|| Day 6, 06:36 ||
In the end, it was the Omn Tops mountain range where the translocated Ragnavault had decided to appear. Facing a large lake on one side and verdant volcanic plains on the other, the Ragnavault was situated in just the right spot that made morning sunlight reflecting off the lake bounce up and illuminate the side of the mountain in a ghostly light. Toasty stared out at his dawn-lit balcony on one such morning, considering the plight of their situation.
Five days, he thought as he walked out into the crisp morning air, hands folded in the pockets of his tunic. It's been five days since we've gotten here.
And there was so, so much to take stock of. Their situation, their location, the locals, the wildlife and most importantly, the affairs within their own walls. That list of growing concerns didn't even begin to take into account the hundreds of petty niggles like the sustainability of their fortress or what they'd do in the event of attack. Even their circumstances and their chances of ever getting back home baffled them, every insight raising so many more questions than they answered.
Tensions were rising. His friends and fellow guild members were scared. All except for Nostromo, who seemed way too at home with this revelation. Toasty... Toasty didn't know what to think about all this. At times like this, he sometimes wished he'd picked an undead for his race. It would be so much easier to keep things in order and stay calm if he had the same racial abilities as a skeleton.
But then you'd lose all empathy and the ability to feel your emotions, not to mention... other things. Doesn't seem like a great tradeoff, even if it would make you seem like a better leader.
The dwarves remained unflinchingly loyal, Toasty thought, just like they'd been programmed to be. Even the high-level dwarven guardians. He'd expected the low-level mobs of workers, miners and smelters to remain loyal out of fear of the great Dwarven King, but for the higher level dwarves who could at least conceive of a limit to the king's power to go along with every ridiculous order he'd given to test their loyalty... that was surprising.
I can't believe I even made them form a human pyramid...
The other NPCs were no different, least of all their own custom-created NPCs. They showed a level of dedication and reverence towards them that bordered on the religious, not to mention creepy. Still, he supposed it played to their favor, no matter how uncomfortable it made them feel.
Think of how they feel for just one second. To stand in the presence of your creator... it's like the same thing as if a human met their god.
He shook his head. Still didn't make it less creepy. At least they didn't have to worry about them being betrayed by any of their NPCs, at least not yet. None of the dwarves had seen him out of his armor yet, and he intended to keep it that way, lest he lose their respect and admiration.
Of course, there was still that one NPC...
There was a heavy thunk as the vast mechanisms inside the giant locked door to his chambers tumbled into the open position. The noise was positively deafening. He could even hear it out here on the balcony, where he had another locked door and almost fifty flights of stairs to block out the noise.
"Milooooord!" an energetic and cheerful voice cried out; again, loudly enough to be heard all the way at the top of the staircase.
Oh no.
Yes. That NPC. Shammura Judecca, the betrayer. His own personal creation.
She burst through the balcony doors like a schoolgirl in love, tackling the object of her affection.
"Good morning, milord! Your ever faithful Shammura awaits you with open arms!"
Toasty grunted and almost fell over as she tackle-hugged him, the look on his face mirroring something close to exasperation rather than fear.
I'm getting really tired of this chibi body... he thought. He looked up at Shammura's wide smile.
Originally intended to kill him in a spectacular, over-the-top way after he conferred his position as guildmaster to Nostromo, Shammura had taken on a life of her own in the mythology of the Dwarven King once Toasty had decided to cancel his retirement. He had always designed her with the motif and aesthetic of a traitorous sorceress or vizier in mind, but as he spent the last few months before the end of YGGDRASIL meticulously crafting her personality and behavior settings into something that would match his standards, she became so much more than that, both to him and to the Dwarven King. As a joke, he ended up giving her contradictory mandates; one that she must always love the Dwarven King and two that she must always be trying to kill him. She was conflicted, torn between two loyalties as she decided to either follow the urgings of her cold heart which beat only for the Dwarven King, or the evil in her soul which demanded she kill him.
It had started as his idea of a twisted joke but he had no doubt she was here to try and do just that. In the few short days they'd been here, she'd already tried stabbing him, shooting him, poisoning him, pushing him into the lava pits, and even crushing him in elaborate death traps. Thankfully someone had come to his aid every time, but he was getting kind of tired of the whole thing already. Fear had turned into frustration, and he ended up spending a lot of time trying to predict what she'd do next.
Shammura noticed his grimacing facial expression.
"Are you alright, milord?"
"Oh, it's uh... it's nothing, Shammura," he stuttered. It was weird interacting with her from this height. She stood almost a full foot taller than him. "I'm just feeling a little tense."
He had no regrets designing Shammura the way he did, of course. Okay, maybe that was a lie, but he didn't regret creating her, that part was true! He just wished he would've known how the behaviors he programmed into her would've played out when he was first designing her. This was nothing like the classy but conflicted femme fatale he'd imagined. It was more like living in some kind of twisted ACME cartoon with a paranoid schizophrenic who also happened to suffer from bipolar mood swings, like she didn't understand the difference between love and hate or that there even was one. Maybe the conflicting commands had short-circuited the rest of her brain?
"It won't do for the head of the Æsir Syndicate to be so stressed he can't focus on work. Would you like me to give you a backrub, milord?" she said, smiling sweetly.
"I..." Toasty said. Oh crap! What do I do?! This is such a trap! She's going to try and kill me for sure! But I can't say no, then she'll know I'm on to her and she'll just try something different again later! I'll be trading in one death for another, except I might not see the next one coming! He thought some more. Yeah, but that's no reason to risk your life right now! Then again...
Toasty's eyes wandered where they really probably shouldn't have, towards the leaning figure of Shammura, and he started having second thoughts.
True, it's been a long time since I've had a back rub or a massage from anyone, especially a girl as beautiful as Shammura. This might be my only opportunity to enjoy something like this, so I should capitalize on it, right?! Besides, I don't know for sure that she's trying to kill me. Maybe this is just her more loving personality peeking through...
"Is something the matter, milord?" Shammura asked. She gasped. "Don't tell me you'd like me to change into something more revealing before I give you a massage!"
Toasty's eyes bulged as Shammura started loosening her garments, her robe drooping and revealing her shoulders as well as just the slightest window of cleavage.
Too much, that's too much!
"T-That won't be necessary, Shammura!" he said, interrupting her. "The way you are dressed now is fine!... and I would love a backrub from you too!"
Shit, he thought. I went and said it.
"Awww, are you sure?" Shammura pouted, then clapped her hands together. "Well then, I promise not to let you down, milord! These hands were made to serve you! I shall only take a moment to apply some aromatic ointment..."
She poured the contents of a translucent pink vial on her hands, rubbing them together until dry. Gently, she walked over to him and started rubbing his shoulders from behind. Her grip was soft and delicate, with surprising strength guided by nimble fingers. Almost immediately he felt relieved.
This feels nice, he thought, sighing and falling into her arms as he relaxed. He felt something soft against the back of his head, and realized he'd become nestled in her chest. This was a pretty good reason not to be an undead.
Maybe there are benefits to having this tiny body after all. This is still a bit too distracting though... he thought, afraid to look or turn his head at all. He coughed.
"Ummm, Shammura," he said, trying to sound authoritative, "please use your Distant Vision to bring up a view of the surrounding area. I'd like to see if anything has changed around our fortress."
"Certainly, milord," she said as she rubbed, and an ethereal mirror with a bird's eye view of the mountainous valley appeared. Toasty eyed it intently, try to distract himself.
"Hmmm... move it to the right a little."
The mirror moved. Toasty exhaled involuntarily as Shammura dug into a knot in his shoulder.
"Any news from our expedition teams? Have they found any suitable sources of drinking water or sustainable crops in the valleys?"
"No word yet, milord. I tasted some of the meat from the wild beasts they brought in yesterday however, and it was quite delicious. Nice and bloody. Tender too."
"I-is that so?" Toasty said, a little unsettled by one of those comments.
The guild members (or "Supreme Beings" as some of the NPCs had started calling them) were still eating from their pre-existing supplies and rations, just in case anything the expiditions brought back turned out to be poisonous or have long-term health effects. Shammura's skills made the former a largely pointless concern, but the long term effects of this New World food on their diet had to be observed.
Experimenting on the NPCs was actough choice to make, but it had to be done. The dwarven workers eating the food were the control, while DD had volunteered to be the variable (although Toasty suspected he'd just grown tired of eating rations a bit sooner than the rest of them had).
So far there had been no problems, but he'd had Shammura prepare a number of emergency potions in case anyone started suffering, including the lesser dwarves the fortress automatically spawned. Mathematically speaking, in YGGDRASIL the level 55 dwarves had less value than the dirt they were spawned from, but this wasn't a game anymore, and Toasty didn't feel right about putting the low level dwarves at risk without a life-line.
Toasty noticed a small settlement to the east of the mountain the Ragnavault had been teleported into (somehow).
"... Zoom in."
The mirror focused like a microscope, revealing a modestly-sized capitol city surrounding a makeshift castle nowhere near as grand as the Ragnavault. It was, from what the initial reports told them, a human settlement. Seeing as most of the Aesir Syndicate was human, at least in the world they'd come from, there was an immediate interest in making contact. But...
Toasty zoomed in again on a procession making its way to the castle at the heart of the city. Ogres and orcs and goblins and ghouls marched in rank and file formation around a group of lavishly dressed dwarves, like the ones working just a few stories beneath them. A group of humans walked out to meet them in the castle courtyard, and it became obvious who the dominant party in this relationship was. Gifts passed hands from the humans to the dwarves, and everyone regarded the procession with barely contained fear. That could only mean one thing. They'd observed this behavior a number of times, and everyone was starting to come to the same conclusion. These dwarves and other demihumans were exploiting this human settlement.
Toasty clicked his tongue, annoyed. Of course it didn't help that these humans didn't seem to know anything about magic or how to defend themselves properly, which made it all the easier for the physically superior demihumans to walk all over them. Problem was, no one from their guild could just run in and do something about it, even if they wanted to (Toasty sure did). They knew nothing about these demihumans. What their forces were like, what kinds of technology they possessed, what their average level was... not knowing any of these things could lead to them making an enemy out of a sleeping giant. So for now, they'd decided to play it cool and watch, at least until they could all decide as a group what they wanted to do.
Down below, a path was being cleared through the human capitol. The sea of people parted, and anyone who would not or could not move was trampled underfoot of the dwarves. Toasty watched as a child, six years old or younger, was kicked to the side of the street by a heavy metal boot. Her parents, instead of rushing to their child's aid when she'd likely sustained serious internal bruising, instead rushed to the feet of the dwarf to beg forgiveness for what their baby girl had done.
Toasty furrowed his brow. "Shammura, could you-"
He felt a sharp, stinging pain where his shoulder used to be. He looked down. A large ceremonial dagger was pinning him to his chair.
Toasty screamed.
"Oh my, it seems like the number of levels I have in the Assassin class still isn't enough to score a critical hit on someone as powerful as you. I have failed milord, the Supreme Being," Shammura said, clasping her hands on her face and looking sad and ashamed.
Toasty grunted. "Really, Shammura? Again?"
She licked her lips. "Then, how about this?"
Two flaming skulls leapt off of Shammura's jewelry and she started preparing her spells.
"Acid Javelin! Solvent Bath! Go, little ones!"
"Greater Magic Shield! Destroy Magic Item!"
A wave of sickly green fluid passed over Toasty's shield harmlessly as the two skulls shattered, returning to Shammura's necklace. For now, he had protected the remainder of his HP. She smiled.
"It seems I still cannot defeat you in a pure magic battle either, milord. Truly I could have been born to kill no one greater."
Toasty huffed with pain and exertion. Bullshit. Save your buttery compliments for when you're not trying to kill me, dammit!
Shammura rushed to his side, her desire to kill him completely forgotten, buried underneath her toxic love. She reached into her robes and pulled out a vial of red liquid, offering it to him.
"Drink this, milord. It is a handmade potion, made with my love~"
Toasty snatched the health potion without a second thought, uncorking it as he pulled the knife out of his side and drank. The pain quickly went away.
"Whew! That's bette..."
He stopped as his lips slurred together before refusing to move. His arms and legs went limp and his muscles slackened.
Ah, I see, he thought, oddly calm. I wasn't being healed. It just felt numb...
Shammura jumped up and down, squealing like an excited schoolgirl. "What do you think, milord? It's my newest paralysis potion! I disguised it as a health potion so I could get you to drink it! Oh, and I poisoned the knife with a blood thinner so it would inflict extra bleed damage once you pulled it out too!"
Toasty didn't respond. Not out loud.
Oh shit. Oh fuck. I'm going to bleed to death! he thought as he watched his HP slowly tick away. He tried calling for help, but every muscle was frozen, even the ones he used to speak.
Shammura snuggled up close to him, her body warm against his cold, clammy cheeks and bloodsoaked hands.
"Oh, milord! I've done it, I've finally killed you! I don't know why it feels so sad parting like this, but I'm also glad I could finally murder my maker and make you proud of me, your creation!" she said, going through some seriously rapid moodswings. "I love you ToastyEnji~nia, my supreme and almighty creator, more than words could ever express! So this is how I decided to show my love to you! Do you like it?"
She smiled wickedly into his frozen eyes. "Y'know, I could always show you my love another way too. There's still some time left before you die. We could... have some fun, if you wanted..."
Somebody help me! She's going to rape me!... and then kill me! Toasty thought in a panic. Nostromo? DD? Now would finally be a great time for one of you to barge in unannounced!
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