Dungeons Are Bad Business

A warm amber glow filled Brice's toy store, and Vee couldn't help but smile as he walked inside. All manner of wooden trinkets and playthings lined the shelves, each adorned by a small paper price tag. Vee passed by wagons and boats of various sizes, looked in awe at the dizzying amount of details on the feathers of griffons and scales of sea tigers, and idly flicked a few swinging limbs belonging to weighted figures that balanced precariously on their perches.

They were simple, honest things, and they all reminded Vee of his childhood. Oddly at peace for the moment, the [Dungeon Master] let the rolling nostalgia wash over him as he made his way back toward the workbench where Brice was.

The only other people in the shop were a pair of curly-haired boys who were running back and forth with tiny wooden swords – which they were using to hit each other and anything else unlucky enough to be within their reach – and their mother, who was walking quickly with a forced smile painted onto her face. It was obvious that she was simply doing her best to keep up a polite demeanor while trying to wrangle them up.

A big swing knocked a wooden castle's draw bridge open, and apparently that was the last straw.

"You two come here right now and stop hitting each other or there will be no dessert for you tonight," she hissed, walking in front of Vee with an apologetic smile. "Jevin! Laurent! Right. Now!"

The threat apparently had teeth, because both boys stopped like they'd been Frozen and looked back at their mother with wide, panicked eyes.

"No dessert?" the littler of the two said in a way that made the question sound like a song.

"That's right, unless you both come back over here by me and start behaving right this instant," their mother said. "I said no fighting!"

Running as fast as their stubby legs would carry them, the boys returned to her side.

"Want dessert!" the little one proclaimed, looking rather serious.

"Yeah, dessert's the best," his older brother said, nodding sagely. "But toys are nice too! Mama, can we take these swords home with us?"

The woman grabbed hold of one of the swords and looked at the price tag. Vee saw her face fall and she shook her head. "I'm afraid not, my love. These swords are too expensive. Why don't we go grab one of the little wooden dogs or cats instead, okay?"

"No! I don't want a dog or cat, I want a sword!"

The woman tried again to extoll the virtues of the dog and cat – "See what nice colors they are?" – but by this point neither of her boys were having it and both looked like they were on the verge of a proper meltdown. She bit her lip, and Vee was seized by a charitable urge. He reached into his pocket and grabbed a few fleurs he had floating around, figuring that they were more than enough for a couple toy swords.

However, before he got the chance to awkwardly walk over and offer her the coins – "Excuse me miss, I couldn't help but overhear…" – Brice looked up from his bench. With a smile that was even warmer than the golden glow inside the shop, he said, "Don't worry about paying, Nadaline. Those old things have been here for months collecting dust. Since your boys are having so much fun, they're welcome to have them."

"Oh no, I couldn't just take them," the mother said, but Brice cut her off before she got the chance to say anything else.

"It's fine, really. However, if you insist, you can just go ahead and give me four bronze. That's what two cats or dogs would be."

The woman sighed, nodding as she pulled the coins out of her scrawny purse and handing them to Brice. "Thank you, Mister Gilbert. That's rather kind of you."

"Think nothing of it," The [Toy Maker] said, tucking the coins away and grinning down at the boys.

"You both practice hard with those, okay? Then maybe someday you'll become adventurers and wield real ones, eh?"

The little boy nodded happily, but his older brother simply stood still. Snaking his way over, Vee half expected to see a tiny Expectation land on the boy's shoulder.

"Both of you say thank you to Mister Gilbert," the woman directed, and her sons did so, the little one mumbling the words so that it came out "tank-oo!'.

They left the shop, and Brice gave them a big wave before turning to Vee.

"My daughter always wanted to be an adventurer," he said, his voice quivering and his eyes losing a bit of their shine. "She loved swords."

Vee heard the full weight of the past tense in the [Toy Maker]'s tone and nodded.

Clearing his throat, Brice shook his head and said, "Anyways, what brings you by, Mister Vales? Something related to the dunpla?"

"That's part of it," Vee agreed. "I was hoping we could go over some details for the next run of figures and maybe also talk about getting them out into other cities, but first there's another matter I was hoping to discuss. May I sit down?"

"Of course. There's a chair right over there. Do you mind if I work a bit while we talk? I find that my toys always look better if I carve all the details in one session."

"That's fine," Vee said, grabbing the chair and dragging it back over. He watched Brice pick up his knife and resume carving away on the figure in front of him, sending little chips of wood flying in every direction.

The toy was some sort of chimera with a long neck, though Vee didn't recognize what type of creature the legs were taken from. They were short and scaly, with webbing between the toes. A crocodile? Or maybe a lizard?

Brice wiped a chip of wood away from the figure and looked over. "So what's on your mind?"

Vee coughed into his hand. "What would you say to bringing your operation over to Westown? We're clearing out a bunch of buildings between the gate and the dungeon, and are hoping to get some businesses set up in there in the next few weeks. I think your toy shop would be a great fit."

Chuckling, Brice shook his head. "I'm flattered by the invitation, but I'm afraid I have to decline, Mister Vales. I've been here in this space for far too long to give it up. I know where everything fits and I like it here."

Vee nodded, not surprised by the man's rejection but disappointed all the same. He'd been looking forward to having a toy shop in the Westown strip; parents could buy presents for their children on the way to and or from the spectator's arena.

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He changed tack, struck by a sudden surge of inspiration. "How about a space dedicated to making dunpla then? We've got lots of room, and could even go so far as to set up some machines to help you make the figures faster. With the amount of demand we had we might need to think about ways to scale up production. You wouldn't have to come by all that often; maybe just a few visits a week or something."

Brice made another cut and nodded. "I could be amenable to something like that. It'd probably be easier to get that super thin ectoplasm from you too if we set up over there too. Did you have any specific figures in mind for the next run?"

Vee shrugged. "Not especially. I was thinking about reaching out to a few of the other [Dungeon Masters] that participated in the Dungeons of the Future circuit and seeing if they'd be interested in having their dungeons adapted to dunpla, but haven't done so yet."

"That could be interesting. I don't know much about those dungeons specifically, but having some more inspiration to pull from might be nice. I'd imagine most people around here already got the Crestheart figures if they want them, though we can always make different poses of ghosts and skeletons and stuff."

He changed his tools, grabbing another knife with a hooked blade and setting to work. "Alternatively, I was thinking that we could make figures for famous adventurers from history. You know, people like Simeon Vermillion the [Dragonslayer] or Heizal Flametide. You know, people that everyone has heard of. Here, I've got some drawings. Take a look."

Setting down his knife, Brice grabbed a stack of paper from within his desk and passed it over to Vee. There were figures doodled on each of them: a man with an axe slung over his shoulder, a kitrekin woman with a bow, a salamander draped in a [Magician]'s garb, with a staff in his raised arm.

"These are great," Vee said, flipping past the named figures Brice had just mentioned. "Although, part of me wonders if it'd be better for us to make all-original designs. Even if they're heavily inspired by these historical adventurers, they might be more interesting to people if they're not names they've heard a million times before."

"Could be. I was thinking that people would appreciate the bit of history, but I don't have an especially strong preference either way. Original characters would need more experimentation than these, though."

"That's fine," Vee said. "These are definitely good starting points, and with a bit of mixing and matching elements I don't know if they'd need all that much in the way of design work. Of course, you're free to test and experiment if you'd like to."

From there, the discussion moved to other logistical concerns for the dunpla like how many figures they should make for their next run – they settled on five hundred of each of the small minions, three hundred Alforde figures, and two-hundred and fifty sets of dungeon pieces – when they should get them done – in the next few weeks if at all possible – and whether or not they should go ahead and change their pricing.

"My father always said that if you launch a new product and it sells out faster than you expected you underpriced it," Vee explained. "That definitely happened with the circuit, although I'm not sure that's a real issue."

"I'm not either," Brice said. He paused for a moment before continuing, his eyebrows furrowing.

"I'll be honest with you, Mister Vales. My mentality has always been that money isn't all that important to me so long as I can afford food for my family, a place for us to sleep at night, and keeping this shop open so I can keep doing what I love. Extra fleurs are always appreciated, but I'm not sure I want to dedicate a lot of time or energy to getting them."

"That's totally understandable," Vee said. "However, I'm afraid that my circumstances are somewhat different. The dungeon handles itself fine day to day, but I took out something of a large loan to get it open and my creditor isn't exactly the most patient man in the world. If there's additional revenue upside to the dunpla figures that we're leaving on the table, I'd like to get as much of it as possible."

"That's fair, Mister Vales, and I don't have any objections. I know as well as anyone how stressful it can be when you've got someone hounding you for payments. If you want to adjust the pricing of the dunpla figures, I'll support you."

Vee nodded, internally relieved that the [Toy Maker] hadn't pushed the issue further. He'd have to do some number crunching to see how much room there was to fiddle with the pricing, though he intuited that there would be plenty on account of the fact that the materials were essentially free. Refining ectoplasm was quick and easy, and while expanding dunpla production with some more machinery might be a bit tricky, Vee didn't see it being all that hard of a challenge.

It was just cutting and twisting; how hard could that be?

With nothing else left to discuss, Vee stood up and thanked Brice for his time. He promised to get a few thousand sheets of ectoplasm prepared, and also made a plan for Brice to come to Westown in the next few days so that he could provide feedback on which space to use for the workshop. It felt good to have such a well-chiseled plan, and the [Ghost Smith]'s spirits were high when he left the shop.

His errands for the day done, Vee headed back toward Westown to see how much progress Alforde and his fiends had made while he'd been gone.

Main Character Sheets (Unchanged):

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

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: 6

Patience: 4

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 20

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

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 13

Might: 61

Wit: 16

Faith: 27

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Endurance: 36

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 ???

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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

Faith: 17

Ambition: 29

Greed: 24

Deceptiveness: 28

Manipulativeness: 42

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

Loyalty: 48

Patience: 11

Irritability: 27

Remorsefulness: 17

Expository Prowess: 23

Pragmatism: #@$%@$

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Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 10