Much as I’d like to brood over the implications of the mystery dungeon being Aranya’s old dungeon, I’m not the only one considering the information. Larx is frowning as he thinks, while Folarn looks determined.

“We’ll need to start marching soon,” declares the large spiderwoman, before turning her focus to Larx. “We will need your help in the cold, as well. Once back under the ground, we should be able to move fine, but even with the Scout’s shortcuts, the cold will be taxing.” Vernew nods at that while Norloke looks thoughtful. She stays quiet as the ratkin elder speaks.

“I believe we can move whenever you’re ready, Folarn. I think we’ll both be waiting on Norloke to make some thicker winter wear, though,” he says with a smirk, and the orbweaver nods absently.

“Yes… I haven’t had to design much in the way of warm clothing. There are a few techniques that should work, but will take at least a few days to test out.”

“That’s fine,” speaks up my Voice. “The Boss wants to get Leo there to direct scouting the tunnels before we send any kind of actual force down there. From all appearances, it’s probably a couple day’s march from the surface to the foe, but Thedeim wants to be certain we won’t get ambushed or stumble into them only a mile or two deep.”

“If you need scouts,” speaks up the orc, “I have a lot of adventurers who would love to stick their noses into places that may want to chop them clean off. In fact, you said it’s near the Southwood? It’s a great place to delve, even in winter, but the snows tend to keep adventurers away this late in the year. Crafters are always starving for resources this time of year, since most adventurers take this time to try to get some upgrades. I’m certain I can get some quests from them. We’d not only get the Southwood a nice mana injection, but help outfit adventurers who would be more than happy to raid some hostile dungeon.”

He smirks over at Ragnar, Aelara, and my residents. “After you helped take down Neverrest, I had a lot of complaints about missing out on that kind of quest. If Thedeim is aiming to take down a second dungeon, half the guild would leap at the chance, and the other half would go along as well, just to have something to do.”

That sounds great to me. “The Boss isn’t going to turn down help, and getting the Southwood some more mana would be great. And speaking of getting mana: the Boss is going to need a lot for this fight. He wants to upgrade the dragon spawner to get whatever is after wyrms, but the thing is expensive to upgrade. Thankfully, the lava labyrinth is pretty much ready. There’s a few other finishing touches to add, but nothing really keeping him from letting the delvers officially in to run around and do their things.”

Rezlar nods to himself at that. “I’ll let the smithing and mining guilds know. They’ve been desperate to get at the mythril and orichalcum.”

Ragnar interrupts with a low whistle. “Y’got both? Yer lucky they hav’nae barged in t’ mine already! One or t’other’s all well an’ good, but both is enough t’ cut off ‘alf yer beard for.”

Rezlar chuckles at that. “That might be underselling it. Bjorn looked almost possessed when he barged into the merchant’s meeting and started shouting about it. From the looks of the other merchants, it’s a major commodity. I’m not well-versed in the metals trade, but if a dwarf is excited about it, that’s all I really need to know.”

That earns some polite laughter around the table, before Rezlar continues. “I also think it shouldn’t be too difficult to convince the merchants and crafters to step up their delving and trading. Winter is usually a slow season for them. It shouldn’t take much to remind the crafters that Thedeim doesn’t have to close for the cold, and the merchants will be more than happy to step up trade with the enclaves. With them moving to a bit more of a war footing, I’m sure they’ll want a lot of goods. In fact, if you’re going to be moving a lot of people a long distance, you might want to see about getting some wagons to help carry the supplies.”

Larx and Norloke nod at that, with the spiderwoman replying. “We’ll need to work with a wainwright to make a yoke for the tarantulakin. One or two should be more than enough to haul a loaded wagon.”

When nobody else has anything to add, Teemo picks back up the lead. “The first floor of the lighthouse should be done soon, which should also help ease the Boss’ mana load. He’s been having to help shore up Hullbreak with the winter making it too cold for normal delving.”

“Oh, normal delving will probably be picking up there soon,” pipes up Karn, and he soon expands. “The delving there was slow to start with, what with everyone still being used to Hullbreak being belligerent and difficult to delve in the first place. But Old Staiven sent me a note the other day saying he should have proper aquatic potions for sale again soon. He had a bit of a supply issue that’s been ironed out, so that should help Thedeim keep more of his mana, too.”

Tarl nods at that. “I had heard Freddie, Rhonda, and Larrez were able to delve and brought back a literal boatload of kelp. It’s probably an ingredient in the potion. Do you have many adventurers who’ll want to delve Hullbreak?”

Karn nods. “Definitely. I don’t have anyone who was able to delve Hullbreak before the uh… incident, but there’s more than one group of seadogs spending winter here who would love to dive in and keep the rust off.”

“That’d be a big help. If the Boss can keep his mana for himself, not to mention getting new delvers in the labyrinth, he should be able to upgrade a few spawners and maybe even get the ant enclave started.”

That earns a few surprised looks for Teemo.

“A third enclave?” asks Rezlar.

“Yeah,” says Teemo with a nod. “He’s been leaning heavy into the ants for the labyrinth, and the spawner is maxed out now. If it wasn’t for the Southwood’s trouble, he’d probably already have them progressing.”

Larx and the spiderkin look happy at the idea of another enclave to live with, and Aranya looks eager to help guide their growth to be the best they can be.

“Can you support a third enclave?” asks Karn, looking a bit concerned.

Teemo shrugs. “I don’t see why not. He had a spot in the labyrinth picked out, but it’ll need to be expanded. It got a bit co-opted for a bit more labyrinth in there, but there’s still plenty of room to dig. The Boss is expecting they’ll be a bit fiery, and there’s a pretty volcanic section past the labyrinth that they should be able to hunt or farm in. He should be able to do like with the ratkin and expand in a way to still give them plenty of room to hunt and grow.”

“Speaking of growing,” asks Tarl, “How’s Violet doing?”

“She’s doing well, still filling in her last expansion. The Boss worries a little about her defenses, but you haven’t seemed too bothered by it?”

Tarl smiles and shakes his head. “She’s shaping up to be a toybox, which is fine. I should take Berdol to do a fresh inspection, but last I saw, she had plenty to keep invaders at bay, which is honestly all she needs. If she wants to focus more on resource nodes, there’s no problem with that. She’ll honestly be cornering quite a niche if that’s how she decides to progress.”

“Yeah?” asks Teemo, voicing my own curiosity.

“Yeah. She’s a deep dungeon, which are usually belligerent at best. If she can offer the kinds of resources they tend to have, but without the danger, she’ll have more mana than she’ll know what to do with.”

I smile to myself at that, imagining Violet with a sprawling domain, full of delvers happily gathering from her nodes, probably using all sorts of fancy rooms for crafting. She might even have some kind of arena like Rocky’s for Onyx.

“How can we encourage more people to delve her?” asks Yvonne. “Thedeim already has a lot of similar nodes. She only really has her bunny node to stand out.”

Tarl frowns slightly. “That’s the hard part. While she’d be swimming mana once she gets into more advanced things, Thedeim is already cornering the market a bit on that sort of stuff. She has simpler things right now, so not a whole lot of people are going to want to delve the young dungeon, especially with Thedeim trying to help train people for harder delves.”

“Should the Boss try to up his lowest difficulty, and give Violet a niche with newer delvers?”

The elf thinks for a few moments before shaking his head with a sigh. “Most delvers are already past the point of needing the beginner challenge that Violet can provide.”

Hmm.

Teemo quirks an eyebrow at my idea, but decides to pass it on anyway. “What about kids?”

“What?” comes the surprised reply from many around the table, so Teemo quickly explains.

“Freddie and Rhonda are probably outliers, but kids need to get their first class somewhere, right? Probably with their parent’s guidance or something? What about bringing a class or two of kids down to do a little delving. You know, bonk a few centipedes, see what it’s like to do a little mining or rabbit hunting, help the kids figure out what they actually want to do.”

Tarl gives Teemo a flat look. “I hope you’re not about to make a whole generation of kids with rare classes.”

Teemo just shrugs again, before Rezlar interjects. “I believe some towns have programs along those lines. Even artisan classes can gain a lot from knowing how to gather the raw material for their work, and dungeons are where the best materials are. I’ll look into those programs, and see if the local parents would be interested in something like that here. I think Thedeim starts well for apprentices, but could be a bit intense for most children. An actual toybox could be the kind of place a nervous parent could send their child, with adventurous supervision, of course,” he says, looking over at Karn. The orc nods.

“I’d be happy to provide security myself. If a parent isn’t willing to let their kid into a toybox under the eye of the leader of the local adventurer’s guild, they probably barely let them out of the house.”

“Then I’ll definitely need to do that inspection. She’ll need to be officially categorized by the Dungeoneers if there’s going to be any kind of outreach like that. Sending a child to a toybox is one thing, but into an uncategorized dungeon is another. Besides, it’ll be good practice for Berdol for us to do that kind of detailed inspection.”

“Then… I think that’s about all the Boss needed to bring up? Karn, if you have any groups who want to go scout, or go delve Southwood, let me know. I’ll show them the shortcuts that’ll make it easier to get there.”

Karn nods and the meeting ends, though nobody clears out just yet. They all start chatting about various details, coordinating for the plans, or just catching up on life with friends. I can’t help but smile to myself as I listen. It’s easy to get caught up in my head and think I’ll have to face stuff on my own, but I have my friends who can and will help. While it’ll probably be on me and my scions to strike the final blow against the mystery dungeon, I’d never get there without help.

And seeing everyone working together, talking, laughing, helps keep me focused on why I’m fighting in the first place. I should make sure to never get too wrapped up in the fighting to forget what I’m fighting for.