After they recover and get some people down to deal with the scythemaw body, it starts to feel like scythemaw mania is about finished. Those three are considered pretty dang stronk and cautious, and if even they had to be bailed out of a hunt, it makes the other delver groups reconsider their options.

And speaking of delver groups: Aranya is officially part of the Adventurer’s Guild! She’s been getting to know everyone there better, and hanging out with Ragnar and Aelara more, too. She’s suggested to them asking to be Residents, but neither is too interested, which is fine. My two Residents have also been keeping an eye on various quests, which helps me to adjust for demand.

In low demand now are scythemaw quests, for example. There’s plenty of bits for the curious to play with, so the only quests left seem to be to observe them. It’s still not exactly safe, but the maws are settling into homemaking to go with their baby making. There are very few solo maws left, so the various pairs mostly guard their territory and work on deepening their nests.

It’s nice to have the delvers get back to more usual delving, at least. The crypt complex is busier than usual, thanks to the deeper caverns being taken up by the maws, but it’s simple enough to aim the tougher spiders and other harder encounters over there, as well as the various plant/undead hybrids that are already calling that area home.

The scouting operations outside the borders are going well. Progress proceeds apace to get into contact with the Southwood. Leo has set a few packs to head there directly, now that we have a few little outposts established. I don’t want him going himself just yet, though. I want to get him a bit more experience directing my denizens before I let him run off to an unknown fight.

The path to Hullbreak looks pretty clear, and I’m going to need to have Teemo drop in on Tarl and the Office of Dungeon Affairs soon, to let them know to not freak out if they see skeletons and stuff outside of town to the north. Tying rocks to them is still my best option, seems like. I considered trying some metal transmutation, but there’s a couple problems with that. The first is that salt water does not play nicely with most metals. The second is that I just don’t have enough of the stuff to transmute enough of the skeletons to make them sink nicely. And the third: I don’t want to tip off Hullbreak that I have alchemical stuff. It might think it’s just a skeleton upgrade if I was able to transmute an entire skelly, but that is way too expensive to keep up for long.

So just rocks for now. Besides, it’ll give my rockslides a good cover to get inside. With new rocks littering the seabed, other little piles won’t stick out as much. We’ll be getting into the water from a steep rocky beach, and I’m pretty sure Hullbreak doesn’t own that section, so we should be able to slip the slimes in without too much trouble. Poe is setting a flock of Ravens at the beachhead just in case, to make sure Hullbreak can’t get too close of a look at what’s going on.

…I think that’s basically all the planning I can do before actually doing this. I need to see how Hullbreak will react, and try to get information on his dwellers before I can do much more. First thing I’ll probably have my spies try to do will be to get in contact with the one that wrote that letter. Alright, Teemo. Go let Tarl know what we’re up to.

Tarl

The Inspector has been feeling… rather good lately, actually. He hadn’t realized how much he was bottling up with regards to Hullbreak, and having Thedeim listen in was a great weight off his mind. And then the crazy dungeon promised to somehow make it right!

He chuckles at that idea as he helps organize the yearly paperwork. Telar does an excellent job keeping everything in order through the year, but even she needs help going through everything for the official records and the tax collectors, of course.

“Has the Boss really made that much of a mess for you this last week?” comes a familiar voice from atop a cabinet, and Tarl smiles at the local Voice.

“Ah, hello Teemo. And no, this isn’t just from this week. We’re getting started with the year-end paperwork. Tax collectors are more formidable than anything I’ve encountered in a dungeon,” he replies with a smirk. He watches as the scion makes a couple jumps to land on his desk, and he decides he can take a quick break to chat. “It something up?”

Teemo nods. “Yeah. Remember what I said in the graveyard? Well, the Boss is about ready to make his first move on that.”

Tarl’s face turns serious as he adopts his inspector mode, understanding this is an important business topic. “What are his plans with Hullbreak?”

“Well… ‘plan’ is a bit strong, but he does have a few things he’s going to be doing. He’s going to send sacrificial raids of skeletons at Hullbreak to help keep it from starving, and he’s going to infiltrate it to get more information.”

“Sacrificial raids?” repeats Tarl, surprised Thedeim would go that far. “He’s not just going to subsume it?”

“I mean, it’s an option, but Hullbreak sounds like it’s hurt and scared, rather than just outright evil and dangerous. He wants to try to talk to it.”

“And if that doesn’t work?” asks the elf, looking like he seriously doubts that will work.

“He’ll try to Vassalize it.”

Tarl’s eyes widen at that. “He can do that already?!”

Teemo nods. “He technically could have done that with Violet, but hasn’t. She’s still open to learning and doesn’t just lash out in fear. Hullbreak… is probably going to take a heavier hand.”

Tarl slowly nods at that. “He’s aware Hullbreak won’t just accept Vassalization?”

“Yeah, he knows it’ll be a fight if it comes to that, and that it will probably come to that, too. But he wants to take it slow and careful, and see if the carrot will work before he has to employ the stick.”

The inspector sighs at that, not having much hope for the carrot approach, but unwilling to call it a lost cause already. “Can I put his ability to vassalize into the records?”

The Voice tilts his head slightly, listening to Thedeim, before nodding. “That’s fine. Unless Hullbreak somehow comes to its senses without needing to be shown force, it’ll be pretty obvious before too long anyway. Also obvious: people are going to see skeletons, slimes, and living rockslides to the north of town.”

Tarl nods at that, then starts leafing through the more recent reports. “We’ll start letting people know, if only so they don’t flood us with reports. Speaking of pretty obvious… where is it… ah!” He pulls out the report he was looking for, and holds it for Teemo to see. “Is this accurate?”

Teemo peers at it for a few seconds before nodding. “Looks like. That group went into the caverns to try to bag a scythemaw, but got in over their head. Grim dealt with it.”

“That simply?”

“That simply.”

“How?”

Teemo shrugs. “I don’t understand his magic, but I think his affinities tell a pretty clear story.” He lets Tarl get a scrap of paper and a charcoal stick to take notes, then continues. “See, he started with Earth and Fate, because of Thedeim, yeah? Once he earned his Groundsreaper title, he picked up Death.”

Tarl nods at that. “Pretty standard so far. Scions tend to start with one affinity of their own, and one affinity granted by their dungeon. Titles often grant affinities, too.”

Teemo nods and continues. “So, he’s also been growing flowers and stuff, and listening to mourners at the graves. The Boss said he’s managed to make the connection and expand his Death affinity into Life.”

Tarl’s eyes widen at that, and when Teemo doesn’t continue, he fills the silence. “So Rocky isn’t the only one he’s been working on affinities with?”

Teemo chuckles. “He’s been working with all of us, but he was surprised when he saw Grim had managed to get Life somehow. The Boss understands the link, but I sure don’t.”

Tarl doesn’t understand any link either, but he’s not exactly a mage. “And that somehow let Grim kill the tunnel horror without seeming to move?”

Teemo nods. “I’m not an expert, but I figure someone who has Life, Death, and Fate affinities could manage something like that without too much trouble.”

Tarl stares for a few moments before sighing and crumpling the paper and tossing it into the fire. “Not information to be shared with the Guild at large. Any other terrifying revelations?”

Teemo chuckles and shakes his head.