Chapter Three-Hundred Thirty-Seven

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Noynur

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A large orc sits in his room in the Calm Seas guild, dearly wishing he could calm his mind.  From the outside, he appears to be scowling at a large tome, perhaps the brute is frustrated at not being able to read the book he got off some unfortunate wizard.  From his perspective, he’s going over his meticulous notes, wondering how he could have missed so much.

He is no mere brute, only smart enough to swing around a gigantic axe.  No, he is the tactical head of his party, and he’s hoping he hasn’t gotten them into a situation they can’t get out of.  He sighs heavily, sounding much like a growl to those who don’t know him, and turns back many pages.

“From the beginning, then…” he grumbles, trying to pass his time wheedling insights while his friends are out, probing the town for their own information on the complicated situation.  If they ever get out of here, they’ll rib him for not being paranoid enough, for once, but the future can come later.  For now, he needs to find what he missed.

Neverrest Dungeon Subsumed! reads the simple article he dutifully copied, at first simply as a significant event to look into.  He enjoys unravelling the whys behind the things people simply accept, and something about that article caught his attention.  Fourdock was hardly a place of interest at the time, but Neverrest was a murderous dungeon in every sense of the word, and Noynur keeps track of all he can, just in case.

That it was subsumed by a young dungeon only a few months old seemed impossible, yet no other explanations were given.  He could only assume the harbor dungeon had done it.  He was aware of Hullbreak after it seemed to go mad.  He thought it was a ploy for a trading company to monopolize trade across the sea, but the one best positioned never took advantage, and the others seemed to have no interest in the northern routes.

He marks his place with a finger as he quickly double checks his notes on that particular theory, but he doesn’t have anything new there, so he returns to his notes on Fourdock.

Undead Resident? is exactly the sort of rumor his friends would mock him for believing, but the townsfolk confirmed it to Noynur with a shrug, like it was no big deal!  Yvonne Silvercrest caused quite a stir when it happened, but she doesn’t act any different and the various priests of the town cleared her, including the local Head Priest of the Crystal Shield!  As much as her existence makes him wildly worry, if the Crystal Shield doesn’t have any problem with her, she’s probably fine.  Or at least no more of a potential threat than any other adventurer.

Violet: Protege is probably the most succinct note he’s ever made, but looking at it now, he’s glad he did it.  Now, he has a lot more information about the young toybox sewer.  Decay affinity is always one that makes him nervous, but even he accepts that cities would be a lot less pleasant without such dungeons dealing with sewage.  She’s showing some odd tendencies, thanks to her mentor, but only one thing from her official Dungeoneer’s Report really catches his eye.  Cappy.  Fungal scion.  Spymaster.

A fungal spymaster.  That nobody is up in arms about it is more than a little alarming.  Nobody thinks it’s looking at them, but that just means it’s good at its job!  He regularly dusts his room in the guild with fungicide, but he doubts many others do the same.  He’d warn the Earl if he wasn’t… well, the Earl.  He doesn’t even need to chase rumors to find the elf hip deep in nefarious plots.

He sighs and leans back, staring at the ceiling with worry.  He joined the Earl’s guild to get to dig into two interesting plots, but now he worries he's in over his head.  If it were just himself, that’d be one thing…

The door to the room opens and in walks a lithe foxkin woman, looking confident and deadly; every bit the rogue she is.  The subtle twitch of her black ears and the rhythm of her swaying tail, however, lets Noynur know she’s putting on an act for the benefit of any observers.  She closes the door behind her and slumps slightly.  She would never fully let her poise be shattered, but even letting her tail droop like that is enough for Noynur to scoot over from the middle of the couch to give her some room to have a seat.

“You’ve found something.”

She nods and takes a seat, giving a small sigh before she speaks.  “What did you get us into, Noynur?”

“I’m worried I don’t actually know, Jana” he admits, earning a snort from her.

“Well, we’re here, so no point crying about it.  I hope you can figure a way out of it.”

“Me too.  What’d you get?”

Instead of answering, she glances around at the gently glowing runes set around the room, courtesy of Driough, their other party member, friend, and accomplished mage.  She nods to herself that they’re still working, then speaks.

“I couldn’t get to the local Boss, but the underlings were easy enough to squeeze and bribe.  The Earl was definitely at the guild the other day.  He only wanted information at that point, but every cutpurse and cutthroat in the city is rubbing their hands in anticipation of him wanting more than just info.”

“What sort of info?”

She gives him a cheeky smile for a moment, reminding him of their times together in the capital, trading barbs and having fun.  At least she doesn’t blame him too badly for the mess they’re all in.

“Mostly boring things, who to talk to about this or that.  But he also wants information on the Slim Chance, and how easy they’d be to muscle out.”

Noynur sighs at that.  He knew the Earl was intending to play rough with the local Adventurer’s Guild, but he expected him to be slower with it.  That tree growing as they arrived must have spooked him, so he’s moving quickly, before they can try to stop him.  “How easy will it be?”

She grins.  “Not easy at all.”  The large orc gives her a confused look before she continues.  “Karn the Slight really is the guildmaster here.  I was able to pop in and take a look around without arousing too much suspicion.  The thin orc manning the bar looks friendly enough, but his eyes never left me the entire time I was there.  He’s not going to be a pushover for the Earl.”

“What about his guild members?  The Earl brought a lot of strong adventurers along.  If the guildmaster can’t be cowed, his members can be, right?”

Jana shrugs at that.  “I wouldn’t be so sure.  The veterans are at a similar level to us, and we’re no slouches.  They even have Vnarl’s party on the roster!  I definitely wouldn’t want to tangle with them.”

Noynur nods grimly at that, making sure to note their connection to Fourdock in his book.  He heard they were declared dead by their guild in the capital, only to also pop back up here.  They’re apparently not undead, just captured for a time, but it’s yet another concerning thing to add to the pile.

“With them being roughly the same power, but in bigger numbers than the Calm Seas, I think the Earl will have to be very careful about subtly putting bounties on anyone in the Slim Chance.  Especially with Thedeim’s record.”

Noynur snorts at that.  “You can’t believe that nonsense.”

“I can and I do,” she states firmly, surprising him.  “When I was at their guild, nobody was trying to drown memories of a lost party member.  Not only that, but I saw a lot of civilian classes getting advice from the adventurers.”

Noynur tries to wave her off.  “Civilians are always trying to hear some tales of grand adventure-”

“They’re not being regaled.  They’re getting advice from their fellow guild members.  Karn has been signing them up to be reserve members.”  Her triumphant smile is lost on Noynur as he digests that.

Reserve members?  That classification hardly ever gets used nowadays.  Adventurers want more support than a reserve, and guilds want more dues than a reservist would pay!  Anyone wanting to join a guild is intending to do a lot of delving to advance their class.  But…

“You said civilian classes?”

She nods.  “I watched a tailor, a potter, and a cook all head in and delve together.  They fought weird, but it looked effective enough for their level.  Which is kinda what concerns me.”

Noynur frowns at that.  “Why?  It sounds ludicrous, but if that’s true… the Calm Seas probably won’t have any chance to be able to make any accidents happen.”

Jana shakes her head.  “The Calm Seas won’t, but that’s why the thieves guild is smelling coin.  If this guild can’t encourage people to do what the Earl wants, the thieves can.  Ordinarily, it’d take just one quiet visit, a few veiled threats, and a civilian class would listen.  These guys know how to fight, but I don’t think they can handle the average criminal.  And even if they can... the local Boss can’t let something like that slide.”

Noynur’s eyes widen at her explanation, his mind racing at the unpleasant possibilities.  “And… I take it the local Boss is willing to take the Earl’s coin?”

“Definitely.  Even if he doesn’t want to rock the boat, the mood among the riffraff is that leaning on the weaker delvers would be free money.  If he tries to turn down the Earl, he might get stabbed in the back and a more ambitious and less cautious Boss could take his place.”

Noynur groans as he tries to think of a way to avoid letting something like that happen, just as the door to the room opens again, revealing Driough.  The tall elf smiles at his friends, and unlike Jana, he’s not acting.  The foxkin picks up on that, and just barely waits for the door to close before she speaks.

“I hope you actually found some good news, Driough.  We could use some.”

Noynur glumly nods as the elf takes a seat in a nearby plush chair, his loose robes giving him plenty of mobility to get comfortable.  He takes his time doing so, teasing his friends.  Though the suspense is killing them, each passing second makes them more hopeful that he’s actually found something to pull them out of this quagmire.

“I’m not sure how good the news is, but I think our large green brain can find a way to use it to help us.  You may have friends in low places, but I have some in higher, and they have a lot of interesting things to say.”

Noynur gives the grinning elf a flat look.  “What did they say?  I hope it’s something to be able to head off a potential war between the local criminals and the populace.”

With the stakes laid out, Driough sobers, though he’s hardly dour like his companions.  “Possibly!  But where to start… ah.  The gods are taking an interest in Thedeim.  I know you know about the new paladins coming from the Shield recently.  I think most of them advanced their class to it.  But the first one, supposedly, came from here.  An orcish lad named Freddie got the class, and he got it while delving Thedeim.  Even more, his friend has something else that’s supposedly rare, but I’ve never heard of it in all my studies: Ice Sage.  The Great Mother herself has sent an acolyte to learn from her.  Perhaps it’s not that important, she didn’t send a priest or something like that after all, but it still makes me wonder.”

Noynur frowns at the implications of the gods getting involved, but it seems Driough isn’t finished yet.

“And that’s not all.  Apparently the dungeon has its own devoted followers.  Not uncommon for dwellers to worship the dungeon that birthed them, but I’ve heard from sources I trust that the dungeon has truly apotheosed and joined the lofty ranks of true divinity.”

“There’s no way-” starts Jana, only for Driough to shake his head at her.

“Look at Noynur and say that.  Remember that rumor of some kind of happenings among the gods?  I think this is it, and I think he agrees.  But that’s not all I have for you.”

The orc tries to calm himself, even as the facts and rumors all slot together neatly if the dungeon somehow achieved apotheosis.  It’s a truly outlandish idea, and yet… it cleanly solves so many messy mysteries.  He takes a few minutes to cross reference with his book, his raging mind calming as everything fits.  And yet…

“That’s not what you think the biggest piece of news is, do you?” he accuses the elf, who smiles at his friend.

“Of course not.  You recall the new paladin and the Ice Sage?  I don’t think they’re rare classes, I think they are truly new classes, and they’re not the only ones.  I haven’t been able to track the third down on my own yet, but the rumors are insistent: there’s a kobold who was able to advance the hauler class to a new one: teamster.”

Noynur feels numb as Jana responds.  “Ok?  How does that help us?”

“It’s how classes work,” the orc answers, trying to get his mind started on the path that even he thinks is impossible.  “I’ve talked to Order priests about it before.  They’re hard to track down, but are happy to share their theories on how the system works.  Classes aren’t just handed out randomly.  Everything a person does points them toward a class, and the classes are built around a concept.  Some are a little flexible, like crafting classes going from apprentice through to grandmaster.  Some are more malleable, like most adventuring classes.  A simple archer or swordsman could advance in all sorts of ways.  Some are rigid.  A farmer usually only gets to specialize in a crop or maybe climate.  And some are thought to be dead ends, like a hauler.  And it’s down to the concept at the core of the class.  If someone gets a new class, it’s a new concept, realized enough that the system can build from it.”

He pauses there, and though Jana doesn’t seem to get it, Driough’s eyes are sparkling with interest as he adds his own take.  “The gods work similarly, with a concept being at their core, too.  Thedeim is no different.  His concept is Change.”

Jana’s confusion slowly fades as Noynur nods.  “If he really did manage to change someone’s class, and Order isn’t mad about it… we need to talk to the dungeon.  Or god.  Whatever he is.  If he’s able to come up with so many new concepts, maybe he can think of something to head off the thieves guild having to defend its pride.”