It was a nice day outside of Shadowton. Nice meaning busy. Very busy. Time passed and with it, a new town was built. The large number of mortals living in Shadowton, which now included elves, Umbra, Dawnborn, humans, Satyrs, Kinera and Centaurs, made Shadowton feel too small and crowded. So, sometime ago, groups of Umbra started to migrate to the south. Closer to the coast and coastal trade.
A new town was born. Tradeville. A coastal town with access to the sea and the increasingly rich Shadowton. Protected by the Shadow Guardian, the Umbral forest bloomed and trade did too. But this is not where Ashevelen was, no, Ashevelen was in the forest. Walking, barefeet, through the woods. Listening to the sounds of the forest. The birds, the bees, the occasional Shadow-Shark and something was wrong. The coin fairies. Something was missing.
Plucking her lips together, Ashevelen let out a whistle. A very loud one, for fairies, not for all the other creatures of the forest. A frequency that only they could hear. “ Come out, come out wherever you are, creations of mine. ”
At first. Silence. Then. approaching. A heavy stomp stomp stomp of something vast that should have not have herald the call and yet came anyway, its great strides outpacing the hesitant expeditions of the small who would need to make the journey by wing.
With antlers that would have scraped the canopies if it had not been cautious, and hooves that would have sundred the earth had it not stepped as gently as it could, a Huwu’idang approached the goddess at the requests of its symbiotic companions. Tide to its back by living vines, lightly clinking together from the pace of the great deer of growth, was a large town’s worth of pottery based homes, and peaking out of these where those she had summoned: coin fairies, in their hundreds, all of them cheerfully crying and waving hello to their goddess and creator.
Ashevelen felt the presence of a massive creature approaching her and heard the heartbeats of hundreds of coin fairies. As such, she summoned a chair and sat on it, waiting for her creations to come. What she saw made her curious. Very curious.
A massive deer, surely a creation of her siblings and a town. A fairy town on top of it. Albeit a very small sized town. Fairy sized, one might say. A town which, with their current level of development, shouldn’t be possible. Someone else played with her creations.
Changing her size to match the fairies, Ashevelen flew into their town and with a friendly voice said “ Greetings, creations of mine. I propose a trade. Tell me which of my divine siblings evolved you and I shall bless you with some divine power. ”.
That got a whole lot of excited chattering, and also a course of overlapping responses none of which were clear till a leader of some sort fluttered in, got control of the ruckus, and invited the goddess to join her in a plaza of sorts built atop the Huwu’idang’s back, one that looked a little bit like a large dinner plate.
Once they where situated the [head druid of trade] (dressed, as befitting her class, in a set of flowing robes made from beautiful purple petals and amber jewellery) introduced herself as Plum Pudding and then spoke for her community.
“We’ll for sure take that deal, your goddesslyness, Ashevelen!” she agreed, which got a course of agreements from the assembled fairies. “It was mr Monpau who gave us these gifts, and introduced us to Big Man here” she explained, pointing down as she named their drudic patron and transport, before clarifying “oh. And mr Monpau is an ‘avatar’ of his goddyness Jeon Du Termas, which means he can do goddy stuff in his gods name. Like help us and, um, well probably other stuff but he seems to like us a lot considering all he’s done to help. We’re all mr Monpau’s debt, but he’s said he doesn't want kinda repayment which’s real nice of him”
The Lady of the Swift Trade and Shadows followed the leader of the fairies but not before scanning with her sight the architecture of the town. Plates, cups and what nots. It looks like a miniature kitchen. She patiently listened to the explanation of the [head druid of trade] and frowned.
“ Unbelievable. Jeon strikes again and he’s got an avatar now. I can’t believe it. And who gave him permission to touch my creations? Bah! ” mumbled Ashe, her shadowy robes fluttering wildly while releasing a threatening aura around her but as swiftly as it came, the aura stopped and Ashevelen laughed out loud.
“ A trade is a trade. Now, now. What should I bless you with? Seeing that Jeon gave you the ability to get divine blessings, might as well give you a proper one. ” said Ashe while floating around, looking at each of the fairies, studying their faces, analysing every wrinkle of skin and then she turned around with a loud “Aha!”.
“ I know what you’re missing. A leader. No offence to you, elder but you could be better. Way better. Hmm, what do you say, do you want to be a proper leader? Do you want to be a Coin Fairy-Godmother? The next step in the evolution of your species? Does that sound like an acceptable trade? ” said Ashe, starting her speech with a low voice before slowly raising her tone, driving the crowd wild as she finished talking.
“M-m-m-me? A … um … what’s a godmother? Is that like … your mother? Or the mother of your uh, um, well …. ” the fairy went from confused to looking very, very, very flustered at her incorrect understanding of what a Godmother was, the fairy having taken it quite literally.
Ashevelen slapped her forehead and laughed out loud.
“ Glad to see Jeon didn’t do anything about your intelligence. Let’s see what I can do about that. ” said Ashe as she stopped laughing with a very serious look on her face.
Putting her hands on each side of the [druid]’s shoulder, Ashevelen’s power started to gather. Soon, a blinding light surrounded her and the [druid] and coins appeared out of nowhere, swirling around them with increasing speed until eventually, the fairies on the sides couldn’t see anything but the coins.
In mere moments, the whole affair was done. The light lost its power and the coins stopped spinning, falling on the ground. Each making a “tink” sound as they did.
Out of the light, the [druid of the trade] came out changed. First of all, it was now 4 times the size of a fairy with long, golden wings which would allow the Fairy Godmother to fly as high as a bird, a majestic golden hair and her skin shone with bright golden light. Of course, these were not the only changes. In this new form, the Fairy Godmother had the power to cast illusions. Auditory or otherwise.
“ Aaaaand, one more thing. ” continued Ashe with a snap of her fingers, one of the fingers of the Godmother, changed into actual gold. Three times per day, an object that she would touch and wish for it, would be turned into solid gold.
“ One last thing, I give you the class [Fairy Godmother] which comes together with the last bit of your transformation. You’ll enjoy this. ” added Ashe before slapping her hands, making a coin appear above the Fairy Godmother hitting her head. Somehow, getting inside it and staying there. Light shone once more, this time from the Godmother’s eyes brightly and she would find out the fairies would instinctively listen to all of her commands.
“Wha-what happened” the new [fairy godmother], slumped to her knees, said, as she rubbed her head with one hand, and set the other down onto the plaza plate to steady herself … and inadvertently turning the entire thing into solid gold.
She gasped as looked down, seeing both how small the others were compared to her now, and her own form and how she had changed reflected in the perfectly reflective gold mirror she had turned the plaza into.
The [godmother] marvelled at, well, everything that had just happened, patting her larger and more comely form as if this would make the reality of her change more real, before reaching down to caress the gold itself.
“Beautiful” she murmured, before realising she was forgetting something and turned back to her goddess, bowing as she said “oh thank you thank you thank you, your goddesslyness, for your super generous gift. This beautiful material will sell like hotcakes I’m sure!”
There were murmurs of agreement from the other fairies and … a fair bit of jealousy truth be told, from those who were not simply in awe of what had occurred. Many had not realised that it would be only the teller who was blessed and not them all, and were now rather disappointed and just a little bitter.
Not entirely oblivious to this, their new divinely appointed leader spoke quickly to get ahead of any resentment by clapping her hands to get their attention and commanding “three cheers for our most benevolent goddess… and then throw open the pantries! With her gift we shall be the richest town in all the land, so we can afford to celebrate the rest of the day away!”
That got them cheering and in a better mood. Yes, due to Plum’s new gift they were technically compelled cheers, but none but the odd grousing [storehouse manager] could say a bad word against the idea of getting out all the good stuff in order to throw a party.
“And you are super invited to it as the guest of honour your goddesslyness” the fairy godmother said to her divine patron after heading off any negative reactions to this power imbalance at the pass.
Ashevelen noticed the bitterness of the crowd before the Godmother quelled it and chuckled, in a friendly manner, as well as the newly transformed golden plaza.
“ What has happened, Plum, is that you’ve become the leader of all the coin fairies in the world. A queen fairy, if you will. But, what is a fairy without some proper subjects? For, you see, when I created your mortal race, I did it on whim. The forest felt…undeserving of attention if it was only blessed with only one part of my power. So, I created you and the Beholders. One for each side, at that moment, of it. ” said Ashevelen, stopping, turning around at the crowd before continuing her speech “ Now, I’ve got one more. Something that I can offer to all of you with only one condition. Don’t teach what I’m about to show you to any other mortal species, elves especially. Only to other fairies. If this condition will be broken, I will know and I shall reduce you to your original forms…coins. Do you agree to my terms?” her tone was friendly but the threat was clear to all.
“I-if any fairy teaches it, you would turn us all to coins?” the godmother replied, not at all liking the idea of having that risk wrapped around her neck for the rest of her days “What in the world is so valuable that you cant let anyone else have …” she paused, and a spark of greed in her heart growing into a small flame as she thought about that “ah, well, if you teach it to only some, then we could control that better? That would make it much easier to stop any sillies from dooming us all”
“ It ain’t about value but how it can be used and how limited it is. Think about it, the less people have it, the more valuable it becomes. You’ll be allowed to teach it to everyone, later on, when I’ll allow it but until then, only coin fairies must know what I’ll show you. I’ll teach it to only 11 fairies, yours to choose. 10 of them will be your [royal guards] or whatever other role you may wish to give them. 1 will be you. Whom you choose to teach it to, that’s not my concern…as long as it is a fairy. Now, if we have a deal, I’ll give you an hour to choose your most loyal servants. In this time, any who wish to try to out-trade me, feel free to come forth. ”
That caused a lot of excitement, which only added to the party atmosphere. Store rooms and personal stashes were thrown open as fairies either partied the hour away or spent it bartering with all their cunning and guile. They had two options in the latter, as the new godmother imitating her divine patron by auctioning off a fair number of the 10 lucky spots to the people.
Thus the hour ended with her enriched, while many a fairy having become poorer as a result of their attempts at bargaining with the goddess (though even the attempt often gave them a consolation prize in levels), and the rest in the midst of a sugar rush due to them collectively consuming several giant (compared to them) cakes.
In the end, the ten and one presented themselves to the goddess. Other than Plum herself they where: the [fairy godmother]’s wife, her best friend/sister, 3 now near destitute mid level [merchants], 1 of the other sudo ruling [merchants] of the town (the others had declined to bargain for the goddesses’ mystery box), and 4 [warriors], as far as the fairies actually had those, who could actually fulfil the suggested [royal guard] position’s martial requirements, a right they had won via a rapidly organised fighting tournament.
“We’re ready, you’re goddesslyness” the [godmother] declared, after quickly setting aside a secluded spot in town where the 11 of them would not be eavesdropped on by any other nosy fairies.
The hour went very fast for Ashevelen, as many fairies thought they might just be the one to out-trade her but as expected, none could do it. After each trade, Ashevelen would give advice in a loud voice, so that all could hear what the previous person did wrong and praise what they did right and how to improve their skills.
At the end, the Godmother and her [royal guards] finally arrived. While Ashe appreciated the efforts they’ve put into making sure they’re not to be eavesdropped on, they were unnecessary. Snapping her fingers, a dome of shadows appeared around them and for the duration of their time, they were transported into the Shadow Bazaar. Not that the fairies had any way of telling they were there or that others notice they were gone.
“ I shall teach you magic. Something special. Something no one, to my knowledge, has taught their mortals yet. I haven’t thought of a name for this magic yet but I’m thinking something along the lines of “Flash”. Feel free to offer ideas later. It will allow you to move faster than anything in this world. Allow you to become invisible by fooling the brains of others and many more abilities that I’m sure you’ll learn how to use in time. No longer will you have to fear the creatures of the forest. No longer predators will hunt you with impunity. All you’ve got to do to activate this magic is to say the words of power out loud and send offerings through the shadows to the Bazaar after every use of a spell. As always, the offerings can be anything you wish as long as they match the price of the spell. Now, without further ado…I hope you’re ready. ”
Ashevelen approached each of the chosen fairies and looked them in the eyes, the knowledge of magic being implanted in their minds. Each spell had different Power Words and had a cost attached to them. Some even had a combination of different Power Words.
After she looked at each of them, she started to chant in an unknown language to mortals. Her words would sound alien and if one would try to concentrate on them, they would find themselves struck by strong headaches. Such knowledge wasn’t meant for mortals. Minutes later she stopped and snapped her fingers once more, transporting them back to their original location.
“ And that’s it. You’re ready. You’ve got the knowledge. Try combining the words of power, see what you can do with them. Figure out the costs, personal or otherwise. But, the most important thing. Make a profit. Find ways for this to help you grow. ”
“We will, your goddesslyness, and we shall keep a tight lid on this cookie jar of knowledge. So we all have sworn” Plum assured her, which got the excitedly chittering fairies to all nod in affirmation. Contracts had been drawn up, and the [godmother] had gotten several [dealmakers] to use skills to add enforcement to them, just in case as well. There would be no leaking of this most wondrous of gifts under her watch, of that she was self assured.
“ Phew, that was hard work. I’m in the mood for a party. A real party, no offence to what has been going on until now. Let’s see what I can do about that, shall we? ” said Ashe with a grin.
Snapping her fingers, the tables were suddenly filled up with food from the Bazaar. All kinds of food, gourmet or otherwise filled the town with the smell of hot food. With another snap of her fingers, alcohol and cups appeared too. But the highlight was the appearance of 4 Dawnborn, shaped very small due to their innate abilities which all had the [Bard] class, high levels too and they started to sing or perform at different instruments shaped out of wood.
“ Enjoy creations of mine! Enjoy! ” shouted Ashevelen as she went to the table and grabbed herself a drink. Casually chatting with some fairies that gathered around her, each trying to get a minute of attention from their Goddess.
Which made the ones not doing so stand out quite a bit, because, after all, who among them would have the gal to expect her to come to them? Well, one particularly fancy looking fay, clad in sea spider silks adorned with little blue crystals and wearing a wood elf style circlet adorned with ivory antlers, that was who. Around them were a number of fairy [adventurers] including a certain one with an arm made from a cherry red flower, who seemed to be trying to urge the silken clad one to approach the goddess, but she was far more interested in sampling all of the booze on offer. That, and sowing the seeds of republicanism among the disaffected fairies of the town, which she found just as fun as eating and getting drunk.
In between drinks and conversations, Ashevelen noticed herself being eyed by a group of fairies. They stood behind the partygoers, not dancing, nor actually doing any eating or enjoying the party itself. Shaking her head, Ashevelen clapped her hands and a shower of golden sparkles rained upon them, nodding friendly in their direction afterwards.
The fairy at the centre who was actually enjoying the party gave a little laugh at her fellow's amazed reactions. Then she produced a seed from a pocket and repaid the coin toss by tossing the seed up and then flicking the projectile in an arch towards the goddess, only for it to suddenly, slow, grow and bloom into a bouquet of flowers moments before impact. The fact that there were no seeds or flowers that size only added to the blatency of the divine power being used.
As was the fact that the bouquet had grown a little card that said “care to dance?” on it.
Almost instantaneously, Ashevelen appeared by the side of the fairy that was enjoying the party. Finally, her sibling made an appearance. So distracted she was by the party that she didn’t notice the tell-tale signs of divinity. Giving Jeon a hand, she let herself be led into dance with a grin.
“ I was wondering when we’ll meet, brother. Seems that you’ve played a bit with my creations. ” said Ashe with a charming voice.
“Brother? Well now, that is one way of looking at it, though it would make the tangoing i was planning on suggesting later on very awkward” the god replied teasingly, before adding “also it would, I suppose, also be sister at the moment, which has so far been an entertaining little adventure I have to say” as they led the goddess through the steps of a half remembered waltz from beyond the veil, their fairy transformation fooling the onlookers enough to make this stranger to town the envy of all of her kin. Except their escort of course, who now mostly took a chance to let their own hair down.
With a laughter that made some of the fairies turn towards the two, some with looks of jealousy on their face, Ashevelen changed her stance, taking the lead of the dance before replying “ You’re a funny one. All of us are brothers, sisters or siblings, Jeon. That divine spark or whatever one may wish to call it, that we all share is what links us to one another. You may call me Ashevelen or the Lady of the Swift Trade and Shadows if you care for formalities but I suppose you know that, seeing I transformed half of your forest into a place for my creations. I would've asked for permission, of course, but in all honesty, I didn't realise that you've claimed these elves. "
As soon as she finished talking, Ashevelen snapped her fingers and music changed, this time something akin to jazz was playing. As much as jazz could be played with wooden instruments.
“Ah, finally someone with some taste” the god complimented her, only a touch upset Fernguard isn't here to be culturally enlightened for mere moments, before he hemmed and said “but there is just one thing missing … oh, I know!”
The god flicked a hand towards Plum Pudding, and shifted the [fairy godmother]’s hand just a touch to get it to pat a wooden saxophone he had grown out of one of the village's supportive vines, instantly turning into pure gold.
“Try that on for size!” he called over to one of the musicians, directing them to the new instrument, which added the missing ingredient to the mix of drum and bass that was playing them on.
“Now we’re talking” he declared as the music picked up once the new sound got added, switched their dance to something a bit more lively, a style that approached the Jitterbug, which was fitting given their size.
“And as for the elves and the woods, well, that is just fine, my dear lady of shadows. I don’t claim ownership after all, I simply guide, challenge and meddle inorder to keep things interesting” the god explained effortlessly through the quick steps of the dance, a smile on his lips as he watched some of the others trying to imitate the style.
“So it should be me apologising to you for tampering instead, though I like to think of it as simply being inspired to expand upon an existing work of art,” he then smoothly said, before a touch of honesty had him adding “also, I had to do it to prevent one of their brains melting” sheepishly to the explanation “you, ah, don’t want to try to pop divine inspiration into a mind that can’t handle it, trust me”
“ Not a problem for tampering with my creations, the forest felt empty without mortals reflecting all of my domains. The Umbra, Satyrs and Dawnborn are just experiments at best. The coin fairies were supposed to be a masterpiece. Alas’ I got distracted with different deals, businesses and the sorts. In other words, I should thank you for uplifting them. ” replied Ashe while lifting Jeon in the air, flying above the plaza.
“ Funny that you mention divine inspiration into a mind that can’t handle it. That is what happened to me after all. I’ve purchased my divinity from a divine. One may say I tricked him into giving it but the truth is, I simply got lucky and outsmarted him. I felt that I would die that day. Mortal souls aren’t supposed to ascend directly to divinity that fast but oh’ well, that was many, many aeons ago. I can barely remember those times. Anyways, I wanted to talk with you about more serious matters. If you can spare a moment of your time, that is. ” replied Ashe once more. Her voice initially calm as she remembered the time of her ascension, before changing into a serious tone. Play time was over.
“The least I can do for this lovely hospitality… I take it you want to take this somewhere private then?” The god said, attempting one more flirt, but with the mood clearly gone, he shrugged and let it the tone go, though he never could quite make himself take anything 100% seriously “oh, and, if we are sharing origin stories, I simply ascended in levels in [explorer] so high I could pierce the veil between realities, and then slip into the infinite cracks between them to a realm of infinite potential. After that, I got … bored, and decided, hey, why not give this whole god thing a try”
Ashvelen laughed, kindly, at Jeon’s origin story. It was rare for someone to earn their divinity just like that. Most are born divines after all. But to have two of them in the same place, sharing a forest? That was even rarer.
“ We could talk here but I know that fairies will try to eavesdrop. Anything that may help them in a further trade and all that. So…” she started to reply before snapping her fingers. Both of the divines were enveloped in shadows and transported in the [adventurer]’s guild HQ in the Shadow Bazaar.
They were currently in an unopened room which puzzled many of the adventurers that resided in the HQ. Of course, there was a reason for it and the reason was that it wasn’t yet finished. If one would open the door they’d step into a big, empty field.
“ Welcome to the Shadow Baazar. We’re currently inside the HQ of your people. This room is…empty and locked up for your people and mine. None may enter yet. As part of the deal I have with Pieapple, your people have brought me many goods that are currently being sold here and I feel that they should be rewarded. So, I’ve had two ideas for a while and I want to run them by you as, after all, you’re the divine of Adventure!. Both ideas fall in your domain as much as it falls into mine. ” said Ashe, as two chairs and a table materialised in front of them. Food and drinks soon appeared on the table too.
“Ah, I’ve been meaning to visit this place” Jeon said as he slipped out of his fairy from and back into his cat, dragon, elf thing form, and then slipped that form into the chair and grabbed a cupcake with experimental slime based icing and a cider from what was on offer “you’ll need to give a tour after this little private affair”
He took a swig of the cider and then leaned back in the chair, giving the goddess a finger gun as he asked her to “hit me” with her ideas.
“ I am more than happy to offer you a tour of the place. It’s one of the few truly original buildings in this place, after all. Everything else was taken from wherever I’ve been and adapted to suit my needs. Now, on to business. As I said, I’ve got two ideas. One, this place as empty as it is currently, was built to act like a battlefield of the mind. A mortal would deposit their memory of fighting a creature of sorts and then, other mortals would be able to experience fighting the same creature in different environments, conditions, handicaps and the sorts. All for a modest fee. They’d earn experience and I would make quite a profit. ” said Ashe, lifting her left hand’s finger up.
“ Second idea. I’ve recently got some Dream Fruits from the divine of the other moon that recently appeared. If one consumes those fruits, they’ll taste like either a nightmare or a wishful dream with random intensity. Weird stuff. My plan is to change those fruits into offering experience or knowledge. For example, a mortal could deposit the experience of how they grew plants using druid magic and then when another would eat it, they’d gain levels in the [druid] class. ” continued Ashe, while lifting another finger up from the opposite hand.
“ What say you? ”
“Hmmmm” the god hummed as he shifted in his chair so he was mourning it sideways, legs over one arm rest, backleaning far over the other. He took a bite out of the cupcake, chewed it thoughtfully, commented “hmmm, like a tree, if a tree was sweet” about the flavour, not disparagingly, and then popped the cake back down to give his decision.
“So second first, that really feels too much like cheating for my taste. Eat a fruit inorder to level? Pfffff too easy. Besides, the lack of effort would make it super inefficient anyway” he said, dismissing it outright before giving a quick “sorry” of apology.
“Now the first? That has some merit. Even if there is no danger you still have to work to gain the experience, especially if people are able to compete against each other in terms of speed and stuff. That could be neat” he said, thinking about how they could do tournaments and such where [adventurers] raced to get the fastest clear time against a sequence of foes.
“Yeah… yeah that could work. How are you going to get all the info you need though, its not like you have an archive of fighting data to start off….” he paused for a moment, and then spun to sit on the chair properly as he leaned in and corrected himself/enquired “hey, don’t you have some kind of … catalogue of everything the adventurers bring in?”
Ashe took some cake as well while waiting for Jeon to think the idea through, right after she took a shot of Umbral alcohol which was made to be weak but the flavour was what made it a delicacy. Strong enough that mortals wouldn’t get drunk after a drink or two but not too weak as not to get you drunk.
“ I thought that you wouldn’t like the second idea. It does remove some of the fun but at the same time, allows certain people to get levels in classes that they wouldn’t be able to in a very short manner. Say, a high level [fighter] would want to quickly level up their [archer] class; they'd be able to do it at a very high price. But, fair enough. ” replied Ashe, trying to sell her idea once more before taking a sip of another drink, elven drink this time and continuing “ As a matter of fact, I do have something like that. I’ve got paperwork for everything that happens in the Bazaar. ”. The pride in her voice was obvious as she said it. Almost immediately as she stopped talking, a few mirrors appeared. Each was etched with a symbol in the middle. A coin.
Throwing a coin in each, they all became visible. “ There. Feel free to look. I’ve got mortals, monsters, plants, minerals, predators, herbivores and so on. Say outloud which you want and the right one will come to you. You’ll also find statistics for all of them. How fast they grow, abilities…anything I could find via intensive testing. ” said Ashe, pointing at each mirror as she enumerated them.
Jeon gave an impressed whistle as he plucked a mirror from the collection at random instead of asking for something specific and started pursuing the details, muttering to himself as he went “hmm, fascinating, so detailed … I wonder if i can, just from this …” he raised up a hand opposite the one holding from the mirror, concentrated, and then grinned wide as a kind of fruit had never seen before appeared in his hand. A humble pear. The god took a bite out of it.
“Mmf, skin’s a bit gritty, but the insides are oh so juicy” he commented, before flicking his hand and letting the temporary creation fade away “But nothing beats the real thing, and the same goes for your idea, my dear. It will make for excellent training, but for most, well, they’ll learn about their local beasties and that will be that. Not much incentive to learn how to fight an ice slime if you live in the woods. So, what I was thinking, is that we make something to put this training towards”
Jeon let the mirror float up, and then clapped both empty hands together, before pulling them apart and revealing a model, one consisting of the dark realm of the bazaar, a tiny dot, surrounded by a massive assembly of structures which shifted around and reassembled into a new argument like the world's most intricate sliding puzzle. Golden beams of light shot out from the goddess’s mirrors, striking the structure at one spot which got filled up with monsters and treasures from her catalogue.
Then, finally, a miniature team of [adventurers] delved into the maze, swiftly craving their way down into the depths, slaying beasts and gathering up loot, before they rushed back to the bazar to pawn off the prizes they had snatched, before the structure began another round of reassembly, and the same beams of light from the mirror filed it back up with a new assortment of danger and wealth to be plundered.
“So… like what you see?” the god asked
Ashevelen stood up from her chair upon seeing Jeon’s 3d model. She inspected it from one side then the other, smiling when the adventurers left the dungeon to sell things in the Bazaar. Whatever dungeon that was, it smelled like a good deal. [Adventurer]s will go inside and level up their skills while the Bazaar will be flooded by new goods and even more parties of heroes.
“ I do indeed. I’m assuming this is a dungeon you’ve planned to make and if I see correctly, this dungeon would be exactly in my Bazaar. I suppose I could make some space. After all, these adventurers of yours are bringing me quite a lot of stuff and if a dungeon like yours would exist, they would bring even more. ” replied Ashe, her tone carefully neutral before sitting down once more.
“ Let’s hear your proposal, dear brother but know I’ve got some conditions/requests of my own. ”
“I was more thinking of an expansion, built around it. I wouldn’t want to clog up all of you of your …” the god paused and wheeled a hand as he looked for the word before settling on: “valuable real estate” before leaning back in his chair and asking her to once again “hit me” with her requests.
“ I can work with an expansion. My conditions/requests are simple. Every now and then, create a room that won’t change with the rest of the dungeon. That room can be designed however you may wish. Each of those rooms will contain some treasure or so but will also contain a larger specimen of some creature or mortal. Of course, if the party is defeated by this larger specimen, all of their equipment is forfeit. It’ll all end in the Bazaar, free of charge. ”
“Oooh, now that is interesting. Quite the gamble, though not one for life, which is a novelty in a sense when compared to the less controlled parts of the dungeon, which I’ve intended to run freely once I’ve set things up. I think that would be quite fun … but I suppose it does also raise the question of what to do with any other equipment that is, mmmm, lost to the dungeon“
“ It either gets randomised, same as the layout of the dungeon or it gets sent to the Bazaar. That way, fallen [adventurers] can get back their equipment. Maybe I’ll even allow the owners of the equipment to get a reduction of price on them. It’s a win-win situation for all. If it’s randomised, some [adventurers] might get some high level equipment even if they aren’t high level which wouldn’t be fair…” replied Ashe explaining her ideas before snapping her fingers.
“ Ah. That’s it. Got another idea. Whenever an adventurer is close to death, they’ll get teleported outside the dungeon. That way there’s no loss of life. I can even set up some healing fountains that speed the natural healing of the body in certain rooms, if you want. ”
“Hmmmm” the god tapped his fingers on the table as he thought about it. It would lower the levelling potential somewhat, he thought, and it might teach bad habits for the world beyond the game …. Yet still, it was the kinder thing to do as well. Plus, quantity had a quality all of its own, even if it could never beat the real thing.
“Yeah, that works” he agreed, before thinking for half a second and saying “I assume you’ll be charging for this privilege?” snidely.
“ I would love to say yes, obviously, but no. There’s no need. The boost of income generated by such a dungeon would cover up the cost. Unless, of course, you want to add a pay-to-win sort of deal to it? Say, if you pay something, you can get a very minimal map of the first two levels of the dungeon or maybe you are told what monsters to expect in the first few levels giving you a tiny advantage over those that won’t pay. As I said, I'm more than happy to leave it free of charge. ” replied Ashe with a wink.
“Oh I am no real fan of the rich get richer style of thing, which is what makes levels work so well, because the more you have, be it riches or levels, the harder it is to get more” the god explained, “The first person to commit to this challenge by going at it only with their fits over and over again is going to become a legend, mark my words”
“ If there’s such a mortal out there, I’ll bless them myself. Actually, let’s make a bet. Send a mortal of your own choosing that doesn’t have any levels in any class in the dungeon, naked. If they manage to survive…say, 30 rooms, I’ll bless them with some real power. Say…one blessing for each of my aspects. How does that sound? ”
Oh, oh ok now that is a challenge. I was thinking they would be getting knocked down and then picking themselves back up again over and over, but oh, now, that is a tempting bet to take. Or, a quest to put up open to the public, that would be almost as hilarious as dumping some random person in there. Before I take it, do you want to add any other caveats, or is it only the levels you want to restrict, hmmm?” the god asked, aware of a fair few ways he could cheat the spirit of the game.
“ I know what you’re probably thinking about. No cheating. No divine assistance. No extra weapons or information. It has to be someone who is an absolutely normal person. Hells, I’ll even throw a nice sword for the person if they’ve got no clue where they are. Basically, take any one person and throw them in the dungeon without knowing anything about where they are. So, again, no cheats. A fair game if you’re up for it. ” clarified Ashe with a grin. This might prove a fun game.
“Sounds like a lark and a half, and a perfect way to break in the dungeon, though I can’t help but note that the only thing I am gambling here is my pride and reputation …. Actual no those are plenty,” the god said and then quickly backpedalled before she roped him into a bigger wager
“ If you agree to the bet, what will I get in return? Maybe…a blessing on my Umbra? Something very…adventurey. A racial class? Or maybe an artefact? Maybe a coin which can detect danger? ”
“Dang it drat curses my big mouth! …. Ah well I have no one to blame but myself so sure, sounds like a fair bet … or no not a fair bet but definitely a fun one and that is the only thing that matters. so. bet” the god agreed, leaning forwards, elbow on the table and palm presented to shake on the entire deal and contest in one.
Ashevelen took his hand and shook it, very business-like. “ This is going to be fun! So, happy that you agreed. Also…this is for you. ” said Ashe, happiness clear in her voice. A small papyrus appeared on the table, on it, one could read the exact agreement between the two divines alongside the bet they’ve made.
Jeon, as was his nature, did not bother to read the fine print
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