Worthy Core

Tafyaf, Alpine Scout gnoll, groans as someone bangs at the door to his rented room at The General. As someone who'd spent the last few weeks roughing it in the wilds around the Shield Mountains it had been his intention to get every single coin's worth out of the bed he'd paid for, but apparently the room came with an unrequested wakeup service. Slowly dragging himself from his blankets, he makes his way to the door and opens it to find The General's owner on the other side.

"Taffy, there's - dammit, Taffy, couldn't you at least put some pants on before answering the door?" Ope Plit averts his eyes as Tafyaf looks down at his uncovered gnollhood.

"Consider it punishment for waking me so rudely, heh heh. But my apologies Mister Plit. Is there some sort of problem in the inn?"

Plit shakes his head, while still keeping his view turned away. "Naw, it's about you, actually. Soldier came by, said Commander Paulados needed to speak with you at the Fort. Urgently." At the sound of the name, any good cheer leaves Tafyaf instantly. While it wasn't particularly surprising that the Commander knew he was in town, there shouldn't be any reason for the Commander to be summoning him...unless something had gone wrong.

"...I see, yes. Very well, will be going very soon then. Thank you for the message, Mister Plit." Plit nods and leaves, after which Tafyaf dresses himself and packs up his things far more quickly than he had been planning to when he stopped in. For all he knew, the Commander was immediately going to order him off to distant parts, so he couldn't plan on coming back to collect his things later. Or...perhaps he was in some sort of actual trouble personally? Tafyaf couldn't imagine what he'd done so wrong, though.

The walk through the small town to the nearby fort was a short one, and the guards didn't give him any trouble on the way inside. But nor were they their usually cheerful selves, which Tafyaf took as a sign that something was wrong. There was no, 'Hey Taffy, how ya been', merely a short 'The Commander is expecting you', which raised his fears that he was in trouble somehow. The mystery deepened when he arrived at the waiting room outside the Commander's office, where a local man and woman were sitting in two of the chairs. The scout didn't know either of them exactly, just a vague recollection of them as being townsfolk, but he could tell they both looked like they hadn't slept a wink all night. They were also both wearing crude necklaces of stone and string, which didn't seem like local fashion, but that line of thought was interrupted by a shout from inside. "Scout Tafyaf! Get in here, and close the door behind you!"

The gnoll quickly slips inside the office to find Commander Paulados glaring at him from the other side of a heavy wooden desk. The human wasn't wearing his armor at the moment - who would, for desk work? But he genuinely didn't need it to look intimidating, his thick muscles clear and straining against his shirt as he rested his arms on the desk before him. His blonde hair was only just beginning to show hints of grey, and his immaculate mustache was kept trimmed in a style popular in Anchorfest, the capital city from which he himself originated. He tilts his head towards a seat on Tafyaf's side of the desk and begins. "Alpine Scout Tafyaf. Would you mind explaining to me just what exactly you told the local civilians last night about activity around the mountain, and why you didn't make that report to me first?"

Tafyaf swallows, preparing his best spin. "Ah? Investigation still in progress, it is, I did consult with the locals yes, to see if any information could be gained. One orc I did see, making a hasty return to the west, two days ago. Locals suggested a man could be missing, perhaps, in either case I was planning to scout the area myself later today."

The statement does seem to relax the Commander a little, as he takes in a deep breath before responding. "One orc is all you saw, then? No large raiding party? Nothing...more unusual than that?"

Tafyaf scratches behind an ear. "Saw one orc I did, but leaving a camp meant for more they were. Trouble befell them, I would suspect, yes."

Paulados leans back in his chair, making it creak under his weight. "Well, they weren't the only ones. Apparently after hearing your story last night, four locals took it upon themselves to check out the mountain personally. And so it seems that while all four did come back down, two of them were no longer breathing when they did. Unless they're complete fools, and to be honest I can't entirely rule that out...there is apparently a newly formed dungeon up on Triple Peak Mountain now."

The scout's eyebrows rise - he'd had some vague theories on what trouble a Valleylander scouting party could have run into, but that had certainly not been on his list. "A dungeon! And...defeated a Valleylander party, it must? Surprising, if the dungeon is newly born."

The large soldier nods as he stands up, making his way to the map pinned to his wall. "We haven't had a Valleylander incursion around here in years, but their usual scouting party size is what, four to eight? So the thing managed to take down at least three trained professionals, plus three locals - the survivors say they think the missing man from before was turned into the thing's damned front door. That's unusual for something so new...and I'm worried about how in hells the Valleylanders knew about the thing before we did. In any case, that's the least of our worries now."

"Sir?" Tafyaf can't help but feel like he's not actually qualified for this level of conversation, but he suspects the officer just needs someone to blow off steam to. "Is a dungeon not potentially a good thing, no?"

"Almost anywhere else, it would be. But here?" He jabs the mountain on his map with one finger. "We claim the mountain of course, but so do the Valleylanders, and obviously the Dragonlord doesn't respect borders in the least. Up til now, it didn't matter - the mountain has no known resources, no dwarves or driders live there, so its only real use to any of us was as a buffer against the rest. I don't expect anyone to make a full-on assault for the mountain any time soon, of course, but the Valleylanders are definitely going to start pressing their claim harder politically, and I'd bet you a month's wages that the Dragonlord is going to try something underhanded when they find out. I've already sent word to the capital, we're going to need more troops to secure the region. And the mountain specifically, of course. But we still need more information...you have dungeon experience yourself, I would assume?"

The scout grimaces. "Several floors in the Lost Woods of Jand, yes. Also attempted the entry floor of Fire Sands once, I did, but...neither water nor fire agree with me."

"Can't blame you there." Paulados considers his next statement before issuing his orders. "A few others in the garrison have some experience, but our training is mostly focused on defense and large-scale battle tactics. I'd like you to put together a team to investigate the place, as you have the most experience with small-unit engagements. Recruit who you want from the garrison, and take what time you need to prepare yourselves, but not more than a few days. I want to have a better idea what we're dealing with by time our reinforcements arrive - and certainly before any other interested parties have time to respond."

The gnoll rises from his seat, trying his best to hide his nervousness. "Yes, sir. I will begin talking with the soldiers immediately, yes, and the survivors as well. I'll let you know when we are ready." As he exits the room and casts another look at the local pair in the waiting room, he gulps. Why couldn't it have just been a raiding party?

Satisfied with her new Boss Bunny, Xenia makes her way back to her core chamber to plan her next move. She'd filed away the new creation as 'Bitebunnies' - rabbits crossbred with canines giving them fangs, enough leaping distance to cover practically an entire chamber in a single jump, and improved strength. Boss Bunny was an improvement on that, as by basically overloading an example with mana she was able to triple its size, not to mention the threat level it presented. There was one more upgrade she could have provided it with but she hesitated on that one. By improving the bunny so significantly, it would now be capable of being bound with a soul, making it stronger, smarter, and perhaps most economically, meant it could respawn automatically without her needing to burn mana on upgrading a new replacement every time one died.

Still, even an upgraded Bitebunny wouldn't be capable of speech, or normal sapient-level thought, and something rubbed her the wrong way about 'downgrading' a person's soul into an animal. It maybe wasn't a logical thought, as that seemed to be the normal system of reincarnation in the universe in general, but if she was the one making the decisions around here, then she'd hold on to her soul stockpile until better materials came along. Or at least until she got more souls than she knew what to do with. In the meanwhile though she still had some of the day's mana left over to play with, and she knew what she wanted to start on next. "Okay Guy, step back! Or...hover back, or whatever. It's time to open up Floor Two!"

Guy makes a pleased sound as they catch up. "Oh? Decided on your next direction then? Shall we try going upwards? It's a little unusual for a dungeon, and things that unsettle adventurers are always useful."

Xenia grins widely. "Nope! We're going down! Way down!"

The guide's pleasant mood quickly flees. "...Not to question your judgment, but you do recall our earlier conversation about that, yes? To our best knowledge, the mountain doesn't have the structural support to handle a floor below our current one. Perhaps if we went out horizontally a bit further and found a stronger foundation..."

The dungeon master raises a finger. "Ah! But while I may be making a Floor, I ain't making a 'floor', if you catch my drift. It's time for..." Xenia waves her hands around as if to the sound of an imaginary drumroll. " - An elevator level!"

The guide doesn't quite know how to respond to that. "...Forgive me, ma'am, but...what in the world is an elevator level?"

"Simple! Instead of making a big, wide floor, we're just gonna make one big shaft, going straight down! We'll hit ground level somewhere, or at least get close enough to anchor it to something, which will keep it supported. There'll just be one 'room', like a big open platform type'a deal, and it will go up and down and stop at certain spots, where we do the normal room thing of traps and monster ambushes. With a nice added bonus - if there's only one platform, parties will have to line up to take their turn for it to come back up, which should help keep us from getting overwhelmed! We've got steel for chains now, and given we can already break physics at least a little, I think it should work!"

She stops to think for a moment. "Or it will snap and kill entire parties instantly. Which...win-win?" Xenia gives a lopsided grin.

Guy processes, trying to consider how this could actually work. "...Physically, I think we could make a structure like you suggest, though not in one go today for sure. But the main issue is that a construct of this scale - essentially running an entire Floor - is going to require a reserved amount of mana far larger than your waterslide room."

Xenia sighs as she waves an arm, instantly pushing the entire core chamber fifty feet to one side to make room for her new shaft behind the Boss Bunny's chamber. "Yeah, I figured. But it's gonna be totally worth it! You'll see! Now...construction menus, Floor menu, Floor 2, Floor Entrance...go!" A new room appears empty and bare as usual, but this nevertheless triggers a sudden achievement from Guy.

Clapping fills the room as Xenia giggles. "Woo, freebies! Things are really looking up! ...Or shall I say...down!"