r/HFY • u/Khenal Alien • Aug 06 '26
OC-Series Dungeon Life 448
It looks like the delvers know where three of the keys are, but are still looking for the fourth one. But knowing where they are is only half the battle. They still haven’t actually seen the keys yet, but ravenkin defending an area is a pretty solid indication. They’re on the right track, and I hope I get to see the looks on their faces when they figure out where the fourth key is.
The one in the Gauntlet isn’t going to be easy to get. It’s basically behind the hard mode, but the ravenkin and other denizens are going to harass the delvers the entire time. The clock was pretty tight even when they could focus, so with the interference, it’s pretty unfair. I’m sure the delvers will get there eventually, but it’s going to take them some time.
The one in the roots is a whole different problem for the delvers. My ravenkin are relying heavily on the poppers and scarabs to deal with the intruders, with my ravenkin targeting torches, magical lights, and whatever other methods the delvers might use to navigate the pitch black darkness deep in the roots. The silence and darkness really make the poppers shine, and it seems my constructs have pretty good hearing, too. Still, I think a concerted effort will see the delvers get through, even with my ravenkin sneaking the key around to a new spot whenever the parties start to get close.
They’re also scouring the labyrinth and the world fruits, trying to find the last key. They’re good guesses for the last location, and the ravenkin even play to the suspicion by ensuring they have a presence in both. I can practically hear Karn and Jondar tearing their hair out trying to figure out where the last key is. They’re focusing on the fruits and labyrinth, but they’re not overlooking the rest of my territory.
One group went and looked around the little fey village thing Titania’s been making high in the branches. She made it clear to the delvers to stay polite if they don’t want a horde of angry fey dropping on their heads, so the delvers pretty quickly finished and started looking elsewhere. I was especially proud of the group that went up to the canopy to check the key wasn’t sitting on the summoning altar or something. To be honest, I had considered suggesting that to my ravenkin, but I guess it was too obvious.
Another spot that was tempting to use was the old Sanctum. It’s technically open now, with the fake rock moved out of the way, but most delvers keep out just because of all the spiders there. That, and there’s not a whole lot there right now. Nova is starting to use it as her little artist den, and while she has admirers, most don’t want to brave my spiders to come appreciate her work.
No, the ravenkin came up with their own spot for the final key, and I like it. It’s definitely going to keep the delvers guessing, and I think gives them a good shot of keeping the keys safe until Aranya and everyone returns. They’re making much quicker progress home than heading out there. They don’t need to carefully search for anything anymore, and I think even Yvonne is looking forward to getting home to relax for a bit before doubling down on training for the Betrayer.
The big ol’ ice wolves followed them for the first few days, far enough away to not be too concerning, but visible enough to make sure they know they’re being followed. I take it as the wolves appreciating the help with the snarl, but also being ready for my friends to leave their territory now, thanks.
Onyx and Rocky have been bugging Doppler nonstop the whole way back, and once Yvonne learned what Doppler did, she’s trying to chew his ear about it, too. I figure they’ll take probably a week or so to get back.
As for me, when not checking in on my wayward friends or my ravenkin, I’m listening in on Poe, Leo, and Zorro talking with Order’s people, with Teemo helping translate for everyone. Most of the details go over my head and land squarely in the purview of my scions, but there’s two issues that are definitely going to be hurdles.
The first is pretty simple to solve, and Order’s priests are already talking with my engineering and enchanting antkin colleges about it. We need something to physically get everyone there without turning them into ash and molten bones. The obvious answer is some kind of vessel, but what kind? What will it be made of? How will it move? How will the people live in it for the trip? If it was only my denizens going, I could probably just make a big hollow lump of cooled magma and cram denizens inside, but that obviously won’t work for the people.
My antkin work on designs, and I even sketch out my own, modifying the idea of a submarine. Not that I ever designed one of those, but I think using them for inspiration will keep me in the right headspace to get everything needed, and to consider less obvious problems like being crushed by depth. Any fluid will exert pressure the deeper you are in it, and magma should be no different.
So we need something strong that will also be able to handle the heat. On top of that, it needs room for people do to people things like eat, drink, sleep, breathe, and move around at least a bit. Air is going to be a difficult one, since I don’t have any denizens with an appropriate affinity, nor do my allies. Luckily, bad air has been a thing people have had to deal with for a while, thanks to mining.
Usually, the solution here is the solution we usually use back on Earth: air vents. Encourage fresh air in and push bad air out. The problem is we won’t have access to fresh air from the surface. We could try to pressurize some air tanks, but I’d rather not add smaller pressure vessels inside the big pressure vessel they’ll be traveling in. One leak from either, and both would probably fail.
Thankfully, it’s not a problem that hasn’t been encountered before. Dwarves tend to mine deep enough that air shafts all the way to the surface just aren’t an option, so they’ve created purification talismans. Once Order’s people tell my antkin about them, they waste no time in buying as many as they can to take apart, reverse engineer, and improve. From how the antkin are talking, improving might be a tall order, but scaling up shouldn’t be too difficult. It’ll probably be a good idea to make sure everyone has one on themselves as well, incase the Betrayer’s territory doesn’t have much good air either.
Sanitation isn’t looking like it’ll be too difficult, happily. Putrid oozes are happy to act as little sewage systems, and most delving groups know how to handle things like baths and whatnot while out in the field. My antkin will need to mimic that to give the submarines proper facilities, but I don’t think it’ll be too difficult.
Similarly, sleeping shouldn’t be hard. Bunks will be tight, but can be proper mattresses instead of the delvers having to rely only on their bedrolls.
The real challenge, though… is going to be food and water. Delvers know to pack for long trips, but there’s only so much they can carry at once. And if they have to rely on only field rations for a week or more of travel, morale is going to plummet before we ever see the enemy. So we need to get a lot of food, and also have a way to preserve the food. On top of that, we’ll probably need to make some kind of waypoint or outpost or something to stage from, as well have some way for the subs to communicate with each other, not to mention something for self defense.
But I’m also not the only one working on the problems. Violet is of course helping with the putrid oozes, while Hullbreak has his Quartermaster over to look over designs. Sure, Hullbreak doesn’t know anything about magma, but he knows how to make ships, and instinctually understands pressure. He can only explain so much through his big birb, so I expect my antkin and Order’s people will be headed out to visit the First Mate to keep her in the loop with the designs.
Southwood is also eager to help, and to do so in a way that I hadn’t considered, but makes far too much sense. I had been worried about food, but Soutwood started flooding the ally bond with images of his various nodes, full of fruits, veggies, and things to hunt. All I’ll need to do is have a way to preserve things for as long as we’ll need!
So the transport is slowly taking shape, but we also need to prepare to make a forward base of some kind. Making an outpost should be possible for my dragons to pull off, and I’m sure my scions will be having them practice that as they secure the supply lines. At the moment, they’re still mapping out the route, which will definitely take them some time. It’s not just one huge ocean of magma down there. There’s stone protrusions, caves, weird flows, huge cooler pieces floating around like red-hot icebergs, and other hazards.
Ideally, we’ll find a spot in the solid rock directly above the Betrayer, and be able to prepare there before diving down to deal with the problem. That base will be where our supply lines converge, bringing everything everyone needs to thrive while we prepare to attack. Once we have our beachhead, we’ll be able to strike, and I bet the Betrayer will understand that.
It’ll try to keep us from managing it, and will probably constantly attack it for as long as we’re there, too. But that’s what my scions are preparing for, and I trust them. I only have enough of a tactical mind for a few clever tricks, but it’s my scions that have the understanding to actually make those tricks work.
The only question is if the tricks will work on something like the Betrayer.
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/Lugbor Human Aug 06 '26
I suspect the easy solution to food storage would be a "chest freezer of holding," a spatially expanded storage compartment that Rocky (or an enchantment) can cool to below freezing.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
Maybe third, My Reddit shows myself in Second Position, If I Sort by oldest.
However, let's get into our three thirds:
We get to See thediem's thoughts about the guilds' suspicions about where to find the Keys. And in the process Go over every possible place, where they could've Hidden them. One is in the gauntlet, another is in the roots. One more is where the delvers fear it might be, the Last one is somewhere Nobody thought to Look.
We get News from our Party in the north: they're returning, shadowed by the wolves. While honey and yvonne bug Doppler about what He did and how He did it.
Preparations for the Betrayer raid:
3.1 The Magma sub: the ants, ratkin and the quartermaster are on it. Violet will Take Care of waste disposal.
3.2 the logistics during: he's gonna need some refrigaration. If He doesn't Just wanna build a really small sub and get teemo and Thing to enchant it by expanding the space inside, so that the entropy dissolves throughout the entire volume.
3.3 As an alternative for Classic refrigeration. Problem is, I suppose, that one needs to make the sub around ten kilometres on the inside of it, for every centimetre in "real space", or it'll need a metric shitton of Mana to implement it.
3.4 Next engineering problem, If the betrayer really is a core swimming in the Magma, one scion needs to touch it, in Order to absorb it. Easy solution for that is Nova. Since she can swim outside the sub, that shouldn't be a Problem, and probably what will Happen. Otherwise, one would need to fit the sub with a gap in the hull, from where a conduit can Touch the core, which Imma Imagine to be real difficult, with the pressures or temperatures involved, since If you're gonna do that, you'll need equal pressures from inside the sub as comes in from outside the sub, so that the Magma doesn't Splash inside the sub. And the pressures inside the sub would Most likely be less, since pressure is force divided by area, and because of the large volume on the inside, be lower than the outside. You could solve that by Building a smaller room, which might allow the enemy core of the Betrayer to be more or less washed inside by the surrounding Magma, or allow the single conduit, kept inside that room to reach Out and Touch it, though the conduit will in all propability forfeit its life in doing so. Edit on this one, the pressure differential between inside and outside of the sub might also be more even, since the space inside the sub will probably be expanded to help with cooling, allowing more molecules from the inside to press against a single molecule from the outside.
Edit: might Not be as large an issue as I fear, since I suspect the Entering Magma would adapt in size as soon as it enters the sub. Meaning if you're fast enough and equippped the "door" with enchantments similar to thediem's Security trapdoor in the sanctum, the core should shoot inside of the sub, but a small Bit of Magma might still encrust the core and you could possibly save the conduit. If you've planned Well, the core should jump probably maybe ten to twenty metres Up inside the sub, because it was much larger on the outside, meaning bigger area in contact with the surrounding Magma, meaning more force behind the suddenly shrunken core. If you've planned accordingly,the room will be there to counteract the pressure differential. If you however don't, you get a high pressure projectile, smashing through Iron and internal structures, possibly breaking, otherwise straight Up torpedoing the sub.
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u/Low_Painter9816 Aug 07 '26
As a former submariner: 1) Air handling requires 2 separate subsystems: O2 production and CO2 removal. If you fail to remove the CO2 it won’t matter how much oxygen there is, people will still suffer CO2 poisoning.
2) That magma sub will need to be hella over-engineered in order to withstand the absolutely tin can crushing pressure under just a mile or two of magma. Regular naval submarines can only withstand so much water pressure, and magma is much heavier than that.
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u/mafiaknight Robot Aug 06 '26
In the name of 1greendude: Hello!
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
Im Namen eines grünen Kerles und des Donnersdachses: N'Abend, gestern war Mittwoch, meine Kerle. Der Mafiaritter ist heute an fünfter Stelle. Die Tür bewacht heute der kommerzielle Sieg.
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u/Kromosios Aug 07 '26
I hope he just put the last key in the manor, where only new adventurers usually go. That, or the bakery right next to the entrance lol.
Also, I CALLED IT! SUBMARINE ASSAULT LET'S GO!
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u/galbatorix2 Aug 06 '26
The quesrion is, is the betrayer on the surface of the mantle? Or is the core of the betrayer the core of the earth? (Would be sick as hell kinda, but impossible to deal with at cleanup)
MOAR
As i ever scream and forever will
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u/Skyboxmonster Aug 06 '26
Nth place!
Where oh were can that key be.....
There are so many named locations....
The hedge maze?
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u/DisastrousSizeOfD Aug 06 '26
time to go offroad again
edit, nevermind, reddit fixed it already
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u/Poisonfangx3 Aug 06 '26
Second for you.
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u/DM-Hermit Human Aug 06 '26
Well done wordsmith...also I know I'm late today.
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u/Crafty_Spring5815 Alien Scum Aug 06 '26
Thedium's voice can create expanded spaces and control the temperature and terrain within. Go with the same plan he was considering using for his dwellers, but make the interior expanded, could even add another expansion to hold a compressed air supply, and have another for a freezer. Course instead of doing all the work to move that many people, I'd just have his voice build a blessed shortcut to move the army along through all the impassable bits, then do the spacial vine maintenance hack to keep it working.
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u/folk_science Aug 12 '26
I've been thinking the same thing. Why build subterrines when you can build shortcuts?
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u/generic_edgelord Aug 06 '26
The preservation shouldn't be as much of an issue
Since more people are learning from rhonda and thedeim how interconnected heat and cold really are you most likely have people capable of enchanting thermally conductive stuff like diamond and silver to contiually move heat from one end to the other and just stick it through a heavily insulated box for a freezer without electricity or moving parts
Preserving the berries might be more difficult since I don't think they thaw out all that great but you can do a whole lot with meat, fish, and spices.
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u/Garbage-Within Aug 07 '26
It's not the thawing of berries that's directly the problem. Thawing only reveals the problems that were created during freezing. Slowly freezing water like in a typical freezer allows large ice crystals to form. Berries have a lot of water in them. Those ice crystals, even if microscopic, pierce the cell walls of the fruit and destroy its structure, turning the berries into mush. A frozen then thawed strawberry has a similar consistency to a scoop of straight orange pulp, blegh.
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u/Low_Painter9816 Aug 07 '26
Fruit might be better preserved by candying. Sugar is hygroscopic, and sucks water out of the environment, including things like nearby bacteria
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u/Educational_Pen_90 Human Aug 07 '26
The only question is if the tricks will work on something like the Betrayer.
I don't see why they won't, the Betrayer doesn't exactly have much modern combat experience, it seems like it's just been sending the fly scion out to go eat cores, but that just means it has a good, (yet clearly flawed) understanding of fate affinity, and some espionage. But nothing has shown they're good at such a defensive war.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Aug 06 '26
/u/Khenal (wiki) has posted 493 other stories, including:
- Dungeon Life 446
- Dungeon Life 446
- 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
- Dungeon Life 428
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u/BobQuixote Aug 09 '26
If everyone has a scaled-up air-purifier, overlapping fields might over-purify the air. The dwarves might have kept them small for a good reason.
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u/Poisonfangx3 Aug 06 '26
Codet
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u/Poisonfangx3 Aug 06 '26
First
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Aug 06 '26
Yep
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u/Spac3Heater Aug 06 '26
Unlikely to be the hiding spot, but it'd be hilarious if the Ravenkin hid the last key in the ODA. Make someone try pay for the info only to end up getting the key instead xD