Dungeon world 4 a dungeo.., p.8
Dungeon World 4: A Dungeon Core Experience, page 8
“You keep saying that you didn’t intend any of this, but we’re still stuck with the fact that it happened. I let you stay down here before because the city was under attack, but that isn’t the case anymore; now, I could lock you up again until we can pass judgement – but you’d probably just escape again. Of course, I could just execute you for the part you played in the deaths of dozens of people, and I’m pretty sure my cohorts here—” the Inquisitor looked around at her companions— “would agree with me that what you’ve done – and admitted to – is more than enough cause for just eliminating the problem of your existence here once and for all.”
Silence reigned inside the first dungeon room where the meeting between Fred and the Allroads representatives was taking place. Fred mentally started to gather up all of the Mana floating around his territory, separating them into massive blobs that each dwarfed the amount he had used to create his massive Beetle back in Gatecross. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with all of it, but he had it ready, nonetheless.
“But—” Chareese finally said, prompting Fred to relax…a little— “I don’t think that would actually accomplish anything. The stories about villages, towns, and even cities paying the price for participating in a perceived ‘crime’ or even harboring ‘criminals’ who wronged a local dungeon is ingrained in all our memories. And since we destroyed the force sent to kill you, I doubt that they are likely to see reason. I think our best bet of all of Allroads surviving your presence here…is to have you and your friends exiled. We can only hope that they perceive it as giving you up to them in exchange for our continued existence.”
Fred was both relieved and saddened at the turn of events. He had really been hoping that the Humans in Allroads would get behind him once they could see what he could do – not only what he could do, but what he could do for them. Maybe I can show them some other things to prove how valuable an ally we can be—
His thought was broken as the Inquisitor glanced over at the Necro-Wizard, who was looking pointedly at her. “However, after conferring with both the Council and some of my trusted companions—” she nodded toward Agelstein as she said that— “I don’t think that would work either. The damage has already been done, and I know for a fact that if the roles between us Adventurers and the dungeons were reversed, we wouldn’t be lenient on those we thought had wronged us. And again, as the stories and few actual memories of some of the older DAS members in the city can attest to, dungeons are anything but lenient.”
That is news to me. He had watched the Inquisitor for a while when she had been heading back to the Prison, but he hadn’t been listening to every conversation she had, as most of it didn’t really interest him. Plus, he had been busy shoring up the hastily dug tunnel down to his dungeon, so his attention had been a bit distracted. The fact that she had discussed Fred’s eventual fate with both her Necro-Wizard friend and the Council without his knowledge was…worrying. I’ll have to pay better attention in the future.
Before he could say anything, Chareese cut him off again. “That being said, keeping you here and alive would not be my ideal solution, but it’s what we have to work with. Now, as much as I want to interrogate you down here and hide you from the world so as not to cause a panic, the Council wants to talk to you. I take it that you can leave your dungeon? Because there is no way I am going to allow the members of the Council down here,” she said, her tone brooking no argument.
“I can leave the dungeon – I just can’t leave my territory or it will collapse.”
Eisa inserted herself into the conversation again before the Inquisitor could order him to move. “He’s not going anywhere unless Regnark, Deecy, and I are allowed to go with him,” she said, slipping her arm around Fred’s with a strange look on her face.
Chareese was silent for a moment with an unreadable look on her face as she contemplated the demand. “Fine. I’m willing to trust you because of what you did up above, but the first sign of anything funny, you won’t live long enough to regret asking to come.”
“We’ve no reason to be causing any trouble, I assure you,” Regnark replied, looking pointedly at Eisa while he said so. Fred was thoroughly confused at the entire exchange, but he was relieved to have his friends near him while he was going to see the Allroads Council.
“Alright, then let’s go.”
The group was silent as they walked up the tunnels and up to the surface, their way lit by the Inquisitor and an upgraded version of the Magelight spell that Fred and the others possessed. Fred didn’t technically need it, because his Territorial Sight (when used to see directly outside his body) revealed everything, but the others weren’t quite as accustomed to the lack of light. Well, all but Regnark, who seemed to have no trouble seeing – which Fred attributed to his status as a Dark Shard.
Along the way, he walked next to Eisa and tried to apologize. “Eisa, I’m sorry for what I did earlier.” His voice carried up the tunnel, echoing down the stone walls.
She looked confused, even with the lack of light. “What are you talking about, Fred?” she asked, her voice pitched lower than usual.
“I didn’t mean to shove all of that into you all at once, and I’m afraid that I might have hurt you unintentionally.”
Eisa missed a step, and Fred reached out and caught her before she could fall on her face again. Using his Territorial Sight, he could see that her face was flushed again, which probably meant that she was still mad at him. “Fred! This isn’t the time to talk about things like that!” she hissed at him – her voice so low that even he had trouble hearing her. She looked around at the others, but the only one close enough for Fred to see without taking his attention away from walking was Regnark, who appeared to be in some distress.
Fred was about to ask the big guy what was wrong, but Eisa continued, slipping her arm around his again and leaning close to his ear as they walked. “And it didn’t hurt…exactly…it was just very surprising, is all. Just…don’t do something like that without telling me first and giving me a warning. And, if you respect me at all, please don’t bring that up again when other people can hear.”
“Uh…okay,” he said, confused but happy that she had forgiven him. He assumed she didn’t want him talking about how their unique Shard powers worked, and he was respectful enough of her privacy. He knew firsthand how hard it was being the different one, and he didn’t want to isolate her from Humans any more than she already was.
It felt like it took no time at all to get to the top of the Prison and out the door. Chareese and her companions led Fred and his friends across the Government Quarter compound, to a rather nondescript building near the center. There were more guards stationed outside the double doors leading into the squat, windowless structure, which seemed strange considering that the room inside was likely fairly small, but a quick peek at his Territorial Sight told him that the building aboveground was just a façade.
While the dug-out rooms under the ground weren’t large by any means, they were definitely secure enough that it would be hard for anyone trying to get to those inside without having to go through a lot of hassle. He saw more of the strange metal that had comprised his former Prison cell covering most of the walls, which showed even clearer that whoever had designed the compound had prepared for the worst.
He decided not to snoop any more while he was walking, because it was hard to concentrate on using his Territorial Sight to observe things while he was mobile. Soon enough, however, he and his friends had been led inside the small building, down two flights of stairs, and through a veritable maze of hallways and rooms, before they ended up between two ornately carved wooden doors that Fred could tell had a core of…Magisteel, he thought he heard it called…strengthening its structure. He didn’t even have time to look to see what was waiting for them when the doors opened seemingly of their own accord, and Fred, Eisa, Regnark, and Deecy were led inside with only the slightest ceremony.
“Allroads Council, let me present to you Eisa Howells, who seems to be able to create Earth-like structures and monsters out of thin air; Regnark McConald, who can open some sort of portal and summon Dark creatures from its depths; a Dire Wolf named Deecy, I believe, who has some sort of affinity for walls of fire and spiky barricades of ice; and, of course, Fredwyn—” the Inquisitor presenting them to the four people in the room stumbled over his name— “Fred, who it seems is some kind of human and dungeon hybrid. I have seen the dungeon he is able to create myself, as well as some traps and even dungeon monsters inside; he is also, admitted from his own mouth, the one responsible for the current situation in the city.” She bowed to the Council and then walked to the side of the room, where she held her hands behind her back and waited.
Fred looked around as the door closed behind them, and he was momentarily shocked to see that none of the guards had come inside with them; it was only the Council, the Inquisitor, Fred, and his friends inside the comfortably small room. A quick look at the Council members revealed why they probably didn’t need protection, however.
Starting on the far left was a mature woman with severe-looking features, jet-black hair, and a no-nonsense air about her. He tried to look at her Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate Interface, but nothing came up; either something was blocking his ability to read it, or she didn’t have an SDIA in the first place. Next to her was a young man in strange attire, a dark-blue one-piece suit of some sort that was completely free of wrinkles and shined a little bit in the enchanted light fixtures shining down from the ceiling. His Interface showed that he was something called a C-4th-Rated Diplomat, and that appeared to be the only Class that he possessed.
His abilities weren’t combat-oriented in the least, with names like Negotiation, Persuasion, and Hostile Communication – all things that made no sense to Fred. Seeing what he assumed was the Government Quarter representative’s Interface made it likely that the first woman was either representing the Residential or Merchant’s Quarter, though he guessed it was likely the former rather than the latter.
Next in the room was a large man, almost as large as Regnark – but the largeness was attributed to a huge belly rather than strong muscles. He had an Interface as well, which showed that he was a B-3rd-Rated Trader-Spy, possessed skills such as Infiltration (which seemed unlikely given his size) and Barter (which sounded exactly like someone from the Merchant’s Quarter would have). With that evidence, his original assessment of the first woman was likely correct.
The last person in the room – and the one that indicated why there didn’t need to be any guards present – was an older woman, who appeared much older than the mature woman Fred had first looked at. She was on the small side height-wise, with a full head of greyish-white hair that gave the impression of being unkempt, but was probably deliberate; after looking at her eyes – which bored into him and the others somehow at the same time – he knew she was the most dangerous person in the room even before he looked at her Interface.
A S-9th-Rated Arcanist! He didn’t even know what that was, but she had so much Essence infusing her body and such a large amount of Power at her fingertips that Fred was sure all she had to do was wave a hand and they would all be blasted away. She appeared frail, but her Body and Brawn stats were higher than most B-Rated – and even some low A-Rated – tanks that he had seen on the wall earlier, which meant that she was no pushover. He resolved to be on his best behavior – and sincerely hoped that his friends were as well.
“So, it’s our understanding that we have you to thank for bringing all of those dungeon monsters here, don’t we?” the young man in the strange suit asked with heavy sarcasm in his voice. Fred was just glad he had a crash course in things like sarcasm when he met Regnark and Eisa, otherwise his old self probably would’ve believed the man was actually thanking him. Before he could answer, the man continued. “Despite the danger you brought and will likely further bring, we as a Council have decided to let you live. It was determined that killing you or letting you go would probably have…worse…consequences, though I have to say that I don’t agree.”
The young man – whose name was Prime Warren (according to his Interface) – didn’t look happy to see him there. Neither did the Residential Quarter woman, whose name Fred still didn’t know; she looked down her sharp nose at him with an expression he recognized as distaste, so he ignored her completely – which she didn’t like either.
“Well, I want to thank you for sparing myself and my friends; I think this relationship can be long-lasting and mutually beneficial—” Fred started to say, before he was cut off by the young man (who appeared to speak for the Council, even though they were supposed to be equal according to the pamphlet they had bought upon arriving at Allroads).
“Like I said, I don’t agree with Master Bellario or Elder Hood’s decision to keep you around, but that’s the decision and we’re going to make the best of it. I’m just surprised that our Inquisitor – whose Prison you broke out of – ended our stalemate with her deciding vote. I would’ve thought that lawbreakers – like you obviously are – would’ve been treated according to the code of laws we’ve established over the years, but there you have it.” Fred was actually surprised, so he looked at Chareese standing over near the wall. Her face became flushed under his scrutiny, which was another confusing reaction he had no explanation for.
What is going on around here?
Regardless of his confusion, the meeting with the Allroads Council progressed. Fred soon learned that the severe woman from the Residential Quarter was named Goodwoman Graverly, the large Merchant Quarter representative was named Master Pyotr Bellario, and the S-9th-Rated Arcanist was named Elder Judylynn Hood, which were all strange names to Fred, but he was starting to get used to it. In his head, he just referred to them by what he assumed were their titles (Goodwoman, Master, and Elder), so he forgot their names for the most part. If he ever needed a refresher, he could always look at their Interfaces again – all except the Goodwoman’s, of course.
Then they began to ask question after question about what he had done, how he had done it, why he was there, why there were Judgement Marks above his Guild’s head, why there were Judgment Marks above the former Gatecross townspeople’s heads, and about his origin. Fred answered everything as honestly as he could, because there was no reason not to; that, and the Inquisitor was using her unique ability to tell if what he was saying was a lie, and he didn’t want to lose the little bit of confidence she had in him by lying.
When his personal history was done, Eisa and Regnark were also interrogated, and they answered everything as honestly as possible as well. Fred was sure that Deecy would’ve been questioned at the same time if they knew she could “technically” communicate, but no one actually mentioned that.
However, the past was just that – the past. What everyone really wanted to know was what plans he had for the future. “Now that you’ve made it here, caused all of this trouble, and endangered the lives of our citizens – not to mention the entire DAS headquarters here – what are your plans from here? What do you have to offer us that would make sparing your lives the correct decision? And better yet…how in the world are they—” the Elder asked, pointing at Eisa and Regnark— “able to…summon…their own personal dungeon monsters? There is no ability that I know of that comes anywhere close to that, and believe me, I’ve been around a long, long time. I can vaguely understand how you can do that, young man, because of your unique status as some sort of hybrid dungeon core, but they make no sense.”
Fred took a deep breath and thought furiously before he answered. On the one hand, he wanted to be as honest as possible and describe exactly what he did; on the other, he worried that they would perceive what he had done in a negative light, even though it had only been done out of desperation and necessity. In the end, however, he decided that he might as well lay it all out for them – including some background information so that they would understand it a little better – and then deal with the repercussions if they came.
Therefore, he spent the next two hours describing his internal Cores, how he had a Human Core and five Elemental Cores, and how he went about absorbing the Dungeon Cores that he had touched. He also described how he had theoretically learned how to avoid completely absorbing them in the first place, and how it was only when the Dark Core had panicked that it had ended up destroying itself. Then he went on to describe how he had used slivers of Dungeon Cores to make all of his friends into Shards, though it had never been his original objective when he started out.
All three of them then demonstrated what they could do on a small scale, and Fred was actually amazed at one of the new abilities that Regnark had picked up that he hadn’t seen yet – Shadow Meld. He seemed to melt into the shadows when he activated it and the ability made it extremely hard to see him, though it was easily apparent where he was – being the biggest shadow in the room made it quite obvious. Regardless, everyone – including the Government man, Prime – was impressed at what they could do.
Fred also told them about his special ability to see how the Humans used Power outside of their body, adapting them for his own use – and then being able to teach those spells and abilities he observed to anyone with his Instructor Class. While they were shocked that he could do that in the first place – like everyone else who knew that secret about him – they were disappointed when he described that the likelihood of success for higher-Rated spells and abilities (especially ones higher-Rated than his own Rating) was nearly 0%. Still, he could see some intrigued faces among the Council, but that wasn’t necessarily what they were most interested in – as he soon found out.
“Do you have any more pieces of dungeon cores that you can use to make more of these…Shards, as you call them?” the Elder asked. Fred wasn’t sure if she was asking because she wanted him to make more or was worried that he would.
