Undead?! I focus in on Yvonne to take a look at her stats… and yeah, right there in bold print Undead, Intelligent. Better than just a shambling corpse, I guess? She seems to be fully fine, nothing like a lot of fictional undead that are in constant pain and such, so that’s good, too.

The party all exchange awkward looks before everyone hugs once more. Ragnar and Aelara don’t look like they’re going to give up on their friend just because she doesn’t have a pulse anymore, which is great. Nobody seems certain if she can leave me, though, so they decide to play it safe and she stays behind while the other two head off to talk to one or both of the guilds.

Teemo’s just respawned, too, so I tell him to go check on her. No, actually… get Aranya to come with you. I get the feeling that, out of all of us, she has the best idea of what’s going on and how to help Yvonne. It’s a pretty long walk through the caverns, though.

Man, I gained a lot of space, and a boatload of mana, too. Uh… and a boatload of problems. Two undead spawners, a wasp spawner, another rat spawner... oh three undead. I keep forgetting the hands. Whoof, Neverrest loved him some traps, too. There was all kinds of nastiness in that crypt he had his core hiding in. I guess I should work on cleaning things up while I wait for Aranya to go talk with Yvonne.

Well, simplest thing first: wasps. Screw wasps. What can I do to change them? Oof, well, changing it is going to be expensive, for starters, but screw wasps. I also have absolute proof that biology doesn’t work here like it did on Earth, or the spawners don’t have to make things that are related. I can change the focus of the wasps over to bees instead. For a significant chunk of mana.

But as I said: screw wasps. Besides, I think bees will be able to help take over the surface gardening while I focus my bats more towards underground. I’ve seen some of them trying to spread some little patches of glowing moss down there, but they’ve just been too busy on the surface to make much headway. My surface ecosystem is thriving, but underground is struggling. I spend the mana, but don’t bother with a bee scion just yet. As far as I can tell, Neverrest never bothered with a wasp scion, either. Not that I agree with most of his choices in how to work, but broken clocks and whatnot.

Second: plague rats. I don’t want plague rats. It’s another decent chunk of mana to change those over, too, but I spend it anyway. I did get a ton, after all.

Now… what the crap am I going to do with all these undead? Sure, I can change wasps to bees and plague rats to pack rats, but undead are still going to be undead. I can focus in on the spawners, and I can at least tell that they don’t actually need a corpse to animate something. They’re all focused in a different mausoleum than the core was, probably for ease of protection. That’s simple enough to, if not fix, at least sweep under the carpet until I get a better idea.

What undead weren’t destroyed have fallen under my control, which isn’t creepy at all, so I order them all back to the spawner, including the hands. That’s… going to take a while, but I’ll be able to tell the last one in to close the doors behind them. I figure, if nothing else, it’ll have to stop spawning undead eventually just for not having any room. I’ll definitely need to have Tiny web the door once they’re all inside.

Actually, I should get this place cleaned up a bit, too. I have some undead close, and some pretty far in the tunnels. Until the stragglers get here, might as well have the others clean stuff up. Alrighty you corpses! Grab a bit that’s not moving any more and get it into a pile. Poe and Coda! Get the bats and ravens to start bringing bits to the various plants and such for fertilizer. Anything that looks or feels weird, put it in this little cave here. Queen can take a look later.

Yvonne, for her part, seems to watch the activity with confusion, and maybe a bit of awe? Probably closer to curiosity.

“What… should I do?” she seems to absently ask. Well, that’s quite the philosophical question there, my little birb. I guess the simplest answer would be to do what feels right, but that’s the kind of thing that can lead in dangerous ways. I’m sure serial killers felt what they were doing was right. Probably not morally or ethically so, but in some way, I’m sure.

“Well?” she asks, speaking up a bit more, and looking around. Oh. She wanted an actual answer. Sorry Yvonne, but you’re not a scion or denizen, so I can’t seem to give you actual orders. Hopefully Aranya can clear things up for you once she gets here. Heh, she looks pretty uncomfortable slipping past all the undead in the tunnels, but at least she’s following Teemo.

Well, Yvonne is looking a bit restless and/or frustrated, I should probably try to do something. Hey, Tiny. See if you can get her attention and… I dunno, help with the clean up? Oh, wait! I dunno how much she knows about enchanting, but it’d be difficult to know less than I do. Fluffles! Get her attention and lead her to the enchanting lab the lich had! I wanna get a better feel for what’s in there! And to know what that lifedrinking thing is and if I can make something that counters it. It’s kinda late for Yvonne, but still.

The birb jumps a bit as Fluffles’ hiss, but quickly recognizes the noodle scion. “What should I do?” she asks again, to which he replies with another hiss and starts to slither towards a different mausoleum. She looks perplexed, but she doesn’t seem to have any better ideas than to just follow him.

I’m glad my residents, denizens, and scions can’t trip my traps, because wow there’s nasty stuff through his entire… workspace? I dunno what else to call it. There’s the enchanting lab, a warehouse, an armory, a forge. None of them appear to be secret, but I’d be shocked if anyone breathing has laid eyes on what’s down here before. I set basically all the traps to wear off, which will take some time, but is by far the cheapest way to deal with them. And it’ll give me the time to organize and hide what needs to be hidden.

I bet that lich was involved in a lot of them, too, kinda like how Queen is involved in my alchemy and elemental denizens. I’m probably going to have Fluffles handle the enchanting, though. Huh, wait a second.

Why didn’t I have the option to make an enchanting lab? Why didn’t Neverrest have an alchemy lab? Do dungeons not automatically have access to everything? I wonder what else I could unlock.

I mentally shake my non-existent head and focus. Specifically, I focus on my secret area to see if I can make a secret enchanting lab. And I can. That was definitely not an option before. I tell Queen to get ants working on digging out an enchanter’s area, and designate an alcove for the purpose. We’re going to need to get whatever research and such Neverrest had and secure it. I’m sure some of the people outside would use it to fight things like lifedrinking, but I’m also sure some people would want that kind of thing to use.

I’m gonna need to grab as much of the library as possible, too, for similar reasons. For now, though, looks like Aranya and Yvonne are going to meet up just outside the lab. Aranya gasps as she lays eyes on Yvonne, and the birb seems to deflate a bit as the kobold speaks.

“You’re…”

“Undead. Yes…”

“No! Er, yes you are, but… you’re a Resident now, too.”

At that, Yvonne seems surprised, but I’m nodding to myself. She definitely knows what’s up, or at least has an inkling. “What happened?” asks the kobold, stepping closer to look over her new fellow resident.

“...I died. The dungeon tried to save me, but the skeleton scion had a lifedrinking sword. In desperation, I pleaded for help from the dungeon. The Raven came to carry my soul to the afterlife, but landed and asked me a question. I realized I could go, or I could accept the help of this dungeon… so I stayed.”

Aranya looks thoughtful at that information. “My people’s legends tell of kobolds serving even beyond death. There are never too many at once, though, as they are a drain on the Sanctuary’s energy.” She smiles as Yvonne looks concerned at that. “Apparently not too much individually, but too many becomes untenable. One legend speaks of a Sanctuary that wished to save every kobold in its demesne from The Raven, but the strain became too much to bear, and so Sanctuary and kobolds all went to see him at the same time.” She shakes her head at the legend, and Yvone still looks uncomfortable.

“So what should I do for the dungeon… or should I call it a Sanctuary now, instead?” Aranya smiles at that question.

“I don’t think the Sanctuary cares much about titles. I’ve tried various honorifics in trying to commune with it, but none seem to produce any different responses.” She brightens as she gets an idea. “Oh, you must come see the core! It’s magnificent! Surely you can feel the warmth radiating from it?”

Yvonne, looks a bit uncomfortable, but Aranya simply smiles again. “Close your eyes and feel for it. It can be strange at first, but you’ll know where the core is. As a Resident, your prime duty to the Sanctuary is to guard its core. It triumphed over the fallen Sanctuary because it was able to overcome its guardians and take its core. Should the same happen to our Sanctuary, it will be ours no longer. And… I don’t think it would go well for you,” she finishes a bit awkwardly, letting Yvonne work out the problem on her own.

Yvonne still looks a bit lost, but seems to decide to try to close her eyes and feel for my core. After a few seconds, she tilts her head like she’s heard something, and makes slow sweeps as she hones in on me. Her head stops sweeping with her facing directly towards my core, even halfway across the city, and she opens her eyes with a small smile on her beak.

“I can feel it.”