Lena

«Hostileinvaders entering from portal number 1»

On receiving that notice, Lena shifted her attention to the Lotrot entrance, only to find the Entrance Hall bare. The Entrance level zone core quickly redirected her attention toward the Mana Waste entrance.

Ten individuals entered, gathering on the island that led out to the Wastes. Three looked like some kind of dire wolf, and one looked like a gnome-sized elf with wings tacked on to its back. Three were elves, blond and taller by a head's height than the ones that the parandrians had dumped in the Studio. The remaining three were some kind of avian beast kin as far as Lena could guess. The winged invaders carried bronze tipped spears and wore what looked like hardened leather armor. Two of the elves had bronze short swords, wooden shields, and what looked like bronze scale mail tunics, grieves and helmets. The last elf held a staff inset with many large mana crystals, most with a reddish hue, and wore thickly padded robes.

«The mages invading again?» Rob asked over the G.C.

«Not sure,» Lena responded. «A party from the other entrance. Let me get the screen up in the common room. Looks like we get to test the traps.»

No one from outside the Studio had yet seen the changes they had made to the Entrance level beyond the Entrance Hall to Lotrot. They hadn't worried so much about the entrance to the Mana Wastes, left from seeking out Candy, so Lena hadn't made an Entrance Hall for that portal. She had thought the most they would get would be someone wandering in the desert-like Wastes seeking water, so when she adjusted the elevations, she had put that portal near the top of the Entrance level, just above the new waterline.

Underwater tunnels, most made from force fields, led to various trap rooms from the Lotrot Entrance hall, the portal door to the living floor about center in the trap fields they had designed. While it was keyed to only permit the Studio crew through, Lena hadn't wanted to chance the mages having some way to force their way through, thus its hidden placement. There were several ways to get from the Lotrot entrance to the Mana Wastes entrance, but only one to get to the living floor, and more ways led to dead ends.

"Well?" one of the blond elves said, poking the gnome-sized winged elf with the tip of his short sword.

"Well, what? It's a water dungeon. These are wings." Even though Lena understood what the invaders said, it seemed different from the way Kargerran and the others from the Lotrot region spoke. She just couldn't quite place what the difference was.

"You are here to scout. How you do it is your business, noct," the elf with the staff said.

"I have a name, you know!" the winged elf creature said. Lena guessed that noct was its species. The noct looked over at the largest of the dire wolves. "Come on, Wisp. [Water Walk]."

The noct mounted the dire wolf and they trotted off over the water, exploring the portion of the level that existed above the waterline. The pair moved closer to the walls, slowing to a near stop to examine sections of the mural mosaic Lena had formed into the walls.

Lena split the screens so that one stayed on the main body of the invaders and another followed the scout.

*~*~*

Ouliel

"Bullshit Shasha bastards," Ouliel muttered to himself as he rode off to scout the dungeon. "No respect and not a care for sending valuable property off to be eaten by water monsters. Wisp understands Ouliel. Wisp understands respect. Those Shasha bastards think they're so much better just because they're Aware. Let's just make sure we outlive those nasty bastards. Maybe we can find some nasty areas to lead them through, see if we can get the dungeon to cut them … down …. These are pretty!"

The crystals in this dungeon grew in patterns that made images of Ancestors and beast kin, dragons, equines, muscular kobolds and winged cat chimeras. They all seemed to dance together on the walls, the illusion of movement enhanced by the dim lights reflecting off the water.

"This is not like any dungeon I've ever seen before," the noct said, running an affectionate hand down the neck of his mount.

Wisp let out a low pitched yodeling a-roo that sounded like agreement to Ouliel. They moved closer to the walls, close enough for Wisp to sniff the crystals and for Ouliel to reach out and verify the reality of these subtle pictures with his own fingers.

Ouliel sucked in a breath at the strongly patterned feel of these crystals. The purity of each attunement would have been painful if not arranged so that the crystals complimented each other, harmonizing their songs. "We cannot let the Shasha destroy this harmony, Wisp. We can't!"

Wisp whined.

"I know, I know. We're bound to them, but maybe we can lead them away from the beautiful."

Wisp shook his head and pawed at the water.

"We can try!" Ouliel insisted. "Come on, if we linger too long, the Shasha will question us about it."

Wisp whined, ending with a choppy sounding rou-roo-roo, but he started moving again.

It took them four castings of [Water Walk] to circumnavigate the room, and another three to check out the other two islands. They found nothing around the walls that they were required to report to the elves, but both islands had at least one tunnel leading downward.

Sha'lanadi, the wizard elf, tapped his staff to the ground when Ouliel and Wisp returned, a wordless demand for their report.

"No passages along the walls, but tunnels down from the islands that look dry," Ouliel said.

Sha'vord, the elven knight that had poked Ouliel with a sword earlier, pointed the sword tip at him now. "And which one is the better one to go down?"

Ouliel shrugged. "No [Divination] magics. They look very much similar to me."

"Noct, that's twice now," Sha'lanadi said, his voice frosty.

"I do not know what a 'core stone' is, so how am I supposed to track what I have no knowledge of?" Ouliel said, quick to pretend contriteness.

"Pick the path before I pluck your feathers," Sha'lanadi said.

*~*~*

Lena

«Did I get the sound on to you all?» Lena asked.

«Just enough to catch that last part,» Jason said.

«Votes for looping in the corporals?» she asked.

«If you can give us a screen on them, sure,» Rob said.

«Yeah, same here,» came Aaron's response.

«Yes, and the screen's a bonus,» Jason said.

Candy's response came as a more empathic agreement. Buttercup's answer felt more like a demand to go hunt the intruders.

Aaron started soothing the dire cat.

Lena popped her toon back into the military level. "Hi, sorry to interrupt, but I'm hoping to get your opinion on some folks that just walked in from the Mana Wastes. Is that something you're willing to weigh in on?"

The lupine perked up. "Yes, ma'am."

Lena brought up the split screens, one focused on the scout the other on the main party. "Do you know what these guys are? Species and such," Lena clarified.

"I think that might be a winged noct."

"Those wolves are too passive for dire beasts."

"Probably hemats."

"Are the harpies collared?"

"Looks like."

"That leaves the elves. Desert or High born?"

"Maybe Sun elves. There's a lot of red and bronze on their gear."

"Sun elves. See the curlicues etched on the shields? That's common for East Karth."

Lena didn't follow who said what. "Are they local?"

"No," the corporals chorused.

Baline asked, "Where are they?"

"Top of the Entrance Level. As I said, they came in through the Mana Wastes portal. We didn't think it would see anything more than a water seeker or such. I'm using my [Applied Color Theory] on the light here to share their progress."

"That is not what the Entrance level looked like when we walked through it," Baline said.

"I warned you that it's a work in progress," Lena said.

On the screens, the scout cast another [Water Walk] spell on their wolf and led the way to the nearer island.

Baline asked, "Do you expect us to fight these people?"

Lena shrugged. "Not really. If you want to inform anyone back in Lotrot in case these guys are hostile to y'all, that's your business. We've set up several layers of defenses. We don't really have a good way of estimating the strength of the people who have been attempting to sneak in here, so I'm hoping your reactions to the first line will help us fine tune the following ones. I don't want to kill if I don't have to, but I will not risk the safety of my friends or our guests."

The lupine pursed his lips but kept his gaze focused on the screen.

Baline frowned at Lena, his confusion plain in his posture.

The other arassi exchanged glances and then returned their attention to the screen.

*~*~*

Ouliel

Ouliel dismounted at the first island and slipped off his pack. He pulled out a bronze piton, small bronze claw hammer, and rope. "[Harden]" he muttered at the piton and then hammered it into the rocky ground of the island about a meter's distance from the edge of the tunnel. With practiced motions, he knotted one end of the rope around the piton and then dropped the other end down the tunnel.

"The hemat pack will need to stay on the island. There's no footing for them down these tunnels," Ouliel said, hoping to at least spare his friend from the long slog through the dungeon these tunnels promised.

"You, stay and watch over the hemats," Sha'lanadi ordered, pointing out the youngest one of the harpies.

She nodded and stepped away from her sisters.

Ouliel didn't wait for Sha'lanadi to turn back to him. He started down the tunnel, firmly holding on to the rope.

The footing turned out much better than he had expected, but the stone walls moved in and out, requiring a lateral flexibility that the hemat wolves lacked, and that proved difficult for the harpies. The Shasha bastards, even the ones in armor, had little trouble.

A little less than ten meters into the tunnel [Danger Sense] whispered down Ouliel's spine and he froze, trying to pinpoint just what the warning was about. Unable to see anything that would set off his Scout design's perk, he took out a trick ball from his belt pouch and set the enchanted orb down at his feet, letting the slope of the tunnel draw it further along the path.

Three meters ahead, lightning arced from the walls, incinerating the trick ball. The crystal at the ball's center continued to tumble down the tunnel.

The harpies panicked. Lightning was their bane and even with the space between the lightning field and them, the activation had singed their feathers.

Sha'vord rammed his fist into the nearest harpy's (Hessa's) temple, sending her into unconsciousness. Her body fell back into her sister Bessa, knocking them both off their feet and skidding down the tunnel, much like the trick ball. Ouliel tried to brace against their weight, but lost his grip on the rope and got shoved downward.

His [Danger Sense] abruptly shut off. They slid to a stop several meters below the lightning field, the conscious harpy still flailing around in panic. Beyond scrapes and scratches, Ouliel had some bruises from where Bessa thrashed beside him, but that was the only damage he had taken.

"Bessa, Bessa, we're safe! It's gone, I promise, it's gone!" Ouliel said, holding his arms crossed over his face in case the panicking harpy got her talons turned toward him.

The Shashas, glowing with lightning dampening magic, sauntered down the tunnel. Sha'vord grabbed Bessa by her wing arm, hauling her to her feet. "[Still]," he ordered and the harpy's body locked up into a shivering statue of flesh. "Noct, check on the other one."

Ouliel did not argue. He didn't even mutter to himself as he moved to Hessa's side and began using his [First Aid] skill to help the middle harpy sister. When he had done all he could, Ouliel very carefully did not look at the Shashas as he said, "I think her head's cracked."

Sha'lanadi stepped up next to the prone Hessa and turned her head with the butt of his staff. After a moment's silent evaluation, he said, "Wasteful," then raised up his staff and smashed it into Hessa's head. Ouliel barely closed his eyes in time to protect them from the blood spatter.

There was a slimy feeling as some thicker part of Hessa's flesh slid down Ouliel's face. He fought down the waves of nausea that sensation provoked and decided that even if it cost him his life, these Shasha bastards would die in this dungeon.

*** *** ***

Body Control +1

*** *** ***

"[Cleanse]." Sha'lanadi cast the spell on his staff, then poked Ouliel. "Keep at it, noct."

*~*~*

Lena

Tremshur growled, a snarling, hair raising sound of aggression. Baline and the other arassi corporals curled their lips in a way that bared their teeth and hissed.

"Sun elves," Fallan said. "I'm going to call up the line, see if we can get clearance to go hunt those Waste eating turds. Anything to add?"

"Make sure the commander knows one of them's a twig and the other two are thorns," Tremshur said. Pointing to a third screen Lena had conjured up when the intruders left the wolf pack behind, he asked, "Ma'am, would you be kind enough to block off that tunnel so the remaining harpy and the hemat wolves can't go down it? Even better if you have a way to isolate them."

"I can, but why should I?" Lena asked. She did not mention that she had already enclosed them in a transparent force bubble.

"Harpies and hemat wolves are monstrous sapients. If they're traveling with Sun elves, then the elves are using some kind of magical binding on them. Isolating the mon-saps will prevent the elves from being able to call on them. If we do get to go pound on the Sun elves, some of them will die. If any of those mon-saps are bound to the elf that dies, being in the case should hopefully give them a chance to calm down after the bond is broken. From what I've seen, it can be painful and disorienting all at once."

Lena said, "Ah! Okay," and then she gave the change in orders to the Entrance level zone core to isolate each of the wolves and the harpy in their own force bubble as soon and as quickly as possible; this was not a time for the slow and steady approach.

While they watched the elves get the noct to its feet and do something that got the remaining harpy to follow the noct, Lena rearmed the shock field trap. She said, "I'm less inclined to let the Sun elves leave here alive, but I also know I'm reacting from my emotional rejection of their callousness toward the harpy. What are the likely repercussions of killing those beasts?"

*** *** ***

Design of the Analyst advanced 7%

*** *** ***

Corporal Ignemrot said, "That's hard to say. We're not politicians. On one hand, the entrance they are using is within Lotrot's sphere of influence and the City Counsel has already posted a ban on anyone attempting to enter the dungeon without an authorized military escort. Inside the dungeon has been recognized as a territory outside of Lotrot's control, so your laws matter only so much as you enforce them."

«Jason, have we given anyone a list of our dungeon laws?» Lena asked over the G.C.

«No,» he said. «I was putting that off until we had the chance to go over what we wanted our laws to be. From what I gathered with Lotrot, most of their legal system is based on precedent, so there's no formal posting of the laws. They haven't pushed us for a document yet, either.»

«Are we all in agreement that the unprovoked murder of a sapient being is a crime?» Lena asked.

«Yes,» came the resounding answer.

«How do we want to punish that murderer?» Lena asked.

*~*~*

Ouliel

The tunnel led to a room three meters wide and five meters long. The walls were deliberately patterned, having diagonal lines crossing perpendicularly to each other etched into the stone. The floor alternated between square tiles of a light and dark gray color. Odd plant shapes were etched into the light gray tiles while the silhouettes of almost familiar animals had been carved into the dark gray tiles.

Ouliel's [Danger Sense] hummed, not quite at the warning level, but enough to instill extra caution in the noct. He made a careful study of the room, looking for weak points or traps, before stepping in. Ouliel had the odd thought that there was more give in the floor than should be had with stone, which made him even slower crossing the tiles.

Sha'vord's armor jangled impatiently behind Ouliel, but neither words nor the poke of the Shasha's sword followed.

Ouliel reached the halfway point of the room when his foot landed less than a centimeter farther down than he had expected. A click followed by a rattling sound underneath him galvanized the noct to leap into the air, wings spread wide as he jumped toward the far end of the room.

The tiles, starting from that center one Ouliel had stepped upon, fell into a five meter deep pit.

Sha'dakai, who had stayed quiet until this point, said, "I did not think dungeons had such elaborate traps as this."

"If someone got here before us, I may just have to stab that diviner for wasting our time," Sha'vord said.

Sha'lanadi cast [Path of Air] and made Bessa walk in front of the Shashas. "'That diviner' happens to be my uncle and he did not promise that we would be successful, merely that this was the only dungeon currently capable of creating ancillary core stones. This dungeon is, therefore, unique."

Ouliel stopped in his tracks, seeing yet another way in which this dungeon was unique.

"Noct, why have you stopped again?" Sha'vord asked.

"Force walls. The tunnel leading further on is made from force walls." If there was one thing Ouliel knew, it was that he did not want to be in that tunnel if the walls blinked out of existence. Looking up through the top of the tunnel, he guesstimated that they were roughly 30 meters under water. Worse, a goliath snakehead had draped its 2 meter body over the tunnel and was currently eyeing them with interest.

The Shashas came up behind him, looked at the force tunnel and then retreated toward the room with the pit trap. He heard them conferring, but found all his attention held by the serpentine fish that just kept staring at him. The sight of a school of tigerfish darting through frost-back salmon only warranted a quick, darting glance away and back, and Ouliel was positive the goliath snakehead had swum closer during that fleeting peek.

The tip of Sha'vord's sword poked Ouliel in the back of his shoulder. "Start walking," the Shasha bastard ordered.

Ouliel looked at the Shasha, then at the snakehead on the other side of a force field, trying to decide which was the bigger threat. Another poke from Sha'vord's sword, this time drawing blood, tipped the scales in favor of the Shasha bastards being a more certain death if he didn't start moving.

The snakehead reared back as Ouliel approached. Panic took over the noct's mind and he bolted, running down the tunnel as fast as his legs could carry him. He reached another room and was across it before he could stop, curling up into a ball and shaking.

Nocts were creatures of the sky. That much water over head was terrifying on its own, but Ouliel could have handled it at least as well as the pit trap room. The noct as a whole disliked snakes, mainly because most of the nonsapient naga and monstrous snakes of their native East Karthen jungles enjoyed munching on nocts and other winged species. Combining the two instinctual terrors was more than Ouliel could deal with, and he was still balled up, shivering and senseless when Bessa tripped over him.

*~*~*

Lena

The terror on the little noct's face as it looked between the Sun elf and the force tunnel nearly broke Lena's heart. When the brute stabbed the noct to get it moving, she decided that enough was enough. The noct fled from Stabby McStabberson, earning curses from all three of the Sun elves.

Next, the harpy was pushed into the tunnel, made to walk two meters ahead of the Sun elves. Feathers fell from her like sweat, her own terror at the sight of all that water looming over her making the harpy shake more than Nicki Minaj's ass in a twerking contest.

Lena waited until the elves were near the halfway point of the tunnel. Then she sprang a force wall between the elves and the harpy, only to collapse the portion of the force wall that the elves were walking along.

The harpy fled down the tunnel. The elves had taken precautions for themselves, if not for their feathered slaves, and individual air bubbles wrapped around the Sun elves. The caster pointed at the eel-looking fish Lena's menu called a goliath snakehead and shot out a burst of concentrated light.

"Fruiting sugar berry's got lasers!" she muttered.

The snakehead retreated, and the elves started moving toward the end of the tunnel. Lena sealed the room that the tunnel led to with crystal infused concrete around half a meter thick. The elves were trying to force their way into the force wall tunnel by the time the sealing was complete, so Lena triggered the spherical shock shield she had set up around the end of the force tunnel.

The air bubbles around the Sun elves dissipated. The caster began to float toward the surface, limp, his staff falling to the bottom of the level. The two armored elves appeared momentarily stunned. McStabby lost his sword, then began choking. The silent one quickly shook off their shock, looked around, saw McStabby drowning, and went about the business of saving McStabby's life. He even collected the caster as he dragged McStabby up to the surface.

"Pardon me," Lena said to the corporals before moving her toon to the island nearest the three Sun elves.

Sun Elf Number 3, the silent one, didn't seem to notice her, probably too busy keeping the caster's head above water while trying to get away from McStabby as he kept pushing Number 3 under in a bid to climb as high out of the water as he could get while hacking up all the water that had gone down into his lungs.

Once beached, the elves looked much the worse for wear. Lena waited only long enough for Number 3 to roll away from the caster before locking them up in their own force field prisons. McStabby recovered the soonest, followed shortly by Sun Elf Number 3. The caster lay sprawled on his face, apparently still unconscious.

On spotting Lena, McStabby reached for the sword that wasn't there, scrambling back until he crashed into the force field barrier. Number 3 barely rolled his head, too exhausted to move right away.

"I'm still deciding if I want the excuse to kill you right now, you sugar humping fruit suckers. You're very fortunate that I am a civilized being or I would have crushed your skulls the same way your finger wiggler smashed that poor girl's head in. As it is, you are all under arrest for murder. Your trial begins tomorrow. If you are found guilty without mitigating factors, you will be executed."