Dungeon Life Quest (DLQ) 65 - Suddenly Problems, Problems Everywhere Edition

>Make a giant spear thing out of building pieces and skewer the spoder from above.

Vote likely to be extended.

>> Take the buildings to pieces and drop /those/ instead; still safer than hunting it, but it'll leave more of the corpse

>>> Take the buildings to pieces and drop /those/ instead; still safer than hunting it, but it'll leave more of the corpse

45 minutes or so to call. My apologies.

There we go. Called, writing.

"The way I figure it," you tell Silence, "is we take the buildings to pieces, sharpen some of 'em up, and hurl or drop them at the spider. It'll take a bit longer, but it'll leave more of the corpse. Much more usable."

"More work too, but..." Silence nods. "I can get it done. Any part of the spider you want?"

"Eyes, fangs, venom sacs," you say immediately.

"Works for me. It'll be a day or three getting it together if we're taking the buildings apart slowly."

"Alright," you agree.

> Talk to the harpies now
> Talk to Henrietta first

* * * *

Meanwhile...

> You are the Lush
> You are the Debtor
> You are the Diviner

>> Talk to Henrietta first
> You are the Debtor
dis gon be gud

>> You are the Debtor

I don't want to be the Lush, but I also really want to be the Lush.

>> Talk to the harpies now
> You are the Debtor

>>> Talk to the harpies now

> You are the Diviner

>Talk to the harpies now
>You are the Lush

>Talk to the harpies now
>You are the Debtor

> Talk to the harpies now
> You are the Debtor

>Talk to Henrietta first
>You are the Lush

Worth a look into that one's mind.

Called. Writing.

The Debtor was the one who got reeled in on a literal deal with a devil, right? This should be interesting.

Your name is Jack. It means "fool," not in the sense of a comedic person retained to entertain a monarch, but in the sense of "stupid asshole". Your parents hadn't known this or, in fact, much of anything at the time, though more and more lately you're finding the name eerily prophetic.

They call you the Debtor, and you hate these meetings.

You hate these meetings because the Lush disgusts you. You hate these meetings because the Diviner /terrifies/ you, with her wide blue eyes and the way she always seems to know what you're thinking. But mostly, you hate them because they're time away from your search.

"She has to strike at one of us soon," the Diviner - Gabrielle, her name is Gabrielle - says flatly, almost indifferently. "She has no other way to progress. How are your preparations."

"Ready," the Lush rumbles. The giant is handsome, in his own way, like a well-done carving. He leans on the table, drinking tea from a delicate porcelain mug the size of a bucket. "Ever have I been prepared for war."

The Diviner's eyes turn to you.

"Don't give me that," you snap. "You know how I prefer to operate. The Warehouse remains mainly untouched, except where -"

"Except where your craven hunt takes you, yes," the Diviner interrupts. "Did you trade your spine instead of your soul, Jack?"

"Listen here, you mass-murdering -"

"Enough," Richard's voice cuts in, from the middle of the table. It emanates from a small silver bell. "Debtor, the heritor will not spare you for your elegance."

"She might for not being a mass-murdering piece of shit," you retort, cynically.

Then the chain manifests around your throat. You cry out as you're dragged face-first to the table; stars blossom in your vision while you choke.

Flitter, your closest friend - your only friend, really - flits next to the bell and kicks it with all the fury her four-inch pixie frame can muster. "You're killing him!"

>"She might for not being a mass-murdering piece of shit," you retort, cynically.

Finally, someone who actually gets it.

"I am aware," Richard notes, professionally. Darkness creeps in around the edges of your vision before you feel the chain retract. You suck in lungfuls of sweet, sweet air. "I've had enough of your cowardice, Jack," Richard continues, in that same mild, distant tone. "Taylor laid down his life defending the rest of you. You /will/ do the same, or I will offer you to the angel."

"Low blow," you whisper hoarsely. "What is it you want?"

"Evacuate the rest of the artifacts and lore below, to Port Atrium. The /Lonesome Dirge/ will convey them to the Mire, and thence to the custody of the Librarian."

"You didn't care for them before. Why now?" you ask.

"So the necromancer doesn't get them, /Jack/," Gabrielle sneers. "Must you be this stupid?"

Richard clears his throat. "With that settled, I must take my leave. Research is at a -"

"Critical stage," the Lush rumbles. "It always is, Richard."

"Indeed. Best of luck, my loyal compatriots."

You pick yourself up and cough, hard. Flitter brushes your hair out of your face and stands on your shoulder, one worried hand gripping the back of your ear.

> Ask the Lush for help
> Ask Gabrielle for help
> See what they do

> See what they do

Wow, dick just resosterd to vilonce against someone? He must be really desperate.

>> Ask Gabrielle for help

>> Ask the Lush for help

Hail satan

Also dont ask the mass murdering lunatic for help, they're a mass murdering lunatic

>asking help for a mass murderer.
have you gone cra-crazy

>See what they do

More desperate, honestly. And with her sight, the Diviner's reach is farther.

How did he get a pixie for a best friend? This is a story I have to hear

And now for the eternal question.

Alcohol, or no alcohol...

Votes are open while I'm deciding. I might go for an extended walk to stretch my legs and/or acquire alcohol.

Always say yes to alcohol Vox. But you can always double yes to alcohol AND coffee

how in a row

Its just the great linch and his acolytes on it again.

Yep, gonna hit that walk. Votes extended.

So hard to choose.

Looks like the Debtor is in a shitty spot, caught between a complete bastard of a giant and a genocidal maniac. Also Richard.

Hope things work out for him as best they can. So probably either a heroic last stand/fuckoffDickyoucunt or eternal damnation/bridgette 2.0

Halfway mark; twenty minutes to home

I dunno though. Seems like he signed up for shitty reasons.

This is taking longer than anticipated.

Hey, he needs those seven dollars badly.

You made me choke on my drink, user.

Called, writing.

I get the feeling from him that he's more desperate than anything. not really a particularly good person or a particularly bad person, but willing to do anything to escape what he has coming, and in way over his head.

Maybe but he actually resembles a functioning human being. The other two are quite literally some of the biggest wankers we've seen so far.
We got Mister Lush, your average 8ft+ Giant buddy who seems to be attempting to recreate The Mountain with his swole debauchery and general psychopathy.
Then we have Gabby Diviner or whatever, who seems to be attempting to edge her way into the competition of dicks that Ol' Richie has assembled with her bitch comments and you know, murderating an entire fucking floor.
Richard seems to be Giovanni from Pokemon, hell I expect him to be petting a cat on his smooth-leather chair wearing a crisp suit and tie while he subtly laughs to himself about how glorious his plan is before berating his underlings to boost his ego.

Keep in mind, this is a limited analysis based on the tiny amount of intel we have on this merry band of jackasses.
So yeah, Debtor man and Tinker Bell seem pretty nice compared to the people he's chained to.

You grab feebly at your cup of tea while you try to find your breath. Flitter squeezes your ear gently, but you find enough focus to take a sip while you wait for one of the other two to say something.

The Lush breaks the silence. "Please, permit me to be of assistance. Jack, you will need men and supplies to freight what you're after, will you not? I can get you a troop of lizards within the day, along with the men to wrangle them."

"Sane men?" you ask, regretting it.

"I know how you prefer to operate. Consider it a gesture of peace, Jack. I realize you do not like me, but /I/ like /you/ just fine. Gabrielle, do you need anything?"

"No," she answers, smugly. "I expect to have this insect handled easily."

"Famous last words," you mutter.

"I'm sorry, /Jack/, what was that?" Gabrielle asks, icily.

"I /said/ that she's going to cut you open and use your arrogant guts for garters, /Gabrielle/," you snap back. "Thank you, Lush, for your kind help. Can I impose upon you for a quarter-century of soldiers?"

"Take half," the Lush agrees, graciously. "I've had my eye on that staff you found, awhile back. I believe I may have the head that goes with it."

"Take it," you tell him. "It'll be up within the day. I want good men, though. Good soldiers? Maybe not. I need men who can refrain from violence."

"Understood, my friend," the Lush rumbles. "We're all in this together."

"Except Gabrielle," you tell him, unable to keep from the jab.

The Lush's laughs boom through the small meeting chamber while the Diviner glares daggers at you. You raise your teacup in a little toast, and then down it.

goddamnit it you spiteful, Jack

You are Brianna la Croix, and /damn/, these harpies are a lot more intimidating when you were the one who called them.

Dozens of eyes stare down at you from the parliament.

"Let me see if I understand this correctly," Razor Feathers says, patiently. "The Dungeon is in the...territory, let's call it, of a vast human murder -"

"Human and others," you add, wincing.

"Granted," Razor Feathers agrees smoothly. "This human murder is part of a collection of such murders that is subordinate to some great and mighty human?"

"That's...good enough for this conversation," you admit. "Understanding that we're glossing over an amount of details that might get you literally killed for ignoring them."

"Understood. And on the surface, harpies are known as vicious killers and are often mistrusted or, indeed, killed on sight. Not, I might add, without reason."

The sight of an entire room of people trying to find an objection and being unable to is one that you'll carry with you for the rest of your life. It'll be good for a chuckle, on shitty days.

"You propose that those of us choosing to leave the Roost seek employment with the leader of this murder, who calls herself a Duchess and will, in exchange, grant concessions and protections to the Roost."

"Yes," you agree. "Henrietta knows how to strike a fair deal. I believe you can trust her men, but if you can't, well, you'll have some of yours on the surface to take your revenge."

It's not exactly what you mean, but it's the language they speak. And even peaceful nations speak strength; it's the universal tongue.

"Only problem I see," Razor Feathers muses, "is that getting to the surface is difficult. And certainly, we can bypass some of the distance using the Atheneum, as you've described, but I doubt its keepers would be happy with the mass absence of its books. That won't be a viable solution."

She has a point. Hrm...

> Familiars could work. Do we have harpies willing to learn sorcery?
> What if the Duchy and the Roost worked together to dig a new access to the surface? That'd open up trade too, though it'd take time.
> Are you familiar with the concept of a legate?
> Write-in?

>New Hell should still have portal circle materials
>What if we dug the Roost's ceiling straight to the surface? Or do it from the top going downwards, of course.

Is that teleportation circle? Device? Natalia set up in New Hell capable of working in the time needed? That is, is it in working order or repairable under the available time constraints? It could sent the entirety of New Hell to wherever Natalia wanted right?

Maybe. It's potentially worth investigating but she was sending just the people and stuff. Not necessarily great for trade, esp. since the return trip is not as possible as leaving is. Teleports have to start in an area with great magic, or else go to the Atheneum via book.

This was more or less what was meant by 'new surface access'

so Teleport for the first big batch of harpies, while digging out the route for long term setups.

> What if the Duchy and the Roost worked together to dig a new access to the surface? That'd open up trade too, though it'd take time.
(How much time?)
> Are you familiar with the concept of a legate?

Hey, so, about those runes feeding the Pallbearer Death.

We can't copy that shit? Slap it on our Boar and bam instant death feeding.

Maybe even cut out the Ironside ship and just feed the pallbearer.

It'd take time and study to reproduce.

Cutting out the /Lonesome Dirge/, on the other hand...that might be doable a lot faster. Something to ask the Caretaker about, perhaps?

The kind of time it takes to dig through three and a half floors' worth of solid fuckin' rock, man, it's gonna be awhile. Working from both sides makes it a matter of just months, though.

How long have we been in the Dungeon now, anyways?

A little over half a year, give or take.

>What if we made ton of books for teleportation? What are the minimum requirements for the Atheneum to consider something aa book?

Slow night for votes.

Going to call in fifteen or twenty, I need food.

Well we should definitely cut out the lonesome dirge then. I mean, they apparently can't kill the Captain anyways.

And that gives more death to the Pallbearer.

We can apparently also use the runes to communicate with the pallbearer. So we should probably check in with them first.

But fuckers are going to learn why you don't raise up what you can't put down. Especially after giving it cannons.

> Hunt for months for an image reference for harpies in this quest
> Veeky Forums delivers it to me by random chance

AT LONG LAST, HERE YOU GO

>> What if the Duchy and the Roost worked together to dig a new access to the surface? That'd open up trade too, though it'd take time.

>not bird with human face

You can't say I didn't describe 'em ahead of time, user. Y'cannot!

As much as I appreciate the Greek depiction of harpies, it wasn't what I wanted to play around with for this setting.

>not human with bird face

Ra sucks.

I would fuck that.

So would Amy's dad.

Wait, so do harpies have wings and arms? I've been imagining all of them besides Amy as only having wings.

Guys. Guys. Harpy moneymaking idea. Exotic bodyguards. You have different murders so you can have them work as mercs but be held to an overarching code to ensure a reasonable amount of civility. Any murder breaking the code gets hunted down.

I feel like what the roost has done is forced some level of organization on the harpies. Normally they wouldn't tolerate each other long enough and either one clan would absorb the rest under a Khan before breaking apart due to betrayal, or would just drive off other murders. Here we have harpies that can kind of work together and we should foster that.

I know. I know. HEADCANON. But still that's what it sounds like, especially if you have actual civilizations with organized armies keeping them to out of the way areas and treating any large group like a threat to be nipped in the bud.

Harpy construction teams working together to make heavy materials lighter greatly speeding up construction and allowing impossible techniques.

High speed harpy carriages for mail delivery, lighter carriages = faster speeds.

Harpy air taxis for nobility who want to show off and literally look over their lands.

Harpy bombers dropping skeletons into . . . Wait, that's a little bit Zombie Army there.

But now I'm curious if we could eventually upgrade combat minions into a sort of Dragons Teeth skeleton army where we condense exceptional warriors into "undead ready to go just add dirt" style summons.

Funny, my headcanon is that full-blooded Harpies are kinda like that, but their arms are 'fused' into the wing a la pterodactyls (as in wing + 3 or 4 fingers jutting out at the 'elbow').

Okay, I lied. I can't focus enough to write and will instead be getting some actual goddamn sleep. Vote remains open.

Questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms remain welcome and appreciated.

Thank you all for reading and participating!

> "Hear me out: what if I just make a whole bunch of books entitled 'How to Teleport to The Atheneum' and hand them out to people?"
> "...Do you have any idea how badly I want to bind you to the library and make you sort books until you know the depths of fury that idea inspires in me?"
> "Your whole face just got consumed by witchflame, Caretaker."
> "You say this like I haven't noticed."

>suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/44478293/#p44513171
>Full-blooded harpies are somewhat smaller and more compact than humans, with a stooping posture and relatively weak upper arms

They have arms, they're just too weak to do anything. Hence why harpy arguments allow punches but not claws; a fist won't hurt but a claw can still gore.

Does the Atheneum have a printing press?

A few, in various locations.

We should start printing some leaflets and have ourselves a good old fashioned propaganda war with Richard. Some posters would go a long way as well.

If only to annoy him I agree. We can give one to Lora, she'll get a kick out of it. Maybe he'd even be stupid enough to take it away from her.

>glue together two layers of paper, with propaganda print on the outer sides
>have Lora put another of her feathers between them
>Some chainbearer angrily tries to snatch it away

One last thing before I can actually fall asleep (fucking 2 AM real life shit HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ME?) - user's question earlier about what choice I'd change if I could got me thinking about earlier moments in the quest. What moments and choices have stood out to you?

[Acquiring feedback intensifies.]

Hey, quick question/idea I had.

If someone from up top (say, the Elevator workers or the Duchess) were to pop into the Dungeon for a short time and we died while they were there, what would happen to them?

I remember you mentioned that Nathan and Cherry wouldn't reset because they'd been down there for long enough, but if someone was only down there for a day or an hour or two, would that be enough to make them reset-proof?

I'm asking because I can't imagine how much shit would get fucked up top if the Duchess suddenly 'vanished' whilst eating breakfast or holding Court, because she was in the Dungeon when we died (which she obviously wouldn't be without her knowing us previously, which she wouldn't post-reset).

I'm asking because my brain says that in order to avoid significant anachronisms she'd effectively need to be cloned, with one up top (the 'reset' Duchess) and one in the Dungeon (the non-reset one) which'd open up some significant possibilities for fuckery should the need arise.

user's choice to not Waifu immediately stood out to me, eventually we became Nate's Waifu, but still.

All the times where we've spared someone and how they turn out to be valuable assets. It's like we have this inate sense of how good people are usually worth it in the long run.
Or you just want to make sure that none of our characters are completely worthless.
>tfw senpai thinks about your posts
.｡ﾟ+..｡ﾟ(〃▽〃)+.｡ﾟ+..｡ﾟ

>stood out
good or bad?

Well, near the start where Bri/tg was quite hesitant over Amy's initial devotion.....stood out.

Bridgette's first POV.....did NOT stand out, since we got a lot more of those later on, but I feel that how the choice at that point was structured and how much freedom it had defined a lot about the structure of the quest as a whole.

That YOU, as a QM, were willing to do that Poker duel card by card stood out.

That Natalia seriously just gave up stood out.

Miles in general stands out. Not really related to the story, but not unwelcome.

What if the Duchy and the Roost worked together to dig a new access to the surface? That'd open up trade too, though it'd take time.

So, the third option (for a legate) is to have someone who speaks for the rest of the Roost, as a representative? I think we can combine that with the second option.

Honestly, I haven't felt like there were any moments that I regretted or seriously disliked (mostly because of how you're telling the story, to be honest). The Roost arc was rushed some, yes, but it also felt like there were fewer anons around for the votes, so we just ran straight through. Like playing Skyrim and only focusing on the main questlines, rushing past everything else. You've said that you're trying to just let things happen at their own pace, but I don't think it was your fault.

I got back into Elder Scrolls recently and your quest made me want to go full battlemage/necromancer. I had a skeleton assistant I called Sykes, who imagined spent his free time cleaning and organizing all of my stuff.

Damn it. Forgot to green post.
>>What if the Duchy and the Roost worked together to dig a new access to the surface? That'd open up trade too, though it'd take time.

Hey, remember the first time we met Miles? Didn't he say that the Master basically gave him to the Vintner as a slave? We should totally have River summon him as an assistant so he can deliver righteous vengeance against Dick and his surviving cohorts.

Plus, this means that he and Sir Fetch can play good cop and bad cop.

Hey Vox, turns out you did the name thing again. In thread 50 you called the ship being built by Richard the Predator, but every time afterwards its called the Lonesome Dirge.

Unless I missed something and there's /another/ beast of a ship with magic cannons.

Bumpity bumparoo.

Question for you, great lich of the brewed bean!
>Do harpies have family names?

pastebin.com/KKTdtu3j
When Nathan asked the ancestors for their blessing, they mentioned marrying into the La Croix family, not out. So far, we haven't seen or heard anything about whether murderbirds have lineages further than mom and dad, if that.

Also, this could become an important thing if they become involved with human nobility. For example, if the harpies established a vassal state under Henrietta, they might be similar to a lesser noble family.

They could also establish the Parliament (on the surface, not just in the Roost) as the ruling body rather than any one leader or murder, but still, something to consider.

no no no there is not /another/ beast of a ship, there are in fact two other beasts of ships. Assuming my canon is correct which it usually is.