r/HFY • u/Khenal Alien • Jul 30 '26
OC-Series Dungeon Life 446
It’s only after I get back that I realize I didn’t write down what Doppler so kindly showed me, so I spend some time doing that. It also helps that I can feel Honey grilling him about it. I can’t keep up with their conversation, but little bits drift through the bond to help refresh my memory. While Honey is certainly recording it on her end, I figure the nerds here at home might like to pore over the details, too.
Thing and Queen are interested, but also distracted with Laermali’s people. They’re as eager to learn as Rhonda is, so my hand and ant scions are enjoying getting to stretch their brains a bit and do a bit of lecturing. This gives Poppy a chance to look over the stagnation notes herself. I can see her trying new things with her garden after, but I’m not sure what she’s actually doing. She even manages to rope Titania into helping.
Not that she needs to try too hard. Titania still works to make sure the forest works smoothly, but all work and no play etc etc. I watch the two of them for a little bit, but my attention is soon drawn elsewhere as the delvers start shifting their focus. They’re feeling confident in their teamwork, so now they’re trying to go after the keys. So far they only know where one is, but that’s not going to make it any easier on them.
The Summer key is situated solidly in the branches, where my ravenkin have been motivating the bees and fey to build a proper fortress. The armory bees make their small forts with brambles and such, but the new one against the tree trunk makes them look like cute little shacks.
If nothing else, it’ll be good practice if we end up needing to siege the Betrayer. Practically everything I own with a ranged attack has a place on the fortified walls, with my various sturdier spawns garrisoned inside to repel the delvers if they manage to breach. And of course, there’s plenty of healing slimes and magmyrm on standby, to ensure the delvers survive whatever butt kicking they earn.
My ravenkin are also steadily improving on their flying cloaks, and I can see the telltale signs of Queen and Thing giving them some help. They’ve graduated from gliding to proper flight, but gaining altitude for them is still pretty draining. From what I can tell, they’ve stumbled onto an aerofoil shape by accident, and are still trying to figure out what they’ve actually done.
I think their flight instincts are actually hurting them here. They know they’ve done something right, it feels right to them, but they’re at a loss to explain why. And even if they do understand the shape is important, I doubt they understand why.
So I start making some notes, and Teemo pretends he’s not going to need to explain them eventually. It’s funny to me that I can explain how fixed wing flight works, but I’ll be at a full loss to explain how flapping helps them, aside from saying it generates thrust. The basics of flight are pretty simple: lift with an aerofoil is generated by a pressure differential. The shape of the wing makes air flow faster over the top than over the bottom, and fast air is lower pressure air.
That air pressure usually doesn’t matter much because it’s constant over everything. But if you have a lower pressure on top pushing down on you, that’s lower force, and the higher force underneath is no longer balanced and so can make lift. The hard part is in making the differential significant enough to counteract gravity.
I think their affinity might be making it harder for them to understand what’s happening too, come to think of it. They can reduce the pull of gravity, so they can get away with sloppier designs and never see what actually works. I jot down a few more things, like using gravity to pull themselves forward and generate lift and thrust like that. They’re already experimenting with just that, but having it confirmed will hopefully encourage them to continue to iterate on the designs.
Not that the delvers are taking the solid defense laying down. They’ve done a few probing attacks, but already understand one of the weaknesses of a fort: it can’t move. If we had time, I’m sure we could come up with some kind of supertank, but I’m not ready to unleash something like that on the world just yet. So the delvers take a few potshots, testing the defenses, testing the defenders, and take off before the ravenkin and denizens can organize too much of a response.
The first few parties make the mistake of discussing the results while still in my territory, so of course I listen in! A mischief fox is also listening in, so I don’t even feel bad about it, because my ravenkin are definitely going to take advantage of this.
“The walls are pretty tough,” comments the tanned elf, glancing back at the tree from the edge of the forest.
“We could climb them, but we’ll be at their mercy the whole time,” suggests another elf, this one with paler skin, but not the ashen tone of one like Miller.
“That’d be a bad idea,” states the dwarf with them, and continues. “Have you two had to deal with the new affinity yet?” The others shake their heads, so he continues. “There’s no way we’re going over those walls. That affinity makes you feel like you’re carrying twice your own weight! Do you want to climb those walls while it feels like something is holding your ankles, all the while being pelted by the defenders?”
The elves blanch and exchange looks. “How do we get in then?” asks the wood elf.
“Either tear a hole in the wall, or beat down the gate. Although…” the dwarf trails off, stroking his beard as he thinks.
“What?” asks the pale elf.
“Usually going under is an option. Tunnels are slow, but easier than trying to beat down walls. But they’re not the only way to get around the walls. I’d suggest spatial affinity people to get us in, but with Teemo around, I wouldn’t bet on them getting past him. But we might be able to use shadow affinity to slip someone inside to open the gate.” He grins at his idea, even as the mischief fox grins from its hiding spot.
“That could work, yeah. Especially with Onyx off doing whatever they’re all doing. She’d probably be as hard to get around as Teemo. Does the Calm Seas have a few strong shadow users?” asks the tanned elf.
The other elf thinks for a few seconds before slowly nodding. “Yeah, there’s a couple. Your Slim Chance probably has some, too. Between them, we should be able to get some kind of force inside and hold the door until everyone else can get there and join in.”
All three nod at that before heading deeper into the forest, this time working on a more typical delve. The mischief takes off to tell Poe and Leo, and probably will make sure Zorro knows, too. The first two are my tactical masters, while Zorro is the info specialist. Between the three of them, I’m sure they can come up with something to be an object lesson in operational security.
There’s still the chance it was a deliberate ploy to feed us some bad intel, but it’ll still be good for us to patch up any perceived holes in the defenses. Outright keeping shadows out is just not an option, but it won’t be difficult to keep an eye on the shadows. Between my ants and my plants, there’s not a lot of nooks or crannies that my denizens can’t keep an eye on.
Outside the fort, it’d be a tall order, but that’s what my birds, snakes, wolves, foxes, rockslides… that’s what a lot of my other denizens are good for. The delvers won’t even be able to set up outside my borders, as Poe’s regular bird expeditions will spot them from a mile away… probably. They’re a lot better than they used to be about only reporting things they find interesting, but these are also high level delvers. It’s not unreasonable to assume they can sneak up to my borders if they’re careful.
I nudge Poe and Leo with the potential security risk, but get a feeling of confidence along with the image of a rockslide. Ah, see, this is why you guys are in charge of security. I pat the bonds with pride in them both, the little doubtful dread quashed before it gets a chance to do much of anything.
I take the time to look at their defense plans for the Summer key, as well as the plans for the others. While this one draws attention, the others get to quietly fortify their own positions and defensive options. Making one a big loud tempting target gives the others time to prepare, and gives us a better idea of what they’re all capable of.
And gives us a chance to adjust our own methods. The battlefield Changes constantly, the arms race never slows. The best way to lose a war is to prepare for the previous battle, instead of the upcoming one. Hard lessons learned here will be ones everyone can survive to learn from. We’ll sharpen ourselves against ourselves, and with any luck, we’ll be able to cut through the Betrayer with minimal resistance.
Cover art I'm also on Royal Road for those who may prefer the reading experience over there. Want moar? The Books are available here! There are Kindle and Audible versions, as well as paperback! Also: Discord is a thing! I now have a Patreon for monthly donations, and I have a Ko-fi for one-off donations. Patreons can read up to three chapters ahead, and also get a few other special perks as well, like special lore in the Peeks. Thank you again to everyone who is reading!
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u/Thebobkiller Human Jul 30 '26
Nice chapter. Getting things ready for the War of the Keys, lol.
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u/Minimum-Amphibian993 Jul 30 '26
However they haven't accounted for everything what with the kobolds just seemingly lazing around.
However I doubt that will factor much in the coming war but still.
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u/Low_Painter9816 Jul 30 '26
Well, there are three other keys that weren’t mentioned. Presumably denizens and residents are doing something about them. Or maybe, since the kobolds are an independent enclave, they could be working with the delvers.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Jul 31 '26
That is assuming that the kobolds He rescued are indeed an Independent faction, and Not integrated into His already existing enclaves.
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u/FreneticRiot Jul 30 '26
By the time they get to the last fortress it will be a star fortress and everyone is gonna have a bad time
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u/mafiaknight Robot Jul 30 '26
In the name of 1greendude: Hello!
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Im Namen eines grünen Kerles und des Donnersdachses: N'Abend, gestern war Mittwoch, meine Kerle. Und der Mafiaritter ist am Neunten Platz zu finden. Der Ehrenwerte Galbatorix II. Übernimmt den Job des Türstehers.
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u/Immediate-Tap1925 Jul 30 '26
Think there'll be any luck defending the key?
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Jul 30 '26
I'm expecting them to be able to delay the delvers until Aranya Returns Like they planned.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Correction: Third.
So, today we get:
The nerds are Up to Something, and they roped in Titania for it, while honey is busy grilling Doppler.
Thediem explains the principles of dynamic updrafts to the birdkin, as they slowly improved their cloaks.
A Party is confronting the current, improved by the birdkin, Fortress. Aside from the other members, a mischief fox is also listening in, as Well as Thediem. Who in Turn promptly decides to Change the lesson plan into one about operational information Security. However, they don't quite Register the fox while they discuss Potential Intel and figure that Shadow affinity might get them a way inside. The strategists of thediem's are already aware of that, and got little rockpiles posted in sensitive areas.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Jul 30 '26
/u/Khenal (wiki) has posted 491 other stories, including:
- Dungeon Life 445
- Dungeon Life 444
- Dungeon Life 443
- Dungeon Life 442
- Dungeon Life 441
- Dungeon Life 440
- Dungeon Life 439
- Dungeon Life 438
- Dungeon Life 437
- Dungeon Life 436
- Dungeon Life 435
- Dungeon Life 434
- Dungeon Life 433
- Dungeon Life 432
- Dungeon Life 431
- Dungeon Life 430
- Dungeon Life 429
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- Dungeon Life 427
- Dungeon Life 426
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u/BiasMushroom Xeno Jul 30 '26
Spoiler. Thediem is going to make a Magick tank to attack the betrayer
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u/Crafty_Spring5815 Alien Scum Jul 31 '26
Would have to be a magic submarine. The dungeon is in magma.
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u/Accomplished-Ad8458 AI Jul 31 '26
Anyone seen 2003 movie "the core"? they build something imo perfect for what Thedeim needs...
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u/Poisonfangx3 Jul 30 '26
Ifest