《Agros de Mortis》19-A lovely midnight dungeon crawl
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Hmm so far this is an interesting location, the tomb is built in an interesting design emphasizing many pillars and gargoyles along with a lack of religious iconography. I would believe that besides churches that tombs would have religious symbols but this one is blank, perhaps a sign of the people or were they erased. If they were erased then that would explain the number of undead but once more that discrepancy with numbers, hmm if I remember the only unique individuals are the so called ‘bosses and minibosses’. I wonder what history that they can tell me of what happened in the past, though I suppose I will need someone important to truly get some information. Perhaps I can fact check some things though the goddess herself admitted to knowing only so much of the area and history so more to fulfill my curiosity. Right now however not being a dedicated scholar of the past there is only so much I can glean from looking at the architecture of this tomb.
Now then for the actual clearing of the dungeon, the undead here are rather weak. Skeletons in general tend to be fragile to blunt trauma due to the lack of strength in the connections between bones which is why some necromancers prefer zombies for being very very tough but mine are strong enough to simply push down their opposites and they break apart. It probably has something to do with the heavy armour that my undead wear that is heavily padded. While the massive charging shield wall of my veterans is pushing most opposing forces to the ground in pieces any that survive are taken down by the second line. The rather reckless strategy can only be accomplished because of the enhancements cast by the priests and the mages to ensure that my minions stay intact. Any enemies coming from side channels get funneled into the walls by the large U shaped shield wall and smashed by the second line. We have not had any real variety of enemy aside from either spearmen, swordsmen, and the occasional knight. I assume from the scraps I remember about dungeons as I believe this relatively large tomb counts as a sort of small scale dungeon there is a boss after a certain period. T
hese are usually much stronger and there can be several gimmicks to help strengthen them or hinder their opponents. Still they are usually not absurdly stronger than the preceding enemies, I don’t understand why they have such a weak defense plan. If it is to help provide resources then you might as well set up a profitable exchange or instead a challenge system. Make people be delayed here due to bureaucracy in order to leech from them or outright kill them to gather their belongings.
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Well the inadequacies of the standard way that dungeons are run aside I see a rather large set of stone doors embossed with from the armour and banners the symbol of the fallen kingdom. This is a lion with shield and spear on a background of a castle, having my minions push open the door I am greeted by an interesting sight. Hiding myself behind the mages I speak through the knight leading the first group to the massive conglomerate of bone and black goo shaped roughly like a humanoid and standing in the center.
“You are the guardian of this chamber?”
“Yes, all intruders must DIE”
Hmm many dissonant voices from I assume all the bones that make up this abomination.
Willing my forces forward in formations of three they strike quickly, no need for the hesitation of the living. The abomination attempts to smash the undead aside but while it is swinging a few bone spears from the mages strike what should be the shoulders and the priests smash blocks of miasma to displace the arms from attacking. The abomination groans in annoyance and I see the bone spears start being absorbed, but here is where I step in. Taking my new control of the elements granted to me I create flowing streams of fire and send them flying into the places that the spears struck.
Meanwhile my soldiers strike as heavily as they can into the enemy, seeing that the hits are true I will every minion back and send the crossbows forward after having them enchanted. The tips of the bone glow green in banefire and they give off a toxic light as they streak forward into the abomination. Fire flashes as the necromantic energy that fuels the mass of bone and decay is being absorbed by the fire, these fires are fueled by such energy and they do not need to devour only life force to sustain themselves. The thing starts to roar in pain and agony as the many souls that inhabit it are dying out, consumed as fuel without the shield of lifeforce to stop such an act from happening. Moving my chosen knight forward I take it’s warhammer in a two handed hold and strike as hard as I can in an overhead strike destroying an arm while the rest of the group start charging the other arm as well. The mages shackle it’s legs and the priests shield the attackers from taking damage from the fire as well. It tries to strike back but the fire has weakened it’s strength and the strikes from the maces start to break it apart piece by piece. It roars in helpless rage unable to stop it’s death.
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I take cursory looks at the souls leaving it as it falls to the ground in a clatter of bones and squelching noises but none are important. There is nothing useful here, only images of war and life that any can have. Sure enough these beings died from civil war or disease, the few survivors so full of despair at the loss of their kingdom locked themselves away and died from suicide. Such mass of despair, fear, hopelessness and other such feelings eventually created this being. A sad but common tale, perhaps someone fresh to war would feel sorrow but then again they would likely not have survived a fight much less win.
I feel some sympathy and pity but they have died and now it is those still advancing to make their own history with the relics of the past. These bones though little is directly intact can be reused to fuel the growth of new creations and this decay can be converted to energy. Everything of use is placed in urns carried by the clean up crew once the place is emptied of undead not under my control. The weapons that can be reused are bundled along with the armour, the scraps are also brought back to be melted down. Like a swarm of locusts this place is cleaned, interesting enough was the presence of chests scattered around with some loot. Who bothered making this many chests only to stuff them with only one or two items well I took them whole as well. The items were low quality enchanted gear, still something to spice up the better warriors however since the bone weapons of the veterans are still better.
There is a certain amount of material wealth in precious gems and metals which can be of use if we ever need an economy though I prefer their use for magic artifacts and new weapons in the future once we are ready. I found the nexus point for this area however is a massive standard presumably of the soldiers here. I take it over with my own energy and I feel that this place is now connected to the system. Hmm I feel as if I can do more now, looks like the fuel that this dungeon mana is being absorbed more. Once I take over the other two this should expand as well again allowing me to transplace everything over.
Taking a closer look at this banner it seems finely made and crafted with much effort and emotion. Banners such as these are the identity of armies and should not be disrespected. Using the knight who I had controlled for the battle I expand it’s capabilities improving everything about it. Now it will be the standard bearer who will carry this with dignity for it’s last owners as the successors, holding the banner I can feel the hopes, faith, and dreams they felt from it. WHile I often trample over such things I know the value this has for regular people and well give some sort of respects to it, yes I have such sentimental moments sometimes for things like this.
Still this thing is the focal point for this mini dungeon so it must be protected accordingly, I need the new undead who will come forth from here that I can sense. I know the rough characteristics of each minion here that can be made and that if I provide more of this strange mana that the dungeons create along with some necromantic energy I can improve everything. Let us keep the undead that spawn here in their old regalia but improve their base bodies, it is nice that they come with weapons though removing the arms from here will not work for large scale and having too many weaponless undead will be annoying since I do not want to convert too many to boneclaws. Well time to continue my work as always.
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