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Beware! A Game of Horny Monsters - Overworld

Zarkara would have liked to land like a graceful cat when the net finally snapped and dropped her and the hobgoblin to the ground, but at leas she didn't injure herself. She scanned the battle momentarily as she stood back up and rearranged her displaced lingerie. The frontal assault was clearly not going as the males had planned. Unsurprising, she thought, but she didn't have time to dwell on it as the bugbear saw her as a prime target to smash. "Oh, just what I needed!" She complained as turned around to run to the side.

After only a few steps she stopped in her tracks with a foot apparently stuck in the ground. She visibly struggled to free her foot. She looked at the bugbear, her face showed dread as the monster approached. "No nonono!" She looked like she was about to scream. However, when the bugbear was almost upon her, she jumped towards it and rolled under its legs -her own foot clearly not stuck at all-, pulling out a hidden dagger from somewhere within her skimpy attire in one quick motion. As she rolled under the creature, she slashed at its ankles hoping to bring it down for good, or at least force it out of the fight.

Zarkara didn't wait to see the results of her stunt, thought. She wasted no time standing back up and took a few steps away from the bugbear before turning around to see if still stood. Her expression was serious as she stood ready to continue the fight.

Trick to attack the bugbear (3d): 3,3,2
 
Watching as the goblins fell into the trap, she sighed. This is exactly what she was worried about. These goblins fall prey to such things so easily. What merit would there be to allow such creatures to serve, if they could so easily become a liability? Turning her gaze to the rest of the battlefield saw that the Centaur seemed to be in his own world with the woman, save for the magic he blasted down onto the Bugbear. The mind flayer behind her was in danger, himself. She held off on yelling to him as she notices the Bugbear charging forward to the recently freed Hobgoblin and Succubus. Their situation was dire, but not enough that her leaving a problem behind to help them would truly fix.

Rhisha grumbles as she effortlessly skitters into the webs she's projected, leaning down to grab a goblin that's been adhered to the strands, raising her voice as she strides further into the wave of goblins - past her webbing - with her now-freed captive, staring at the horde of goblins with scornful eyes. "Listen now, you wretches! You will cease this ridiculous servitude. Your master's life is nearing its end, and you should be doing all you can to ingratiate yourselves to your new leaders. Bearing arms upon us will only earn you a slow, painful end. Like so." The Drider lifts one of her talons, stabbing in deep before drawing it across the goblin's stomach to demonstrate exactly what she meant.

Threaten Going Hard (dire position, great effect) on goblins to lay down their arms. Spending a Dark Heart to counteract the Shock to Guts. Result: 3, 4 (Partial Success)
 
On the ground, Garrth's world shrinks. He hears nothing but his heartbeat and sees nothing but the mud he's been tosses in. The disgrace was almost worse than the pain. He could see no worse fate than humiliation by a lesser breed of goblins. The thought of hanging every single goblin up on the walls of his new keep fueled him. He carefully janks the arrow out of him the best he can, blood spurt out as the arrowhead tears through his muscle.

He looks up to see the bugbear engaging them. Zarkara seems to be dealing with it alone. He sheath his sword and straightens his armor. The attack had cleared his mind, and while the goblins will die, the bugbear should be his concern. His pike lays not far from where he was snatched up from so he collects it, psyches himself up. And follows Zarkara's lead with a charge. He'll skewer the leader first.
 
Well, this is just becoming even more of a proper mess. What ill planning this was. Zelkythion thinks with frustration to himself as the battlefield shifts. The hobgoblin and succubus managed to free themselves, but the hobgoblin takes a nasty arrow in the process. The centaur, although having helped with a stroke of lightning, now looks like he is abandoning the fight entirely to play with the spoils before victory is claimed. Imbecile! Or worse...traitor... At least the drider is now putting on an impressive display to try and cow the goblins into submission, but more goblins have slipped past her and are heading towards him! While that is just one more annoyance to deal with, the bigger problem is that the primary objective, the bugbear, is now charging at the vulnerable succubus!

<Well. This won't do at all. Time to take some control of this situation, and bring confusion to our enemies.> The illithid's psychic voice speaks out to the minds of everyone nearby in Dark Words, as he gets to doing what he does best: twisting the minds of others. His eyes glow as he calls upon his psionic might again, and this time, he waves his arm holding his staff as the crystal in the end lights up for him to focus his power through. He points his staff at the bugbear, and then sends a bolt of visible psychic power straight from his brain to the bugbear's! The time for subtlety has passed. Zelkythion intends to Mind Scramble this bugbear. If the bugbear can't throw off the attack to his mind, then up shall become down, left shall become right, his arms shall be as noodles, his legs as jelly, and the world shall spin like a potter's wheel!

*****

[Attempting to Invoke a Tier 1 Enchantment spell: 4, 1, 6 ; *Success*]
 
Ul-Ruk brings the girl over to her family, demanding her to choose one to sacrifice. "No!" she shouts, managing an impressive amount of defiance given her position. Ul-Ruk's whip shows her that disobeying his instructions isn't the wisest course, and soon both men are wincing in pain from his lashes. Before she loses both men, she makes a choice. Her finger raising and shakily pointing towards the elder of the men as she sobs.

Rhisha's plan seems to work nearly flawlessly. She easily snatches up her prey and mortally wounds him as the rest of the goblins cower and back away. She looks on with grim satisfaction as their resolve falters. Just as she thinks she has them, the one she's holding up unsheathes a hidden dagger. He quickly slashes at her long appendage, striking deep enough that a large spurt of blood gushes out. He falls to the ground as Rhisha unleashes her grip on him. It's a simple matter to viciously impale him as lies injured on the ground, but the damage caused be his blade is another matter. She's been left bloodied, but the rest of the goblins back away, some of them dropping their weapons as the survivors huddle together for safety. They're not exactly ready to turncoat and attack their former leader, but they are too scared to make any moves against the wicked ones either.

Zarkara's trick easily fools the furious bugbear. She easily rolls under it's unsuspecting legs as it rams through the position she was near moments ago. The bugbear is too quick for her though, in a desperate move, he twists his torso and swings out wildly with his club. He barely clips Zarkara, but the blows is still powerful enough to sending her sprawling to the ground so hard that the world is spinning. Her brains is shocked.

Thankfully, before it has a chance to strike her again. Zelkythion has a chance to scramble its mind. It stumbles around like he's had a few too many kegs of ale. In desperate attempts to keep attackers away from him, he swings wildly all around him. Completely distracted and nearly defenseless, he seems the perfect target now that Garrth's wound has been dealt with, and his weapon is in his hand once more.
 
Garth didn't understand the strange psionics of the mindflayer, nor why the succubus wouldn't go for a more straightforward approach. It didn't matter, because he had the opening he needed.

Garrth bursts into a sprint, focusing all his rage on that bugbear. His pike is long, clearly not intended to be used as a weapon, being about twice the height of the hobgoblin. Nevertheless Garrth found it more than capable for skewering enemies the reinforced spike at the end. He kept the pike low, aiming for the bugbears lower torso, ideally he'd lodge it up his ribcage so he had enough leverage to hoist the foe off the ground.
 
The choice was made and he would respect it. It was a practical one as far as he was concerned since the older male would be less useful for labor or...other proclivities in regards to the females of the group. Of course, his actions here were still only serving to sate his own cruelty but he wasn't thinking about the battle as a whole right now considering he was in a relatively safe position.

Again and again Ul-Ruk would crack the whip against the flesh of the chosen victim with little care for exactly where the leather impacted on the man's body. The tool was not great at killing but that was the entire point; the repeated strikes would cause agonizing pain for a slow death more from bleeding out than anything else. A whip could rend flesh from bone from repeated strikes but no doubt the weak human would fall unconscious sooner than later and beating someone who could show no pain was hardly satisfying.
 
Rhisha looked on with a self-assuredness that most would likely consider arrogance as she watched the goblins drop their shoddy weaponry. She doubted she could inspire them to cut down their former leader, but that was fine. They would simply be inching in on her own territory, as she wished to rip that Bugbear apart herself. Lost in thought for a moment, the drider grunts in pain as the goblin she'd used as a demonstration took his last action in life. She growled at the wretched cretin, throwing it onto the ground before her. "You lot are not to touch this one. Witness his end, or know that you will soon be the apple of my eye, and you do not wish my attentions focused upon you."

The arachnid turns her attention from the lowly goblins, spinning a few webs over her wound so she wouldn't bleed overmuch. She looks about the battlefield, seeing that Zelkythion seems to be safer now that the goblins have heeded her words. It seemed that Ul-Ruk was stuck still on his pet project, earning a grumble from Rhisha as she strides across the battlefield to meet where the Bugbear was menacing Zarkara and Garrth. This wouldn't end until he was dead, and so she rushes into the fray, lashing out with her talons with deadly intent against the dazed assailant.

Team Up with Garrth. Smash with -1d from Muscles Shock. Results: 3, 6 (Success)
 
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The succubus rolled a few meters on the ground victim of the bugbear's club. In the end she lay on the hard stone floor gazing at the sky, which kept on spinning in front of her eyes. As she lay there she wondered how did things go awry so badly that she had to be the one fighting the monster. And where was the centaur that so badly wanted to fight it? She thought. As the world stopped spinning enough that she could get back up, she took a good look around. She saw the Garrth finally engaging the bugbair, though she didn't hold his delay up against him since they had both fallen into the same trap. Then she saw the centaur messing with the captives. "Hey! What are you doing, you four-legged monster? Quit damaging my property while the rest of us fight the battle you asked for!" She shouted at Ul-Ruk when she saw him whipping the young man.

Zarkara glanced again at the bugbear and figured Grrath surely had it all sorted out with the support she had given him and the monster's mind scrambled as it was. The goblins weren't fighting anymore either, so she decided it was high time she took care of her own spoils. She walked towards the captives with a spring in her step, a wide grin forming on her lips as she reached the young man strapped to the pole. "Donut vorry your pwetty little head, hun. Mamma vill take gud care of you." She spoke to the man in a sing-song voice though with a heavily accented light tongue. She pressed her body against his, pressing her breasts against the side of his chest and slipping a thigh between his legs. "You ar mine now."
 
Garrth charges at the bugbear as it stumbles around the courtyard in a daze. He thrusts his pike at the bugbear, but the monster luckily manages to deflect it with his club. The bugbear manages to zero in on Garrth's position, pulling his club back to sweep in the hobgoblin's general direction. Before he has a chance, Rhisha is behind him, her long talons sinking into his back. The bugbear goes limp as he falls to the ground lifelessly.

Ul-Ruk's whip has brought the older man to the brink of the death by the time Zarkara strides over. The captured humans are silent and sullen at the vicious torment they have endured. As new prisoners of the wicked ones, their bodies may be of use around the dungeon. They might also know useful information about the surrounding lands. They'll just need some proper motivation to spill their secrets.
 
Euphoria flooded Ul-Ruk's mind as the older male went limp and would soon perish. He could feel the trembling of the female against his midsection but, with the urge sated on his part, he looked around to see that the battle was finished. Oh well, he did enough damage to the bugbear so it was only natural that the others finished him off. "Take him then, I doubt you'll have any competition when it comes to male captives." He said to Zarkara in passing while dragging the female over to Rhisha and dumping her on the ground before the drider. "She'll suffer more from bearing your children than anything else I could do to her now. Besides, your brood will be more helpful in protecting this place. Though I second Zarkara's earlier claims; some areas need be kept clean."
 
Satisfied with the impact his psychic powers had on the bugbear, Zelkythion observes the final moments of the battle. The hobgoblin and drider manage to tag-team the bugbear efficiently, and with the goblins having been cowed into submission, all threats seem finally neutralized. As the noise dies down, Zelkythion drifts through the air towards the others where the captives are to regroup...and give them a piece of his mind.

The mind flayer floated over as the buxom female was tossed to the ground in front of the drider by the centaur. <Hmm, I do heartily agree with the female being used for your brood, Rhisha,>, Zelkythion began, with his telepathic "voice" getting into the minds of everyone nearby, although those of the Light most likely cannot understand his thoughts in the words of Dark Speech, <but I also have use for her, so we should share her once we have established our shelter.> Zelkythion had been leery of the drider for how she had seemingly let goblins slip by her to strike at him...but when you got down to it, who was really at fault for the near fiasco of this operation?

<As for you...> Zelkythion's mind hisses as he turns his gaze to Ul-Ruk. <Your plan. Let us examine its results. Our 'distraction' team wandered right into a trap and alerted all our foes. Our 'hammer' team moved in, but got quickly bogged down. Garrth and Zakara had to free themselves from the trap, taking injuries in the process. Rhisha somehow found herself fighting the goblins alone, and later miraculously managed to intimidate them all into surrender, even better than she had suggested herself at the start. I was left exposed and almost flanked several times, yet still managed to use my powers to debilitate the bugbear which our succubus found herself fighting alone at one point, before the hobgoblin and drider managed to eliminate him. Yet during all of that, where were you?> Zelkythion's telepathic voice speaks with a sneer as he narrows his eyes at Ul-Ruk with a sweep of his crystal-tipped staff in the centaur's direction. <Having fun with the spoils. Yes, you managed to toss a bolt at the bugbear, fantastic, well done, a single strike, what an accomplishment.> Zelkythion drips with sarcasm as he rolls his beady black eyes while his face tentacles twist and writhe and hiss. <But how convenient is it that it was your plan we followed, yet all of us bore the brunt of the danger while you were safely enjoying yourself?> Zelkythion leaves the accusation implied by the question unsaid as he simply wags his staff towards the centaur again, like tsk-ing a naughty child. <I'm watching you, centaur...watching...>

Zelkythion leaves his paranoid musings at that with no further pressing, and begins slowly drifting through the air around the perimeter of the group, looking both inward towards the other Wicked Ones and outward at the goblins, wary for any further complications.
 
Ul-Ruk was ready for battle with the way the squid faced monstrosity talked to him but it didn't quite come to blows. "You failed to spot the traps the same as I. Do you always blame others for your own incompetence? My single lightning bolt left the bugbear half dead, if not further, and if the entire rest of this group cannot handle half of the work load then why would I even begin to continue working with you lot? If it weren't for me then this female would have been long gone and perhaps the males too. Yet I hand them both over to others and keep them not for myself. You are a sad excuse for a creature if all you can do is nearly get savaged by small little goblins and then tell me that I am at fault for your weakness."
 
The argument would die down soon enough and they could all focus on securing the ruins and claiming personal space. Ul-Ruk in particular found a large tower that was still in great shape and took it for his bedroom thanks to the access to open sky that the peak afforded. A wooden lift with a rope and pulley system afforded a faster ascension to the top, an important benefit since the winding stairs were difficult for his tauric body to climb, and with the arrival of the imps to help them manage the place Ul-Ruk got them to quickly tidy up the place and reinforce the old and decaying machinery.

Once that was finished the centaur set up a simple but effective trap on the north side of the inner keep, using the crumbling rubble of a half broken wall and a basic container to slowly leak water onto the floor to make the surface slick in hopes that invaders unfamiliar with the place might take a hard tumble down the stone rubble and into the moat below; which he also had filled with water by conjuring a minor rainstorm. He had plans to expand this further in the future but they had little resource to work with for now. Crude but effective would have to suffice in the meantime.

That took care of business as far as he was concerned and with nothing else in particular to manage for the moment his mind turned to pleasure and a need to wind down. With no slaves to call his own and no minions to boss around just yet the centaur turned to the only lesser creatures he could: the imps. Under his commands they would lavish him with attention, service, and praise. They would effectively worship him like a living god or idol and he would soak up this adoration perhaps a bit too much this time around. It had been some time since his own tribe had the numbers and means to treat him like he deserved and he so desperately craved the attention that a male of his stature was worthy of.
 
Zarkara was amazed by how little time it took the imps to learn of the wicked one's conquest. Before they were ready to settle the imps had arrived and were digging the first tunnel inside the castle. With a look of exasperation on her face, she personally directed the imps as they dug the tunnel that would lead to the mess hall. As they were making progress, she stopped them and forced them to change direction arguing that they were going nowhere. A while later she did it again, then again and a few more times. By the time they were done they realized she had made them dig a maze. She laughed at their little angry faces as they complained that she could have simply asked for a maze, but that would have been no fun. Then, as a 'reward' for complaining, she had them decorate the different paths of the maze. She had them draw images of tits in the path that lead to the mess hall and images of dicks in the path that lead to the mimics' lair. That way, she thought, male and female adventurers would get separated as each pursued their innermost desires.

After uncountable hours of hard work, as she called the act of watching the imps work, the succubus decided it was time to relax. As she made one of the deepest rooms of the dungeon her home, she decorated it with colored blankets to cover the walls and illusory torches that burned in different colors to give it a cozy and relaxing atmosphere. She placed some incense burners to fill it with intoxicating and arousing aromas and covered the ground with mattresses. She sighed in satisfaction when she saw her work finished. However, it was still missing something, the harem the hateful light-mongers stole from her. She pressed her teeth in anger as she remembered her old lair and all the fun she had then. What had she done to deserve such a cruel fate? No matter, she thought as she remembered she already had a potential member of her new harem.

Zarkara didn't wait until she had had a chance to break the captive young male's mind, she wanted to have him and she wasn't going to be stopped. Storming into the prison, she opened his cell, grabbed him by his clothes, dragged him down to her room and tossed him inside. Seeing the scared young man lying on the mattresses brought back many memories and she wanted to recreate some of them on the poor guy. To say she fucked him would be an understatement. She tore off his clothes and sexually ravaged him for a few hours, enjoying every bit of his body and extracting every ounce of energy he had. She used him for her pleasure until he had nothing more to give. He was left barely more than a husk, limp and completely exhausted. In the end she lay next to him with a satisfied smile on her face, casually caressing him like a proper lover would, and whispering sweet promises of greater debauchery in his ear.
 
Once the imps (surely attracted by the psionic call he had broadcast, Zelkythion has no doubt!) start arriving at the ruined castle and begin excavating and constructing a proper monster dwelling for the Wicked Ones, Zelkythion checks on the progress now and again as he has somewhat of an interest in architecture, as well as providing a little oversight to make sure the little servants keep on task. As they are building out the new corridors through several sealed-off sections of the old castle structure, Zelkythion's psychic awareness senses several other faint mildly-psychic presences behind one of the walls. He waits for the imps to knock it down, and then goes in to investigate. The room looks to be mostly an old common room from the abandoned castle, and there are various bits of random assorted furniture scattered around. Most of the furniture looks decayed and rotted, but several of them are in...suspiciously good condition, despite the dust.

Zelkythion's beady black eyes glint with unholy excitement as he floats into the room. <Yessssss...> He mentally hisses as the good setpieces of 'furniture' begin to move, disturbed by the wall finally coming down. <My kind of monsterrrrs...> He croons as a plush armchair, an iron maiden, a four-poster bed, and of course the classic, a large wooden chest for belongings all slowly and lethargically sprout eyes, mouths, teeth, and most of all, tentacles as they awake. <Oh, what pretties you are...you have been dormant for a long time, haven't you? Sleep, for just a little longer...I shall make sure your home is comfortable and inviting enough for you to be...satisfied!> The sleepy, long-hibernating mimics that had been trapped in this sealed-off room slowly retract their appendages and settle back down, while Zelkythion whirls on the pack of imps and immediately orders them to proceed with restoring the room and the furniture. The mimics are all duplicating objects that there are already more than one of in the large room, but with the rest all ruined, they need better hiding spots to lure in their prey. Fortunately for the rest of the dungeon, the psychic vampirism that this particular breed of mimics display does not require them to actually crudely eat their food...

By the time the rest of the initial dungeon excavation and construction is complete, the [Clever] and [Sneaky] mimics have a properly comfy-looking room to blend in with. Any potential future invading adventurers who take a breather in this room will find quite a surprise! And should any of them be incapacitated in this room, they shall find a fate much...better than death awaits them!

And with the completion of the initial dungeon setup and the securing of proper shelter for the first time in many months, along with the discovery, Zelkythion's mind is awhirl with ideas as he sets up various mystic apparatuses, sigils, and ingredients in his own personal room, delving into various bits of occult lore. The mimics, while interesting, are too unintelligent and sedentary to be personal minions to himself, he needs something more. But where to find the perfect minions? <I do not need to attract my own minions...I can create them!> Zelkythion opens up his tome of arcane lore, a strange, large, heavy book that seems to change what is in some of its pages each time he reads it, so he can never truly be sure he knows everything inside of it, although it rarely shows him what he actually needs or wants. Still, with what little incomplete scraps of information in the tome he can find as guides, Zelkythion begins experiments just to figure out the fundamentals for his idea, not to actually begin the process, but just to study how he can do it. Demonic energies or void energies? Fleshwarping or summoning? A little bit of everything? Zelkythion [Revels] in his study of the occult, not so much concerned with actually accomplishing anything just yet, just conducting whatever interesting random experiments cross his mind for the pure pleasure of pursuit of dark knowledge!
 
Once he was satisfied from the dutiful attendance of the imps, though sorely lacking in the touch of any suitable females, Ul-Ruk would depart the dungeon and search the surrounding woods. He'd quickly find what he was looking for, beastfolk were plentiful in forests and desperate outcasts that were typically used to being cowed to follow orders in the hopes of finding safety and security. The centaur figured some simple threats would be enough to gather a handful of them to come serve him more adequately than the pathetic imps could but this group was unfamiliar to him and he could sense that they weren't responding well to his attempts even as he was making them.

Downtime Action - Attract Minions with Threaten: 1,3

Failure
 
Garrth wanders the halls of the ruined castle. He's curious about what these halls hold. He leaves the imps alone, surely they must be called here by the succubus. The imps were useful for what they did, but they weren't warriors. He needed servants who could pick up arms and bring forth carnage.

His initial search of the castle finds him a ring bound in cinders. A magical artifact that had burned its previous owner into a chunk of chars. But Garrth was sturdy and the power of fire would be of great usefulness.

Garrth spends the upcoming day searching the woods. He isn't as fast as the centaur, so he won't cover as much land. Though he knows where goblins like to hide. So he visits the tribes that live here. He carries the corpse of the bugbear on a spike as a warning. He warns each tribe of his arrival.
"This land belong to Garrth. Either flee, join, or die."

After he feels like he has put in enough effort, he returns to his keep and awaits the arrival of his new minions.
 
Rhisha would accept the woman offered her with a nod. "Then I shall play my part, as will she. This dungeon will be kept safe by my children, and they will remain where they're needed." Much as she didn't wish to brook agreements, it was better than nothing, especially since Ul-Ruk had gathered the woman and had directly aided in the take-down of the Bugbear, even if it was Rhisha who'd struck the killing blow. Aside from the woman herself, Rhisha made sure to press the goblins for whatever sort of niceties they had. She'd already made headway in showing dominance, this was simply another part of it. The luchre gained from it was nice in its own right, as well as useful.

Seeing the tiny creatures that present themselves as servants to the group, the drider was a bit suspicious of such things. She'd not been familiar with anything of this nature back in her forest. That they offered their service was something Rhisha quickly tested, having found a deep set of personal rooms in the keep, having the Imps knock down a few walls to create a much larger, open space. Very quickly, Rhisha sets to adorning the place. Not much for decoration, the place is settled for efficient use rather than true comforts. She intends to use this place for a while, but she feels it will never match up to the forest she'd been used to before this. This was a place to strike back at those who've wronged her, as well as the others. This keep was - before anything - for their retribution. Obtaining creature comforts in such a situation felt wrong to her.

In either case, such thoughts were wholly unnecessary. She let the imps continue prepping the large, sprawling room as Rhisha makes her way to the prison, holding a clutch of eggs that would never bear life, having been taken from the forest after she was burnt out. She would take them to the cell of the woman, slowly putting them on the ground before her. She would point to them, looking at the woman, speaking in the Light tongue as much as she could, "You. Give Me. Now." The spider woman would undo any of the bindings on the woman, intent to dragging her to the room she'd had the imps preparing. No struggling would be allowed, responded with a simple "Stop". To say Rhisha takes no pleasure in the act of breeding this woman, knowing her brood will once again grow is to speak lies, but the drider is more so concerned with ensuring her eggs find a rightful and fruitful home. This woman would be their home. And soon, her children would grow strong, nourished by the fine status of the woman.

So, with no attempts to be kind, Rhisha would breed the woman, binding her with webs so as to assure she could not interfere, and roughly taking her pleasures from the woman, adhering her to the wall as her spider half would ravage the woman. To the drider, any passion more so sprung up from what will come of this. The woman is a vessel, nothing more, and she is treated as such. Her thoughts dwell more so on the upbringing her first children in a while shall have. They would be needed for defense, as well as to come out and aid in raids. they would need to prepared. Once Rhisha is done with the woman, she moves to make sure her children will be well taken care of.

Downtime Action, Smash to "recruit" some minions from the woman. Results: 1, 4, 6 (Success) Also, spending two gold to upgrade the minions with Trained and Versatile.
 
<Ggnnnnrrrr...> Zelkythion mentally groans as he emerges from his private sanctum several days later with a nasty headache. He indeed discovered many secrets and developed much knowledge for his plans, but there was just a bit too much of it. Too much dark lore, too much messing with higher powers. Now he's paying the price of that it seems, with a mind that's a little sore at the moment. Although he knows what he needs to attempt working on his minions, he doesn't have everything together that he wants for it, and even if he did, he just really needs something else to focus on for a while. Something different to occupy his mind.

He goes up and surveys the dungeon, and finds that the imps have made a rather unfortunate discovery in their excavations; a room with a powerful enchanted altar to the Light goddess Minua, just a little bit further down the corridor from the mimic lair. Zelkythion hisses and recoils when he first lays eyes on it, and leaves to consider the problem. An altar such as this would be a boon to any invading adventurers in the future, but with the power it now radiates, it's not a simple matter of just bricking it back up again. Zelkythion overhears Garrth planning to "soil" the Altar of Minua later, once he has a suitable "sacrifice" to do it with, but Zelkythion is not so sure. The mind flayer approves of the idea on principle, but simple desecration is unlikely to affect powerful magic as this. No, if the Altar cannot be easily disabled yet, and cannot simply be covered back up...then as a stopgap measure, they just need to make it more difficult for any adventurers to try and get in. Just something to slow them down.

Zelkythion formulates a plan, gathers some loose materials and a few imps for grunt labor, and returns back to the upper level of the dungeon to see what he can manage. As he sets about working, he tries to ignore the sounds of some noisy imps coming from the direction of the mimic lair. Apparently an imp managed to get himself foolishly caught inside, and is trapped in one of the mimic's tentacles and held face-down-rear-up, yelping furiously as the mimic violates him. Two other short yet busty female imps are standing in the doorway, just pointing and screeching and rolling on the floor with maniacal laughter at the other imp's misfortune, making no move to help him. <Well, at least the mimics are getting a snack to keep them happy, hopefully long enough for them to get a proper meal later.> Zelkythion telepathically mutters offhand as he sets to work.

The illithid has an idea to fit a door with a simple puzzle lock. If it can stall any potential invaders, it gives more chances for them to be discovered by the dungeon's minions. There's not enough time or materials to do anything complex just yet, so Zelkythion's standards are modest here. It doesn't need to be perfect, just annoying and slow to deal with, and not take too much effort to implement to have it done as quickly as possible. A door with four levers and multiple deadbolts. Each lever will be linked to a different set of deadbolts, with some overlaps, such that pulling a lever inverts the position of the connected deadbolts. To open the door, one has to pull the levers in the correct order to disengage every deadbolt. Not too complicated. Still shaking off the headache from the overconsumption of knowledge, Zelkythion gives extra focus on trying to accomplish this task with clever efficiency.

*****

[Attempting to Tinker a T1 Lock in front of the Altar of Minua Room. 2d base, -1d for Brains Shock, +1d for using Dark Heart boost: 1, 2 ; *Failure*]
 
Many moons later, a trio of heroic do-gooders arrive in the dungeon. Well, they're at least more heroic than the nefarious dungeon inhabitants. In reality, the trio are bandits and ruffians inhabiting the forest surrounding the stronghold. They're led by a tier 0 adventurer, a powerful fighter wielding a vicious longsword. Following his lead are a pair of tier 0 hirelings, an archer, and thief.
 
The mess hall iscmanned with Garrth's new troops, a pack of goblins from different tribes. Beady little eyes, jagged rotten teeth, and dressed in almost nothing but filth and rags. Many of those who applied for this position ended up cut down by Garrth. Only the best of the best from the various goblin tribes made it. So while they do not like eachother, they must at least respect eachother.

The mess hall is lit with a row of candles made by the imps. And the cracks in the ceiling that lets a little bit of the daylight. The goblins are playing with a set crude dice. The prize is a chance to rape a prisoner so the stakes are high.
 
Having been woken up and told to go on patrol by their mother, a clutch of four giant spiders were out and about. Normally, they'd do a simple go-around and come back, but they'd not exactly been in tip-top shape as they were still waking up. They'd gone around past the altar after hanging a left on the portcullis gate that served to lock the prison and sanctum from the rest of the dungeon. They paid little mind to the altar and the unfinished War Drums. They knew the mimics were liable to take any opportunity they could seize, so the spiders antagonized them a bit, spewing a few webs at the doorway as if it were meant to block them, or really do anything.

Thus, the maze loomed in front of the Giant Spiders. This had always been a bit of a problem for them, even if they weren't incapable of intelligent thought. They commonly had to come to grips with getting lost, and it didn't seem like things were going to be different today. Very slowly, the spiders chitter to each other as they test different paths, splitting off from each other as they try to traverse the maze, unaware that intruders have made their in.


Rolled Starting location for the Minions. Result: 3 (Failure). Minions are oblivious to invaders as they wander around in the maze, lost near the exit leading to the creature room.
 
Screams of pain, yells of anger and the sound of lashes, all echoed within the prison. Three dark elf priestesses had set up a training session inside. The older woman had been strapped to a pole, facing away from the elves. The clothes on her back were tattered as she had already received a couple of lashes. Two of the priestesses were close with whips in hand, lashing at the woman at the command of the third priestess. The third one was older, more experienced, and was teaching the younger ones proper whipping technique. Whipping at the air behind them to signal for them to whip the prisoner and whipping their asses whenever they were sloppy in their performance.

The dark elves were having too much fun to notice the approach of the invaders. However, if the adventurers were to make it as far as the prision, at least they'd have their weapons ready to fight them off.
 
As the adventurers entered the ruined castle, led by the fighter, they drew their weapons and began walking through the hallways expecting to meet the dungeon's defenders at any moment. They walked for a few minutes without seeing anyone or anything before they realized they were walking in circles and had gotten lost in a maze. The fighter didn't want them to split, so they could find the exit together, but the archer didn't like that the path they were following was decorated with images that resembled dicks.

In the end, the fighter and the thief managed to find a way out of the maze through the east corridor, right where a group of giant spiders were making their way into the maze as part of their patrol. The archer, however, found another exit. She reached the north corridor which soon brought her to the dining hall.

Maze, tier 1 trick defense: 5
 
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