Dungeons Are Bad Business

Vee didn’t understand why Richter had grabbed the smaller statue. Shouldn’t a storymaker go for broke in a situation like this? After all, it wasn’t terribly interesting to go through an event with a middling disadvantage, was it?

He studied the man closely. Richter Arnis was tall, and while he had the burgeoning paunch of a middle-aged man whose diet was starting to outpace the demands of his lifestyle, he still looked more than capable of handling Crestheart. His movements were smooth and controlled as he dodged the initial attacks from the dungeon’s skeleton mages, and his whipwork was solid, if a touch slower than Vee expected it to be.

However, the [Dungeon Master] noticed a perpetual and deep-seated fear in the adventurer’s demeanor. No matter how Richter ran, jumped, or struck, a shade of panic colored his every movement, and Vee started to think that the man was racing against an internal clock of some sort to beat the dungeon as quickly as possible. The storymaker didn’t engage with any of the puzzles, nor did he test the walls and floor tiles for secret passages or hidden treasures the way Vee had been led to believe he would. So far, this storymaker definitely didn’t seem to be worth the fleurs he’d been given, though Vee couldn’t write the expense off as entirely wasted either. The real test of value would be in measuring the impact of Richter’s influence on other would-be challengers, and assessing that particular benefit would take time.

Although, now that he thought about it, there really hadn’t been much of a discussion amongst his peers about the manner nor method of doing so.

He’d have to talk it over with the other [Dungeon Masters] after the event finished. He didn’t love the idea, but Zeiken had insisted that “investing in social bonds and continued communication with competitors would be a positive catalyst for future growth and development” and Reginald and Alforde had agreed. Vee himself wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to do such a thing, but he was open to the possibility that his natural impulse wasn’t correct here: instead he was willing to go along with the judgment of the people who he knew and trusted.

But that was a consideration for another time. For now, he had to do his best to trip Richter up before he could get down to Alforde.

When the [Treasure Hunter] reached the first set of floating platforms and gaps, Vee went ahead and adjusted the speed of the ones involved in the first jump. He slowed down the approaching platform while speeding up the one it led to, trying to break the “cycle” of movement that would allow an adventurer to pass through. Of course, differences in jumping ability between runners meant that all of Vee’s efforts might end up wasted, since a leap that would be nigh-impossible for a [Heavy Armor Specialist] would be easy pickings for a [Martial Arts Expert Bug Rider] or motivated [Plumber].

In this case, the increased distance between the platforms caused Richter to pause for a moment, but it didn’t meaningfully slow him down or impede him.

That was okay, the first floor of the dungeon was designed to let Vee get the measure of a challenger, so that he could improve his chances of ending runs later in the dungeon by better tailoring the challenges on the lower floors.

He’d even made a checklist of things to keep an eye out for, and he jotted “Average to above average” next to the line marked “jumping ability”. It might not end up being practical to keep track of such things for every runner that came through the dungeon, but for special runs like this one Vee wanted to crystalize his thoughts as much as possible.

Richter blazed through the next few rooms, despite all of Vee’s attempts to interfere. He ducked under traps, ripped through minions with ease, and wasn’t deterred in any way by the acrobatics required in the first floor’s rooms.

Vee paused, trying to think about what he could do to improve Alforde’s chances of taking a few stocks from the [Treasure Hunter] in what seemed like an inevitable bout. This was part of what he needed to figure out quickly so as to improve the chances of Crestheart performing well in the circuit: how was he supposed to handle adventurers who were simply too strong for the dungeon?

Maybe Nock would be the answer, actually. The weaponsoul would start his attacks as soon as Richter finished navigating the hallway at the start of the second floor, and while the adventurer had seemed resilient against ranged attacks thus far there was a chance that he wouldn’t be prepared for such a powerful foe. It felt like something of a long shot, but Vee saw no other promising options, and watched with mute acceptance as Richter cleared the rest of the floor and headed down to the second.

The Expectation on his shoulders shifted, and Vee thought he felt something of a question in its motion. Reaching up, he gave the snake-dragon a gentle pat, and felt something shift in the ethereal.

However, he didn’t have time to try and figure out what it was just then. Richter was disappearing into the darkness of the stairwell that led to the second floor.

A twinge of pain flickered through Richter’s hip when he reached the bottom of the staircase and he trailed off mid-sentence. The discomfort persisted even after stretching his hips and sitting down. The hallway in front of him looked safe enough, but Richter’s [Bad Feeling About This] had procced on first sight, and he suspected that it was more dangerous than it first seemed.

He studied the tiles in front of him carefully, wondering if the minor discolorations that marked some but not others were likelier to indicate traps than uneven manufacturing. So far, everything inside Crestheart felt…homemade, with all the quirks the word implied. It certainly wasn’t a cookie cutter dungeon that'd been cribbed together from catalogs, the adventurer thought.

Grimacing, the [Treasure Hunter] got back up to his feet and tested his hip. It still ached, though Richter couldn’t conceive of a reason why. He’d dodged some attacks on the floor above, sure, but the maneuvers he’d employed to do so weren’t out of the ordinary by any means.

He looked down at the statue he’d picked up earlier. Was it responsible for this sudden pain? Did the little thing carry a curse of some kind too? The sign hadn’t said anything to suggest that as a possibility, but Richter had seen dungeons make mistakes like that before.

His breath sped up, and an uncomfortable warmth spread throughout his body. Surely it wouldn’t be held against him if something went wrong with his run due to an error on the [Dungeon Master]’s part, right? He could argue that a mislabeled hazard – if indeed that was what this was – was grounds for annulling his run. There’d be a bunch of forms to fill out and it’d be a real pain, but that was fine.

For now, there was no choice but to press on and do his best.

“A long and foreboding hallway greets me upon the start of the second floor,” Richter said. He licked his lips; when had they gotten so dry? His throat was burning too, and he desperately wished that he had some water to drink.

What was going on? Everything around him felt cramped and cloying, and no matter how he tried to assert his rational brain, his instincts were screaming. Something was wrong, and if he kept moving forward he’d end up in a bad way.

Richter swayed back and forth, and for a second he lost track of where he was. The tiles of the floor started glowing in alternating patterns, orange and blue and yellow and purple and green. The [Treasure Hunter] cried out. This wasn’t Crestheart! He was back in the lair of the dancing [Necromancer]! How had that happened?

A pair of glowing blue eyes appeared in the distance, and a pressure unlike anything Richter had ever felt before pressed down upon him. He fell to his knees, unable to resist its force, only to find his vision normalized once again when he hit the ground.

Sweat poured down his forehead and the small of his back as he tried to calm down. What in Gawain’s name was going on here? Was it simply the dungeon’s [Aura of Fear]? Had he misjudged its potency somehow?

He slapped himself on the cheek, trying to get a hold of his thoughts and emotions. Dungeon auras were annoying, but they were easy enough to resist if an adventurer put their mind to it.

Filling his thoughts with positive affirmations and reminders of his many accomplishments, Richter stepped forward into the hallway and readied himself for what was yet to come.

The tile beneath his foot shifted, and a panel on the wall to his right slid open.

A flash of orange caught Richter’s eye, but he was rooted in place and too slow to dodge the object that shot out and hit him in the side. He stared down at it in disbelief.

According to dungeon sport rules, orange tipped objects were “instant-kill” hazards.

All of the panic that had dominated his thoughts vanished, but a different kind of horror worked its way through Richter’s thoughts.

A voice from the ceiling cemented things.

“Uh…I’m sorry to say it, but your run is over, adventurer. Please wait for a moment and then follow the arrows on the floor to the nearest exit. We hope you’ll return one day and challenge Crestheart again!”

“We got royally ripped off on this entire storymaker thing, boss,” Reginald said sourly as soon as he deactivated his magnifying crystal. “Roy-all-y. The guy didn’t even make it past the second floor! I vote we get our fleurs back as quickly as possible.”

Vee nodded, staring down at the adventurer through his viewing crystal with a wide open mouth.

“I can’t believe he got hit by the instant kill,” he finally said. “He just…stood there.”

“That’s dungeon sports for you,” one of the agents behind him said. “It’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen on any given day. It looked like he was struggling with your [Aura of Fear] to me.”

“But he’s such a high level,” Vee protested. “How could our weak [Aura of Fear] have affected him so much?”

“Adventurers differ in their ability to handle those types of things. If you have any aspirations of joining bigger circuits in the future you’d better get used to it,” the other agent said with a shrug. “Underwhelming runs are far more common than you might think, especially at higher levels.”

Vee drummed his fingers on the desk, disappointed. Technically speaking, an early end to Richter’s run was still a story, though it wasn’t the one he’d been expecting. He wondered if it would inspire the additional visits the other [Dungeon Masters] had promised would follow. Only time would tell, Vee supposed.

[Faith - 1]

[Wit +1]

“Well, I’ve learned an important lesson today,” he said, dismissing the notification.

“What’s that, boss?”

“We’re never hiring another storymaker,” Vee said with a laugh. “What a waste!”

“For sure,” Reginald answered. “At least it was a relatively cheap lesson, eh?”

Pressing a button on his console, Vee directed his [Dungeon Maintainers] to reset the dungeon for the next run.

Main Character Sheets:

Vee Vales:

Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 32

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 24

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 6

Might: 15

Wit: 40 (+1)

Faith: 25 (-1)

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 16

Plotting: 19

Charisma: 17

Devious Mind: 28

Leadership: 21

Guts: 14

Intimidating Presence: 11

Citizenship: 24

Public Relations: 8

Determination: 6

Persuasiveness: 6

Bargaining: 4

Patience: 3

Competitive Spirit: 1

Pragmatism: 1

<3<3 Infatuation <3<3

Alforde Armorsoul (Unchanged From Last Chapter):

Primary Class: Hammer Specialist (Self), Level 6

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 18

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 18

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 11

Might: 58

Wit: 15

Faith: 28

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Endurance: 33

Intimidating Presence: 15

Heart of a Champion: 14

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Vigilance: 11

Vanity: 2

Single-Mindedness: 1

Reginald:

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???

#$&Q#$)(@#$#@#$%!@#$##%#%()@#$**@@##

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 43

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 21

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 13

Additional Class: Hyperthymesiac (Self), Level 5

Might: 1

Wit: 37

Faith: 17 (-1)

Ambition: 28

Greed: 24

Deceptiveness: 27

Manipulativeness: 42

$#&*!@!!: !!!

Loyalty: 46

Patience: 11

Irritability: 25 (+1)

Remorsefulness: 17

Expository Prowess: 23

#%$Pragmatism*#$: @#61$5

Hop@#!! @#$@!@#

@#$@%%^

#4^5#*&_!+++#(@$#

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 9