Dungeons Are Bad Business

Vee didn’t have much experience with pawn shops. Back in Bardis, he would have never dreamed of entering one, and since coming to Oar’s Crest he hadn’t had any need to.

The place smelled odd and dusky, and it was full of curios and trinkets stacked in precarious pillars or crammed onto the sagging shelves. If there was any sort of rhyme or reason to the layout of goods, Vee couldn’t discern it as he wandered deeper inside in search of the counter. Children’s toys shared space with alchemical sets, dust-covered tomes, hand tools, and all sorts of other things.

He wove his way through the twists and turns of the shelves, thinking that they were a bit like a cave. Or at least, they were like what he imagined a cave to be; Vee hadn’t exactly been the type to go out spelunking for fun.

Now and then he paused to examine something – ratty old clothes that he could use for his mannequin shopkeepers, instruments he didn’t know how to play, odd bits of decor that looked twenty years out of style – but he slowly continued on until he came to the counter and the snake-looking [Salesman] who stood behind it.

“Hey there. Name’s James. Help you with something?” the man asked, his voice jarringly different than his appearance would have suggested. “Got something you’re looking to pawn?”

Vee shook his head. “I’m here to buy, actually. I’m looking for a couple large viewing crystals. Preferably something that projects an image, but I can live with simple attachment viewing too if that’s all you’ve got.”

James rubbed his chin. “What are you looking to use it for?”

Vee explained his needs and desire for the spectator arena. While he ultimately wanted to have a sprawling stadium that projected a fully three-dimensional depiction of what was happening in the dungeon to crowds of spectators, all he wanted for the time being was a big enough picture that people could watch comfortably. Getting the rest of the features for spectator’s that he’d envisioned after his chat with Cornelius would have to wait.

“Hmm, full open air viewing is a bit trickier than the indoor version,” James said. “I don’t think we have anything out here, but let me call a buddy of mine and see if we have anything in the back that might better suit your needs.”

He turned around and left. Oddly, the door he walked through seemed to shiver as soon as it closed, and Vee felt something shifting in the ethereal as he was left with his companions.

The silence gave Reginald time to tighten his brim around Vee’s head. “Be extra careful when he returns, boss!”

“Yeah,” Alforde added quietly. “Guys who work in pawn shops are notorious for calling their buddies right before they offer you a horrible deal!”

Vee looked over at his friend and raised a skeptical eyebrow. “How do you know that?”

The armorsoul shrugged. “There are lots of copies of Celestial Pawn in the library. I read them while grabbing my other books, and they were all filled with stories of hilarious lowballs.”

Vee sighed and shook his head, and returned to waiting in silence. A few minutes later, James returned with a big box under his arm.

“My buddy thinks we’ve got an old Sunrise Projector somewhere back there too, but for now I wanted to go ahead and bring this out for you to take a look at.”

He set the box on the table and opened it up, revealing a slender and heavily chipped crystal that was yellow with age.

“Projection quality on that guy isn’t going to be the best,” James said apologetically. “But it should at least let you keep an eye on your challengers and stuff.”

“Mind if we give it a try?” Vee asked.

“Course not. There’s an open power core over there,” James said, pointing to a small red orb near the wall to Vee’s right. “It takes a couple minutes to warm up, but you should be able to get it projecting pretty soon after that. If you need anything else in the meantime, let me know.”

Taking the crystal over to the specified area, Vee sat down and started trying to figure out how to get it to work. There were no instructions to be seen, but viewing crystals were somewhat standardized.

He tapped the top of the power core, which caused it to pulse slowly and emanate soft waves of energy outward. He did the same thing to the viewing crystal, and watched as…nothing happened.

Vee tried again, and got the same results as he had the first time. He looked over at James, who was fiddling with a bag of some sort.

“Hey, how do I get this thing to connect?”

“Pairing spot is on the bottom.”

Vee turned the viewing crystal over and found the spot he was looking for. It was a small circle, ringed by black and gold. A solid tap allowed the viewing crystal to sync to the power core, and sure enough, a few minutes later he had a small projection broadcasting on the wall.

The picture quality was definitely not good, the [Dungeon Master] thought as he examined the grainy image. Even with the ability to see the shelves that he was currently focused on so that he knew what he was looking at, Vee found himself struggling to make out what the crystal depicted. He suspected that if he ended using this one in the spectator arena, people wouldn’t be able to see more than a few strange shaped blobs moving around.

Hardly the experience he was looking to deliver.

He tried a few other things, and messed around with a few settings that improved the picture quality slightly, but was still relieved when the door to the back room opened and another man came out carrying a pair of boxes. He had a square, squashed face, and small beady eyes that were shrouded in darkness.

Vee couldn’t help but think he wasn’t entirely human.

“Dug these up too,” he grunted, setting the boxes down on the counter.

“Thanks,” James said. “‘Scuse me, Mister Vales? You want to come check these other options out?”

Vee did so, and thankfully they were much nicer than the one he’d looked at first. Their image quality was still somewhat worse than he wanted, but it would work for now.

“How much do you want for them?” the [Dungeon Master] asked.

“Three gold fleurs for each of these,” James said, indicating the pair of viewing crystals on the counter. “And two for that other one over there.”

Vee whistled through his teeth as Reginald tightened his brim. “That’s…a little steep isn’t it? The first one we tried barely works.”

“How much would it cost to rent instead of buy?" Reginald asked. “We don’t need them long term.”

James thought for a moment, and Vee felt something shifting in the ethereal. Curious, he activated [Third Sight], and saw a small and potbellied green ghost whispering in the man’s ear. He didn’t recognize what type of spirit it was, but it didn’t seem particularly malicious or important, so he deactivated his skill and waited patiently.

“Hmm, I think I could let you guys have them for…let’s say fifteen silvers a day? Wait, scratch that. Twenty. How long did you have in mind?”

“A week or so,” Vee said. “Ten days at the most, I think.”

“Perfect. In that case, I’ll go ahead and take a gold and five silvers now for the week, and write down a continuation for up to twelve, just in case you end up needing them a little longer than that. Sound good?”

Vee nodded, and handed over the required coins as James pushed the rental form forward. He dutifully filled it out, then had Alforde collect all three viewing crystal setups.

Since there were a few hours yet before the gates were closed for the night, Vee decided to return to Crestheart and deliver the viewing crystals to his [Dungeon Maintainers]. He hoped that the fiends would be able to properly install the assemblies and get them set up, but in the event that they weren’t, he’d just take care of it tomorrow.

With that done, Vee decided to go up to his workshop and get to work on some of his new ghost designs. Alforde headed down to his arena to practice some new combination attacks Shadowforde had cooked up, and Reginald went along, ostensibly to “provide feedback and advice”.

Shaking his head, Vee faced the stairs by himself and sat down at his bench. After converting the measurements on his little figures to the actual size he wanted them to be, he pinched his thumb and forefinger together to activate [Shape Ectoplasm]. Before he’d gotten too far in his efforts, though, Nock’s voice filled the room.

“Was starting to think you’d forgotten about me, Blue. When am I going to get out of this place and get to working again, eh?”

Doing his best to pretend that he wasn’t startled, Vee spun around and looked over at the weaponsoul’s projection, who was leaning against the far wall of the workshop with his arms folded across his chest. The projection smiled, but it wasn’t exactly a friendly expression.

“Uh, right. Sorry about that,” Vee said, setting down his ectoplasmic disc. “How does tomorrow sound? We’ve had some setbacks with our dungeon power arrangement, but I think we have enough capacity back that we can get you set up. Sound good?”

The projection nodded and said, “I’ll go ahead and prepare myself then,” before fading into nothingness once more. Keeping his face neutral, Vee resumed work on his new ghosts. He squeezed and shaped ectoplasm until he had a helmet shaped blob that was slightly bigger than his forearm.

His first set of horns was a bit too big, the second was too jagged for the look he was going for, but he stumbled on a nice smooth curve for the third set that really brought the whole thing together. Attaching them was a breeze, but getting the sigilmancy that would let them fly to work was a real pain in the butt. No matter what he tried, the stupid thing wouldn’t keep its path or a consistent height.

After twenty frustrating minutes, Vee struck on an idea that he felt stupid for not thinking of earlier.

Closing his eyes, Vee found his connection to Dandelion and reached out to the fiend.

Hey there. Any chance you and Kai could bring me a couple ghost slimes? I need them for a project I’m working on.

He felt the fiend’s response almost instantaneously. Of course, Master.

Main Character Sheets:

Vee Vales (Unchanged From Last Chapter):

Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 32

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 23

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 6

Might: 15

Wit: 39

Faith: 26

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 16

Plotting: 19

Charisma: 16

Devious Mind: 28

Leadership: 21

Guts: 14

Intimidating Presence: 11

Citizenship: 23

Public Relations: 8

Determination: 6

Persuasiveness: 6

Bargaining: 4

Patience: 2

Competitive Spirit: 1

Pragmatism: 1

<3<3 Infatuation <3<3

Alforde Armorsoul (Unchanged From Last Chapter):

Primary Class: Hammer Specialist (Self), Level 6

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 18

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 18

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 11

Might: 58

Wit: 15

Faith: 28

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Endurance: 32

Intimidating Presence: 15

Heart of a Champion: 14

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Vigilance: 11

Vanity: 2

Reginald:

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ??? (+1)

#$&Q#$)(@#$#@#$%!@#$##%#%()@#$**@@##

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 42

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 20

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 13

Additional Class: Hyperthymesiac (Self), Level 5

Might: 1

Wit: 37

Faith: 18

Ambition: 28

Greed: 24

Deceptiveness: 27

Manipulativeness: 42

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

Loyalty: 46

Patience: 11

Irritability: 24

Remorsefulness: 17

Expository Prowess: 23

#%$Pragmatism*#$: @#61$5

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

@#$@%%^

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

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 9