Dungeon of Knowledge

Chapter 141: The Dungeon’s Survival Guide

, by Lyeneru Silverleaf, Elven Pathfinders Guild.

Tala

“Wait here,” Tala said, not even checking to see if he followed her orders before she dodged into the alley and cloaked herself with her magic. Daeron was a self-important mouth-breathing moron, but it would be Kieran Mori he had to answer to if he didn’t listen.

She dodged the bright moonlight on the other side of the alley and emerged into the broad street by the south gate and paused to study the scene. The gates were shut, and the guards… She scowled at the backlit shapes visible through the window of the guard house.

That made it easier, though.She stooped and picked up a chunk of broken cobblestone, hefting it thoughtfully before she tossed it across the way. Her aim was perfect and the sharp crack of the stone striking the wooden door rang out loudly in the night.

Shouts and activity erupted within the guard house, but Tala was already on the move, darting from shadow to shadow as she sprinted across the street. By the time the door slammed open, she was already there. With a burst of stamina, she activated Ambush and Mutilate simultaneously, burying both daggers in the center of the man’s back.

Her chime sounded as her blades found his heart.

Before the second guard barreled out of the doorway, she used Vanish, drawing the shadows up around her once more. She took a slow breath, and, as soon as the second guard appeared, she shanked her, slipping one dagger into a kidney and the other through the left side of her ribcage right under the armpit. The longer blade in her left hand found the heart, triggering critical damage and her Ambush finished it off.

she thought, ignoring the echo of her chime. Reaching into her storage, she retrieved two cards with the Silent Assassin’s emblem and carefully set one on each corpse, before she entered the guard house and released the latches. The south gate slowly swung open, revealing the darkness of night beyond.

“….mmmrrraarg….”

Tala slipped out and returned to the alleyway, finding Daeron staring wide-eyed at the zombies shambling into town. Grinning wickedly, she snuck up behind him and announced her presence with a dagger-point to his throat.

“Waah!” he gasped.

“Pay attention, unless you wish to die,” she whispered, enjoying the trembling in his legs. “Remember the job – let them kill a few people before your group takes care of the zombies.”

He nodded, his throat working as he gulped.

“Don’t forget to make a noise. Kieran wants witnesses.”

“Yes, yes, I got it!” he stammered. The gloom failed to hide how green his face looked.

“Make it happen. And don’t forget your armbands.” Tala used Vanish again and left him blinking as his head snapped back and forth comically.

Mori would be happy.

Lightly, she licked her lips. The night had just begun.

Aliandra

Ali woke early, and peacefully. She had half expected to be woken in the middle of the night by some monster invading the library from the jungle below, but her barrier across the doorway remained intact and had kept them all out. Scrolling through the notifications, it seemed like her traps and Kobold defenders had been working around the clock – at least, the undead quest counter on her ring had ticked up by twenty-three. Busy out there.

She roamed around with her senses, connecting with each of her monsters and verifying with their eyes that all was secure. she thought as she noticed the zombie corpses piled up on top of her runic circles. They wouldn’t work well if monsters had to walk around them. “” she instructed, waiting only for a confirmation nod from her Kobold in the distant cavern, still impressed that Martial Insight seemed to have no range limit so far. She’d need to go dispose of them before they began to stink up the place. Well, they probably already reeked.

Casting her awareness further out, she found her two Kobold rogues, still hard at work picking over the town. She chose one and shared his view of the world for a moment, finding him busy dragging a stack of broken wooden slats along a dark alleyway to a hole in the ground. He paused, and then pitched it all in before returning to

But Lyeneru had given her the solution in the form of free, but harsh advice.

Her own rule-three indicated she needed knowledge and perception, and her rule-two encouraged her to think with monsters. She was taking it perhaps a trifle too literally though, paging through the compendium, searching for monsters with unusual and potentially useful perception skills like her slimes.

she thought, staring wide-eyed at a beautifully detailed picture of something called an ‘ According to the compendium, these monsters were earth-affinity flightless, legless dragons, but having neither wings nor legs did not hamper their movement in any way. They had earth magic to burrow through solid stone at the speed of a flying dragon, and they could sense through rock.

“Hi Ali, what are you doing?”

She glanced up from her studies to find Mato walking up to greet her with Ryn hovering beside him on her pretty magical butterfly wings.

“I made a dungeon’s survival checklist, and now I’m trying to find useful monsters to help my defenses,” she answered, though her success so far had been mediocre at best.

“Can I see?” Ryn asked.

“Do you want breakfast?” Mato asked, simultaneously.

“Yes, to both!” she grinned. Pushing her notebook toward Ryn, she offered the  from Lyeneru’s book, and then her own version, .

“That’s funny!” Ryn giggled. “You flipped the meaning entirely. What kind of monsters are you looking for?”

“I’m really worried about stealth and assassins, especially since I’m a dungeon and there’s already a bounty on my head. So, I was looking for monsters with perception skills that could defeat stealth and invisibility to help defend me. But they need to be common enough that I can actually find some, not like this guy.” She flipped the compendium around so Ryn could see the Earth Wyrm.

“That’s big,” Ryn said.

“Also, it would be very handy if I could find some higher-level monsters that prioritize wisdom or intelligence as their highest attribute for my Empowered Summoner skill,” Ali added. She had two imprint chapters she could sacrifice if something useful showed up. Even though food was still scarce in town, she wasn’t certain she needed the Black Bean and the Potato imprints anymore. She could always just plant some rice, wheat, or some more fruit trees if she wanted to fill some of the food collection jobs on the guild board. She even had some edible mushrooms.

“Wolves have good noses,” Mato called out from where he was stoking the cookfire.

“Oh, yes! I have some Timber Wolves,” she said. She also still had the Starving Wolf and Alpha variants if she needed something easier on the mana – but they were lower level and presumably had weaker senses. He was right, though, the wolves were one of her best options right now – scent was hard to mask.

“This sounds like a fun project,” Ryn said, pulling up a chair and placing a hand on the Monster Compendium. “Give me a second.” A complex formation of golden mana formed in front of her eyes as tiny sparks of violet played in her pupils. Her eyes flickered back and forth rapidly as if reading something at high speed.

“Ok, here we go,” Ryn said. She took the Monster Compendium from Ali and flipped the pages halfway through the book. “Here’s one option to consider. The compendium says that spiders are very common, and most species have interesting visual senses, highly sensitive to motion. Some of them also produce webs which they use in conjunction with various kinds of tremor sense. Here, read this.” Ryn pointed to the chapter describing the many and varied abilities of monstrous spiders.

“I used to know how to make spiders,” she mused. “But I had to give it up because I didn’t have enough space at the time.” She left unsaid that a major contributor had been the fact that they creeped her out a bit. On the other hand, they were most assuredly common – spiders could be found anywhere. The challenge would be finding one with the right sensory skills. she wondered, grimacing at some of the pictures in the book.

“Here’s another option,” Ryn said, flipping to the front of the book. “Bats usually have exceptionally acute hearing and sonic echolocation. An active sonic perception skill might be just the thing for flushing out sneaky creatures and people!”

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Ali said, grinning at Ryn’s mounting enthusiasm. “There were some pretty scary bats on the second level of this city, maybe there are still some left that I can hunt.”

“For the creatures with high intelligence and wisdom, I will try to find some more information and make a list,” Ryn said, brusquely, pulling out a notebook and a pen. “I was planning on visiting the library at Vertias again this afternoon. I can search their collection for anything interesting.”

“Oh, if you’re going to Vertias, can you look for any books on arcane trigger magic?” Ali asked. She needed to make some progress on traps, and none of her ideas had panned out so far, but the discussion of the library had reminded her that magic tomes existed – and also reminded her of the niche branch of arcane magic related to trigger spells and metamagic.

“Ok, I’ll look.”

“Oh, can you also search for more books detailing dungeon dives?” Ali asked, meeting Ryn’s gaze as she glanced up. “I need descriptions of the traps and monsters, and any tidbits on how the dungeon was constructed. Or grew… whatever.”

“Got it,” Ryn said, scribbling down more notes. “Anything else?”

“A fun story?” Then Ali grimaced. “And a replacement for the couch.”

“I got those on the list already.”

“Hate to disturb your furniture shopping, ladies, but here you go,” Mato interrupted with bowls of hot oatmeal seasoned with crushed nuts and strawberries. It smelled divine, and Ali immediately dug in.

“How was your job at Sigurd’s farm? Did you finish?” she asked, talking around a mouthful of food, and then immediately feeling bad for forgetting her manners.

“Yes, his farm is cleansed,” Mato said, joining them at the table for breakfast. “He was so happy that he told all the other farmers, and now they all want me to do their farms too. I had to stop them trying to outbid each other to buy me with money.”

“Why did you stop them?”

“Well, it’s my duty to cleanse it. I would do it for free, but Mieriel told me we must charge at least the minimum fee because it’s the Town Council that is sponsoring the cleanup.”

“Well, if you’re going back out there, do you remember that cave with the Kobolds we cleared? There were some cave bats in there –”

“Ugh, flying rats,” Mato grumbled.

“If it’s not too much trouble, would you collect some for me? I think I’ll go hunt some of the giant bats from the ruins, too.” At least she knew where the bats were, and if she could add them to her Grimoire, she would hopefully have access to a potent defender with a new powerful perception skill.

“Smart,” Mato nodded. “I’ll do it, just for you, even though they fly. But I have one condition.”

“What’s that?” she asked, surprised at his request.

“Those –” he pointed toward a pair of Kobolds and a Luminous Slime “– are dinky monsters. I would feel a lot better if you made something stronger and kept it nearby. You’re by yourself down here and if you get attacked, I want to know you’re set up to handle it.”

Ali smiled, about to tease him about the loss of her confident, happy-go-lucky friend, but she saw the concern in his expression, and she withheld her words.

Instead, she said, “Ok, I’ll make a couple of Forest Guardians, and a few Wyverns to go hunt bats and keep them nearby.”

“Thank you,” he said, “and good hunting.” He smiled, packed up his cooking gear, and waved goodbye, heading out to continue his blight eradication quest.

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