The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Level 1

Heart 400/400

Experience 65/100

Workers 4/5

Monsters 0/10-2

Traps 8/10+2

Rooms 7

Food 102

Timber 31

Iron 24

Mana 2

Rock 172

Gold 60

Leather 68

Leather Sludge 43

Lava 7

Quest: Make one of your monsters into a boss

All the lists had been made and etched on thin pieces of wood. Kobold claws, it turned out, were just about the best tool for engraving ever, or so they'd all found out. "So what do we do while they're out?" Travis asked Penelope and Stephan.

"Is there anything we're low on from outside?" Stephan asked.

"Timber. Definitely timber," Travis said. It didn't require more than a glance at Penelope to tell him what she wanted—she had her pickaxe slung over her shoulder. "More digging? Do you want to dig out rooms, look for iron, or grab some gold?"

"Change our sleeping arrangements first. I'd like to keep the common room, but set up some smaller rooms. Can we build doors?" Walking toward the common sleeping room, Penelope reached out and ran her fingers over Travis' heart.

Her touch made Travis shiver a little. Penelope's claws were delicate against the facets of his heart, but he'd seen what she could do to rock with them. "We can, but I think they're a bit bigger than what you'll want. Not that we can't use them, but they use up fifteen wood each."

"Ouch. Okay, for now we can just hang some furs up or something. Maybe I'll head out and chop wood with Steph when I'm done here. Care to lay out something for me?"

I quickly set out a tunnel leading off the edge of the current sleeping quarters that had four good-sized rooms attached. "I managed to fit four rooms in here. We can always move the tunnel leading to the mining area to add more. There should be room in them for furniture too, if you want. I might have to see about some way to add lighting."

"Talk to Robert for lighting. Alchemists make some of the best lights—ones that don't ignite things, too." Penelope spat on her hands and got to digging, which left Travis contemplating his options again.

One of the things he'd personally told them to buy was iron. They needed a lot and had little. Going over his options again, the Boss Upgrade needing 200 iron was glaring at him, but Tier 1 upgrade required no iron. Travis was still a bunch of resources and 35 xp short, but he knew how to get those.

He looked at the pile of cured meat that Stephan was hanging to dry and pondered another upgrade. Workers 1, which gave more worker slots, was 100 gold, and that led to Faster Workers for 100 food. "Hey, Pen, any chance you could hit up the gold for a hundred or so after this?"

"Got your eye on something, Trav?" Penelope had the tunnel dug and was now working on the rooms.

"Yeah. With a hundred gold I can unlock to have up to ten workers. Then after that I can spend a hundred food to make all of you faster."

"Faster? You mean I wouldn't be dawdling so much digging?" Giving a laugh, Penelope left the first room and moved to the next. "I like that idea. Work smarter and all that. Okay, I'll get all these done and go get us a pile of gold. I figure if the siblings manage not to screw up in town, we will have a use for all the gold we can mine."

Eyeing off the 400 gold price of the Boss Upgrade and 800 gold price of the tier upgrade, Travis could agree wholeheartedly.

"Hey, Bray, come and check this out." Brolly Windchime was doing his job extremely well, that is, he'd delegated his actual job completely so all he had to do was make executive decisions and keep a slight eye on the town itself. What he'd discovered while out on his lunchtime walk had left him running to find his friend.

"Brolly, if this is some goose chase, I'm going to—" Brayden Smith left the threat unfinished and turned to his friends. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

The walk to the merchant square of town was a short one. Brolly kept the pace up so they were there in no time at all. "That cloaked guy over there. What do you see?"

"The one with the donkey and cart?" Already getting bored, Brayden sighed. "Brolly, it's just a lizard-kin. You do know not everyone is human, right?"

"We have a dwarf and a half-elf in town, Bray, and I grew up next to a nice lizard-kin family. I know exactly what a lizard-kin looks like—and that isn't it." While he watched, the target of attention reached into a pouch and pulled out two gold coins.

Whistling, Brayden elbowed his friend. "They seem to be paying well, and that looks like the lizard's coin to me."

"That's it. They seem to pay with gold for everything. They had to buy the cart and donkey at first because they were buying so much stuff they couldn't carry it. I've counted over thirty gold change hands so far."

"Brolly, take your helmet off for a sec." The moment his friend took his helmet off, Brayden thumped him on the back of the head. "You're honestly upset there's a nice stranger in town filling your merchants' coffers? Are you mad?"

"Look at their feet. Look at their claws. Look at their face whenever you see into that cloak. That is not a lizard-kin." Putting his helmet back on, Brolly narrowed his eyes at the cloaked figure, then swore. "It can't be."

"Can't be what? Two kobolds in a cloak?" Brayden started to turn when Brolly's hand grabbed his shoulder. "What?"

"It is two kobolds in a cloak. I just saw an extra hand reach out from inside the cloak."

"There are a dozen things wrong with what you just said, not the least of which being that it's a stupid slur. What's wrong with—" Halting in his tracks, Brayden saw that extra hand too. "It's two kobolds in a cloak."

"I told you!" Leaning back against the stonework of the building beside him, Brolly paused. "What are we supposed to do?"

"Aren't you the guard captain?"

"Yeah, but my job is keeping the peace." Gesturing at the pair of kobolds finishing up another transaction (buying a stack of books), Brolly let out a sigh. "They're not breaking the peace. It's just two dungeon monsters spending a lot of gold to—"

The words died in Brolly's throat. Kobolds, he knew, were dungeon monsters. The town knew it had a vermin dungeon, an animal dungeon, but no one had mentioned a dragon dungeon. "We have a dragon dungeon."

"You have a dragon dungeon with kobolds who are smart enough to come to town with dungeon gold and buy things." Pointing at the pair, Brayden smirked. "They ain't killing anyone nearby just by being there, so it's not rot. The question, Brolly-me-lad, is how you want to handle this?"

"It's—" Raising a hand up to his face, Brolly rubbed at the corners of his eyes. The soft leather of his glove's palm smoothed away the worry lines and the grit gathering in the corners of his eyes both. "I need to call a meeting. This is far too important a decision for me. Can—I can't believe I'm asking this. Can you keep an eye on them, make sure they don't break the peace. I'd get another guard to do it, but I don't trust them enough not to lose their heads."

"Five silver and you have yourself a kobold-sitter." As an experienced adventurer, Brayden didn't have to think hard to come up with a value that ensured he could pay for drinks later on.

"And where are these kobolds now?" Christine Sellswell's fingers itched and the description she'd gotten. Gold—lots of gold—had just poured into town.

Brolly shrugged his shoulders. "By now? Either they're still buying up half the market or they're long-gone. That's not important. What is—"

"… is that we can get gold out of this dungeon without any adventurers taking their cut." It wasn't a hard vote for her. Peaceful customers with lots of gold to trade were not a problem—they were a solution to problems. "You don't need me here to say I am fine with this so long as the peace holds."

Howard Tailor shrugged too. "I'd like to see what they're buying before I make a summary judgment, but I certainly don't have any reason to want to cut off a source of gold. Can we do anything to help encourage peaceful trade?"

Fairheart was only present because her coffers drained into the town's more often than not. There were only four groups of adventurers so far that had passed through town, and two of those had signed on to extended contracts. "You will want to ensure any excitable types are told not to attack the—"

"This is an outrage! An affront to the gods!" Rupert pointed his hand at Brolly, finger stretched out. "Your path is clear. They are monsters—kill them and take their cursed gold so the church may purify it."

Everyone else at the table looked anywhere but Rupert and his gesticulating finger.

"Brother Rupert, how would you see these peaceful dungeon dwellers treated?" Her voice soft, Fairheart not only wanted to calm the old priest for his own sake, she wanted to see the town continue to grow.

"Bloody harl—" Biting back the curse, Rupert cleared his throat. "It is obvious what must be done. Dungeons are there to be harvested and farmed, as is written in the holy scriptures. They are a gift and a curse. It's easy to forget about the second in the face of the first."

Fairheart didn't smile, doing so would ruin her ploy. "And if these minions were seeking divine guidance?"

"Monsters can't be redeemed. They are monsters and nothing more. And don't give me any of your soft words!" When his words didn't turn a single person in the room to his case, Rupert called on the power of his faith.

The burning light of divine magic shined from Rupert, causing most in the room to shield their eyes from the living vessel of the power of repentance. But one face remained looking at him and didn't flinch at his magic.

"You would actively harm this town because of your own pigheadedness?" Fairheart was at the edge of her patience. "You have done nothing but cause trouble here by butting into things neither of us have any right to. Our"—she raised her voice when he tried to speak over her—"duties are to the hearts and souls of the townsfolk, not their sword arms or minds. We are only here as a formality. Sit down, shut up, and let them decide their own fate—as all the gods intend!"

Rupert's eyes widened as her voice carried more power than just the goddess of the Sisters of Grace. Even his own god's power radiated through her. Sitting down, his anger simmering, Rupert glared at the three heads of the council.

"Now, I'll shut my mouth too and let you make your decision." All smiles again, Fairheart could still feel tingles not just of the power of the good gods, but also the dark ones. Every deity had reason to uphold the core freedom to choose between good and evil.

Brolly was first to recover and nodded his thanks to Fairheart. "The Guard will require a slightly higher tithe. We'll be patrolling to ensure the creatures reach the town safely and extra guard details will be set on the market square."

"Oh, that's perfectly fine. It won't be a large tithe, but to ensure the safety of all concerned a larger guard presence is welcome." Christine had never seen Rupert put down and shut up so effectively before. His own presence had been dwarfed by that of Fairheart, and she had no doubt the priestess would be a greater political force in the town—no matter her own protests on such matters—once word of this got out.

"Then we're settled?" Howard asked.

The sound of Rupert storming out of the room came and went—and none present wanted to acknowledge him.

After a moment, Brolly turned to Fairheart and said, "Thank you for that. This sort of management requires irregular thinking and I fear Brother Rupert lacks any flexibility."

Fairheart kept her mouth closed and rose to leave. In the back of her mind she was already contemplating the wording of a letter to Rupert's order.