Dungeon Life

Chapter Two-Hundred Sixty-Four

The next couple days are… is it wrong to call them relaxing? Silvervein is working on rebuilding and figuring out what they’re going to do, so it feels a bit wrong to be sitting back. I guess I’m kinda back to my problem of not really being able to do much directly outside my territory.

I’m starting to wonder how accurate that is going to be, going forward. I haven’t exactly been doing nothing these last few days. I’ve been tweaking and tuning things back home, feeling like I finally have the time and attention to spare for the home front. Everyone is doing fine, which isn’t a surprise. My scions are all amazing and ensure things keep running smoothly, but there’s always little tweaks that can be done, and little decisions that are really only on my shoulders.

I’m also running on scarcity spending at the moment, as most of my mana is going towards paying everyone back. I know they didn’t do it expecting to get a return on their investment, but they still contributed a lot to this victory, so I’m not going to stiff them on the rewards.

And speaking of getting stiffed on rewards, when is that agent of order supposed to show up?! Fluffles has already come back to drop off his mana, as have a lot of my other denizens. They might not have credit for the Maw or the Harbinger, but lots of little prizes add up quickly. I think once Nova gets back, we’ll be close to being back in the black for mana. And if I’m estimating that correctly, this quest for the Harbinger should give me a staggering amount of mana, enough that I’d probably want to share it anyway.

I’m sure the forest of four seasons that I want to make could probably drink it all in at once, but I like to let my new areas develop a bit slower. It helps them feel a bit more organic. And I can adjust if things aren’t working quite how they should.

And for adjusting to new things… I’m starting to try to give some thought to what the Raven said when he asked me what it is to be a god. Because right now, I still don’t have too much of an idea. I’ve been trying to figure things out the last couple days, but I still feel well out of my depth. It makes me wonder if the agent is taking his sweet time on purpose.

The afterlife seems like it’s going incredibly well, which is a great relief. I’d hate to have tried my hand at heaven and only produced purgatory. Time is definitely weird in there, and I can sometimes see multiples of the same person walking around in different states of progress on a single project. Still, weird as it is, everything seems to be going smoothly.

Most of my fallen dwellers made some simple tools before organizing to make a proper workshop. The tools feel kinda ephemeral, a step towards a goal rather than the goal itself. It’s hard to describe, but contrasting it with the workshop makes it pretty clear. It’s fairly simple in construction, but simple doesn’t mean shoddy. They’re basically making a huge log cabin, trying to make sure it has room for whatever projects anyone who comes after might want to make.

It’s kinda funny, but everyone who’s not specifically working on the building itself are working on chairs. Seeing all the different ways they go about it is really interesting, too. One is carving theirs from a single large log, while another is piecing theirs together from worked branches, someone else is weaving one from wicker, and there’s even a ratkin who is following a similar design to the spiderkin working with branches, but he’s forging rods of steel, then heating, bending, and welding them together.

I can also see the changes in everyone as they work, becoming more… them. I don’t know how else to describe it. Some of them is refined and purified as they work, and some of them just falls away like sawdust, or forge scale, or scrap fabric, or… something. The rules of reality here are definitely different from outside. Either way, the bits that are discarded are drawn to me, and gathering them up feels like holding sunshine in my hands.

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I don’t know what it is, but I can feel a lot of potential in it, kinda how I can feel how much mana I need to do an upgrade or a spawn. Is it similar to how dungeons work? After a few moments, I reject the idea and invert it. I think the dungeon system is at least partially inspired by whatever this is. If Order is in charge of the system, why not crib notes from how the gods work?

Which then begs the question: can I make a spawner as a god? I seriously doubt it. My gut says it would be, at best, a bad idea. Maybe I can do magic with it instead? That feels closer, close enough that my gut corrects the semantics and wants to call it miracles instead of magic. Bleh, miracles feels way too grandiose for what I think I’m currently capable of. I’ma call it magic for now and you can’t stop me, gut.

I haven’t tried doing anything specific with it yet, and have instead been giving Aranya a tiny sliver each time she does her own magic. It’s definitely been making the kobolds more inclined to listen and trust I’m not going to just stuff them into new cages once they lower their guard. Her magic feels more impactful, more real, like there’s more weight behind what she’s doing. It’s kinda weird to have that kind of effect, but it’s also pretty cool.

She’s been splitting her time between talking with the kobolds and helping in the hospital, with occasional breaks to give a sermon or two to my dwellers. It still makes me uncomfortable to be the topic of those sermons, as well as seeing more and more people who aren’t my dwellers attending, but the message is still on point, so I try to just suck it up and deal. Still focusing on love, on helping, and now with positive change being thrown in the mix, too.

I probably shouldn’t be surprised, but Aranya has also somehow learned at least the basics of what kind of afterlife I’m offering, and Vernew seems pretty excited by the prospect. Not the kind of excited that has me worried she might try to take the express route there, but the kind of excited that has her doing far more productive things like organizing crafting get-togethers. Thing and Queen often come to either watch or participate, and though I’m still uncomfortable being the theoretical reason behind it all, the camaraderie is great to see.

They’re even hoping to get a few of the people of Silvervein to give presentations on some of their food processing techniques. Things like making wine, making cheese, smoking meats, and such. It seems like a lot of people focus either on combat or on crafting, but very few people explore both options. Since my dwellers at Silvervein are mostly fighters, there’s a lot of interest in creative skills now. I wouldn’t be surprised if, once Aranya gets back home, the more craft-focused dwellers will start to dabble more in martial things, too.

A lot of kobolds are attending the sermons and gatherings, especially the younger ones. They were clearly chafing under the oppression, and now they can actually get out and do things, they’re soaking up all the freedom they can. The older ones are a bit more reserved, a bit more jaded, but even Aranya’s grandfather is looking cautiously hopeful.

It makes me cautiously hopeful they’ll come to Fourdock. I get the feeling they’re not going to want to join a new enclave, but a new town might be just what they need. They’ve been trying to integrate into Silvervein, and while a lot of people are trying to be welcoming, there’s a hanging cloud of awkwardness to the interactions that I’ve been able to see through my scions.

I think, in the end, there’s just too much baggage for the kobolds to want to stay here, and too much baggage for Silvervein to properly integrate them, too. I don’t see much lingering animosity from the pale elves and dwarves, but there is definitely a bit from the kobolds. Combine that with the guilt a lot of the Silvervein people feel about having not stopped how the Maw treated them… I put pretty low odds on the kobolds sticking around here.

And as for me sticking around here, I’m looking forward to getting everyone back home. Silvervein’s power vacuum is being filled with talks of a town council, and with all us outsiders making no moves to try to muscle in, the potential powderkeg is defused before it could ever be lit. Honestly, we’re just sticking around to ensure nothing can jump in and cause a disaster until they can get on their feet, and waiting for the agent of order to show up.

It might not be the worst idea to have them give Silvervein a hand, too, after they deal with the Harbinger. Things might have technically been ordered here before, with the Maw in charge, but I’m hoping to go from one order to a new one, rather than letting the place descend into chaos. Change might not always be for the better, but I intend to get as close to always as possible.