Dungeons Are Bad Business

Though Alforde had yet to truly go out and explore the majority of the street fair, he was already having a blast. The smell of food and the sound of music didn’t do much for him, but he’d found something else to pay attention to. Parking himself in front of Glenda and Jared’s stall, the armorsoul would have been happy to spend the entire day watching the [Armorers] show off their craft. Adventurers brought their weapons and armor over for repairs or modifications, and the couple handled their requests with the ease of long practice and a surprising flair for showmanship.

Alforde happily watched them hammer the dents out of breastplates and helmets, put new edges on all manner of bladed weapons, replace broken spikes on maces, and all sorts of other things that he hadn’t really ever seen before.

Their craftsmanship was magical, and Alforde loved the way their hammers sang as they worked. It was a completely different set of sounds and rhythms compared to the noises Slammy made during training or that Hammy had made during dungeon fights. There was a gentleness and joy to the smithing that Alforde quite liked, and he briefly wondered if there was any way he could replicate such a sound for himself.

[Congratulations, you are now a Hammer Afficionado level 20!]

[Might +1]

[You have been given a quest: Explore additional hammer techniques. Would you like to accept?]

Alforde paused for a moment before accepting. It’d been a while since he’d been given a quest, but he saw no reason to refuse.

[Quest received: Explore additional hammer techniques.]

[Dangers: None]

[Rewards for completion: [????] ]

[Description: There are many ways to swing a hammer. Talk to Glenda and Jared and see if you can learn more about how to shape and build instead of smash and destroy.]

The armorsoul didn’t exactly know when he’d find time to do such a thing, but resolved to ask the [Armorers] for lessons as soon as they finished their current task.

However, before he got the chance to do so, a small blonde girl of eleven or twelve tugged on his gauntlet and recoiled at the chill.

He looked down at her. There were a handful of other children nearby, and all of them looked at him with a combination of awe and abject terror. With great effort, Alforde suppressed his Intimidating Presence as much as he could, and was pleased when he saw the children all visibly relax.

“Yes? Can I help you with something?”

She smiled and held up a small figurine. “Is this you?”

Alforde looked down at the toy in her hands. It was mostly made out of wood and about six inches tall. Though the proportions and colors weren’t perfect, the armorsoul recognized his old body and nodded.

The girl spun around and stuck her tongue out at a freckly, ginger boy in her group. “See? I told you it was him!”

The boy scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. “He still don’t look right.”

Alforde chuckled, and explained the reason for his change in appearance. The children listened with rapt attention, and when he was finished talking, one of the smallest children in the group turned to his neighbor and boldly declared, “I’m going to be an armorsoul one day, you know.”

The children peppered Alforde with a bunch of questions – some of them completely nonsensical – and the [Dungeon Champion] did his best to answer them while Jared and Glenda hammered away.

Finally, the kids grew bored and went to return to their wandering. Right before they left though, the blonde girl walked back up to Alforde and took a small wooden base out of her bag. The words Crestheart Champion – Alforde Armorsoul had been burned into the side. With a shy look, she handed it to Alforde.

“Would you sign this for me? Pretty please?”

It was the first time in a long time that he’d been asked for his signature, and Alforde was keenly aware of the fact that this was a new frontier to explore as a [Dungeon Champion]. Should he just sign normally, or should he invent a “stage name” signature explicitly for dungeon purposes?

He signed normally and handed the base back. No reason to complicate things.

“Good luck in your battles,” she squeaked as she ran to join her friends.

Alforde didn’t have a heart, per se, but he definitely felt warm and fuzzy on the inside as he watched the group of kids fade back into the crowd. He had fans…of a sort. That was pretty cool!

Standing back up, Alforde returned his attention to the [Armorers], but was distracted by a wave of panic and anger thrumming through his bond with Vee.

He turned towards the tower and saw a flash of blue hair as his friend left the window and started sprinting down the stairs.

Something bad had happened. Alforde hurried towards the tower, but before he got there, he saw a trio of well-dressed people and a gaggle of [Bodyguards] head towards the door.

Luna adjusted her mail bag and made her way down the street. By her count she still had….six things left to deliver before being done for the day. She smiled as she thought about her plans for after work. Since the guild’s smalljobs board was closed in honor of Crestheart Day, there was nothing else for her to do once she finished her deliveries. Originally, she’d planned to go visit the street fair in the hopes of “accidentally” bumping into Vee.

However, as she smiled at the thought of a chance encounter, a big drop of rain landed on the brim of her hat and splattered to the ground. It was followed by others and soon enough, it was pouring. Luna was grateful she’d decided to wear a coat that day, even though the weather had been gorgeous when she’d left the house that morning. Sometimes lucky.

Though she wanted to see Vee, she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to spend a bunch of time out in the rain to do so. There’d be other chances to spend time with the bashful [Dungeon Master], and she couldn’t afford to catch a cold.

Maybe she’d just go home and curl up next to the fire with a nice cup of tea, instead. Yeah, that sounded like a better way to spend the day.

But still, she wasn’t sure. As she mulled over her options, the rain grew more intense. The moment the last letter for the day was out of her hands, Luna felt a twinge between her shoulder blades. It pulled her attention towards Westown, and the [Pumpkin Witch] stopped in her tracks. Her eyes tickled, and her pumpkin magic started pulsing inside her palms. Luna clenched her hands and relaxed them a few times, but the sensation remained. It was like an itch that she couldn’t scratch, no matter how hard she tried.

A tingle?! Now?!

Luna groaned. She knew that she needed a better name for the peculiar flashes of intuition that she’d been having ever since breaking her limits, but didn’t feel like spending her time thinking of one. What’s in a name, after all?

The first time she’d felt the tingle, she’d thought it was simply a side effect of the limit-breaking process. A price that had to be paid in exchange for the increase in power that she’d earned. However, when she’d decided to follow the tingle’s pull one day on a whim, she’d found herself helping an old man carry flowers home to his wife. She’d followed another one, and ended up climbing a tree to rescue and return a long lost cat. From then on, she’d happily followed the tingles wherever they’d taken her, helping people with a variety of little things. It’d been fun.

However, little things slowly gave way to bigger things, and soon she’d found herself chasing down a purse snatcher and stopping a mugging in progress. Those were less fun, but Luna liked doing them anyways. At the very least, they were good experience.

Most recently, a painful tingle had led her to the intersection where she’d bumped into and fought Holly after the [Snowmancer] escaped from prison.

She wondered what sort of thing was calling to her now.

Picking up her pace, Luna headed towards Westown. She winced as the tingle grew worse and worse with every step. Though she never knew for certain how long she had to get where she needed to be, she suspected that the intensity of the tingle was an indicator of how long she had left before missing her chance to save the day. While far from perfect, she was fairly certain of one thing as her heavy boots pounded against the sidewalk.

She was running out of time.

Grabbing her purse, Luna activated its cart mode and jumped inside.

With a speed that was as impressive as it was brazen, the remaining pair of teenagers - one of whom had a beard - scrambled up the wall like spiders and followed their friend to the other side. Though he was furious, Vee had to admit that the feat was pretty impressive. There was no way he would have been able to do such a thing.

That didn’t change the fact that Vee was pissed. Should anything bad happen to them, Vee knew that it’d be his head on the proverbial chopping block for failing to anticipate their lark into the abandoned section of the city. His public relations stat would plummet, and he’d have a heck of a time recovering. The last thing he needed right now was another setback. Sacre probably wouldn’t be particularly understanding if push came to shove.

Closing his eyes, Vee reached out to his orchestra and described the wall climbers to the fiends. “Find them and make sure that they’re safe,” he ordered. “I’ll be along with Alforde as soon as I can to bring them back to the right side of the wall.”

A clipped response came from the medium section’s representative, “Will.”

Vee turned and confirmed with Reginald that the [Core Spirit] could handle the dungeon runs until he got back, then headed down the stairs as fast as his legs would carry him.

Stupid teenagers, Vee thought with a snarl once he got down to the ground. Things had been going so well, and now he had to scramble and find them before they got themselves into trouble and ruined Vee’s event.

Stepping outside, Vee started to head towards the [Armorers] to get Alforde, but was stopped by a silky voice.

“Mister Vales, the man of the day! Just who we were looking for!”

Vee turned and saw Michael Seidon – the councilman he’d had Alforde hang out the window on Crestheart’s opening day – walking towards him. He was dressed in a snappy pinstripe blue suit and was surrounded by a half dozen [Bodyguards]. They all held up umbrellas to keep the rain away from the councilman’s outfit.

Alongside him were two people who had to also be council members. One was an older black woman with gray hair and a pair of wireframe glasses, while the other was a tall brown man with a pointy beard. They were holding hands and were dressed well, though not quite as ostentatiously as Seidon.

“Councilman,” Vee said as he forced himself to grin. “What a pleasure to see you. How may I be of assistance?”

Seidon pointed to his companions. “My colleagues here were hoping that you’d be willing to let us observe a few of the runs from your office. I’m afraid that none of us on the council are terribly familiar with how dungeon sports work from the administrative side. Would you mind if we accompanied you when you returned to your duties?”

Vee shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that there’s another matter that requires my attention at the moment, so I won’t be returning the office for a little while. However, you’re welcome to go up and watch the runs. My [Majordomo], Reginald, is up there and I’m sure he’d be happy to explain things to you. Just so you know, he’s a [Core Spirit] in a top hat. Please don’t be alarmed when you see him.”

Seidon’s smile grew even wider, and there was a gleam in his eyes that Vee didn’t like. “Oh goodness, how disappointing! We were rather looking forward to your commentary and insights. Best of luck in dealing with your other task. I do sincerely hope it’s not some sort of emergency. It’d be such a shame if something happened to spoil this lovely day.”

Vee met the man’s eyes and bit his tongue as Seidon’s smirk filled him with rage. He knows, which means he probably had something to do with it.

[Devious Mind +1]

“I appreciate your concern, but there’s nothing to worry about,” Vee said. He forced himself to remain pleasant, even though he wanted to leap forward and sock the man in the face. “Please enjoy the remainder of the event.”

Seidon turned to his companions. “Well, we won’t have the [Dungeon Master] with us, but should we go on up anyways?”

His companions both nodded, and once all the proper goodbyes were said, the council members and their [Bodyguards] entered the tower.

Shaking his head, Vee walked down the road as quickly as he could and was relieved to see Alforde heading towards him.

“We have to go into the abandoned part of the city,” he said as he explained the situation. The armorsoul nodded, and the two of them hurried to the back of Crestheart tower, passing under the signs that said Crestheart Employees Only and heading out to pursue the idiots.

Main Character Sheets

Vee Vales

Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 24

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 16

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 5

Might: 10

Wit: 26

Faith: 18

Adventurousness: 6

Ambition: 11

Plotting: 14

Charisma: 9

Devious Mind: 16 (+1)

Leadership: 14

Guts: 11

Intimidating Presence: 8

Citizenship: 14

Public Relations: 4

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Afficionado (Self), Level 20 (+1)

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 11

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 11

Additional Class: Clunker (Vee Vales), Level 2

Might: 31 (+1)

Wit: 11

Faith: 24

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 8

Endurance: 16

Intimidating Presence: 11

Heart of a Champion: 3

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 6

Vigilance: 4

Reginald:

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???

--~%@(%$@ &% (*$ #&#e !i$$ (#$%#$%#$@!)~--, #$v@& ????

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 37

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 9

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 5

Might: 1

Wit: 29

Faith: 10

Ambition: 25

Greed: 21

Deceptiveness: 28

Manipulativeness: 34

F^#$#$%@#

Loyalty: 43

[*--__#4%_--------]

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 4