Saga of the Soul Dungeon

"Managing people is like herding ironwing steeds – a task of noble intention, yet fraught with the unpredictable chaos of feathers and inevitable stupidity. Minus the feathers, mind you."

— Baroness Elowen Ironhart, Steward of the Royal Court and Chief Monster Tamer

==Zidaun==

I’m not sure how Izradi managed to do this every day. It would drive me insane.

Unfortunately, it was self inflicted.

Stupid sense of responsibility.

I hadn’t been content to just let Izradi deal with the details and then pass things on to me. No, in my great wisdom, I had decided I should at least learn what he did on a day to day basis.

The logic was sound. Understanding his role should help me fulfill my own better. In addition, I would be more prepared if something happened to him and I needed to deal with the day to day details.

So far, I had mostly learned two things: one, that paperwork appeared to have the capacity to spontaneously multiply, and, two, how grateful I was that I had someone else to kill the vast majority of the paperwork before it threatened to overwhelm the population.

Sadly, the paperwork, if left undone, could truly cause a host of problems as unresolved issues were left to fester.

Equally sadly, I had lost one of my great conceits. Somewhere, deep inside, when I had seen that large groups of humanity were terminally stupid, I had made the assumption that the Adar were different.

I don’t think I had even consciously acknowledged the belief, it had just become a quiet certainty in the back of my mind.

One afternoon of paperwork, and dealing with the minutia of governing my own people, had sufficiently robbed me of that comfortable illusion.

I read over the next piece of paper and massaged my head.

Why… just… why?

While much of the stupidity today had proven to be a terminal lack of self direction, the disasters tended to be the complete opposite.

For example, the report I had just read:

After hearing that additional permissions had been granted to create sewer connections, and that the dungeon would likely prefer more bathrooms, rather than less, the terramancer Ulath decided to take matters into his own hands.

Ulath then proceeded to talk with various other Adar and drill directly down into the sewers. While lacking in foresight in other ways, after the first such hole, he both warned his fellow residents about the smell, and that they would need to get someone to come in after him to install finishing work over the hole.

With frequent lines having been a problem at the few publicly available bathrooms, most residents were more than happy to take him up on the offer. Most assumed that he knew what he was doing, and had the proper authority to do so.

Sadly, neither of these was the case.

Had he merely enough foresight to check with those who were authorized, he would have prevented disaster.

Failing to do so, he drilled down blindly, using only his own primitive sense of the earth.

The extensiveness of the sewers beneath the Grotto insured that many of his efforts emerged into more or less the correct area.

Those that failed to do so, he directed through the nearest void he could sense through the stone, creating sloping tunnels into the sewers.

He was able to form several dozen of his makeshift bathrooms before he made another error.

Finding another place where he could not create a direct path down into the sewers, he angled the tunnel and aimed for the nearest void in the stone. Breaking through took more work than he expected, but he finally managed to break through the rock around the void.

At which point the highly pressurized water inside burst out with substantial force.

Standing directly above the hole as it formed, Ulath was slammed into the nearby wall by the force of the water, breaking his arm and several ribs. In addition, he suffered a concussion when his head hit the wall.

The force of the water pushed him out of the residence and into the street, which was promptly flooded.

There being no provisions for drainage, given the enclosed nature of the city, the flooding quickly spread.

Ulath, in a commendable, if misguided, attempt to stem the problem, attempted to reach out and seal the water back away. Sadly, whether due to his concussion or insufficient finesse, he actually cracked the stone around the wellspring further.

The water was stopped for only moments before it gushed out with ever greater force, and Ulath’s own dizziness proved too much. He was swept away by the ensuing burst of water.

Eventually, those with the proper skills arrived and the water was sealed away, though only after that residence and some of the surrounding area had partially collapsed into a forming sinkhole.

Fortunately, since the building had not completely collapsed, it was able to be repaired.

Ulath, half drowned and still with a concussion, in addition to broken bones, was unable to give a proper account of events at that time and was taken to the healers for treatment.

In the meantime, the additional connections he had made to the sewers were briefly examined and determined to be unfit for use. They would need to be remade with a proper connection to flowing water and properly organized drainage into the sewers. Still, while the sides of the tunnels were rough and cracked, none of them were in any danger of causing structural issues.

That being the case, it was decided to leave them until the team coordinating bathroom creation could attend to them.

That would have been the end of the matter, except that some of the tunnels were sufficiently rough to the allow the ingress of some of the sewer residents.

Several low level monsters, identified as “Sewer Alligators – Juvenile” were able to escape and a number of individuals had to be treated for bites by the healers...

The report went on to detail the ongoing clean up, though they thought at least one alligator might have gotten away.

I just shook my head, and passed the report off to Izradi.

“How,” I asked, “can someone be so stupid?”

Izradi’s lips merely quirked into a smile as he read the report.

“I have found,” he said, “you must take some things with a dash of humor.”

I wasn’t aware you had one. Wonder if he has been mocking me with any of his dry responses…

I thought about it for a moment.

Hopefully, he has. He has gotten less formal as we worked together.

The real question is if he is doing that because he could see I disliked it, or if he has a skill that helps him deal with people.

Not that it really mattered. It simply was what it was. Obsessing over how much of people’s actions was influenced by a social skill was a fruitless pursuit.

Before we could continue our discussion, an Adar ran into the outer room, their form a familiar blur to my senses.

A moment later the Adar appeared, dressed in the tight garb of a dedicated messenger.

He saluted me, his hand open and straight, covering his heart.

“Ancient,” he nodded toward Izradi. “Administrator. Something has changed near the dungeon entrance. A door has appeared and some people came out, four humans.”

We immediately started toward the dungeon entrance, following as the messenger continued to speak.

Not that he had much to say. The door had appeared and the people came out. Then the Adar on guard at the entrance detained them.

Apparently some human adventurers had also run off.

I should probably inform Kraring… assuming those adventurers didn’t already do so. Still, best to be polite.

Plus, I actually like him.

The messenger didn’t have anything else to tell us, so I sent him off to inform the guildmaster and extend an invitation to join us.

You would think that Caden was trying to be mysterious.

I shook my head with a soft smile.

Caden was still unconscious, which meant, whatever this was, it had been planned in advance.

Let’s go see what my god was up to.

Soon enough, we arrived.

Four adventurers, looking dazed and a little nervous, were off to the side with an escort of Adar guards. Standing a little ways away, a crowd of adventurers were talking and muttering to each other.

To the left of the dungeon’s entrance, part of the reason for the commotion was visible.

A new double doorway was present in the stone. Unlike the dungeon entrance, the doors were closer to regular size. They were blood red, and glowed gently with inner light. Engraved on the front, in silver, was a rod with a single snake wrapped around it.

Door of the Living

Bears the Rod of Asclepius, a symbol of healing and the medical profession.

Not a symbol I have seen, but what do I know?

It wasn’t like I recognized any other symbols Caden used, either.

The adventurers had seen me, and the muttering grew.

That could be problematic, probably best to deal with that now.

I suppressed a sigh, and addressed the crowd.

“I am sure you are all very curious,” I said. “So are we. I have already sent a message asking Guildmaster Kraring Greim to join us.”

I allowed myself a wry smile, also letting my voice reflect my humor.

“Not sure if any of you have met him, but if he doesn’t show up you can go bug him about it.”

A few of the adventurers laughed, while most looked confused.

The muttering resumed, but now it was mainly various adventurers rolling their eyes or shaking their heads, while explaining to some of the others.

Yep, some of them have definitely met him. He seems like a decent person overall, but I don’t think he really wants to be a leader…

No wonder I like him.

Despite my disparaging remarks, it only took Kraring a few minutes to arrive. And, judging by the breathless messenger he was following, while he looked utterly unaffected, I suspected most of that time was the messenger’s speed limitations.

Speed focused, or just high enough level to run any of us into the ground?

Even without specific skills, the body improved at each plateau. As did everything else.

Kraring dispersed the gathered adventurers with a few words, and some vague promises that any relevant information would be shared.

Give me a decade or two to practice, and I might end up that good as well. It helps that he is sincere, too. I don’t think he cares enough about politics to keep the information secret. Not for anything that isn’t dire.

For a brief moment, I considered what would happen if the Adar and the adventurers here came into conflict.

It would be a disaster, for both sides.

The Adar would probably win, for now. A number of high level Adar were among my new subjects; each was sent to help secure the new colony.

However, in the future, there were likely to be far more adventurers.

I’ll need to make sure my entire colony takes advantage of the dungeon. Just in case. Even after we settle in properly.

I shook off my morbid thoughts as Kraring and I walked together, the four adventurers and their guards following behind.

“Do you mind if we bring them to the Adar embassy?” I asked Kraring.

“It would certainly be better than mine,” he muttered. “We would have at least half a dozen noble sycophants listening in with their various skills. I swear they would search my office while I was gone if they thought they could get away with it. As it is,” he grimaced, “I think every one of them has some way to see through walls.”

I laughed before I responded.

“Well, so do I,” I said. “It’s a useful ability.”

He waved his hand in dismissal.

“Bah!” he said. “You know what I mean. You’re your groups sensor. Of course you can. No, these people are spies and sycophants first. Some of them might even do actual adventuring once in a while.”

“I haven’t actually needed to deal with the nobles all that much,” I admitted. “Are they really that bad?”

“Eh,” Kraring responded, and wobbled his hand it back and forth. “Their representatives aren’t actually all that bad. It is just dealing with so many that is such a pain. Once we have proper facilities and all my administrative staff has set up, I won’t have to deal with them as much.

“The nobles themselves, on the other hand… Yeah, they are a massive pain. They have enough clout to force a meeting. And then it is a long and tedious conversation in which both sides are very polite and each tries to promise nothing.

“Not sure how much you will actually need to deal with them. At least you will have the advantage of outranking them, if you do.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I’m still new to this,” I admitted. “I’ll just have to find out when it happens.”

Kraring made a throwing away gesture and another grunt.

“Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine,” he grinned. “In the meantime, lets find out what the hell happened this time.”

I nodded, and we soon entered my offices, the adventurers at the heart of the mystery following behind.