Dungeon Life

Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Seven

With the return of everyone only a day away, things are busy as everyone tries to finish some last minute bit of prep to welcome them home. As if this last week wasn’t already a busy one.

My enclaves are a flurry of activity, with every last dweller either preparing to welcome the kobolds in general, or welcome home Aranya in specific. The ratkin have been digging out their area of the crypt complex, expanding their enclave to ensure there’s room not only for the kobolds, but for the first wave of true births among my dwellers, too. There’s still months before anyone expects to give birth, but expectant mothers are starting to show, encouraging the fathers to ensure there’s enough room for larger families.

As far as I can tell, the spiderkin aren’t that far along just yet. I do my best to give them their privacy, but gossip is easy to hear. Things are more focused on who is courting who, rather than when someone is supposed to be due. I wonder if the spiderkin have life birth, or do some kind of egg sack or something? I guess I’ll learn eventually.

The only enclave not preparing for the return is the antkin enclave, though they still need to fill their bars. They’ve certainly heard of the return, and I think they’re delaying picking their leaders until everyone is back. Or they’re taking the time to fully examine each project presented. The resetting latch has gotten some buzz, but the most popular among the engineer ants looks to be a Stirling engine. It’s mostly a proof of concept, but considering the ambient temperature of the enclave, it makes sense to explore it.

My scions are also working diligently to ensure everything is prepared for the triumphant return of everyone who’s been out on expedition for so long. Fluffles is helping the bees organize and file their current projects away to make room for the vast swaths of knowledge Honey will surely have them working on. Poe is tending to the war room, ensuring he’ll have everything he needs to get Leo up to speed on the situation on the homefront.

Tiny is even helping out in the Forest of Four Seasons, tidying things up and providing moral support for Titania and Poppy. They’re going to have two more scions expected to work closely together, so they need to make sure they’re ready to contribute and to help them adjust! My pixie scion is practically a blur as she rushes to and fro, while Poppy is nervously churning the ground enough to possibly endanger some of her experiments!

The big guy doesn’t have any trouble snaring Titania in a web, nor in plucking Poppy out of the ground, and gently sets the two on his back as he starts meandering the forest. I can’t hear anything, but the manic energy I can feel from the bond with my two newest scions starts to settle and calm to something more manageable. When he finally lets them down, their movements are a lot more confident.

My denizens pitch in as they can, with most in the forest following the command of the two sister scions. The only set that really are doing their own thing are the tundra wolves. With the climate control option, they’re eagerly working to make the winter section match its season quickly. I imagine they’d change what they’re doing if asked, but Poppy and Titania are more concerned with setting a solid baseline for the seasons right now. At the moment, they only intrude into the winter section to direct the placement of the appropriate herbalism nodes.

Spring is also seeing quite the transformation, probably because it’s… actually spring right now. Fruitbats, rainbats, verdant undead, leafcutter ants, and more swarm over the section, making it already bloom with vibrant life. In fact, seeing all the denizens reminds me that I should upgrade a couple spawners to keep with the idea of making the forest a challenging delve!

I still expect my foxes and bears will play a pivotal role in that, but they’re not the only combatants I expect to have. I start with upgrading the plant spawner, which pushes up a little sprout that a bumblebee quickly scoops up and flies off with to plant somewhere. The menu calls it a dreambloom, and from what I can gather, it’s no surprise the bumblebee was interested in it. It grows into a huge blue and white flower with a shape similar to a sunflower, but the central head is supposed to mimic the phase of the moon. Bumblebees are a primary pollinator, and are able to use the plant’s unique property to help them out in a fight, too. It’s not called a dreambloom because of the flower, but because of the pollen. It can be a pretty strong sedative, and I think it’d be a cool challenge to have the occasional patch of them the delvers have to get through. Sure, I want them to mostly need to fight, but a good environmental hazard can make the fights more interesting.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Upgrading the bees will probably also make things more interesting, so I do that until the bee spawner starts spitting out rumblebees. It looks like these ones are kinda solitary, more like carpenter bees than others. And they’re big, about the size of a cat? They’re also clearly made for fighting. Each one is different from the last, with some having longer stingers, others having clubs at the end of their limbs, or small claws, or spikes, or… it’s like they got into a random pile of weapons and each one fused with something different. Those are definitely going to make fighting interesting. Melee delvers are going to be important to have around to keep these guys off the ranged fighters and casters.

Where the bumbles seem to prefer the spring section, I think the rumbles like the summer more. That, or they aren’t as good at tending to the nodes as the others. It’d make sense. They’re specialized for fighting, not resources. I imagine all bees will have at least a bit of proficiency in tending herbalism nodes, but these guys are definitely ready to rumble.

And lastly, but certainly not leastly, I upgrade the fey spawner until I get a new one: a sprig. They look like a slightly-ampormophorphic stickbug, with a few leaves sprouting at random joints. They have big eyes that stick out from their narrow head, and I’m not sure if they’re adorable or creepy. They’re also a fair bit bigger than the pixies, about two feet tall if they’re not bending over or anything. They move slow, and I watch as one moves to a tree and seems to just merge into it.

I can tell it’s moving around, but there’s no indication on the surface until it opens its big eyes. This one soon spots a boring beetle, and slowly extends a limb out from the bark, with the invader not noticing until the sprig strikes. It cleanly impales the beetle, holding it to the trunk of the tree as a second limb extends from the surface. I’m pretty sure it’s a proboscis, though only after it, too, impales the beetle and makes little slurping sounds.

That’s… really effective against the invaders, at least. I don’t know if I want to see them attacking any of the delvers, though. It finishes drinking the beetle and flicks the corpse away, letting the empty shell disperse into mana as it uses what it drank to nurture the tree. Creepy as the sprigs are, I can already see the use in having them around the central tree. Poppy has noticed, too, and she calls the sprig out of the tree to probably talk about the specifics of what it does.

I don’t doubt she’ll be recruiting more than a couple of them to help with her botanical experiments. They might even be a key in solving the root problem with the climbing willow around a yew. That’s still plan B for the tree, but it’s good to see the backup plan stabilizing. A good backup gives the more ambitious plan room to experiment and take risks. Even if Poppy can’t get a hybrid just right, the big central tree can still happen.

The sun soon sets, and I get the chance to appreciate the dreamblooms in their natural glory. I think they’ll be most common in the spring and fall sections. They seem to like it cool, but not cold, and definitely don’t like hot. Every single one the bumbles have planted have been in cooler, shaded spots. The little buds dimly glow, seeming more like hidden little stars than representations of the moon.

I think it inspires my packrats, because they change how they start hiding things. Instead of in places people would have to deliberately look, they hide some things under leaves and in the shade, making the forest at night twinkle like the sky. Teemo even takes the time to take in the scene, looking up through the trees to compare.

I don’t notice any familiar constellations, and though I do see a single moon, it’s more blue than white. It looks smooth, too, so maybe it’s fully submerged? With magic, it might even be literally a ball of water, all the way through. What better thing to command the tides than water, right?

Teemo chuckles at my thoughts, but doesn’t voice his own. Instead, we both just take in the night and all the things around us, from denizens to delvers. So many points of brightness, so much change over a single year. Tomorrow will be another day full of people, but for right now, it’s nice to sit back, relax, and reflect.