Chapter 4
Domination and Expansion
It was not something that those with weak stomachs should watch. Come to think of it, nobody with a weak heart should suffer the misfortune to see. Unfortunately, when you walk the path of the Dungeon Keeper, the sight of your minions sweeping through and devastating an entire land is something that gives me a warm, almost happy feeling. Calling this place a "land" is something of an over statement as its more of a little backwater town, barring some outlying farms, a mill, blacksmith, fletchers, and the larger than average home made of volcanic stone that was once the seat of local power. We had left it as a crumbling ruin as we would leave most of this backwater station. The passage of my warriors was clearly marked by the trail of destruction that they had left behind them along with the butchered corpses of men, women and children. It had taken them only a matter of hours, as they had "cleansed" the land with the brutal speed of Ebola infested locusts.
In all honesty, the place was rather pathetic before my minions were done, and their passage obviously did little to improve the place, considering that it had been torn to the ground, with blood and corpse remnants scattered everywhere. The blood has leant a fresh color to the environment, as had the coppery smell of blood that wafted through the air. I took a deep breath and I know I would get used to the smell soon enough, although I'm happy to admit that my Dungeon does not smell like an overflowing graveyard.
But I did find it rather amusing when some of the locals had rushed out of their homes dropping on to their hands and knees as I approached, while my minions where half done destroying their homes and devouring their crops. They begged me to spare them, their lives, and their families. I would have ignored them saving for one man, who claimed that, him and others had recently made passage from the neighboring land of Cosyton, and had survived an encounter with a band of Warlocks, who were busy running from the hero brigade of that land comprised mostly of Rouges and Dwarves.
The lowest of the heroes and those most likely to skin you alive, and take all you money… is there really all that big a difference between what I do and what those so called "heroes," and "servants of the light?" My guess is that for ten percent of their plunder, their priests and fairies would be able to work out a "mutually beneficial" arrangement between the guilty and their gods and prophets. I considered the information even as the few paltry townsfolk continued to grovel before me, and I figured that I could afford to spare their lives and their property. A quick telepathic check told me everything that I needed to know, another hour, two at the most, and my minions would be finished steam rolling the entire populace and any resistance that they could hope to muster.
But Warlocks! I need them as much as I want them. The textbook encyclopedia in my mind opened to the relevant section as I absorbed all of the information that I could possibly need about them: Magic users and most of the unskilled will develop given time and a little patience. Have a love of arcane, and enjoy doing research in to numerous projects, the more challenging the better. I had the ultimate assignment for them: figure out a way for me to return home.
I left my minions behind me as I descended back in to the underworld, its darkness a comforting blanket – ironic to someone who originally lived in the light. I summoned my imps, calling four of them to me. I gave Thicondrious parting instructions that can be summed up as setting up the necessary defenses and to rule this land until I returned, including finishing up the necessary carnage so that I could begin the spell casting necessary to turn this land in to something habitable for my minions.
Needless to say, I had to elevate the intelligence of Thicondrius somewhat, just to make sure that my personal favorite Giant Beetle can handle the necessary and relevant tasks of running this land in my name. I don't deny that I didn't make him too intelligent, even as I trebled what he already possessed. He is still a Giant Beetle. He grinned as he gained the necessary knowledge about the promises I had made to the inhabitants of this place. Those little people I had promised I would not harm, and unlike other Dungeon Keepers, my word is my honor. Thicondrius on the other hand, had never given his word…
Almost two hours later, I reemerged from my dungeon. The entire land, every building and structure had been destroyed. But a large number of the people yet remained alive. It was not in my nature just yet to destroy any and all who crossed my path, but it was becoming second nature that all who dared, in any way, shape or form to challenge would die. The fortunate would die quick, painful deaths. The less fortune would wind up as the playthings, or "food" for my current crop of minions as I had a purpose in mind for these people.
The spells cast that day were some of the darkest of dark magic that had ever existed in their world: It was a series of spells that together, were described as "Rising Dark." The individual spells are few, but their combined effect proves to be terrifying for mortals and those of who serve the Light. No doubt you're wondering what exactly these spells are. And I had to admit that I was more than a little concerned about casting them because I'd never cast them before so with regard to their effects, all I can give you is the theoretical impact of Dark Sight, Blight Touch, Cleansing Flame, and Death's Coil. Don't argue with me about the names, because at the moment, it's the best translation that you will get of the language of Demons.
Dark Sight: It's actually a spell that was created by the forces of Light, to block the sun, replacing with the darkness of night and a full moon. The spell was designed to be used by lower rank Demon Hunters, who were searching for Vampires and Lycanthropes – you might know them better as Vampires and Werewolves. The details of how that spell is used to track and hunt Lycans are a long side story that I have no intention of getting in to. Go look it up in "Hunting Lycans for Dummies." Sorry… I get a little sarcastic a lot of the time. But anyway, you know the origins and what exactly that particular spell is supposed to do. Block out the sun's rays which are harmful to the skin of many creatures that serve the Dark Gods.
Blight Touch: A corrupted and twisted version of the Blessed Growth spell developed by Nature Mages and Druids. Its original purpose was to bless the land, infusing it with magical energy to enhance the growth of crops and the wellbeing of livestock. Needless to say, plants and animals need the sun to grow which is why this particular spell is only cast after Dark Sight has been cast. Blight Touch actually corrupts the land it is cast upon, subverting the life energy in to dark, not killing but tainting the magical energy latent in the land, poisoning any food bearing plants and polluting the water too. This makes the life of any good-two-shoes-light-inclined-wannabe-hero infinitely more difficult. The blighted ground also helps speed the regeneration and healing of any minion of Darkness that walks, rests or inhabits the defiled terrain. Needless to say, while it makes things more comfortable for all who serve me. It should not be understated that it is also a very useful as a deterrent to anyone who would seek to overthrow my power in this or any land that I claim as my own. Who would want acres of despoiled land anyway?
Freeze Flame: Now everybody knows that fire and the ability to use, create and employ fire is one of the key things that lead to the founding of human civilization, and it is still one of the keys to the success of almost any human or human-like civilization. Simply put, this curse prevents anyone without a tie to my Dungeon Heart the ability to create or maintain a fire. It's powerful magic and the only way to ensure that you can actually regain this blessing of civilization is by falling to your knees, and swearing loyalty and eternal service to the Black Flame. Once you receive the mark, burned in to your shoulder, can you create and sustain fire, to stay warm, cook your food, and boil water. The water is tainted because of the Blight Touch spell cast previously? True. But because you have sworn your allegiance and received the mark, the fire that these puny mortals then create is actually a Cleansing Flame.
Damnation of the Mortal Soul: The final spell in this quartet of chaos and destruction. While it is the most powerful of this array of spells, it is agreed, amongst those who serve the Light that it is the most corrupt use of magic that could ever exist. It works by basically locking every dark magic spell ever cast in to a state of permanent irreversibility for a limited duration of time. Effectively, the first three spells are locked in to place and cannot be lifted unless the one who cast the final spell is permanently killed without any hope of ever being resurrected. Or the spell simply wears off. It is said that it lasts between a year and five years. And can be recast as necessary.
The four spells that when cast in the correct sequence damned the Land of Eversmile in to Brauna Hauk and in to the service of the Dark. Sure, sure, these spells could be reversed but first you would have to kill me and sent me to hell, or back to it, depending on your interpretation of my situation. The spells, were cast, but only one of them was slightly different in its purpose, but it worked, and worked rather well. Freeze Flame means that these mortal swear their allegiance to me. I rule the Black Flame, and I serve no Darkness, and none of the Dark Gods, even though I do offer sacrifices in the form of blood and skulls to them. Just because I don't worship them, doesn't mean that I want to get on their bad side. My will is my own, and these people live because I allow them to. Let none forget who I am and what I will do to achieve my ultimate goal of returning home. The few humans left alive in this land, will thrive and prosper, if they are smart and know what needs to be done and do it right the first time. No second chances with me. My task here in this land is done. Cosyton, and Warlocks are close by…. I simply must go, and give a cold death filled greeting to the Lord ofCosyton and recruit those Warlocks in to my army.
Another day and another land to conquer for the campaign trail is a long one and Cosyton is a happy, sunshine filled place with joyous laughter and a great deal of happiness over nothing. And it would have remained exactly like that, had it not been for the arrival of myself, with a group of Imps in tow with the intension of spawning a Dungeon Heart before building a Dungeon, and then raising an army to conquer this realm. I arrived without fanfare or any grandstanding because the last thing I need is for the opposition to be aware of my arrival before I even arrive. It makes it relatively hard to get anything done when that happens.
If I had been able to keep to my original plans, Cosyton would have been nothing but a pit stop in my pursuit of the Warlocks that were getting farther away from me. Reports gathered by some of my scouting Giant Flies indicated that they would sweep South West to another Land. Sometimes, if there is a God up there, I mean a supreme being who watches over everyone and everything, including all those lesser gods of good and evil and the rest of them, I'd say he has an extremely aggravating sense of humor that he likes to use on me.
I had actually finished the laborious process of summoning a new Dungeon Heart, and my Imps had yet to even reinforce the earthen walls in to something a lot more secure when things started to go irritatingly wrong. Having come in to the land, only hours beforehand, I had not yet had the chance to even scan the surrounding terrain to get a feel for it, let alone try and find a portal to attract the necessary dark minions to build my army. My Imps had knocked down some of the earthen walls, expanding the space to create what would have become a Lair when the wall suddenly crumbled, and we found ourselves having dug in to a side passage of some form. And as I examined the shoddy work, with the floor tiles being left unclaimed as dirt and the low ceiling that my six foot tall frame could barely fit in to, I came to the conclusion. It was not a group of rats from New York City, but the work of Dwarven Miners. I had to confess that the work of Imps is far superior to that of these bastard heroes, but then my Imps knew the fury I would unleash upon them.
And Dwarven Miners can only mean that there are heroes, and at the very least, a dozen heroes close to where my Dungeon Heart has taken shape and spawned. Suffice to say that where I am located is not a good place to have the foundation of a Dungeon and my less than desirable location had lead to me experiencing my first and for the record, only case of blind panic. Regardless, I had a fair amount of experience with the Dungeon Keeper "business," and pushed forward with the construction and expansion of my Dungeon. I realized that the smart thing to have done in that particular situation would have been to withdraw and return in force with my minions from my previous land. I could have died if anybody had come knocking as the breach point turned in to the beginning of a massive Lair. Let any incoming heroes' brawl their way through my minions when they try to kick me out. Construction was moving a pace but I had some of my imps working on a special project that would be a default in any other dungeon I ever had constructed in the future: Lighting
All Dungeons have them but that is an assumption because I do need light to see. The torches mounted along the walls in brackets were spread a little too far apart for my personal taste. Ten to fifteen meters leaves large gaps that are pooled with shadow, making it difficult to see, and even more difficult to try and fight in such a place. For most of my future minions and warriors, it would not be difficult to find their way around using a mix of the five senses. And I have no problems due to the map in my head that shows me the present location of every creature. Even though the sun is something I have not seen in I don't know how long, I just could not get used to the lack of light underground. I don't think that I would ever get used to the darkness and gloom. I think that it is depressing enough to be underground with next to no hope of ever seeing or feeling the caress of the sun against my skin which would probably burn my skin like an acid. It's not that deadly to me, but I see no point in actually going out there and being hurt by it. At least in this realm, I would have no problems with those damned pools of shadow.
I have never really understood how the Imps actually "claim" territory for me. All I see them doing is a dancing a little jig that should actually leave them a little dizzy considering that they have to spend their time bouncing from one foot to the other, before a cloud of black smoke with silvery streaks engulfs them, and then they move on to the next tile of land that they intend to claim. It's a strange process to watch one Imp doing it, but its another when you see eight of them doing this little dance all at the same time. It reminded me of a bunch of people line dancing to that highly annoying and very repetitive "Hamster Song" - If I remember correctly it was called the Hamster Dance.
The earthen walls of my domain can actually be dug out with relative ease by anyone who has even the slightest of interests or motivations to do so. Hence Imps also spend their time reinforcing these walls, with brick, mortar and magic to seal them in to place, making them effectively indestructible to anything that touches them. I know that there has to be a way to by-pass such powerful defensive magic, but the question is how. It's not something that I plan to work on just yet, as quite simply, it's difficult for me to actually research anything without the Warlocks that are necessary for me to actually construct a Library for research, experimentation and development of numerous different spells and other projects
What was supposed to be a short stop over here, turned in to a longer stay and lead to the conquest of this land, simply because the Heroes simply could not leave me, and my dungeon alone. It seems that these people have it in their some what vacuous heads that anything that odes not walk talk and act like they do is automatically evil. When they made their first foray in to my Dungeon, they wound up in my Lair, and the Dwarves were promptly devoured by the few Beetles taking a nap or found themselves caught up in the firestorm of magic or speared upon the end of my newly developed preference for the bladed weapons – particularly swords.
I had found that the mana in the air could be easily adapted, shaped and formed to do numerous different things. Harnessing it to create a bolt of electrical power, strong enough to injure, if not kill outright was harder than I thought it would be, and I had backed away from that particular branch of magic for the time being. My proficiency with fire magic turned me in to an elemental specialist which left me more than a little vulnerable to other forms of elemental magic, most especially ice magic and also combining spell casting with the ability to wield a sword effectively.
I was actually trying to cast a basic ice magic spell called Blizzard, which would create a miniature tornado powerful enough to banish dozens of slivers of ice like knives at a target. But somehow, I got the gesture correct but the incantation confused, and instead froze the training dummy completely solid, and the slightest tap caused the entire dummy to shatter in to powdery crystals of ice. An interesting accidental discovery that after several attempts and several dozen more frozen training dummies, I had relative control of. I could already see how much fun this would be to employ against a living opponent. Granted, smaller opponents such as Dwarves would probably freeze solid but humans would most likely only be slowed by the cold. Larger opponents, such as Giants, would probably not feel a thing, unless I can channel a sufficient amount of mana in to the spell. I had also gained an acceptable proficiency with the sword, and felt confident in using it, whether defensively or to rip open the flesh of my foes. As my foes were growing in both strength and skill, I would have to keep pace with them to ensure that I would always be more than these pathetic wimps can handle.
With a new magical toy at my disposal, I was more than happy to actually stick around a little longer and gain a degree of proficiency over it before moving onward. I think that it was the smart thing to do. I had my usual assortment of Beetles and Flies, and I knew that I had the superior numbers to win through simple attrition. Almost three dozen Giant Beetles and Giant Flies, and I had yet to do more than slaughter some of this Lord of the Land's Dwarves. But it was the arrival of something new that made me decide to stay and conquer this land fully. I'm not if they deliberately walked or simply stumbled in to my domain, but when I saw the latent and untapped power and ability, I was more than happy to have them with me, rather than against me.
The portal to my domain, like the portal of Brauna Hawk, and every other portal I would encounter was a strange looking block of stone, each of its four sides had a massive doorway carved in to it, but with a door on each face, there was no way to see through from one to the other, and within the doorway, there was nothing but a dark, ink like blackness. If you stared in to it long enough, you would swear that you see something move. What exactly you see is the problem as you're not actually sure what you saw, or whether you saw anything at all. The portals look the same from every side, with the same runes running along the doorframes on every side, that glowed red, green, black and then a silvery grey in a never ending cycle. There is powerful magic in these doorways, these portals, that attracts creatures to fill out the ranks of my minions and warriors. Speaking of the demons… I sense a new arrival.
The new arrival was unrecognizable in shape and it set most of my other minions on edge, I could feel power emanating from it, latent as if its full potential had yet to be tapped in to. Green scales covered it entirely, and it was about the site of a panda, with powerful, vicious claws that looked as if they belonged on a hellhound or a werewolf. The mouth was more of a gaping maw, filled with row upon row of serrated teeth. Instinctively, and it must have been that encyclopedia of knowledge that spat out information whenever it felt like I needed it and it told me that I faced a pack of Demon Spawn, and this first one that had stepped forward was the Alpha, the leader of this pack.
While my other minions paused what they were doing, some adopting defensive, and in several cases, offensive postures as my Flies buzzed protectively overhead, watching for the slightest threatening motion. The solitary critter seemed to be searching for something, and when it saw me, it turned and walked towards me, its claws clicking off the flagstone floor of my Dungeon like a cat with overgrown claws walking across a marble floor. I didn't expect what happened next, as it bowed before me, lowering its head and dropping on to its front, well, I suppose one would call them knees. Reaching out with one hand, I placed it atop the beast's forehead, channeling emotions, of warmth and welcome that it would understand, for just a few moments before scratching it gently behind the ears. I couldn't help but crack a smile when it gave off a low throaty rumble, which was the equivalent of a cat purring in delight.
I didn't realize it till much later that this particular Demon Spawn, the Alpha Male of its pack was actually acting as an ambassador or as an emissary. As the rest of my minions relaxed and resumed whatever they where doing, and this Alpha male stepped aside, as the surge of energy from the portal alerted me to the arrival of the rest of his pack, another seven of them, for a total of eight new warriors for my army. None of the pack sought me out, as I had been informed to expect as they meandered their way through my Dungeon towards the Dungeon Heart. I teleported from the Portal just in time to witness a fairly impressive sight of eight young Demon Spawn, communing with the dungeon heart, and taking the mark on to their shoulders of their forelegs. They would need time to rest before they could begin their training. I had planned to blitzkrieg through this land without pausing for breath. But my new minions would need time to train, and I wanted to tap in to the latent energy that they all possessed. No doubt, if these were just "spawn" their mature form would be far more powerful.
I scratched at my forearm, virtually tearing away of layer of skin, painless. I feel like I'm loosing some of my human qualities down here. Beneath my skin is a heavier skin, more like a hardened carapace. I did not have a mirror but I know my eyes were growing from blackish brown to a near obsidian black, with the beginnings of a fire burning within them. Irritating as hell, this skin this is, but I've checked with magic and there is nothing wrong with me, and the magic does not lie. The idea of stopping over for a few days was no longer practical. Dungeons emit a unique and easily traceable magical signature due to the presence of so much magic, from the Dungeon Heart, the different rooms and all of my minions. It stands out like the solitary rose amongst a garden of thorns. I knew that the presence of these new creatures, with so much latent magical power, would alert the Lord of the Land to the presence of me and mine in their land.
And I would have a very unpleasant surprise for them when they decided to come storming in to my Dungeon. If they thought that winding up directly in the Lair of my minions was bad news, they would first have to cross the underground pool that lies across the path that leads in to my Domain. And I had a new spell that needs actual "combat testing" too…
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