Dungeons Are Bad Business

The rest of the quest appeared before Vee’s eyes.

[Quest: Design New Ghosts]

[Dangers: Mental strain, feelings of ineptitude, wounded pride]

[Reward for completion: Wit +2, Ghost Maestro +1, [???]]

[Description: Work with Rortenferry to design new ghosts for Crestheart. Come up with three synergistic models for full rewards.]

Frowning, Vee dismissed the notification and tried to think about some new types of ghosts. It was true that he had other things going on just then that were probably more important ways to spend his time, but for some reason he really didn’t want to lose the chance of getting a new skill.

That was a strange sensation, as he’d never really been one to care about levels and stats like he was supposed to. Most of the kids he’d grown up around had been unbearable in that regard, agonizing about their levels and doing everything they could to make sure that the numbers went up as much as possible. Vee hadn’t ever seen the point. Life was life, even if it did sometimes come with quantitative measurements that judged you for how well you lived it.

This was different though. It was like a prickling in his neck that warned him not to take this quest lightly, and Vee decided to trust his instinct.

There was said to be a sense of intuition that guided people sometimes, urging them to take actions they wouldn’t have otherwise or pointing their attention to something that usually didn’t interest them. Bad things tended to happen when they were ignored.

Now, many [Scholars] and [Theologians] said the nudge was the work of the gods and goddesses – Gawain was said to enjoy taking a more active role in the lives of his subjects, sometimes – but Vee wasn’t sure it needed to be anything so grand as that. Sometimes people just did things for the heck of it.

Regardless, spending just a few minutes brainstorming surely wouldn’t hurt, right? The day’s runs were done and Alforde was down in his arena practicing with Holly again. His best friend claimed to be on the cusp of some sort of major breakthrough with his Domain. Vee was excited to see what it was.

Actually, now that he thought about it, why didn’t he get to work on the new ghosts then and there? Truthfully, there really wasn’t anything that Vee needed to be doing just then.

Vee sat down on the ground, took out his notebook, and started to draw. His pen moved in slow, meditative strokes, but the mess of circles and squares didn’t turn into anything interesting. Not for the first time in his life, Vee set down his pen in frustration and looked up at the ceiling. This is how it always went. Coming up with new ghost designs was hard!

He fought back the temptation to steal the ideas Rortenferry had given him, even if they did seem great at first look; somehow he felt that the quest wouldn’t take too kindly to blatant plagiarizing.

However, that didn’t mean he couldn’t take some – ahem, creative – inspiration from them, and Vee decided to try and start thinking about how his new creations would synergize together.

What exactly did a ghost – or any dungeon minion for that matter – need to do in combat? Attack the adventurer, sure, but there were shades of nuance beyond being ranged and melee that Vee started trying to think about. Angles of attack, movement and attack speed, and probably a bunch more that weren’t coming to mind just then. He decided to focus on just those three for starters. Rortenferry had mentioned macro versus micro designs and making his ghosts more specialized. How could Vee spread those duties across multiple ghosts?

For different angles of attack, Vee thought about Rortenferry’s crawler ghost. He’d have to use a different shape, but something that threatened an adventurer’s footing – like a snake, or a spider –would be extremely useful in a room where challengers were expected to jump across platforms or balance in precarious situations. Halls, too.

Similarly, ghosts that harried from above could be put to use in cramped rooms or narrow hallways. There had to be a reason that the old legends of great [Heroes] wrote scathingly about birds, right?

For movement speed, he could probably make something that’d move quickly, though he wasn’t sure of what. His first thought was something like a cat or a dog, but the [Dungeon Master] wasn’t sure that he wanted to commit so hard to animal shapes. If everything looked natural, what was the point of them being ghosts in the first place?

Vee needed to find some new inspiration, so he emptied his mind and let his thoughts meander. He kept going back to Alforde. Armored creations, maybe? Body parts, perhaps?

Ever so slowly, his sketches started changing, and Vee grinned as a thread of similarities started taking form.

When he felt the frail thread of flowing creativity snap, Vee went back upstairs and looked for Rortenferry. While he had an idea of how to proceed on his new designs, he wanted his old teacher’s advice about the specifics for some of the sigilmancy and structures that he’d need for bringing them to…well, not life, but the ghostly approximation.

Alas, Rortenferry was nowhere to be seen in the workshop, though a scowling Reginald informed him that the other [Ghost Maestro] had only left a few minutes before.

“You basically just missed him. If you hurry you should be able to catch up with him no problem,” Reginald said as he turned back to Nock. “My most sincere apologies for the additional interruption. Let me assure you that things aren’t usually so chaotic around here. Here at Crestheart, we pride ourselves on smooth sailing.”

Vee didn’t know what that could possibly mean, but he didn’t have the energy to spare trying to figure it out either. Instead, he hurried back down the stairs, cursing his bad luck that he hadn’t heard Rortenferry passing by on his way out.

Sure enough though, when he got back down to the street, he saw the old man a few blocks away, heading toward the gate.

“Wait! [Professor]! Wait just a moment!”

Of course, Rortenferry was too far away to really hear him, so Vee had no choice but jog and catch up. That wasn’t as bad as it could have been; the air was surprisingly warm and nearly all the snow had melted on the sidewalks heading back to Oar’s Crest proper.

As he drew closer, Vee tried calling out again and this time Rortenferry heard him. He stopped and turned around, a little twinkle of laughter in his eyes as he looked at Vee.

“Hmm? What’s going on, lad? Decided to think about what I said? Maybe even decided to actually listen to me for a change?”

Vee nodded. “I did. Even got a quest for making some new ghosts. Actually, that’s the reason I came to try and talk to you. See, I have some concepts I’d like to make and I was hoping that you could, uh…that you could—”

His tongue felt like it turned to wood, and Vee clenched his fingers into a fist. Why was it always so hard to actually ask for help? Whenever he decided to do so, it seemed like the simplest thing in the world, but as soon as the moment came he felt like a giant was squeezing his stomach.

I’ve got to be better than this. I don’t have time to waste on stupid crap!

The Expectation tightened reassuringly around his shoulders, giving Vee the last boost he needed to make the words come out. He straightened up and said, “I was hoping that you could help me with the sigilmancy and assembly for some of things I’ve come up with. I’m not entirely sure how they’ll work. Here, let me show you what I mean.”

He handed over his notebook and Rortenferry studied it for a moment. He murmured a few things as he traced Vee’s lines, then nodded and handed the notebook back. “Of course, Vee. These look reasonable enough and I’d be happy to help. However, I’m afraid that it must wait until tomorrow. Assembling those devices really took a lot out of me.”

His face was haggard, and his eyes were sunken, which made Vee feel a little bad.

“That’s fine,” he said. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, [Professor].”

Rortenferry waved and turned back around just as Vee remembered Nock. “Wait! I forgot to ask earlier: Do you think it’s safe if we go ahead and free that captive weaponsoul to work in the dungeon?”

Rortenferry shrugged. “It should be fine. The spirit seems rather mercenary, so I don’t think he’ll try to escape or anything like that. In the interest of prudence, though, I’ve gone ahead and prepared some binding wraps and sealing bands that you can attach to him to nip any mischief in the bud. Do you know how to attach those properly?”

Vee shifted back and forth, fighting back his urge to ruffle his hair. “Sort of?”

The other [Ghost Maestro] rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine. We can go over that tomorrow, too. Have a good evening, Vee.”

The [Dungeon Master] watched Rortenferry walk to the gate, then headed back to the dungeon to check in on Reginald and Nock. To his surprise, he wasn’t as tired from his chase and climbing the stairs as he’d expected to be, and wondered if he’d somehow gotten a sneaky point of Might that he just hadn’t noticed.

A quick check of his soul’s mirror revealed that hadn’t been the case, but Vee got the sense that he probably wasn’t too far away from getting one if he kept on doing a bunch of physical stuff. He glanced down the stairs. Just then, he probably had time to do another couple trips and up and down for good measure.

Forget that. It’d be a cold day in a real hot place before he voluntarily went up and down the stairs more than once.

Shaking his head, Vee opened the door to the office and sat down next to Reginald and Nock. The weaponspirit’s projection looked as bored as could be, and Vee couldn’t blame him. Reginald was droning on and on, his current topic “Core Values” – those lofty platitudes that were easily found in promotional materials around the continent yet virtually nonexistent in most workplaces – and Vee decided that the time had come to step in and put an end to things.

He held up his hand and Reginald fell quiet.

“Rortenferry says he’s good, so you can stop the interview, Reginald. I’ll take over from here.”

The hat looked affronted, but Vee shook his head. “I’ll take it from here.”

His [Majordomo] shut up.

Nock’s projection turned to Vee and raised an eyebrow. “You going to grill me too, blue?”

“Nothing like that,” Vee said. “I’m simply here to discuss the terms of your future employment.”

As it turned out, Nock was surprisingly easy to bargain with. While he’d definitely wanted fleurs – though his desire for coin seemed bizarre to Vee – he was most interested in freedom. To that point, he’d been willing to trade nearly anything to get it. Even the low salary and limitations Vee imposed were accepted without much pushback.

Once the circuit started, Nock was to haunt the second floor of the dungeon, attacking adventurers and doing his best to wear them down without trying to kill them. That last bit was especially important.

In exchange, he’d get to roam the dungeon freely after each day’s runs were finished until Vee, Alforde, and Reginald returned to the boarding house. If his behavior was good for a few months, Vee agreed to put up sufficient bindings around the dungeon and let the weaponsoul have his run of the place until the start of business the next day. After that, they’d discuss further arrangements.

It was a fine arrangement, and Vee thought it well worth twenty silver fleurs a week.

[There are deals, and then there are deals. This is almost certainly the latter. Your recent efforts are paying off. You can now earn points in Bargaining!]

[Bargaining +1]

[You can now use Don’t Give Me Any Of That]

He wasn’t the only one pleased by the deal, apparently.

Vee checked the new skill in his soul’s mirror. At first glance, [Don’t Give Me Any Of That] didn’t seem particularly impressive. Basically, it intimidated the target into foregoing any attempts at unfair offers. Vee wasn’t sure how that worked, but he resolved to try and put it into practice later with Reginald.

More interesting was the fact that the new skill was linked to his Intimidating Presence and [Guy-Who-Takes-Things-Way-Too-Far] class; the higher both of those were, the more powerful the skill would be.

After Nock’s projection vanished, Vee picked Reginald up and waited for Alforde to return. The armorsoul arrived a few minutes later, and with light spirits, the trio headed back to the boarding house.

The circuit was one day closer to starting.

Main Character Sheets:

Main Character Sheets

Vee Vales

Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 29

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 21

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

Might: 13

Wit: 33

Faith: 21

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 14

Plotting: 20

Charisma: 15

Devious Mind: 23

Leadership: 17

Guts: 14

Intimidating Presence: 10

Citizenship: 20

Public Relations: 7

Determination: 2

Persuasiveness: 3

Bargaining: 1 (+1)

<3***Infatuation***<3

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Afficionado (Self), Level 25

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 14

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 16

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 7

Might: 45 (+1)

Wit: 13

Faith: 28

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Endurance: 23 (+1)

Intimidating Presence: 12

Heart of a Champion: 11 (+1)

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 8

Vigilance: 6

Vanity: 1

Reginald :

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

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

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 40

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 16

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 8

Might: 1

Wit: 33

Faith: 14

Ambition: 27

Greed: 23 (+1)

Deceptiveness: 27

Manipulativeness: 38

$#&*!@!!: !!!

Loyalty: 47

Patience: 9

Irritability: 20 (+1)

[#&%%%@%!#@__--#%]

Hop@#!! @#$@!@#

@#$@%%^

#4^5#*&_!+++#(@$#

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 7