Tarl eventually calms down and heads home to recover. A good cry, er… rain shower can take a lot out of someone, but it’s good to let it all out sometimes. I can’t blame him for having complicated feelings about Hullbreak. Honestly, when he started his story, I was making vague plans to kick in Hullbreak’s door and give it the Neverrest treatment.

But in the end, it’s a bit more clear what the situation is. Neverrest was rabid and had to be put down. Hullbreak is a wounded and starving beast. I might have to put it down, too, but that’s the last resort. There’s still hope to get it fed and healed. But how?

Focusing on the reports and stuff he gave me, the details don’t really give me anything to go on. Almost every delver inside when the accident happened were killed by the sharks and other denizens of the dungeon. Any that managed to get out were able to survive, but it’s pretty clear that Hullbreak doesn’t want anyone from outside coming in.

I’m also starting to suspect I might be part of the reason why it’s starving now. The seagulls that I’ve been dealing with for a long time are probably from Hullbreak, or at least some of them are. The wasps were mostly from Neverrest, after all. I still have some wasps, but not nearly as many. I think Hullbreak was basically sustaining itself on Neverrest’s wasps, and what raids on me it could get away with.

But now with Neverrest gone, and my defenses much improved, there’s not a lot of profit in raiding around here. So… how can I fix it? Raid it right back?

Maybe? I have the excess mana to spend on failed raids, but what would I actually raid with? It’ll probably figure out that something is weird if I try to send spiders or snakes or other things that clearly don’t belong in the ocean. I’m sure it’d still take the mana, but it’d also keep its guard up, which I need to avoid if I’m going to help it.

I need information, too. Everything the ODA has looks to be at least a decade out of date. I don’t want to try something like this with old information. I’ll probably only get one chance, and then have to resort to the Old Yeller treatment if that fails.

Although… I wonder. If we have old info on it, how up to date is its info on what’s been going on around here? I could pretend to be Neverrest, at least as far as raiding goes. I don’t have the wasps, but I do have undead. Skeletons would probably be the best to try to raid Hullbreak with, if I want to do that kind of act.

I’ll need to be careful about it, though. Too many, and it’ll put its guard up even more surely than if I sent random stuff against it. But if I send a slow stream of skeletons, it should assume Neverrest has graduated from wasp harassment and into undead harassment. And with it focussing on bigger invaders, I might be able to slip in a few that are sneakier.

I think I have two options with that, but I’ll need to do a bit of testing. I might as well get the skeletons in on the testing, too. Just because movies say skeletons can walk around underwater without much issue, doesn’t mean they actually can. I mean, that same movie thinks two guys can walk a rowboat upside-down under water without a bajillion pounds to help weigh it down. Buoyancy does not like having big air bubbles under the water.

Anyhow: testing. I don’t want to use the underswamps or the aquifer for this. I don’t need to go stirring up the scythemaws before their mating season, or migration season, or whatever it is they actually are going to do. So that really just leaves the hard gauntlet for testing. That’s not too bad, though. It’s pretty deep, and if nothing else, my denizens can be lifeguards while they’re practicing in there.

I ping a couple rockslides, a handful of skeletons, and several of my more transparent slimes to head there, and testing can get underway. The rockslides make quite a splash when they dive in, but are thankfully unhindered by the water. Well, not fully unhindered. Water has a lot more resistance than air, but they don’t need to breathe, seems like. So rockslides pass the first test with flying colors.

The skeletons are in next, and have a bit more issue. They’re quite a bit lighter than the rockslides, so they have to be more careful with their movements. If they move too fast, they basically propel themselves backwards, which isn’t ideal. I’m also going to need to leave my various plant/skeleton combos out of this mission. Salt water does not like plants that are not used to it.

I’ll just need to give my skeletons some kind of weighted shoes or something. Heh, if I had access to limestone, I might be able to give them actual cement shoes. As it is, I’ll probably end up tying rocks to them to keep them grounded. It’ll give them a good base to be stable from, at least.

The slimes are the last to show up, which isn’t a surprise. Even with shortcuts, they’re pretty slow. Jello even comes to see what everyone is up to. The various slimes slip into the water, and Jello follows. While most of them aren’t quite as clear as I’d like, Jello is basically invisible. If she wasn’t my scion I’d send her to get intel on Hullbreak. Thankfully, one of the oozes is also more or less invisible in the water, so I’ll be sending some of them.

From the bond, I get the feeling Jello would like to go, but I gently tell her no. She still needs to find a good gopher or a good gremlin to convert. And, if Hullbreak actually manages to spot her, it’ll definitely lose its crap. Scions in another dungeon are one of the biggest dangers we seem to face. Hard to make a friend if you show up to their house carrying a bomb. It doesn't matter how many times you assure them you won't use it, you're still a new person in their house and pose a clear danger.

So now I know who I’m sending, I need to figure out how. Even with me being on people's good side, I don't think they’ll appreciate skeletons, rockslides, and slimes just strolling down main street. So how do I get them to the dungeon in the bay?

They’ll use the stairs over the wall in the graveyard I built. I had just been using it for the wolf expeditions on the surface, but I don’t see any reason my other denizens can’t use it, too. First, though, I want to get the route scouted, at least as much as possible. As far as I can tell, they should be able to just hop the wall and head roughly northwest to the ocean, then more or less north under the water to get to Hullbreak Harbor.

But I want to be sure, so I have Poe and Leo send a few expeditions along the planned route. I don’t want to send my other stuff only to discover they’ll be stomping through someone’s big garden, or trip over another baby dungeon, or somehow unseal some unspeakable evil, or something.

But if it all goes to plan, Operation: Mend the Break can actually start. I hope I’ll be able to get it to open up to me and delvers, but I’m not exactly holding my breath on that one. It’s been isolated for too long, had to fight and scrape for existence for too long. There’s very little chance of this happening without someone having to be smacked a few times to listen. I don’t think I’ll have to eat Hullbreak, though. While Violet is calm and small enough for me to just mentor, I think my most likely action with Hullbreak will be to subjugate it and make it my vassal. That’s hardly the best option, but like with a lot of wounded and scared animals, sometimes dominance has to be asserted.

It’ll be a delicate process, though. I have to show it there’s no point in fighting me, but also that I don’t want to hurt it. If it thinks it can fight me, it’ll hurt itself and its dwellers, to try to keep doing what it thinks is best. And if it thinks I want to consume it, it’ll fight tooth and nail because it won’t want to die.

It’ll be a tough tightrope to walk, but if I can strike that balance, Hullbreak might be able to be released back into the wild and thrive on its own. If I can’t... well, the zoo is a better option than behind the shed.