Dungeons Are Bad Business

DABB Volume 3 Chapter 7:



For the next few days, Vee helped his fiends and his friends clean up the buildings of the Westown Strip. The work was physically demanding; primarily centered around hauling away awkward bits of wood and stone that had once been parts of devices and furniture long since lost to time. Occasionally Vee wondered what something had been – a shelf? A desk? A workbench, perhaps? – but for the most part he focused on getting whatever it was out of the building as quickly as possible. There'd be time to sort through everything later.

Each day, the pile of debris outside in the street grew larger by the hour, since the light section of Vee's orchestra was too busy to get to it and clean it up. That was fine though. When they finished up each evening, Vee used [Salvage Materials] on the mound and turned the mess into an – admittedly smaller – pile of usable materials. Do and the other [Dungeon Maintainers] took these to the dungeon at the end of the day, where they'd be put to use in the weeks and months to come.

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though; despite his best efforts, Vee accrued a collection of injuries. He pinched his fingers between boards, banged his knees on old remnants of desks, scraped both of his shins, and dropped heavy objects on his feet. He swore like a maniac each time something happened, his temper rising and falling like the waves of the ocean. Apparently, physical labor was still his enemy, and a mess of bruises covered the [Dungeon Master]'s body, but Vee's spirits remained high.

There was something deeply satisfying about the sensation of breaking an old bit of wood free, and Vee found that he liked the sensation of working with his hands. Heck, Vee almost came to relish the sensation of exhaustion burning through his muscles. All his hard work paid dividends: Vee earned two additional points of Might and one point of Patience.

Far better than either of those though was watching the buildings transform before his eyes. Clutter was getting replaced by organization, and the omnipresent mess slowly shrank away under their efforts, revealing solid structures that still had plenty of life in their bones. Er…beams. A few would need some minor repairs to be truly safe, but for the most part their issues were superficial.

When it came time for the [Dungeon Master] to take a break, he went outside and sat down next to one of the doublebloom trees Kai had planted along the road. It was barely more than a sapling, with six thin willowy branches that were all pointing straight up, but the treant had promised Vee that it would grow quickly. In another year or two, he said, it would be taller than Alforde and bloom twice each year.

For now, it provided just enough shade for Vee to be comfortable, and he took a sip of his water and closed his eyes.

Reginald came over too, and stopped his ghosthetic next to Vee's leg. "You holding up okay, boss?"

"I think so," Vee said, taking another sip of his water. "My body definitely feels like it's more used to the work than it was a few days ago."

"That's not surprising. You humans adapt pretty quickly," Reginald agreed. "With some effort, you might even be able to get yourself some muscles."

Vee chuckled and shook his head. "Let's not get too crazy."

Reginald grinned, and the pair sat in silence for a little while. A tiny bird with a blue head and red wings landed on one of the branches, and it trilled a happy song.

Vee took a deep breath. It was a lovely day out; the sky was clear and the air was nice and warm. All in all, Vee had no complaints, though he was already looking forward to a nice hearty dinner that night.

"It won't be too much longer before we'll be ready to start thinking about how we're going to get people in here," Vee said, grabbing a few of the fried bean balls he'd brought along as snacks and popping one into his mouth. He chewed for a moment, then swallowed and grabbed a couple more. The bean balls, which he'd bought for five bronze fleurs from a salamander vendor named Dreivan on the way to the dungeon were good, if a little mealy. His stall offered fried chicken on a stick too, which Vee had every intention of trying.

"I still think it's going to be tougher to fill all this space than you're imagining," Reginald said. His ghosthetic waved its tail, and out of habit Vee reached up and gave the ectoplasmic dog a gentle pet. It was cool to the touch, and despite how much it looked like a real dog it didn't respond to the gesture at all.

Reginald smirked, but said nothing.

"Noticing any issues with this thing?" Vee asked, examining the seams he'd made around the creature's joints. They looked like they were still in good shape, which was a relief; Vee hadn't been sure that they'd hold up all that well to labor and had been worried that he'd have to replace a leg or two at the end of their first day of work.

"Nope, it's like a dream given form," Reginald said. "It's been decades since I've been able to manipulate so many things around me and it's nice to actually be able to help out."

That was a bit of an understatement; Reginald and the ghosthetic had been ardent cleaners, keeping up with all of the fiends except for Do and helping Alforde too. The hat was an expert in positioning the ectoplasmic creation so that its powerful arms could exert maximum leverage, and the dog's unusual shape allowed it to get into some of the crannies that were too small for anybody but the light section fiends.

"That's good," Vee said. "Let me know if anything starts feeling weird, okay?"

"Will do," Reginald said. "So, do you have anyone in mind for the buildings we've already cleared out? Or are we going to be putting up signs and hoping that we get takers?"

"That's not actually that bad of an idea," Vee said. "But the obvious place to start looking for tenants is to reach out to the folks we already have a relationship with. You know, like Torres or Brice Gilbert. I'd love to give them more space to work on the things they do for the dungeon you know? Same goes for the Kartine twins: we should really give them more room to grow their ooze of cleaning slimes."

Reginald looked over at the dilapidated shack that was serving as the base of operations for the [Slime Ranchers]. It was jammed full of supplies and slimes, which could be heard rustling around in their cages if one drew too close. "That would be good, yeah. Those kids are definitely working hard. They're making a lot of progress cleaning up the streets."

"Glad to hear it. There's still plenty left for them to do."

"Agreed. Do you have any other people in mind for the Westown strip?"

"Actually I'm kind of struggling with that," Vee said, pausing and bending down to scratch a line in the dirt with his finger. "I think in general I'd like to get a forge or two over here. A place for adventurers to get new gear or fiddle with their weapons before going into the dungeon would be nice, you know? Beyond that, I'd like to see some other types of stores. Maybe a [Chandler]'s place or a [Potter] or something. I also figure we should try and get a couple restaurants open over here too; the lobby offers baked goods and coffee, but it'd be nice if there were actual meal options here for adventurers or spectators. That's basically all I have."

"That sounds about as detailed as I expected. You're a [Big Picture] guy at heart, boss."

Vee grinned.

"I agree that having more food options would be good, but getting restaurants up and running out here will take a lot of work," Reginald said, looking back and forth. "We'll have to make sure that they have places for people to sit and somewhere for them to cook and store their ingredients too. That means heat and cold storage."

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Vee nodded. "I know. I was thinking I'd talk to Hanako about that; see if she can work up a few sets of 'kitchen essential' enchanted crystals for us."

"That'd make our lives a lot easier, but who knows if she's even back yet."

"Yeah." Vee rubbed his chin. It was true that his Dungeon Intern had been gone for a really long time, but that wasn't terribly unusual. It had sounded like she was being dragged out onto a continental trip with her parents, and Vee knew how long those could take from firsthand experience. He'd spent a year on the road once as a boy, visiting a never-ending stream of his mother's old friends and their children and being tutored by a stuffy old kitrekin who'd smelled strongly of fish and garlic.

His father had accompanied them for part of the trip – the first few months – but had been pulled away by work. Vee and his brother Emory had been deeply jealous, and they'd thrown themselves a grand party when they'd finally gotten to return back to the Vales family manor. Emory had even gone so far as to steal a few bars of chocolate from Emma's private stash, and the two boys had eaten so many sweets that they'd both gotten sick.

Those really had been the days, Vee thought with a small smile.

"Boss?"

"Sorry, I was just reminiscing," Vee said, standing up and dusting off his knees. "I'll go visit Hanako's house tomorrow and see what's what."

Walking over to the current project building, which was a cacophony of activity, Vee cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted. "Oy, Alforde! How are we looking with that chandelier?"

They'd found the massive object hanging from one of the ceilings inside, and while it was heavily oxidized and had missing pieces, it was nice enough that Vee wanted to try and restore it if he could, even if he didn't know what he wanted to do with it yet.

The armorsoul popped his helmet out of the nearest window and gave Vee a thumb's up. "We've almost got it down. Do managed to pop the anchors on the back wall, and we should have it free in the next few minutes. Where should we take it? The dungeon?"

"Just over there somewhere is fine for now," Vee said, gesturing to an empty span of street nearby. "Be careful, okay? Try not to break any of those crystal beads off the arms. I want to see if Thien can replace the missing ones."

"Understood!"

The armorsoul disappeared, and Vee walked into the next building. In an effort to be more efficient, they'd divided the cleaning process into three distinct phases. First, Alforde, Do, and the other [Dungeon Maintainers] would go through and remove the largest and most complicated objects, since those were the things that required the most Might. Then, the medium section – typically assisted by Reginald – would sweep through it and remove the things that weren't big enough to warrant attention on the first pass. Most of that was old, broken furniture.

After they were done, the light section – and Vee, who lacked the physical strength to participate in either of the two earlier passes – would come in and sweep up, getting rid of the dust and cobwebs and making the interior look nice.

Grabbing the stick of green ectoplasm he'd made for himself to use as a prybar, the [Ghost Smith] joined in the efforts to strip the decades-old layer of grime off the floor. It was slow, tiring work, because the detritus came off in bits and chunks instead of in one smooth layer the way Vee would have liked to see.

The light section were frustrated by it too, grumbling to each other and shooting Vee the occasional nasty glare as they scraped, scoured, and scrubbed. The [Ghost Smith] wasn't sure if that was because they were displeased with having to do such a job, which wouldn't have made much sense, or if they were irritated at the fact that their boss was in their way. Vee was significantly slower than they were, but he would have felt uncomfortable if he didn't at least try to help out so he grit his teeth and stabbed away.

His contributions weren't much, but at the very least they were something.

They kept up their work until the sun started setting, which was their informal sign to go ahead and call it for the day. The fiends would work through the night without any problems, but Vee was tired and wanted a break.

Giving each of his minions a few cubes of refined ectoplasm in recognition of their hard work, Vee made his way to the center of the street. Putting his hands on his hips, the [Dungeon Master] admired their handiwork, and found himself looking forward ahead to the next day's task.

They were "done" with seven of the nine buildings – though in all honesty the last one they'd been working on probably needed another pass or two from the light section – and with any luck the rest would go quickly since they were smaller than the ones that had already been cleaned. Another day or two and they'd be ready to start looking for tenants in earnest.

Smiling, Vee bid his fiends farewell and headed back into town to get himself something to eat. His stomach was growling like a bear, and the thought of a hot meal from the Grinning Pig lightened Vee's steps as the gate shut closed behind him.

Maneuvering through the crowd, which was far more numerous than Vee was used to seeing, the [Dungeon Master] and his companions made their way to the restaurant, where they were quickly seated.

Exchanging a pleasant greeting with Big Simon, who looked happier than he'd been in weeks, Vee ordered a steak with gravy and mashed potatoes.

Then, embracing the satisfaction of a day well spent in pursuit of a worthwhile goal, Vee spent the rest of the evening chatting with his friends.

Main Character Sheets

Vee Vales

Primary Class: Ghost Smith (Self), Level 10

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar's Crest), Level 25

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 8

Might: 18 (+2)

Wit: 42

Faith: 25

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 16

Plotting: 22

Charisma: 18

Devious Mind: 30

Leadership: 22

Guts: 16

Intimidating Presence: 11

Citizenship: 25

Public Relations: 8

Determination: 7

Persuasiveness: 6

Bargaining: 5

Patience: 4 (+1)

Competitive Spirit: 1

Pragmatism: 1

<3<3 Infatuation <3<3

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Specialist (Self), Level 6

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 19

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar's Crest), Level 18

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 13

Might: 61 (+1)

Wit: 16

Faith: 27

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Endurance: 36 (+2)

Intimidating Presence: 16

Heart of a Champion: 15

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 10

Vigilance: 11

Vanity: 2

Single-Mindedness: 1

Reginald:

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???

#$&Q#$)(@#$#@#$%!@#$##%#%()@#$**@@##

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 43

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 21

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 14

Additional Class: Hyperthymesiac (Self), Level 5

Might: 2

Wit: 38 (+1)

Faith: 17

Ambition: 29

Greed: 24

Deceptiveness: 28

Manipulativeness: 42

$#&*!@!!: !!!

Loyalty: 48

Patience: 11

Irritability: 26

Remorsefulness: 17

Expository Prowess: 23

Pragmatism: #@$%@$

Hop@#!! @#$@!@#

@#$@%%^

#4^5#*&_!+++#(@$#

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 10


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