It was bright and early in the morning when Sable and Lilly appeared before Doorman once again. All three seemed to be in a good mood, and Sable's voice was cheerful as she shouted upwards. "Hey there, how's it hanging, big guy!?"
Lilly elbows the quarter-demon in the side. "Sable! This is a dungeon! Be more formal!"
"It's quite alright, Priestess Fullblossom, we're all friends here. And you did save the dungeon from destruction, so I daresay that earns you all quite the bit of leeway." Doorman gives Sable a wink as he answers.
"You're my kinda door, man. So, we're here to do that exchange program, what's the plan? Shall we take the shortcut portal down?"
"You will, but before you go inside, might I trouble you for a favor?"
Lilly bows slightly before the door. "Certainly, whatever is in our power!"
"Great, great! So, I've recently taken on an apprentice, and I was hoping you could help give her a trial run through the whole routine. No pressure, you can go inside after whether you answer correctly or not."
The two church member's faces go slightly blank, and Sable raises an eyebrow. "An...apprentice?"
"Indeed! Zappy? It's showtime!"
At the sound of her name and with a crack of thunder, Zappy suddenly appears on a rocky outcrop not far from the dungeon entrance. "Mwahaha! You have climbed my mountain, brave mortals! Are you ready to face...my challenge? Or shall you be flung down in failure?"
"Psst!" Doorman attempts to get the elemental's attention. "I like the confidence, but perhaps a little less intense, hrmm?"
"Oh, uh, okay! I mean, ahum...welcome to Worthy Dungeon, brave mortals! Can you defeat my challenge with your puny organic brains?" She gives Doorman a thumbs up, and the door nods in return.
Sable stares up at the flickering woman. "Do we uh...need to fight?"
"Only with your minds! A battle of wits! I have for you...a riddle!"
Clearing her throat before Sable can say something, Lilly speaks first. "We would be pleased to face your challenge...dungeon guardian."
"Excellent! Now...what is the purpose of breathing?"
Sable eyes Lilly before hazarding a guess. "To...get air?"
"Well duh, but why? I can't figure it out, you got air all around you, why do you need it inside you too?"
Lilly turns back towards Doorman. "Is this really a proper riddle, guardian?"
"Honestly, I don't know the answer either. I mean, I don't have lungs and I seem to be doing just fine. Seems like a decent riddle to me!"
Sable tries again with a more detailed response. "Because...we get really dizzy and pass out if we don't have air?"
"Huh, really? Neat! Well, I guess that's an answer. Can I do a few more?"
"Hrmm, perhaps later, but I believe the master of the dungeon is waiting for these two. Good work though, apprentice guardian! You two, if you'd like to shortcut down to the end of Floor Two, you'll be taken to your temporary lodgings."
"Ah, thanks? And...nice to see you again, Zappy?" Sable gives a wave as she makes her way over to the portal ring.
"You too! Have fun in the hole!"
A few moments later, the pair find themselves standing in the safe room just beyond Lollyp's boss arena. No one seems to be waiting there to greet them, so the two take a break to admire the tapestries hanging on the wall, Lilly in particular.
"You know, I do wonder about the emphasis on rabbits, just slightly. Do you think it has something to do with the dungeon's...interest in fertility?"
Sable chuckles at the thought. "Heh, maybe. That Floor One rabbit boss has been around way longer than the dungeon could have had a Divine Favor though, so I dunno. Also, that creepy rabbit thing is one of the few creatures walking on two legs that doesn't make me think about fertility."
"Sable! Are you really so bad as you pretend to be?" The Priestess lightly whaps her companion with the back of one hand, chuckling despite her offended tone.
"What, doesn't everyone rate dungeon bosses on a fuckability scale? Obviously, the slime's at the top. Rabbit's kind of at the bottom, even if he's got the bits for it. Hard to pick whether I'd put the shade or the armors at number two, though...which one'd be your choice?"
Lilly goes a little wide-eyed. "What? But...none of those even have...you know!?"
"That just means you need to get creative, Flower Girl!" Sable laughs, but the sound is cut short as a voice speaks up from behind them.
"Really, I don't even rank? Okay, maybe I need to work on my rep a little to beat out the slime girl, but I gotta be at least top two." As Lilly and Sable practically leap out of their skins, they turn around to find Taly standing behind them, as if she'd been there the entire time. Between the two, Sable manages to recover first.
"Gods damn, woman! Where the hells did you come from?" She pauses, then looks the silver-haired woman up and down. "But yeah, forgot to put you on the list. Top two for sure!"
"Awww, thank you! And sorry for the scare, but I've just been practicing out my skills. It's really kind of amazing what happens when you add up monster bodies and Challenger training! It makes so much more sense to me now how Lollyp's been able to rack up all those kills."
After mentally willing her heartbeat back down to normal rates, Lilly speaks up. "Is - is that so? What exactly are the benefits?"
Taly looks down at herself, examining a black glove with holes torn into it for her new claw-like nails. "The synergy between shadow magic and an undead body is unreal. If I'm standing still, I don't make any noise at all now. Which is ironic, considering that a banshee's main power is supposed to be sound-based. But it seems like my ability to visually hide myself is just naturally better, too. I know you both glanced over me when you came through, but seems like neither of you saw me at all!"
Sable nods. "Did seem a little dark in here, but I guess I didn't question it. Not that I was expecting an ambush or something. Why did we come out here though, anyhow? I figured we'd be going down to Floor Four...or even Five? Would make sense if you've been hiding living quarters in there."
"Good guess, but nope! Now, I know that you two are both here to learn about what it's like, living in the dungeon, so that you can tell other folks about the experience. But this is a specific secret you can't tell people about, okay?"
The pair share a glance and a nod before Lilly responds. "Of course. We would not violate the dungeon's trust."
"Alright then, hold out your hands!" As they do so, Taly hands each a key and begins demonstrating the process to open the hidden door to the apartments. "These are boosted to loot items, so they won't disappear if you walk outside for something, but we'll probably ask for them back when you leave. Or we'll just change the locks, I guess." As she opens the door, she heads through first. "Come on up, the view is neat."
Sable goes upstairs first, and pauses as she comes out on the walkway balcony showing off the mountain's void. "Whoa. I'd heard there was an odd hollow in the mountain, but I've never seen something like this." Lilly follows after her, and shivers slightly as she sees it.
"You put living quarters out here?"
"Beats having a painting for a window, at least. Alright, so that hallway there goes down to Lollyp's room, that's right over her arena. Mine's the first door here, Sincere's is the second." Taly moves on down to a third door and pauses there. "To keep from stretching the Floor Two limits too much, we've given you two a shared suite but with individual bedrooms. That sound good?"
"One bedroom would have been fine."
"Two bedrooms is fine, thank you." Lilly eyes Sable as the banshee opens the apartment door and steps inside.
"Heh, well feel free to just use one if you like. So we've got a living room here, kitchen there, and even a bathroom with working magic plumbing! I've been told not to ask where stuff goes. Bedrooms are down there. Take a look!"
"Oh, my! Plumbing and - look, a whole bookshelf of tomes! That would surely cost hundreds of gold to stock up! And - Sable, look at this!" Lilly points out a flower arrangement hanging on the wall like a painting, colored petals used to create an image of an albino rabbit in a field. "I've never seen a display like that!"
"Yeah, DEATH makes them for a hobby, apparently. That's one of the things you're here to learn about, I guess - folks need to have a hobby or they'll go stir-crazy, at least for the foreseeable future. I know there's bigger dungeons that are busy practically all day, every day, but I think Worthy's record is maybe four parties in a day, once? And most of those don't go very far in."
Sable nods along. "Makes sense. Will we be spending our time hanging out with you and the other bosses, mostly?"
Taly nods, sort of. "I'm gonna be your official liaison. Lollyp wanted the job, but she gets busy. On average she probably spends a couple hours a day ready to go in case a party goes down to Floor Two, and she probably spends an hour or two a day dead, every other day or so. If anyone wants to try Floor Six, I'll have plenty of warning to get into position. You can wander around a bit, but we've got some important rules to cover."
Lilly stands to attention. "Certainly. What do you require of us?"
Taly points back outside, towards the balcony. "We'd rather you not spend much time walking around within the floors themselves, for a couple reasons. For one, you could interfere with an active party. For another, we can get monsters to leave you alone more or less, but some traps don't really work like that. There's no dodging the slime spider webs, for example. So, we've set up some 'backstage' areas on each floor, with portals to each back out there on the walkway. From there, you'll be able to watch parties in action. It's not complete coverage but there's at least spots to watch the boss arenas from."
The Paladin grins at the suggestion. "Oooh, more free entertainment! Any other rules?"
"Yeah." Taly eyes the two before she continues. "Look, you gotta keep in mind - yeah, most parties walk out these days with nothing more than minor injuries. Or...major ones, but the important thing is they walk out. But. We do still kill people on a semi-regular basis. If you're watching a fight, and the Challengers are getting themselves slaughtered, we need to be sure that you two will not interfere. Understand?"
Sable's good cheer vanishes from her face, and she gives Lilly a glance before responding. "...Yeah, I get it. If anyone else, anywhere else, told me to sit back and watch someone die...I'd probably kick their ribs in. But I know what dungeons are about. And so do the Challengers. I'll stay out of it. You alright with that, Lilly?"
The elf goes a little pale, but nods. "I suppose I'd probably want to stop watching before...things get to that point. But I suppose living around death is one of those things someone wanting to live in a dungeon must get used to, yes?"
"Pretty much. Alright, other rules...ah, business hours. Now, none of us here need to sleep, but we do have off-hours. Parties don't generally stay around very late in the day, no one wants to climb a mountain in the dark. That might be the best time to find Lollyp if you want, Sincere and I are usually pretty available, but maybe try not to bug folks too much if they're trying to relax. If you want to play around on Floor Five, wait til after dark."
Sable's eyes go wide and a smile begins to appear on her lips, but Lilly speaks up before she can say anything. "Ah, thank you. We will...keep that in mind."
"Yeah, there's still a few sections of that we ain't seen, yet! Oh, I got a question - how about speaking to the dungeon master?"
At that, Taly chuckles. "She's actually 'here' as we speak. That said, she has a low-level awareness of the entire dungeon, so just call out for 'Xenia' if you require her attention. If one of us isn't around, she can communicate via writing." The woman pauses for a moment, listening to an unheard voice next to her. "Also...she believes her one-hour avatar spell will be available in another day or so, but she's saving it for, uh..." Taly trails off and turns back to her side. "Really, you're making me flirt for you? I know Lollyp suggested it, but - oh? Well, I hadn't thought of it, but...well, that could be a little fun..."
Lilly raises a cautious eyebrow. "What's all that about, Taly?"
Taly turns back to face them and clears her throat. "Ahem, well. If either of you would like a personal Floor Five tour with the dungeon master in the next few days...just let her know? Or one of us? Apparently I still need to put my...design input towards the newest section, and that might need...testing. Well, you get the idea." The Church pair both get the impression Taly would be blushing hard if she still had a pulse, and Sable grins again.
"Well, I know I'm definitely going to keep that offer in mind..."
It was bright and early in the morning when Sable and Lilly appeared before Doorman once again. All three seemed to be in a good mood, and Sable's voice was cheerful as she shouted upwards. "Hey there, how's it hanging, big guy!?"
Lilly elbows the quarter-demon in the side. "Sable! This is a dungeon! Be more formal!"
"It's quite alright, Priestess Fullblossom, we're all friends here. And you did save the dungeon from destruction, so I daresay that earns you all quite the bit of leeway." Doorman gives Sable a wink as he answers.
"You're my kinda door, man. So, we're here to do that exchange program, what's the plan? Shall we take the shortcut portal down?"
"You will, but before you go inside, might I trouble you for a favor?"
Lilly bows slightly before the door. "Certainly, whatever is in our power!"
"Great, great! So, I've recently taken on an apprentice, and I was hoping you could help give her a trial run through the whole routine. No pressure, you can go inside after whether you answer correctly or not."
The two church member's faces go slightly blank, and Sable raises an eyebrow. "An...apprentice?"
"Indeed! Zappy? It's showtime!"
At the sound of her name and with a crack of thunder, Zappy suddenly appears on a rocky outcrop not far from the dungeon entrance. "Mwahaha! You have climbed my mountain, brave mortals! Are you ready to face...my challenge? Or shall you be flung down in failure?"
"Psst!" Doorman attempts to get the elemental's attention. "I like the confidence, but perhaps a little less intense, hrmm?"
"Oh, uh, okay! I mean, ahum...welcome to Worthy Dungeon, brave mortals! Can you defeat my challenge with your puny organic brains?" She gives Doorman a thumbs up, and the door nods in return.
Sable stares up at the flickering woman. "Do we uh...need to fight?"
"Only with your minds! A battle of wits! I have for you...a riddle!"
Clearing her throat before Sable can say something, Lilly speaks first. "We would be pleased to face your challenge...dungeon guardian."
"Excellent! Now...what is the purpose of breathing?"
Sable eyes Lilly before hazarding a guess. "To...get air?"
"Well duh, but why? I can't figure it out, you got air all around you, why do you need it inside you too?"
Lilly turns back towards Doorman. "Is this really a proper riddle, guardian?"
"Honestly, I don't know the answer either. I mean, I don't have lungs and I seem to be doing just fine. Seems like a decent riddle to me!"
Sable tries again with a more detailed response. "Because...we get really dizzy and pass out if we don't have air?"
"Huh, really? Neat! Well, I guess that's an answer. Can I do a few more?"
"Hrmm, perhaps later, but I believe the master of the dungeon is waiting for these two. Good work though, apprentice guardian! You two, if you'd like to shortcut down to the end of Floor Two, you'll be taken to your temporary lodgings."
"Ah, thanks? And...nice to see you again, Zappy?" Sable gives a wave as she makes her way over to the portal ring.
"You too! Have fun in the hole!"
A few moments later, the pair find themselves standing in the safe room just beyond Lollyp's boss arena. No one seems to be waiting there to greet them, so the two take a break to admire the tapestries hanging on the wall, Lilly in particular.
"You know, I do wonder about the emphasis on rabbits, just slightly. Do you think it has something to do with the dungeon's...interest in fertility?"
Sable chuckles at the thought. "Heh, maybe. That Floor One rabbit boss has been around way longer than the dungeon could have had a Divine Favor though, so I dunno. Also, that creepy rabbit thing is one of the few creatures walking on two legs that doesn't make me think about fertility."
"Sable! Are you really so bad as you pretend to be?" The Priestess lightly whaps her companion with the back of one hand, chuckling despite her offended tone.
"What, doesn't everyone rate dungeon bosses on a fuckability scale? Obviously, the slime's at the top. Rabbit's kind of at the bottom, even if he's got the bits for it. Hard to pick whether I'd put the shade or the armors at number two, though...which one'd be your choice?"
Lilly goes a little wide-eyed. "What? But...none of those even have...you know!?"
"That just means you need to get creative, Flower Girl!" Sable laughs, but the sound is cut short as a voice speaks up from behind them.
"Really, I don't even rank? Okay, maybe I need to work on my rep a little to beat out the slime girl, but I gotta be at least top two." As Lilly and Sable practically leap out of their skins, they turn around to find Taly standing behind them, as if she'd been there the entire time. Between the two, Sable manages to recover first.
"Gods damn, woman! Where the hells did you come from?" She pauses, then looks the silver-haired woman up and down. "But yeah, forgot to put you on the list. Top two for sure!"
"Awww, thank you! And sorry for the scare, but I've just been practicing out my skills. It's really kind of amazing what happens when you add up monster bodies and Challenger training! It makes so much more sense to me now how Lollyp's been able to rack up all those kills."
After mentally willing her heartbeat back down to normal rates, Lilly speaks up. "Is - is that so? What exactly are the benefits?"
Taly looks down at herself, examining a black glove with holes torn into it for her new claw-like nails. "The synergy between shadow magic and an undead body is unreal. If I'm standing still, I don't make any noise at all now. Which is ironic, considering that a banshee's main power is supposed to be sound-based. But it seems like my ability to visually hide myself is just naturally better, too. I know you both glanced over me when you came through, but seems like neither of you saw me at all!"
Sable nods. "Did seem a little dark in here, but I guess I didn't question it. Not that I was expecting an ambush or something. Why did we come out here though, anyhow? I figured we'd be going down to Floor Four...or even Five? Would make sense if you've been hiding living quarters in there."
"Good guess, but nope! Now, I know that you two are both here to learn about what it's like, living in the dungeon, so that you can tell other folks about the experience. But this is a specific secret you can't tell people about, okay?"
The pair share a glance and a nod before Lilly responds. "Of course. We would not violate the dungeon's trust."
"Alright then, hold out your hands!" As they do so, Taly hands each a key and begins demonstrating the process to open the hidden door to the apartments. "These are boosted to loot items, so they won't disappear if you walk outside for something, but we'll probably ask for them back when you leave. Or we'll just change the locks, I guess." As she opens the door, she heads through first. "Come on up, the view is neat."
Sable goes upstairs first, and pauses as she comes out on the walkway balcony showing off the mountain's void. "Whoa. I'd heard there was an odd hollow in the mountain, but I've never seen something like this." Lilly follows after her, and shivers slightly as she sees it.
"You put living quarters out here?"
"Beats having a painting for a window, at least. Alright, so that hallway there goes down to Lollyp's room, that's right over her arena. Mine's the first door here, Sincere's is the second." Taly moves on down to a third door and pauses there. "To keep from stretching the Floor Two limits too much, we've given you two a shared suite but with individual bedrooms. That sound good?"
"One bedroom would have been fine."
"Two bedrooms is fine, thank you." Lilly eyes Sable as the banshee opens the apartment door and steps inside.
"Heh, well feel free to just use one if you like. So we've got a living room here, kitchen there, and even a bathroom with working magic plumbing! I've been told not to ask where stuff goes. Bedrooms are down there. Take a look!"
"Oh, my! Plumbing and - look, a whole bookshelf of tomes! That would surely cost hundreds of gold to stock up! And - Sable, look at this!" Lilly points out a flower arrangement hanging on the wall like a painting, colored petals used to create an image of an albino rabbit in a field. "I've never seen a display like that!"
"Yeah, DEATH makes them for a hobby, apparently. That's one of the things you're here to learn about, I guess - folks need to have a hobby or they'll go stir-crazy, at least for the foreseeable future. I know there's bigger dungeons that are busy practically all day, every day, but I think Worthy's record is maybe four parties in a day, once? And most of those don't go very far in."
Sable nods along. "Makes sense. Will we be spending our time hanging out with you and the other bosses, mostly?"
Taly nods, sort of. "I'm gonna be your official liaison. Lollyp wanted the job, but she gets busy. On average she probably spends a couple hours a day ready to go in case a party goes down to Floor Two, and she probably spends an hour or two a day dead, every other day or so. If anyone wants to try Floor Six, I'll have plenty of warning to get into position. You can wander around a bit, but we've got some important rules to cover."
Lilly stands to attention. "Certainly. What do you require of us?"
Taly points back outside, towards the balcony. "We'd rather you not spend much time walking around within the floors themselves, for a couple reasons. For one, you could interfere with an active party. For another, we can get monsters to leave you alone more or less, but some traps don't really work like that. There's no dodging the slime spider webs, for example. So, we've set up some 'backstage' areas on each floor, with portals to each back out there on the walkway. From there, you'll be able to watch parties in action. It's not complete coverage but there's at least spots to watch the boss arenas from."
The Paladin grins at the suggestion. "Oooh, more free entertainment! Any other rules?"
"Yeah." Taly eyes the two before she continues. "Look, you gotta keep in mind - yeah, most parties walk out these days with nothing more than minor injuries. Or...major ones, but the important thing is they walk out. But. We do still kill people on a semi-regular basis. If you're watching a fight, and the Challengers are getting themselves slaughtered, we need to be sure that you two will not interfere. Understand?"
Sable's good cheer vanishes from her face, and she gives Lilly a glance before responding. "...Yeah, I get it. If anyone else, anywhere else, told me to sit back and watch someone die...I'd probably kick their ribs in. But I know what dungeons are about. And so do the Challengers. I'll stay out of it. You alright with that, Lilly?"
The elf goes a little pale, but nods. "I suppose I'd probably want to stop watching before...things get to that point. But I suppose living around death is one of those things someone wanting to live in a dungeon must get used to, yes?"
"Pretty much. Alright, other rules...ah, business hours. Now, none of us here need to sleep, but we do have off-hours. Parties don't generally stay around very late in the day, no one wants to climb a mountain in the dark. That might be the best time to find Lollyp if you want, Sincere and I are usually pretty available, but maybe try not to bug folks too much if they're trying to relax. If you want to play around on Floor Five, wait til after dark."
Sable's eyes go wide and a smile begins to appear on her lips, but Lilly speaks up before she can say anything. "Ah, thank you. We will...keep that in mind."
"Yeah, there's still a few sections of that we ain't seen, yet! Oh, I got a question - how about speaking to the dungeon master?"
At that, Taly chuckles. "She's actually 'here' as we speak. That said, she has a low-level awareness of the entire dungeon, so just call out for 'Xenia' if you require her attention. If one of us isn't around, she can communicate via writing." The woman pauses for a moment, listening to an unheard voice next to her. "Also...she believes her one-hour avatar spell will be available in another day or so, but she's saving it for, uh..." Taly trails off and turns back to her side. "Really, you're making me flirt for you? I know Lollyp suggested it, but - oh? Well, I hadn't thought of it, but...well, that could be a little fun..."
Lilly raises a cautious eyebrow. "What's all that about, Taly?"
Taly turns back to face them and clears her throat. "Ahem, well. If either of you would like a personal Floor Five tour with the dungeon master in the next few days...just let her know? Or one of us? Apparently I still need to put my...design input towards the newest section, and that might need...testing. Well, you get the idea." The Church pair both get the impression Taly would be blushing hard if she still had a pulse, and Sable grins again.
"Well, I know I'm definitely going to keep that offer in mind..."
