Chapter Two-Hundred Thirty-Four

Chapter Two-Hundred Thirty-Four

The rockslides are slowly getting into position and actually sending back reports now, so Honey and Leo are turning their attention more towards that than trying to wring more from Merric and Lechula. Not only do they get to go through the scout reports, but they also are getting adventurer reports to organize, too.

Teemo is more than happy to help be an interpreter, and not just because it lets him hang out with Yvonne. Fluffles wanders by a few times, getting a few more pointers on fate magic from Teemo when theres no reports to be made. I make sure Teemo tells him to spend whatever he needs to practice. Something like Teemos Butterfly Effect could be great in the chaos of a pitched battle.

When Fluffles isnt getting pointers from Teemo, hes practicing with Rocky, Slash, and Nova. Rocky is having a lot of fun sparring in general, but especially trading blows with Slash. My earth elemental still prefers playing his axe to swinging it, but I didnt make it an axe just to look cool. Even if I do think it looks really cool.

Rocky is helping him look cool swinging it around, too. My boxer might be more focused on punches, but he still understands melee fighting. It probably also helps that he has kinetic affinity. I wouldnt be surprised if Slash picks it up by the time we make our move, too. Rocky seems to be trying to hammer into Slashs head the idea of momentum, and how much more an axe has than a sword.

Hes also getting Slash to take advantage of his unique biology with his swings. A human can only bend in so many ways, but Slashs joints are basically an illusion. His hip bones arent connected to his leg bones, because neither technically exists. Slash toyed with just spinning his wrist like a helicopter at one point, which earned him a lot of grunts and a big lecture. I dont think he was quite in trouble, but he hasnt tried that again. No, now hes starting to swing his entire torso around when he swings.

Its like a lot of movies where the fighters spin to get more force on an attack, but its a really stupid thing to do for a person. Never turn your back on a foe, after all. But Slash doesnt really have a back, and he can keep his head locked on target as he swings a full rotation to really build up steam. Hes tried doing his best top impersonation, but he cant quite get going quick enough to make it viable. While hes still a big pile of rocks, the rotation still leaves him open to hits, so he needs to save that trick to take advantage of someone being off balance. He can miss with a swing and a foe can move in, only to be taken by surprise as the axe swings around full circle to hit even harder.

Slash has only landed it on Rocky when they were working it out, but itll still be a good ace for Slash to have up his sleeve. Nova is also having some interesting progress.

Shes been trying to hone her ambush techniques, but my gathered scions are too experienced for her. Slash can feel her in the earth, as can Rocky, and Fluffles can just stay high enough to be out of her reach. So my shy little wyrm has had to get creative, and Im liking her creativity.

Let me see the widows and the twinsnakes would be easy inclusions. Theyre both pretty significant encounters. While I kinda think of them as wandering minibosses in the tunnels and caverns, they could be more regular encounters in the crawl. Ah, the classic RPG staple of a boss later becoming an ordinary encounter. Definitely going to have them in there.

The basilisks would have a home in there, just need to make sure the structure is fireproof. My wyrms will probably be sticking mostly to the labyrinth, so they can easily tunnel wherever they need to go. While Im sure the crawl will be littered with shortcuts so my denizens can get into what rooms they need, I think the wyrms will feel better burrowing than crawling through a shortcut.

Tundra wolves might be decent in there? Theyve been great scouts in the winter, but I dont know how well they actually fare in fights. They seem tough enough, but they just havent had enough encounters with delvers for me to get a good feel yet. Theyre a definite maybe, and probably near the top of my list of spawners to enhance for something like a crawl.

What about my undead? I havent upgraded them in a while. The zombies and skeletons are focused for resources, not fighting, though. Tougher versions could be a good thing to put in the crawl, hard to say. What kind of dungeon crawl doesnt have at least a few undead to have to slog through? The hands would probably be good in there, after another upgrade. Im pretty sure Ill get stronger magical hands with the next upgrade, and theyll be great to mix in with everything else.

Oh man, theming will be a lot easier once I get that climate control option from the Southwood, too. Make the hot section hot, the cold section cold, the undead section dark and foreboding Ill need to try to save up enough to be able to expand and get the upgrade at once, if I can. Hopefully the Maw will have plenty of mana for me to take, even after sharing a bunch into the ally fund. Ill also need to budget extra for whatever spawner I get, too.

Maybe Ill get a plant denizen of some kind? Creeping vines, lumbering treants, things like that. I let my mind flit through a couple possibilities, though I dont chase the threads far. The Southwood has a bunch of different things, even if the foxes and bears are the most useful in this situation. Heh, maybe Ill get regular old worms. I could even focus them for combat, just to play against the type and be weird with them.

Teemo chuckles at my musings, but doesnt comment. Itd be pretty unlikely for me to get regular worms as a denizen at this point, Id think, but who knows? All I know is its fun to imagine several large worms poking out of the ground, one with a shield, one a sword, and one a helmet, and the three acting like a single fighter. I even poke Teemo with the idea to see if Nova or Slash would be able to do something like that with their affinity.

Probably not, but you never know until you try. Weird innovations come from weird experiments like that, and can be the sort of thing to ensure we win the war with the Maw.