16. Lair Planning

After relaxing for a few minutes, basking in the afterglow, you head out of the goblin's cave, absently swiping accept on the five popups asking if you want to accept the goblins into your lair. The rush of experience fills you, but fails to push you over a level. Sapphire joins you as you leave, not talking and seemingly unable to meet your eyes without blushing. You pass the worker kobold, and you're pleased to note the workshop is three quarters done. He doesn't even look at you, focused on the rhythmic pounding of his hammer. You stroll out into your entranceway and stare out at the forest.

“What does the lair need, Sapphire?” you muse. When she doesn't respond, you continue. “Traps, of course, but hopefully the workshop will let us start work on those. Minions, but we seem to be beginning to attract those now. Somewhere to live, but I don't want to build that until the lair is bigger...”

Sapphire finally chimes up. “Somewhere to train. To teach and learn how to fight.”

You nod. “A good choice.”

You ruminate on your options for some time before a plan forms. You head to the back wall of the pool room and bring up the construction menu. Your materials are much higher than you remember them being, and even as you watch, another stone is added to your store. Not one to pass a gift, even if you're sure there's an explanation, you select the largest circular room you can and the stone block and torches décor you're aiming to use for the majority of your lair, and then try something new. Instead of immediately beginning to hit the progress bar, you bring up the build menu again, and are pleased to see a more complex menu for shaping the room. For another chunk of stone, you fashion it into an arena of sorts, with a circular pit in the centre, joined by a set of stairs recessed into the, what will be, seating area.

You hum as you design. “A little brutal, perhaps, but entertaining too, especially if we can capture any adventurers to practice against.”

You then move to the wall to your immediate right, and plan out a narrow tunnel, leading down to a rectangular room that nearly connects to the fighting pit, With a few small square rooms placed tactically, you create what will become four cells, with easy access to the pit.

Of course, you think, that's all based on the assumption that the workshop will let me place doors.

Then you realise what you're doing. The level of control that this new tool gives you, and you go a little crazy. From the left of the fighting pit you create a simple room you intend to become a mess hall of sorts, and then off of that, back towards the edge of the mountain, you create a small area to become a kitchen. The next step seems logical enough, you create a 'natural' cavern that takes up as much space as it can, filled with stalagmites and tights, with numerous small offshoots. You explain your plan to Sapphire as she watches, bemused.

“If we can get some cave fungus, plant it in there, attract some giant insects – not only is that another danger for adventures, it's also a readily accessible food source if we need it.”

You then connect it up to the entranceway via a narrow tunnel, and then, in a fit of fancy, make five tunnels straight up through a hundred feet of rock till they reach the surface.

“That way, we can keep attracting insects, and possibly even sometimes get a wolf or snake fall through.”

At this point, you're severely running out of stone, although your scrap ore hasn't been as impacted.

As you decide to finish up here for now, your kobold worker comes up next to you and silently begins working on the soon to be arena.

“The Workshop?” you ask, excited.

“It is done, master.”

“Excellent.”