Chapter Three-Hundred Twenty-Two

The next week or so goes by in a blink of an eye as I watch things settle from all the upgrades, and the delvers get used to having someone like Olander around.  He doesn’t get a chance to delve in that time, probably dealing with all the political stuff he was trying to avoid, or maybe stealing time to just hang out with his friends.

The forest is seeing a lot more adventurers now, even if it’s still a work in progress.  The basic format is settled, and the denizens are adjusting to their roles quickly, though there are some growing pains.  The first couple days, I had to keep extra healing slimes in the area, and I think Grim was spending more time there than in the cemetery.  Goldilocks and Titania have been diligently sticking close to him, learning all they can about making the encounters just right, and ironing out the details with some of the other denizens.

A lot more delvers are getting injured in the forest than I was expecting, but I think that only reinforces the need for a more traditional crawl at a higher level.  The manor fills that niche for the new delvers, but I really have wandered away from a combat focus for most of my other sections.  Sure, they’re not free from a fight anywhere, but the tunnels are more like a highway than a place to fight, the caverns are more for mining than fighting, the gauntlet is a challenge of skill, not martial prowess, and the labyrinth is a puzzle rather than something to hit really hard.

I’m glad that, even battered and bruised, the delvers are generally in good spirits about the whole thing.  They’re enjoying pushing their limits, finding where they actually are in an environment where they won’t have to die or lose a friend to find them.  It’s more than a bit reckless, but most are learning pretty quickly.  A broken bone can be recovered at a good healer, but the loot tax for ‘defeat’ isn’t so easily fixed.  A couple groups have to learn a couple times that they aren’t ready yet, but they’re the exception, not the rule.

Zorro has finally admitted defeat with his floof, and though I’m sad to see him have to trim it down a lot, it’s plain to see how much easier it is for him to maintain his disguise with shorter fur.  He’s started going out on sojourns a lot, wandering Fourdock and getting to know people and how the town itself is faring.  It’s more than a bit embarrassing to learn how often people talk about me, but at least it’s easy to rationalize why.

Most aren’t really talking about me so much as the dungeon.  Sure, I’m the dungeon, but there’s a big difference.  They talk about the challenges, rumors about certain sections, gossip about what the delvers are doing, or sometimes their own plans for delves.  Those are actually fun to listen to, and informative, too.  Delving is becoming more and more of a hobby for a lot of people, and it’s relieving to hear them talk about the little details that the more experienced delvers don’t even notice anymore.

Like the aranea quests.  Sure, the guild people will just grab one on their way to whatever their actual quest is, but the more casual delvers really appreciate the guidance of the small quests.  For them, the little plaques are their quests, not just a little bonus.  The rewards are also a big draw for the newer delvers, too.

While the aranea still refuse to give out more than a single item, like the infamous lone sock, they are starting to diversify their rewards beyond silkcraft.  The ratlings and magmyrm have been slowly refilling the warehouses I have with miscellaneous things, and the aranea finally seem to feel there’s enough for them to start giving out as rewards.

Now they sometimes give out a single mail gauntlet instead of a single silk sock.  Gems are a pretty common alternative reward, along with the occasional potion.  I still don’t know what criteria they use to determine what they give out, but the only disappointments I’ve noticed so far is when a delver is rewarded with only one of an item that’s usually paired.

There’s another project that’s growing, though I haven’t had to do much myself to help, aside from upgrade the limestone quarry again.  I might need to upgrade the iron ore vein soon, too, but I’ll see how things go before I do.  Rezlar is serious about the hold in the nearby mountains, and word is finally getting out that miners of all varieties will be needed, as well as more masons to learn the new ways of concrete.

Coda and Slash have been working to slowly expand the access shaft to the caverns.  Every day, the miners work to bring up even more limestone, and my Civil Artificer is determined to ensure the traffic flows smoothly to and from the quarry, random encounters aside.  I’ve seen him sketch out a few highway intersections, a wing claw tracing the flows as he figures things out.  I’ve only done a few intersections in some games, so I don’t know the details of why certain ones work better than others.  All I know is that having traffic cross is bad.

Coda understands a lot more than that, so I’m happy to leave it to him after appreciating the geometry of his intersections.  It's enough to tempt me more to buy spatial affinity for something again, but I resist the siren song for now.

The price tag is a big deterrent, that’s for sure.  I could afford it for the plant spawner, but it won’t be cheap.  Still, there’s a lot of potential benefits for not only having spatial affinity, but having it for the plants.  They certainly won't get bored from maintaining shortcuts, for example.  Honestly, I’m holding off because I really like the idea of spatial affinity gremlins, after trading with Violet to get them.

I just think it sounds cool, even if there’s probably a better spawner to use for it.  The more I think about it, though, the more I think that idea will probably go the way of my folding spear heads or Zorro's floof.  I doubt I could make my gremlins have shadow and spatial affinities, at least not without breaking the bank.  The initial spawner and affinity addition wouldn’t be too bad, but I think the upgrades to the spawner will compete with the dragon spawner if I do that.  The stronger things are usually more expensive.  I haven’t felt the pinch too bad with the forest spawners just yet, but I bet once I get the tree in and upgrade the spawners even further, they’ll get more expensive than the dragons.

Speaking of, I check in on them and am happy to see most of them in and around the labyrinth, eating the fire elemental invaders and challenging the delvers.  I even spot a couple wyrms not far from the antkin enclave.  It looks like an ambitious rancher ant is trying to tempt them, but they’re staying at a distance for now.  Nova is helping out with scouting the foundations of the forest, and it seems like things are going to be stable in there for roots, thankfully.  I’m still waiting for the full survey report, but so far, it’s looking very promising.

Also looking promising are the antkin.  I think they’re just about ready to go hunt.  They could probably prepare forever, but they’re smart enough to recognize the diminishing returns.  They’ll have a lot of things to redesign as they get more action while out on a hunt, but right now, they’re about as good as they’re going to get.

The ranchers are still figuring out exactly what they want to use to hunt, with the current forerunner being what amounts to a boar spear for the burly antkin.  The head looks closer to a glaive than a spearhead, but it should still stab easily.

The workers look like they favor the classic shield and shortspear combo, and are drilling in small formations.  It looks like the enchanters even managed to make the shields able to link up somewhat, letting the protection magic shift to where it's needed.  The links are a bit tenuous, so we’ll see if it holds up in an actual fight, but the sparring tests look promising.

The medics are enjoying the compound bows, now the engineering caste knows how to make them.  It looks like the alchemists actually were able to make an effective glue arrow, too.  Considering I haven’t seen any delvers use something similar, I think they’ll have a good product to put onto the market once they finish up with their progress bars.

All of them are wearing wyrmhide armor, with the ranchers having the heaviest versions and the medics with the lightest.  I’m still not sure how they even manage to make the stuff, but it seems like a decent midpoint between something like boiled leather and actual steel.  There’s still the faint lines of magma-like coloring running through the hide, and while it stands out in my territory and on the surface, the antkin seem pretty confident in it helping them stay unnoticed in the volcanic section they intend to hunt in.

If nothing else, I doubt they have anything available that would give them better protection from the heat and fiery attacks of whatever’s in there.  Right now, they’re making their final preparations for their first hunt.  As I understand it, they’re not expecting to go especially deep.  This will be as much a scouting trip as a hunting trip, though the antkin intend to give them all a hero’s send-off.

Aranya, Larx, and Folarn are intending to come to see them off in the morning, and I get the feeling Queen wants to make her presence known, too.  It’ll be a big deal for the antkin to make this work.  The hunters look nervous, but determined, which I take as a good sign.  If they were strutting around and boasting, I’d worry for their safety.  But there’s a healthy amount of caution in their movements as they prepare their kits, making sure they’ll be ready come morning.  It’s tempting to ask Nova to go with them and keep an eye on them, but I think that'd be doing them a disservice.  They’ve worked hard for this.  I can’t helicopter around them and fuss the whole time.  They can do this, and I need to trust them enough to let them.