The sense of purpose I feel from Nova is encouraging. Not for the first time, I wonder if maybe calling her Nova wasn’t my best idea, but it’s too late for that now. I’m just happy she seems to have found, if not her true calling, something to strive for. Fighting wouldn’t be the worst thing for her to get into, either. Rocky and Fluffles are my heavy hitters for certain, but I bet Nova can work her way up to be their peer in combat prowess if she puts her mind to it.

A magma dragon is never going to be a pushover, after all. I kinda hope she finds her feet more with a mundane purpose, but if she’s happy, I’ll be happy. And Rocky will appreciate having someone else to spar with. I watch her, Teemo, Fluffles, and Leo as they mostly just hang out in the caverns. Slash even swings by, and Teemo checks if he wants to come for the first wave or wait, and Slash says he’d like to stay here and hone his music until he’ll actually be needed, which is fair.

His music will only really be needed once we find that dungeon and start actually marching. For now, he’s better suited to practicing and playing for the denizens and delvers here. It’s good practice for him, too. He’s learning not only buffs, but debuffs, so he can make people be a bit faster or slower, not quite hit as hard, hit exactly where they mean to, that sort of thing.

It kinda makes me curious about how buff/debuff fits into the affinity system, but I haven’t really had a chance to look too hard into it. It’s probably not its own affinity, but scientifically speaking, there’s not a lot of reason for a song to produce the kind of effects I’ve seen Slash pull off. I dunno, maybe it’s just magic and I shouldn’t expect everything to work like physics says it should.

I should probably leave that kind of curiosity to Rocky, even if he probably won’t get much chance to look into those kinds of questions until after we deal with that stupid weird dungeon. At least the next step for that plan is starting to gather just inside my gate now. The sky is still fully dark, but it probably won’t take too long for things to brighten up.

I nudge Teemo and he gets the scions moving and they go to get Honey, while Aranya, Yvonne, Ragnar, and Aelara enter the gate, too. I was kinda hoping they wouldn’t want to join the scouting, but I’m not very surprised they’re interested. Aranya and Yvonne haven’t been around too much since the meeting, so they’ve probably been preparing as much as they can for this.

When my favorite party spots the adventurers gathering on the lawn, Yvonne takes the lead and heads over with a smile on her beak.

“I hope you’re all prepared for some extended time in Teemo’s shortcuts,” she greets with a friendly tone. Most of the adventurers just nod, though a couple look a bit nervous about the idea. A lanky wolfkin in chainmail with a pair of swords at his hip speaks up, his nerves overcoming the typical adventurer compulsion to look and act cool and collected.

“I’ve never actually been down one before. Should… I be concerned?”

The more experienced adventurers chuckle and Yvonne shakes her head. “It will just take a little getting used to. A lot of senses can behave a bit oddly in a shortcut. Things outside will be distorted, but inside will feel like anywhere else. If you have a good nose, it’ll be a bit worse.”

He grimaces and nods at that. “I do have a good nose.”

Yvonne gives him a sympathetic look. “You won't be able to smell anything outside the shortcut. Just try not to be too jumpy and keep in mind nothing outside should be able to notice us inside. Teemo is an expert at making and hiding them. It’d take someone with a similar mastery of space to get in if he doesn’t want them to.”

The wolfkin doesn’t exactly look comforted by the thought of being noseblind, but he does seem to be a bit less nervous. I guess he’d rather know and prepare himself, than be caught by surprise. Probably a good attitude to have for a delver, really.

Yvonne answers a few more simple questions as more people show up, and at one point someone shows up with a bag of sweet rolls from the bakery across the street, and everyone enjoys the treat as the sun starts to peek over the horizon. Once it actually does, Teemo and the scions join the others.

“Alright, this everyone?” he asks, getting a mixture of curious looks and nods, before Yvonne speaks up.

“I believe that’s everyone. If they’re not here by now, they can try to catch up. I’ll be leading the guild contingent for this, and Ragnar will be giving everyone a crash course on how to write maps for the twisting underground. Thedeim’s sending so many scions?” she asks, looking surprised to see both Fluffles and Nova in the group.

“Yeah. Fluffles is going to relieve Rocky. He’s got a lot of mana from that last fight that he needs to bring back. Leo and Honey are basically leading the whole thing, I’m mostly going to be working on the shortcuts and guiding everyone, and Nova wants to come help.”

Yvonne nods at that. “Then I believe we’re ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s head to the cemetery and then head on out. There’s also going to be a good number of reinforcements coming with us. Just make sure the adventurers leave them alone, yeah?”

Yvonne nods, and I’m surprised to see Aranya step away from the party. They look like this was part of the plan all along as she speaks, a hand at her necklace, finger and thumb holding the small orange orb.

“May Lord Thedeim bless the journey to be a peaceful one, and keep from harm those who will surely face it.” Subtle orange mana settles on everyone, and the party moves in to give Aranya a hug.

“You’re sure you can’t come with us yet?” asks Aelara, and Aranya smiles as she shakes her head.

“I’ll come with the ratkin and the spiderkin. They haven’t ventured very far beyond Lord Thedeim, only far enough for their hunts. And… it’ll give me a little more time to prepare myself,” she admits. “I knew Lord Thediem would confront that horrible place, but it felt like something that would happen in years, maybe decades.”

Ragnar nods at that. “Dinnae worry, we’ll ‘ave summat to tell by th’ time ye get there.”

“And if they’ve actually found it by then, the Boss’ll be sending another couple scions with you. Rocky will definitely want a round two with the Harbinger, and Slash is going to be a big help against any other big organized attacks,” assures Teemo.

Aranya smiles at the reassurances, and stands a bit straighter for her friends. “I’ll come see you all off. You’re the ones going off into danger, you’re not supposed to worry about me, I’m supposed to worry about you!” she jokingly accuses, and earns friendly smiles all around.

Everyone just walks through town to get to the cemetery, and I see a few of the adventurers have gotten a couple more of those rolls on the way. That bakery must make a killing. How many dungeons can people delve with a weapon in one hand and a donut in the other?

Grim is there to greet everyone, too. The delvers look a bit nervous about having his attention, but he just gives everyone a flower as his way of wishing them well. Aw, don’t worry, Grim, they’re gonna be careful. I’m sure they love the flowers, too. Having the flowers even distracts the adventurers a bit from thinking about the large group of my denizens following them as they hop the wall and enter the shortcut.

There are plenty of tundra wolves, obviously. They’re just too well-suited to the surface around the Southwood for me to not keep sending a bunch of them. I’ll also need their noses to help sniff out the enemy dungeon in the tunnels. There’s also plenty of ravens and arcane hands to reinforce the ranks, too. They were a lot more effective in the fight with the Harbinger than I was expecting. Once I get the dragon spawner high enough to spit out something besides wyrms, I might try to upgrade the hands again.

I’m also sending a group of skeletons, which probably has the adventurers most on edge. With the enclaves being on a war production footing, I’ve had plenty of weapons and armors offered from them. I kinda feel a bit bad about accepting the gifts, but the ratlings don’t really care. They just keep stocking the warehouse and armory. Rather than just letting the things rust, I’ve equipped a bunch of skeletons with what they can wear and wield.

For armor, it’s mostly leather. It’s strange to think about, but most metal stuff is built with fleshy things in mind, and my skeletons just can’t wear most of that properly. It just doesn’t sit right. Leather is a lot easier to adjust, so that’s what they mostly have, as well as the compound bows.

I also have some zombies that can gear up in the heavier armor, but I’m going to be merciful to the adventurers and not make them march with my zombies. The fungal ones smell a lot better than the normal ones, but that’s still not saying a whole lot. I’m also not sure if they’ll handle the cold well. I think Leo kept the green skeletons and fungal zombies inside Southwood itself. I’ll ask Teemo to have him test them out once they get there. It should take them a couple days, especially since Teemo wants to work on the shortcuts on the way, too. Shortening the travel time can only help us in this fight. It’ll still be too long to really react quickly to any rapid changes, but getting the travel time down to a day or two would make it a lot easier to keep up with the slower needs.