Saga of the Soul Dungeon

"Eccentrics are the brushstrokes of originality on the canvas of conformity."

— Professor Archibald Peculiaris, Curator of Oddities at the Museum of Quirk and Whimsy

==Zidaun==

I wasn’t meant to be an administrator.

It was fortunate that Izradi was handling most of it, because even what little remained was more than I wanted to deal with.

Fortunately, much of it could still be pushed off until Caden became available.

Some things, like bathrooms, were more urgent.

I wasn’t certain what Caden would think of creating additional sewer connections. Though, based on all the bathrooms, I suspected he would appreciate anything that reduced the odds of people going to the bathroom in inappropriate places.

For now, I approved additional bathrooms, supplementing the emergency ones Izradi already arranged, to service all the new adventurers.

Honestly, I was just glad that Izradi had approved some emergency bathrooms while I was gone.

Most of it was like that. Little things that could become larger problems if left unchecked.

For now, I was in a new building that was serving as the temporary combined administrative center and Adar embassy.

The once open ground of the Starlight Grotto now incorporated two walled districts, with the two sides connected by a high bridge. The lowest point of the bridge’s supports were twenty feet off the ground. The hexagon light pillars, filled with a swirling mass of brilliant sparks, now illuminated only the road and blank stone walls. Traveling down the main thoroughfare of the grotto felt much like traversing a nocturnal canyon.

Changing the design of a dungeon to accommodate Adar residents was hardly new, but I admitted some trepidation. Caden was very focused on appearances.

With Adar being so focused on duty, there were not actually that many Adar artisans. Plenty of craftsmen, but not artisans. Art could have tangible benefits to an individual. It could help relieve stress, and amateur personal exploration was natural for that same purpose. It took true talent for an artist to create art that benefited society as a whole. Only those with both the natural talent and the correct predilection became Adar artisans.

That meant they tended to be very good, but also focused on large scale art. Buildings that were both beautiful, and had an enhanced functionality as an emergent property.

So far, they had been designing the configurations of roads, overall structures, and so on.

For the moment, I had sent them off on a different task: Making sure we don’t conflict with the overall style of the dungeon.

Unfortunately, I suspected the administrative building counted as part of that.

It was nothing but a stone box, set into the wall of the district, with doors leading out into the public part of the grotto. It was highly functional, considering the limited space, but not exactly beautiful.

Last night, Izradi had said nothing was urgent; that was only mostly true.

I was about to have a meeting. A meeting with the administrator from the Froan adventurer’s guild, sent to oversee the dungeon, was definitely important. Admittedly, it was also something that would have been a disaster last night.

Hopefully, he wasn’t too upset at being made to wait.

It turned out I needn’t have worried.

A human male wasn’t so much ushered into my presence, as rolled in like a raging river of enthusiasm, splashing in little eddies against Izradi’s stoic figure holding open the door and flooding into my office.

I rose to greet him and he reached out to take my hand in both of his own.

“Ancient Zidaun!” he cried. “It is such a pleasure to meet you. Stuck in the dungeon for seventeen days, huh? Reminds me of some old delves…”

He trailed off for a moment and Izradi, who was still holding to door open, took the moment to interrupt.

“Presenting the newly appointed Adventurer’s Guild, local guildmaster. Guildmaster Kraring Greim.”

“Oh, completely forgot to introduce myself, didn’t I?” he replied with a chuckle. “Indeed, that’s me. Call me Kraring, anything else is too formal.”

Well, it could be worse.

“Thank you, Izradi,” I said. “I’ll let you know if I need anything.”

Izradi nodded and left, with only a slight glare at Kraring’s back.

“A pleasure to meet you, Kraring,” I said. “Now, what exactly did you want to meet about?”

He sighed before he responded.

“Honestly, while I am happy to meet you, I’m mostly here to say I met you. I know Izradi is handling most of the details, and he already said we just need to wait…”

“Sorry, wait for what?”

“Huh? Oh, a few adventurers with actual status have shown up and started to bug me. And some nobles have sent representatives to ‘prepare the way.’ None of that is more than an excuse to secure the best accommodations they can.”

Kraring smiled at me and rolled his eyes.

“Honestly… One dungeon has a large, safe, staging area and now nobles are acting like not having a space specifically prepared for them is a total failure of preparation. It’s a luxury that didn’t exist a few weeks ago, and now they act entitled to it.”

Kraring’s sheer… personality had initially obscured it, but now I could feel a vague pressure. A hint of power that wafted off of him.

High leveled.

Odds were good this was effectively his retirement. Or someone was sending him out of the way.

“Where were you assigned before?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, I managed one of Asmund’s guilds. Hoped to get away from so many damn meetings. I constantly told the Guild Head we had too many.”

I considered his personality for a moment, then thought about the leader of the Froan Adventurer’s Guild.

I narrowly avoided a smirk.

Both, it’s definitely both.

“Well, as happy as I am to meet you,” I said, slightly surprised that was an honest statement, “is there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

“Maybe, but I have to get the ‘important’ things out of the way,” he replied, before muttering. “As if anyone other than those puffed up…”

The muttering faded out of my audible perception.

I waited for a moment and Kraring got back on track.

“I understand your party, and the other scouting group, have both been staying in one of the facilities the dungeon prepared in advance,” he said, looking at me. It wasn’t a question, but I nodded in the affirmative anyway. “I commandeered the other one, for now. Unfortunately the nobles, and the diplomat, all want suitable accommodations.

“The diplomat I assigned a room, though he is still unhappy I only provided one.” Kraring made a grimace. “Wanted a room for his servants next door, just so they could always be available.”

He sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“The nobles aren’t any better, and I’m only dealing with representatives. Anyway… to make a long, tedious, and frustrating story much shorter, I don’t have anything close to the number of rooms I would need to house them all.”

He focused on me completely for a moment.

“I assume you are unwilling to vacate the other facility?”

I smiled.

“Correct.”

Kraring beamed at me.

“Perfect!” he exclaimed. “I can tell them I asked and you refused. I assume you cannot provide ‘appropriate’ quarters in another way.”

I took a moment to consider the question briefly.

I might be able to provide something fancy, but that assumed I diverted resources from everywhere else. It would require redirecting the artisans, arranging for woven cloth, money, and more.

It would be a waste, potentially taking resources away from both the Adar and the dungeon. It was possible we might be able to charge for those services later, but not now. My duty was clear in its refusal.

“No,” I said. “The resources required are unavailable.”

Kraring seemed perfectly happy with my refusal.

“Great, great. I can tell them to shove it. Politely.”

Kraring heaved a sigh.

“Now for matters that might actually matter. I spoke with Izradi before, and there were a number of things he said would need to wait for you…” he trailed off. “Anyway, the dungeon is taking on eight teams in each area. Can you increase that?”

Not with Caden still unavailable.

Even with Caden available, I wasn’t sure how much could actually be done. Adar with various skills had mapped out sections of the dungeon. Specialized senses had plumbed the depths of the rocky ground and walls. There was lots of space fully occupied by stone, though a metal core gave the dungeon even greater strength. Even so, past those walls was even more open space, and it was already in use.

Obviously, the dungeon was already extremely compact, and making use of the room it had. The dungeon’s ability to use portals offered a potential solution for expanding or replicating areas like the sewers, but it had become obvious that the dungeon was already using portals to expand those.

The problem came from areas like the meadow. It was a single large room, and there wasn’t enough space for it to expand.

“Not now,” I said. “I will probably know in a few weeks. We are still studying the dungeon. We don’t really know what will be possible yet.”

Kraring nodded.

“I figured,” he said. “That one was actually an important consideration, however. We have started using list and schedules, but the more people that can go through at once…,” he shrugged. “It will make things easier.”

I merely nodded.

His other problems were much the same. Unlike with the nobles, he actually seemed to care about solving them.

Unfortunately, a great many of them boiled down to waiting. I was able to assign some cooks to help teach various adventurers. That, plus a list of all the usable dungeon resources, would help prevent adventurers from starving. Still, if the throughput of the dungeon remained low, then other sources of food would need to be acquired.

My people had already started some small farms, kept in brightly lit buildings, and with proper care those should be able to feed the Adar. We would probably end up with some extra, but not enough to feed a rapidly growing group of humans.

Fortunately, greed was likely to take care of that for us. The adventurers managed to make it here more quickly, but merchants were undoubtedly on their way.

I had little doubt they would be happy to feed the adventurers everything they could pay for.

Money had little enough interest to the Adar, other than the obvious usefulness of dungeon coins. At least, we had no use for it among ourselves. Every community was designed to serve both the dungeon and each other.

That didn’t mean we didn’t have any.

It was quite the opposite, really.

Chests filled with coin had been sent, amongst everything else, with both groups of Adar.

We accepted money as payment from humans when we engaged in trade. It was a resource that we could then, in turn, use to buy other things.

Since we had little use for luxuries, our expenses tended to remain low. And, as a consequence, money tended to pile up.

That was exactly why so much had been sent out to me. The creation of a new settlement was exactly the type of situation where money was actually useful.

Eventually, Kraring and I managed to get through everything. We engaged in pleasant conversation for a little while before he had to go.

That left me to talk with Izradi, who came into my office immediately afterward.

“Izradi?”

“Yes, Ancient?”

“Have you met with the diplomat from Froa yet?”

Izradi’s eyes narrowed for a moment.

“No, I was not aware they had arrived.”

I sighed.

I didn’t think so.

Izradi had dealt with all the minor details, but he had also briefed me on any important decisions he had managed on his own. That had included covering any meetings with important individuals.

Unfortunately, that meant the diplomat’s failure to even notify us of their arrival was likely a calculated slight.

Great. They are likely a bigot or flexing their authority.

Either of those outcomes would be likely to try my patience.

“Yes,” I said. “Kraring mentioned having some issues with them. Let them know we should meet for an introduction.”

Izradi nodded, “Yes, Ancient.”

Best to let them have a little more rope. If they used it to build a bridge, fine. Then it would be nothing more than a power game, and I could simply ignore it.

It they decided to screw around more…

I’ll hang them with it.