Oh, apparently we're not getting anywhere further because I fucked up the save somehow. I must have accidentally edited something in the save's raws instead of game raws and now everything is gone. Good thing it happened now when we were pretty much ready to wrap it up, just this update and the one after that, but I was so attached to that fort.
"You're probably all really disappointed that I made you get off your asses so late, huh? Don't you worry, 'cause we're fighting dark elves tonight, not any dangerous enemies. Half of them will probably run when they realize they stand no chance against us, and the remaining half probably forgot their weapons again." Freshcannon's half-hearted speech raised the mood of drow soldiers significantly. It was a promise they would be able to go back to their beds soon. "Imic, Asin, we're gonna wait south of the western gate. Nunore, try to get your watchmen on the walls. Snakes out!"
Over forty elven warriors and over thirty war horses gathered in the south. Curiously, the elves weren't riding the horses as logic would suggest. The whole army was a loosely organized horde with no squads or actual leader figures. Some horses seemed barely tame, running around frightened, even though the battle hasn't started yet.
Two giant bees somehow managed to get into the town unnoticed by anyone. Instead of wreaking havoc among the civilian drows, the insects started buzzing over a pot of mead in the food stockpile. A fisherman noticed that and cast faerie fire on them, which was a good enough sign for a drowspider to do what spiders do best - kill bugs.
(Yes, the spider is a scholar. No, it doesn't write books.)
The first dark elf to get close to the walls regreted his decision immediately. A steel bolt hit his shoulder, causing him to drop his mace.
Drow soldiers moved closer to bait reluctant dark elves closer to the walls. A few horses and a cravasi had to be taken care of first.
Chasing the panicked horses, some drows wandered too close to the dark elven army, triggering an all-out attack. Almost all-out, because some attackers decided to hide in trees to avoid certain death.
The dark elves stood little chance in a direct confrontation with the heroes of Dungeonevend. A wave of diamondium easily rolled over the invaders, leaving behind a pile of corpses.
Those elves who thought a high ground would save them didn't know the Silver Samurai's tenacity. In her misguided search for acceptance she climbed the paradise nut tree and slaughtered everyone up there.
The battle has come to an end, all dark elves have been slain, many horses ran away, none of the drows was hurt.
---
Cleaning up after battle was briefly interrupted by an enormous pelagic caravan. The plans have changed - instead of hauling trash to stockpiles, the drows were bringing it to the trade depot.
"Mister Fred! Mister Fred!" Imic shouted, squeezing through a crowd of haulers to talk with the administrator. "We can't sell them our crowns! This is important!"
"Why is it so important, Imic?"
"I like crowns, and those fish people wouldn't appreciate them enough." Imic looked at Fred pleadingly. Fred wasn't sure if that was an official mandate, but he decided to play it safe and not sell a single crown.
Later the pelagics came back to their oceanic kingdom with unbelievable wealth, and all of that in exchange for a few metal bars and few animals.
---
Athara, Liceyi, Tharumi and Uthimi had to examine the purchased animals on their own, because SQ and Scourge were training in the barracks.
"Let's see, two more female thunderlizards, as if we didn't have enough eggs in the stockpile, a male stork and a female Megalania to complete breeding pairs, a giant lunar mantis to replace the one that died of old age not so long ago..." Athara listed, before moving to completely new animals.
"A plesiosaur of some kind. Teeth jutting out of the sides of its maw like this suggest that it feeds on animals that are hard to get a good grip on."
"Like fish and mollusks. Who would have guessed an aquatic predator would eat fish and mollusks?" Tharumi wasn't impressed by Athara's deduction.
"It could as well eat hard crustaceans, maybe coral or sponges. Sometimes things aren't that simple, Tharumi."
"They were this simple in this instance."
"I'm at a loss." Tharumi said, looking at a huge beaked monster locked in the next cage.
"Ha! Good thing you have me, an expert on all things alive." Uthimi boasted. "You can tell a lot about an animal by the shape of its beak. This creature is... umm... eh..."
"You don't have to pretend, Uthimi. It's okay not to know something from time to time." Lerine tried to console the young woman, but all his words did was turning Uthimi's confused anxiety into anger.
"Maybe it's okay for you to be ignorant, but I have reputation to live up to! Let's move on!"
"Remember the worms that brigands brought on the last siege? This is one of them." Tharumi brushed her hand on the giant bristleworm's slimy body. The rest of the menagerie staff stepped away, knowing what to expect. "Oh come on, Scourge would always fall for that!"
"Stupid jokes aside, we could replace the war mottleworms with those clearly superior muckwroms." Athara commented, still closely observing Tharumi's hand. "Even though our warriors could easily defeat them, I think the dark elves would have more trouble."
"Yes, but we only have a single one. What's next?"
"Oh, look, a giant crab with a metal shell. You really need to hit its weak spot for massive damage, huh?" Lerine said.
Uthimi didn't like Lerine's comment at all. She had nothing but utmost respect for crabs. "Why would you want to hurt such a magnificent creature? You're such a jerk, Lerine!"
"Aren't you
crabby today, Uthimi. I've got this sudden craving for seafood... Let's go get lunch." Tharumi suggested. As she was leaving the storage room, she patted Lerine on the back. It took Lerine a while to realize his brand new silver silk piwafwi was covered in muckworm slime.
---
Scourge lashed at SQ with her mithril scourge, but the house overseer dodged it effortlessly, then swung her dagger so close to Scourge's face that the blade hit her shell earring.
"Gah! Be careful, SQ, This is a real weapon, not a toy!" Scourge didn't have a great time at the training. The mere thought of hurting any of her friends was enough to make her shudder with dread. As much as she wished it would be otherwise, she wasn't a warrior material.
"We're not gonna learn anything if we don't go all out! A troll from the caverns won't stop trying to eat you just because you haven't hit it as hard as you could!"
"SQ, this is a freaking blade tied to a rope, I'm not hitting you with it!"
"Excuse me..." A voice of an unfamilliar woman said, somehow gathering enough attention to stop all soldiers from training despite not even speaking too loudly. "Thank you for your attention. Our mistress wishes to talk to the house overseer, and I've been told I can find miss SQ Hateromanced here.
SQ froze as everyone's attention concentrated on her. Scourge started nudging her gently towards the door, and when that didn't work, she put some more strenght into pushing, and finally got her out of the barracks.
"This is gonna be a disaster..." The stranger whispered to herself, then she addressed Scourge: "I see how it is. We're probably going to need you, so come with us."
"I would follow you anyway, but thanks."
---
The 'mistress' the woman spoke about was standing alone in the field with her eyes closed. She didn't look exceptional - she was wearing mostly undyed clothes except for a blue shirt and mismatched shoes. A cheap-looking bone amulet and an earring made of what looked like a toenail really didn't shout 'mistress' to anyone looking at her.
"Okay, first thing you need to know, you're about to meet the grand matriarch, Yetine Shadycarries. She'll be, uh... hard to talk to. Try not to upset her too much, because..."
"The... The grand matriarch?! I... I can't! I really can't do that!" SQ panicked. The grand matriarch seemed to have overheard that and opened her eyes unsettlingly widely, which SQ noticed and got even more spooked by. "I gotta go! Agh!" Scourge grabbed SQ by the collar of her shirt. It was not the time to run away.
---
"I... ah... your m-ma... maje...." SQ stuttered, trying to introduce herself to the queen.
"Y-you... umm... p-plea... no, I..." Yetine stuttered back.
Both women were shaking and breathing heavily. Some strange feeling of rapidly growing unease started filling Scourge's and the courtier's hearts too.
"I think we should discuss this some other time." Nuwetha Ruthlesseven, the courtier signed to Scourge from behind Yetine's back before taking the grand matriarch to the side.
---
After the arrival of Yetine Shadycarries the whole city, now a mountainhome, buzzed with excited whispers, nervous murmurs, and worried grumbles. A regular overseer would have called for a celebration of some kind to show her people they should rejoice, but the overseer of Dungeonevened was hardly regular. Cavernhall was unusually packed because of all this commotion, yet against all odds SQ and Scourge managed to find some space for themselves. This space was invaded by overly excited ZM5 after a few minutes, but all things considered it could have been someone worse. SQ was too busy contemplating her failure to introduce herself to acknowledge his arrival anyway.
"A living goddess, the real deal! Is she really as divine as I imagine her to be?" ZM5 wanted all the information he could get before meeting the matriarch himself.
"Hmm... She's pretty, very much so in fact. Tall, long ears, pure white hair, completely flawless skin, just one or two notches below me, if you don't mind me saying that. But I didn't really see any divinity in her, though now that you mention it..." Scourge's words were interrupted by Nuwetha Ruthlesseven who appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Scourge and SQ just then realized that the courtier looked like a husk of a drow, as if she hadn't slept since previous century.
"Divine? No. Arcane? Perhaps." Nuwetha said, sitting down near the three drows. "Overseer, don't be too upset that Her Majesty doesn't seem to like you. It's really difficult to win her trust, and out of all people you're the one who should understand that the best."
"Hmm? I don't think I follow." SQ snapped out of daze and looked in general direction of Nuwetha.
"She means that the high matriarch has the same problem with interacting with people as you." Scourge clarified.
"It's actually a lot worse in Yet... Her Majesty's case. You can talk to complete strangers, provided you're not too far out of your comfort zone. I'm Nuwetha Ruthlesseven, by the way. Her Majesty never had a chance to practice communication. If she feels upset she loses control of her powers, as you could experience yourself when she gave us all a feeling of impending doom. I was trying to help her from the day we met, but I didn't want to endanger anyone needlessly. You see, Her Majesty is an alchemancer of the melancholic kind."
"A sorceress?" ZM5 butted in.
"That would make her really mad, and that could potentially end badly. From what I heard, Her Majesty learned to control black bile from a coal slab she found in the palatial library."
"Her Majesty never let anybody see the slab, and nobody ever will, since she smashed it to pieces a few moments ago. It's a huge loss, but at least it was an inanimate object, not some unfortunate drow's brain."
"Should you be telling us about all this?" SQ asked anxiously. A lot of drows in Dungeonevened were somewhat eccentric, but neither of them was an emotionally unstable sorcerer up to that day.
"Of course she should, it's a matter of safety. It might just answer a few questions for us..." ZM5 winked at the overseer discretely. She wasn't really looking at him, but even if she had, she wouldn't have understood what he was suggesting.
"Who are you two anyway? Ah, never mind, the male is right, if Yetine is to walk among all those people, they should know why they randomly start to break down. Barmaid, barley wine!" Nuwetha quickly got comfortable around her new acquaintances. She might have been talking about arcane secrets of the crown, but at least she didn't have to deal with self-important nobles and officials.
Yetine wasn't accustomed to sunlight as well as most drows of Dungeonevened were, which foiled her plan to hide on the surface until the commotion settles down. Dizzy and nauseous, the matriarch slowly headed towards the entrance, looking around anxiously all the time. The meeting with the overseer was a complete embarrassment, and she didn't want to repeat that ever again. Or did she? That was supposed to be the first step into a new life, a life far away from isolation. So what if the first step was a misstep? The grand matriarch suddenly felt daring, daring enough to go deep into the city and introduce herself to all one hundred fifty drows.
With a confident smile Yetine stood in front of the temple tower, looking into the magically illuminated corridor. One more step and... She could not do it, the last step was not going to happen. What would Nuwetha say to her in this situation? Something about 'accepting her weaknesses' or something like that, but what does it mean anyway? Wallowing in self-loathing? Sure, why not.
With no better idea about what to do with herself, the matriarch sat down in the grass and started telling herself how much of a failure she was. This didn't last long, however, because as soon as she started getting really emotional, a sound of a crying baby brought her back to reality. It seemed to come from the small wooden shack at the base of the wooden tower. Yetine had a feeling that was her fault, so she felt obliged to check out if she hadn't caused any serious trouble. Discretely. She cracked the door open and peeked inside.
In the barracks a large, muscular male drow was trying to calm down a baby, while a pitiful male and an equally pitiful woman were on their knees, scrubbing blood off the floor using rags.
"Imic, could you make your daughter shut up? If you don't, I promise I'll dump this bucket water on Biretha and get the hell out of here." The woman threatened.
"Piss off, Melici, I'm not the one yelling my lungs out here!" Biretha snapped and threw his rag at Melici. The woman threw her rag at Biretha as a revenge. They were equal now.
"You know you dont actually have to be here, right, miss Melici? Mister Biretha volounteered for cleaning duty, and since you joined him, I assumed you wanted to help him." Imic informed, still struggling with his child's tantrum.
"You what?" Melici stood up, picked up a bucket of soapy water and dumped the content on Biretha's head. "I thought I missed the boss forcing us to do this, but it was your stupid idea the whole time?"
"I thought you'd appreciate a teamwork excercise. O-of course you're a braindead psychopath..." Biretha's hesitation was obvious even to Yetine. "...but I... I like working with you."
Melici blushed brightly, which embarrassed her even further. "Sh-shut up, you freakin' moron! I'll go get another bucket of water!"
Yetine couldn't help but chuckle, which not only calmed the baby down, but also caught Imic's attention.
"Is someone there? Come in!" The weapon master invited the nosy eavesdropper inside.
It was the time for Yetine to gather all her courage and introduce herself properly. She's been preparing for this her entire life. "I'mCarriesYetineshadymeettoniceyou!" Close enough. The grand matriarch's heart was pounding, but she was proud of herself despite the fact that she forgot her own name or to actually open the door. The latter was rectified a second later.
"Did she say... Yetine Shadycarries?" Imic whispered to Biretha and Melici.
"No, I'm pretty sure she said..." Biretha wanted to correct the weapon master.
"Mistress, I've heard about your arrival, and it will be an honor to... Wait, am I your weapon master now, or do you have your own? I mean, miss SQ made me her weapon master, and it would be very rude to find a new mistress. I'm sure you will find someone to protect you, maybe mister ZM5 or..." Imic noticed that Yetine's expression changed slightly, but he couldn't read it at all, so he just assumed she was displeased with him. "It's not like i wouldn't like to serve you, my mistress! I'm sorry I dared to make suggestions; you should decide for yourself after all, since you're second only to Lolth... W-wait a moment, I also apologize for speaking without your permission! Do I talk too much for your liking, mistress?"
"Imic, you might want to stop freaking out and look again." Melici suggested. Where Yetine was standing a few seconds ago was a cloud of darkness, not unlike an ink cloud of an octopus, and it seemed to be serving the very same purpose.
"Oh no, I hope I'm not in trouble..."
"The most important aspect of her magic is how it affects her. You see, her majesty's body is pure and perfect." Nuwetha said, looking suspiciously into her goblet of barley wine. Why did this supposedly exotic drink look like regular cave barley beer?
ZM5 clapped his hands and eyes lit up with excitement. "Ooh, now I can't wait to meet her even more than before!"
Scourge, having actually seen Yetine, wasn't as impressed as her friend. "Perfect body? Not really. Her legs are nice, but she could use a little more volume in the chest department."
"It's the ideal female elven physique, Scourge; like it or not, but less really is more." SQ said, pushing her own underdeveloped chest out proudly and grinning smugly.
"Fine, I'll let you have this one, but Her Highness isn't flat as a board either, so don't take it as a boost to your already overinflated ego."
"Huh? What do you... H-hey!"
"Can we stop talking about Yetine's... shape, and continue discussing her magical abilities? When I said her body is perfect, I meant that she has much more control over everything going on inside her than non-alchemancers - she doesn't need to sleep, never gets tired, can't get sick, and I'm pretty sure if she was a mortal she wouldn't age, if that makes any sense. She still does have to eat, drink and breathe, and she still bleeds when wounded. Only when wounded, though."
Yetine Shadycarries wasn't too mad at herself for running away from the barracks; she did manage to introduce herself... in a way. She couldn't hang out aboveground for much longer either, because it was getting awfully windy. It's not like she was in any risk of catching a cold, but even with complete mystical control over bodily fluids, getting sand out of one's lungs isn't easy. The thought of continuous coughing has pushed the matriarch to the very limit - she closed her eyes and walked all the way through the entrance corridor, ignoring loitering drows and croaking fishmen merchants.
Perhaps it was a divine intervention, but Yetine managed to get to the first level underground without tripping and falling down the stairs. She opened her eyes and realized that she had no idea where anything was in Dungeonevened, especially her quarters. Since there weren't many people around, the grand matriarch decided she would explore the city on her own, starting with the source of alluring smell coming from somewhere beyond the food stockpile.
Behind the first door was a passageway with doors on each side. Something was going on behind the door to the right, and Yetine, despite being the supreme leader of all drowkind, was not above listening in.
Yetine easily deduced that the room was a kitchen, and the man ordering people around was the head chef. "...not enough liquid moonlight! The mussel flavor is supposed to be subtle, SUBTLE! Not too late to fix it, Vathi, get to it! The horse roast... Liyetha? Oh, good, I was worried for a second. It's not only a masterpiece of culinary art, but also a testament to drow might; we can't just substitute it with steamed mussels or some other bland, low-effort dish. Oquari, what is it? The recipe, MY recipe, calls for barley flour, not wheat. We can't take any risks while preparing a feast for the grand matriarch. Where's the wine? Where the hell is it? You, you were supposed to order it from the brewers... Huh? Oh, I'll have to go there personally and give them a piece of my mind! Hey, you, you're in charge until I come back."
The chef was getting closer to the door too fast for Yetine to react. A second faster and the matriarch would have been hit on the head by the dolomite door, but that would be preferable to what happened next.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't aware there would be visitors at a time like this." The silver-haired chef said seeing the startled woman. "I assume you're here to join the chef's guild? On behalf of the guild I, Ombragon Ghoulmatched, have to apologize, because we can't accept rookie cooks today. You see, we're preparing a feast for Her Majesty Yetine Shadycarries. You know what they say, one bad cook spoils the broth."
"I... I'm..." Yetine didn't know if she could admit to being the grand matriarch or to point out Ombragon's saying was wrong. She couldn't articulate neither anyway.
"That's right, you just arrived here from Murknightmare! It's a long shot, but you might know what's mistress Yetine's favorite food is. Well?"
"It's... ca-cav-cavern g-gourds.
"Come on, lady, cavern gourds are barely edible, even cooked. Her Majesty's royal palate would certainly be most displeased with the bitterness. I was thinking sun berries, dragon meat, unicorn milk, those kind of things. You know what, though? I can't really explain it, but I feel really bad for not having cavern gourds in stock right now. One more thing to talk to Lunardog about." Ombragon had no idea he was being magically guilt tripped about vegetables by the grand matriarch herself. Even if he knew, he would have carried on the guild business anyway.
Nuwetha finally accepted that surface barley wasn't much different from cave barley. A woman of her position shouldn't be drinking slave beer, but she didn't want to offend anyone by refusing to do it. While she was sipping her barley wine slowly, she continued talking about Yetine's abilities. "Well, it's a weird thing with her eating and drinking. She can make people, including herself, not need sustenance for a while. She calls this spell 'melancholic persistence'. The affected person always feels severe anxiety though, so Yetine doesn't use that one too much."
"She must have used that on someone if you know how that works." ZM5 inquired.
"Yes, there's a sad story behind it... Most people can endure it and get better after a while, but on that one occasion she also shared her purity with one of few people she ever considered her friends, which resulted in a double dose of magical depression. I really don't like to talk about that incident..."
"I guess I'll ask her about that myself... If I dare. She's a goddess after all."
"She's not a goddess, Five!" Scourge finally snapped. ZM5 was literally the only drow worshipping the queen, and Scourge was absolutely sick of it.
"Then what is she? She can perform miracles, is more beautiful than any drow, doesn't age... well, none of us does, but she doesn't age the most. This is beyond simple magic."
"Oh, shut up already, or I'll tell Nuwetha about your creepy shrine. Oh, wait, I just did. Heh heh." Scourge chuckled mischievously.
"Guys, I dozed off for a while. Could you give me a quick rundown on what you've been arguing about?" SQ butted in.
"I shouldn't have left Murknightmare after all..." Nuwetha grumbled, then started looking around the tavern. "Barmaid, more barley wine!"
Athara needed a break after a long shift of cleaning animal enclosures, but first she had to put all the tools away back into the storage room. What she didn't expect was that she would meet Tharumi entertaining a special guest in the storeroom.
"Athara, I need to show you something!" Tharumi exclaimed enthusiastically. "I found this adorable little thing staring at ethereal slayers, so I just had to show her around. I think I'll keep her." The animal trainer gently patted the stranger on the head. "I don't know her name or even how old she is, and I think she's mute, but I think I'll manage to raise her well."
"I... I don't think you should be adopting her, Tharumi..."
"Is it because I'm unmarried or because I'm gay? I'll have you know I'm as capable of raising a child as you or Scourge! Hell, I'm sure that if I had children they wouldn't be just running around swinging toy swords around like a bunch of savages." Tharumi went straight for the throat, but Athara remained calm despite the personal attack.
"You can't adopt her because she's one hundred sixty eight years old and she's the grand matriarch of The Labirytnthine Nightmare."
Yetine was shocked about getting recognized; she enjoyed Tharumi's headpats more than she would ever admit. She opened her mouth hoping she would force herself to say something, but before she could, two more drows entered the room. Uthimi and Lerine were arguing about something.
"I don't need your help, Lerine! Gods, I'm a professional and you're just an ama... Oh, a new caretaker?" Uthimi quickly forgot about scolding her colleague; she was doing that so frequently that it stopped doing it for her.
"Uthimi, Lerine, this is my new daughter, Yetine Shadycarries. I just got her and she's already a grand matriarch." Tharumi said proudly.
"No, she's not your daughter! You know what? I'm out of here!" It was too much for Athara, so she simply and unceremoniously left to get a drink.
"I th-think I... I think I should go..." Yetine whispered into Tharumi's ear.
"Of course, honey, have fun!"
"This is something I find really creepy: Yetine, as emotionally immature as she is, can make people feel debilitating pain just by flicking her finger in their general direction. She literally tortured two dwarven assassins to death, and is now wearing parts of them as jewellery." That was definitely not something Nuwetha was supposed to tell anybody, but the beer was getting to her head.
Scourge wasn't impressed by that. "Big deal, SQ can cause physical pain by saying realy dumb things; no need to move her hands or even think."
"It's really ironic that you're the one saying that, Scourge. Have I got it right? Is that what irony is?" The overseer looked around to see the others' reactions.
"Ouch! Thanks for proving my point."
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Topic: LCM - Dungeonevened - The End (Read 41273 times)