I watch through Leo’s eyes as he explores the woods, looking for a good spot to set up his FOB. It’s a bit of a grandiose name for what’s probably going to be a glorified hole in the ground. There’s quite a few divots in the sides of hills, and hollows in some tree roots, but he hasn’t managed to find anything quite to his liking just yet. That hasn’t stopped him from sending a few orders, though.

The latest batch of skeletons are to stay near the beach and start securing it, and he’s set up a line of rockslides along the beach so the bees won’t have to try to dodge waves to be able to relay the reports. It looks like he’s going to try to make some wooden spike walls to put atop the natural walls, to help keep any aquatic attackers from being able to actually get into the secured area.

He’s letting the bees help him look for a good spot, too, so I’m sure they’ll find something to his liking soon. If it comes to it, I should be able to sneak Coda and a few ratlings to expand whatever he decides to set up shop in.

I’ve also realized another problem with the plan, or at least the next step. I want to get into contact with the dwellers in Hullbreak… but how am I actually going to manage that? I might be able to skirt the rules with a few signs from my aranea, but they might be a bit too obvious. Driftwood is all well and good, but most of it floats, rather than sticking to random rocks.

It’s not a fatal flaw, at least not yet. Leo has gotten a few more reports already, and my spies are still settling in and getting a feel for what is normal in there. I don't believe they’ve spotted any dwellers yet. If their enclave is anything like the ones I’ve made, there’s still plenty of room to hide it. I also wouldn't be surprised if the enclave is close to the sanctum. That note made it sound like the dwellers are precious to Hullbreak, so it’d make sense to make their enclave as secure as possible.

It’s looking like I only just managed to get out ahead of the seagulls, too. I’ve asked Poe to make it look like we’re only barely able to handle keeping the gulls away from sensitive areas, even if I’m pretty sure Poe could easily go and scour the spawner from the little island or reef or whatever it’s on all by himself. I need Hullbreak to feel comfortable before I spring on him how outclassed he is. Otherwise, vassalizing him will take a lot more pain than is strictly required.

Hullbreak’s defenses are swelling, and though my spies haven’t found the spawners yet, I can get at least a rough idea of how strong he is by how quickly the skeletons are handled. I kinda want to overwhelm his defenses so my spies can get deeper quicker, but I need to take it nice and slow. I might have been able to get deeper with a more aggressive initial attack, but now is just too late to send another surge… or too early, I guess. If I send another surge, I need to make it look like I’ve had to build up skeletons, and possibly send a new variety, too.

But either way, now is not the time to rush. Even though I really want to. It’s times like this that make me miss having thumbs to twiddle, or an internet to wander for stupid stuff. It’s a lot harder to distract myself when I really need to hurry up and wait. Watching my scions can help with that some, though.

Most of them are still doing what they do. Teemo has made just about all the shortcuts he can think to make, so he’s taken to doing a bit of people watching and practicing his Fate affinity. I don’t know where he got that dice from, but he rolls it sometimes to try to call what it will be. I’m not sure if he’s trying to read what the destined roll is, or if he’s trying to influence it himself, but he seems to be having a small bit of success with it, getting it right about 20% of the time. I may have spent a couple hours keeping track of it. Don’t judge.

Queen and Thing have finished growing the crystal pickups for the axe, so now the former can focus more on trying to get a working aqua potion, or whatever she’s going to call a thing that will let people both breathe and move properly under water. A water affinity potion would probably be ideal, but I seriously doubt she’ll be able to stumble over something like that any time soon. A mer-potion might be more achievable, but that’s not really saying much. The only thing we have that actually transforms something is the metal stuff, and I think something to turn something into a half-fish would be even more complex than turning to metal.

Thing has been running experiments with the pickups and working on the enchantments to take the electricity from the quartz and amplify it into the singing tesla coils that I want in the hat. It seems like it’s not too complicated for him, but it is delicate work, so he’s going slow. They have a few spares, but he’d rather not break them by accident.

The actual axe head is making pretty good progress, surprisingly. The spiderkin have been able to walk along the ceiling and avoid the scythemaws, and have been visiting my ratkin to help forge the blades. It’s a pretty good working relationship they have going, too. The ratkin have been making various steels and the spiderkin forge them into weapons, and they all do the testing. Most of the blades either shatter or bend, but they’re taking good notes and have discovered a lot of interesting ways to not make an axe.

As for the recipient of the axe, Slash has managed to pick up a lute or something from somewhere, maybe Tiny captured a bard in the maze? Either way, he spends a lot of his time in the tunnels, just practicing. There’s not a ton of digging to be done right now, so he has the free time. He’s got a long way to go to live up to his namesake, but he has to start somewhere.

Jello is hunting moles and gremlins with more focus than I think I’ve ever seen from her. I don’t feel any frustration coming from her, but I do get a sense she feels like she needs to try something different with her approach. I tickle the bond with the idea of asking Teemo to help, and she readily accepts the suggestion. I let him know she’ll be on her way, so he puts the dice away and goes to head her off at the pass. And by pass, I mean the lawn, where she’s been hunting.

Jello

Jello hums as she works on the latest mole she’s captured. She’ll be able to calm it, she’s not worried about that. She’s just wondering what she’s doing wrong to not find one that would want to join. She can already tell this one will just want to go. Leo would probably suggest she just eat it, but that just feels kinda mean, to start calming it down only to eat it when it’s not going to do what she wants.

Then the Voice in her head suggests asking Teemo, and she brightens at that. He’s almost a mole, right? Maybe he’ll have a better idea of what to offer them! She burbles happily as she makes her way towards the nearest shortcut, only for the Voice’s Voice to appear from it.

“Ah, heya Jello. The Boss says you could use some help with the moles?”

She jiggles in affirmation. “Yes! He wants to get a mole so he can have a new spawner, but none of them want to join! They all just want to leave. Should I… just eat them?” she asks, clearly uncomfortable, but Teemo smiles and shakes his head.

“Nah, you can keep catching and releasing them. It’s their choice to stay or go. Have you been trying to use your affinity to find one that would want to stay?”

“I’ve been trying, but haven’t had any takers. Should I try offering them something more than just soft dirt to dig and a warm spawner? I can’t think of anything else to offer a mole.”

Teemo thinks on that for a few moments before shrugging. “I think that’s about all we can offer. Well, that and friends.”

“Oh, friends! Right! How could I forget that? That should make it a lot easier!” She wiggles in happiness before Teemo speaks up.

“I think the Boss wants me to help you try to use your affinity to find a good one, too. Have the moles been feeling any different?”

“Yeah, some. I can tell which ones I can actually calm down, and which ones are just kinda… off. But I still haven’t found one that would stay. I’ve even tried with gremlins, but no luck there, either,” she says, slumping a little in defeat.

Teemo just gives her a reassuring smile. “That’s what I’m here for. The Boss says I’m starting to get the hang of luck with this dice I found. The numbers don’t sound too impressive to me, but he says it’s still ‘statistically relevant’.”

“What’s that mean?”

The Voice smiles and climbs atop the big cube of slime. “It means that, even if you’ve gotten zero, I might help you get one. It’s not a huge number, but it’s still more.”