thedeim’s denizens. Be safe and be well, all of you.” She smiles as everyone stands, and makes some small talk while I digest the legend.

There’s a lot to unpack, even without how far it’s probably drifted from the truth over the years. I think the biggest oddity is that I don’t hear anything about the system, or whatever they call it here. Were dungeons a lot more free-form, way back when? Or was the system so obvious that nobody thought to explicitly mention it? There was no mention of Voices, either, despite the dungeons communicating.

At least I’ll have something to occupy myself with while Aranya and everyone travels. Maybe the system was always there, but only started imposing rules after that Great Catastrophe? It’s too bad it sounds like there’s no dungeons from that time left to ask.