NationStates Jolt Archive

Part of PT World (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=515024)

Vardel looked at the map, where three pegs had been placed, claw under his chin.

Y'sdyz, of the chamber, pointed at each of the pegs in turn.

"Our divinations suggest that of the places least patrolled by the Valgardian Scum," the sorceror paused to spit on the ground, these three contain the most material and are the best suited for traps."

"The first location is just south of a city they call 'Teiya'. It's not a huge mountain, but the area around it is almost impassable to their pathetic feet."

Dernalia glared at Y'sdyz, who simply shrugged.

"The second is not close to either of the Valgardian's," Y'sdyz spat again.

"Please stop that." said Faryn, invoking a quick cantrip to scrub the spit off the floor.

"Sorry. The second is not close to either of their cities, but it is a large mountain and it is not patrolled often at all." Y'sdyz paused for a moment.

"And finally, there's this one, to the west of the jewel of their precious empire itself, 'Valgard'."

A dwarf raised his hand. "I've worked in there before. Full of mines. The Vals are sure to have exploited them."

"I don't see any problem." said Vardel.

"Rborf's got a point," commented Thraine, to rolled eyes from the druid. "If we attack their mines, we're going to just bring down their military on us."

"Good point." Vardel reached over and plucked the thumbtack from the map. "Okay, all in favour of the red pin, raise your arms."

A number of hands and claws went up. Vardel took a moment to count them.

"Right, all in favour of the blue pin, raise your arms."

Vardel tallied up the votes.

"Right then, the blues have it! Sveargithaurix will be built south of Teiya." Vardel said the word without stumbling, unlike Y'sdyz, a by-product of his long time in other civilisations.

The Valgardians had not enslaved the local dwarves, in fact they had kept them independent and gave them excess to massive supplies of labor so as to expand their mines and increase their wealth, while giving their skills and a good part of the materials that were mined in return for their continued freedom and free labor.

As well, the Valgardians had fortified the area well and had garrisoned a full legion in the area and the upper valley had a further three legions.

(OOC: But there's still dissent and not every clan has joined with the Vals. Besides which they chose the area as one of the more ignored areas, lacking in particularly valuable resources anyway. Iron and Copper in hard-to-reach places.)

Chamber Meeting, that afternoon
"<...Is there no other way?>" asked Vardel, somewhat annoyed at having to petition a Wizard.

"<No. We won't be able to get the foundations up fast enough otherwise.>"

"<Curses. Who else do we need?>"

"<Only our finest trapmasters and bards, but we can take care of that.>"

"<Very well, I shall set out in the morning. What of the plans?>"

"<The council is handling that.>"

The Tower of Vaikwur of the Emerald Cloak, Early the next morning.
Vardel rode to the exiled wizard's tower on the dire weasel of a ranger. As they reached the tall, silvery tower, the enormous animal came to a halt before the silver trimmed pathway leading to the home of one Vaikwur, master arcanist.

As he made his way up the path, Vardel contended with a variety of strange, amusing and invariably dangerous. Having dodged thirty arrows, eluded six golems and avoided too many magical traps to count, he finally arrived at the door, made of finest mithril and with a panel of glittering jade.

A small button beside the door was labelled 'Press'. Vardel pushed the button and suddenly found himself fixed in place by arcane energies.

A door opened on the balcony far above and a little green form popped out. "Ah, guests!". The figure disappeared, as Vardel was stuck standing there, paralysed and prevented from doing anything but breathing.

Eventually, after an agonising wait, the sounds of little feet walking down stairs became louder and the door opened. Standing before him was a kobold garbed in green silken robes with silver trim, wearing a tiny pair of spectacles.

"Yes?" he asked, as he dispelled the enchantment on Vardel.

"I'm here from-" Vaikwur cut him off. "The Kobold Alliance."

"And we-" "Want my help. Everybody does. You had better have a good case. Come in."

The kobolds went in to Vaikwur's sitting room, where they talked for several hours in machinegun Draconic. Vardel immediately noticed that Vaikwur neither had the smell of a normal kobold or the accent of one. Indeed, he smelled rather like gunpowder and an alchemical substance whose name he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"<...I see. Well, this is a worrying turn of events. Alright, just this once. But next time it's going to cost you.>"

"<Thank you, Vaikwur.>"

"<Now leave me alone. I must return to my studies.>"

Vardel beat a hasty retreat. It was not wise to try the patience of an archmage for too long.

Council Chambers, Later that day

Vardel walked into the room as the council was planning the outermost layers of the citadel.

"Vaikwur has agreed to help us, but only this once."

There was some grumbling among the kobold chieftains, but Faryn cut them off with a raise of the hand.

"Vaikwur has access to magics of a higher valence than anyone in this alliance, including me, the chamber and every one of our sorcerors." she explained, much to the surprise of the councillors. "He could, with little more than a few words, slay every one of us in this room right now."

"So he has agreed to help us, but it shall cost us next time."

Teleportation Chamber, Two weeks later
The miners had just finished carving out the small room, and tapestries had been hung from the walls. In the exact center, there was an elaborate, seemingly magical, circular design with clear hints of arcane magic.

Vaikwur covered the circle with a fine layer of amber and stood back, intoning a long incantation. After a moment, Faryn joined in, intoning a different incantation, though it was still very long.

Unlike spells of the low valences, the most powerful spells were not intelligible in any language, and were arcane words gleaned from long years of research and practice.

The amber slowly glowed brighter, and brighter, until finally it vanished in a flash of light.

The circle hummed for a moment with arcane energy before falling silent.

A crew of six hundred miners, both kobold and dwarf, stepped through into the circle and vanished as they reached the center. After the miners had finished passing through, Vaikwur, Faryn, Vardel, Thraine and Dernalia stepped through with a number of chamber members.

(OOC: For the record, Vaikwur is casting Screen (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/screen.htm), then summoning 3 Umber Hulks with Summon Monster VIII (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonMonsterVIII.htm), Persisted to 24 hours.)

Sveargithaurix, Planned Site, 5 minutes later
The Teleportation Circle led to a short plateau on the side of the mountain, away from the prying eyes of the Valgardian scum.

Vaikwur began intoning a new spell, this time of the eigth valence, grasping a small glowing rod, while the miners began excavating the initial shafts for their mine and the entrance for the decoy dungeon under the direction of the chamber mages.

As the arcane energies soldified into a spell, the area where the kobolds were became a simple ledge once again to prying eyes. Only those intended to see the work would be able to perceive the construction.

Taking a few seconds, Vaikwur rapidly incanted a short spell and three globes of light coalesced in his claw. Throwing them to the ground, they exploded into Umber Hulks.

Holding up a copy of the plans showing only the major tunnels, he pointed to them and spoke in a gravelly, guttral language.

"{Build these tunnels}"

Kobolds and dwarves moved out of the way as the umber hulks set about their work. They tunneled at breakneck pace while supplies came through the teleportation circle and engineers erected the complex counterweight elevators for the entrance.

OOC: I shall keep my eyes on this.:)

Sveargithaurix, The Next Day
The Umber Hulks vanished into tiny globes of light, which faded away as the spell ended. By then, all the major tunnels had been done, and miners were carving out rooms below the faux dungeon.

The dire weasel stables and training grounds were co-opted as temporary living quarters until the barracks and lower family living areas had been completed, as the lower levels were as of yet inaccessible until the engineers finished the counterweight lifts or the staircases were done - likely both, given the unusually large numbers.

The council convened on the plateau to discuss how to fill the dungeon. Everybody had different ideas, and they could easily persuade some ambitious villian to move in, or even transform it into another battleground for the blood war. Kobolds had been contracted to do dungeons before - it would be easy enough to find a buyer if they didn't go with filling it with deadly beasties.

"What about a Necromancer?"

"No, they'll just make people hate us. No Undead."

"Have we considered Ogres?" "Yes, Ogres sounds like a good idea."

"Raids will just bring them down on us sooner."

It looked like a little lightbulb had gone *ding* over one of the kobolds' heads.

"Gelatinous Cubes, Mimics and Rust Monsters!"

"I think Preitziz has the right idea. We'll make a creature dungeon ourselves. We can't trust non-alliance members to not give us away."

Sveargithaurix, Dungeon Entrance, A week later...
The dungeon had been completed, and contained not only a menagerie of deadly beasties, but also liberally distributed treasure chests and extensive traps. Its entrance was right there in the open, and was 'clearly' the main entrance to the citadel.

Vaikwur and Faryn stood in front of it, staves raised as they channeled arcane energies. The entrance grew increasingly luminescent as the magic formed into the spell, and finally it grew to blinding level as they lowered their staves. Holding their hands over their eyes, they looked at their handiwork - a permanent prismatic wall, shimmering red. Faryn picked up a stone and threw it at the translucent, intensely magical wall. As the stone impacted, it was consumed in a burst of flame. They smiled.

The two mages hurried off. There was much to do, and they had little enough time to be squandering it admiring their handiwork.

Scarcely an hour later, the teleportation chamber had been completed, allowing supplies to be transported with ease. Goods began flowing through, and the upper rooms started to become furnished.

The dire weasel stables now had all the trappings necessary for their raising, housing and training, as well as quarters for their keepers. The training grounds were complete and the first fighters were being trained on a day-course basis.

The professional living quarters had been carved out and furnished, and the kobolds had relocated to there, removing all trace of their presence from the outside.

OOC: You cannot create life without giving up the makers so everything is a fair exchange.

(OOC: I'm not sure what you mean by that. Please elaborate.)

OOC: Well if you, plan to create a creature the make(s) of it will have to sacrfice themselves as they would have to fuse their soul(s) to allow the creature to be able to move.

OOC: Applies to Golems, you need to use the soul of the mage to 'power' it.

OOC: If you're referring to the dire weasels, they're just these enormous, vicious weasels that Kobolds use as mounts. They're only going to be imported from other tribes then created in the usual mammalian fashion.

Also, would this apply to golems, given that they're just arcane constructs powered by magic? The creation process actually calls for the binding of someone else's (namely, an earth elemental's) soul to it, so does that count?

OOC: Darnit. No golems then. Or constructs in general, I suppose. Is there any way to bind somebody else's soul to it instead of the mage's?

Sveargithaurix, Council Chambers, A month later
"Construction is going to plan, and our own living quarters are now officially complete."

A considerable number of the councillors, both kobold and dwarf, smiled visibly at this news.

"Your possessions will be sent up shortly, and will be here by nightfall. Any trap requests, magical or mundane, are to be submitted to the workshops at the earliest possible opportunity. Trapping of rooms will be conducted in a first-come first-serve basis, and unusual requests must be lodged at least a week in advance." continued Kreethlaf, the current council chairman.

"All of the living quarters are complete, with room for later expansion, and the barracks have been fully furnished. Garrisons are coming through and training has commenced." Kreethlaf paused as a dwarf and a kobold councillor proceeded to outline the current training efforts.

"The workshops are partially complete and production has begun of advanced magical items by our artificers, as well as the new repeating crossbow design." Kreethlaf nodded at the dwarves, acknowledging their invention.

"The counterweight elevator zones have been fully trapped, and you will all be issued with thought bottles containing the knowledge needed to bypass them. Please return them to the arcane laboratory or Chamber quarters when you are done."

"The Arcane Laboratory has been completely carved out, and will be open for general use. Safety precautions will be enforced, and those found to be abusing the facilities or unnecessarily endangering others will be barred from the laboratory for a week."

"That will be all. Council reconvenes next week."

The council dispersed, mostly eager to examine their new quarters.