87. Up the Rabbit Hole

The wind that blows through the trees provides a relaxing susurration to your post-coital soak. Grass and ferns cool the air, and the sunlight beating down on your wings keeps the water just warm enough. The close but distant burbling of the waterfall drowns out the distant clamour of goblins and kobolds locked in faux combat.

Sapphire and Feathers both opted for a scrub down in the pool room before returning to their self inflicted duties, but you opted for a longer walk – one which found you here, belly up in the small pond in Mercy's grove. You were clean half an hour ago, but just floating here, eyes closed, is quickly becoming your favourite pass time. It gives you a clarity to think about things, away from the hustle and bustle and abject chaos that so often occurs in the main rooms.

People are talking about you

Your Fame is over five hundred now, and each time you check it's ticked up a few points more.

You let out a sigh as a particularly loud battle cry echoes down the tunnels and breaks the tranquillity. You frown in annoyance, cracking an eye to glare at the general direction the noise came from. Hammer, most likely. He's taken to emulating Feathers' berserker abilities over the day, only without access to those abilities.

A moment later you realise your folly. With your eyes open, it's impossible to forget that you're in a cave. The wind and sunlight are illusions. You attempt to recapture the feeling of peace, but it's gone. Another sigh sees you flip yourself over and use your tail like an eel to propel yourself to the bank. You still have an hour or two before evening, you may as well make something of them if you aren't able to relax, and there's only one vaguely pressing matter at the minute – the location of the Treasure Room.

Admittedly, you haven't looked very hard. You're pretty sure it must have been placed upstairs.

With one last, longing look at the pool, you shake yourself like a dog and set off for the stairs, only to be waylaid by Amanda as soon as you leave the grove. She's leaning against the pillar in the memorial room, but pushes herself up as soon as she sees you. A roll of leather and paper under her arm rustles as she shifts her grip.

“Hey Red. I was wondering if you had a minute to look over some plans I had for the second floor?”

You bod your head. “Sure. I was just about to head up there anyway. Lets go take a look.”

She falls in next to you and slightly behind. You turn and raise a brow ridge at her till she flushes and catches up to you as you reach the bottom of the staircase.

You reach the second floor at the same time, but you're brought up short. The small square room you found before is still there, but where you expected one wall to be filled with a progress bar, there is instead a dark archway.

A whisper from behind you precludes the now familiar sickly green light spilling out from Amanda's clenched fist, pushing the shadows back – but only a little. They cling to the stone, seemingly unwilling to let go.

“What is it?”

You shake your head. “I'm not sure. But I think it's the new Treasure Room.”

You take a slow step forward and the darkness writhes, fighting the light as if to get close enough to touch you. But through it, you think you can see a glimmer... One a whim, you turn to Amanda.

“Turn the light off.”

“Are you crazy?” her response is immediate and expected as she places a hand on your back, squinting into the shadows. “This is.... textbook evil. Living shadows touching you is bad, Red.”

You roll your eyes. “I don't think it's anything that malevolent.” You gesture to the darkness around you that's just obscuring something within. “I think it's a secrecy ward. Look ahead, can you see something?”

Amanda's hand stops you from moving further while she squints into the darkness for a moment, before she shakes her head. A moment later the light vanishes and shadows rush in to fill the gap like waves to the shore.

The darkness is absolute for a sheer, terrifying second. A physical manifestation of night that wraps around your eyes like soft silk, touching and tasting at your body, sniffing at you like a hound. From the gasp from behind you, stifled and strange as if heard through water, you can tell Amanda feels it too.

Then, ahead of you, you see a light. You take a step and the shadows pull back. Another, and you're through, the strange shadow ward receding as if it never existed. A glance over your shoulder confirms that the shadows still linger thick in the corridor's corners, but now you're through they don't hinder your vision at all. Amanda crosses some invisible threshold a second later, her face relaxing from the half scowl half squint and into quiet contemplation of the room you find yourselves in.

The room look to be around nine foot square – not small enough to feel cramped but far from the grand halls filled with gold you had half expected. Four thin pillars mounted with torches dot the corners, casting deep shadows behind themselves and across the vaulted ceiling.

Only two things of actual interest lay in the room – the first lay on the far side of the room, nearly against the wall. A squat stone table, or perhaps altar. Almost unremarkable and unadorned but for a carving, barely the size of Amanda's spread hand, of a drake's head. Your head, in fact. Your crown of horns is quite distinctive, after all.

The second lies on top of the table; slightly misaligned as if placed by someone at the end of a long day, is a wooden chest. Golden reinforcements on the corners, solid dark wood for the body and lid, and ever so slightly ajar.

As you approach, the lid raises of its own accord so that when you finally stand before it, it's easy to see inside.

Nothing.

Nothing except a pop up that lurches out of the chest like a jack in a box. You let out a put-upon sigh, your lips flapping is a loose raspberry.

“What's the matter?” Amanda, who had been examining one of the pillars, walks over and reads the pop up over your head. “That seems... good?”

You nod, letting out a slow breath.

“It is, it is. I just...” you trail off for a moment, gathering your thoughts. “I just wanted this room to be nice and simple, and provide some nice bonuses. Instead there's like what, five things I need to check out now?”

At Amanda's raised eyebrow, you elaborate.

“What does 'liegelord multiplier' mean? I can assume it's a buff to the attraction of the dungeon but I can't prove it. I can guess what 'bank interest' is and how it works... but how often does it trigger? Because if our growth remains constant but that only triggers once a year it's basically never going to be worthwhile – fifty gold in a year is nice but we've got over five hundred, after I spent some of it, in a few weeks. Which leads nicely into 'Gold Bonuses'.”

You take a seat at the base of the altar, the pop up following you like a lost puppy.

“Is the interest just a nice extra on top of the hidden buffs that, presumably, storing gold here will give – or is it the opposite? Is the interest the incentive for the negatives that will accrue for having gold here? Then there's these sacrifice and storage options.”

You take another breath, but Amanda picks up where you left off.

“Presumably they're tied to this zero out of a thousand, right? Either that's maximum gold storage or, more likely considering the apparent level one of the treasure room, that some sort of experience equivalent for the room. If that was gold storage too it would imply that you could level down the room which... I'm not sure how it would help – oh, also gold storage is listed down there, never mind.”

She bites her lip for a moment, thinking, before continuing. “So it's probably linked to this sacrifice mechanic. If you need to sacrifice a thousand treasure items this seems very weak so it's probably linked to item value somehow?” She looks at you and you nod.

“That's what I was thinking yeah. Unless the level two room is very strong.”

She hums and nods, her eyes unfocused before they flash back to you.

“Well then I guess the only thing to do is to test it right?”

You bob your head, chewing the inside of your cheek. “I guess so. But I don't really want to waste a treasure item on something that won't help.”

“Well what else are you going to use them for?”

You open your mouth to reply and then stop.

What else am I going to use them for?

You try to talk but the only thing that comes out is a chocking noise.

“Didn't think about that huh?”

You manage to shake your head. She snorts.

“You're such a dragon sometimes Red.”

You twitch. With an effort of will, you reach up and tap 'Sacrifice a Treasure'.

Another menu, with all your treasure items laid out neatly.

It's not a hard choice. While both cloaks have utility, the skull is a high level necromancer item, and you have wings. You select the Bleakfeather's Cloak.

A small fanfare plays.

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