Teemo’s done ascending! He’s not even crawled out of the rat’s nest before I’m nudging him with what I want him to say first. Come on, say it! Please?

My rat Voice gives a sigh.

“Captain Teemo on duty. But I’m not a captain… I think?” I’m pretty sure he brings up his status to look at, while I’m silently celebrating at the top of my not-lungs. I calm down by the time he’s done looking, and he looks a bit confused.

Honestly, I kinda am, too, but I’m not concerned. Fluffles became a quatl, but Teemo is still just a rat. Not a dire rat, or a ratling, or some crazy spirit rat or something. Just a rat. Who can talk. How do you feel, Teemo?

“Faster? And I can hear you more clearly.” Oh? What did I sound like before?

“You… didn’t really sound at all. Just feelings and flashes of intent.” Ooohh, like an Empathic bond. That’s kinda how I hear you guys, too. Anyhow, do you have any questions for me, before we get to work?

He manages to look a bit bashful. “Yeah. Uh… why me? I know you were considering Poe and Tiny, but why me?”

Well, there’s a couple things. One is the cult. I had a feeling my Voice would be kinda influenced by who I chose, instead of just regurgitating what I say. Poe would be a bit too… regimented. He likes things ordered and planned. Tiny would probably give me an air of mystery and wisdom, but after the cult really got started, I started thinking that’d be a bad idea. So I wanted you, Teemo, to keep me grounded.

The second thing is that you’re the best one to get around to actually talk to people. With your shortcuts and size, you can basically get from anywhere to anywhere in less time than it’d take Tiny to even get out of his maze.

And you’ll be a bit of a test for delvers who want to talk to me. If they can’t give you the respect you deserve as my Voice, just because they think you’re a normal rat, then I don’t have anything to say to them except goodbye.

Teemo takes a few minutes trying to process that. I felt his uncertainty before he ascended, so I’m not really surprised he needs a bit of time to come to terms with everything.

“What should I call you?” he asks suddenly, and I regard him curiously. What do you mean?

“Everyone has a different name for you. Tiny calls you the Weaver, Poe calls you Lord, Fluffles calls you Denmaster, Jello just calls you The Voice… which is kinda ironic, come to think of it. Grim calls you Master. Queen and Honey both call you Emperor.” Huh. What do you call me?

“Boss,” he says with certainty, and I take a moment to just think. What should I be called? Most of the scions just have a title for me, not a name. I could give him my name, or even an internet alias or something, but that just feels… weird. But what else should I be called? I was never any good with names.

Maybe a title, then? Yeah, because I was totally a noble before getting hit with a truck. But there are things I had earned. I got my degree in engineering, for one. That feels weird too, though, being a dungeon called Engineer. Hmm… that does give me an idea, though.

It’s a pretty fitting one, too, as I think about it. I’ve played a lot of tabletop RPGs, DnD and such, and even ran a bunch of games. That’s probably why I run my dungeon like I do, or at least partially. Death traps are boring, to run and to play, so I never tried to do that. And the whole, you know… real-people-dying thing.

I focus back on Teemo, and his eyes are a bit crossed. You ok? He shakes himself before replying.

“Yeah, sorry, Boss. You think… weird. I can hear it all, and know what it all means, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The meaning of a lot of those words feels like a whole book!” I chuckle at that. Sorry. Hopefully you can learn to ignore me when I’m just thinking to myself, or I can learn to not think in your ears, heh.

Anyway, I have a name. You can call me The DM.

“Thedeim?” What? The DM.

“That’s what I said, Boss. Er, Thedeim.” Huh. How’d you get that? You know the meaning of what words I use, right?

Teemo shifts a bit on his little ratty feet. “Yeah, but the meaning is way too long to call you. The word you used sounds like Thedeim.” Weird, phonetic? Oh man, I knew we weren’t actually speaking English! Is it some kind of translation magic or something?

“I… maybe? I’ve only ever been in this dungeon.” Right, right, sorry. You don’t magically have the answers any better than I do. Though speaking of magically having the answers, I think the first official thing I need you to do, my Voice, is to go talk to Larx and Aranya. I’m still uncomfortable with the cult, but I get the feeling they won’t just stop if I asked them to. Aranya is a High Priestess now! And Larx sanctified the cemetery! It kinda rings hollow to tell them I don’t have any power or anything.

Teemo nods at that, and gets moving, to gather them up to talk. Thankfully, the only difficult part is in making sure it’s only Larx and Aranya. They both wanted to have him address all the ratkin, which neither of us really wanted to. So Teemo put his tiny foot down before the two could go try to gather everyone.

“No! Now, are you two gonna listen to what Thedeim has to say, or not?” he asks with a glare, and the two slowly deflate, before they both realize what he said. He doesn’t let them get a word in yet, though.

“Yes, the Boss’ name is Thedeim. You can call him that, or Boss, or Sanctuary… just don’t call him late for dinner? What?” He looks towards my core, despite being over in the ratkin enclave, before shaking himself and continuing.

“Anyway, he only really has one piece of advice for how to live. Love.” Larx and Aranya both look confused at this, but at least they seem to have learned to be quiet while my Voice is talking.

“And not lust. He’s not a sex sanctuary. He’s a love sanctuary, so don’t go organizing big orgies or something to try to make him happy. Just… love. Genuinely care for others, without needing anything back.”

Aranya looks overjoyed, and Larx smiles like he’s been given some great nugget of wisdom. When Teemo doesn’t continue, Larx speaks up first.

“A wise and caring Sanctuary… Thedeim.”

Aranya looks about ready to explode and starts talking a mile a minute, before Teemo gets her to quiet down long enough to get a word in edgewise.

“Settle down! The Boss knows you want to talk, Aranya, but we’ve got stuff to do.” When she looks like he just ate her puppy, he hastily continues. “But we can talk in the morning, before you go to sleep, ok?”

The red kobold perks up significantly at that, and I mentally smile at the three, before directing my attention elsewhere. Teemo’s not kidding about me having stuff to do. I got a very nice pile of mana from the priest’s battle with Tiny, and even more once he looted the chest.

It’s enough for me to at least finish the first part of what I want for the crypt complex. The ratlings haven’t broken through to the crypt just yet, but it should be close. I’ve also been upgrading the zombie and skeleton spawners, and they’re both ready for me to choose their specialization.

I take a closer look at my options, and notice ones that I didn’t before: Fungal zombies and green skeletons. At first, I want to ignore the fungal zombies, but I actually think they’ll be safe. The plague rats that Neverrest had never actually started a plague, they just could infect delvers with stuff with a bite. So I don’t think I’ll be accidentally shrooming the city to destruction. I’m pretty sure they’ll just have chances to drop mushrooms when beaten, which is kinda cool.

The green skeletons are a bit more vague. I don’t think they’re just gonna be a recolor of a normal skeleton. Maybe they’ll be kinda mossy? Whatever they are, they’re more intriguing than the other skeleton options. So I go ahead and upgrade the spawners. The zombies don’t change much, except for growing a little mushroom on the top of their heads. It’s almost cute. The skeletons actually do start developing moss, so yay for guessing!

Now all I need to do is wait for the ratlings to break through, and they can start populating the crypt complex.