Chapter 16 :
A New Approach to an Age Old Art Form
Hours, days, months and perhaps even years… I have no inkling of how long I have been upon the campaign trail, killing and slaying all who would stand against the forces of the Black Flame. I can't recall when it all began, but I know that it is still *on going.*(going on) I had found that strategies and tactics can be repeated with outstanding success against all of these Lords of the Land, and their accompanying retunes of pest like heroes. Within the lands of the Black Flame, there is no talk of rebellion or uprising or returning things to the "way they once were." I have taken the necessary steps to ensure that. However, my upcoming opponent was something different altogether.
By some bizarre twist, the Land of "Lush Meadow-on-Down" had already been taken over by a fellow Dungeon Keeper, who had overrun the former Lord of the Land in a series of blitzkrieg assaults. The land was nothing like its former picture postcard rural paradise with blue skies, green fields, and calm tranquility. This particular Keeper was aligned to the Green Darkness and lead by a Keeper who was worthy of some limited recognition, considering that she had succeeded in conquering a solitary land. It does not seem like much of an accomplishment, but when one considers that, apart from myself, there are two – three counting her – other Dungeon Keepers who have been successful in their attempts to take over this world. Thus far, my successes have been far greater.
With four Dungeon Hearts, my power is greater than many of the other Dungeon Keepers who seek world conquest. I will have to face them all in turn and crush them all in turn. Total victory would be the only way to ensure that I could find a way to go home. But for the moment, this new opponent of mine, from the Green Darkness, was due some respect for a woman had proven herself and earned one hell of a reputation by crushing a foe that had outnumbered her nearly two to one. Considering that she scorned the title of Keeper – as in Dungeon Keeper – and went by a name alone, "Feral," she was very interesting to say the least. I admit that I am perhaps a little overly sadistic but I knew that nothing would give me more pleasure than to stand toe to toe with this Keeper, so that I could grind, break and shatter her, before killing her and adding this despoiled place to my empire.
Where my tactics and strategies were all based upon the premise that I would be battling over zealous, somewhat religiously fanatical warriors of the light, a part at the back of my mind, the locked vault of encyclopedic knowledge, had actually told me long before hand that I would face off against numerous other keepers in my passage before I could return home, to my world. I still want to go home, but things would be different by the time I get there. I still however, wondered at why this locked vault only unlocked itself at selected moments to provide snippets of information that I could then revisit at any time of my choosing.
It was at this moment that I felt that vault of knowledge in my head unlock as it granted me access to information, precious information, regarding the finer points of combat between rival Dungeon Keepers. The only way to truly and utterly defeat such an enemy would be to destroy every Dungeon Heart that they possess. A simple enough task considering that she only had one Dungeon Heart for me to contend with. But before I can actually get to fighting, I need to sneak in, build my Dungeon, and expand my army.
In line with these simple basics of stealth to ensure that I could actually get established as quickly as possible, without alerting the my foe to my arrival, I decided to go outside of the proverbial and do the unexpected, unorthodox thing. My Imps will have a lot of work to do, and so does my Workshop for that matter. We will tunnel our way into this the dominated Land that belongs to this "Feral," and I'll have all of the mining and whatever preconstruction work that can be done, done. The Dungeon Heart gets teleported in, and the rooms can immediately be constructed, allowing for the rapid recruitment of fresh warriors to my ranks. This way, I assure myself a relatively large standing force within days of my arrival, limiting the amount of time that I spend exposed and unprotected to my enemies.
I would simply prefer to march in to her land, banners flying, announcing my presence with my army, simply slaughter all of her warriors and take over whatever she possesses. It would be the simple, direct approach but the problem is that I would find it difficult to find warriors and minions willing to work with that strategy – barring the most mercenary of fighters, meaning humans who fought for coin. And recruiting them would prove to be more than a little bit difficult all things considered- I find it to be an amusing paradox that many humans who are swords for hire, who will work for humans who have nothing but dark and evil designs for their fellow man will not work for something or someone, who has equally dark and diabolical designs for all of mankind.
The mindset of all of any minions is that they want to know that they are actually in the employ of a Keeper who can fight, win and prevail against almost any odds. Most minions, once they start in a single land, will not willingly move from that one land unless a hefty cash bonus is delivered – note that promises are insufficient to get the job done – to them in person. If I can't create a Dungeon that can rival that of my enemy, then I am not worthy of holding the mantle of Dungeon Keeper, and as such, creatures will avoid me as if the Gods of Light had a personal vendetta against me, leaving me a Keeper without an army and guaranteeing my death.
Time for my Imps to get to work, and even with that haste spells, Hastaga, working for me, it would take several days, perhaps a week to get all of the work I want done. Then and only then, will I move in to create a new Dungeon Heart to power my Dungeon within the boundaries of Lush-Meadow-On-Down. Just as well, *for that special weapon project comes to fruition soon. As powerful as my current blades are, and as potent as my magic is, there must be a way to develop a weapon far more powerful for someone – like a powerful Keeper, such as myself – to wield than a pair of enchanted swords. They had served me well, and I had no intention of making any attempts to "improve" upon them, but I can't deny that I wanted a new toy to play with.
Imps began to tear their way through the loose, soft earth, their arms swinging in a blur while they hacked their way through with savage force. It would take them only a few days to break through the territorial boundary between my empire and the edge of Feral's would be empire, and it would undoubtedly be a few more days before the rest of the pre-construction work in the other realm would be finished, hence giving me a few days to develop that new toy of mine, and perhaps finish a few other side projects that have been works in progress for far too long.
My original estimate was overly optimistic, and it showed as it took almost five days to tunnel our way in to Lush-Meadow-On-Down, and a further three days to complete the pre-construction work as I had laid out the blueprints for in my mind. But it was worthwhile, as I managed to complete two of the projects that I had been working on for some time. My new toy was ready, and I was more than a touch eager to "field test" it, along with the Troll Special Project.
But first things first, for I was waiting for the formation of the Dungeon Heart to complete itself, and it had been several long, slow, mind-numbingly dull hours waiting for the Dungeon Heart to take shape and form, but my waiting was almost over and it would be only minutes now as the last of the super-nova like blast of light faded into the darkness and shadows of the underground. It was sudden but the sound was refreshing, as the Dungeon Heart began to pulse, the first pulse of life, a new beginning, somewhat erratic, like a drummer out of tune to the rest of the band, before it found and settled upon its deep, rhythmic pulse, breathing life as the walls reinforced themselves, the flagstones cracked through the rough, slightly moist and damp ground underfoot. It was a massive expenditure in mana and resources as over a dozen different rooms and facilities came into place. Multiple Lairs with easy access to Training Rooms and Hatcheries, with one of each room close to a given facility. The Workshop was close to the Dungeon Heart, where as the Library was in a more isolated and quieter location to provide the necessary tranquility necessary for research.
Financial problems were not something that overly concerned me, because of the discovery of yet another Gemstone Vale. I found that I could easily expand even further and that, for the time being at least, the only limitations to the expansion of my Domain here in this land are Feral's forces upon the Northern – yes you guessed it – Bank of the same damned Lava River that held me up beforehand, and my imagination. Eventually, I knew I would run out of usable space for construction as well. Face it people, underground real estate, while not in high demand, is still bound by a finite capacity. The Gemstone Vales that I now had were more than enough to keep all of the warriors in my command and also cover the various necessary upkeep costs to keep my Empire in full swing, but that is only feasible considering the small size of my Empire. I don't find myself worrying about what will happen once my Empire grows too large for me to effectively sustain a hefty standing garrison force in every territory, but, I will worry about that when I have to. No sense worrying about a bridge that I have yet to cross, let alone find.
Obviously, even the quiet – well as quiet as can possibly be arranged – birth of a Dungeon Heart does attract a great deal of unwanted and unsolicited attention, and in this case, it would be the attention of a rival Keeper. While it is a point worthy of my concern and notice, it's not exactly something that was overwhelming worrying just yet because instead of the normal several days necessary to develop a fully functional Dungeon, I had to only call the various chambers and facilities in to existence, which meant that it was a matter of hours before I had attracted sufficient numbers to know, and not assume, that my position here is secure, even though there is an enemy frothing at the mouth, in search of my current position. The Lava River was my insurance policy for added security, because getting across the river would mean they would have to build a bridge and come at me – and my sentries and patrols up and down the length of the river would maintain a most careful watch. It would not do well for a sneak attack to be successful, for all of my sentries would pay the penalty for such a failure, even if it was not their assigned patrol area. It kept my forces alert and hard working, and also fearful of my less than justifiable definition of "justice."
I found it strange that Feral had left none of the humans alive in her land, which is of course vastly different from the way I run things – as you readers are all well aware –that involved leaving large tracts of un-spoiled land, naturally beautiful and preserved where people live and go about their daily lives, and the only difference between their lives under my control and a Lord of the Land is that I expect less tax from them and am more interested in doing business with them for certain goods and services…. What? Who the heck do you think does all the laundry for the Warlocks and my own clothes? You didn't think that I actually had access to something like a washing machine and a dryer down here did you? And don't get me started on how dry, bland and outright disgusting I find Chicken, day after day. I like a little variety and I don't intend to find out exactly what heroes taste like - some of my minions have actually mentioned that they taste rather like chicken. I'm still not sure what to make of that.
Research was somewhat slower pace than it could have otherwise been, but even slower research provides the occasional breakthrough. The breakthrough was not necessarily an overly powerful spell, or a spell that has any combative use, but this "Sight of Evil," proved itself to be incredibly useful, for I was able to use it to gain a view of terrain and areas that have yet to be explored, allowing me to "see" exactly what was there. This of course, includes foreign territory such as the interior of an enemy's dungeon. There are times when having too much information can be a bad thing. The simple story is that there are numerous enemy warriors – very numerous, to about three times my strength in warriors, but most of them sorely lacked any kind of real training, and from the looks of them, this particular Keeper appears to rely upon superior numbers to overwhelm her foes. Her reputation it seemed, was a calculated ploy that kept other Keeper's from knocking on her Dungeon door. I hate liars: She used superior numbers and would no doubt be a fan of Napolean Bonaparte's "quantity has a quality all its own" mantra.
Sadly, there is an unspoken truth in warfare that superior numbers of an inferior enemy can oftentimes overrun their enemies in a fashion similar to wave assault. The massive army that this particular Feral has built up allows for her patrols to consist of between four and eight warriors of various types and classes. Her strategy is to bulk out her army as much as possible, accepting massive casualties to achieve her objectives, whatever they may be. A less than pleasant thought, for portals cannot continually attract minions. Those gateways to the void, have only so much power, and as such, can only attract and for lack of a better term, "support" so many warriors before their capacity limit is reached. I would need to find an equalizer, and as much as I would like to summon that demon to aid me in killing off the rest of Feral's warriors, I knew that I could not afford to pay the necessary price yet again.
Its times like this that I remember why I ordered the construction of massive Libraries and the recruitment of an equally large number of researchers, scattered throughout the many lands of my empire. Because not only do they produce spells and aid in the design of many different traps and also in several different special projects of mine, but they are also smart enough to ensure that they have comprehensive files on all of the knowledge, lore, and even the more outlandish rumors, myths and legends that are prevalent in a given land. For every land that I have conquered, there are extensive files and records on every activity that takes place, going far back in the realm's history.
It was one of those lesser known legends that caught the attention of Gazz's associates, which was then verified by one of Drahuliska's cohorts. It appeared that in this stretch of the river, somewhere, there is a Prison that was created to house and contain the vilest, most inhuman of all human criminals. The spells within the prisons confines were designed to cause unending torment by replaying the images of whatever carnage and destruction they wrought over and over, while their body wastes away until only bone and magic remain. Reduced to such as state, the magic would then wipe their minds clean and they would have no knowledge of their past or what, why or how they came to be in such a wretched state – barring of course, the memories of their suffering and torment. This created sick, twisted and extremely evil Skeleton warriors. and I would have the ability to recruit these minions, and if I can capture this Prison complex, make many more. It would only take minor adjustments to the spells and incantations to speed up the progress.
Those corrupted to skeleton warriors would have no knowledge of themselves, their lives or their past, apart from memories of great pain and suffering that I could use to my advantage. It would be easy enough to twist that, to blame it on the forces of light or, if it came to it, upon a rival Keeper and put these walking bone piles as sacrificial shock troops against the enemy. Skeletons are most effective when they can overwhelm the enemy. I might not be able to match the massive army that this woman has at her command, but I have no doubt that I would be able to bleed her ranks enough for me to gain numerical parity at least.
The other thing that the old records mentioned was what made me determined to find these "islands." It held, supposedly, a magical power that could enhance the strength of a Keepers army. The trouble is, these islands are located in a middle of not just any Lava River, but THE Lava River of the Underground. Legend's of this river's power and origins are rather impressive – The mental textbook in my head providing information because it choose to – as it is said that a Lich had a massive underground complex here, where he did much of his research and work, but also experiments. Once such experiment was a magnificent disaster, when it somehow broke open an underground something that unleashed the flows of the river. The Lich, along with his entire subterranean empire were completely erased from existence, with all his minions and his research. Apparently, the river carved a path through the domain of a Keeper, and also the Stronghold of a Lord of the Land as it simply wandered and meandered where it wished to before it simply disappeared back in those depths.
Fascinating, as that was, it still did not tell me how to find these little magical islands located somewhere within the river. Reconnaissance is of mounting importance, not only to find these islands of magic, isolated with the Lava River, but also to gain more information about my rival in this realm. We had been fortunate thus far as our arrival has gone relatively unnoticed and the lack of aggression by my forces thus far will leave her guessing. A showdown between our respective forces would not bode well for either of us, as she has numerical superiority while my warriors are better skilled. An entertaining but ultimately pyrrhic victory and to equalize her numerical advantage, I would need those Skeleton Warriors and I would happily use the warriors of Feral's own army to fill the ranks of the undead warriors of army.
What in the nine hells is that smell coming from my Portal?
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