Chapter 12
A New Dungeon is Born
In the subterranean darkness, light does not exist. It is the pitch blackness of your nightmares, where you can't see your hand two inches in front of your face. The birth of a new Dungeon Heart is like the process of creation that began with the darkness before the Big Bang. All around, everything trembles and shakes as a miniscule speck of light comes in to being, absorbing soil and rock, vanishing everything it touches, completely erasing it from existence.
The vaporizing continues, until a massive ball of light takes the place of vanished soil while the cavern's walls begin to take shape at a distance from the glowing elemental nova. Solid flagstones appear in the ground, outlined in the poison green blue of mana, interlocking like a giant multi-ton jigsaw puzzle. A raised dais, none too high, grows out of the floor in the center of the chamber, four pillars of stone, one in each corner of the dais, rise until them slammed in to the ceiling, red and white fire fusing the pillars to the ceiling, magic creating archways to support the monumental weight of the ceiling overhead. The newly formed dais hisses and crackles as the contained pulsing energetic mass of black and gold sends tendrils of lightning out that caressed the dais for several moments, before coming to rest upon its surface. The light begins to pulse, slowly as if taking its first breath, morphing as black and blood red with streaks of golden yellow emerge. The three colors that compose the banner of the Black Flame.
The mana had infused the cavern, and the Dungeon Heart had been birthed in this new land. The deep steady throb was the Dungeon Heart itself, announcing its presence, as if sending a warning to the land above that death's shadows was moving towards them. Eight spheres blinked into existence around the Dungeon Heart at the eight points that formed the eight pointed star, the universal symbol of chaos, disorder and darkness. Lasting but a few short moments before imploding, a group of eight Imps, who landed lightly on their feet, and awaited further orders from their Dungeon Keeper. They stood only two feet high, perfectly proportioned apart from their somewhat oversized heads and equally oversized eyes. Their small brown bodies bore the mark of the Black Flame, burned into what passed for the flesh upon their shoulders.
From the formation of the dungeon heart to the present moment, when a Keeper can actually enter his new Dungeon Heart and gain a rough overview of what will soon be his or her – there are female Keepers, just very few of them – new province of an impressive empire takes less than an hour. And I was more than happy to teleport in this new Dungeon Heart. To be back upon the campaign trail at last. I could feel that hunger within me growing, not for food, but it had been far too long since I'd spilled the blood of my enemies and made an offering to the Dark Gods.
From the newly created Dungeon Heart I gathered a brief overview of the nearby terrain that provided much in the way of good news. There are extensive gold seams in the surrounding earth and a portal close by which, for the moment, would make expanding my Dungeon that much easier. But there was something extremely worrying and nearby to the south as spatial voids go for the mana concentrations in that space were rather high, "Cepat, Reinforce the south walls and then all other walls. As soon as possible begin mining out towards the Portal."
Cepat is the leader of the Imps, and wherever I go, he is always close at hand. He is one of the best Imps that I've ever had to work with, and I can't deny that I am rather fond of him as we go back quite a long way. His leadership skills were evident while he barked his orders and the Imps ran to their tasks, triggering their haste magic as they razed their way through the rock and earth, creating caverns and reinforcing the walls that also keep the ceiling from caving in. Their haste magic reduces the time their tasks take, and it took mere minutes before they had carved a passage to the Portal and claimed it.
Portals are nothing more than tears in time and space that can connect to other such portals, but also, according to the encyclopedia in my brain, a different dimensional plane, that which is referred to as the Immaterium. It's from this void that many of a Keeper's minions come from. It is the only way for a Keeper to recruit the necessary warriors that become their army. The first arrivals come within minutes of the Portal being linked to the Dungeon Heart in this realm. Drahuliska my Chief Librarian, and Rhahimidarigazz, the Dragon I would call my Aide-de-Camp, who is at the forefront of every battle with me. Fresh recruits for my army would be streaming through momentarily, the power of the Black Flame cannot be denied, and no unaligned warrior can ignore its call.
The Treasury was first up, and as the gold streamed into my Dungeon, the Lair, Hatchery and Training Room came in to existence and the Imps bustled from place to place, hard at work. With the basic of the basic necessities of a Dungeon in place, I gave my next order, to craft a library of massive proportions, if anything, larger than anything I had created before. After all, to attract the most loyal and powerful of minions, you must be prepared to cater to their needs and wants – at least a little. Work hard and serve me loyally, and you shall be rewarded. It is one of the golden rules that I run my Dungeons, and by extension my entire empire.
With my Inner Circle supervising various efforts around my small but prosperous Dungeon, I could do nothing more but await the fresh meat for the grinder. I'm hard on my forces and they respond accordingly. What I use as rewards, I'll get to that some other time. Demon Spawn clawed their way through the portal with skeletons close behind. Warlocks were somewhat more elusive, but the sheer size of the library in this realm with so many shelves stocked with tomes, book and scrolls, not to mention parts of the massive collections from the plundered libraries and towers of numerous wizards and mages from the conquered realms above, began working its magic, attracting first one, then a pair, and then they started arriving in groups of three or more. It was rather surprising to suddenly find myself with an abundance of researchers of vary skills and ability. Some were little more than expendable troops, but others were far more alluring and powerful.
It took me but a few moments to sort out all of the new arrivals. Most of them were immediately shipped of to the training room. For the most part, they would need to get a whole lot tougher before I would let them do anything else. Some of them knew extremely little and could be counted on to do nothing more than try to punch their opponent.
However, with my Inner Circle now present, curiosity did indeed get the better of me, so I left the Dungeon Heart and called them both to me. I wanted to explore that mystical source of power to the south – whatever the hell it was. I also took Cepat along, for I wanted him close at hand – if nothing else, he could be used as an expendable meat shield. Not to mention that someone had to dig through the earth to get to it. At this point, my teleportation skills were definitely up to scratch, and I could most definitely teleport between different areas of my domain, or even between my spaced out dungeons in different lands, as draining as that is. However, I have – yes I still do have – a sense of paranoia about teleporting into the heart of the unknown, especially when that unknown could land me amongst a mass of heroes, or even worse, I could wind up as part of a wall or other piece of furniture.
When we broke through a tile of earth, it opened up in to a narrow passage, and all three of us could feel the sudden presence of mana in the air. And the mana was concentrated, almost thick enough to cut it with a knife considering that our bodies, filled with mana and magical energy, were causing static like discharges to arc through the air as we moved. My twinned blades, Sange and Yasha, were already drawn, and wherever their enchanted metal moved to, there was a crackling against their enchanted surfaces.
Lighting a Gulbrathian torch – a torch that burns with everlasting fire, and uses mana for fuel – in a mana rich environment is not to be advised, as the volume of mana in the air would mean that we would ignite the air itself, and we would most likely wind up being barbecued to a crisp. Talk about the most pathetic of ends that a Keeper could have the sheer misfortune to suffer. But even without the benefit of light, I could see in the dark, my eyesight having grown accustomed to the gloom and dank beneath the surface. The pin pricks of light that seemed to dance upon the far wall caught my attention. We moved closer towards it, and those pin pricks of light grew brighter the closer I got, their shine taking on something similar to a gold seam that Keeper's have Imps mine for money. I heard the indrawn breath and I recognized the sound as being the sudden sharp breathing of both members of my Inner Circle, "hmmm?"
"Can that be?" the excitement in Drahuliska's voice was almost palpable, giving his deep hoarse tones a gravelly edge.
"Yes it is," came the almost boredom laced reply, "What did you expect it to be? A primordial ooze of ichors?"
"Gazz," I asked him, making it a point so that he would understand that I wasn't going to be too patient about this, "What is this," I wrestled within my head for a moment, trying to find the appropriate word, "thing?"
"Master," he replied, "It appeared to be a Gem Seam, but it is more commonly known as a Gemstone Vale."
"So that's what it is called," I muttered as I turned to face him. At the phrase "Gem Seam," the encyclopedia took over for the moment, giving me detailed information about the nature of such a thing, and what a wonderful thing it is.
Gazz ventured up close to it, and cast a blast of freezing cold that froze the rock and earth, capturing the Gem Seam in its passage. Staring at it intently for a moment, he raised a claw encrusted hand before tapping the sheen of ice. The ice cracked and splintered and the frozen earth shattered, leaving a seven meter expanse of glittering wall, laced with precious metals and minerals that stretched from floor to ceiling. He seemed satisfied with what he had uncovered, hissing his satisfaction, "It is a true Gemstone Vale Master, and its value is beyond any possible calculation, but I would estimate it to have anywhere between twenty five and thirty five million in gold. It is a glorious find for the Black Flame, and I would recommend the construction of …."
"… a treasure room and posting several imps here permanently," finished Drahuliska.
I nodded to them both, "Make it so." The idea was simply to keep them both guessing as to who should work on it and maintain a level of uneasy distrust between them both. Neither of them would act without keeping a very close watch upon their rival. If they don't trust each other fully, then they can't conspire against me.
I feel that this is the ideal place to drop in a comment or two regarding the nature of money in this world. As far as I know, the land above has its own currency and it is similar to what we use down here. Everything I do costs money, whether it is building a room, training my minions, or paying my minions to do their work. Money in my dungeon takes the form of gold, and whatever other precious gems and minerals. Gold is paid out in individual pieces that weight five grams a piece. Gems are obviously more valuable, but depending on what gem is under discussion, its gold value would vary greatly. When I say minerals, I mean minerals. Certain metals are valued more than others. The rarest of minerals such as Gromril is valued at almost fifteen thousand gold pieces per pound of purified mineral. To put things in to perspective for you, Adamantine is worth almost ten times as much per pound. So if you have that mineral in your backyard, you can retire.
Now, fortune has shinned upon me, and I have no idea just what the hell I did right to deserve this kind of luck. I'm not complaining, as I now have an unending supply of resources pouring into the coffers and treasury of my Dungeon, and my whole empire. For that matter I figured, what the hell, money was invented to be spent, so I sent it back to the other realms under my control to allow for the expansion and addition of numerous other facilities and chambers, to maintain them, and also upgrade as necessary. I'd play poker but I'm guessing that the game has either not been heard off and that my opponents, Warlocks and Dragons would probably spend a fair amount of the game calculating the odds and various other probabilities related to who has what cards and whether they can actually win. Nope. I'm not playing poker or any other game of chance. Besides, my minions would all let me win, simply because they would not want to piss off their Dungeon Keeper.
My Dungeon would grow and strengthen over the coming few days as I made liberal use of the various spells at my command to haste things along the way. Funnily enough, we were able to sit back behind a near unbreakable defense: a massive Lava river. It was more than sufficient to deter the enemy form trying to cross it and as it was, my Demon Spawn and Dragons have proven just how deadly they could be by crossing the lava and annihilating any opposition that they encountered. *One slaughtered patrol and two other ambushed and bloodied patrols. Sometimes even the "good guys" get lucky and escape because of the chaotic nature of battle. Personally, I think the cowards just run at the first spell. The heroes on the Northern bank of the river had withdrawn farther away from its banks, to put themselves out of the reach of my forces.
They are more than happy to stay on their side of the river and try to starve me out. Unfortunately for them, with the Gemstone Vale, I can hold until the end of time itself. Not that I want to. I have other matters that I need to attend to as soon as possible, and what tops that list is finding a way home. So far the efforts of my Librarians have failed to find anything that can be considered to be a reliable path to return me to my home world. I have arguably the finest collection of magic, lore, knowledge and history, and there seems to be nothing that can be of any help or use to me or my researchers. Sheer aggravation is the only way to describe this fiasco that is wearing down on my already short patience to the veritable snapping point.
Fortunately for all involved, they had been successfully enough to pinpoint two general routes that could be taken to get me home. The first would be the Portal that the Avatar has under his control in his own home land and capital of Skybird Thrill. The second way that I could get home would mean actually doing something for the Dark Gods, in exchange to get me sent home. As if I have not killed or slain enough for them. Specifically for Kharnax, the Lord of Battle, God of Blood and Skulls. But the problem is actually finding out what I need to get done to earn such a favor from the Dark Gods. For the moment, until I figure out how to gain such a "gift" from those Gods, I will have to just slaughter my way through every land and Lord and heroic fool that dares to stand against me.
I don't have enough forces to actually mount an assault through the lava river and I damned sure don't have a way of building a bridge across it either! I can teleport across the river with relative ease, but with only twelve Demon Spawn, half as many Dragons and three of the Giant Flies – and they're just about useless in any fight – it leaves me with just enough troops to either get myself killed, or with a victory that will leave my forces completely depleted, without hope of advancing along the campaign trail long enough for every single free land to eradicate their own Keeper related issues and then send their massed ranks under the command of that damnable Avatar in Skybird Trill to crush me in a single wave of righteous vengeance.
Another week passed and I was slowly, but steadily being driven completely insane with the fact that I was just sitting here, waiting for my forces to train themselves up. I had managed to double the ranks of my forces, taking even those most worthless Flies and actually spending money on training them, and training them well. My enemy here had actually planned ahead for dealing with potential incursions from Keepers like myself, as he had set himself up a very nice Dungeon of his own, spread throughout large tracts of the underground that could actually rival my own dungeon. Now that really grated upon my nerves. I had a strong enough force to assure me victory. All that I was still unsure about was whether my force could actually hold against possible enemy counterattacks. I would have to spend some time to maximize the strength and power of every single warrior that I can lay my hands on. I need them all in this realm.
The Dungeon had grown and was now, in spite of still being composed of mostly the basic rooms, rather impressive, especially with a large and still growing Treasury, multiple Lairs, and Hatcheries, two relatively centralized Training Rooms and a Library large enough to satisfy any researcher's thirst for knowledge. When Drahuliska and Gazz both requested my presence in the library, I made my way there to find out what was so urgent. Fortunately for me it was something that was about to break this mind numbing, brain dehydrating siege: The Workshop. The magical place where traps are designed, doors to separate the differing areas of my Dungeon could be manufactured, and other useful inventions could be created, key amongst these other little things would be the ability to manufacture a bridge – a relatively sturdy one that would let me lead my forces across the accursed river of lava to crush that damned Lord of the Land.
Moving with all possible haste, my Imps vaporized a massive area to create a workshop that easily rivals the size of the primary Lair in this Dungeon – and that is as large as the Warlock's library. I added on a Lair and a Hatchery so that my artificers would not have to travel too far to work. The room took shape, the reinforced walls finding themselves festooned with tool racks and shelves, while work benches and massive boilers came in to existence. An area towards the back of the Workshop shaped itself into a chemical laboratory, sealed off behind walls several feet thick with an equally stout door and glass windows where various noxious or explosive, or a combination of the two, could be concocted.
The effect of having such a large Workshop was similar to the effect of having such a large library that I built earlier on. The Portal began to attract something new, and different. Their mana signature was different and unique in comparison to anything else that I had attracted to my army thus far. I was becoming quite proficient with mana and magic, and could not only feel it but, in a sense, I was able to read the waves of mana emanating outwards. The energy wave that I had felt was that of a large boned, relatively tall creature that stand between seven and nine feet tall. Green skin, heavily covered with both warts and boils, and thick enough to pass for armor. A less than appealing appearance, but Trolls are master artificers and outstanding brawlers, especially with that massive warhammer slung casually over one shoulder.
I welcomed the new arrivals, let them commune momentarily with the Dungeon Heart, allowing them to take the necessary colors, and several minutes to get adjusted to their new "home," and then I ordered them all to the Training Room. Not that they needed much in the way of toughening up. What most of them lacked was combat skill for their brute strength did not mean that they could actually swing their weapon and kill whatever they swung those hammers at. No sense in having them swinging and connecting with nothing but air. Not to mention that this particular group of Trolls, straight out of the Immaterium, where some of the scrawniest that I'd come across – personally, I think that Drahuliska could beat all of them up, hand to hand, without casting a single spell.
With trolls in my Dungeon, and their training underway, it would only be a matter of time before I had some very impressive toys to play with. The thought of that just made me shiver with glee. The fun part would be leading heroes on a merry chase through a trap filled minefield of sorts. But that would have to wait, I can't afford to lose the forward momentum, and already I've lost a lot of that due to the fact that we've been stuck here for the past three weeks.
Fortunately, the extended amount of time here had lead to the development of an effective healing spell. The spell on its own is effective, but unfortunately, it's also not as fast as it could be. While it does heal as its name implies, I found that actually combining it with the Haste spell, the effectiveness was anywhere between doubled and tripled in terms of its overall effectiveness. I could actually keep my warriors in the fray longer without having to worry about the overall state of their health as much as I would normally have to. Haste and Healing, a powerful combination that would become very useful in the battle ahead.
Gazz, the right hand of the Black Flame's operations had also promised me an updated version of a spell that he had been working on for quite some time but that he was also having a great deal of difficult perfecting. Don't get me wrong, but as good a researcher as he is, and as loyal as he is, he can be finickier than a dozen Warlocks when he feels that he needs to get a spell perfectly right. Hopefully he'll get that spell perfected soon, because if I don't get the opportunity to kill soon, I'll do a very good impression of a Kharnax Berserker by killing anyone that crosses my path, whether they're minion or hero….
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