Pick up the spell books that are left over and head home, where I shall work on summoning a demon chicken. One that WON'T attack me or my minions.
[5]Success! Demon chicken! ...Not really the most threatening of demonic beings, but hey. It
looks totally normal, but breaths fire every now and then. Also it may or may not summon giant swarms of itself if attacked without reason by heroes. Maybe.
Keep the merchants alive. Take half their group as hostages, send the other half to the nearest important city. Have them sell their wares, and keep the profit the money doesn't matter as much as information. I want to know the defences of the city, whether there are any warriors that will join me, and how much potential loot there is.
((Also, please give me the actual number of merchants, hostages or otherwise)).
((I usually don't bother too much with
exact numbers. Let's go with a dozen.))
[3]The terrified merchants are quick to do as asked, heading off to the city to follow your orders without question. The trip is long enough that they won't be back for another turn though...
...On the bright side, your missing soldiers have returned! Doubled in number! The new trio aren't quite as battle-hardened as most of your band, but they certainly don't look to be pushovers either.
Scoutbot: Scout the area. Any natural landmarks that a lab would look good on, or would be easily defensible at least? Any harvestable natural resources, or even better, junkyards? Last but not least, which direction would the angry mob come from?
Workerbots: Expand the lab, add a few more rooms and a tower high enough to overlook the area and cackle maniacally from. Make sure the tower is weather-proof.
Commanderbot: Supervise the workerbots.
Trianna: Build guardbots, a dozen or so and armed with ranged weaponry. Aim for crowd stopping power.
[6]While the scoutbot reports dreadfully little of importance in all directions, the workers are far more productive. In fact, under the command of the... well, commander, they quickly take the lab from ruin to fortress, reinforced walls and towers surrounding it and the interior far better equipped for use. On the downside, between them and the ten Gatling-gun-armed guardbots your supply of scrap is practically gone. You might be able to get one more bot out of it, but that's it.
Now that that's taken care of, Thanatos returns to the business at hand. He orders four of the imps to continue their search for gold and other treasures, while the last one will build a forge in the remaining empty room. After that, he tells his necromancer to return to his studies, but first he shall order his skeletal minions to go out of the dungeon and capture some people and imprison them in the cell.
[4]The imps set to work instantly, unearthing gold and jewels from the surrounding earth bit by bit, even as your necromancer's own minions set out to find a few prisoners. Fortunately it turns out your dungeon is near some nice farmland, and they are quickly back with a quartet of peasants that quickly get herded into the prison.
It isn't long at all before your imps wok is rewarded either: An ogre smith has clambered up from the spawning pool, drawn to the smell of gems and ready to work.
Exist
Well, so much for Dr. Dark's plans for world domination. Where once stood a lab, now only partially dissolved ruins remain, the building roped off due to what the authorities assume was some kind of freak chemical accident...